JEDAHXII'S PROFILE

First of all, I'd like to thank you for the review. I will address it accordingly and concisely.

Your mention of the lag is taken to heart, truly. When I initially created the demo, its functionality was disproportionate to my mapping style. I used several events for things as opposed to creating tilesets, which have since been implemented. This reduced the sluggishness of anything considerably, as I should take into account the fact that some don't run a rig with the capacity to process so many things on screen. From the world map to the local maps, most have been redone to compensate for that. Even if I can run it smoothly, I need to make it more widely appreciable.

As for the movement of the plot, much of what I put out was in the vein of wanting to present something that was about as polished as one person could get it for a beta demo. I wanted feedback, as it is difficult to comb through everything by oneself. That isn't an excuse, and something like your review is most certainly what I wanted when I initially made this available, so again, thank you. More work has been put into developing character, but it is a little difficult to see right from the get-go. For example, losing the tutorial battle with Reeve . My primary focus with telling this story is that there are more ways than the obvious to go about it, things appreciable to the older era of JRPGs. I also wanted to make it a bit of a slower burn on character development, in order to allow the player to actually feel that they have some input into what Judah ultimately shapes into as a character. There is an alignment to him, altering what he says or how he reacts in certain situations based upon choices the player makes. Obviously these will be more widely implemented and obvious in further releases, but there are a few in the demo currently which are available. Though the fact that I didn't put any NPC to reference anything in that matter was also an oversight, and will be corrected in future releases. Several new scenes have been implemented to give the plot a more organic, fleshed out feel. While it is difficult to balance narratives with core game play, this was something that I also felt needed to be implemented. I am also toying with the opening a slight bit as I do feel that the large reading pieces seem to overstay their welcome.

On to the combat system. I immediately know what you're referring to, and the entire thing has been overhauled. It's gone to a new system, implementing an attribute called 'Stress' and lowering the values of the monsters slightly to compensate for the fact that resources are a bit rougher to come by in the early goings of the game. The skills of the characters initially seemed to be a bit too costly, and as a person who has played far too many RPGs where the goal was to hit the enter button until you win, my initial goal was to avoid that entirely. The idea that one would have all of my strategic knowledge for the encounters placed in the game was both an oversight and a poor decision. While I wanted individual encounters to be challenging, I did so using hard math and assumption. An example would be that Judah has the capability to pilfer items, and the majority of enemies in the dungeon had healing items available to steal. This again goes back to the costly skills, which have since been tweaked. I implemented the encounter skip, but the encounter should still feel meaningful. As such, my solution to make them engaging without being punishing was this: Generally, physical skills will use two resources, both stress and EP. Stress builds passively and through sustaining damage, among other things, and is reduced whenever a player is healed or defeats an enemy in battle. It is also influenced by certain abilities, items, and actions. The longer a battle goes on, the more the stress comes into play as it effects various stats and allows the use of more powerful abilities. This allowed me to do a few things: cause the more important encounters to seem a bit more epic, and maintain that every battle wasn't going to be a matter of using mega-all-slash-win on the first turn to just mop up enemies. I've all ready implemented the option to skip the encounter, actively engaging in battle shouldn't ever necessarily be a one-button win I believe. Unless, of course, you've earned it. There are some abilities that don't require Stress to activate, but those are generally relegated to skills that don't deal damage. There are also cooldowns implemented, which I do believe are in the current demo but they will return in the new system. It is always a challenge to make every encounter seem to matter, as traditionally they're meant not to. I went about it poorly, but I do promise that I've put considerable effort into making them feel unique. Whether through certain enemies working together strategically or allowing for unique solutions to the more difficult ones. All in all, I agree with your assessment and appreciate it, and I have hopefully addressed it accordingly.

As for the graphical glitch on enemy names, it is still a puzzle to me. I've tried multiple times to fix that display issue but it has to do with the engine and using a custom font. There is some form of conflict I can not figure out, and am still actively attempting to resolve. Big list of things I need to iron out. As for the font as it stands, I wanted to have a unique one that I felt encapsulated the vision I had for the game, A bit of a formal presentation, if you will. I will look into adjusting the sound effect used for text, but it took me back to my young years of Shining Force where everyone yapped with a distinct tone. More of a slight touch than anything, and I may even implement an options menu where it can be turned off. I don't know yet!

Ultimately, thank you for your review. I appreciate you insight into the play and am happy to hear that you found some positives among the qualms. As a first release, it is extremely valuable to me to have input such as this and I'm happy to know that most of the things I found to be a flaw were observed. Hopefully with the new demo release, which should be coming shortly, I can set a higher mark. I believe with the changes that I've all ready implemented and your insight that it should be a much better experience for both the casual and experienced gamer alike.

author=juliab
OK, thoughts from the start. You overpopulated your maps to the point that it's hard to move and somewhat laggish. Sometimes less is more. As usual I start at the easy mode if it's available. Well I'm struggling in easy mode. You have to think about casual players, if you make an easy mode. I found it a bit frustrating and not easy at all. And that is just in the beginning of the game. Casual player would find it frustrating and just quit. I will continue to see how I can handle further into the game on easy. But... I'm being whipped by the monsters that have a blue!.., in easy??? Really!!!! Not gonna try any higher difficulty, for sure. It looks like a very good, well thought out game, but you should think about your audience. If you aiming for stalwarts, than you are good, if you're aiming for larger audience, than you should balance battles (more exp, and certainly more $), especially in easy, mode. When the monster hit you for 15 - 20 HP each, and your healing item cures you for about the same amount, and you only have the max of 15 to carry on you, that is not an easy mode.

I'll see how it is going to be further on. Might quit the game for the difficulty. Unfortunatelly had to do it in some very good games.

I appreciate your input. I've actually changed a bit of the battle system. Initially I had designed it to be a bit more strategic, as you had to use your skills effectively and as a bit of a counter to the lack of income. Judah's pilfer, for instance, almost guarantees you a healing item when used on early enemies. The new combat mechanics are a bit different, as it isn't so much management of your EP. The new system is called 'Stress' and it builds as you take damage and deal damage, and is reduced when you are healed and defeat an enemy. It makes the battle a bit more strategic and the skills a bit less of a difficult decision. When I release the second demo it will be integrated. It's taking me a while as I had to re-balance a lot of the skills, enemies, and items with the change.

And, of course, thank you for playing!

author=UPRC
Haha, Culex has already been brought up before. I'm not going to include him.

Didn't know ha ha. I dunno then. Iseria Queen? She's been in like every title for the last 14 years.

Except that space is awesome. I'm additionally waiting for the Sinistrals to show up and elliptical patterns of stars.

Actually, now that I think about it, that'd be a fun little addition to your battle arena idea. Gades showing up with an Octoslash? Seems pretty epic.

author=WCouillard

author=jedahxii
Yo Couillard. What seems to be the issue with the tilesets? I feel your pain. I'd be happy to help you out if you like. I sort of dislike parallaxing so I pretty much edit tilesets on a daily basis ha ha.

A LOT of these tiles look almost identical so it's difficult to figure out where they belong in relation to the others, and they're not exactly in the right order on the sheet.

I'll send them over to you. :D

sounds good. I'll take a look and Gimp them if I can for you.