Princess's Resolve

[DarkClaymore 1]

 

 
 
Overview
Summary: A short RPG game about a princess and a knight, who try to flee their conquered motherland and reach a safe land which lays in the north. 
Genre: Fantasy RPG
Length: 30+ minutes
 
 
Story

The kingdom of Mercania falls, with its capital set ablaze by the conquerors. The princess, Vera, manages to elude capture and flees into the nearby forest, aided by the veteran knight Gustav. With her homeland, her whole world, reduced to ashes - all that remains for the princess is to fight for her own survival.
 
Beyond the mountain forest lays another kingdom, neutral in alignment. Following Gustav's suggestion, the two now head to the north, hoping to find safety in neighbor lands. However, can the frail princess overcome her grief and triumph over the challenges ahead? Or will she share her fallen kingdom's fate?

 
Characters

Vera
The princess of Mercania, who managed to escape her blazing castle together with Gustav. The castle was her whole world, and her royal life was everything that composed her reality. Now, thrown into a whole new reality, where one has to survive by one's own strengths and efforts, her spirit and resolve to survive are tested in the most primitive of ways: Fight or die.
 
 

Gustav
A knight of Captain rank, who helped Vera to escape unharmed from the collapsing castle of Mercania. He is a sturdy, harsh man who mercilessly pushes the princess into facing reality and swallowing her tears. He sets survival as top priority, and would do anything for that end.

Screenshots

Credits

Story and Idea
DarkClaymore


Scripts
Victor Sant - The whole battle system, including Animated Battle and Map Battle
Galv - Quick weapon swap, Explorer HUD and slower text fix
V.M of D.T - Proximity + Fine Tuning
Kread-EX - Variable cover rates
Hime - Follower event touch
Syvkal - Menu bars
Prexus - State Slip Damage
Xypher - Screen flash for slip damage fix
DarkClaymore - Edits to existing scripts


Graphics
D * M - Window skin
Themo - Snake sprite
Maiko - Rabbit sprite
Meeeee - Turtle sprite
Dai - Hornet sprite
Mario - Turtle shell
Mansoor Mohammed - Forest BG
 

Audio
wandschrank - Pact OST: Battle Theme, Exploration
Frequality - Epic Battle
larval1977 - JungleHills
Hitrison - Night outdoor ambience


Made with RPG Maker VX Ace

Download

Light Version
Requires RPG Maker VX Ace to run the game
Link (Google Docs)

Mirror (MediaFire)

Standalone Version
Doesn't require any additional software, but is much heavier.

Link (Google Docs)

Mirror (MediaFire)

Edited April 23, 2014 by DarkClaymore

[Cecillia 652]

Seems interesting I'm quite a sucker for "Princess" heroines, so I'll try this out sometime.

[+ Retired 274]

I would go over the spelling and grammar in your game again.

 

For example in story you spelt conquerors correctly  but in the intro text scene under screenshots  it says the conquers

 

Maybe use http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/12955-export-messages-to-file/ to make the process quicker.

 

It came to my intention as you said writer is your main skill but the scenario is interesting enough.

 

Note: Writing on iPod at 00:03

 

I shall try the demo probably at the weekend for more solid feedback.

Edited April 23, 2014 by AlliedG

[DarkClaymore 1]

That's a pretty handy script, might find it useful. I start my writing in a a word processor though (Google Drive in my case), so I try to spot and minimize all the errors prior to copying the text into the game. It's a habit I adapted from wirirtng visual novels, where the chances to make mistakes are huge.

 

I probably missed the "conquers" because it was a quick edit I made inside the RM itself, and for some reason my eyes failed to spot the mistake, even though I went through that opening scene at least 30 times while debugging. Luckily, such edits inside the RM were rare in this project, thus most of the script has been strictly tested for proper spelling.

 

I'll release an update after doing additional proofread routines, hopefully I'll also gather a bit more cricitism till then and have more to fix. Thank you for taking the time to carefully read through the material I posted and giving useful advice

Edited April 23, 2014 by DarkClaymore

[+ Retired 274]

 

 

Massive text box for intro - should been made into smaller boxes as it ruins the nice background image

 

The lack of music but load bgs was annoying considering battles have music - some sense of urgency I did not feel.

 

However the things which made me unfortunately stop playing were

 

1) The bat encounter - why make its evasion so ridiculously high?  I escaped cos I thought it was scripted but then got into battle again. Considering before hand this group had no problem killing the scripted bat before ..

