Dragon Quest 1 Remake

[+ GethN7 24]

Abstract: A game loosely based on the first Dragon Quest.
 
Genre: Classic RPG (Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior style)
 
Average Demo Time: At present, can be completed to the point I have finished entirely in two hours if you speedrun, about three to five for the average player.
 
Game Progression: I have decided to split my progression into how long it takes to complete each landmass. So far, I have finished the first landmass (save a dungeon that will accessed later), out of a planned total of five and all the areas unique to them, hope to be finished by the end of this year or sooner, time permitting.
 
Recruitment: I need help in bugtesting (scripting help especially) and some musical and possibly graphical assistance (mostly either with making my music loop and/or helping me with some graphics I may need to finish my project I cannot cull from other sources).
 
Story/Setting/Purpose: The same as the original Dragon Quest. Rescue princess, stop the Dragonlord. Will have some story alterations, elaborations, and some things invented out of whole cloth, but the core remains the same as the original.
 
 
Character Bios: (fully fleshed out, everyone else is a WIP)
 
* (Playable) Roto - Descendant of Loto (I know, Roto is the same name in Japanese, meta joke), farm boy from the province of Kol who likes to read, is a bit shy around girls, but has a big heart and wants to be as heroic as his ancestor.
 
* (Playable) Mara - A mage of Tantegel Castle, friend of Princess Lora. A snarky hedonist, yet is often practical and to the point. Idolizes the Queen of the Succubi, Lady Tera.
 
* (Playable) Sarah - Soldier in the army of the Constitutional Monarchy of Tantegel, was the bodyguard to Princess Lora, was given a scar trying to prevent her capture, was given dispensation by the commander of the Tantegel Army to assist Roto in recovering her. Very serious, a devout follower of the Goddess Rubiss.
 
* Tera: Of all the demons and spiritual beings who defied Rubiss long ago when the Demon King Zoma decided to oppress humanity, Tera and her followers sided with Rubiss and aided humanity. Tera's followers are considered allies of humanity and Rubiss in return, and Tera had artifacts from her realm stolen by agents of the Dragonlord which were cursed which she is trying to retrieve in the present day.

 

Credits (so far, Readme at Github repo for this game will have the latest info)

 

 

 

=== Credits for Resources used ===

 

NOTE:

 

Since Beta 1.01, I have been forced to comply with the terms for the Effectus script by encrypting the game archive so that the project files cannot be directly accessed, as that is a violation of their terms. Anyone wishing access to this project's unencrypted files to help me codevelop must contact me privately and comply with any and all terms RPGMaker Source has stipulated for reuse of the Effectus script, and that script should not be reissued in an unencrypted form without their explicit permission.

Aside from stock RMVX Ace Resources, I used resources from the following:

=======================

Graphics/Sprites/Sounds

=======================

IMPORTANT NOTE: If it has a (COMMERICIAL) tag next to it, I had to pay actual money to acquire the rights to use this, and it may NOT be reused in other projects unless you have a legal copy of RPGmaker and have acquired your own copy from the source.

They are only provided here in the archive for bugtesting and development reasons only in any WIP build, and any official release will fall under the same guidelines.

I believe in open sourcing my work because I'd like to make it easier for the community to bugtest my WIP code and offer suggestions and patches for game issues, but these items exist under specific conditions and should not be reproduced elsewhere unless you have your own legal copy for reuse in your own project.

(LICENSED) material is that borrowed from the official games or other licensed media and is used for parody/fanfiction/unofficial fangame purposes only. It is the property of it's owners (which are clearly identified) and not to be resold or claimed as anyone else's nor reused in other projects except under those very same terms.


* Community Pack DLC (COMMERICIAL)

* Evil Castle DLC (COMMERICIAL)

* Fantastic Buildings Medievel DLC (COMMERICIAL)

* Monster sprites from various Dragon Quest games - credit goes to Square-Enix for all of those. (LICENSED)

* RPG Maker Characters - Team RWBY and Team JNPR by PandaNekoTaiso (Rooster Teeth also credited since RWBY is their web series) (available from the Steam Workshop and Deviantart)

* Retrobits WIndow Skin by RPGMaker Source

* Tower of Sorrow - VX ACE ONLY A1/A2 by nicnubill

* Plant covered chests by kalez

* Rpgmaker Vx Ace Tilesets 1 by Hishimy

* Rpgmaker Tile Furniture by Ayenechan

* Chicken Recolors by Birdzilla

* Free Rpgmaker VX Ace Faces/Sprites by Tristan

* Added Ace Character Presets from Restaff 2012 Collection by Scinaya

* Female Faces and Sprites by noellechan

* Faces by Genocider Rina

* Floating Objects by Kalez

* Bowing Maids by Rajawall and Aine

* Maids Complete by Fenix-Rajawall and IcyDragon

* Maid Facesets Fixed by Jalen

* Various Faces by Jalen

* Ace Generator Addons and Replacements by Lunara

* Various Faces by Jasmine Reiner

== Music ==

Unless a specific author name is cited, these are MP3/OGG from various Dragon Quest games, credit goes to Koichi Sugiyama and Square Enix for those. All (LICENSED) unless cited as otherwise.

