Astralon [Demo: "Truth" 2.1.1]

[Pumamori 4]

(Quality loss due to shrinking it down to a appropriate size was unavoidable. Will be fixed shortly.)

 

          

Starting a project, once again.
It's been quite some time since I last worked on a game, but I'm rather confident that this project right here will be completed to the best of my ability. Astralon's story developed over several months, and underwent quite a few complete reworks. Originally, it was named "Alastron" (yes, rather creative indeed!), the completed story that lies before you right now, is pretty similar to this predecessor of sorts in the way it plays out, but the whole focus of the story is something else entirely, for example, the characters remained the same, but the roles they play changed drastically. Either way, what are my plans for Astralon anyway? Well, I wanted to create a classic RPG, in terms of gameplay and story, but mix in some new, original features, that should make it the hopefully great game I've envisioned it to be.

 

"Everyone who did something wrong lies, so nobody would notice.
But I will uncover the truth, no matter how much it hurts, because
there has to be someone, who fights for the people who have 

noone at their side, no matter the cost." ~ Rayden

 

"Oh? I didn't see you there! Let me tell you a story. It's about a war. A war of epic proportions. A few years ago, the world was plunged into darkness, every country shrouded by a mysterious darkness, monster attacks were the daily fare. It was a terrible life, I tell you... Until they came... I saw them myself! Four brave adventurers, who fought for peace in the world! I can't remember their names clearly, I don't think I've ever heard them either, but these brave souls faced the darkness. They dared to find the cause of all the pain and suffering, whatever monstrosities they had to face. The records tell of a legendary fight against a single human, whose lust for power took over his humanity, a human, who's only referred to as a "demon". Nobody knew his old self, but that's another story.

One of the four heroes fell in this last battle, but in the end, they were able to defeat the demon. The world was saved, so it seemed. The death of this creature, driven by his endless hunger for power, led to a huge impulse. Yes, I remember it as if it happened just yesterday! I felt so strong... magical energy flowing through my veins! From this day on, all the people of these lands were able to channel their powers, casting spells. A miracle, if you ask me. Either way, let's not get off topic too much. The three adventurers grieved for a long time over the loss of their fallen comrade, but they were able to overcome these emotions of sadness.

Chosen to rule these lands since they were the only ones able to fully control the magic, they have introduced a new form of government, the king keeping power over a single piece of land only.

The council of justice. An era of peace. But not for long..."

 

Rayden, a young adventurer from the village of Aeston seemingly never experienced this impulse. He is the only one in the entire village who is not able to use magic. As an earthquake interrupted his training, he stumbles upon the Astralon, a mysterious artifact with unknown powers. How will this influence the world?

 

 

Rayden, the Adventurer.
Rayden is a young adventurer from the village of Aeston. He's brilliant when it comes to handling melee weapons, which is pretty unusual for the times after the great war. His mind is quite keen and he bears the mysterious Astralon. Through the newly acquired power of the "Revelation", he's able to uncover the lies of his opponent and directly confront them with the matter.

 

Nem, the Dreamblade.

Nem is quite adept in close combat, especially with the sword, but he's also able to use magic. He even managed to master a long forgotten technique from ages long past that involves manipulating the power of dreams to smite his foes or enhance his abilities. Because of that, he established a good reputation among the people.

 

Avena, Bulwark of Hope

Avena is a member of the royal guards, however, nobody knows when or how she joined the ranks of these elite knights. She's skilled with light-type magic like most knights, but also tries out the other elements when she got the time. At the moment, she is training with Rayden, to enhance her melee skills, in case someone was to develop a resistance against magic and she wouldn't be able to protect the people close to her.

 

???, the King's Son

Little is known about him, except for the fact that he's cold and dismissive, nobody knows about his goals. Rumors, that he's trying his hands at alchemy are spreading, but there is hardly a reliable source.

 

Josh, Raph and Clyde. Copycats of a Legend.

This group of adventurers is eager to live up to their heroes, the council of justice. However, despite their confidence, they more often stumble through the world rather than achieving any heroic deeds, like when they start to challenge the first stranger they see to a duel again, just to test their newly developed techniques.

 

Hendrik. Lilian. Loki.

The legendary council of justice, consisting of Hendrik, the melee-expert of the group, his strong desire for justice often leads to him, charging into the most dangerous situations, Lilian, a master of the spear, who enhances her allies ability to fight with multiple spells, even by setting their weapons ablaze and Loki, a mage who's known for only one thing: His merciless nature when he destroys everyone who opposes him in the blink of an eye.

 

 

???

A mysterious person, interested in the Astralon. He watches silently, preparing his actions.

