Legacy of the World [Demo v1.0]

[shadowblack 103]

Some comments on Provoke:

- you can start with 0 TP, making it impossible to use the first turn (this has happened to me)

- even with Provoke active other party members can still get attacked - it merely increases the odds of Kurtwood getting targeted

- just like everything else Provoke gets cancelled by Disruption Wave, and one of the other party members can get knocked out before Kurtwood can use the skill. This has happened to Margot (twice), Eliza and Phillip

 

So while I agree that Provoke makes things easier it definitely doesn't "trivialize" this fight. And that's assuming that Kurtwood never gets Staggered. In fact, the unreliability of Provoke is the main reason I was thinking of buying new armor to improve defense.

 

Well, that's enough about this fight - let's see what the next boss will be like...

 

EDIT: Well, I just beat Alvin and finished the main part of the demo. Compared to Skiva and Bidan he was rather easy. The main problem was that I had not bought any Mega Potions so I had only the few I had found, and so by the end of the fight I had no Mega Potions left. But even so I won on first try, and without Gregory getting knocked out even once (though another character did get knocked out). It helped that I still had Thunder and Earth Charms equipped after the previous boss fight, reducing the damage from his spells.

 

I still have some stuff to finish, such as that radioactive slime, the Cockatrice tunnel and the magic show, so I might have more comments later.

Edited January 16, 2016 by shadowblack

[PowerBurger 49]

Some comments on Provoke:

- you can start with 0 TP, making it impossible to use the first turn (this has happened to me)

- even with Provoke active other party members can still get attacked - it merely increases the odds of Kurtwood getting targeted

- just like everything else Provoke gets cancelled by Disruption Wave, and one of the other party members can get knocked out before Kurtwood can use the skill. This has happened to Margot (twice), Eliza and Phillip

 

So while I agree that Provoke makes things easier it definitely doesn't "trivialize" this fight. And that's assuming that Kurtwood never gets Staggered. In fact, the unreliability of Provoke is the main reason I was thinking of buying new armor to improve defense.

 

Well, that's enough about this fight - let's see what the next boss will be like...

 

EDIT: Well, I just beat Alvin and finished the main part of the demo. Compared to Skiva and Bidan he was rather easy. The main problem was that I had not bought any Mega Potions so I had only the few I had found, and so by the end of the fight I had no Mega Potions left. But even so I won on first try, and without Gregory getting knocked out even once (though another character did get knocked out). It helped that I still had Thunder and Earth Charms equipped after the previous boss fight, reducing the damage from his spells.

 

I still have some stuff to finish, such as that radioactive slime, the Cockatrice tunnel and the magic show, so I might have more comments later.

 

Well, since I woke up at 4 AM and my laptop is still on, may as well reply now!

 

Provoke is meant to have it's weaknesses, and so is Kurtwood. He can get a bad roll and start the fight with low TP, it just means he can't Provoke for the first turn. Nothing in the game is meant to destroy you on turn one, however, so you're always able to work with a low TP start. Heck, if you need TP that much more, Guard is an excellent tool for turn one. 

 

Anyway, don't worry about Skiva and Biden, you're past them now. Great job on defeating Alvin! People struggle where you found it easy, and vise versa, haha. I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying the game enough to tackle the bonus content! There's enough to keep you occupied for quite a while, with Cockatrice Field being the bane of existence for many players. If you need any advice, please don't hesitate to ask!

Edited January 16, 2016 by PowerBurger

[shadowblack 103]

Well, I finished the Fire Challenge. There was no way to reach the recommended levels without a lot of grinding all of my characters were 2 levels below the recommendation.

 

The boss wasn't hard, just annoying because she hits first and hits hard while having a lot of HP. Thanks to that she managed to take out one of my characters once or twice, but in the end I won (though I had to use a few mana potions).

[PowerBurger 49]

Well, I finished the Fire Challenge. There was no way to reach the recommended levels without a lot of grinding all of my characters were 2 levels below the recommendation.

 

The boss wasn't hard, just annoying because she hits first and hits hard while having a lot of HP. Thanks to that she managed to take out one of my characters once or twice, but in the end I won (though I had to use a few mana potions).

 

Good job! You didn't necessarily have to grind, but I'm glad to hear you defeated her smoothly enough. Yes, Courtney does hit very hard, haha. Defeating the scenario doesn't count towards 100% completion, it's just there as an added bonus.

 

Your main story should be unaffected by the scenario, by the way. Your party and items will still be there!

Edited January 16, 2016 by PowerBurger

[RoooodWorks 165]

So i streamed this game here is the link : http://www.twitch.tv/chibievil/v/35825562 but there is many problems,

 

1) i couldn't even run away from simple battles, like slimes.

2) the mapping used many premade maps u get from RPG maker with slight edits.

3) i had no idea what was going on, or what the story was.

4) the tutorials was far too long, halfway through the tutorial i got bored and wasn't paying attention.

 

But the face-sets do look pretty and the slimes have nice battlers. other than that I didn't like the game. I played for over 1hr and it still didn't pull me in. I am sorry.  Good luck with the future of this project. But right now at its current state I don't think its a fun game for me to play.

Edited January 16, 2016 by Chibievil

[PowerBurger 49]

So i streamed this game here is the link : http://www.twitch.tv/chibievil/v/35825562 but there is many problems,

 

1) i couldn't even run away from simple battles, like slimes.

2) the mapping used many premade maps u get from RPG maker with slight edits.

3) i had no idea what was going on, or what the story was.

4) the tutorials was far too long, halfway through the tutorial i got bored and wasn't paying attention.

 

But the face-sets do look pretty and the slimes have nice battlers. other than that I didn't like the game. I played for over 1hr and it still didn't pull me in. I am sorry.  Good luck with the future of this project. But right now at its current state I don't think its a fun game for me to play.

 

Thanks for at least giving it a chance! It'll do my best to address your issues:

 

1. The run chance is based your agility vs. theirs. Slimes are actually decently quick, and if there's more than 2, you likely cannot run. Other than that, I don't see why you'd want to run from them. Most slime battles don't last more than two turns if you choose your spells correctly.

2. This, unfortunately, is our biggest downfall with the game. We do have original maps, but for the sake of time(we could only meet once a week or less due to terrible schedules), we had to rush some of our maps. That, and mapping is our biggest weak point in general.

3. You mentioned that you only played for over an hour. You're not supposed to know exactly what the backstories are just yet, simply that Kurtwood is a mercenary and Margot is an old friend of his. You're going to see the king for an errand, and some shady people are in the city giving a speech when you get to the main kngdom. I don't quite see what's difficult to understand about that, you're the first with this particular issue.

4. While it is true that it takes around 20 minutes to get to actual gameplay, the actual in-battle tutorial only lasts for 5-10 minutes. I've seen games with tutorials last much, much longer. 

 

It sounds like you were judging the game before really giving it a chance, and you decided to get bored of it almost immediately. If the story and dialogue isn't your thing, we definitely understand. However, I do have to wonder if you saw this as just as just another RPG Maker game as opposed to something you really wanted to play, and you opted not to care about it after twenty minutes or so. As a result, you wanted to get the whole thing over with. It sounds like you were a bit cynical and impatient off the bat, and I heard a bit of that in the stream.

 

That's just what I got out of it. Thanks again for at least playing, and my apologies if you didn't enjoy the experience! 