* Dq3 Unknown World (Snes Version)

* DQ3 Fighting Theme (Snes Version)

* Dq3 Castle (Snes Version)

* DQ3 Into The Legend (Snes Version)

* DQ3 Cave (Snes Version)

* DQ3 Victory (Snes Version)

* DQ4 A Challenging Opponent (NDS version)

* DQ1 Thou Hast Died (SNES Version)

* DQ4 Evil One (NDS version)

=======

Scripts

=======

(Any scripts noted as "removed" may be restored in later versions)

1. Effectus by RPGMakerSource (COMMERICIAL)
2. Respawn Timer by Galv
3. Always Deal At Least 1HP Damage by DiamondandPlatinum3
4. CSCA Core Script by Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)
5. Yanfly Learn Skill Engine by Yanfly
6. Gender Functions by Mr. Bubble
7. CSCA Encyclopedia by Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)
8. Victory Aftermath by Yanfly
9. Basic Game Time + Night/Day v1.6.2 by V.M of D.T
10. Class System by Yanfly
11. Class Extensions by GaryCXJk
12. Dragon Quest 1 Floor Damaging System by Soulpour777 (requested by GethN7)
13. MenuStatus by dbchest
14. MedalShop by dbchest (requested by GethN7)
15. CSCA Professions by Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)
16. Visual Battlers by Yanfly
17. CSCA Toast Manager by Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)
18. Command Slider by Rpgmaker SOurce
19. CSCA GameInfo by Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)
20. CSCA Item Limitations by Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)
21. Ace Menu Engine by Yanfly
22. CSCA Splash Screen by Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)
23. Class specifics (Class system addon) by Yanfly
24. Class Unlock Level (Class system addon) by Yanfly
25. Gender Requirements by Mr. Bubble
26. Passive States by Yanfly
27. Permanent State by Estriole
28. Yanfly Battle Engines Fixes by Yami
29. Steal Items Addon by Shadowmaster
30. System Options by Yanfly
31. CSCA Difficulty System by Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)
32. Passive TP 100 State by SoulPour777
33. SEA - Command Controller by SoulPour777
34. SEA - Character Profile by SoulPour777
35. SEA - Vampiric and Siphonic Traits by SoulPour777
36. Cover Targets by Hime
37. Yanfly Battle Engine by Yanfly
38. Mmorpg Alchemy and Extraction System by Falcao
39. Fullscreen++ by Zeus81
40. Ace Save Engine by Yanfly
41. Cover Conditions by Hime
42. Enemy Target Info by Yanfly
43. TP Damage Type by Hime
44. Steal Items by Yanfly
45. Command Window Icons by Yanfly
46. Ace Message System by Yanfly
47. Command Autobattle by Yanfly
48. Command Equip by Yanfly
49. Combat Log Display by Yanfly
50. Enemy Reinforcement Events by Hime
51. Split Transitions by RPGMakerSource
52. System Options by Yanfly
53. CSCA Colosseum by Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)
54. CSCA Colosseum Wagers by Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)
55. Smooth Cursor by RPGMakerSource
56. Enemy Reinforcement by Hime
57. Visual Novel Choices by Galv
58. Invaders Minigame by Galv
59. Yanfly Status Menu by Yanfly
60. Pong, Space Explorer, and Image Creation Script by Zarby
61. Gamepad Extender by Lone Wolf (removed)
62. Link Equipment to Skill/Item by Demintika


== Additional Credits/Thanks To ==
* My family, for their support
* The RPGMaker forums and their membership
* The Drunkard's Walk Forums and their membership
** Bob Schroeck, who has a character based on him with his permission
** Brent Laabs, also has a character based on him with his permission.
* Orain, which hosts the Orain branch of All The Tropes
** Dustin Muniz: Owner of Orain, and the wiki farm service he hosts in general (where I serve as a staff member)
* All The Tropes (Orain)

** Ecceltennysmith: Member of ATT, has a character based off her with their permission

** Doc Colress: Member of ATT, has a character based off them with their permission

* Wikia: Which hosts the Wikia branch of All The Tropes

* Lady Tera of the SuccuWiki and her husband Keith, both of whom have characters based off them with their permission. Tera also deserves credit for beta reading and story advice integrating her and Keith's characters (modified from usual depictions in her own works) into my game.

* The Project AFTER forums, for their blunt yet valuable criticism, without which I'm sure this game would be a steaming pile of crap.

** Master of AFTER, Yaoi Huntress Earth, Schmekie, Bonglorio, and CobaltKori, all of whom are PA members and partially or completely are represented by ingame avatars, and all of whom have consented to their representation. All specific game avatars and sprites unique to those characters not stock assets of the base application or imported from official DLC or community resources are to be considered mine and theirs, and cannot be reused without our mutual consent elsewhere.

* Silenity, from the RpgmakerVxAce forums, whom I owe a debt for some complicated eventing and scripting assistance.
 
* SoulPour777 and dbchest, both members of the RPGMaker VXAce forums who wrote custom code for my project.

