4Runes - Legend of the Void

[EliteZeon]

Hey guys, this is my first project ever and a very ambitious one at that... so I am really nervous about revealing it.

This has been my dream project ever since I made a comic for a 5th grade newspaper project. After more than a decade of dreaming and thinking, I am finally, hopefully, skilled enough to bring this story to life.

Please let me know whatcha think!

Download Link - By the Great Old Ones, Please Give Me Feedback!!

Last Updated Feb 3 2015

NoRTP

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7jw7rv82gmzaw1i/4Runes%28NoRTP%29.exe?dl=0

RTP

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j1l7ohskkzjgga8/4Runes%28RTP%29.exe?dl=0

Note to all, if you can't make out the four characters on the title screen... erm... you might wanna turn up your brightness for the full enjoyment of the game, maybe...

Issues I am Aware Of

-Jumping is broken as hell, and can easily break events... Reworked Jumping Mechanism

-Crafting is currently tedious... I'll throw in a script or something since I am bad at this... Added Syzu's Crafting System

-Story pacing is mreh....
-Cinematics are mreh....

-The Game assumes you do certain events first

-Chapter 1's combat is boring... eh I swear it will get better in later chapters...

Development Progress

Spoiler

-Chapter 1 (30ish minutes of gameplay so far, finished, undergoing polish, changing some events and cinematics)

-Chapter 2 (Story in final stages, currently mapping and making events)

-Chapter 3 (outline done)

-Chapter 4 (rough ideas in place)

-Later Chapters (Putting atoms together to make molecules, then hopefully a skeleton)

-Hope to release... before the next Mayan Apocalypse

Currently Doing

-Chapter 1 Refinement

-Chapter 2

-Chapter 3 and 4 Planning

-Classes and Skills

-Battlers, Pictures, Faces

-Crafting System, Weapons and Armor

To Do List

-Make a decent Crafting System (maybe I should find a script or two?) Added Syzu's Crafting System

-Facial Expressions for Character Portraits

-Cinematic Drawings for the end of Chapter 1

-Cinematic Drawings for Chapter 2

-Guest Party Members (Rough ideas in place)

-Moar Monsterz (Chapter 2 Monster sketches are done, need to be digitized and animated)

-Moar Skillz (Ugh, I hate combat balancing)

-Original Icons

-Figure out why I am doing this to myself

Things I want to do but probably won't

-Create Animated Battlers for Main Party with different weapons and stances (not sure I can do this)

-Create fully Animated Cutscenes (like an Anime or Cartoon or something! But Great Ones, I have no idea how to do that!) Working on something!!

Things I will do

-Share this game with everyone when it is done completely for free

4Runes

Legend of the Void

Eons ago there existed a darkness that seeped through the Void, everything within its reach holding a chilling and chaotic air.

It had engulfed the world in the entirety of its grasp, and shrouded all living creatures in the pits of sorrow and despair.

Just a few centuries ago, the Great Ones descended and gazed with pity towards the ball of darkness that was the world.

With a snap of their fingers the darkness of the void dissipated and then condensed, in their hands it was held and then hurled.

Nearly blinded by the light that had begun to shine, the people looked up in bewilderment and awe.

The Great Ones spoke, “Children of this realm know whom it is your saviors and forever thank us as law.”

“For if you do, light will forever shine upon this great world as it does now or else shall that light be destroyed.”


And thus the Age of Light began, with the entirety of the prior existence to be known as the Age of the Void.

-Great Revelations

Features (subject to change)

- An story that explores the lost history of the world

- Character development

- Dungeon Crawling with Platforming Elements

- Traditional RPG Combat an Active Time Battle System

- A basic crafting system

- A  simple class system that allows party members to be several roles, and can be changed anytime out of battle.

Err... umm... let's see...

- Artwork made by an amateur

- Handdrawn Animated Battlers made by the same amateur

- A game being developed by one guy, and this is probably too much for me to handle by myself...

World

World Map (work in progress)

Spoiler

For a thousand years now the world was controlled mostly by the Church of the Great Ones. It is largely unknown what state the world was in prior to that, but for the most part the discovery and research of any relics and ruins of those that lived in the Void Era has been largely taboo.

That is, until the establishment of the Magic Guild roughly 150 years ago. With their tower built directly upon the remains of a lost civilization from the Void Era, they immediately began development of wondrous technology. Their research has revealed the past eras were highly advanced and soon the Magic Guild was quickly opposed to the Church regulations and immediately began scrouging as much of the past they could, and released what they could to the public.

While the Church and Magic Guild directly opposed each other for some years, they have began to at least cooperate more or less after the Magic Guild help establish new technologies for the good of all... for the most part, the Church and Magic Guild developed Airships and a Bank together.

Either way, both the Church and Magic Guild are still at odds with one another... seeking the ruins and relics of the past, and claiming rights to history.