 

Edit: Also regarding the tutorial, we have quite a bit of offline friends who have never seen an RPG Maker game before. One time a friend of ours completely rushed it and died later as a result. Also, we did incorporate a few new things that other RPG Maker games don't usually use. The dialogue does extend the tutorial, although it's meant to build their relationship and keep things interesting. Honestly, I don't see how we can make it much shorter while still keeping it interesting and fairly informative.

Edited January 16, 2016 by PowerBurger

[Shiggy 630]

About the tutorial , I think you should try to find a way to suggest experienced players to change their main class to red mage to skip it .

New players won't do it but other people will skip the most boring part that way .

[RoooodWorks 165]

Well I am a rpg fan, and if a battle takes too long or is too hard to win, or i want to run to get back to town, i don't want it to be impossible just because their agility is better than mine, i find that an awful mechanic. onto point 3, i didn't say i needed to learn all about the backstory, i just said i didn't know what was going on, or where the story was leading, yeah the main character is a mercenary and margot is an old friend, but that is all i know. Within an hour of playing if a story won't grip me or interest me I will stop playing. I understand you felt the need to add a tutorial, but most experienced players won't even need it. Maybe adding an option to skip it. There is alot of dialog while going through that forest, skipping the dialog shouldnt have such a large impact on the story. Or if you can't skip the dialog make it shorter. Even if other games have long tutorials, it doesn't mean you need to too. If you take a look at earlier eras of games pre 2000, they had such simple tutorials.

 

If I sound bored, during beginning it wasn't because I was, I sometimes just sound it, but i wasn't really. Take a look at my other videos. It just the way I am.

[TerraCaveman 23]

About the tutorial , I think you should try to find a way to suggest experienced players to change their main class to red mage to skip it .

New players won't do it but other people will skip the most boring part that way .

 

Speaking of that... wow, I am really surprised (and yet not surprised) that I didn't take that into account. Changing to Red Mage blocks you off... That is a softlock in a sense.

Anyway, we definitely have had enough feedback on the Tutorial to change some things. Like... how about maybe a "No" option for one thing? xD

 

Well I am a rpg fan, and if a battle takes too long or is too hard to win, or i want to run to get back to town, i don't want it to be impossible just because their agility is better than mine, i find that an awful mechanic. onto point 3, i didn't say i needed to learn all about the backstory, i just said i didn't know what was going on, or where the story was leading, yeah the main character is a mercenary and margot is an old friend, but that is all i know. Within an hour of playing if a story won't grip me or interest me I will stop playing. I understand you felt the need to add a tutorial, but most experienced players won't even need it. Maybe adding an option to skip it. There is alot of dialog while going through that forest, skipping the dialog shouldnt have such a large impact on the story. Or if you can't skip the dialog make it shorter. Even if other games have long tutorials, it doesn't mean you need to too. If you take a look at earlier eras of games pre 2000, they had such simple tutorials.

 

If I sound bored, during beginning it wasn't because I was, I sometimes just sound it, but i wasn't really. Take a look at my other videos. It just the way I am.

 

Fair enough about the running away. Although, I am a bit surprised at you not being able to run away from the slimes... I didn't think they were that fast, but ah well. Granted, most others who played the game had a really easy time with the dungeon because Margot and Kurtwood can 1-shot Regular/Green Slimes and Margot can nearly 1-shot Reds even at her base level. That said, we'll take that into consideration!

 

Of course there were simple tutorials in games in the year 2000, but times have definitely changed, haha. Depending on the game, a lack of tutorials can significantly bork a player later on.

Actually even WITH the tutorials, another playtester actually got destroyed 3 times in the first dungeon just because they well... forgot everything...

I understand though that you and others are probably players that do not want your hand held so much, and that's fine. P.B. and I thought it was fair to assume that not everyone shares that opinion though.

I'm just repeating myself at this point, but yeah, I covered the tutorial thing with Shiggy up there too, but I'll specify. There will be a "No" option not only in the next major update, but in an upcoming smaller update.

 

Admittedly, I would have to disagree with the notion of skipping dialogue. About it not having a large impact in the story...? In RPGs, I would think that dialogue is kind of... CRUCIAL for the story!

It's like skipping dialogue in the Mass Effect games! That's just no good! I will agree though that the dialogue can be trimmed down to an extent *nods*

 

Lastly, I'm sorry to hear that it didn't grip you right away. I think that makes sense considering the story is meant to have a bit of a slow start. It's mostly character-based exposition early on and then the story unfolds slowly.

The fact that the story is a bit of a slow starter might be a turn-off for you. It probably means that this just isn't the game for you, which is completely fine. The game will not appeal to each and every person.

We completely accept that. No hard feelings at all! Thank you for giving the game a try anyway 

[Shiggy 630]

It doesn't softlock the game,I tried (why do you think I was trying to softlock the game on purpose    ) and it skipped the fight and thus the tutorial.I thought you had anticipated that.

 

Also Chibievil is talikng about the purple slimes in the cave behind (not below) the vampire house ,not the forest slimes

Edited January 16, 2016 by Shiggy

[TerraCaveman 23]

It doesn't softlock the game,I tried (why do you think I was trying to softlock the game on purpose    ) and it skipped the fight and thus the tutorial.I thought you had anticipated that.

 

Also she is talikng about the purple slimes in the cave behind (not below) the vampire house

 

Oh, it just skips it? That's weird. I don't see why it would cause it to be skipped... but that is interesting.

 

Margot is referring to 3 other slime colors. The Indigo ones (that you mentioned), Clear ones, and Gold ones.

[Shiggy 630]

 

Also Chibievil is talikng about the purple slimes in the cave behind (not below) the vampire house ,not the forest slimes

 

I think I wasn't clear ,I edited my post

[PowerBurger 49]

 

 

Also Chibievil is talikng about the purple slimes in the cave behind (not below) the vampire house ,not the forest slimes

 

I think I wasn't clear ,I edited my post

 

 

Those particular slimes are the toughest in the game so far. They're actually stronger than the enemies in the 2nd dungeon, and even some in the 3rd. It makes sense that she wouldn't be able to run from them.

 

If Chibi is complaining about not being able to run away from those particular slimes... to be blunt here, that was her own undoing. She's underleveled for that area, and she was trying to rush things from the looks of it. Not all slimes are meant to be pushovers, after all.

Edited January 17, 2016 by PowerBurger

[shadowblack 103]

A few more comments:

1) The little scene at the inn in the starting village featuring Margot, Susan and Kurtwood was enjoyable

2) The rematches at the arena are tough. I beat Sasha and co, and I'll leave the other two for later

3) Why is the Golden Needle usable only outside combat? More importantly, why is it single use? I thought it would be multi-use...

[PowerBurger 49]

A few more comments:

1) The little scene at the inn in the starting village featuring Margot, Susan and Kurtwood was enjoyable

2) The rematches at the arena are tough. I beat Sasha and co, and I'll leave the other two for later

3) Why is the Golden Needle usable only outside combat? More importantly, why is it single use? I thought it would be multi-use...

 

1. Thank you, glad you liked that! TheMisterLuigi wrote that scene, as well as the rest of them, haha.

2. Yes, they're quite an upgrade from the first arena matches, aren't they? The thieves are arguably the hardest. 

3. It should be usable in combat, that was an oversight on our part. Regarding why they're single-use, it's because they are meant to be consumable items. If you could cure Petrify an unlimited amount of times, that would make the challenge of Cockatrice Field pointless.

