The Last Prince - Demo Available!

[Radiant Arin 412]

Hello, and welcome to yet another installment from Devil's Advocate Gaming. Today, I'll be showing off the new demo that I have made in the past two weeks, called The Last Prince. Since completing The Promised Land, this project has taken up a majority of my time, and I assume that it will remain this way for the next few months.

Current Version: 1.5

Story

Once upon a time, in a great land, there lived two prosperous kingdoms, the Alyster Monarchy, and the Barulian Democracy. Both sides were content with each other, and peace reigned throughout the land. The people were happy with the way things were progressing, and eventually, they turned their eyes to the leader of Alyster, claiming that they want to follow in the footsteps of their neighboring country.

The people agreed to this without a shadow of a doubt, instantly ending the monarchical rule the country of Alyster had once been known for. The King, Tyrulies III, stepped down from the throne months afterward, and another figure soon came into power afterwards. It was the first of many smooth transitions the government had wanted. With democratic rule in place, a smooth transition of power was no doubt ensured. The once proud "King" title had now been replaced with the term "President", and President Hielsenberg soon came to power.

As the figurehead of the nation of Alyster, his first action was to cease all trades with the neighboring kingdoms. People refused at first, but soon they realized that if the trades were to continue uninterrupted, Alyster would, in turn, no more resources left to withstand itself from attack.

Most people are happy with this new system. Some others, however, are not so.

Leon Tyrulies, the son of King Tyrulies, was the sole heir of the Tyrulies name, and was to receive a royal crowning when his father stepped down from the throne. Now, without any more monarchical systems of government in the world, he considers himself The Last Prince.

Now that the services of knights, queens, princes, and kings are no longer required, Leon left the country to do a bit of soul searching. His travels take him to the village of Orlest, where the story begins. Along with his fated servant, Siegfried, Leon waits for no one on his daring adventure.

Gameplay

---A new Battle System that takes advantage of YANFLY's Combo Skills
---A "Tales of Graces" style Battle-System
---Choose how you want to develop your characters with JP.
---A compelling story about Leon and his journey through the unknown.
---Completely original soundtrack with music from Jason Shaw and McTricky.
---Once again, an emotion system, now completely revamped!

Characters

Leon Alyster:

Leon is The Last Prince of the Alyster Kingdom. Ever since President Hielsenberg took the seat of power in the capital of Nolioth and turned it into a Democracy, Leon has spent the past few weeks traveling to see the world. He is savvy, never letting an opportunity pass him by, whether it be beautiful women or delicious food. He maintains his code and ethics among everything else, helping those out in need with a bright smile on his face.

Siegfried Von Schaan:

Siegfried is a knight of high standing in Nolioth, the capital of Alyster. He decides to accompany Leon on his soul-searching journey after he leaves Nolioth. He is a man of few words, but has a very gentle and soft side when he opens up. He is extremely perceptive, and can sense danger before it ever happens.

Persea:

Persea is a wandering girl who does not remember who she is. The only thing that she can remember is something a woman said to her long ago, and that was to protect something that was very precious to her. She is naturally timid, however, as she travels with Leon, she gradually opens up, detailing her feelings for Leon.

Annie Felland:

Annie Felland likes to think of herself as a heroine trapped in a child's fairy tale. Young and naive, she accompanies Leon with the sole intention of finding her newly acquainted friend, Yukari. However, due to circumstances beyond reach, the two are separated, and now must rely on her new companion in order to guide her along the right path.

Chester:

Chester is a knight with a heart of complete ice. Uncaring and unsympathetic, the only results that matter to him are the ones that bolster his confidence in his spear tactics. Genius, but doesn't really show it, as his emotions generally take over. He trains to become the best Lancer across the land, and won't stop until that goal is achieved.

Yukari Escha:

Yukari is a Gun Mage that hails from Cyrus. She is half-human, half-elf, giving her reknown status in Lied, while also being nimble and incredibly quick on her feet. She is the Jack of All Trades, essentially, bringing power and experience to the forefront.

Screenshots

 

More screenshots will be posted the further I develop into the game!

Credits

Currently Using:

Tsukuhime's Port of KGC Battle Difficulty

Victor Sant's Engine + Follower Command
YANFLY
Khas
Enterbrain
Mr. Bubble
Casper Gaming (CSCA)
Faces taken from Mr. Dai at http://momope8.blog67.fc2.com/ and usui.moo.jp
Music by Jason Shaw from audionautix.com and McTricky, as well as Kevin MacLeod.

Version 1.5 Link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7v1jjueqban8yd/The%20Last%20Prince.exe

[weesharky 2]

Looks like another promising game here Dante. Keep up the good wor. Can't wait to play another one of your games.

