AQUATORRENT'S PROFILE

Don't hesitate to approach me if you want to get a feedback for your game. I don't bite.

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Merry Christmas! (and other assorted holidays)

Merry christmas everyone! Hope you are all healthy.

Secret Santa Sign-ups 2020

Damn, i just read about this. Hopefully everyone got their gift in time. Was about to offer as a helper if some people couldn't make it.
Anyway, happy early christmas, all of you!

RUIN FRONTIER 0 Review

That's such a high quality game for a game made in 3 weeks. I hope you guys will decide to make a complete version of it sometime in the future.

[Review Request]

i should have finished everything that the game has to offer since i couldn't continue anymore.
Basuphana (Tide Of The Eclipse)

THRONE: FINAL TWILIGHT Review

i'm kinda surprised that you still revamp the graphics although it already looks good to me. can't wait to see how it ends up on the final result.

yeah, i could see that the game hadn't focused on the narrative in that version. i believed i have uncovered all dialogue options in the game but i couldn't make out the story at all (i got the gist of it but there weren't much to begin with). it's nice to see that you're already planning on how to make it better.

i can understand how people stop playing at the beginning after dying several times. i also got frustrated with the difficulty at first, not to the point of quitting though.

i didn't notice that you can use the chariot to not damage the floor. i mean, i kinda "cheated" and used it to pass through "broken" tiles to inspect the left wall once, but i never figured that you were meant to use it to pass the tiles.

i didn't have any problem with using the tarot since you can switch it on the battle without wasting your turn, but i can see how that could be annoying to some people. hope you'll make more features like this! by this, i mean the chariot, of course.

that's good to hear! the missing sfx were the most annoying ones. luckily i can disable it by copying and renaming other sound effects to the missing ones. i won't last playing the game if i had to click that retry button every minute because of it.

i just rechecked my notes and i noticed that i missed some things in the review (minor things though, not sure if you have fixed them or not):
- the character looks weird when they are walking since the feet moves too late
- the character selection when you select equipment in the menu is not clear enough. I thought the game freezed after you do that.
- lantern is automatically switched off every day even though you finished the day with the lantern on. IIRC, you also need to inspect the place where you can ignite the lantern twice instead of once because of this.

An Assassins Odyssey: The Epic of the Dark Scrolls Review

author=awakenedfaith182
Hey aquatorrent, I've added quite a lot to the game over the past two weeks and feel like I can add a new more better demo by the end of the month, but I would like to know why you previously said that there is "no character development at all". I thought that my story has quite a bit of development, because I really put a lot of effort in that aspect of the game. However it doesn't seem to get through to you at least, my initial idea was to form the development for Chelsea in the Zetsubou kingdom and later on more character development for Max in Asalena. Could you perhaps give me some pointers so that I can further better the story in terms of character development? My writing skills are pretty novice like as I'm sure you've noticed, so any help with this will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely
heya, it's been a while. It's good to hear that you made some progress to the game. My memory is a bit vague on this, but i'll do my best to explain from what i remember on the game.

I couldn't resonate with the characters at all. They feel like pawns to the boss that only agree to whatever he said without any complains (they only reply with something like "yes boss" like a soldier...). They lack personality (even Florian who was lazy at the beginning suddenly becomed so motivated and agreeable after he joined the party, it's as if he's brainwashed or something). As for the story on Chelsea, I felt it's more like she remembered what happened in her past, that's all. There is no continuation from that (maybe she got softened to her "dad" after that, but I kinda forgot, especially since it got overshadowed by other event).

Character development usually refers to someome who underwent changes for the better (like someone who is very scared suddenly tries to save someone that he want to protect or something), not a story about the past. Character's background story can also be an initator for character development, but it doesn't mean that it always is.

I hope you get what i meant, and good luck with the game!