Edited January 18, 2016 by PowerBurger

[shadowblack 103]

3. It should be usable in combat, that was an oversight on our part. Regarding why they're single-use, it's because they are meant to be consumable items. If you could cure Petrify an unlimited amount of times, that would make the challenge of Cockatrice Field pointless.

Well, in that case at least put a save crystal right at the start of the Field so that we don't have to go through the tunnel every single time.

[PowerBurger 49]

 

3. It should be usable in combat, that was an oversight on our part. Regarding why they're single-use, it's because they are meant to be consumable items. If you could cure Petrify an unlimited amount of times, that would make the challenge of Cockatrice Field pointless.

Well, in that case at least put a save crystal right at the start of the Field so that we don't have to go through the tunnel every single time.

 

 

It's supposed to be particularly evil. Cockatrice Field is the one truly unforgiving area in the game, and should only be tackled once you've completed everything else. Basically, it's Nintendo Hard. The reason why we don't have a Save Crystal in that area is because it's meant to be the one area in the game with serious repercussions if things go badly. If you had a Save Crystal at the start, the fear of death, petrification, or losing your progress would no longer exist. We need that fear to exist in that field. It's frustrating, yes, but it adds to the challenge. 

 

Think of it this way: Beat it once, and you'll know the path every time. Seriously though, I wouldn't attempt it until everything else on the checklist has been completed. I would then visit the shops and fully prepare yourself. Someone does lie in wait, after all. 

 

An interesting idea, however, would be a portable one-time-use saving crystal. We might implement that in the future. 

Edited January 18, 2016 by PowerBurger

[shadowblack 103]

There's a difference between "challenging" and "annoying". The tunnel leading to "Cockatrice Field" is the latter - with all of my characters at level 20+ the opponents in the tunnel are simply not a challenge, but the random encounters there are so frequent they quickly become frustrating (it doesn't help that the tunnel is quite long). This is the main reason I'd like to have a save crystal at the field - going through the tunnel is at best boring. It wouldn't be so bad if there was something in the tunnel, but other than a single ambush and a chest with 4000 gold in it there's nothing but frequent random encounters that pose no real challenge.

 

EDIT: You could follow the example of other games and add a crystal there that is a single-use - after a single use it shatters.

 

Anyway, that was one weird nightmare Phillip had... Say, does the Red Scare class have any skills in the current version?

 

EDIT2: So I went back to the arena to see if gaining a few levels made things any easier. Triple Trouble was a challenge (especially Hikari) but not too hard. Then I challenged Team Nightningale. It was all going according to plan... until I took out Dom and Foshu promptly revived him. Quite the nasty surprise, so I took a break. Did I miss a hint somewhere about Foshu reviving Dom, or is that intended to be an unpleasant, potentially fight-ending, surprise?

Edited January 18, 2016 by shadowblack

[TerraCaveman 23]

There's a difference between "challenging" and "annoying". The tunnel leading to "Cockatrice Field" is the latter - with all of my characters at level 20+ the opponents in the tunnel are simply not a challenge, but the random encounters there are so frequent they quickly become frustrating (it doesn't help that the tunnel is quite long). This is the main reason I'd like to have a save crystal at the field - going through the tunnel is at best boring. It wouldn't be so bad if there was something in the tunnel, but other than a single ambush and a chest with 4000 gold in it there's nothing but frequent random encounters that pose no real challenge.

 

EDIT: You could follow the example of other games and add a crystal there that is a single-use - after a single use it shatters.

 

Anyway, that was one weird nightmare Phillip had... Say, does the Red Scare class have any skills in the current version?

 

EDIT2: So I went back to the arena to see if gaining a few levels made things any easier. Triple Trouble was a challenge (especially Hikari) but not too hard. Then I challenged Team Nightningale. It was all going according to plan... until I took out Dom and Foshu promptly revived him. Quite the nasty surprise, so I took a break. Did I miss a hint somewhere about Foshu reviving Dom, or is that intended to be an unpleasant, potentially fight-ending, surprise?

 

At PowerBurger real quickly... I'd say Takashi's Challenge is a closer comparison for Cockatrice Field as opposed to just Nintendo Hard...

Seriously, the two of us know how to take down everything in the game, except that! That field is the one thing we can't consistently beat in this game.

I think a single-use crystal is a marvelous idea... xD

 

Now back to you, shadowblack... yes actually! The Red Scare class has skills present at Lv. 30, which is the level cap of this demo. It gets them all at once.

 

Yes, that Foshu and Dom revival thing was intended, but not exactly in the way it came out. I think I dun goofed with the eventing on that one. It's still not an impossible fight, but it's unnecessarily cheap.

If you find yourself having trouble beating that fight, don't stress too much. You don't have to defeat them to complete their post-game achievement. You should only have to fight them again once 

[shadowblack 103]

Well, actually, I already beat them. Since I knew about the revival thing from my previous attempt I focused on Foshu and took him out as quickly as I could. On his own Dom wasn't that hard. But without a doubt this was the hardest of the three sparring matches.

 

What level am I supposed to be when I fight them? Phillip was level 21, the other three were 22. Is that too low?

 

EDIT: MAJOR ISSUE:

I went back to the starting village and discovered that the previously-locked door in the NE part of the village is now gone. I followed the path and ended up in an underground passage. The very FIRST random encounter I got there was... Alvin - including the conversation between him and Gregory even though Gregory has been gone for some time. Later I also encountered the ghost (the same one I previously fought and defeated on the way to Dorian).

Edited January 18, 2016 by shadowblack

[PowerBurger 49]

Well, actually, I already beat them. Since I knew about the revival thing from my previous attempt I focused on Foshu and took him out as quickly as I could. On his own Dom wasn't that hard. But without a doubt this was the hardest of the three sparring matches.

 

What level am I supposed to be when I fight them? Phillip was level 21, the other three were 22. Is that too low?

 

EDIT: MAJOR ISSUE:

I went back to the starting village and discovered that the previously-locked door in the NE part of the village is now gone. I followed the path and ended up in an underground passage. The very FIRST random encounter I got there was... Alvin - including the conversation between him and Gregory even though Gregory has been gone for some time. Later I also encountered the ghost (the same one I previously fought and defeated on the way to Dorian).

 

No, you're about the right level. They're meant to be very difficult. I personally have the most trouble with the thieves, although all 3 are challenging.

 

As for that Underground Passage... that is... definitely an issue. I don't even know why it was unlocked for you, that's a locked area we were working on. Thanks for finding it! Massive oversight on our part, this is pretty embarrassing, haha.

 

I just checked the game myself, Alvin really is a possible encounter down there, as well as many of the previous bosses. Huh. Enjoy the error, I suppose! 

Edited January 18, 2016 by PowerBurger

[TerraCaveman 23]

EDIT: MAJOR ISSUE:

I went back to the starting village and discovered that the previously-locked door in the NE part of the village is now gone. I followed the path and ended up in an underground passage. The very FIRST random encounter I got there was... Alvin - including the conversation between him and Gregory even though Gregory has been gone for some time. Later I also encountered the ghost (the same one I previously fought and defeated on the way to Dorian).

 

*eye twitch* I... I... wha... I am now trying to figure out what in the world caused that. I checked the event in a backup file and there isn't anything that would open the gate in Oaksville 

I think I may have to re-edit the event from scratch or something...

