a Thief's Voyage

[Walldeaf]

A classic RPG with a sideview battlesystem, lots of character development and a solid story.
Using the power of the RPGMaker VX Ace engine, parallax mapping, scripting and
all in eventing soup, which makes this game a true adventure.
A game to remember!


It all start as 2 sisters, both belonging to the Obsidian Order, and in order of the King himself,
try to retrieve the Water crystal from a nearby dungeon,
that's close to our hero's town called: Link Haven.
Our hero, called Jake, was born and raised in this town, and being the helpful thief that he is,
He and the 2 ladies set out to retrieve the crystal from the dungeon.
While doing their mission they meet Warren, a young Samurai from Yrsa,
who is helping his best friend's sister
with her mission to retrieve her kidnapped brother from an unknown person.
This is where the story and plot picks up quickly and our adventure to save the world commences.
It will take you beautiful places and scary dungeons.
Even a world beneath the waves awaits you,
or should I say: treasure awaits you.





Jake - Thief - Dual wielding knifes.
Born in Link Haven, raised to be very helpful.


Brenda - Archer - Bow or Boomerang.
On a mission from the Obsidian Order to collect the Water Crystal.


Nathalie - Mage - Staff.
Together with her sister Brenda, white and black magic user.



Warren - Samurai - Katana.
A Samurai who is helping a friend to save her brother from his kidnapper.




In this game I added a lot of extra stuff, like a bard's game, trophies, statistics, battle voices,
parallax mapping and a lot of eventing.
Bonus stats is a nice feature, including stat-leveling armor pieces.
Also a lot of detail, like the buildings on the worldmap make almost a 100% image of the town.
Hard work? Yes, but couldn't leave it out.



The battle system is unique in it's style. Sideview but with a twist.
It's possible to gain Extra Attacks or an additional cast as you do battle.
Beautiful custom animations and a lot of skills to learn, buy, find or inherit.
Each character have their own weaponset, armourset and skillset.
Even "Defend" has its special properties.


Is it an easy game?
It's not a hard game, but it's a game to be enjoyed.
Hope you may enjoy it as much as it did creating it.

Spoiler: Screenshots

Spoiler: Screenshots

Spoiler: Screenshots

Demo is currently not available.


Full game can be bought for $3,99 here: A Thief's Voyage

Game Playthrough by d757gaming​

 

[Trihan]

Seems interesting, I'll check it out when I have a sec.

 

[Walldeaf]

Seems interesting, I'll check it out when I have a sec.

Thanks.

Let me know what you think.

 

[Walldeaf]

Updated the game due to a small error containing a fade in screen inside an event.

 

[Lady_JJ]

I've played until exiting the fire cavern. I did have to download the latest upload to be able to board the airship. I'm assuming that was the error you fixed?

Spoiler: Thoughts so far

There's an event in one of the houses, might be a glitch, might be an Easter egg, but it can definitely be exploited.

Some of the dialogue text boxes seem to be advanced by using action key, some seem to have a wait and then auto-advance. I am typically a fast reader, but I do like to read everything. Drives me crazy to have to wait. But, even with the option set to instant text, some of the textboxes seem to have a delay before you can manually advance. Messages of only 1 line are painstakingly slow and takes me out of my rhythm. That said, the wait time seems to be the same for a textbox with 3 or 4 words as it is for 3 or 4 lines. Those messages with 4 lines auto advance too quickly for me and I lose the last 3 or 4 words in that last line. Is it possible to remove the wait delay and just let the player click to advance at his/her/their own reading speed?

I like that there are so many interactive events in the town. Makes exploration feel 'worth it.' Again, I'd just like to advance those textboxes at my speed rather than a predetermined wait delay.

It's evident you spent a lot of time working on this game. Good luck.

Edit

Spoiler: Game crashing errors

In the town where the king resides, received this error and game shutdown in the Samurai training school:
Script 'Sideview' line 3462: NoMethodError occurred.
undefined method '*' for nil:NilClass
Checking status of Jake leads to this error and game shutdown:
Unable to find file:
Graphics/Pictures/living_status/rescue

Edit 2

Spoiler: How to board airship?

I spoke with the king, visted the town, found some nice equipment in a nearby cavern, but can't figure out how to get back on airship to find Manley in the tower. The dots are not very intuitive.

 

[Walldeaf]

Edit

Spoiler: Game crashing errors

In the town where the king resides, received this error and game shutdown in the Samurai training school:
Script 'Sideview' line 3462: NoMethodError occurred.
undefined method '*' for nil:NilClass

This is fixed.