 

• You can totally walk BEHIND trees! Incredible!
• A completely uninteresting plot, with no character developement at all!
• A plottwist, obvious from the beginning!

Alright, I'm obviously just kidding here. But you see, it's hard to list features nowadays, that are unique to a game. You see, everyone can just copy a script and slap it as a feature on a list. It just doesn't mean as much as it did years ago, haha. Either way, I'll try and list everything that matters, even though these features are not unique to Astralon alone.

 

• After the last major update, good-looking maps with a lot of passion for detail.
• Tons of secrets and hidden items, just waiting for you to find them! Exploration is being highly rewarded, even in the demo!
• A protagonist, who can be played the way you want him to be played. 100%. Not only are you able to change his stats how you see fit, you can also adjust his style of fighting, equip a lot of different spells, that even regularly change when you upgrade or change your weapon, and you can even adjust the way Rayden's reacting when he's close to death!
• Three incredibly helpful party members, that complement your main character, no matter which way you decide to play him.
• The "Revelation" system. More on that later.
• There is no real antagonist. No "ultimate evil" that needs to be vanquished. It was already taken care off, a interesting, promising story waits for you to explore it!
• A whole lot of different weapons and armor, to, once again, complement YOUR play style.
• Diversive Skills. They change even by equipping a different weapon. Heck, even two swords should never play the exact same! 
• Dynamic, well-balanced fights. I've learned a lot about balancing these past four years, and I dare to say that I know what I'm doing when it comes to balancing.
• A "Last-Stand" like fighting system. Just because you're close to eating dirt doesn't mean that you are doomed for real! Every character in your party starts to react differently when they are close to death, completely turning the way you play them around. They could panick, or decide that it's over anyway and go All-In! It's up to you!
• Balanced Item-System. Buy all the stuff you want, you can't just tank a boss by buying a bazillion potions beforehand. Every character is allowed to take three items with them, and that's it.

All this fuss about this system, but no explanations yet? Let's fix this.

What is a "revelation" anyway? To explain it in a easy way, Rayden, in combination with the Astralon, possesses the power of sensing when his opponent lies, or tries to hide vital information on purpose. If he realised that the person in front of him is lying, there are multiple ways to approach the lie. Either, you directly start unraveling the mysteries, or you wait a bit longer until you've gathered more facts and evidence, before you try to confront the liar. If you reached the phase of "Revelation", Rayden goes through all the evidence and facts, and then recalls which statements his opponent uttered.

If the liar is indeed lying, there must be a contradiction in what he says, compared to the evidence to question his entire statement. This isn't that easy, especially if his opponent is lying without being aware of this fact himself, but more to these twists later.

 

(Every screen that is shown here, may change appearance in the final product.)

 

Did you suceed in finding the contradiction, it's high time to confront the liar! In the process, a discussion between Rayden and the person commences, you often have to argue, why his statement couldn't have been farther from the truth and explain, how it wasn't possible for the things that happened to have gone down exactly as the liar said.

If the liar confesses at the end, you completed the revelation. It's worth noting, that not all revelation scenes look the same. Depending on the complexity of the whole situation, the layout of the map, amount of statements could change, and roadblocks appearing. Often, people lie without noticing it themselves, which makes things even harder, sometimes, Rayden himself gets locked up in a difficult situation, that might hinder his ability of logical reasoning. One thing is for sure, no two revelations will be the same.

 

But that wasn't even it. I just summarise all the systems I've worked out under the term "revelation", in fact, there are two more systems, not yet present in the demo, I didn't present anywhere else. The first, is the "Reconstruction". Rayden will try to re-create a scene that was mentioned in the statement of the liar (for example), and the player will be able to explore this dreamed up place to look for contradictions there. If one is found, Rayden will adjust his version of the scene, including the new found information, until you get the perfect picture. 

The second one, would be a  "Battle of Wits", a fast paced discussion that most of the times happen, when Rayden doesn't have enough evidence to confront a liar yet. He will try to outsmart his opponents to reveal vital information for his cause unter a time limit. These vary in difficulty, depending on the person you are trying to trick.

 

Less of a "Plan" list in the future, I'd rather include a list of what I'm working on right now.

• A new HuD for the battles, as soon as the Luna Engine comes out, I will try to implement it as fast as possible. I really like designing GUI, so that will be a fun thing to work on. 
• The village of Aeston, pre-mapping, parallax mapping and general re-design.

Indeed, it's not much, because I'm working on a project just as important as Astralon. But I will progress, slower or faster.