I assume that the gate is the NE village door you are referring to?

 

But yes, I managed to go through there as well... and to top it off, not only the Ghost and Alvin, but Dorian, AND Fiora can both be encountered there too!

You know, this is why I am glad that this topic was able to finally get a boost after a good three months of no feedback. Issues are being discovered, so we can actually try and fix them and not find out WAY later!

I mean, I will definitely try to find a way to patch this out in that mini(more like necessary) update. If the game doesn't crash for you down in the Underground Passage, I guess feel free to beat up the bosses again, hahaha.

Seriously though, thank you for playing through so much of the game so far. Your kind of input is the kind we need!

 

Also, your level range is fine for the arena rematches. They are doable even around the level 18-19 range 

[Whiona 310]

So, I owe you a big apology for taking approximately four billion years to finish your demo and write this review. I could go on and on about how I was busy and blah blah blah, but at least 75% of the reason was that I kept forgetting. My fault for sticking the game in a folder buried rather deeply in my computer. I’m so sorry! I’ve tried to be really thorough with my feedback, so I hope that makes up for the wait.

 

My overall opinion of this demo? It’s really cool!! You two have made a fun game that I had a great time playing.  I’m interested in playing future demos and seeing where it goes. I think the strongest point of it was the combat, and the weakest was the mapping. Since it’s a long demo and I have a lot to say, I’m going to organize everything into sections under spoiler tags. Note that I only played through the main storyline, so I won’t have any commentary about the bonus stuff (yet – I might get around to that sometime, but I won’t make any promises, since I’d hate to let you guys down if I forget again).

 

Story

 

(A quick note: while you mentioned that certain scenes may not make it into the final version of the game, I decided to review the main story of the demo as though it will all be in the actual opening of the game. Otherwise, I’m not sure how I could critique it, since I don’t know which scenes you’re planning to keep or remove.)

 

Overall, this game has some pretty solid writing. The characters are likeable and have distinct personalities. The dialogue is enjoyable to read and almost entirely free of grammar errors. However, there are a few major issues which pervade the writing throughout, preventing it from living up to its fullest potential. I’ll get to those, but first I’m going to talk more in-depth about what I liked!

 

I’m going to go right ahead and dedicate an entire paragraph to the objective best LotW character, Margot. (I’ll fight anyone over this.) She’s a treasure. She consistently made me smile throughout the whole game. Her dialogue was a ton of fun to read, she had a distinct voice, and she played off of Kurtwood’s slightly more serious (though not stern) personality really well. Her constant, playful ribbing of him really gave me the impression that they’re longtime friends, and it was very sweet. Her “sound of curing someone†in the ruins? You had me laughing out loud at my computer. Seriously, just keep doing what you’re doing with her, because she rocks.

 

Phillip was also really likeable. I get the sense that he’s a character with major potential to grow, so that may be why I took to him. I dig characters who develop a lot, and since he’s so naïve and inexperienced, I feel like he could really change in the long run. I also found myself loving Dorian. I hope he isn’t just a one-off character and ends up playing a role in the plot later, because he was super cool! I can’t quite articulate why I liked him so much, but just know that I did.

 

One thing I appreciate was that instead of forcing the player to listen to endless lore in a cutscene, you put it into a book at the beginning of the game. Leaving that sort of thing as optional content if it doesn’t directly affect the plot is a wise move. I thought that the lore you came up with surrounding chests was fun too. “No one questions where [chests] come from, and why they’re so abundant in monster-infested areas.†Cute little dig at RPGs there! Once again, it was a very good decision to stick this in an optional library area rather than forcing the player to listen to it.

 

Kurtwood could be spiced up a bit. For a main character who isn’t intended to be a self-insert, he sometimes felt a little bland compared to the rest of the cast. It was very refreshing to see a male RPG hero who isn’t either a spunky kid or a complete a-hole, so kudos for that, but I still feel like he needs more to him. He’s a friendly guy who used to be a mercenary – that’s more-or-less it. Now, this is only the first chunk of the game, so I recognize that he still has plenty of time to develop. I’d like to see more of his flaws or quirks as the game progresses. One scene that I really liked with him was when, at the end, he was too shy at first to loudly command the other party members, then said something really cheesy when Margot and Kyrios told him to ham it up. That’s something that you may want to consider playing up more. Everyone thinks that the legendary Midnight Mercenary will be this super-cool, tough guy, but then he actually turns out to be a bit of a dork. I think it would be fun and endearing. Just a suggestion, though – if that’s not where you want to take his character, then you can come up with something different.

 

Many lines of dialogue sounded unnatural when they were obviously included in order to explain things to the player. It’s not the greatest example, but let’s just use Margot saying, “Nothing too exciting happens at the library I work at.†That line sounds a little bit awkward, because Kurtwood would probably already know that his friend works at the library, and the phrasing is also a little odd. It breaks immersion because it becomes apparent that the writer is trying to explain something directly to the audience. Always ask yourself if a line of dialogue sounds like something the character would actually say based on their personality and the context of the situation. It’s pretty easy to rework these lines to sound a little more natural, especially if you involve other characters. (Ex. “Nothing exciting happens at work.†“Well, yeah, Margot, it’s a library.†“Hey! Libraries are cool.â€) This also cropped up when the two of them would get overly specific about location names and descriptions, and it was especially bad in the exchange about how to get to Cyria. Don’t make the characters explain things that they would both already know; rework it into more natural-sounding conversation. This blog post explains more of what I mean.

 

Also, remember that sometimes, the player can figure out what’s going on from subtext rather than direct explanation. The audience can often pick up on hints and figure things out for themselves. One instance where this could have been applied was Margot and Kurtwood’s conversation in the pub about Elsnoire. Kurtwood spent a few lines explaining to Margot that Elsnoire is a pretty ordinary place, and once again, immersion was broken; the explanation was obviously directed at the player, not Margot. Instead, have him say something along the lines of, “Wow, something exciting happened in Elsnoire for once?†That single line gets across that it’s a pretty vanilla place, and also feels more natural – once again, Margot would already know that life in Elsnoire isn’t too eventful, so there’s no need for Kurtwood to explain it to her.

 

Eliza’s introductory cutscene felt like an infodump. It suffered from the problems mentioned above, and beyond that, it just felt unrealistic that Eliza would immediately address every unusual thing about herself and her past with Kurtwood. Eliza is a somewhat mysterious character, so I feel like you might want to tease the player and not let them know everything about her right away, especially the fact that she’s Kurtwood’s ex. That could make for a nice plot twist if there were a particularly interesting reason for why they broke up (which you seemed to be hinting at). The explanation about her blindness felt tacked-on, too. There was no real reason for her and Kurtwood to address it at that very moment. Have the topic become relevant somehow and then explain it. For example, you could show her doing something unusual because of her blindness, and then let another character ask about it. (A side note about Eliza: her character profile says that she’s weird and eccentric, but I never found myself thinking, “Wow, this woman really says some strange things.†If her eccentricity is meant to be a major aspect of her character, then it could be played up more.)