Checking status of Jake leads to this error and game shutdown:
Unable to find file:
Graphics/Pictures/living_status/rescue

I don't get this error.

Edit 2

Spoiler: How to board airship?

I spoke with the king, visted the town, found some nice equipment in a nearby cavern, but can't figure out how to get back on airship to find Manley in the tower. The dots are not very intuitive.

Enter the castle. There are stairways on each side of the King's room.
The right one will lead you to the Airship room. Talk to the guard to board.

/Wallie.

PS: A good tip for the Tower of Azkhetete, bring pen and paper. You'll need it.

 

[Lady_JJ]

Lady_JJ said:
Checking status of Jake leads to this error and game shutdown:
Unable to find file:
Graphics/Pictures/living_status/rescue

I don't get this error.

Perhaps my computer is to blame then. I checked and the Graphics folder doesn't have a Pictures subfolder. I redownloaded and same, no Pictures subfolder.

Good luck with your game. It looks promising.

 

[Walldeaf]

It could be possible that, due to the script, the pictures don't get carried over by the
RPGMaker program itself.
That would mean I will need to make a winrar file of the game, and upload that one as download file.
I'll keep you updated.

 

[Walldeaf]

It was indeed that the pictures weren't in the download.
That means that there is nothing wrong with your computer.
I updated the download(s) to be good now.
Also fixed a few other problems.
It should finally be good now.

I do would like to thank you for all the feedback you have given so far.

/Wallie.

 

[Spermidine]

It's obvious that you put a lot of work into your game, so playing through it was an enjoyable experience. There are a few bugs and oddities, though, that I encountered during my playthrough:

- Opportunities to lose the airship permanently (game-breaking):
-- Landing on the upper tile of Link Haven, then entering the town

- Cut off text:
-- The maid's dialogue lines in Syndicate Manley's house when the party is supposed to visit the Frozen Hollow
-- Sky Castle engine room, central soldier NPC's dialogue lines

- The "Rest at an inn" trophy repeats itself ad infinitum (which basically makes the game unplayable) until the player rests at an inn again.

- The skill "Exchange VI" (wrong except for Nathalie) is probably supposed to be named "Exchange IV" (since following "Exchange III").

- Why does fighting Ballers and Baller Eggs (on the island northwest of the Frozen Hollow) yield 0 EXP and 0 Gold? They also don't seem to drop any items, and the same applies to Earth Worm Juan (who hatches from Baller Eggs). By the way, when encountering two Ballers and one Baller Egg and letting Earth Worm Juan hatch by destroying the Baller Egg first (without killing the Ballers), several Earth Worm Juan sprites are shown on the bottom of the screen. "They" can fight normally, so this issue is probably nothing more than a graphical glitch. This issue doesn't occur when letting Earth Worm Juan hatch from the Baller Egg by damaging the Baller Egg enough (without killing it).

- According to its description, Agility Necklace II only grants +1 upon leveling up (should be +3). The same applies to Defense Necklace II.

- Nathalie's Cure II skill seems to be amiss. Either she doesn't learn it (though I'm sure she does) or Cure II is replaced by Cure III later.

- It can be abused that certain monsters (Azure's Peak 3F, Eastern Pit, The Yawning Crypt) trigger several encounters in a row. The first encounter against said enemy at Azure's Peak 3F always consists of two Whirlies, which is a good opportunity to farm Yellow Stones (apart from that, only one Whirly at a time can be encountered rarely at Azure's Peak), and the enemy doesn't disappear as long as the player escapes from the second battle. This method is much better than slaying (Coral) Dragons on the island northwest of Frozen Hollow (or accumulating money to buy Yellow Stones from the final dungeon merchant) and makes it easy to bring Jake, Nathalie and Warren to level 99.

 

[Chuck4688]

This looks promising. Currently downloading it now.

 

[Walldeaf]

It's obvious that you put a lot of work into your game, so playing through it was an enjoyable experience.

Thank you for that nice compliment.

- Opportunities to lose the airship permanently (game-breaking):
-- Landing on the upper tile of Link Haven, then entering the town

- Cut off text:
-- The maid's dialogue lines in Syndicate Manley's house when the party is supposed to visit the Frozen Hollow
-- Sky Castle engine room, central soldier NPC's dialogue lines

- The "Rest at an inn" trophy repeats itself ad infinitum (which basically makes the game unplayable) until the player rests at an inn again.

- The skill "Exchange VI" (wrong except for Nathalie) is probably supposed to be named "Exchange IV" (since following "Exchange III").