[Radiant Arin 412]

Added a poll. I figured this would help me along with the progress of the game, and seeing what the general consensus of the community is here.

[Radiant Arin 412]

 

 

So yeah, like comments and stuff would be appreciated.

[EternalShadow 28]

I'm downloading it right now, I'll have a comment for you about the game once it's been played some. It looks good from the screenshots though.

 

EDIT: Here we go. The opening screen could do with a logo, but I'm sure you know that already. Also, a skip/speedup for the introductory text would be nice in the case of those who've played the game already and don't want to go through the intro screen.

 

The inn/pub building in map 1 could do with a bit of reworking. The window looks a bit close to the door and there appears to be a half-window on the left! The inn seems a bit sparse upstairs.

 

How did you manage the pausing text when the '...' appears?

 

Game-breaking glitch: Cannot exit the pub, there is no 'transfer'!

Change the exits from 'action button' to 'event touch' please...

 

Glitch 2: You don't start with any money for the inn. Cannot progress as intended.

Edited September 3, 2012 by HotfireLegend

[Radiant Arin 412]

I'm downloading it right now, I'll have a comment for you about the game once it's been played some. It looks good from the screenshots though.

 

EDIT: Here we go. The opening screen could do with a logo, but I'm sure you know that already. Also, a skip/speedup for the introductory text would be nice in the case of those who've played the game already and don't want to go through the intro screen.

 

I've been working on it in the background. The version I am working on now has Moghunter's Animated Title implemented, as well as Moghunter's Loading Bar.

 

The inn/pub building in map 1 could do with a bit of reworking. The window looks a bit close to the door and there appears to be a half-window on the left! The inn seems a bit sparse upstairs.

 

A lot of maps need re-working on here, actually. However, I appreciate the feedback.

 

How did you manage the pausing text when the '...' appears?

 

.\..\..\. Is the proper command to do that.

 

Game-breaking glitch: Cannot exit the pub, there is no 'transfer'!

Change the exits from 'action button' to 'event touch' please...

 

Think of it like this: you don't magically open a door when you walk up to it, unless it was a push door. Push doors didn't exist back in medieval times. You actually have to exert some force to push/pull open a door.

 

Glitch 2: You don't start with any money for the inn. Cannot progress as intended.

 

If you head upstairs to the Inn after watching the cutscene, and go to the room on the far northwest side, you'll notice that you already have a room for the night. Just press the Action Key at the head of the bed to proceed. I may feel that that scene may need to be reworked if you ran into that problem.

 

Thank you for the feedback and the criticisms.

[EternalShadow 28]

Ah, thanks for the information. Still, having 'event touch' as an exit would feel more logical since there isn't actually a visible door at a building exit lol. The entrances being Action button is fine.

 

As for the Inn scene, just add an event that activates upon a switch which is turned on at the end of the last cutscene. This event could be the Prince saying they already have a room and just to head upstairs.

 

Now, I'll go back to my save and play on.

 

EDIT: I don't know if this is intentional, but the first few enemies are actually pretty difficult, taking an average of 10-15 hits each to kill. They have a bit too much health for starting enemies, and they always seem to appear in twos. Only two potions against these enemies as well as no healing spells makes this rather difficult...

Edited September 3, 2012 by HotfireLegend

[amerk 1,122]

A minimum of 3 screenshots is required. Please update your main post to include additional screenies. Thanks.

[Radiant Arin 412]

 

EDIT: I don't know if this is intentional, but the first few enemies are actually pretty difficult, taking an average of 10-15 hits each to kill. They have a bit too much health for starting enemies, and they always seem to appear in twos. Only two potions against these enemies as well as no healing spells makes this rather difficult...

 

The combat system in this game is geared more towards stronger enemies, due no doubt to the carelessness of The Promised Land being much too easy. Having stronger enemies also allows for more strategy, rather than just mashing the Auto button or Attack. In higher levels especially, exploiting enemy weaknesses will be a crucial part of bringing down enemies faster before they can do the same to you.

 

Only two Potions? If you talk to the woman in the second-to-last house towards the exit to Argyle, you can get three batches of Pasta, which restore HP after battle. Also, there is a chest outside the Inn, hidden behind some trees to the right, which contains a Potion.

 

A minimum of 3 screenshots is required. Please update your main post to include additional screenies. Thanks.

 

Darn, I was hoping to squiggle by with just two.

[Snake 4]

Hey.

Played the game until the Inn Scene. Well i think you should mention somewhere that you

already have a room oO

At first i was like:

Okay then lets sleep. *looking at my money* 0 Gold. Oh nice oO What now...