 

The final major issue was pacing. The opening of the game was slow – Kurtwood just has to go deliver something, and it’s not overly exciting. While you did mention one of the World Order members causing trouble in Elsnoire, a newspaper report of someone dressing strangely and yelling at people isn’t much of a hook. Give the player more of a mystery and let something truly strange happen in Elsnoire. (I know you mentioned elsewhere that you wanted the game to have a slow start, but there still needs to be a sense of mystery pushing the player onward, or else they might just drop your game. Watch this video for tips.) You also don’t get much of a sense of the overarching plot until the very end of the demo – the missions that you go on feel pretty disjointed. However, if everything you do prior to Kurtwood's appointment as a spy eventually ties into the plot, then that's fine.

 

Now for a handful of smaller things:

• “Chosen Heroes†is a bit of a familiar name. Can you come up with something fresher?
• Yvonne is very cute, but I’m not sure why Kurtwood reacted the way that he did when he first saw her. Why did he assume that she had amnesia because her hair looked disheveled?
• NPC dialogue is fun! I enjoyed it a lot.
• How did the soldier with the message know to find Kurtwood at the pub? Maybe you could throw in a line about him having searched the whole city before finally finding Kurtwood there.
• I thought it was a bit weird when Alvin just waltzed out of the castle and no one tried to stop him. If it’s because everyone’s too scared or tired to try to arrest him, make that clearer.

Reading all of that criticism, it probably sounds like I didn’t like the story, but I actually did! I’m just extra-picky when it comes to reviewing other people’s writing because I’m a creative writing student. We do a lot of in-class workshopping where we give really specific critiques to each other. That’s also why this section is ridiculously long, haha…oops.

 

 

Graphics

 

First of all, I want to say that I think it’s great that you have custom artwork. That’s really nice to see, especially when it’s drawn by one of the devs themselves. I thought the facesets were nice overall. I especially like how the eyes are drawn! Kyrios looked great – he stood out to me as having the best faceset in the game. I also thought that Ingatius’s portrait was particularly well-drawn.

 

Some aspects of the art could be improved, though. The hair generally looked a bit flat because highlights were placed in thin lines along the edges of hair chunks. There are plenty of great hair colouring tutorials on DeviantArt which could help out with that. Kenichi’s lineart could be cleaned up a bit around the collar of his shirt, and the shading on his face looks a little too dark underneath his bangs. Alice’s right eye (our right, not hers) also looks a bit too far off to the side, and Margot’s right eye could be moved slightly downward. (The positioning of eyes on the far side of the face could sometimes be a little off in general.)

 

Your windowskin is great. It’s easy on the eyes and I love the border. I also like the custom choice menu, but it’s difficult to tell which choice is highlighted if you aren’t actively moving the cursor. Add more contrast between the highlighted and non-highlighted choices.

 

 

Mapping

 

You’ve already acknowledged that this is the weakest point of the game, so I’m not going to say too much about it, but yeah, the maps need work. First of all, regarding your use of RPG Maker sample maps as placeholders: I think you should add some kind of acknowledgment that many maps are not your own work somewhere in the first post. I actually didn’t realize that you were using sample maps until someone else in the topic pointed it out. If I hadn’t seen that, I would have assumed that they were your own work and commented that what I now know are the sample maps looked pretty good, apart from the overuse of RTP. So yeah, I’d add in a line about that just to avoid any misunderstandings.

 

Many of the indoor maps which you did do yourselves look too large and empty. Try not to make the areas so big and fill them with more detail. I guess the only way to really get better at mapping is to practice! Look at the RPG Maker sample maps and the maps of other people here on the forums to get some ideas. There’s also a screenshot critique thread which you can sift through for some pointers.

 

Another thing which will really help your maps out is branching out into non-RTP resources. Poke around online to find some tiles other than the default ones which come with VX Ace. Including non-RTP tiles is a great way to get people interested in your project, because then they’ll know that they won’t just be seeing the same tiles that are in every other game. The truth is that people do judge a game by its screenshots, so you want yours to stand out. A couple of popular tile artists are Mack and Celianna, so you could start with their stuff. You can also scour GrandmaDebsLittleBits, but pay attention to the TOU for each resource they post – every artist has their own rules for how you can use their work. Lastly, although they cost money, there are some great DLC tilesets available for purchase on Steam. Wait for them to go on sale, or watch out for RPG Maker humble bundles – the latter is how I got most of mine, and the weekly bundles are usually under $10.

 

 

Combat

 

This was the best part of the demo for me. I loved that the battles were genuinely challenging and made me think! No button-mashing required. I really love solid turn-based combat, and you scratched that itch for me. A couple of fights could use adjustment, though – we’ll get to those.

 

The bosses were distinct and none of them felt like they were just damage sponges. You had to switch up your strategy in order to beat each of them, which was great. It’s clear that you’ve put a lot of thought and playtesting into those fights in particular. Nice work there!  Apart from the ones I’m about to nitpick, I had a great time with the bosses, and I rarely felt like they were unfair.

 

I did have the tip to equip Kurtwood with the Earth and Thunder charms from reading the topic, so that helped me to beat Biden and Skiva on my first try. If I hadn’t read that, I wouldn’t have known to buy them, and it would be quite a hike to go back to Cyria and pick them up once you realize that you need them. Maybe you could add a cryptic message into the letter Allison got that hints at Thunder/Earth elemental bosses, so the more attentive players could go in prepared.

 

I loved the tournament overall, but Rider was hyped up a lot and then ended up being a total pushover. You could make his fight a little tougher. I understand not wanting to make it too hard, since the player would then have to redo the last few fights, but it didn't feel like I was fighting a champion.

 

The Radioactive Slime fight is...well, it's not good, I'm sorry to say. There's no save point before the battle, which is already going to frustrate players who lose to it – if I had lost, I would have had to redo everything in the Quiet Grove. Then the fight itself has seemingly no focus. The Radioactive Slime uses poisoning attacks, summons other slimes, and those other slimes use draining attacks. On top of that, the Radioactive Slime has a healing ability and a skill that very easily inflicts stagger. Rather than being the good kind of challenging, like most of the game, this fight was just irritating. The only reason why I didn’t quit it was that I didn’t want to lose my progress. Try to give this fight some more focus by limiting the kinds of things that the Radioactive Slime can do, then giving it more skills to do with those things. (I hope that makes sense â€“ I'm having trouble expressing what I mean here.) Also, do give the player a chance to save beforehand. This thing gave me more trouble than Biden and Skiva and there was no save crystal! (I should note that I didn't rush into this fight at a low level, either. I took on the slime just before heading to Cyria, after exploring the rest of the Quiet Grove and fighting plenty of enemies in there.)

 

The dual-class-changing system was nice. It reminds me a bit of Bravely Default. (If you haven’t played that game, it’s a great one. Check it out and possibly even use it as inspiration, because it does the dual-class thing really well.) I’ll admit that I mostly kept the characters in their default classes, but I did switch it up every once in a while when I was struggling and needed a new approach. After losing to Alvin twice, I changed Eliza into a White Mage, and having an extra healer turned out to be the edge I needed. It would have been nice to have access to some of the skills from your secondary class, though. It felt like the only real advantage to equipping a secondary class was having more weapon options, but the weapon available to your primary class was usually the most effective one anyway.

 

Some smaller things:

• I would make the tutorial battle optional. There’s really no point to it for people familiar with RPGs, since the battle system is fairly standard. Just let the player choose if they want to view it or not.
• It's kind of annoying how you can't view a boss’s HP bar after you’ve scanned them…is there a reason why not?
• Alvin uses his hidden blade ability a tad too often considering how powerful it is. It essentially allows him an extra attack on the entire party for 700-900 damage per character, which can’t be blocked. He used it about seven or eight times when I made it all the way through his fight, which is too much, in my opinion.

