Ethereal Spring [v1.00 Available!]

[Naveed_Ashfaq 11]

 
 
 

 

 

 
Download Latest Version (v1.00) for Windows!

 

Version History:

 

 

• v1.00 - Initial Release!

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Full Story (Recommended):

About 400 years ago, mankind was divided primarily into two tribes: The Light Tribe, and the Dark Tribe. The two tribes lived in perfect harmony, co-existing with celestial beasts that held tremendous power. Yet no tribe would betray the other by trying to harness the ability of the beasts for themselves. The world was a peaceful haven.

However, rumours began creeping within the Dark tribe that the Lights were planning to take over all the land for themselves. The ruler of the Darks did not believe this, however he decided to take precautions for the slim chance that it might be true. They feared that the magic of the Light tribe was true great for them in the event of an attack, so they rounded up their best researchers to harness the ability of the beasts, but only for self defence. The scientists began intense research and eventually produced a special fluid that possessed the potential to tremendously enhance the consumer's ablities. Thinking it to be safe, the researchers mass synthesized the "Miracle Water" until eventually the Dark tribe had a lake composed of the fluid flowing through their lands. The king ordered all of his men to consume from the lake, which they had called "Ethereal Spring", in preparation for if an attack was due.

What the researchers failed to realise was a side-effect of their creation. Within a few months, the people of the Dark tribe started going haywire. Their newfound power was too much for their body to contain, and hence the whole nation went out of control. Their bodies craved power, and eventually it was them that attacked the peaceful land of the Light tribe.

A great war broke out between the two nations. The Light tribe were unprepared for the assault, while the Dark tribe was fueled by the power of the Ethereal Spring. The war drove on for years, but it had begun to spell doom for the Light tribe. Their forces were falling before the powers the Dark tribe had harnessed from the celestial beasts, and their resistance was fading.

At this pivotal moment, a hero arose from the Lights. He took it on himself, with a handful of his devoted followers, to put an end to battle. In his heroic efforts, he pushed back the Dark tribe warriors and entered into the heart of the conflict - the Ethereal Spring. At the cost of his own life, he sealed off the miracle lake so that such a war would never break out again. At the same time, he sealed off the celestial beasts into the weapons that he and his followers were carrying, so that their powers may never be used again. After his parting, with the celestial beasts' powers now diminished, his followers carried on to calm the war and try to bring peace back.

The powers of the celestial beasts with them, the followers then divided the people's magic into eight different fractions, so that no single element would have the power to cause such a worldwide catastrophe ever again. The Dark tribe's powers were divided into the elements of Fire, Thunder, Earth and Machine. The Light tribe's powers were likewise divided into the elements of Water, Ice, Wind and Nature. Afterwards, the followers sealed off their weapons in hidden locations, so that the powers of the celestial beasts may never again be abused.

However, the after-effects of the Great War lasted for centuries. The great era of battles began, in which opposig nations fought in numerous battles, as if carrying on what their ancestors' had started. Fire against Water, Thunder against Ice, Earth against Wind, Machine against Nature - the world fell into chaos. After centuries of battles which left scars on the world's surface, humanity finally decided to come under united command-hence the formation of the United World Army, or the UWA. The UWA served to maintain a high standard of living for all nations in the world, big or small. Their objective was to make sure everyone was happy. A sense of peace was at last prevalent in the world.

Present day, two separate criminal organisations, Nightmare and Illuminous (working names), are working at large into reviving the powers of the fabled Ethereal Spring. Fearing that another catastrophe could strike, the UWA is quick to acknowledge the two as serious threats, and hence set their primary goal to counter their advances with the united powers of wizards of all elemental prowesses.

However, with the antagonistic forces growing ever stronger, even such a unity could prove lacking.

Enter Raito! He isn't the best wizard out there, nor does he have the self confidence to believe that he could be. However, blessed with the talents of his late grandfather, and some mysterious power that everyone sees in him, Raito begins to harness the wind elemental gifts he received from his bloodline. Following his family's footsteps, Raito joins the UWA and begins his journey to attaining mastery of his powers and to establish his contribution in maintaining world peace.

As the evil organisations grow ever closer to uncovering the secrets of the Ethereal Spring, the world could be on the brink of a major crisis. It is high time for the new generation of wizards to raise a hero to counter the inevitable. Join Raito as he teams up with a mysterious woman and many others in his own story of defiance against the dark arts, while uncovering ravishing information about the world he lives in.

TL;DR Version (Not Recommended):
 

Many years ago, wizards of the Light tribe and Dark tribe lived in harmony alongside celestial beasts. However, fearing attack from the Light tribe, the Dark tribe began harnessing the powers of the celestial beasts and eventually synthesized a "Miracle Water" which granted them unbelievable powers. This was mass produced to produce a lake which they called Ethereal Spring. However, although the powers were meant for self defence, the great increase in strength drove the Dark tribe people crazy, and a war ensued between the Light tribe and the Dark tribe.