 

then i searched the whole city. Found 200 Gold and spent 100 for the Inn and... Nothing happened...

 

 

Oh and btw. I find the scrolling text in the beginning way to fast...

 

Now i'm going to test again and try the room in the inn...

 

 

EDIT:

Oke i reached Cyrus. At first i thought the Monsters need more balanceing

but after i gained the first level it was okay.

btw. whats the Level Up script? Thats really nice

Oh and the loot-thing is nice. I like it when Monsters don't drop Money but instead

items that you can sell to get money.

The Combo-System is... Well how do you say that... I think it's a thing you have to like or don't.

I'm not a huge fan of something like this but you're getting pretty soon familiar with it^^

 

Keep going!

Edited September 3, 2012 by Snake

[Radiant Arin 412]

btw. whats the Level Up script? Thats really nice

 

The script is YANFLY's Victory Aftermath.

 

The Combo-System is... Well how do you say that... I think it's a thing you have to like or don't.

I'm not a huge fan of something like this but you're getting pretty soon familiar with it^^

 

The Combo System becomes better as you progress through the game. It actually gets to the point where you can spam a combo of 3-4 attacks every turn because you're generating upwards of 20 TP each turn, from a combination of skills and passive weapon stats, as well as damage dealt + damage taken.

 

Even though this game is in its early stages, that's what I am envisioning right now.

[Radiant Arin 412]

Version 1.1 is up. From now on, I'm keeping a log on the OP detailing the different stages of the game. I feel as though this time, when we play the game together as a community simultaneously, there is a better chance of bugs getting fixed and problems being erased.

 

 

Version 1.1 Changes:

 

-- Added a bit more story. Version 1.1 will take you up halfway through the Khalas Harbor, where your next objective is.

-- Added some new scripts, most notably Moghunter's Animated Title, Loading Bar, and Combo Count.

-- Fixed up spots of dialogue that were messy.

-- Difficulty settings now included, thanks in no part to the wonderful Tsukuhime for converting KGC Battle Difficulty to RGSS3. (WARNING!: I do not recommend Chaotic Mode at the moment; it will make you cry.)

-- New skills added, however, you won't see them until much later (unless you grind to Level 18+).

-- Crafting system has had it's costs reduced by half.

-- Moghunter's Save/Load Window (you will experience lag, but that's only because there is a maximum of 99 Save Files).

-- My own custom Menu Cursor to be used in conjunction with Moghunter's Animated Cursor.

-- CSCA Achievements and Extra Stats for the completion-ist in you.

-- Armors now raise MDF and weapons raise MAT.

-- The Map "Argyle Plains" has had a complete makeover!

 

 

 

As always, if you find any bugs, glitches, passable tiles where they shouldn't be, etc. etc., give a shout out here and I'll fix it.

[TheUnproPro 3]

Sounds pretty awesome. In the third screenshot, I think that map can use a few rocks Epic though!

[Starfeather 1]

I gave it a shot, and it looks pretty cool! The dialogs are really well written.

I didn't really get far, because my computer laggs terribly when I'm using RPGMakerVXAce, for some reason.

 

Could you post some screenshots of the battle system? Tales of Graces, huh? Sounds interesting.

[Radiant Arin 412]

Could you post some screenshots of the battle system? Tales of Graces, huh? Sounds interesting.

 

It's not Tales of Graces per se, but a lot like it. Some similarities are the use of exploiting weaknesses to your advantage; all monsters, even bosses, have at least two weaknesses, and your moveset dictates that. All characters have an array of abilities that exploit the weaknesses of various monsters, so they are balanced across all levels.

 

Take for example, the tutorial battle, where you are fighting against a wolf. Wolves, and for that matter all beast monsters, would take more damage from beast-type attacks, much like where in Tales of Graces, if you used an ability called "Beast Blaster" (<3 Hubert) on a monster that is weak to beast-type attacks, they will take more damage.

 

It's not a linear battle system like Symphonia, either. It utilizes the most from Yanfly's Battle Engine (as always) and Yanfly's Active Chain Skills.

 

Version 1.1a is coming soon, also, so look for it then! Numerous enhancements and fixes will be introduced in this next small update. I have pretty much all of the scripts I need except for Yami's Battle Symphony, which from my understanding is still ironing out some bugs. When that is done and in perfect condition, expect a huge update!

[Sievn 3]

I am checking this out, currently downloading.

[KoalaHugs 1]

This looks like a really great game, lemme get to checking it out! Good work!

[Radiant Arin 412]

Thanks for all of the positive feedback, everyone. I am trying very hard to make sure that this project isn't as big of a flop as the last one.

