ALTEREGO'S PROFILE

Make the game in English from the start. You'll just waste your time translating as you progress and implement new things... =/

Anyway, I'm so glad to see this game has come such a long way since its early versions. Custom graphics, custom systems... That's quite an accomplishment! Now I just hope the actual delivering of the story has improved too because I remember it being rushed and "all over the place" in the last demo I played. xP ...Also, subbed!

Ok. First and foremost, I realize this is a very old-schooly game and kinda on the light-hearted side, so, take this with a pinch of salt...

-Graphics are Ok for the most part. There are a few inconsistencies here and there, but it's nothing too serious. Just make sure all your graphics in any category come from the same source. All your monster from FF, All your chipsets from Mac&Blue, All your facesets from Rocco... and if this is not always possible try to make your own edits, don't just grab wathever is at hand.

-I have no qualms with the story. It's nothing extraordinary but it's not bad either. You just need to think what direction you want it to take because right now it's kind of a regular anime story but it has the potential to be more serious and dramatic. The characters are Ok too. I like the dynamic between the main two and their friends, but the rest while not bad could use some more work.

-Cutscenes could be better. For the most part, characters just stand in place frozen, and the dialogue is a stream of text boxes that I'm not always sure who are they comming from... The moment players realizes they're just pressing Enter, you've lost them. Try to add some movement in there, some emotion to spice things up. Also, why don't you just use facesets in text boxes?

-Dungeon design is quite bad. Most of your dungeons and even the world map are setup like mini labyrinths. It's like, the distance between point A and point B is really short, but you make me go through a lengthy path designed for maximum walking distance. I don't feel like I'm going anywhere in this way, I just feel like a lab rat trapped in a maze! ...When designing a dungeon you have to make its flow feel natural, don't force players to go down a road in a manner they notice it. Give them some space, allow for some exploration, branch paths, etc. Also, try to rationalize every aspect of the dungeon. Don't just add rooms and throw in random stuff. Think of an structure, think of a reason for there to be ornaments, puzzles, anything. The less 'artificial' a dungeon feels the more enjoyable it is.

-Part of the charm of old school RPGs is traveling from town to town, buying new equipment, pwning the local fauna, and becoming stronger... There's not much of that here. For the enterity of the demo I only had the equipment I bought in the very first town. Equipment found in treasure chests was scarce and not much of an alternative, really. And while monsters did get stronger from one location to another, I was stuck dealing the same 20-40 damage I was able from the beginning. The game also has serious balance issues. Eg. A Sand flower which usually took forever to kill (253 Hp) would neat me less experience than a simple slime that I could kill in about 1 turn; I was just level 8 by the end of the demo... All in all, the feeling of "progression" and "reward" that makes an rpg entertaining was lost.

-The special menu is good, but it could use some improvements. First of all, try to make it more accesible. Moogles are quite scarce in some points of the game. Second of all, make its navigation swifter. If I press, say, 'Exit' is because I want to exit. If I don't want to exit is my mistake. But overbearing the player with confirmation messages and multiple choices is the developer's mistake. Also, the cursor. If you can fix it somehow, do it... Lastly, like other have said, things take a bit long to start to shine. Most skill are not much of a good trade for pyshical attacks or items. The Moogle town only opens an item store and an inn when I was desperate for a new weapons shop. And star points while a good idea were rather difficult to come by and not really worth spending for such insignificant stat boosts.

-Rm2k3 sucks. This is a fact of life. It's not your fault, but you could do things to make it less sucky. For example, the way agility is handled in battle makes the ATB bars fill painstalkingly slow. The easy fix is patching your game with Cherry's DynRpg and use DHM's Faster ATB plug in. The way experience curves work, the way damage formulas work, the way everything works is flawed somehow. And you need to know this stuff to properly balance your game, to know if a certain skill or stat boost really makes a difference in the long run or it's just a waste of time... Craze had an article or forum thread floating around that covered some of these topics. Other people randomly talk about it on the forums too. Sorry I can't provide you with a link, I never bookmark these things, so you have to dig them up.

Well, I guess that's the gist of it. If you want me to elaborate further on any or these points of talk about something else, let me know.

Go ahead and use my map then, if you like. But you know that old saying: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" And it just happens that you're in the perfect place* to learn how to fish Map! There are plenty of tutorials out there, and there will always be somebody willing to give you some advice; So, I still don't understand you... It sounds to me like "I'm not very visually minded" is just something you tell yourself to keep you from trying hard enough. =/

*Or it should be. Sometimes I have my doubts about the purpose of this community...