Legacy of the World [Demo v1.0]

[PowerBurger 49]

Of course I'm the one who has to be super lazy with the formatting and the everything.

 

Anyway, going to reply to a few things TML said in particular...

 

 

I'll try and keep it relatively short

It's longer than mine, gosh dangit!

 

 

• 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

I'm 100% okay with this, seeing as how we nerfed healing post-demo. I trust you more than you think when it comes to balancing, go ahead and do what you feel is necessary, haha.

 

 

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

Thanks PowerBurger... xD.

Still, I meant everything I said, hahaha!

 

Well... I mean, I did post an hour before you did, haha.

 

And I sent you a text about it!

 

I'm either very unaware of my apparently legendary ninja skills, or your darkness was not darker than mine.

Edited March 27, 2016 by PowerBurger

[Whiona 310]

Yay, I'm so glad you guys liked the review and the fanart! I'm also super-glad to hear you're still going with this! When I saw that the topic hadn't been updated in a bit, I got worried...I'm invested now, so I want to know how things will turn out for Kurtwood and co.  This response is sometimes directed at both of you and sometimes just one of you, so I'm sorry if it's a little bit jumbled. I'll probably just move through the sections again...

 

Lots of revision is always a good thing! I'm looking forward to seeing how you improve and expand upon the story in future demos. What you have so far is nice, and it can only get better with rewrites! Good to know that everyone else likes Margot, too. I won't have to get in any fights today.

See, it's not that I didn't like Kurtwood. I actually did! He's a friendly guy and he had some fun moments, particularly at the end. I just felt like the other characters had a bit to them than he did, so he sometimes paled in comparison. As I said, though, I realize that what I've played is only the first chunk of the game. I'm sure you have a lot of interesting things in store for him! Ah, I can see the similarities to Chrom, now that you mention them. I think a big part of what made Chrom such a top-tier husband charming character was that, despite being the leader of the Shepherds and a prince, he can be a bit awkward or outright dorky at times (particularly in his supports). If you're going for that with Kurtwood, I would definitely play up the contrast between what people expect of the Midnight Mercenary and what he actually turns out to be like. That would also lend itself well to a lot of funny ribbing from Margot. I'm sure that as the game progresses and I see more of Kurtwood, he'll turn out really great! He's a bit simple for now, but not bad by any means, and he still has plenty of time to grow and endure trials.

 

I'm really glad that my feedback about the dialogue is helpful. It can be especially tricky in games, because there's no narrator, and you have to explain things to the player somehow. Just try to rework the exposition so that it sounds more like natural conversation - if you do that, the player won't even notice that you're explaning things. Another trick you could try, so long as you're careful not to overuse it, is to have a clueless character who asks questions about things every once in a while. James Vega played this role pretty effectively in Mass Effect 3 - apart from the DLC party member, he was the only brand-new character in the squad. Because of that, he often didn't understand what was going on, so the other party members had to explain some of the events of previous games to him. That way, newcomers to the series could get up to speed with the plot. (Though I wish people would play the first two games too, haha. But hey, the devs included him for a reason, and he played his role well.) In the case of LotW, you could probably have Phillip asking questions now and then.

 

If everything ties in at the end, then that's great! You can keep things as-is with the order of missions. But yeah, the opening could use more of a hook.
 
I didn't mention this in my initial post, but I really liked Khalleria's design, actually. She's so cute! She was another character to whom I really took a liking, even though her role in the demo was small. I'm sorry to hear that people haven't been so polite with their critiques of your art. I think it's important to be honest when critiquing things, but to still phrase it in a friendly, specific, and constructive way, so that you don't discourage anyone. Even if some things could be improved, I honestly think you're doing a good job so far! The Kenichi redraw is looking nicer already, though the shadows under his bangs are still a bit too dark. I'm not sure that his hair would cast that much of a shadow. Try to have it match the shading around his nose. I see you've added some more highlights to his hair, which is good. You could probably make them stand out even a little bit more, and remember, you don't have to stick to the edges of the hair! I usually do highlights in a sort of "band" around the bangs, and then add a few more wherever the light hits.

I totally understand about the placeholder map thing. My comment about your use of the sample maps wasn't so much meant to be "placeholder maps are awful and you shouldn't use them" but rather "there should be some sort of acknowledgement in the first post that some of the maps are not your work, and will later be replaced." I know you guys aren't trying to actually pass off the sample maps as your own, but I think it's best to mention that sort of thing just to clear up any potential misunderstandings. I'm glad to hear that you've been getting better at mapping, though! I recently switched to parallax mapping myself and I love what I can do with it, although it's also a lot of work. I'm only going to be using it for outdoor maps and important indoor areas, since parallaxing every insignificant house or hallway would just be waaayyy too much.