 

 

Astralon: Fall of Order - Demo v.1.0

Download - Walkthrough (PDF)

Known Issues:

• Nothing as of yet! However, some users noted that fights were too hard, while others told me that it was "challenging, but fair". I'm unsure on what to do, but a rebalancing isn't out of the question. Maybe difficulty levels for fights as well!

Latest Changelog - Fall of Order 1.0

 

[General]

• Added the same launcher the old one had, but fixed it up. It's all in english now and looks a little nicer.
• ...

[bugfixes]

• ...

I'll write down Updates as they come.

 

 

[Pre-Data Loss]

Astralon: Demo "Truth" v.2.1.1 - FINAL

Download

Known Issues:

• Small mapping issues, that I don't bother resolving as of now. They may be gone after the final polish.

Latest Changelog - Truth 2.1

 

[General]

• A new launcher way of extracting the game was created. It now has a nice icon, description and logo while extracting. Big thanks to "LucyFox" from rpgmaker-vx-ace.de for reminding me of this possibility!
• Re-wrote certain parts of the dialogue. Huge thanks to Tsarmina, who took the time to play through the demo's entirety, just to help me improve the dialogue in every way possible. It should be more enjoyable now than ever. Again, huge thanks, I couldn't have done it without you! ^-^
• The beginning got 0,2893% more mysterious. 

[bugfixes]

• A few small typos were still present after polishing the demo. [Fixed. For real now.]
• "Last Stand" messages were being displayed even out of battle. Ironically, they weren't displayed in battle. [Fixed.] 
• Enemies could "notice" Rayden even after they've passed away. [Fixed.]
• The revelation HuD wasn't shown, if you picked a certain statement with the wrong kind of evidence. [Fixed.]

 

And with this update, the beta phase here ends. This is the full version of Astralon - Truth. I won't update this one further, except if gamebreaking events happened while changing stuff.

 

-Scripts and General Help-

Yanfly

Yami

Tsukihime

Moghunter / Atelier

modernalgebra

Galv

KilloZapit

TDS

DiamondandPlatinum3

Kread-Ex

Ramiro

Pacman

TheoAllen

TinyMine

JayArr

ShiroiAura

JayArr

Cynder

Everyone else who tested the demo before presenting it here!

 

-Music-

Aaron Krogh

And of course, Calbert Warner, also knowns as the "Schematist", who created a few pieces of original music for the revelation scenes.

Take a look, he's creating some seriously awesome music!

 

-Ressources-

Pandamaru

Tchaku

GrandmaDeb

Celianna

Indrah

http://eurs.blog65.fc2.com/
http://usui.moo.jp/

 

I really hope I didn't forget anyone, but these were all I noted in the list. If anyone was not credited, please, tell me immediately, so I may adress this issue and credit everyone properly.

 

 

 

 

And that's about everything I have to say about Astralon!

Do you like this project? Do you want to support it? That's awesome! And I have just the thing for that! Yes, a banner! You can put it into your signature, linking to this thread or the demo download, or you could just put in there and say how much you despise this way of advertising and want to kill off an alien overlord llama because of it!

 

 

Thanks for lookin through all these pieces of information, have a great day!

Edited September 23, 2015 by Schattenpuma

[Pumamori 4]

Hm, it seems like I ended up in the Showroom after all, haha. (:

 

Anyway, just a little update, hopefully making this thread a bit more visible for people to get feedback on the english version, I've been working on a few things, mainly, the sequel to Astralon.

Wait, what? The sequel? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Why would you create the sequel to a project, that is not even close to being finished!?

Wait up there, me. You of all should know better. I am someone who struggles with keeping my motivation up, if I'm working on a single project, working on a "sequel" (gameplay is drastically different, it just tells more of the story behind the scenes), not only gives me the ability to try out new features that MIGHT make it into "Astralon", but it also helps to keep my motivation up.

 

Either way, after a bit of playing around with several engines, here's the way the fights in the sequel, and maybe Astralon could look like:

And I'm certainly not putting that in the feature list, haha. It's been a lot of work, what do you think? Would it be worth it to implement, or would you rather see the old, "basic" one, faster done in exchange? 

Also, last and least, I've been working on the layout of the first little village of Aeston, it should be done soon, thought it might not be worth another new version just for that. ^-^

[Tsarmina 2,611]

That's weird. I'm so sure it was moved correctly.... Oh well, I'll do it now for you. Sorry! ^^"

 

I think the special battle system you have is seriously cool, and I like it enough (and this is coming from somehow who doesn't like battle systems in general, let alone chibi sideview (apologies to all the adorable chibi sprites)). If it's way too much work I wouldn't mind seeing the more basic one at all. :3

[Pumamori 4]

It would be a lot of work, yes, but if it's worth it, I'm willing to take the risk of burning out, haha. I just don't like the static-ness of the current one, might implement something along the lines of Flowchanges, like switching to an ATB, just to make it more interesting in general. Though I am huge on balancing, and that would probably crush my current plans, haha x) 

 

Thanks for feedback, I really appreciate every bit ^-^

[TheManual768 2]

When do you think the a new update will come out?