- Why does fighting Ballers and Baller Eggs (on the island northwest of the Frozen Hollow) yield 0 EXP and 0 Gold? They also don't seem to drop any items, and the same applies to Earth Worm Juan (who hatches from Baller Eggs). By the way, when encountering two Ballers and one Baller Egg and letting Earth Worm Juan hatch by destroying the Baller Egg first (without killing the Ballers), several Earth Worm Juan sprites are shown on the bottom of the screen. "They" can fight normally, so this issue is probably nothing more than a graphical glitch. This issue doesn't occur when letting Earth Worm Juan hatch from the Baller Egg by damaging the Baller Egg enough (without killing it).

- According to its description, Agility Necklace II only grants +1 upon leveling up (should be +3). The same applies to Defense Necklace II.

- Nathalie's Cure II skill seems to be amiss. Either she doesn't learn it (though I'm sure she does) or Cure II is replaced by Cure III later.

These are all fixed.

- It can be abused that certain monsters (Azure's Peak 3F, Eastern Pit, The Yawning Crypt) trigger several encounters in a row. The first encounter against said enemy at Azure's Peak 3F always consists of two Whirlies, which is a good opportunity to farm Yellow Stones (apart from that, only one Whirly at a time can be encountered rarely at Azure's Peak), and the enemy doesn't disappear as long as the player escapes from the second battle. This method is much better than slaying (Coral) Dragons on the island northwest of Frozen Hollow (or accumulating money to buy Yellow Stones from the final dungeon merchant) and makes it easy to bring Jake, Nathalie and Warren to level 99.

I left those in. Like an easter egg.

Thank you for your amazing feedback. I feel scrutinised.

 

[kimo]

I am in an ice cave and trying to cross that 7 second timed bridge. The party cannot walk fast enough to cross the bridge before it disappears. It is always a bad choice to incorporate any timed element required for progression in a game.

It looks I'm done playing after about 2 hours.

EDIT: There is no Dash function in the options menu, but thanks to a friend's advice I was able to Dash by holding down the <Shift> key. This is still a really bad idea in general, though. Old farts or visually impaired people cannot always maneuver that fast.

 

[Walldeaf]

Hi Kimo,

Glad to read you have made it across the bridge. 7 Seconds really is enough time.
Hope you enjoy the rest of the game.
This is the only timed run in the game.
Wait for the Tower of Azketete, now, that's a mindbreaker
But nothing pen and paper can't fix.

 

[Cythera]

I made it the ice cave (and slightly into the ice cave, but I'll get there...) and I'm having a really fun time with this game! The characters are well developed, combat is enjoyable, albeit super easy but still.
Here's a good chunk of feedback, but I know I'll be playing more of this game, so more feedback is on its way.

Spoiler: Good

• The interactions between the two sisters are adorable. Speaking from the experience of having an older sister, not realistic in the way sisters treat each other, but cute all the same
• Good job with the use of jumps, balloon icons, sound effects, etc during cut scenes. Makes the scenes feel alive
• The art (busts and face sets) for the character matches the game, and I'm wondering where it comes from. Free resources, commission, or dev-made?
• Very well done interactions between all the characters in general. Characters also have good personalities and act/speak consistently with that personality
• I don't know what's a determining factor in the bonus actions in combat, but I love it. A good bonus for me, and an added threat if enemies get that bonus turn. Plus, it's a balanced bonus action! Way too many times I've played turn-based games that give bonus turns/actions and it destroys combat. This doesn't
• Again, I don't know what's the determining factor, but I do appreciate the bonus stats from 'fighting experience'.
• Achievements
• Really cool event work going on in this game, from lighting to moving floors to the custom stat scenes, like Brenda's or the bonus stats from fighting experience
• "Did you read that sentence that wasn't ours?" - Jake, in the water cave. Just...get out, developer XD I thought my humour was cringe-worthy! Still...I love it
• Exploration is rewarded well
• I BLEW UP THE ICE CAVE. YES I was so hoping something would happen if I used fire magic in there!