 

Yeah, it can be hard to pony up the cash for tilesets. That's why I always wait for the Steam sales. There are so many free resources out there that you hardly need them, though! I'm definitely wishing you two good luck with mapping! It's tough for sure. I suck at coming up with layouts for places, especially large buildings and cities.

 

That's basically what I liked so much about the combat - it's simple and traditional, but well-balanced, with a good variety of interesting skills and classes. No unnecessary gimmicks, just solid turn-based combat. For the record, my favourite boss fight was Dorian, but maybe that's just because he and his music were so cool. Ah, great to see that you're both Bravely Default fans! I can definitely see the influence in many areas of the combat system (apart from the lack of braving and defaulting, but obviously you guys aren't going to be straight-up copycats). If the class-changing system ends up being even more effective later, then that's great! I'm sure you'll do something really cool with it. :>

 

The hint for Biden and Skiva may or may not be necessary. You'd have to ask some other playtesters who had more trouble with those two. I managed to get through the fight just fine, but I'm not sure how tough it would've been without the appropriate items.

 

Wow, Rider's that young? He certainly doesn't look it! Anyway, if he's meant to be a bit inexperienced, maybe you could work in some kind of acknowledgement that he wasn't as tough as the party was expecting. (...Also, if he's PowerBurger's favourite, and he appeared in the ending cutscene...hmm. This guy must be important.) As for the arena...I feel like maybe just buffing Rider outright is the way to go. After all, if the player has enough healing items, then not having as much healing probably wouldn't be that big of a deal. At the same time, though, I guess that depends on how well the player does in the fights. I personally didn't have too much of a problem with any of them, but someone who struggled might really have a tough time if they have limited healing. Either solution works - it's just something you'd have to playtest to see which is better.

 

I mean, it's up to you guys, but I think it would be nice to have the HP bar there after scanning. The main reason why it bugged me was that, in Alvin's fight, Phillip left halfway through, so I lost my means of scanning. Once he was gone, I had no way of knowing how I was doing, even by taking a risk - and his class is quite a bit weaker than the others, so I probably wouldn't have won had I changed Kurtwood, Margot, or Eliza into a Technician. If you really don't want to put in an HP bar, maybe you could at least throw in a bit of dialogue as Alvin gets weaker - say, at 50% and 25% health. That way the player at least gets the sense that they're making progress in the fight.

 

I think the main thing that made Alvin's hidden blade ability so OP was the fact that you couldn't block it. An unblockable move on the whole party that he uses all the time is pretty tough. But it did make the fight a lot more difficult, so I understand if you don't want to nerf it. Again, it's up to you.

 

Ahh, okay, so the mimics and ambushes do come back. Good to know! And yeah, I understand just wanting to get the demo out there - little bits of dialogue from interacting with random objects aren't exactly the most important feature. I just thought I'd let you know that I did have fun examining things in the first half of the game, so I'd like to see it continue. As for only having the text appear if there's no save file, I think there's a script out there for that. I recall seeing it once upon a time. I'm not 100% sure, though - you'd have to look into it.

 

I would really like to play the bonus stuff and let you know what I think of it, but first I have to play and review another friend's demo. I've already started on it, and I don't think his demo is too long, so I will hopefully be able to get back to LotW quickly...and I'll try my best not take a million years with it this time, haha. I'd love to try out that bonus boss that requires some real thinking outside the box! Expect me back in this topic sometime with more feedback (...and maybe more fanart, too )

 

Oh! Also, thank you so much for checking out my own topic, TheMisterLuigi, and for your feedback on my art! That means a lot!!