Overall, great job in this area!

 

 

Sound

 

I know you didn’t compose the music in the game yourselves, but I should still commend you for choosing some really nice tracks. I loved the battle music and world map music, and the abandoned building music was very creepy. It gave that place a real atmosphere – I was pretty freaked out, actually! (But maybe I’m just a wimp.) Also, direct quote from my notes as I played this: “DORIAN’S BATTLE MUSIC THO.†The only song that I felt was kind of…eehhhhh was the first song that plays when you fight Alvin.

 

I also love the little noise that plays when you select things on menus! It’s really pretty.

 

 

Eventing and Misc.

 

 

• The text that displays when you first load up the game barely stays on-screen long enough for me to read all of it. Make it display longer for the sake of slower readers. Also, I found it a bit annoying that I had to read it every time I loaded up the game. Is there any way to only have it display if, say, the player doesn’t have a save file? Otherwise, you could have it play upon starting a new game instead of every time the game launches.
• I don’t know if Margot’s letter was supposed to display like this, but for me the text appeared in small chunks very rapidly. It just looked a little strange.
• The smooth camera is a nice feature.
• I like the fact that you can interact with so many objects in the world at the beginning. It showed a lot of effort on your behalf. I wish it had continued later into the game.
• Why don’t the books in the library display the same way that one in the house did, or Margot’s letter?
• Many gameplay elements which played a role earlier in the demo seemed to be forgotten about by the end, like enemy ambushes and mimics.
• The library and first cutscene when you enter Elsnoire are seriously laggy due to the amount of characters on the map. The world map is quite laggy, too, as is Elsnoire in general. Consider adding an anti-lag script, or if you already have one, try finding a better one.
• THE SALT x1 DROP LOL…that was great. Bragging rights drops were cute, too.
• The singers inside the shop in Cyria were adorable.
• Sometimes the pauses in dialogue feel a bit too long.
• After I killed that wandering snake, the empty chest it dropped just stayed on the map forever, and it looked kind of weird.
• The ending cutscene which panned across a bunch of different areas was very cool! I liked it a lot. I feel like the text disappears a bit too quickly, though. I barely read some text boxes in time.
• Cyria looks too much like Syria, in my opinion. You may wish to consider renaming it.
• Someone in the topic was complaining about the lack of skippable dialogue, but I discovered by accident while playing that holding down Shift will speed through it. I don't know if that's a default RPG Maker thing or one of your scripts, but I thought you should know that you already have that feature. (Skippable dialogue actually is a good thing to have for players who have lost a fight and need to re-play a section!)

 

 

 

Bugs

 

 

• After reviving people, their faces don’t switch back to looking happy right away – they stay angry/sad for a bit.
• There was one line during the first interaction with Kyrios where his face didn’t appear.
• I think the player's movement is slowed down in Elsnoire. It just seems off for some reason. Is it possible that going to the world map slows down the player’s movement, and it doesn’t switch back when you enter Elsnoire? That’s the only explanation I can think of.
• An encounter on the world map caused the game to crash one time – I think there was a rat and plant creature in the enemy group.

 

 

 

…And so ends my overly-long review, which has now reached 6 pages single-spaced in Microsoft Word. Oops. Anyway, great work on this thing. I really hope you keep going with it, because I want to see what direction you take it in! I loved the combat. And Margot. Actually, I did a little sketch of her!

 

Edited March 26, 2016 by Whiona

[PowerBurger 49]

So, Whiona. You have no idea how many times you made me smile all throughout your review. Your positive remarks and wise critiques are honestly some of the best I've seen out of LotW reviews. You have some amazing insight that we didn't realize we needed until now. While I'm not normally one for making long posts or responses, I'll try and make an exception here, haha.

 

I know that TheMisterLuigi is going to want to make his own response as well, so I'll let him focus on the story and characters that he exclusively worked on, while I digest the rest of your wonderful cookie. 

 

First thing's first: MARGOT FANART AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

 

Like seriously, this means so much to me personally. Keep this in mind that I'm not the dev who conceptualized, wrote, drew, or had anything to do with her. The most I've done story-wise is helped my partner figure out the plot so we have direction. If I feel so strongly about your fanart, how do you think TheMisterLuigi will feel when he sees this? 

 

As implied already, I wasn't responsible for the story, characters, or graphics. 99% of that was done by TheMisterLuigi. I'll leave those segments for him to reply to. I hope neither of you mind, haha.

 

Regarding the mapping, this requires a bit of explanation. Mapping has been shared between us for some time, since we were both equally bad at it, but I've recently gotten the hang of good map design(somewhat, I'm still not all that terrific). Since we released the demo, I've taken the helm as the lead map designer, and I've been slowly replacing the sample maps on my own time. Every sample map in the game is edited to some degree, but we know it's still the lazy route to take. The reason why we opted for them is because of several reasons:

1. We quite frankly don't have the time. We both have rather busy schedules, especially TheMisterLuigi, so we don't get to meet up often in real life. We both prefer working on LotW together rather than alone, and while we do get content done separately, most of it is done together. Keeping that in mind, we usually only meet up about once a month, and that's if we're lucky. 

2. We're bad. Sample maps are good. This is just a demo, not the full game. No harm, no foul, we figured.

 

We are working on map quality frequently, and we're also looking into parallax mapping. We also plan to use other tilesets in combination with RTP and photoshop to give the game our own unique look. When we eventually finish the game, it'll look completely different, and hopefully of great quality. Thanks for the recommendations, by the way, we'll look into those! 

 

Oooh, time to talk about combat. This was a joint effort all throughout, although I have the much larger impact in this area, particularly when it comes to bosses. Generally I'll create most of a boss or finish it outright, and TheMisterLuigi will help balance-test it and add his own flair to make the boss truly unique and fun. Time to tap into your criticisms though, and respond to a few.

 

1. We'll consider adding in a hint for Skiva and Biden somewhere. While I don't think it's completely necessary, it might be handy to get players used to coming in prepared, so it's a nice thought. 

2. Usually we're on the same page when it comes to LotW's design. There's some things we banter about from time to time though, and Rider's balance is one of them. We agreed that we wouldn't change him until we received player feedback. I'm definitely for buffing Rider or the arena itself, and I'm pretty sure TheMisterLuigi is as well, we just unsure of how to go about it. In fact, we were just discussing Rider today! How do you feel about there being limited healing between arena rounds, where you have to choose which rounds you'll go without? Or do you think it's better just to buff Rider outright?

3. The Radioactive Slime is probably our first Wanderer encounter that we've made, and we haven't really looked at him since. We'll look into that fight, thank you for telling us that you didn't like it.

4. The dual-class system was TheMisterLuigi's idea, haha. Props to him for that one. We plan to heavily expand on that in the full game, as battles will become increasingly more complex and difficult to manage with early-game strategies. You will have to adapt and think outside the box in later boss battles, and that level of integrity is previewed in one of the bonus bosses. You'll see what we mean when you reach that particular boss, if you do, haha.

4.5. Speaking of Bravely Default, that's where we got so much inspiration from! We love that game to death.

5. I'll be completely honest here: I'm glad you lost to Alvin twice before winning. It tells us that we did Alvin right, especially because Arin found him easy. The fact that you were able to prevail is great, congrats!