Onix Rift

author=dreadpirate
How you doing aquatorrent. Thanks a ton for giving the game a rip. I really appreciate the personal time you took to give me all the feed back on the game.
So it sounds like you played everything that I've got completed so far. I only have up to the old forest done. Lege isn't done which is why you couldn't enter it, and the goblin hide out is also not complete. I'm sorry for the incomplete state of all the areas, I posted everything I have in it's current state just so that all you fine people on rmn could play all current content as I am starting work again I won't have all the available development time that I would like to have.

i'm great, thanks. hope you're fine as well.
also, it's okay. i just want to make sure i didn't miss anything out from the game.

- the extraction package I've only kept included just in case the folder labeled "Onix rift" doesn't play like it should, however I've been able to test it on a windows 10 computer and the Onix rift folder played great without needing to use extraction package. Did you try the game folder before going through that extraction hastle? (Sorry about that my man.)

i just realized that i might be playing the game from the game folder.
there was only that extraction file when i opened the folder (i only checked .exe files) so i just run it without checking other folders and came back to the same folder when i couldn't get it to run. copied the dyn folder, didn't work. then i copied the whole onix rift folder into the extracted package, which works after i change the compability setting (strangely, i didn't have to change the setting when i tried it today). sorry for that.

- I've recently received a pm from a player expressing similar input about the button input confusion. I guess I remember playing games on snes and looking back I always remember playing around with the controller until I figured out the input commands on my own. I did not consider the fact that my game has a lot more available buttons to choose from being on a pc. To remedy this for now my next upload will include a "read me" txt document with a small explanation for players. It sounds like from the feed back I've been getting it's needed more than I anticipated. Forgive me, this is my first time posting a game so I'm pretty new to what might be helpful to players. Thanks for letting me know your confusion, you're not alone.

i also get the feeling on pressing all buttons to figure out the controls, hahah. but sadly, i'm playing on keyboard and there's no way i'm pressing every button just to figure out the control (i only found the shift button by accident and that's how i found the c button too). a readme sounds nice but it might be better if you implement it in game (maybe put the control instructions on the bottom right screen?). if it sounds like too much work, the readme file also works fine though.

- I intend to add a dog howling sound effect that will give the player an audio cue that you should investigate what he's doing. I will bump it up on my priorities as you aren't the first to mention this. I think kaempfer and dragonheartman also mentioned this not being very obvious.

that's good to hear. just want to give an additional input that i also didn't know that you can trigger the dog to walk by going near it so you might want to add the detection area a lot bigger.

- I'm not opposed to adding more save points however, part of the features of the world map are the ability to save at anytime while on the world map. Maybe that wasn't obvious or still not enough save points while inside a dungeon. I'll remedy this.
yes, i didn't know that. the save points should be sufficient with the saving on the world map feature. some games usually also have a save point before a boss fight to indicate the importance of saving, but the bosses so far are easy to beat and the save points are not that far from the boss room so it shouldn't be a problem for now.

- the skills work the way they do for a few different reasons. The short version is, the earlier skills cost less red and do less damage, the latter skills do more damage and cost more red. If the skill could be used without being completely full the game turns into everytime you hit the attack button you are prompted with the select enemy and combat would basically turn into a complete turn based game. This is good to know though, moving forward I will keep these comments in mind when making design choices. All of your notes are really appreciated. Thanks man.

actually the main problem that i got from spell casting was that i didn't know when the skills will cast (well, the one that you mentioned too, but it didn't bother me that much). i was just spamming the z button when i attacked the enemy and the spell suddenly casted out of nowhere. i didn't have a problem with this when i played secret of mana, so i went back and check some youtube videos. the game requires you to go to the menu whenever you want to cast a spell so you always know when the spell will be cast. here is the reference if you want to explore other design choices in the future.