Edited March 29, 2016 by Whiona

[gendfleur 3]

this is an AWESOME game !!!! don't take my lots of notes too seriously, they're mostly super super nitpicky, and it's easier to note bad things than good things : )

 

- Technical

 

 

i think you're using a smooth scroll script? it's a little jarring when i've been playing vxa games that don't use it, but i really like it actually

i love the facesets! they're very cute

there's a couple sprites that are walking in the library, the daily kugel, and cassandra's house after defeating the two mercenaries that i don't think are meant to be walking ? it's a little weird to see them randomly walking in place

the book "the world's most mysterious places" doesn't go back to the chapter selection when you're done reading a chapter, and it's a bit tedious to keep selecting the book to read the whole thing

the mushrooms scattered around the slime woods are a nice game mechanic

i'm getting some serious lag in the world map

paul's faceset has a different colored bandanna than his sprite

there's no music in the sign language woman's house, the areas before you get into the tournament place, or while reading dr. mathieu's scroll and it feels a little empty

you can walk on some of the tops of the walls in mark's house

i appreciate the fact that when transfering to new maps, you put the player one square ahead of the event to move back to the other map !!!! it makes it super easy if i accidentally go somewhere i didn't want to go back to the other map

 

 

- Dialogue

 

 

the "Sorry for that mild language there kids!" in the book is pretty worldbreaking

i laughed pretty hard at the pub owner's "I don't even have a kitchen"

the "moat around the moat" blurb was really funny

i'm not really sure what's going on with the seemingly-abandoned house on the left edge of the west elsnoire district, the person in there seems like they're a parody of something but i don't know what?

oh my god in heaven the girl at the pier in cyria port whos been standing there for four days straight, i about died

eliza's occasional victory phrase of "You think I'm a psycho? Well, I don't think so. I may have two personalities though..." is. iffy. to say the least. as someone with headmates, the association of headmates with being "psycho" is unfortunate, and plus she hasn't shown any signs of having a headmate anyway, it's just unnecessary

 

 

- Spelling/Grammar

 

 

book in the house, prologue, x-cell, "The actual the youngest of us all" should probably be "Actually the youngest of us all"; chapter 3, "but not on my own accord" should be "but not of my own accord", "that sense of rejuvination" should be "that sense of rejuvenation"

dialogue with yvonne in the inn, "Don't let me stop your from meeting" should be "Don't let me stop you from meeting"

article given by margot, "Recently spotted in Elsnoire, a peculiar man was walking through town and appeared to be lost." 'recently spotted in elsnoire' is currently a dangling participle, should be something like "A peculiar man, seemingly lost, was recently spotted in Elsnoire wandering through town."; "Although he did no actual damage or harmed any citizens" isn't parallel, should be something like "Although he did no actual damage and harmed no citizens"; "was shared between all of the people" should be "was shared among all of the people"

book "the world's most mysterious places", selection 3, "to distort itself within it's area" should be "to distort itself within its area"

dialogue with man next to the library, "a lot of it just phazed out" should be "a lot of it just phased out"

dialogue with Margot after practice battle, "we can go through Slime Woods now" should be "we can go through the Slime Woods now"

dialogue with Margot after entering the Slime Woods, "Obviously in "Slime" Woods" should be "Obviously in the "Slime" Woods"

dialogue with fiora after battle, "Not a one person" should be "Not one person" (alternately, you could simplify it to "No one")

dialogue with boy in elsnoire, "He just reeks the smell of a liar" should be something like "He smells like a liar" or "He reeks of lies"

dialogue in phillip's house, "It's just tall tale" should be "It's just a tall tale", "into people's minds to being with" should be "into people's minds to begin with"; "We had only know each other" should be "We had only known each other"; "Your majesty" should probably be "His majesty" (Kurtwood isn't talking directly to the King)

phillip's house, bethany's message, "wander off, or gets kidnapped" should be "wander off, or get kidnapped"

dialogue with hooded person outside phillip's house, "thought never crossed my mind" should be "the thought never crossed my mind", "what you're getting in to" should be "what you're getting into"

map where phillip's house is, lower right house, "Perhaps this place belongs to an experienced person, like a knight perhaps?" you don't need both 'perhaps'

chapel after talking to the King, "one of which being" should be "one of which is"

dialogue with phillip after exiting the west district after fighting the mercenaries, "every story has it's end" should be "every story has its end"

in the fighting ring, "Team Nightningale" should be "Team Nightingale" (i accidentally skipped past this message and only vaguely saw it, so it could actually be right)

dialogue with kenichi after everyone has left, "I'm she can give you" should be "I'm sure she can give you"

 

 

- Ambient Gameplay

 

 

the girl sleeping on the floor in the elsnoire inn was a cute touch

the abandoned house east of elsnoire is so creepy oh my god

i got so involved in the story and gameplay i literally almost forgot i was reviewing a beta

 

 

- Mapping

 

 

the slime woods' map is really intricate and pretty, but it might be nice if you made the tree walls a little more layered instead of just one tree trunk every space

the payoff for getting the chests is well worth the enemies you have to fight to get there