[masonxy 2]

Sounds interesting. Downloading it right now, I'll send some feed back in a while

[B2tR 8]

Hey, I just downloaded your Demo and will write a short review while playing it

WARNING: may contain spoilers to those who haven't played it yet.

 

110 MB is quite large for a demo, hopefully it's worth it.

The title screen looks cool, but the "new game" etc is very hard to read, you might want to change either the font or the colour.

Choosing the difficulty is interesting. I chose 'normal' even though it would have been interesting, if it is possible to beat on chaotic.

Phew, very fast scrolling wall of text you got there as an intro. I'd suggest to shorten the text a bit or give some visual content with it (like showing the characters your talking about. And slow it down a bit, I almost didn't make it and I'm a relatively quick reader.

Up to now, I really like the music of the game. The Window-Skin also looks nice.

The save menu screen doesn't really match the style... also, why am I always seeing loading and saving bars? It's kinda funny you implemented them, cause nobody likes them in games where they even fulfill a function

I kinda like Siegfried, he seems to be a loyal companion. That's just how I like my companions... har. But wow, is that a lot of dialogue at the beginning of the game. I'd rather have a little more action

Hiesenberg is not cool, he talks too much political stuff and his office looks so bland and empty as if he had no personal life at all. Why doesn't he even have a picture in there, he does seem to spend most of his days there.... His speeches are quite boring, I don't really read them. Where's Siegfried? I wanna slay Monsters! And Leon even likes Hiesenberg? Now I'm sure Siegfried is my favourite, he's even drunk!

Finding the right spot on the beds to click and continue is very hard. You should change that. Maybe the waitress could just take you to your room.

The people in this city seem to live in quite large but really empty houses. Maybe adding some more objects in there would be a good idea, the way it is, all the townsfolk appear to be poor.

Finally some Monsters! Let's battle! The Battle Scripts are very cool. I know you didn't write them or anything, but the battles are fun and that's worth a lot.

The NPCs in the cities are quite lame, they wish me a good day and stuff, but I don't really feel encouraged to talk to any of them. Try to give them actually useful information or something.

Okay, after the scene in the inn, I'm done playing. I don't know where to go to and the city is really large...

Your game has potential, especially the dialogues where well written. Even though the first half an hour or so I played is extremly dialogue-heavy and I ran around alot. I would have preferred more action, in form of puzzles, games, interaction of any kind. Talking and walking are fun, but it's a bit too much for my personal taste.

 

I wish you all the best for your project and hope my impressions may help you to improve one or another thing. Have fun Makering!

[Radiant Arin 412]

Very cool that you posted such an extensive feedback. Allow me to pick it apart for you and give individual feedback in order to enhance your game experience.

 

 

110 MB is quite large for a demo, hopefully it's worth it.

The title screen looks cool, but the "new game" etc is very hard to read, you might want to change either the font or the colour.

 

The New Game, Continue, and Exit commands were direct copy-pastes from The Promised Land, so not much originality there.

 

Choosing the difficulty is interesting. I chose 'normal' even though it would have been interesting, if it is possible to beat on chaotic.

 

I have tried Chaotic Mode during one of my playthroughs.

 

Let's just say that it will require a lot of patience and grinding.

 

Phew, very fast scrolling wall of text you got there as an intro. I'd suggest to shorten the text a bit or give some visual content with it (like showing the characters your talking about. And slow it down a bit, I almost didn't make it and I'm a relatively quick reader.

 

The scroll text option is actually set to it's slowest setting. I was just thinking of breaking it up in several parts across transparent text boxes, that way, everyone can read it at their own pace. This is something I will look into in the next update.

 

Up to now, I really like the music of the game. The Window-Skin also looks nice.

The save menu screen doesn't really match the style... also, why am I always seeing loading and saving bars? It's kinda funny you implemented them, cause nobody likes them in games where they even fulfill a function

 

It's an illusion, my friend. But yeah, I will definitely shorten the loading time with the next update.

 

I kinda like Siegfried, he seems to be a loyal companion. That's just how I like my companions... har. But wow, is that a lot of dialogue at the beginning of the game. I'd rather have a little more action

Hiesenberg is not cool, he talks too much political stuff and his office looks so bland and empty as if he had no personal life at all. Why doesn't he even have a picture in there, he does seem to spend most of his days there.... His speeches are quite boring, I don't really read them. Where's Siegfried? I wanna slay Monsters! And Leon even likes Hiesenberg? Now I'm sure Siegfried is my favourite, he's even drunk!

