SPHERE'S PROFILE

First of all, thank you for reviewing the game Addit! Your critiques are definitely noted, some of them couldn't be helped either due to my lack of Ruby scripting knowledge or a clash of scripts I had to make work together, but I'll definitely take your critiques with me as I head into my next game. This one was a great way to learn the ropes of game development. Your feedback is most appreciated!

As a note for you or others, the best revive spell is Arise, which is learned very late in the game but it is there. As for the lag, that bothered me to no end and I tried every anti-lag script I could but either they clashed with the game and caused a gamebreaking glitch or they simply didn't work. I guess FF4AD is the behemoth that couldn't be slayed by anti-lag scripts. lawl Know that I did try to alleviate that.

I found your review to be really thorough and great source of feedback, thanks Addit. I'm glad you enjoyed the game overall. =D My next game is going to feature an alternate path for FF Tactics more than likely, so we'll see how that goes.

author=WCouillard
Impressions incoming!

Admittedly, I did not get too far into playing this project before being completely turned off by it, stopping just after reaching Damcyan (I am a little more judgmental of FF fan projects than other projects, I confess), but I was extremely bothered by the following:

• The downright lazy recreations of the FFIV maps. There are literally dozens of tiles missing, like the edges of water tiles. A good example is in the screenshot of the dancer above in Addit's review. It can also be seen above in the screenshot of the throne room. Those carpets should have edges, you know. Those tiles exist. The saving grace here is that Sphere does say in the game's description:
  
  "The maps themselves are similar to, but not exact, replicas of the original maps from the SNES version."
  
  But, personal opinion here... this is akin to saying, "Hey, use my product, even though the other product that came out over 20 years ago is probably a little bit better."
  
  
• Speaking of graphic problems, the sprite style of the character sets do not match the environment at all, and are very poorly animated to boot. A lot of the characters walk as though they have just broken an ankle. If you're making an FF4 clone, it might have been a good idea to at least try to edit actual FF4 sprites to fit the new character designs, or simply use the actual rips. There are instances where the characters are twice as tall as the doorways they are entering. What? This is my biggest issue with the visuals. They don't look like FF4 characters or NPCs. They look like RPG Maker characters and NPCs dumped into FF4's world.
  
  
• The encounter system. Oh boy. It is poorly coded, which is probably not Sphere's fault. But, in using it, he or she is ignorant to the problem and accepting of it as a "feature." The problem I'm talking about is that you can still get "randomly" attacked by enemies by standing still long enough! In addition, standing still is the only way to avoid encountering enemies every six steps, regardless of the radar. If you're providing a mini-map to show enemy encounters, shouldn't there at least be a viable way for players to avoid them, if they so choose? Sphere would have been better off using the built-in function of the RPG Maker software to allow players to avoid random encounters altogether if they wanted, either through the use of an options menu or an equippable item.

On a positive note, the changes to the game's plot didn't bother me, and the effort put into cloning FF4's battle events and the game's original cutscenes was admirable. It's a shame the same passion wasn't shown in some other areas of the game in favor of a shorter development period.

I would score it at a moderate 3 out of 5, based only on my impressions of the first few hours. Do not take this as a full review of the entire project. If and when I go back to it and finish playing it, I would submit a lengthier official review.

Your criticisms are definitely taken into account, but let me just say I'll never claim to be much of a great mapper. I literally had the OG SNES maps in front of me, and just applied the tiles as best as I could. I really wasn't being lazy, it's just a lack of experience with mapping. I can't even tell you how long I spent on doing the town maps to get them as 'right' as I possibly could with the skillset I had then. Definitely learned a lot on how to do more proper mapping, and how to correctly place tiles. I can only learn to do better.

In hindsight I probably should've used the sprite rips from the PSP version (I couldn't find complete rips of the PSP overworld sprites anywhere for the characters or NPCs), but I did want to have a more unique look to the game so I used Sithjester's renditions of the characters (which are formatted for XP so I had to do some reformatting and re-animating). I know it wasn't the best choice, but if I went the SNES/GBA route in terms of graphics, it'd look just like a romhack and I didn't want that. I'm definitely using rips for the next game though (at least from Record Keeper).

I just want both of you to know that I sincerely appreciate the feedback and the critiques. I'll be aiming for 5 stars with the next game. =D Thanks again!

Edit* I just had to mention that the 'special effect' going to and from the moon is definitely hilariously bad. I made it and was like, "... yeah this is pretty terribad." lawl

This is going to be very interesting to watch your reactions since you've never played the original game. Thanks for starting this LP! =D

author=ryan7251
Hi umm stupid question how do i rate a game i wanted to give this game a 4.5. Truth be told it's more of a 4.2 to me but i don't think you can rate a game that :)

If you mean on here? I believe you have to write a review, and you get to choose the rating for the game (I believe it's at the bottom of your review where you can click on how many stars). If you're going to do a review make sure it's a decently thorough one, as your review goes through a review process before being posted.

author=ryan7251
So umm i just got to the moon the 2ed time and i have to say so far this has been a really fun game however i have to ask you say there is a hidden Arena any hints of where it is at i have looked all over or do i have to beat the game first?

I'm glad you're enjoying it! =D Here's a bit of a hint for you...

I'm SO down for a commercial version of Hero's Realm! =D Day 1 purchase for me.