2) The walk speed and no dash is terrible considering they are on the run and technically in enemy territory

 

 

[Pringlesguy 8]

 

 

Massive text box for intro - should been made into smaller boxes as it ruins the nice background image

 

The lack of music but load bgs was annoying considering battles have music - some sense of urgency I did not feel.

 

However the things which made me unfortunately stop playing were

 

1) The bat encounter - why make its evasion so ridiculously high?  I escaped cos I thought it was scripted but then got into battle again. Considering before hand this group had no problem killing the scripted bat before ..

2) The walk speed and no dash is terrible considering they are on the run and technically in enemy territory

 

 

 

I think it should be scrolling text with the background.  

[DarkClaymore 1]

 

 

Massive text box for intro - should been made into smaller boxes as it ruins the nice background image

 

The lack of music but load bgs was annoying considering battles have music - some sense of urgency I did not feel.

 

However the things which made me unfortunately stop playing were

 

1) The bat encounter - why make its evasion so ridiculously high? I escaped cos I thought it was scripted but then got into battle again. Considering before hand this group had no problem killing the scripted bat before ..

2) The walk speed and no dash is terrible considering they are on the run and technically in enemy territory

 

 

 

 

 

The lack of music is rather unusual to my style. I decided to use this approach in order to convey emptiness. Urgency doesn't really exist for the princess at this point, and it wasn't a feel I really intend to express. Guess it didn't click with you, and honestly it isn't my cup of tea as well. However, I know that such presentation does work for some players and it overall seem more fitting to express emptiness with silence. I actually invested much time into thinking of alternative ways to convey the idea, but to no avail.

 

Regarding the bat, the strategy behind defeating it is shown in the scene: shooting down with rocks. It's elusive against Melee attacks, but not against ranged.

 

The speed is an issue already thrown at me elsewhere. I started by following straightforward logic, which claims that the princess can't walk fast with the dress. It did eventually strike me that it might be better to ignore that logic here, but by that point the game has been already build around the slow movement and would become painfully easy with increased velocity. Seems like it continues to impress for the worse, so it's added to the list of improvements I'll have to make.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Massive text box for intro - should been made into smaller boxes as it ruins the nice background image

 

The lack of music but load bgs was annoying considering battles have music - some sense of urgency I did not feel.

 

However the things which made me unfortunately stop playing were

 

1) The bat encounter - why make its evasion so ridiculously high? I escaped cos I thought it was scripted but then got into battle again. Considering before hand this group had no problem killing the scripted bat before ..

2) The walk speed and no dash is terrible considering they are on the run and technically in enemy territory

 

 

 

 

 

I think it should be scrolling text with the background.

I'm against scrolling text in this case TBH. Originally the text was meant to show up without the textbox, but there was a problem in Yanfly's message system script and the increased row number behaved incorrectly for transparent and dim backgrounds. Not sure I'll be able to resolve this issue, but I guess I can try. Edited May 1, 2014 by DarkClaymore

[TheoAllen 830]

Good game. Just tried it hours ago (I was trying to post this message. But suddenly forum was being maintenanced)
1) I agree with this current intro scene. I'm also against scrolling text. I'm comfortable reading with typing text dan the scroll one. If I'm going to make intro, I would prefer to make dim background or this one.
 
2) I was little awkard with no dash and slow movement. But considering the game mechanic, also it's on the wild nature at night, I'm getting used of it. But if you going to improve it, you can do it by slightly increase speed movement, or enable dash.
 
3) The another interesting game in your game is environtment progression. I hate game with no leveling thing at the first place. But knowing that if I continue the progress, I may be able to look around what environment can do, that is fine
 
However

I stumbled upon this condition. The turtle hiding on shell, an covering racoon. I can't beat two of them. Turtle was covering racoon and resist both slash attack and stone attack. And it's also recovering its HP. Then here ragequit

 

Edited May 1, 2014 by TheoAllen

[DarkClaymore 1]

Glad you could enjoy the game despite its flaws.

 

However

 

I stumbled upon this condition. The turtle hiding on shell, an covering racoon. I can't beat two of them. Turtle was covering racoon and resist both slash attack and stone attack. And it's also recovering its HP. Then here ragequit

 

 

 

This is actually the game's hardest combination, which is also very rare. I had to add some extra scripts for the sole purpose of implementing it in the game, and I always thought that I might just be creating something nobody would get to try. Good to see that chances of coming across this combinations aren't as dim as I estimated.

 

As for beating that combination, there are strategies as long as you have the right items. Though from my experience, after trying out all the winning strategies I could think of, it's generally best to just focus on the racoon while leaving the turtle alone (or just stunning it). Once the racoon is down, the turtle can't be forced into his protective stance.