LUMAKI'S PROFILE

This is still just an early idea, right? It's simple and it works, but right now your characters are missing a lot of motivation and the world could be developed more.

Why did the White Knights murder the king? Being power-hungry kind of falls flat when it's been done so many times before. They've already got it good living as super human beings favored as heroes (I assume) so why make things complicated and betray the king? Were they fooled by one rogue White Knight or are you set on all the White Knights being horrible people? Why are the White Knights bestowed powers from the gods? How did they gain such a privilege? Did they perform some heroic feats beforehand, and wouldn't these feats enforce their just characterization? And after Ike manages to build this super tall tower the gods just decide to kill him and all the White Knights? Years spent building a tower while opposing the gods and just getting crushed as a kind of lazy god's afterthought... I guess the gods were trolling him hardcore. It's an anticlimatic ending for the poor guy. It might be interesting if you leave it ambiguous - maybe he did finish the tower, maybe he didn't. No one's been at the top so how could they know, right?

Also, does Michael want to be a knight or adventurer? Is it necessary to have him start out as a failed knight-in-training or does it make more sense to start him off as wannabe adventure? Who is he trying to prove this to? Trying to prove something to the world makes him seem like an angry teenager - I'm sure the world does not care about Michael's dream (unless the world is like 10 people). Proving he can be an adventurer to an individual person like his dad, that girl next door, that guy who picked on him, heck even himself - I'd buy into that. Do his friends want to be adventurers too? Or are they just freeloading off him and planning to ditch him in that super city three dungeons away?

Also, this tower is old. Has it become a national monument? Are there annoying tourists and loads of cheap merchandise? Swarms of excavators flocking to it? I mean, it can't just be sitting there completely ignored by society. There's probably a lot of already looted areas (unless the tower's been sealed off and the hero finds some way to gain entrance).

Speaking of which, who is ruling the land now? King's dead. White Knights too. Is it some distant blood relative of the king's? Some new chosen one of the Gods? Is it a free for all, full of brigands and blood thirsty killers?

I apologize for all the questions and critical analysis - I'm just trying to help you expand your ideas a bit more, and I believe the first step is getting to know your story better (as that's what you presented). I don't know if this game is intended to be story driven, but if so, you should get a better grasp on the world and characters.

Would I play this? I can't really say. Right now it's just a thought that needs to be fleshed out further. You haven't even introduced possible gameplay mechanics yet. I'd say keep working on it until you know it yourself. Is this a game you want to play or you wish existed? If yes, then yeah, go make it.

Photoshop has made me lazy and content. I remember the days of selecting half of an image and being 1-2 pixels off. Good times, good times. XD

Dang, that's a long history with pixel art! I've only been doing digital work for 6 years maybe? Got my first tablet when I was 14 or so. I picked up art as a hobby when I was 12, but wasn't serious about it until a couple years ago. The only thing I remember about the 90s was hiding my mother's floppy disks and playing Putt-putt Adventures, lol!

You had to loop them? I didn't even consider that. Hopefully you used offset in PS or some other graphics application to make your life easier? Offset saves me so much time whenever I make tile-able textures for 3D pieces. XD;

Yeah, I'm kind of a sucker for soft color palettes. Crazy neon hues sometimes too. I love color theory, but it's mysterious as heck to figure out.

This isn't exactly gameplay related, more story-related, but I love when games pay a lot of attention to their NPCs - give them a reason to be there! It really helps the setting and overall atmosphere. I guess what I'd love to see again is a diverse cast of NPCs with quests/backstories that are character-specific and help you discover more of the world. BoFIV and Legend of Mana did this really well (though the latter had a terribly weak main plot). Heck, even FFXII had okay NPCs.

I want to see more effort in world-building and not just in a bunch of stupid logs explaining all the shiz (I'm looking at you FFXIII). It's the old 'show, not tell' thing. NPCs used to help with a lot of the 'showing' but this generation kind of killed them off for obvious reasons - you know a character isn't important when their polycount is low and they're just a recolor of another NPC. XD

Oh, and hand-painted/pre-rendered backgrounds, please. I miss them. Stylistically it can be a great choice. Solotorobo and Bravely Default had some awesome backgrounds if we're talking about more recent games and how they could be implemented.

Haha, a more gameplay-related thing: I liked FFXII's bazaar system. It was an interesting idea and could have been better executed had there been more clues as to how to unlock certain items without relying on a guide or sifting through bestiary logs (if those even hinted at all). More clues and better incentives would have encouraged players to loot from enemies and obtain better equipment. On my first playthrough, I just sold whatever enemies dropped - didn't really try manipulating the bazaar at all. /:

Agreed - it was a great idea, just poorly executed. There are definitely a lot of beautiful additions to the HD, but the drawbacks are distracting as heck for me to watch.

I'll admit, I'm very tempted by all that extra content. Last Mission. Why!? Fff! I think I'll wait and consider experiencing this in a couple years. It's not a priority right now.

I apologize if I sounded harsh. The animator buried deep inside my soul is weeping. XD