* RPGMakerSource, for many excellent graphics and scripts (http://rpgmakersource.com/)

 

 

 

== Features (taken from readme, repo has latest info) ==

* In battle, you have a "TP Meter". Once it hits 100%, you basically get several stat boosts due to the adrenaline flowing. It will only last at least until the battle ends, though, or unless you die. Using any move that uses TP points will lower this below %100 and remove the boost until it recharges, so bear that in mind.

* Speak with the castle chancellor (the guy between the king and queen where you start) if you want to change the difficulty of the game.

* You can change most of the other game options via the "System" submenu in the player menu.

* Added a "Biography" menu option, so you can learn a little more about your playable characters.

* Speak to Brent the castle librarian to receive a Key Item that will serve as the ingame encyclopedia, usable from the item menu. It's still WIP, but does have the bestiary worked in at present.

 

 

Downloadable Links:

 

https://mega.nz/#F!VM8iGYzL!pc8SDIOJ7H-aoPqDdQ3hEw  (All public betas including latest release found here)

 

 

 

Edited February 8, 2017 by GethN7

[Enneagon 20]

Awesome, Dragon Warrior! I loved the first two when I was growing up. I was more than happy to try this out for you, and sort of kind of happy with the result. Here are my thoughts as I went through it.

 

-As soon as that castle music starts: Aw yeah, that's a good nostalgia bomb. Shame it doesn't loop properly.

 

-That is not a flattering look for your main character. I recommend a revision.

 

-There are a lot of awkward phrasings, run-on sentences, and general errors in the text. Here are just a few I picked up:

 

 

"*grins* A bookworm, eh? Then any of you books mention checking out everything..."

 

"I am Sara, bodyguard to Princess Lora, or I was until I failed to prevent his minions from kidnapping her." (Whose? I mean, I know contextually, but still.)

 

*sigh* It's takes forever to clean these floors...

 

So Mara, I understasnd you'll be traveling for awhile.

 

I'm a collector of Small Medals. If you fin any in your travels...

 

Castle Infirmary: Please be quite when visiting patients.

And that was when I gave up. A number seem to be caused by words getting cut off due to a text box script; I've had the same problem. Always make sure to check your text boxes in-game as well as in the editor.

 

-On a technical level, the game looks quite impressive! Definitely a good first impression.

 

-This castle is... huge. Intimidatingly huge. Yes, the fact that the castle in the original game was so big was part of the fun, but this... this is too much. According to the save file, it took me nearly half an hour of exploration before I finally made it out to the world map. It quickly became difficult to find anything or remember where I was going, and I'm not looking forward to going back in there the next time I need to find something. It definitely looks good, and I had fun doing it, but in terms of gameplay you've got at least two castles worth of content in there and I was getting impatient for the story to start. (For instance: Why do you need two libraries? The whole section on spell effects could be moved to a different part of the game, since none of that will be relevant until I've leveled up some more anyway.) This is made all the more difficult by...

 

-Checking everything quickly becomes a chore in a game with this much detail. Close to every room has closets, shelves, bookshelves, chests, tables, and so on, with no indication of whether any particular thing is something I can interact with or just background detail. (The libraries are especially frustrating in this regard, because they're filled wall-to-wall with books, some of which have important information, some of which have flavor text, and some of which have nothing at all.) I recommend visually distinguishing searchable objects in some way, limiting them to a few types or adding sparkly effects or something, so that when I come across them my reaction is an excited "Ooh! Maybe I'll find a treasure!" and not an "Ugh, now I have to search this entire room as well."

 

-Same for all the NPCs. There are so many and they're so spread out, it's very easy to completely miss someone important. There's a reason the Final Fantasy series always puts all the tutorial NPCs in a single room.

 

-So far, once you get past the occasional errors, the writing and flavor text in this game is pretty good. I'm going to repeat the sentiment that it needs to be more spread out, though, and not have several dozen NPCs in the same area. I'd also like a "Would you like to read this? Y/N" option whenever I find something that takes a long time to read.

 

-I have no idea what Crystal Invaders is doing in this game. I'm not complaining, mind.

 

-Be sure to use Direction Fix on your doors. They currently change sprites when viewed from above. Direction Fix would also help for characters in beds, at desks, or conversing with one another.

 

-The save screen is glitched. "Tera's Artifacts" overlaps with a number that I don't know the meaning of.

 

-THIS TOWN IS TOO BIG. It takes ages to traverse and longer to find anything. Several doors are missing or lead to the wrong building. Also, two of the bridges into town are sideways. (They also merge with land, instead of the water. Shift-clicking is your friend.)

 

-The mysterious hooded figure's speech went on for too long and was too self-depreciating. The game has several meta references already, but to refer to the game itself as stereotypical crossed the line and took me out of the experiences. For that matter, a lot of NPCs talk for much longer than they need to. Some of them are fun, but trying to talk to all of them becomes a drag. If necessary, use self-switches so that a person only gives a long speech once and then delivers only a single line each subsequent time after.

 

-Also, the exit to the south side is incomplete.

 

-There's no indication of what items do, or how they vary. Are tomatoes better healers than potatoes? Do they heal HP or MP? Does anything in this game heal MP?