- good old rpg maker 2k3. All of my hero attack animations are show picture commands. I can't control the draw priority so it always shows up above trees and houses and what not. I know man it's super lame and if I was any kind of real game developer I would have picked an appropriate engine to develope this game. Idk how to code and I just wanted to make the game that I always wanted to play myself when I would be scrolling through rmn games. Sorry I don't have a better answer for this one my man. I'm surprised it hadn't been brought up sooner lol.

i never used any rpg maker engines so i didn't know that. it's just a minor issue though so i'm not surprised if no one mentioned this. it would be nice if it's fixed, but if it's going to take so much effort to do it, don't.

Wow, I can't say thank you enough aquatorrent. The time you took to lay out your feed back is absolutely awesome. I really appreciate the effort man. Although I can't promise monumental changes will be made to the combat system you have definitely given me a ton to work on to improve this 2k3 mess haha. Thanks a bunch. I hope you'll play again when I have some of this stuff ironed out in the future. You da man. Cheers

no problem! i know i didn't quote everything, but it's nice that you already looking for a fix for some feedbacks that i mentioned (didn't know you got a proofreader as well, nice). it should have been obvious, but you don't have to change everything based on my feedback; just fix the ones that you think needs to be improved. the game was fun but i got stuck a lot of times because i didn't know what i was supposed to do. i might give it another try sometime in the future. good luck!

Onix Rift

author=Kaempfer
There is a chest shaped hole right next to a chest, which is a good level of detail for an early puzzle. I think it's obvious enough.

The "hole" looks like a spec of dirt tbh. Perhaps having a different tile color than the dirt will make it more obvious.

I didn't encounter a lot of the above problems tbh, although I can see how some thing could be easy to miss (like equipping sword and finding the right path sometimes). Be careful about overcorrecting to make the right way forward too obvious, though. I do agree there need to be more save points, like maybe one in the village.

I admit that the early game issues are mostly because i only get used with rpg maker's z and x control so i didn't expect that you can use shift and c too, but it might worth explaining that there is another control that you can press. Heck, some rpg maker games even tell us what z and x is used for.

I haven't really mentioned any of the typos in the game since I figured they'd be tackled all at once at a later date, but
- After the previous dialogue: "I have embowd the Magic of Fire within this "Mystic Conch"." should be "I have embowed the Magic of Fire within this "Mystic Conch"."
definitely shouldn't read "embowed" as that is not the correct word. "Endowed" or "imbued" would work, with the latter being more proper.

edit: embowed is a word, but it is extremely archaic and means simply "bow like" (as in a bow that shoot arrows).

I'm not a native english speaker so i can't comment much on word usage tbh. I just pointed the typo in case anyone miss it. But if that word works better, it would be the best to change it.

Onix Rift

Does the game end in the second dungeon?
- I can't go to Lunabel or Goblin Hideout (a wooden gate blocks it and it can't be removed with a fire spell)
- I can't enter Lege
- I can't enter the building in Old Forest

I thought this was more like Zelda. Turns out it's closer to Secrets of Mana. I like it.

Here's some feedback that I got when I played the game (put it in spoiler tag since there are a lot of them):

- The extraction package looks intimidating with a lot of ??? text and strange symbols in it. I was hesitant to play it at first. It was also confusing since you need to copy and paste the Dyn folder and I even had to change the compatibility setting to Windows XP to get it to run.

- The "tutorial" that asks you to press a button on the flying scene might need to be improved. I was confused about which button to press for a while (I even thought about clicking that keyboard button with a mouse).

- I like how you make the mirror to reflect your sprite in the house.

- Idk how to attack enemies at first. Idk that you need to press Shift to open the options.

- Some parts of your body's sprite show up if you run diagonally behind any objects (trees, houses).

- I saw a sword near your house but I can't reach it since it's stuck behind a tree. The sword disappears later on though (probably after you got your sword).

Idk that I need to follow the dog to proceed after you reach your house.

- Instructions are unclear. Idk where the hydro plant was and idk where the conductor housing unit to put the core in was.

- Save points are too far. I have reached the first town but the only save points I saw were in the place where you spawned for the first time. I died after moving to Lege without a proper sword. Perhaps you need to block the access to this path before you cleared the second dungeon.