As the Light tribe were just about losing, a hero emerged and, with the help of his devoted comrades, sealed off the celestial beasts into the weapons of his comrades and sealed off the Ethereal Spring at the cost of his own life. His comrades used the powers to divide the people's magic into eight elements so that no element became too strong. They then proceeded to seal and hide their weapons away to prevent misuse of the celestial beast's powers.

Even so, the tribe of the eight elements carried on their battles for the next few centuries, until peace was finally achieved with the formation of the United World Army, the UWA.

Present day, two seperate criminal organisations, Nightmare and Illuminous (working names) are working at large to revive the powers of the Ethereal Spring. It is upto the UWA to stop them.

Enter Raito! Following his family's footsteps, Raito joins the UWA and begins his journey to attaining mastery of his powers and to establish his contribution in maintaining world peace.

As the evil organisations grow ever closer to uncovering the secrets of the Ethereal Spring, the world could be on the brink of a major crisis. It is high time for the new generation of wizards to raise a hero to counter the inevitable. Join Raito as he teams up with a mysterious woman and many others in his own story of defiance against the dark arts, while uncovering ravishing information about the world he lives in.

 

 

 

 
         
 
Raito
 
A lazy and seemingly talentless young wizard, Raito doesn't believe he has anything special in him, but everyone around him thinks otherwise.
 
 
         
 
Victoria
 
A woman of few words, Victoria is almost the polar opposite of Raito. She is well aware of her situation, and the current state of the world. She decides to take the entire burden herself, and put an end to things with her own hands.
 
 
More coming soon...
 

 

 

 

 
The Enchanted Forest:
 

 

 

 

 

P.S: First time/Newbie Parallax mapper here. So please judge accordingly  

 
Hiliga Village [ Not available till v2.00 ]:
 

 

 

 
The Hiliga Cliffs [ Not available till v2.00 ]:
 

 

 

 

 

 
A penalty shootout mini-game that I evented. I'll post a tutorial if there's enough demand for one:
 

 

 

 
Battle:
 

 

 

 

 

Weapon Socketing System:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Action Sequences that I'm working on:
 

 
I want to make my skills as visually impressive as possible, and so I'm going to post some GIFs of original action sequences I'm working on. These sequences are not final and are subject to change.
 
Aura Sphere:
 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Equipment Customization

 

Smart Enemy A.I.

 

Unique Puzzles and Mini-games

 

Visually Appealing Skills

 

Varied Gameplay Mechanics

 

Active Time Battle

 

Epic Story

 

 
*Note: Some features may be unavailable in the initial release.
 

 

 

 

 
Plugins:
 

 
Yanfly
Moghunter
Bobstah
Liquidize
Fox 536
Mark Przepiora
Galv
Shaz
Iavra
Estriole
Hudell
Amuseum
DragoonKain
Hime
Kuoushi
Nelderson
Dekita
Atreyo Ray
Jeneeus Guruman
 

 
Audio:
 

 
Waterflame
EliteFerrex
nietzlaw
eatmeatleet
Mawnz
McTricky
 
and some audio made by myself
 

 
Graphics:
 

 

ByBibo

Kaus

Pandamaru

Cvrtis

Kadokawa RPG Maker MV RTP set
Kadokawa RPG Maker MV Character Generator
RPG Maker VX Ace Futuristic Tilesets.

 

 
and Kadokawa for the creation of the software RPG Maker MV.
 
 
P.S: I tried my best and I hope I didn't miss anybody. I'll have a second look through and update this if I missed crediting anyone.
 

 

 

 

 
This is the main project I am working on for MV. I will be working on some side projects but those will be wholly geared to gaining experience so that I can make this game as best as I can.
 
If you wish to aid me or are interested in working together, PM me. I'll gladly help you out in your project as well 
 

 

 

 

KNOWN ISSUES:

 

 

Using elixir in battle crashes the game as "Recover3.png" is missing, so please avoid doing so for the time being.

 

Edited February 6, 2016 by Naveed_Ashfaq

[Tsarmina 2,612]

Moving to the Gaming Lounge. Congrats on having a full-fledged demo!!

[PowerBurger 49]

Your maps look nice! Might give this one a try. 

[Naveed_Ashfaq 11]

Updated the OP with an updated screenshot of battle, as I changed it but forgot to update the screenshot .

 

Also, I apologise for a slight misinformation on my part. The Hiliga maps aren't available in v1.00. They'll be available in v2.00, but I forgot to mention this in the OP. So forgive me for that, and I updated it with the correct information

 

@PowerBurger Glad you liked my maps. Appreciate it .

[Naveed_Ashfaq 11]

Bump. Was looking forward to some feedback. Otherwise, I won't know what's right or wrong about my project

[Meep007 173]

I was enjoying this until I had to go to school (in the game)...and then I got sad.