Characters

Main Characters

Spoiler

(Class Features Subject to Change)

Kyo

Age: Appears mid 20's

Main Class - Mage

Specializations:

Warlock - Single Target Heavy Raw Magic

Magus - AoE Magic Self Substain

Eldritch - Condition Heavy Debuffer

Ritualist - Supportive Buffs and Healing Magic

A low ranked mage from the Magic Guild, Kyo is actually a well experienced adventurer.

He seems to be holding several secrets about himself, and holds back showing his true powers. While he is currently traveling on assignment from the Magic Guild, he holds his own goals in much higher regards. On his left ring finger he securely wears a ring embedded in an unknown language.

Clay

Age: 27

Main Class - Soldier

Specialization:

Slayer - Single Target Heavy Raw Melee, small chance of multiple Conditions

Gladiator - Aoe Melee with high chance to cause Conditions, Immunity to Blind

Guardian - Tank with Debuffs, Self Substain and Immunity to multiple Conditions

Paragon - Buffer/Support with Access to Holy and Lightning Damage

Born in a farming town near the mountains to the north west, Clay is the local blacksmith as well as a skilled swordsman.

His father was reported to have died out on a joint Church and Magic Guild excavation mission about 15 years ago, the scarred helmet Clay wears was the only thing recovered from his father. Since his death he was taken care of by his neighbors whom he calls his Grandma and Grandpa. Although an adult now, he still wonders about the mystery of his father's death.

Lyra

Age: 24

Main Class - Theif

Specializations: (WiP)

Hunter - Single Target High Raw Damage

Trapper - Multi Target Heavy Conditions

Rogue - Debuffer, Greater Item Usage

Bard - Buffer, Greater Item Usage

A half-elf that managed to escape genocide thanks to the efforts of a rogue knight.

Although Lyra was forced to live in the streets she is still forever curious about her savior. She wears a small red cloak that is actually a knitted blanket. The blanket itself was given to her by the one that saved her. She hopes to one day meet the one that saved her.

She will join the party in Chapter 3.

Akara

Age: Appears early 20's

Main Class - Magician

Specializations: (WiP)

Duelist - Versatile Physical/Magical Striker Condition Heavy

Dominator - Magic AoE with Multiple Effects

Illusionist - Magic Debuffer

Enchanter - Magic Buffer

A mysterious girl with an even more mysterious origin...

She will join the party in Chapter 4.

Supporting Characters

Spoiler

Biggs

- A Guardian for the Church of the Great Ones. He's not the brightest thinker and usually answers obstacles with a beating. His preferred weapon in battle is a great hammer.

Fortune

- A traveling merchant that owns a shop in the adventuring city of Virtus Blade. She dons a set of red armor with draconic designs. She is somewhat cowardly and uses a spear in battle in order to keep her distance in a fight.

"Grandma" Helen and "Grandpa" Fareko

- Clay's loving neighbors and essentially a retired witch and warlock. Although Fareko claims to be done with magic and inventions, he still tinkers with his dream invention called the "mechanical broom."

Tolshin

- An Alchemist and Cryomancer, he is an associate of the Magic Guild. He runs a small mining company and sells a line of unique hair dyes. Hidden behind his gas mask is a young man with blue hair... because you gotta have blue hair! His weapon of choice is a new type of weapon he invented called an alchemer... which is essentially a magical staff converted into a type a hose that shoots alchemical stuff...

Tyrosine

-  A mysterious knight that has never shown his actual face. His helmet is actually enchanted to allow him to eat and drink without taking it off. He wields a magical sword and shield in battle, and he is always willing to give advice or help to those in need.

Granite

- Clays father who was said to have died 15 years ago in a joint excavation by the Magic Guild and Church. His body was never recovered, and any information about that excavation had been locked away.

More info coming eventually...

Screenshots



Video Footage

Sorry of the Video Quality is bad...










Credits

(Not all of these assets have been utilized yet in the demo thingy)

Scripts
Moghunter
Mithran  
Jet10985    

Syzu
Victor Sant
Yanfly

Music
Joel Steudler
Quigon
mjomusic
Scythuz
Gorlami
Kairi Sawler
JDB Artist

Jeremiah "McTricky" George

Tilesets
Lunarea

Other Assests

Obsidian Dawn - (Photoshop/GIMP Brushes)

http://www.obsidiandawn.com/

 

[Jarrad]

This looks quite good and I really like the idea as a whole! I'm downloading the demo now and will post as in dept of a "review" as possible when I'm done.

Edit: Neither download link worked for me, said the files have been moved or deleted

 

[EliteZeon]

Umm... demo is broken actually... (I forgot to change the starting location while I was building a town)

but I will fix it... now...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7jw7rv82gmzaw1i/4Runes%28NoRTP%29.exe?dl=0

 

[EliteZeon]

Alright, first off, I thank you all whoever decided to test this... (about 4 or so that I know of at least?) If anyone has any input please let me know. I'll update the uploaded game files in chunks though, I will definately make a post when things get updated.

(Next upload will probably be when I get Chapt 2 doneish)

Classes have started back up. So I can't work on this as much (ugh, Chemistry major)... but I've got some ideas I am throwing around more now.