I'm excited! 

[Pumamori 4]

Thanks for showing your interest. I am not sure actually, I'm currently more focussed on finishing a contest entry for a classical RPG kinda thing. As soon as that's done, I'm going to add some more details!

I'd really appreciate some feedback on the current demo though! A lot of work went into translating all of it. ^-^

[TheManual768 2]

Thanks for showing your interest. I am not sure actually, I'm currently more focussed on finishing a contest entry for a classical RPG kinda thing. As soon as that's done, I'm going to add some more details!

I'd really appreciate some feedback on the current demo though! A lot of work went into translating all of it. ^-^

 

It's really good! I like the "Revelation" mechanic! Keep up the good work! 

[GamingFreexHD 19]

Wow this game looks amazing, would you mind if I let's play it? I'm in awe at how spectacular this game looks. If you have a problem with me let's playing it, would it be ok if I reviewed it? Thank you in advance for the response, and amazing job on the game sir :3

[TheoAllen 830]

Tested the demo. I like the character interaction! They gave me entertainment. Though, I seems can not pass the Raph. He and his partner (I forgot who) keep attacking while I can not heal my character. So I ended up there.

 

Btw, I found a little glitch on the mapping. Not that serious though

 

 

[Pumamori 4]

Wow this game looks amazing, would you mind if I let's play it? I'm in awe at how spectacular this game looks. If you have a problem with me let's playing it, would it be ok if I reviewed it? Thank you in advance for the response, and amazing job on the game sir :3

 

I'm glad you like it! I've no problem with let's playing/reviewing whatsoever, I think it would even yield a few benefits for me! Especially seeing where I went wrong, and where I can improve on the game. Thanks a bunch!

 

Tested the demo. I like the character interaction! They gave me entertainment. Though, I seems can not pass the Raph. He and his partner (I forgot who) keep attacking while I can not heal my character. So I ended up there.

 

Btw, I found a little glitch on the mapping. Not that serious though

Glad you enjoy the interactions, I spent a lot of time on that. 

What do you mean by not being able to pass Raph? 

 

The fight is intended to be interrupted, as soon as you drop below ~10 HP, none of them should be able to prematurely kill you here.

 

 

I can't seem to see the glitch in the screen? I am aware of a little spaztic problem with the water though.

 

Thanks a lot for responding you two! I hope you give it another shot Theo, would be unfortunate if you don't get to see the only real "mechanic" I implemented ^-^

[TheoAllen 830]

Well, in fact I enter gameover screen for a reason. I guess, it's due to gameover check is checked before the event start. I will try to survive until I have 10 HP then. The glitch is, look closely at the trees. You may see the actor's red hair there.

[Pumamori 4]

You made me hug my monitor Theo, I hope you're happy, haha! I see what you mean, still don't get how it's a mistake though. Or do you mean being able to walk there alltogether?

I'm really curious how you managed to get a game over. I've tested this fight about a felt hundred times, and I never got one. I was close, but I never went Game Over for real. It's really rare, and almost impossible, I might turn down the damage down by 1 or something, just to make it impossible to surpass the set limit.

 

Either way, don't look at this spoiler if you're easily disappointed in scripted stuff, haha.

 

You can't really loose this battle, except for the rare occasion that Josh manages to use his piercing strike right when you're at like, ~9 HP, AND does the maximum amount of damage possible. Either way, from that point on, you can't really loose any more, as Rayden will be revived by the reinforcement constantly if you somehow manage to fail (which is pretty hard anyway) or just guard all the time.

 

[TheoAllen 830]

Well, I'm also curious why it could happen. I havent tried yet in second time since I'm busy with experimenting something.

It's not about how many the damage output is. Try to debug your game. Give them 100 damage output. And if you enter the Gameover screen without executing troop event, then it must be something to do with the script. I never tried myself though.

 

Oh, btw, can you just put "Continue even when lose" in battle event?

[Pumamori 4]

I'm not sure if you understand the problem correctly, or I just failed at explaining how this fight works.

And I assure you, I've been debugging for hours, almost so much that I've been discouraged to continue, haha. Fortunately, there shouldn't be any mistakes left I don't know off. Either way, it definitely IS about how much the damage output is.