 

Anyway, while I was running around and exploring while the timer slowly counted down (I get distracted), I found a passibility issue.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jtsnyh4m3dv9eu0/Capture.PNG?dl=0

 

When you walk that path, you end up on the roof.

 

I didn't get very far, but I'll continue playing tomorrow or at least later today since It's 3AM for me.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Meep007

[Naveed_Ashfaq 11]

@Meep007 Thanks for letting me know . I'll fix that issue in the next update. Hope you like the rest of what's in store .

[Meep007 173]

Alright, I finished the demo. Review time!

 

I really like this so far and I'm interested in seeing where it goes. However, I'm mostly going to list all the things that need improvement for the sake of helping you out.

Nothing extreme or particularly bad, so don't worry.

 

1. The Forest Map - Does lag a lot I'm afraid. I had to switch computers because the one I was using couldn't take it. On the newer one, I found myself unable to move a lot and had to click the screen with my mouse a few times to get moving again. My game only crashed once, but that's not necessarily a good thing. Thank you so much for the warning sign or I would've cried. No joke. Seriously though, it may need some reworking, which is a shame because I really like it and also brings us to number two!

 

2. Mapping In General - I really like most of your maps, especially the forest, but we already covered that. One thing that needs a little improvement is the size of some of them. I'm not saying big maps are bad, I do it to. I like big maps. However, some are so big compared to the character and it's a little awkward. I'm talking mostly about that elevator. I know its not something dire to the game, but I'm pretty sure that horde of students from when you first arrive at school would've had no problems fitting in there. It's also almost as big as the first floor of the players house. That's a little strange. The area outside of the elevator at the headwaters is also a little too big. If you'd like to keep it that size, at least add some furniture in there because when it's completely empty and big, it looks odd. That's really it, but I hope that helps you determine some sizing of your maps in the future. Again, the rest of them are well done, so keep it up!

 

3. Puzzles - Okay so I'm not much of a puzzle person, but I had little issue with yours. They were nice and simple and not overly hard or easy. One problem though was the math puzzle. My brain, my calculator, an online calculator, and Google all told me that the answer to the problem was:

 

120, and you only gave two input slots.

 

Now ignore that if there was something more to your puzzle than just solving that math. I suck at puzzling so it could've been my fault.

 

4. Battles - The battles were okay and I never got particularly bored or annoyed. One thing was that I couldn't escape from battle ever, that's not a bad thing don't get me wrong. I'd just like to know if it was impossible to do for that map, or if it corresponds with your player's stats. That would actually be a nice feature.

 

My only issue with the battles was when I attempted to use an elixir (I tested this multiple times). I kept getting a 'Failed to load img/animations/Recovery3.png'

I don't know if that was left out for the demo, but I wanted to let you know.

 

5. Dialog - The dialog in your game was good and I didn't catch any spelling errors (not that they don't exist), only spacing errors at some points. I'm sorry I don't actually remember where I saw them/it, but they/it was there somewhere.

 

Also, your slower dialog was a little too slow. I don't know if it's an editor thing, since I haven't played around with MV a lot yet. But at one point:

 

The fight in the forest with the girl. After I beat her I thought the game started lagging or something, then realized that it was purposely slower.

 

I know there were scripts to fix this in Ace, but I don't know if there's plugins for MV yet.

 

All in all, really good job so far.

I won't rate the game since it's a demo, but I'm looking forward where the story goes. It had me interested, but I can't really judge that either since it's not clear at this point what exactly the main goal of the game is.

[Naveed_Ashfaq 11]

Thanks for the great input! This will greatly help increase the quality of the project . As for the issues you pointed out:

 

1. Yeah, the forest map lagged on my end too. I just wasn't sure if the problem was local to my pc or it was a problem in general. Now that you pointed it out, looks like I'm going to have to break the maps down into smaller pieces . Thanks for letting me know!

 

2. Now that you mention it, I guess some of the maps are a bit off. I'll look into remodelling them a bit.

 

3. Ah, that puzzle. Rest assured there's nothing wrong with the puzzle. It just takes a little more thinking and reading the clues carefully. If you want, I can PM you the answer . Glad you liked the rest of the puzzles though .

 

4. I'll look into and change the escape rate formula if it seems too biased towards not escaping. Actually, the current formula takes the total troop agility and total party agility into account. And since you're currently a one man party, the ratio doesn't fair up too well. It should fix itself when you get more members, but Ill see if I can rework the formula.

And yes, looks like I accidentally removed that file from the demo. I'll list that down as a known issue and fix it in an upcoming update. Thanks for letting me know .

 

5. I'll look into it.

 

Thanks for your valuable input. This will surely help this project. Glad you liked it at this infant stage as well. The next major update will start getting into the meat of the story .