I've updated the first post with more information over the past few weeks for the most part.

In particular:

-Light info on supporting characters/guest party members

-Basic info on the classes of the main party

Chapter 2 is coming along a little more slowly than I expected, since I am juggling around with story ideas. But for the most part, I think I will work on getting combat completed first.

I think I will also rework the UI graphics a little more. (Combat UI has been messed around with a bit, more changes later)

Either way, here are some more screenies:

Spoiler

Messing with battler dimensions and styles... I might go back and update the older ones later.

Spoiler

              

And here's some rough concept art sketches for the hell of it.

Spoiler

Yes, that tree has a triangle... and yes that caterpillar is in a hammock... and yes I want to fully animate these monsters.

And some rough idea sketches for upcoming cinematic-ish pictures for Chapter 1, 2 and 4. Erm... no usable sketches for Chapt 3 yet.

This sketch features scenes to be added to the end of Chapter 1 and somewhere in Chapter 2.

Still figuring out the character design for the female figure. These will be used in Chapter 4.

And one last thing, I kinda sorta want my characters to have facial expressions like this:

But... I realized I have over 20 or so characters with faces, and I wanna share the love of facial features... but I am only one man and too lazy to tackle all that recoloring and perfection for all the characters... so I think I'll scrap that and leave Kyo to his fate of forever having his face hidden in game, with other characters forever stuck with a single expression...

Eh crap that sounds bad... I'll ponder of that idea a little bit more.

 

[Sephiron]

Those are some hot animations man. Really digging your style! I don't say this about many games, but I might actually consider playing this whenever it's released. So far very well done.

 

[EliteZeon]

Sorry guys, been busy with my school work, so not too much time was spent working on this. Release is still eons away unfortunately. 

But here is what I have ready to say right now.

Some feedback I have gotten so far that I will change for next upload to come around:

-Nerf monster attacks in first Encounter

-Explain combat better

-Give Kyo some Energy Drinks to start off with

-Explain the Rifts fully heal the party

-Fix Grammar and Spelling Errors (if you spot any let me know where!)

-Change Jumping Mechanic

(current common event scripting is causing a lot of problems with events and makes gameplay a little inconsistent)

-Rework pacing a little in Chapter 1

-Add in a little more pictured cinematics as shown in my above post

-Possibly completely change the scene in the "Long Corridor" (This might become a set piece for opening credits)

-Try to work in more personality for the characters

-Remove excessive files for smaller download size

Things I am thinking about in general:

-Custom tile set (ugh why am I doing this to myself?)

Things I am currently working on:

-Working on battle sprites when I get the time, current guest party member has run into some complications... I plan on having about 12 guest/rival party sprites. (If I get good enough at RPGMaker, these characters will be the leads in sequels and spinoffs)

-Being too ambitious, trying to learn how to do actual cartoon animations from scratch.

(Will be used for a few cinematics, ultimate bursts and summons if I get it down right)

-Figuring out the subclass system, most skills have been named... now just to put an effect to go with them....

-Chapter 2's story is in rough draft. It generally will be from the perspective of Clay.

-Figure out the proper way to spell definately is definitely... hopefully one day I will remember this...

Things that are done-ish:

-New Title Screen

-Reworked the UI and windows a little

-Layout of Clay's hometown

-Chapter names, w00t

Spoiler

Chapter names are definitely subject to change.

1-Staff and Ruin
2-Sword and Field
3-Cape and Slum
4-Spring and Demon
5-Ships and Company
6-Cities and Heroes
7-Towers and Magic
8-Mines and Craters
9-Skies and History
10-Worlds and Origins
11-Power and Madness
12-Plans and Complimation
13-Imp and Giant
14-Gates and Anguish
15-Sun and Void

16-Goals and Memories

Some more Images

Spoiler

New Video Footage

 

[Kes]

I'm going to leave my notes as they are, even though I've now just noticed your post where you say you're working on various things.  My eye fell on the comment about needing to explain your combat better.  Yup, I'd go along with that as you will see.  These notes were written as I went along, and I thought I'd leave them as is so that you get a more direct knowledge of this one player's experience than you would if I were to make it a more formal feedback.  My more considered overall assessment is at the end.

Great interactivity with all the statues along the first corridor.  Music goes well with the maps.  I like the face set.

Your instructions for what to do to jump work fine if the person has an English language qwerty keyboard.  What happens if they have e.g. a French or German keyboard, let alone a keyboard which does not use Latin letters?  Maybe you need a show picture at this point instead of just words.

You provided no battle tutorial, and I didn’t quite understand your battle system – text is very small, what exactly is Burst?  It doesn’t seem to be the same as TP, or at least there’s no TP equivalent bar filling up that I could see.  I couldn’t use the Energy skill (which looks like MP under another name, but perhaps it’s not?) which was listed,  I just got the buzzer – why have I got an MP skill if I have no MP?  (See below)  This lead to a Game Over as I couldn’t deal physical damage fast enough, which meant doing that tedious jumping bit all over again.  If you absolutely insist on not having save anywhere, you should have a save point just before the first battle, especially as it means in this instance having to do a mini-game all over again. 