 

-Battle is... okay. Personally, I'm not a fan of Yanfly's Ace Engine; I find that the text moves faster than I can follow it, and there's too much visual focus toward the bottom of the screen. The teeny-tiny, low-centered enemy sprites don't help. Mara's Auto attack being a spell may save time in the short term, but it means she has no MP left when I actually need it, since I haven't figured out how to cure MP yet. Given the importance of TP, I'd recommend that you standardize it across all battles instead of starting with a random amount.

 

-Most of the flavor text for the game has been pretty good, so it's disappointing that the after-battle text is just stock phrases. I'd really like to see some more personality there.

 

-Grinding takes too long. At 18G a battle, putting up a 350G price wall - EACH - at the start of the game gets frustrating quickly. Do we really need all three characters right away? And with the current layout, trying to find a place to heal and spend that money takes much too long. An inn should be a quick in-and-out business.

 

I didn't make it to the end of the demo, as the promised hour was up, I was tired of grinding, and I still had no idea where I was supposed to go. Overall impressions: I highly recommend making your maps MUCH smaller and MUCH easier to navigate. Consider dividing the castle up into different parts of the game and don't feel the need to front-load everything at once. Use a small number of easy-to-understand items and keep the combat simple initially - I suggest starting out with only one or two characters. It may be a lot of fun to design huge and complicated things, but when it comes to making gameplay fun, always go with what is most efficient.

 

Or, the short short version: Fun in places, far too slow-paced.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Enneagon

[+ GethN7 24]

 

Or, the short short version: Fun in places, far too slow-paced.

 

I appreciate all the feedback, and I'm currently working on the first beta (plan to release by end of next week at latest), so I will definitely keep all this in mind as I do the bugtesting and fine tuning, here's some of my comments based on your feedback:

 

The main character look was based on the DQ4 hero, he's supposed to look slightly silly because he's basically a farm boy who wants to be a badass hero like his ancestor (was going to give him a class change with a much less silly look later). The music looping is a known issue, I suck at using Audacity, will hopefully address that (unless someone would like to help me, since my one attempt at doing so sounded hideous). The grammar being horrible is partially my tripping over the game engine text limits, partially my writing all the text and not doing adequate proofreading, which I apologize for.

 

As for size, I admit, I'm notorious for designing big stuff. Part of it is a desire for realism with the setting (fantasy medieval castles tended towards being fairly sizable in more realism oriented works), and part of it was my initial apprehension about the 2D look was that it would restrain my creativity in placing everything, which I have learned was an erroneous assumption.

 

I think I can shrink the castle somewhat before the first beta, possibly fill it with more people and stuff to find as well as adding markers for interesting stuff to click on (good idea). Won't add it to everything, want some things to remain a surprise, but a good idea for most common interesting objects like readable bookshelves.

 

As for the town, I originally intended the fields to have reharvestable nodes, but I had issues getting Falcao's harvest script to work right, so I substituted a really poor self switch/wait version, would love to have someone help me debug that so the size of the fields is somewhat less pointless. Also, part of why I did that was, again, realism, since being a major commercial center for the kingdom (and implied to be a major population center in the original script), I figured it would make sense to have the size I did. Also, it has so many fields and storehouses because I wanted to give the impression of city under fear of everything outside, so the city is taking measures to withstand a siege by the Dragonlord's forces, should they need to.

 

I could probably alleviate this issue by adding more interiors, condensing the left side of town somewhat, and adding more events to keep it interesting, so your point about the city size being a downside is noted. I also agree about having a lot of glitches concerning doors and the messed up bridges looking terrible, will definitely fix that.

 

As for Crystal Invaders, I added that to give you a reason to check out that part of the castle, and something you can do for fun.

 

As for the glitched text on the save screen, that's not present in my current beta, that was a screwed up debug setting that should have been removed, sorry about that.

 

As for the mysterious hooded figure, that's the Master of AFTER, based on the guy who runs the Project AFTER forums, where they snark about bad fanfiction. I'm a member there and got his and several other forum members consent to use them as ingame characters (as well as making an in universe counterpart to the real forum) partially as a shoutout, and partially because it's a meta reference to my own inexperience and ineptitude. Yeah, I'm a big fan of self depreciation, but I understand not everyone may enjoy that.

 

As for item descriptions, agreed, they suck, will definitely work on that. Had some issues getting Yanfly's Menu enhancement script to work, will try enabling it once more since it did add much needed information about items.

 

As for the battle engine, I tried other options, and it was the best compromise between the classic DQ look and efficiency I could come up with. The enemy sprites look terribly when upscaled any further, but I'll see if I can't find a happy compromise somewhere before release (I have them at 150% their stock ripped resolution, will try to up that somewhat). The TP suggestion is a good idea, and FYI, you can heal MP with Magic Water and a few food items, will make that clearer before the beta is released.

 

I'll work on the grindiness as well (added a casino to Tantegel Town that can be used to shorten the gold grinding considerably), but will tweak the regular enemy drops as well.

 

As for starting out with three characters, that was originally intended, first beta will contain a story scene that requires all three, so that's a bit late to change.

Edited April 29, 2015 by GethN7

[+ GethN7 24]

Beta 1.0 is ready!

