ALTEREGO'S PROFILE

I like it when people try to reason every little aspect of their games to the point of justifying what would seem the most mundane of mechanics. Specially if they come up with little stories to further enrich their own universes. It's a great exercise of creativity! =)

I just hope this doesn't blind developers to overlook potential flaws... You have already established that this High Council owns the Spheres and places them in certain areas to prevent them from being abused by the common people. But how well does this translate to actual gameplay? I mean, can the 'Heroes' still abuse the Spheres? After all, save points that completely heal your characters encourage grinding. Simply by staying the closest you can from them and heal as needed you can cheat your way a few levels.

It would be nice to put a 'safelock' in this particular mechanic. Maybe the council has incorporated a tax in the use of the Spheres so as long as money is scarce the player hesitates to do it. Or maybe they simply restricted their use to a number of times per area. Or maybe this restriction is native of the Spheres by needing to recharge before they can heal you again... Or, dunno, something.

I firmly believe a good title screen and logo are very important, they're like the corporate identity of your game. And while you want a memorable identity you also want it to be effective. What I'm trying to say is that 'interesting' is not the only quality to look for, you also want your title screen/logo to be readable, to be versatile enough to be placed anywhere, and to 'age' well...

I guess I can exemplify this somehow. At the beginning, the Final Fantasy series tried different treatments to its logo, things like this, or like this, which while 'fancy' or 'radical', wouldn't stand the test of time. So they finally settled for the treatment we all know today, which is based in a very simple principle: The best logo is one you can accomplish with typography alone, no decorations, no effects, no nothing... Of course, since we're talking about video games there's no need to be so serious about it. Different treatments, some less conservative than others have arised over time, but they all following the same concept that has become one of the series' staples.

So yeah, I think this is an important thing to keep in mind. For example, you gotta decide how do you want people to identify of your game. Is it 'Rainbow nightmare' the important part? Is it 'Libra'? Can you afford to abbreviate it: 'RN:Libra'? Can you afford such decorations as an 'R' inside a gear? What colors are you going to use? What word disposition? ...And from there start branching out what is the 'story' that your title screen will tell. Either a futuristic cityscape, a collage of the protagonists, a display of robots, etc.

All this being said, I like number 5 or 6 the most. I also like the drawings of 2, 7 and 9 but I'm not a fan of the abbreviated name.

Oh, hey! It's nice to see this game finally in action. I was starting to have doubts about it. Heh; Well, it looks very nice so far. The mapping is good, the cutscenes have a good rhythm, the custom art is great... I'm not much of a fan of the voice acting though, but I imagine you're still going to polish it a bit, or at least there will be an option to turn it off. ^^;

Anyway, keep it up! And I hope to see some actual gameplay soon! o/

I think the issue is that the 'community' is growing larger and larger everyday and the good games are a layer on top of the cesspool that is spreading thinner and thinner. And I say 'community' because we aren't a community. We don't really have a common, higher goal to strive for; or we just don't agree with our methods. We're basically groups of people, cliques, doing our own thing. Nothing more... The only glue keeping us together is that this site is actually a good (the best?) platform to showcase your amateur game.

Also, while the RTP "isn't badly made at all" I find it extremely aesthetically unpleasing. Why does Enterbrain keep feeding us this 20+ year old graphic style is beyond me. We've come a long way since then! No wonder why the mentality towards game-design doesn't evolve faster, when these tools seem mainly designed to reinforce the "Dragon Quest" school of thought. (Not saying the DQ series is bad, but...) -- What I'd like to see is the release of a 3D RpgMaker on PC for once. And some futuristic models from the get go instead of the tired, old, medieval stuff. I bet people would be forced to push their creativity a bit more with that kind of limited resources. xP

Edit: Keep it 2D then, but with 3D looking graphics. Or just anything else for a change, dammit!. xP

My character was cursed by an Oni and he's currently looking for it in order to kill it and end his curse. If there's a cave stage in the game sommewhere, I guess that's where Lydia can meet him. (Onis live in caves, right?) If not it can be anywhere else, really.