I know that save anywhere vs save points only is one of those questions which divides the universe, (I’m on the save anywhere side) but even those who want save points acknowledge that they have to be placed fairly.

Second time round I could use the MP skill, so there seems to be some bug, unless it is a quirk of your battle system, in which case a battle tutorial is definitely needed.  You should never assume that all possible players will know how the basics work.  You could have someone trying out their first RM game, and they are going to be lost, not just on battles but on general controls, menus, saving etc.  You should provide an optional tutorial.

Your transitions into battle remove your screen tint for a moment, so everything goes all bright and pale.  Same after battle.

Having gone up to the next section, the first bar gate to the left seems to be set to star passability, as I can walk under it.  This feels weird.  If I can walk under it, why is it there?  Presumably it is meant to be dangling from the ceiling, but…  And then at the bottom, having used the lock pick, I walk under a couple more.  They look off, and I don’t think add anything.

He walks along and there is a transition to somewhere else (at least that is what I think has happened – fade out and now different wall tiles) but he says nothing about it.  Given that he has been quite chatty about every little thing until now, this seems out of character.  At last, another save point.

Victory aftermath – he’s talking about selling junk that has been found when only money was actually obtained.

I have to admit I’m getting seriously hacked off by your jumping.  To get a long way, make a mistake and be put right back at the beginning is exceedingly annoying.  It is not amusing, it is not challenging, it is just irritating.  Failure can be caused by holding the A key fractionally too long so that a second jump is taken, it can be because the screen is rather dark and it is not always clear that a long jump is required; or it looks like it needs a long jump and in fact it doesn’t so you can land beyond the pillar rather than on it, as well as simple error.  Mini games which rely on physical dexterity and finger coordination need to take into account that in any wide demographic these abilities will vary.  Obviously there will be individual variations, but in broad brush terms, basic physiology dictates that those with the highest levels of such skills are teenage males.  The next highest are males in their 20s.  Unless you want to restrict your game to those groups, you will have to find ways to accommodate differing abilities.  Sending the player right back to the beginning is not one of them.

I’ve gone down the hole with the rope.  I’m told that this could be dodgy and I should be prepared.  Another save point here maybe, if it’s that dubious?  No self switch on the falling crate, so I get the dialogue about the teacher again.

Why, if Kyo has remarked that it’s getting cold down here, do I get flames?  An ice graphic would make more sense.  Got 2 critical hits or something in the very first round with the ghost and so got Game Over.  One shot death and no save point?  Now getting very annoyed.  Second time round the enemy was a push over.  What is going on with how you’ve set up its skills that there can be such variation?

Nothing particular to comment on in what follows after that.  Got both locked chests before going through the gate.  I did wonder about any player who missed the rope.  I know it’s unlikely as there were sparkles on the crate, but some may miss it.  I wasn’t going to start all over again to test it, but do you have some dialogue on the hatch if the rope is not in the inventory telling the player what’s needed?

The book, Kyo’s Journal and the Assignment in the Key Items do not work; I just got the buzzer if I tried to access them.

OVERALL assessment.

The story looks like it's going to be excellent; there are many intriguing points which, if worked carefully, will lead to interesting developments.  Speaking purely on a personal level, I'm slightly tired of some random 'Church' being the baddies, against all change/progress.  I think it's got rather cliched. Is it too late to consider a name change?  You've got the Magic Guild, maybe the Warrior Guild who prize only physical skills and knowledge and hate theoretical/imaginative/intellectual skills?

As you will have seen from above, I have problems with a couple of your design decisions.  You may say that this game is just not for me, but I think this is wider than strictly personal preference.  I do play games with save points, and can enjoy them, but the frequency and strategic placement are crucial to getting this right, and I don't think you have it yet.  By the time I got to the narrowing passage I hated with a visceral hatred the jumping mechanism, and all because of having to start right back at the beginning again, and the zero latitude for error.  As I said in the main notes, the way it's set up will restrict your demographic and if you're happy with that, then fine.  If not, then you might want to consider having a couple of intermediate points that people are sent back to.  It will be a bit tricky working out where because of the different routes that can be taken, but not impossible.

This looks like a game with a lot of potential and one which (if these 2 issues were dealt with) I would want to play.

Typos that I noticed

From the intro:

2nd dialogue box “…all living creatures it in…”  (in it)

Inspecting skeleton

“I hope (they ) were able to rest well.” 

On level up

“All the more wiser”  - either “All the more wise” or “All the wiser”, you can’t combine them.

Talking to the ghost where there are the flames and he wants the gate opened

“…what can I do so for you then?” Not sure what this means.  Probably just delete the “so”

Going up the narrowing passage

“In anycase, most people…”  “any case”

The text box beginning

“I got lost…”  the text runs out on the right hand side on the third line, so that “place” loses its final ‘e’.