 

https://github.com/Arcane21/DW1-Remake/tree/Beta-1.01

 

 

I have made some changes with this one, especially in response to criticism of the last build:

 

* Battle speed has been reverted to default so messages can be read better.

 

* Tantegel Town and Castle have been reduced in size by 20-40%

 

* Twinkling markers have been added to most interactable objects, though not all (some I may have missed, some are meant to be hidden).

 

* The item and shop interface has been overhauled for clarity.

 

* Some grammar fixes have been implemented, and more text/NPCs have been added to some areas.

 

* A lot of minigames have been added, including a full fledged casino.

 

* Added beta Return/Outside spells. The spells should work as intended, but the Scape Rope/Warp Wing counterpart items do not, will be fixed by the next build.

 

* Have added special properties to some items, like one weapon giving a small chance of getting two turns, and one weapon casts a spell when used as an item. These have been tested and appear to function properly, though there may be errors.

 

* Balance has been tweaked to make gold/level grinding easier. All characters should be around Level 7/8 by the end of the first landmass as a recommended minimum, especially for beating the end boss of the Tantegel Treasure Keep.

 

* All characters have their skills and spells added, all have been tested to function as intended, though I may have neglected to fill in some database entries, please report any issues.

Edited May 6, 2015 by GethN7

[+ GethN7 24]

I have been forced to make a small change to this project to comply with the legal terms for reuse of the Effectus script, and have thus encrypted the contents of the archive I have uploaded to my Github repo. Anyone wishing to help me codevelop with the unencrypted files must contact me privately and must comply with any conditions set forth by RPGMaker Source for reuse of Effectus before doing so.

 

All previous unencrypted branches of this project were destroyed to comply with their terms as well.

[+ Sughayyer 163]

Hey there! Since I'm a big fan of the earlier Dragon Quests (3 remains to this day one of my favorite RPGs) I gave this demo a shot.

 

First of all, congratulations for the initiative of a remake. Here are my conclusions, and keep in mind that there are a lot of *suggestions* - don't get me wrong, take what you read with a grain of salt please. All in all you did (are doing) a great job. 

 

Here goes:

 

Pro: A good thing you are fleshing out the characters. The earlier Dragon Quest and their younger cousin Final Fantasy really lacked this.

Con: Watch out for the text, be careful with the English language and watch out for "vanilla" lines - especially when said by the main characters.

 

Pro: Nice gameplay scripts were added. That's always a good thing since it fleshes out the *game* Sometimes we worry about the setting, the characters, etc and forget about gameplay, so good job on that.

Con: The scripts that allow for customization should be further customized. Otherwise it might have the feel of "just another RPG Maker game". I'm not saying it *did*, I'm saying it *might*. 

 

Pro: Mapping was interesting enough. That's really nice. The colors are nice too. Not a lot of "empty spaces", that's also a common mistake you avoided.

Con: Be careful with the graphics. Surely, I do not despise the Char/Face generator AT ALL. Not everyone is an artist or can pay for one. So I'm perfectly fine with that, youre not going comercial or anything. But watch out for style differences. Wouldn't it be better to re-create all faces using the Face generator? It would keep style consistency.

[+ GethN7 24]

Hey there! Since I'm a big fan of the earlier Dragon Quests (3 remains to this day one of my favorite RPGs) I gave this demo a shot.

 

First of all, congratulations for the initiative of a remake. Here are my conclusions, and keep in mind that there are a lot of *suggestions* - don't get me wrong, take what you read with a grain of salt please. All in all you did (are doing) a great job. 

 

Here goes:

 

Pro: A good thing you are fleshing out the characters. The earlier Dragon Quest and their younger cousin Final Fantasy really lacked this.

Con: Watch out for the text, be careful with the English language and watch out for "vanilla" lines - especially when said by the main characters.

 

Pro: Nice gameplay scripts were added. That's always a good thing since it fleshes out the *game* Sometimes we worry about the setting, the characters, etc and forget about gameplay, so good job on that.

Con: The scripts that allow for customization should be further customized. Otherwise it might have the feel of "just another RPG Maker game". I'm not saying it *did*, I'm saying it *might*. 

 

Pro: Mapping was interesting enough. That's really nice. The colors are nice too. Not a lot of "empty spaces", that's also a common mistake you avoided.

Con: Be careful with the graphics. Surely, I do not despise the Char/Face generator AT ALL. Not everyone is an artist or can pay for one. So I'm perfectly fine with that, youre not going comercial or anything. But watch out for style differences. Wouldn't it be better to re-create all faces using the Face generator? It would keep style consistency.

 

 

Thanks for the critiques!

 

As for the lines, yeah, they need diversity, and while I've tried to keep the grammar reasonably decent, I tend to be bad at proofreading, will make sure to do more of that.

 

As for the scripts, I'm still learning what I'm doing in Ruby (been reading up on it), so plz be patient with me.

 

In all seriousness, yeah, I do need to step out of the box a little more with some scripts.

 

As for recreating all the faces, hmm, I'll consider it, because, yeah, not a very good artist.

[+ Sughayyer 163]

I hope you continue to improve it, because it has a lot of potential.