6. We're nerfing Cure-S and Curen-S. It was too easy to cheese bosses if multiple characters were white mages. 

7. We're definitely making the tutorial battle optional. This is the most common complaint we've got from players, haha.

8. The reason why you can't view a boss's HP after Examine is because it adds a layer of challenge to the fight. You're actually the first to complain about that. You can Examine the boss at any time to view their current HP to decide if they're rushable or not, but you'd have to sacrifice Phillip's turn to do so. Risks and decisions like that are what we're trying to promote in LotW. 

9. You're the first person to complain about Alvin's Hidden Blade as well. We think it's relatively balanced. If we get more complaints about it, we'll consider looking into it.

 

And by a few responses, I mean a lot apparently...

 

My god do we also love the soundtrack we selected. Interestingly enough, there is a copyrighted track in there that took us forever to replace in our current WIP version of the game. Can you guess what it is, by any chance?

 

As for your Misc, I'll answer to a few of them, because I have a feeling TheMisterLuigi can provide more input on the others. 

 

The reason why the later parts of the game don't have as much interaction as it did in the beginning is because of time constraints again. Trust me, we're going to have plenty of interaction all throughout the full game.

 

The reason why you didn't see Ambushes much beyond the second dungeon is because of the way the third dungeon works. The fourth dungeon will have mimics and ambushes, and will in general be a spike in difficulty. It's not forgotten, it's just not in the demo. In fact, many things that make a small appearance in the demo get expanded upon later in the full version, so don't worry, haha.

 

Yeah, that chest drop is... awkward now that I think about it. I'll take care of it. 

 

Yes, we know about the shift-thing, haha. Sometime soon we'd like to find a way to skip boss cutscenes altogether.

 

Aaaaand that ends my not-so-overly-long response to your overly-long review! Once again, thank you so much for taking your time to play LotW and to write this for us, it's insightful beyond words! I'll let TheMisterLuigi gush his bit, and then we can all be friends!

 

AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE MARGOT FANART AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

Edited March 27, 2016 by PowerBurger

[TerraCaveman 23]

So, just thought I would say right off the bat, Whiona, your post really made my day!

Don't even worry about taking so long with your review. PB and I are always happy to see more feedback!

I'll definitely be taking everything to heart here and I will try and address most of the criticisms too (most of which I agree with, hahaha).

Well then, time to create my own walls of text! In actuality, I'll try and keep it relatively short 

 

STORY:

 

 

That story review though... as if my response is any shorter...

Hahaha, in all seriousness, I appreciate how thorough your review was! I'm especially glad to see your reception toward the characters, because characterization and dialogue I think are what I have the most fun with overall! Still not perfect, but I think I'm a little better with handling those aspects now than I was when I wrote some earlier parts, so I will definitely be revisiting some (probably everything actually, because I'm OCD like that) things for future demos.

 

As far as the characters specifically... oh Margot. She is definitely a favorite of most people who have played the game so far. I was stoked to read about how well you liked her. I will definitely stick to my guns with her characterization! I also want to say something about the drawing, but I'll address that at the end.

 

Phillip will DEFINITELY go through development as the story progresses. The quintessential kid character must go through it. It's like... tradition, lol. Truly though, he's going to have some interesting development as the story progresses further. We've got big plans for him!

 

Kurtwood is pretty standard, yeah. I'd say personality-wise he's not too far off from Chrom from Fire Emblem: Awakening actually. He's not exactly as legendary as it may seem, but he's got a good reputation going for him! We'll get to see more sides of his story and more with relation to his time as a mercenary as the story progresses (beyond the demo of course ). We have something VERY interesting planned for him in the near future. This goes for his ex, Eliza, as well. Admittedly, eccentric maybe isn't the best word to describe her. Rather, it is simply "odd." I'll say she is downplaying some things for the sake of appearances for now, while overplaying others. Being Ms. Exposition is not what I was going for, I guess I fell a little flat on that...

Don't worry though, I'll work on improving that too! We certainly have a lot planned for her and Kurtwood down the line, and I hope I can do it justice with better writing!

 

Another one you mentioned, Dorian... Well, all I can say for now is that I'm glad you like him! We like him too 

 

For the more direct criticisms on the style of the dialogue, yes I agree wholeheartedly that a bit of how things are worded need improvements!

I've been working on trying to have dialogue with the sense of "talking little, but saying much" or something like that. But yeah, more like have things be less "wordy" overall while still getting the point across in a well-articulated manner. The early-game dialogue with Margot and Kurtwood at the Inn I think was actually one of the very first things I wrote for this game! I think it's time to really revisit it and touch it up, lol.

 

Your suggestions for improving the dialogue helps me a lot! The examples are very specific and on-the-dot for how to approach it! I think it really points me in the right direction for how to improve the game's overall quality (the link helps too, of course  ). I really wish I took a creative writing course now... hahaha. I will also be examining the pacing again to see how I can improve on it, and I will be consulting with PB about this too (aaand I will also use that video  ). Another thing I will say is that yes... surprisingly enough, those mundane things that happened toward the beginning will actually have a tie-in to the main plot. It gets a bit weird for sure, but more of a cool weird, I think xD.

 

Lastly, to address the smaller parts...

• The Chosen Heroes name was admittedly from a concept from what I had when I was MUCH younger, which kind of got injected into this plot later on, but... I think I can try to come up with something new!
• Yvonne's portrait doesn't reflect it as well as I want, but it's more like she's showing up exhausted with a tired groan after coming out from under a tree, haha. She appears out of it and he's just concerned. Kurtwood didn't actually assume amnesia, but Yvonne thought he was implying it. Also, I kind of just wanted to play around with that piece of dialogue because of how common the amnesia thing is in RPGs
• I'm glad you like the NPC dialogue! I tried to mix up a good amount of humor combined with actual useful dialogue!
• I probably didn't convey this well enough, sorry. He knows where to find Kurtwood only because Kyrios constantly calls Kurtwood into action. Granted yeah, the soldier knowing exactly which building to find Kurtwood in may be a little bit too coincidental... hehehe. I'll work on that.
• I could have arranged the Alvin cutscene better. This may have fallen victim to that thing where villain are just seemingly allowed to walk out of places in RPGs and anime, lol. I'll see if I can do this better and more creatively in the future. Alvin IS a ninja after all!

 

 

 

GRAPHICS:

 

 

Aww, thank you! I'm definitely trying more and more to improve as an artist too! I really do enjoy it a lot! Admittedly among the characters in the game, I think Khalleria von Arnim-Ludenberg and and un-introduced-as-of-yet character called Woodrow Eudin are the characters I do the most sketched for as of late. Yeah, PB really liked Kyrios's faceset too! All of the credit for that can't go to me though, because Kyrios was based on another character faceset made by people that go by Jalen and Pentagonbuddy, I believe. So, kudos to them for having a really nice king portrait! Ignatius is an original though, so that's awesome to hear that you liked his portraits!

 

I know for sure that I could use some improvements in my artstyle (yeah, those right eyes seem to give me trouble with some characters more than others). You're definitely a lot nicer about it than some others have been about critiquing it in the past though! I do believe I'll be exploring DeviantART soon for the hair tutorials! I'm actually wondering if I'm heading in the right direction with it. I've been working on improving many portraits and even re-doing some for future demos, and Kenichi's is one that I have been prioritizing. How is this going so far, if I may ask?