Bronze Knight

“Well now… this is a fricking great”  Either delete “a” or tell us what it is referring to.

Clay

“I was hoping to get some kind (of) answer…”

 

[EliteZeon]

Oh thank you so much! I've been needing something like this for awhile. Most of my feedback so far has been by word of mouth or quick complaints from my friends that have played. It is really nice to have feedback like this. I put some comments to your feedback in the following qoute.

Spoiler

Great interactivity with all the statues along the first corridor.  Music goes well with the maps.  I like the face set.

Thanks! I'll do my best to keep this up with future chapters and areas!

Your instructions for what to do to jump work fine if the person has an English language qwerty keyboard.  What happens if they have e.g. a French or German keyboard, let alone a keyboard which does not use Latin letters?  Maybe you need a show picture at this point instead of just words.

Jumping will definitely change, including the control scheme... more on this later in accordance to your feedback.
You provided no battle tutorial, and I didn’t quite understand your battle system – text is very small, what exactly is Burst?  It doesn’t seem to be the same as TP, or at least there’s no TP equivalent bar filling up that I could see.  I couldn’t use the Energy skill (which looks like MP under another name, but perhaps it’s not?) which was listed,  I just got the buzzer – why have I got an MP skill if I have no MP?  (See below)  This lead to a Game Over as I couldn’t deal physical damage fast enough, which meant doing that tedious jumping bit all over again.  If you absolutely insist on not having save anywhere, you should have a save point just before the first battle, especially as it means in this instance having to do a mini-game all over again. 

I know that save anywhere vs save points only is one of those questions which divides the universe, (I’m on the save anywhere side) but even those who want save points acknowledge that they have to be placed fairly.

Second time round I could use the MP skill, so there seems to be some bug, unless it is a quirk of your battle system, in which case a battle tutorial is definitely needed.  You should never assume that all possible players will know how the basics work.  You could have someone trying out their first RM game, and they are going to be lost, not just on battles but on general controls, menus, saving etc.  You should provide an optional tutorial.

Yes, I will do my best to put in a more detailed explaination for combat. The downside is that with Victor's Battlers script and Active Time Battle, combat seems to completely break depending on how I event things. Since I have no idea how to fix these things, I did my best to pace the events and text in such a way that it won't break combat. It took me a couple of tries to actually get that text working without the ghoul event breaking actually... either way I will work with it and explain combat in game one way or another.

I'll explain combat a little right now:

There are two types of skills, Adrenaline Burst and Energy Abilities. Energy Abilites include typical types of magic spells, buffs, and other skills that may generally use MP in other games. Adrenaline Bursts are typically all TP based skills seen in other games.

For the sake of Magical user, they use Adrenaline to get some unique spells off without using their actual EN reserves, in Kyo's low level case, he can siphon off the energy from opponents to recover his own. If he specializes as a Warlock later, I plan on giving him several heavy damage spells that come directly from Adrenaline Bursts.

Physical users, like Clay use Adrenaline Bursts to do skills like Double Chop, Hundred Blades, etc...

Adrenaline Bursts also derive into Ultimate Skills, and will cost 100 AD to use.

As for saving, the very first RPG I ever played (other than Pokemon Blue and then Gold) was Final Fantasy 10, which used save Spheres. So I was kinda influenced by that.

However, Kyo's Journal will be able to be used as a save point, so you can save on the fly. However, I kinda want to make your saving limited still, so it will take up a resource to save (think Resident Evil... so... ink) but the ink used to save will be obtainable, buyable and craftable. So it will be generally not too hard to stock up on the saving point resource.

Your transitions into battle remove your screen tint for a moment, so everything goes all bright and pale.  Same after battle.

Yes, this was actually intentional. I didn't like how the blue tint affected my sprites and such in battles, however for the Ghast fight, I thought the orange tint would be needed since the area was on fire, I'll explain the Ghast area more later.

Its an issue with the current jumping mechanic, earlier the gate was placed somewhere else, but you could've jumped over it and skipped it altogether. So I moved the gate down there. I made the grating to the left to try and make it feel more connected to the other wall, but yes it looks wierd. I'll change it back to the first form I had when I redo the jumping mechanic.Having gone up to the next section, the first bar gate to the left seems to be set to star passability, as I can walk under it.  This feels weird.  If I can walk under it, why is it there?  Presumably it is meant to be dangling from the ceiling, but…  And then at the bottom, having used the lock pick, I walk under a couple more.  They look off, and I don’t think add anything.


Having gone up to the next section, the first bar gate to the left seems to be set to star passability, as I can walk under it.  This feels weird.  If I can walk under it, why is it there?  Presumably it is meant to be dangling from the ceiling, but…  And then at the bottom, having used the lock pick, I walk under a couple more.  They look off, and I don’t think add anything.