I am very very short on time, so I'm not always able to help, but you can drop a message if you want.

[Enneagon 20]

It's back! Didn't have so much time, but I ran through part of it to see what I could see.

 

-Improvements! Perhaps because I knew where I was going this time, I ran through the castle in a fraction of the time. The twinkles were a little visually jarring at first, but they helped me progress much more smoothly and even led me to some things I'd missed the first time around. It was much more fun than having to check everything. They could use Direction Fix, though, as they keep changing sprites when viewed from different sides, and not everything (such as signs) needs a twinkle.

 

-Related: Locked doors are still broken. They change sprites when viewed from above without a key.

 

-The giver of the bestiary is way too easy to miss, tucked away in the back of the library.

 

-I caught some new dialogue this time around! Enjoyable, and some seemed to hint at events later in the game, but again, there are a few too many NPCs who are willing to drop their entire life stories when all I want to do is quickly explore. Consider using self-switches so that NPCs only do their entire spiel once, and put a yes/no option in front of really long books and signs.

 

-The town is still several times larger than it needs to be. Running through and picking all those plants seemed like much more tedium than it was worth, not least because it's still not stated how effective any given healing item is compared to others. It's for the same reason that I felt that I would never use recipes. The town also feels more mazelike, which is the opposite of what you want. And why are the item shops placed in the furthest possible corner from the entrance, behind several rows of fenced-off fields and locked houses? Everything is needlessly far away, and in between there's nothing to see and no reason to explore, unless for some reason I want to go to the trouble of picking eighty potatoes in a row. The entire farming mechanic seems unnecessary in a game like this.

 

-Now that I think of it, the medal shop, kitchen, and even the church are pretty far away from the castle entrance as well.

 

-Using the Goals item given with the bestiary resets and then crashes the game upon exiting it. So, that's the end of my review, I guess.

[+ GethN7 24]

It's back! Didn't have so much time, but I ran through part of it to see what I could see.

 

-Improvements! Perhaps because I knew where I was going this time, I ran through the castle in a fraction of the time. The twinkles were a little visually jarring at first, but they helped me progress much more smoothly and even led me to some things I'd missed the first time around. It was much more fun than having to check everything. They could use Direction Fix, though, as they keep changing sprites when viewed from different sides, and not everything (such as signs) needs a twinkle.

 

-Related: Locked doors are still broken. They change sprites when viewed from above without a key.

 

-The giver of the bestiary is way too easy to miss, tucked away in the back of the library.

 

-I caught some new dialogue this time around! Enjoyable, and some seemed to hint at events later in the game, but again, there are a few too many NPCs who are willing to drop their entire life stories when all I want to do is quickly explore. Consider using self-switches so that NPCs only do their entire spiel once, and put a yes/no option in front of really long books and signs.

 

-The town is still several times larger than it needs to be. Running through and picking all those plants seemed like much more tedium than it was worth, not least because it's still not stated how effective any given healing item is compared to others. It's for the same reason that I felt that I would never use recipes. The town also feels more mazelike, which is the opposite of what you want. And why are the item shops placed in the furthest possible corner from the entrance, behind several rows of fenced-off fields and locked houses? Everything is needlessly far away, and in between there's nothing to see and no reason to explore, unless for some reason I want to go to the trouble of picking eighty potatoes in a row. The entire farming mechanic seems unnecessary in a game like this.

 

-Now that I think of it, the medal shop, kitchen, and even the church are pretty far away from the castle entrance as well.

 

-Using the Goals item given with the bestiary resets and then crashes the game upon exiting it. So, that's the end of my review, I guess.

 

 

As for the twinkles, thanks, I'll look into improving that for Beta 2.0.

 

As for the doors, the Direction Fix sounds like a good idea.

 

As for the dialogue, yeah, need 2 do more self switching. Good idea on the books as well.

 

As for the items, the farming mechanics is so you can harvest some items for use in recipes, which make items that can heal the whole party (most non food items heal single targets). I tried to modify the item and shop menus to cover that better, will further tweak things.

 

As for the town/castle, I guess I could condense them even further, though I have to admit part of design was to encourage exploration, though I concede that does seem a little tedious after multiple times entering a map, will try to further streamline things.

 

As for that crash bug, odd, works fine for me, will look into that further.

[Enneagon 20]

Hmm. Specifically: I pressed X to exit the achievements menu, at which point the screen went dark and the opening text started to crawl again. After that I wound up back in the throne room, able to move around and talk to people, but the screen remained black.

 

Related, having to use the bestiary and achievements as an item on the party to view them seems like an unnecessary step. It's a small thing, but it does make the game feel mechanically unpolished. Which reminds me, it took me a while to realize that I had to use recipes in order to learn them. Surely they could just be learned as soon as they're picked up?

[+ GethN7 24]

Hmm. Specifically: I pressed X to exit the achievements menu, at which point the screen went dark and the opening text started to crawl again. After that I wound up back in the throne room, able to move around and talk to people, but the screen remained black.

 

Related, having to use the bestiary and achievements as an item on the party to view them seems like an unnecessary step. It's a small thing, but it does make the game feel mechanically unpolished. Which reminds me, it took me a while to realize that I had to use recipes in order to learn them. Surely they could just be learned as soon as they're picked up?