 

 

- Battles

 

 

i like the intro to the battle animation

the battlers are used super well

the fight with skiva and biden was hard, but not impossible, and it was really satisfying when i beat it, same with alvin

your battles end up with a PERFECT balance between healing and attacking, and there's incentive to use different strategies rather than just the boring basic attack - basic attack - basic attack - heal - repeat that a lot of games seem to goad you toward

 

 

- Music

 

 

the music in the abandoned house in both the first city and east of elsnoire is SUPER creepy, i like it

 

 

- Puzzles

 

 

i didn't understand why you had to hit the first rift (the one with one stone) with thunder ? aside from that, all your puzzles are REALLY well put together and fun

 

 

 

Overall:

i LOVE this game, i really honestly adore it, everything about it is really fun and well put together. the characters are all nicely fleshed out, the plot is interesting and doesn't seem cliched or boring, and your dialogue is funny without being overbearing. i'm absolutely going to keep my eye on this project, and i wish you guys the best of luck in your continuing with this !!!!!!

[TerraCaveman 23]

Hi gendfleur! Thank you very much for the feedback! No worries about criticism. However minor it may be, we try to keep all of it in mind!

Now then, time for some long-ish replies, lol.

 

Technical Stuff

 

 

- PowerBurger was pleasantly surprised by the camera too, haha.

- Thank you for the compliments on the facesets! Even then, I'm working toward making them even better for future releases.

- The walking-in-place NPCs are just used to emphasize activity. I kind of hearken my thought processes with that to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. 

- The books in the library were admittedly one of the last things we added. It lacks a bit of polish for that reason.

- The mushrooms were PB's idea, so yeah, kudos to him then!

- The World Map has too many Parallel Processes going on in this demo. We'll try and fix that for future releases.

- Paul's sprite was changed after I drew the portrait admittedly. That's kind of just my bad. It needs to be more red than orange, haha.

- The deaf woman's house being silent was kind of a stylistic choice on my part. I may or may not change that, but the scroll reading event will definitely get music in the future though.

- Mark's house having climbable walls is actually intentional. There will be a 2nd floor at some point, and that's how you'll get there.

- Right? I made it a point to do that with transfer points because it got to me too, lol.

 

 

 

Dialogue

 

 

- I'm glad you got a kick out of most of the dialogue! I really tried to make it fun for the player!

- That minor swear though, huh? 

- That random "kid" is only kind of a parody of those RPG characters that are always WAY older than they look. I wrote that NPC to be as obnoxious as possible for whatever reason, and had him use internet lingo from our time period, because he's supposedly 1000+ years old. That would put him as existing near the year 2000 range. I don't like that NPC... hahaha.

- I need to do a better job of hinting at Eliza's actual personality. That's all I can really comment on about that.

 

 

 

Spelling & Grammar

 

 

- I really only have a short reply for this one. Seriously, THANK YOU for noting down grammatical/spelling errors! With this, we can actually crack down on more of them that we made in the dialogue. 

 

 

 

Ambient Gameplay

 

 

- Yep. Totally the best way to use a "Damage" sprite. xD

- I agree. The music just makes it creepier... hehehe.

- That's a pretty big honor right there! Thank you for that. We're glad you really enjoyed the game's story so far! I'm happy to tell you that there's SO much more in store!

 

 

 

Maps

 

 

- In general, our maps will be getting pretty big overhauls in the long run. It'll take a while though because, you know... mapping is our weakest point, heh.

 

 

 

Battle Gameplay

 

 

- Short comment for this one too. That's something we've been really trying hard to achieve as we keep on working on the game. The gameplay is something we want to be balanced and fun, while also being fairly accessible to newer players. The idea that you say we pretty much nailed it though? That's actually kind of awesome! Hopefully we can keep this up then!

 

 

 

Music

 

 

- I'm psyched to hear that you like our creepy music choices. 

 

 

 

Puzzles

 

 

- We definitely wanted to make our puzzles require a bit of thinking, but not make it too hard yet either. This is still relatively early in the overall structure for the full game after all! Oh, that rift describes a stream of water. The Thunder element is strong against the Water element, so that's why you have to zap it. Anyway though, thank you for the compliments on our puzzles!

 

 

 

With all that said, thank you again for your review! We're so glad you enjoyed it! We will most certainly be working on this as often as we can, and we will work toward making the game even better!