Its an issue with the current jumping mechanic, earlier the gate was placed somewhere else, but you could've jumped over it and skipped it altogether. So I moved the gate down there. I made the grating to the left to try and make it feel more connected to the other wall, but yes it looks wierd. I'll change it back to the first form I had when I redo the jumping mechanic.Having gone up to the next section, the first bar gate to the left seems to be set to star passability, as I can walk under it.  This feels weird.  If I can walk under it, why is it there?  Presumably it is meant to be dangling from the ceiling, but…  And then at the bottom, having used the lock pick, I walk under a couple more.  They look off, and I don’t think add anything.

He walks along and there is a transition to somewhere else (at least that is what I think has happened – fade out and now different wall tiles) but he says nothing about it.  Given that he has been quite chatty about every little thing until now, this seems out of character.  At last, another save point.

I'll take note of this and give him a snarky comment or something in the future. Maybe:

"Aaaaand... I am completely lost..."

"Fun fun!"

Victory aftermath – he’s talking about selling junk that has been found when only money was actually obtained.

I'll take note of that victory aftermath thing. I think I'll put an explanation ingame or something. But the idea is that the characters have obtained some random trinkets not listed as have a trading value of that much cash. Hence the screen says Battle Salvage.

I have to admit I’m getting seriously hacked off by your jumping.  To get a long way, make a mistake and be put right back at the beginning is exceedingly annoying.  It is not amusing, it is not challenging, it is just irritating.  Failure can be caused by holding the A key fractionally too long so that a second jump is taken, it can be because the screen is rather dark and it is not always clear that a long jump is required; or it looks like it needs a long jump and in fact it doesn’t so you can land beyond the pillar rather than on it, as well as simple error.  Mini games which rely on physical dexterity and finger coordination need to take into account that in any wide demographic these abilities will vary.  Obviously there will be individual variations, but in broad brush terms, basic physiology dictates that those with the highest levels of such skills are teenage males.  The next highest are males in their 20s.  Unless you want to restrict your game to those groups, you will have to find ways to accommodate differing abilities.  Sending the player right back to the beginning is not one of them.

As of right now, Jumping runs via a common event which runs parallel, and I switch it on and off depending on the area players are at. Unfortunately because Jumping is a common event, and thus you can virtually jump anywhere in the map (including off screen, into walls, past walls, gates, etc...) it revealed quickly it was a problem. To counteract that, so players won't get stuck in walls, off screen, etc... I made it so that you will respawn in a certain point of the map to prevent the game from breaking... but it has come off as extremely frustrating.

How I will change it, I will probably put an event in between each platform players will interact with with their default keys (probably will have arrows as a graphic or something) and the character will jump and automatcally make each jump. So there won't be much to it other than that.

If people have any other ideas, I am VERY open to them.

I’ve gone down the hole with the rope.  I’m told that this could be dodgy and I should be prepared.  Another save point here maybe, if it’s that dubious?  No self switch on the falling crate, so I get the dialogue about the teacher again.

I'll keep this in mind, as for the mapping... I actually have the character moving through several maps here... so eventing will be a little weird. I'll keep this in mind.

Why, if Kyo has remarked that it’s getting cold down here, do I get flames?  An ice graphic would make more sense.  Got 2 critical hits or something in the very first round with the ghost and so got Game Over.  One shot death and no save point?  Now getting very annoyed.  Second time round the enemy was a push over.  What is going on with how you’ve set up its skills that there can be such variation?

I'll explain it next time around. Essentially, lorewise Ghosts gather up energy from the nearby area, in most cases, they can gather energy from any heat nearby and from that, the area becomes colder. I'll try to describe the situation more.

Oh Gods, One Shotted? I haven't seen him crit before... I didn't really give him a crit chance either. His attacks are actually just the basic attack skill with variables moved around, and then his spells are:

Flare Wisp

125 + a.mat * 2 - b.mdf * 2

Chill

150 + a.mat * 2 - b.mdf * 2

Here's it's stats. I'm still learning everything, so I am not entirely sure what would've caused that.

Nothing particular to comment on in what follows after that.  Got both locked chests before going through the gate.  I did wonder about any player who missed the rope.  I know it’s unlikely as there were sparkles on the crate, but some may miss it.  I wasn’t going to start all over again to test it, but do you have some dialogue on the hatch if the rope is not in the inventory telling the player what’s needed?

Yup, I got a conditional branch working there.

The book, Kyo’s Journal and the Assignment in the Key Items do not work; I just got the buzzer if I tried to access them.

That was actually intentional... as for his Journal, it will be a save point system in the future, and the assignment papers, I was originally gonna give it a common event to bring up the details of his assignment...

But I couldn't figure out how to word it, so I decided just to have it in there for flavor.
I'll look into the key items more later.
OVERALL assessment.

The story looks like it's going to be excellent; there are many intriguing points which, if worked carefully, will lead to interesting developments.  Speaking purely on a personal level, I'm slightly tired of some random 'Church' being the baddies, against all change/progress.  I think it's got rather cliched. Is it too late to consider a name change?  You've got the Magic Guild, maybe the Warrior Guild who prize only physical skills and knowledge and hate theoretical/imaginative/intellectual skills?