 

Wow, that bug sounds bizarre, I'll look into that.

 

Also, I probably need to use another bestiary script, CSCA's has given me fits before.

 

As for having them as items instead of menu components, I had issues getting CSCA's scripts to work unless I did it the way it's currently implemented, I'll see about using different scripts, as I agree about my current method being a step backward. The recipe script works that way because of how it was coded and I'm not entirely happy with it, will try to find a better one.

 

Also, I plan to fill the castle and town with a lot more content and I'll look into moving the shops around so you don't have to traipse halfway across town just to buy items. I'm also going to look into adding shortcuts in my castle to make getting from place to place easier, assuming I can't shrink it down further, though I plan to do that.

[+ GethN7 24]

Hmm. Specifically: I pressed X to exit the achievements menu, at which point the screen went dark and the opening text started to crawl again. After that I wound up back in the throne room, able to move around and talk to people, but the screen remained black.

 

Related, having to use the bestiary and achievements as an item on the party to view them seems like an unnecessary step. It's a small thing, but it does make the game feel mechanically unpolished. Which reminds me, it took me a while to realize that I had to use recipes in order to learn them. Surely they could just be learned as soon as they're picked up?

 

After looking over the problem, I decided to remove CSCA's Bestiary and Achievements, and I replaced the Bestiary with the Fantasy Bestiary script, which shows up in the menu by default. I removed the Achievements since I plan to hopefully add an alternative eventually, not to mention I really want to avoid crash bugs.

 

I have also shrunk the castle a little more, and I added some shortcuts to make walking around less of a chore. I also deleted that HUGE banquet hall (I could probably put it on the second floor somewhere) and replaced it with a much smaller "Imperial Halls of Honor", which will contain all the game background lore in one spot for easy reading, currently filling it with lots of books, reliefs, and engravings detailing the backstory of my remake's world, and I took your "show choices before large texts" idea into account (good idea). It should be easier to get to all areas of the castle now, and while it's still rather large, the amount of shortcuts and

and newly opened up space should make going from place to place much less of a headache. The town will be further condensed as well, with all the shops easier to reach.

 

As for recipe/farming system, I'm tending to agree the current one is terrible, and I definitely plan to replace the recipe system with something easier to implement, and I may just remove the harvesting element altogether.

 

P.S. - The Imperial Halls of Honor is a reference to the oft cited line about the "Imperial Scrolls of Honor" in the original games.....now you'll actually be able to read them.

[+ GethN7 24]

Well, made some more encouraging progress. First, I now have a crafting system that doesn't suck, is accessible from the player menu, and is very easy to work with. It even includes a list of recipes in a separate "Recipes" tab (and there are a lot more recipes). Second, all of my towns have been redesigned so you don't have to walk several miles to find the weapon/armor/item shops, though I left a few specialty shops slightly out of the way since I don't want to make things too easy.

 

The harvesting mechanic had been greatly diminished (I cut out most of the harvestable plants, partially for game balance reasons), and I reworked a lot of the long books to give you an option to read them or not.

 

I still have a lot of world building to add, work is in progress on that score.

[+ GethN7 24]

I just had to release a beta early for legal reasons. Turns out my iconset was of very legally dubious quality (it had rips of tons of stuff without bothering to credit anyone), so I had to replace it with a quick and dirty redo from a more legally quantifiable source.

So here's Beta 1.12:

https://github.com/Arcane21/DW1-Remake/tree/Beta-1.12

It isn't further along storywise than the previous beta, but it contains a lot of my improvements mentioned in the previous post, so if you want an early sneak preview of what I planned for the full Beta 2.0, well, here you go.

Some of the icons may not work very well, but I had to quick and dirty change everything, will clean this up as much as I can when the proper beta I planned on releasing is ready.

[+ GethN7 24]

Progress on my next beta has been slow due to issues at the Orain wikifarm service, but that seems to be behind me, so I hope to have a new beta ready soon.

 

I will be using a custom made iconset, the database will have all remaining holes filled (save for maybe a few things I may need scripts for), and I intend to add another fully functional town and dungeon by next beta, with an option to unlock facets of the class change system if all goes well.

[SEJordan 17]

Awesome! I loved playing the old Dragon Warrior games on emulators. Good luck on finishing your project!

[+ GethN7 24]

Awesome! I loved playing the old Dragon Warrior games on emulators. Good luck on finishing your project!

 

Glad to hear. I'm currently working on one of my dungeons, and I'm considering making it have encounters you can see only instead of random encounters. it's a bonus dungeon, with enemies far tougher than the areas around it, but if you are determined, you can sneak past all the enemies and get your hands on some really cool equipment, since the dungeon is not mandatory to beating the game (at least for the planned normal ending, is needed for the true ending), or such is my current idea for it.

[Animebryan 133]

Those image links at the end of your 1st post don't work! You should fix them.

[+ GethN7 24]

Those image links at the end of your 1st post don't work! You should fix them.

 

I noticed. Unfortunately, it seems to be a forum software issue, so I'm not sure what the fix would be on my end.