 

As you progress further in the game,

 

 

Leon comes to realize that Hielsenberg's methods won't fix the country, instead only dragging it down further into disrepair. The player starts noticing this slowly throughout the game, where the corruption of power from democracy slowly turns into mad tyranny. Much like The Promised Land, only better.

 

 

Finding the right spot on the beds to click and continue is very hard. You should change that. Maybe the waitress could just take you to your room.

 

I have gotten many complaints about this and will change it in the next version.

 

Finally some Monsters! Let's battle! The Battle Scripts are very cool. I know you didn't write them or anything, but the battles are fun and that's worth a lot.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the battles as much as you said you did. Did you feel it was enough of a challenge, even on Normal mode?

 

The NPCs in the cities are quite lame, they wish me a good day and stuff, but I don't really feel encouraged to talk to any of them. Try to give them actually useful information or something.

 

You should ALWAYS talk to ALL of the NPCs in the game; some of them might give you items that you weren't expecting, or tidbits of information that can lead to obtaining quests and the like.

 

Okay, after the scene in the inn, I'm done playing. I don't know where to go to and the city is really large...

 

 

The scene after the strange lady appears? After the scene, head outside the Inn and go to the area of Cyrus called "Central". You can continue the game from there. The scene that happens afterwards, however, is still in flux, and still needs adjusting.

 

 

Your game has potential, especially the dialogues where well written. Even though the first half an hour or so I played is extremly dialogue-heavy and I ran around alot. I would have preferred more action, in form of puzzles, games, interaction of any kind. Talking and walking are fun, but it's a bit too much for my personal taste.

 

Don't worry; you'll get your fair share of puzzles soon enough. In fact, you may just want to play in a dark room for the next branch of exploring you're about to do.

[B2tR 8]

You should ALWAYS talk to ALL of the NPCs in the game; some of them might give you items that you weren't expecting, or tidbits of information that can lead to obtaining quests and the like.

 

That's exactly the problem: There are quite a lot of NPCs, so talking to all of them will take the player time. Which is in general a good thing. The problem I felt was that 2/3 of them just say "Hello, how are you?" kind of stuff, which I don't really care about and 1/3 of them has kinda useful information or items. But after speaking to 3-4 NPCs that just say something completely irrelevant, I felt discouraged to continue speaking to everybody. You could try to at least let them say something about the world they live in, like for example whether they like the political system or some gossip about Hiesenberg or hints where in the town you can find something of interest. Especially the guards where a pain to talk to or the girl that has her own house and just tells you, she wants to be a model. Those just add 0% to the game experience and could therefore just be left out or (much better) say something at least remotely relevant. It's quite a lot of work, I understand that, but for my taste it would really add a lot to the game experience.

 

The battles on Normal where just right. I never died, but had to use skills and potions (of which I had always the right amount, not too few, not too many). So I'd say it's well balanced.

[Radiant Arin 412]

Expect the newest version here by at least tomorrow. This will get you about 1/3 of the way through chapter 2, which I estimate will be about 6 hours total.

 

Version 1.1a:

 

 

Version 1.1a Changes:

 

-- Fixed an error at Town of Cyrus - Ruin with dead NPCs.

-- Revamped the opening scene to include message boxes instead of scrolling text.

-- Fixed the scene at the Inn; includes two additional lines of dialogue.

-- A map in the Orlest Caves has been brightened slightly.

-- Accessories! Everybody loves them!

 

 

 

EDIT: Go here. http://www.mediafire...25j2p2e6g47y6ui.

 

As always, remember to copy your old save file over to the new demo.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Lovely-Chan

[Radiant Arin 412]

So I figured it's been a while now, but still haven't gotten any feedback. You guys, you don't know how good it makes me feel when you comment on here. Even if you're just saying "I'm downloading now" and never comment again, I appreciate the comment because right now, that's about the only thing that is keeping my spirit going for this game.

 

As always, if you find any bugs/glitches/passability errors, tell me here and I will get them in the next patch.

[Galv 1,387]

I understand the feeling of comments keeping your spirits up. May I suggest perhaps try to upgrade your original post?

 

Like selling a game, having something to grab one's attention at first glance is good.

Some suggestions (my opinion, so feel free to ignore):

- Not so many spoilers. You don't need spoilers within spoilers - When I click on characters, I expect to see them all and not have to keep clicking each one.

- More pictures. Someone viewing your post needs incentive to download. More screenshots, images of your characters, etc.

- A fancy selling image at the top of the post to do with your game

 

I like the layout of your town screenshot. The other screenshots seem a little empty I think could be improved with a few bits of something here and there (rocks, cracks in the ground maybe)

 

I wish you luck - keep those spirits high and don't give up!