I hope you and others will enjoy the plot I got planned out, as well as the several twists that may come with it. Sorry if it is a bit overused. But yes, I do have three main factions:

The Magic Guild

-They are the ones going into old ruins and making technology based on their discoveries.

The Round Table of Adventurers

-Made recently in the past century by Magister Edward the Great (of the Magic Guild) and Justicar Troung (of the Church)

They are more or less peace keepers, whilst also doing footwork for both the Magic Guild and Church.

The Church of the Great Ones

-They are currently not against what the Magic Guild is doing, such that they will be willing to cooperate with one another for the greater good. You can say their rights to history are much more, secure... any new discoveries made and released have been very, very carefully considered.

As you will have seen from above, I have problems with a couple of your design decisions.  You may say that this game is just not for me, but I think this is wider than strictly personal preference.  I do play games with save points, and can enjoy them, but the frequency and strategic placement are crucial to getting this right, and I don't think you have it yet.  By the time I got to the narrowing passage I hated with a visceral hatred the jumping mechanism, and all because of having to start right back at the beginning again, and the zero latitude for error.  As I said in the main notes, the way it's set up will restrict your demographic and if you're happy with that, then fine.  If not, then you might want to consider having a couple of intermediate points that people are sent back to.  It will be a bit tricky working out where because of the different routes that can be taken, but not impossible.

Yup, I'll do my best to rework this!

This looks like a game with a lot of potential and one which (if these 2 issues were dealt with) I would want to play.

I'll do my best not to disappoint!

Typos that I noticed

From the intro:

2nd dialogue box “…all living creatures it in…”  (in it)

Inspecting skeleton

“I hope (they ) were able to rest well.” 

On level up

“All the more wiser”  - either “All the more wise” or “All the wiser”, you can’t combine them.

Talking to the ghost where there are the flames and he wants the gate opened

“…what can I do so for you then?” Not sure what this means.  Probably just delete the “so”

Going up the narrowing passage

“In anycase, most people…”  “any case”

The text box beginning

“I got lost…”  the text runs out on the right hand side on the third line, so that “place” loses its final ‘e’.

Bronze Knight

“Well now… this is a fricking great”  Either delete “a” or tell us what it is referring to.

Clay

“I was hoping to get some kind (of) answer…”

Thank you, I've gotten complaints about grammar and dialogue but no one really pointed out where. I'll get right on this! My problem here was that I worked on the dialogue through the dialogue boxes in RPGMaker, and not on Word or something first where I am reliant on its auto correction features.

Just so you know, with Yanfly's Aftermath script, I seem to be having problems with the dialogue at the end of the battles, where you will see some of the coding after some sentences... I'm not sure how to fix this, so far I've been compensating by making the sentences long enough so you won't see those codes. Just thought to let yall know.

Anyways, I am very grateful for this, thank you!

 

[Kes]

You might want to start a topic in Ace support about how to sort out the problems you're having with the Aftermath script.  There is a guy called gbillisp who I know was looking at ways to prevent the characters saying something like "look at what we got" when there had been no drops, and other inappropriate responses.

 

[EliteZeon]

Alright, I managed to squeeze some time from my RL schedule and managed to make these overhauls.

New Features - (No New Upload Yet)

-Save Journal:

Save via Kyo's Journal (might be renamed), using it will use 1 Enchanted Ink

-Combat Tutorial:

Completely Optional, took me several hours to do. I had multiple ideas, and Victors Active Time Battle kept breaking for some reason. So I decided to use several images and make the instance lead to an automatic victory, whilst doing my best to explain everything relevant for the time.

-Jumping Mechanic Removal

Yaaaaay!!!!

Jumping is still in the game, but it no longer requires frustration and anger. Instead of using a common event to make a Jumping button, you can now interact with the environment. If said interaction is a jump, characters will always make it to the next platform.

(Unless I screw up the eventing)

Footage of everything can be seen here:

 

[Kes]

I loved the comments you've put in on the jumping section.  Well done.  Also the tutorial does succeed in explaining everything.  It is perhaps a little long, but at least I now know what burst is all about.

 

[EliteZeon]

No New Demo Yet... but slowly getting there...

I'm going to overhaul a certain scene then I'll reupload Chapter 1. Here is a rough draft preview of said scene:

Spoiler

Some other things:

I've added a save point at the end of the chapter, and if I evented it right, once chapter 2 is released, it will let you continue from that spot once I update it.

I've gone back and resized some of the Vanilla animations I've been using to make them more appropriate for my side view battlers. That said, I've only resized about 5 or 6 so far...

I've thrown in Syzu's Crafting System and got rid of my Common Event ran Crafting System. This will make life a lot easier on me, and the presentation will be much better:

Spoiler

I've added an extra scene to the Chapter 1 ending which is actually the Chapter 2 beginning, one which I hope people will enjoy when it gets released.