You see...

the battle is being interrupted by dialogue, as soon as your HP hit a certain mark. If it goes to the gameover, it simply means that the reinforcement didn't come yet, and the enemy did just enough damage to knock you out before reaching this mark. After this reinforcement arrived,  THAT'S when you're unable to loose the battle. (:

 

So, no, just continueing even when loosing doesn't work in this particular case. As I said, I just need to tone down the strongest attack a bit, and generally raising the damage output of the others in exchange. (:

 

Either way, I hope you find the time to give it another shot. Have a nice day and good luck with experimenting! ^-^

Edited August 31, 2014 by Schattenpuma

[GamingFreexHD 19]

Posted the first episode of the let's play

You can watch it here: Let's Play: Astralon

I had a lot of fun with it!

Edited September 4, 2014 by GamingFreexHD

[Pumamori 4]

Aw, a shame you missed quite a bit! I was a bit turned down by the audio quality at first, but it was really enjoyable to see live reactions to the english version! Left you a comment as well, thanks a bunch!
-
Also, to all others, now that I can legitimately update the thread without breaking the 72 hour rule, I've made, two days ago, a final update to the demo. Most issues are fixed, you can find a change log in the main post, right beneath the download. I would love to see some more feedback! It's great to see people enjoying something I made.
 
Have a nice day everyone, ~Puma.
 
EDIT:
 
Hotfix 2.1.1 - Will soon be updated in the startpost

Changelog

[bugfix]

• Hopefully fixed the last few typos that were present in the demo. 
• Fixed a bug that lead to the Revelation-HuD not being shown after choosing one of the incorrect possibilities. (Thanks to GamingFreexHD's video!)

All versions are compatible with each other. Just press replace all while extracting, and you're good!

Edited September 4, 2014 by Schattenpuma

[Pumamori 4]

A little outdated update, but I post it anyway! It's been long enough between updates.

I've been working on the layout of the first little village of Aeston, it should be done soon, thought it might not be worth another new version just for that. ^-^

 

In addition, I made a little commission on some art, mainly, a battle cut-in for Rayden. So, there you go. Sorry for the water mark, it's unavoidable. (: 

This was done by the talented Cynder. Go check her art out! She's awesome! ^-^

[Pumamori 4]

Developement on Astralon is paused for now. I lost everything. New computer, and the backup I made crashed on me, everything gone... So many hours gone to waste..

Quite depressed, but I might.. pick this up again... in the future... from scratch. .-.

[Tsarmina 2,611]

Oh no....! That's terrible!

 

It's alright though...you'll be able to build it back up. And we'll still be here! We're supporting and rooting for you!! Yaaah! *cheer* Don't feel like you need to be in a rush to develop again...maybe take a rbeak if you feel like it. Don't let the bad computer dampen your spirit!

[Pumamori 4]

Thanks for the kind words, I most certainly will not give up! 

Astralon is a project I plan to finish, no matter what. Currently taking a short break from the RPG Maker, but I'll be back soon enough with motivation to finish this project. I've made a lot of notes, so it might even be better than what it was before. ^-^

[Pumamori 4]

It appears that pic-upload decided to delete my pictures for some reason, but hey! I made some new ones and fixed it all up. Work on Astralon is being continued already, the battle system and HuD is already new and updated. I would share a video, but I screwed up and some bad music is running in the background, so I guess I have to make a new one sometime! A screenshot should do for the moment ^-^

 

 

Who that characters is? I guess I leave that discovery up to you! Also, the battle system is now Semi-ATB. Meaning, that you will have that little AT Bar filling up, being able to command as soon as it fills completely. However, as long as you are looking through your items, or figuring out which skill to use, time will not continue to pass. However, while still selecting what to do (Attack, Skill, Item...) enemies may still attack you, so quick thinking is necessary. (: 

 

EDIT: New credit list will be updated soon.

Edited February 25, 2015 by Schattenpuma

[Tsarmina 2,611]

Unlocking at OP's request Congrats!

[Pumamori 4]

Good day everyone. It's been quite a wait. 

 

The new Astralon - Fall of Order demo is here!

Click me for the new Demo!

I never announced working on it, because it would demotivate me if I pressured myself into completing it, but here it is! This demo's main purpose is to showcase gameplay mechanics of the main game, but I couldn't bring myself to upload a blunt tech demo, so I worked a little story into it too. (Everything in this demo is canon by the way.)

 

Have a wonderful day!

~Pumalarios

[Pumamori 4]

Hello everyone! 

Less interesting news, but news none the less. I've written a little walkthrough, in case you got frustrated with finding all the endings.

 

Click me!

 

I'm also updating the original post with the download link of the 1.0 version of the demo.