 

Thank you for the kind words about the windowskin too! The credit for that belongs to the nice people over on the CLOSET and CLOSET Ace websites though. We're just utilizing the resources for the game. I agree though, it is very pleasing to look at!

 

 

 

 

MAPPING:

 

 

Oy... I'm not sure I need to reply too much on this one.

I agree with pretty much everything that you said about its flaws. Between the two of us, PowerBurger is the better map designer, but yeah it's still our weakest point by far. We're looking into a lot of ways to improve upon it, even seeking outside help sometimes. Ragnos has offered to help on here as well, and another friend of mine who doesn't really frequent these boards at all may also be able to lend a hand.

 

But yeah, we are looking into finding/making additional tilesets or taking up parallax mapping to spruce up the environments. We are also struggling with this due to lack of money in general, so uh... you know, we have some work to do for sure. We're not giving up though! We just have to work REALLY hard! With that said, thank you for the criticisms, and please wish us luck with our maps... xD

 

 

 

 

COMBAT:

 

 

I think the combat was one of things we really had the most fun with creating too! It's not super unique, but I like to think we created a lot of balance all around with the battles and such, with regular enemies and boss battles! I like the idea about the hint of what you may need to defeat the bosses, Skiva and Biden, actually. I think I might do that as well as possibly for the other bosses too! Except Dorian. We can't give away too much about him yet (maybe even THAT sentence was too much... lol)!

 

About Rider, yeah PowerBurger's been drilling me about his difficulty level (not really... I'm just exaggerating), especially considering Rider is his favorite character, hahaha. I think we may have to do something about that, because yeah, sure he hits pretty hard, but he's not that tough... yet. Actually yeah, he's canonically a bit inferior to the party at this point, but I'm sure we could have some gameplay/story segregation in this case. It may be a bit of a problem with Khalleria being arguably more difficult than him, lol. Just a fun thing I thought I'd mention... Rider is actually a lot less experienced than it may seem because he's actually quite younger than most might expect! (Between Kurtwood, Margot, and Phillip... Rider is closest to Phillip's age, )

 

With the Radioactive Slime... I really wish I could comment on it more, but this battle seems to have suffered from an overall lack of feedback admittedly.

I think you're one of the first to really comment on it. Thank you though. I do think that this battle could use some more rebalancing or just be cut altogether, because it doesn't really have a rhyme or reason for being there.

 

With Dual Class Changing... YES! I think you're also the first on here to bring up a Bravely Default comparison! Bravely Default was actually a major inspiration to us with how to approach the balancing and aspects of the battle system as a whole! Obviously it's not exactly the same, but yes, it even extended to how some of the classes were arranged. But anyway, back to the Dual Class Changing stuff. It's definitely not as diverse as BD's at the get go, but there is actually going to be a more similar implementation later on with it. Let's just say that later on, using Secondary Classes will be able to give you more things for utilizing them! 

 

Once more, the smaller things!

• Oh yeah, we've gotten enough complaints about the Tutorial at this point (no offense meant, but it is actually very true, haha)! It will be optional in future demos and in the full game.
• The HP Bar script is a bit difficult to work with. I'm not sure if it's possible to make it appear after scanning or if we're just not doing it right.
• I actually reworked Alvin's Blindside a bit since Demo 1.0's onset, but yeah, it's a BIT powerful, huh? I'm not sure if PB would like it if I nerfed it without his consent, but I've made a workaround that has guarding work properly in response to the skill. This will be how Blindside will likely work for future releases 

Once again, thank you so much for the feedback!

 

 

 

 

SOUND:

 

 

I guess there's not too much for me to respond to in this area, so let me just say thanks again!

We were hoping to pick these tracks for the enjoyment of ourselves, but ESPECIALLY the players. Soundtracks can really make or break games!

I'd say we're just glad that we managed to find music that works!

 

 

 

 

EVENTING AND MISC.

 

 

• That title screen stuff was actually originally on an event page initially. I'm trying to find a happy middle-ground where it can work in the way you are describing it. As in, appears only if there isn't already a save file present. Do you have any suggestions about how to do that by any chance? I think I lack the knowledge for it. In the meantime, I think I can extend its length.
• I may have been messing around with some window commands for Margot's letter. I can look into that.
• The Smooth Camera IS a nice feature 
• Yeah, we wanted more interacting with objects in the later game, but I think we got a little impatient with ourselves and kind of wanted to release the demo, haha. We will be adding more things like this for future releases too, so don't worry.
• Semi-spoilers, but Mimics show up in the 4th official dungeon (which is actually not in the demo yet... heh heh). Enemy ambushes just don't happen in the 3rd dungeon with Skiva and Biden by usual means. They appear more so by traps. Ambushes actually are present for almost every dungeon we have planned for the full game.
• The library may just have too many NPCs. The Elsnoire slowdown problem is caused by too many Parallel Process events though. We've removed some in our more recent test builds, and it seems to be moving a lot faster now! So look forward to a smoother Elsnoire! The World Map may have the same problems as Elsnoire (it is slower to move on the World Map than in towns and cities, so there's that too). In any case, I think we may need a new anti-lag script.
• I think those Arena "item drops" were my idea. So... thank you! Glad you liked it, hahaha!
• I thought the quartet was a nice touch too! We've gotten reactions of approval and "...what" from it so far, lol.
• That IS a bit weird with the chest being present forever. I think we'll have it disappear in the future.
• I'm so glad to hear that you liked that ending sequence! I agree though that I think the timing of the dialogue boxes was off though. I'll see if we should make it a point to fix that! Granted, I'm not sure that the sequence may necessarily be in the final version. This was kind of a specific ending sequence for the 1.0 demo. Just to serve as a clear closer for it and all.
• I knew that. I kind of wish that I didn't like the way it sounded, but yeah, it could be a bit strange to find the name as it is for some. As far as location names go, this is probably the most likely one to change.
• I'm not sure of the text skipping/speed up was part of a script or if it was there initially, but yeah, we knew about it. I think PB and I kind of just failed to address it, heh heh.

 

 

 

BUGS:

 

 

• That facial expression bug mostly had to do with my lack of know-how with a script when we released the demo. I found a way to fix it now 
• Really? Well, I should have a look at that, shouldn't I? lol. Seriously though, I wouldn't put it past myself to miss a small something like that xD.
• That's just the Parallel Process event thing I mentioned earler. So yeah, I guess that covers that... 
• Really?! Okay, now that's a major concern. I wonder what could have caused that?

 

 

 

Anyway, all in all, thank you once again! Never be sorry for your really long review, because this gives us both so much more to work with!

We will most certainly keep working on this project. Development has slowed a bit due to school stuff, but we are making steady progress!

Now for a final thing... I said I would acknowledge something about your Margot drawing...

 

I'm not going to lie, I gushed a bit 

I think this is the first fanart that has ever been made for this game (another first from you, hahaha). It's just so cute too! I really like your sketch!

I checked out your own game thread too and in general, I think your artstyle is just really colorful and adorable!

 

Well, I think I've rambled on enough with my response. Thank you once again for giving this game a solid chance and for dedicating the amount of time you have to it. It really means a lot to us!

 

EDIT: Did I just get ninja'd by my co-developer?

Thanks PowerBurger... xD.

Still, I meant everything I said, hahaha!

Edited March 27, 2016 by TheMisterLuigi