- My hoe said that it leveled to level 2, then 1 even though it's supposed to be level 3.

- It's weird to see that the gate (the one that you hit with your sword) buries you when it's opened.

- Skills are annoying. It can only cast whenever your red bar is full (despite that they don't take the full bar to cast) and you won't notice that they are available before the game suddenly asks you to cast it. I had to unequip the skills after I use them every time.

- Skills also need a certain distance to cast. This wasn't obvious enough.

- Empty chests are useless. Why enemies drop a chest with nothing in it?

- Why did I get damage from the blue enemies even though I already moved away from the attack animation?

- Mushroom's defeated animation takes too long. I didn't notice that they die before I slashed them with my sword once.

- The bird strangely has a weird hitbox. I hit it right below it but it didn't take any damage.

- Enemy skills seem like a cheap way to get instant damage, especially the birds (Fowl Birds? I forgot the name) since you'll always get 10-20 damage whenever you see them (it's almost impossible to backstab them and using skills are 50:50 chance since you need to be in the same distance as their skill range to cast, not to mention the full red bar limitation on casting). Also, they tend to fly away as birds that are almost impossible to hit that you won't get anything out of them.

- Sometimes chest will fall to an unreachable spot. It happened once when I killed one of the blue crystal enemies, but I forgot where.

- It's not obvious enough that you need to push the chest in the first dungeon to continue.
- It's not obvious enough that you can use the gloves in the second dungeon to continue.

- It's not obvious that you can climb vines.

- Second boss fight is so cheap with its sure-hit spells at the beginning. It becomes "spam attack and healing items until you win" instead of trying to figure out the enemy's attack patterns to kill the boss. The pattern is also easy to figure out since it only has 1 attack that you can dodge. IMO, the first boss fight is way better.

- Your sprite suddenly shows up even if you were hidden behind an object (bridge or tree) when you attack.

- Inn is useless since you get full heal two screens before it. Also, there are hardly any full heals in the game except in the first few areas. Items are too expensive to buy although luckily they often drop later on.

- You can go to Hydro Path from the world map after you exit the second dungeon but you can't go to the world map once you enter it unless if you go to Lege.

Typo:
- In prologue: "What ever you do, act quickly." should be "Whatever you do, act quickly."
- The cutscene after you follow the dog: "What are we supposed to do in the mean time?" should be "What are we supposed to do in the meantime?" (the wording in this cutscene might need to be improved too, especially with the lack of punctuation)
- After talking to the man that gives you Ore: "thanks alot, the town is in your debt." should be "Thanks a lot, the town is in your debt."
- When Jester comes in: "Did I over hear that my services are desired?" should be "Did I overhear that my services are desired?"
- When talking to the son in the cave: "I am a gonner." should be "I am a goner."
- Save description: "In persuit" should be "In pursuit"
- When talking to Mystic: "I cannot stand idely by and allow entities from another realm to enter our world a second time." should be "I cannot stand idly by and allow entities from another realm to enter our world a second time."
- After the previous dialogue: "I have embowd the Magic of Fire within this "Mystic Conch"." should be "I have embowed the Magic of Fire within this "Mystic Conch"."

Bug:
- There is a collision error on 1 tile after you exit the first dungeon (on the bird area IIRC, I forgot to screenshot)
- There are some bugs when your character becomes invisible or can pass through anything when I played but I couldn't seem to reproduce them. There is another one when the damage number that you received never disappears before you exit the area.



[Review Request]

author=Marrend
The text-link you've got there is leading to a page with a name filter of "engine=status=3rating=download=yescommercial=sort=total_reviewsportal=yes". Which leads to a "No Results!" page for good reason. However, if I wrap that text around an URL-tag, like so, it works.

This is something LordBlueRouge noticed, and, as far as I can tell so far, seems to have something to do with the "&" character?
that's strange.
Anyway, thanks! The link should be fixed now. I should have recheck it earlier.