 

As for my game, I'm almost ready to release another beta, and not only have I retooled several battle mechanics to be more fun (the technique meter fills up faster, giving the player more enticement to use techniques, among other changes), I plan to give my main characters much better art this time round, as I want them to match the art style of the other assets I'm using better.

[+ GethN7 24]

Beta 1.3 is ready:

https://github.com/Arcane21/DW1-Remake/tree/Beta-1.3

Changes include:

* A lot more custom graphics, including totally new graphics for all the main characters that were using stock assets before.

* All areas of the main landmass (save Garin's Tomb) and the Kol region (save the Tower of Kol and the Sun Shrine between the main and Kol regions) are complete.

* If you complete an optional dungeon, find an item in it, and bring it back to Tera in the castle, you can unlock a class change for Mara. Warning, optional dungeon is long and hard.

* Outside/Return spells are still kinda buggy, avoid using them in unintended situations, as I cannot guarantee against weird game behavior.

* Kol has been fairly well fleshed out for the most part, and I added a few custom events and diary to Roto's house that will update the further along in your quest, so in later builds check up on it from time to time.

* The opening cutscene can be skipped now, see readme for details.

[+ GethN7 24]

A few updates:

 

* The staircase north of the mages lab in the castle does not go back to the proper location, this is an oversight that will be corrected next build. It is not a required area, so it can be avoided.

 

* The exit to Kol also has misplaced transfer events, use a Scape Rope or Warp Wing to leave town, this will also be corrected by next build.

 

* I accidentally uploaded an earlier snapshot of my game before adding the treasure to the Pod Forest map, so it's absent (I use GitHub to keep track of my releases, didn't save my changes properly before release, my apologies, this will be rectified next build. This area was also horribly unbalanced, this will also be fixed next build. The class change is therefore inaccessible as a result, which again will be fixed next build.

 

I plan to release a bugfix version to obviate the worst errors in 1.30, and I would have done it sooner, but I had my attention consumed entirely by pressing cocnerns on the Orain wikifarm service, where I serve as staff.

 

It should be ready for release in a day or so.

Edited June 18, 2015 by GethN7

[+ GethN7 24]

Beta 1.31 is now ready, and is a bugfixed version of Beta 1.30. All game crashing or breaking bugs should be fixed now, as well as the following changes:

* Removed Cutscene Skip. Turns out it was the source of most of the bizarre game breaking bugs for odd reason.

* Modified some weapons like wands to cast whatever spell effect they would have used as an item as their default attack, this done as a compromise between RM VX Ace limitations and since I couldn't get a script to work. For instance, the standard attack of the Wizard Wand is Blaze spell, except it costs no MP to use.

* Boomerangs now hit all enemies when equipped as weapons.

* Fixed some armor bugs, like Magic Hats being registered as shields.

* Added a few small areas, such as a house to Garinheim and the Sun Shrine inbetween the main and Kol landmasses. The Tower of Kol, Hauksness, and Rimuldar landmasses are still devoid of overworld content or events, will have Rimuldar done by next build, along with parts of Hauksness. More "blank spaces" will be filled in in later builds.

* Pod Forest has been rebalanced to be a lot more beatable. It's still hard, don't go in below Level 12, but now beatable. Items intended to be there exist, take it back to Tera for Mara to gain new armor and a class change.

* Sounds have all been reduced to 50% volume due to complaints some were too loud.

You can get the latest beta here:

https://github.com/Arcane21/DW1-Remake/tree/Beta-1.31

[+ GethN7 24]

I just got some reports that the latest bug fix seems to have smoothed over some of the biggest issues, though thanks to an oversight I introduced a hilarious overpowering of the Mist Staff, which deals out a chance of instant death whenever Mara attacks with it equipped. This will be removed by next release, but you all can consider it a https://allthetropes.orain.org/wiki/Good_Bad_Bug

 

I also discovered a lot more of the features I intended don't seem to be work, as they will require some custom scripting I don't currently have, so I plan to refactor my current codebase to make certain features work that currently don't partially or at all.

 

Beta 1.50 will be awhile as a result.

Edited June 20, 2015 by GethN7

[+ GethN7 24]

Beta 1.50 is still in progress, and I just about finished my first task, which has been to totally overhaul the combat engine, as well as fix several features of the interface to be much more user friendly.

 

To that end, I have done the following:

 

* Added finer grained combat formulas (luck has a greater effect on certain attacks and defense)

* The battle engine is more icon and pop up based for easier readability.

* The character status menus are far more useful and display much more information.

* Weapons used as items now function identically to the Dragon Quest games.

* Most remaining bugs patched out of the Return/Outside spells and items.

* Multiple rebalancing tweaks, mostly to Mara's survivability.

* Added a shield defense skill, where an equipped shield has a chance of nullifying a set amount of damage, dependent on the shield's quality and character block rate chance.

* Implemented theft mechanics to game, so Mara can now steal items from enemies.

 

Other tweaks involve filling in a lot more blank areas so there is more game content, and to make my bigger maps much more fun to explore, more content will be added as I continue working on 1.5, including the Rimuldar continent and portions of Hauksness.