(Creating this map was good practice for future mappings, who knew that ferns were completely impassable and completely capable of destroying an entire cinematic?!)

Spoiler

I've added Facial Expressions!!!!!!!! I've went through every textbox and maybe swapped out their facial expressions... (might've missed some, but most things can be said with a straight face)

Spoiler

And, I've made another monster battler:

(only 8 frames of animations though, Idle and Attack/Magic/Skill/Etc)

 

[EliteZeon]

I've got some exams coming up, and I realized the main cinematic changes I was going place in for the scenes might be redundant to add in with the current ending of this version of the game...

So... Imma just go ahead and announce that I got a more refined version ready for play testing.

If it explodes, I apologize ahead of time.

NoRTP

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7jw7rv82gmzaw1i/4Runes%28NoRTP%29.exe?dl=0

RTP

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j1l7ohskkzjgga8/4Runes%28RTP%29.exe?dl=0

Things Done

-Removed Music Files I am currently not using

-Refined some more dialogue and other things (I apologize for any other typos, tell me if you find them!)

-Edited the Jumping Event Markers to try and prevent further game breaking jumps

-Added an image of a magical keyboard to show basic uneditted controls

-****tons of refinement that may or may not have actually broke the game

To Do List

-Finish refining/polishing the gameplay of Chapter 1 (I wanna gameplay elements and scripts early before I move on)

-Finish doing the cinematic stuff

-Start work on Chapter 2 (Going to be adding some scripts for better outside effects or something)

-Fix some scripting errors (Yanfly's Aftermath, other stuff when I find it)

-Make new images for Galv's Custom Menu

-Look for a new icon set/make one

-Reorganize skills and items and other terms (UGH)

-Just about everything else above I hadn't addressed yet

-Make an adjust brightness notification at the start of the game... note to all, if you can't make out the four characters on the title screen... erm... you might wanna turn up your brightness for the full enjoyment of the game, maybe...

(This is a teaser to the thing I realized was redundant... for now)

Spoiler

 

[Kes]

Played the "more refined version" and yes, definitely a step up.  Improving nicely except for one area.  I think you need to play through yourself, carefully noting all the bits of dialogue that run off the right edge of the text box.  Also, descriptions in the database.  This is undermining what is a genuinely more polished version.

 

[EliteZeon]

Thank you so much for finding the time to go through it again! I really appreciate this.

I'll go through everything again sometime later this week or the upcoming weekend once I find the time, and I'll look into reducing some of the flavor text on items and skills and maybe get rid of some of the ellipses or just make a new text box entirely for dialogue if things keep getting cut off.

 

[Jode]

Chrome is marking the download as malicious, and won't let me download it. I'm using the NoRTP download by the way.

 

[EliteZeon]

Damn, I'm really not sure how to help you out here to be honest. The file does cause an unpacking and installation of the game, which I assume makes Chrome thinks this is malicious.

Try using another browser if you can, or swapping your firewall off or something.

 If it's still a problem, I'll see if I can get another download link working or something once I get a chance. I'm not sure if making myself a MediaFire account will help though.

 

[Kes]

I get this all the time with Chrome.  What you do is this:

On the right hand side at the bottom there is "Show all downloads"  Click on it.

You then get a list of everything, including the blocked file

Click on the thing saying restore malicious file

click on "Hurt me plenty"

It will then restore it.

 

[EliteZeon]

Exams are finally done for now... T_T

But... Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate just came out... and just got delivered to my doorstep... so expect a couple of Jaggi corpses distracting me by the end of the day/week/month.

Eh... here's what I've been working on a little recently:

Spoiler

Fortune's Expressions

(Having trouble getting these guys animated smoothly... so just some stills for now)

(And Moar Monsters, which I am not willing to show )

Currently trying to flesh out the story for Chapter 2 more. I've got a very good idea of what direction I want to go with it. I'm currently stuck with trying to come up with some of the more juicier stuff that occurs around the end of the chapter. Chapter 3's story's beginning is pretty much set in stone, but I'm having trouble giving some characters better reasons for their actions I got planned... so I gotta go and flesh out the back story of several characters more before I move on. Or figure out better cause and effect reasons.

I also gotta learn how to do parallax mapping (I think it's called?) You know, doing stuff with cloud shadows, forest shadows, etc... making more unique lighting effects, all that stuff. I'll have to search around for scripts and/or tutorials on doing those things.

Also thinking of making some side quests. Though I am not too sure how to do them properly, so I'll look into it more...

My main issue right now are the battlers though. I can't seem to get something I am satisfied with... I think I am having trouble trying to figure out the main direction I want to go with in terms of creature design... being that my main influences for the atmosphere in this game right now comes from monsters and creatures from Studio Ghibli Films, Persona and Dragon Quest 8. So I guess that I'm stuck in deciding on making creatures seem silly or serious looking... namely the boss I got planned for this chapter...

Eh... I'll figure something out...

 

[Fernyfer775]

This looks great, I will be keeping an eye on this one for when it's completed or closer to completion!