Spoiler: Not-So-Good

• That font is absolute murder on my eyes. Couple it with the lack of a textbox background and I have a hard time trying to read the text sometimes
• Not a fan of the auto-full screen. That’s probably just me, but I prefer an option in the menu to toggle full screen on and off
• There’s an awful lot of equipment choices right off the bat available to the player. That will be a turnoff, or at the least, confusing to many people. If this town is supposed to be a ‘hub’ where players will constantly be returning to, then use switches to mark their progress in the plot, and update the shop inventory that way. I spent a few minutes looking through armour, then searched for the weapon shop. Then items. Then rings. And eventually just said ‘meh’ and bought some random armour. That’s not how players should feel about a system that is obviously intended to have an aspect of customization in it
• The 2.5D overworld and the way it moves puts huge strain on my eyes. With the font, I really can only play this game in small doses
• This is minor, but it bugs me on a personal level. The order of the party in the menu goes Jake, Nath, Brenda, then Warren. Order of HP bars in combat : Jake, Nath, Brenda, Warren. Order of battlers on screen in combat: Brenda, Nath, Warren, Jake!
• Some events can feel too slow - for example, some camera panning, the speed of the achievements + level up text notifications
• Fenna's battler doesn't really match her bust artwork. It looks cool, but it doesn't match. You could change the battler name to Fenna Ghost or something to get around it? Minor pet peeve
• Brenda falls behind the others in strength very quickly due to her different level-up system, which, the more I use, the more I question why she has a different system to begin with?

Spoiler: Bug

After blowing up the ice cave and being thanked for killing everyone, the save/load screen pops up. If I cancel out of it, the screen remains black - softlocked. I didn't test what happens if I save over my file. I would assume, since cancelling creates a softlock, saving over would render that file unplayable.
Aside from this, I have encountered anything game-breaking...yet

Spoiler: Suggestions/Comments

• Jake is a thief, but his bust artwork appears to have a sword, and not the daggers he equips?
• When Fenna does her scripted attack, I still have two party members alive! Jake and Warren both had over 100 HP. Go crazy with the damage just to prevent that little immersion-breaking factor of ending the fight when half my party is still alive
• On the balancing side, this game is pretty easy. I was level 4/5 for Fenna, and had no problems with the boss fight. I lost Brenda in the first round because I wasn't paying attention, but honestly, she wasn't helping and I got through the rest of the fight without her just fine.
• I threw all my best equipment on Nath, and now she one-shots everything. I was hoping for more challenge, but that's me. I do hope the game does get progressively harder as it goes on. As it stands now, combat is quite easy.

I'll be back; I'm having fun playing this. The humour is just as bad as mine, so that's reason enough for me to stick around. Additionally, it just has well-written characters, and overall has been well developed.

 

[Lady_JJ]

Replaying the game. Just wanted to drop by and thank you for removing those pauses in the dialogue boxes. It's made a huge difference, at least to me.

 

[Walldeaf]

Replaying the game. Just wanted to drop by and thank you for removing those pauses in the dialogue boxes. It's made a huge difference, at least to me.

You are very welcome, Lady_jj, I should thank you for the good tips and feedback that made me see that changing it was better, and better for replay value. /grin.

The art (busts and face sets) for the character matches the game, and I'm wondering where it comes from. Free resources, commission, or dev-made?

I remember I got them from a Japanese website.
I have put them in my dropbox: Here

Have fun with them

 

[Cythera]

I played through the whole game, and I'm almost certain I played the latest version of the game too. Sadly, my previous save file didn't carry across, so I had to start a new playthrough. That's okay though!

All my points in my previous post still stand, and I want to add:

• There are really great puzzles in this game. Enjoyable, but something that I'd image most to all players could solve. I didn't see any puzzles and think 'huh, that was a tough one, that may be a stopping point for some players...' No, all puzzles were good, enjoyable, and with a balanced level of difficulty
• Trophies go Moooooo - I'm not sure why this was so gosh dang funny to me

Spoiler: Cons

• Weapons and Armours get progressively expensive. Especially at the Focus/Mithril tier in WestVille. However, the player doesn't need to actually buy equipment. Ever. Every single weapon and armour that can be bought, can be found in dungeons with relative ease. The dev in me has to then say, what's the point of the shops?! Why am I going to spend money on equipment I KNOW I'm going to find very quickly in the next dungeon? I can't believe I'm saying this but...tone down the rewards a touch. It's okay to make your players spend money. Maybe put one weapon per dungeon, and a couple mixed pieces of armour? So I can find a weapon for Jake in Dungeon A, then Dungeon B will hold a weapon for Nath. And both dungeons hold some mixed pieces of armour for all party members - but not the whole set. As I said. I never once had to buy equipment past the starting town - and even then, I found a good amount of equipment in the first dungeon
• Have the shakes in the ice cave go on a self-switch to a blank page. I step on a 'shake' event, then step off. I step back, and the event plays again. I feel those shakes should be 1-time events
• Still had no use for Brenda. She just falls so far behind the other party members so very quickly. I used her just for potions so Nath could constantly attack
• Bull Rush is, oof! It is an AOE that dealt, when I first got it, 700-800 damage! All his other skills did around 200 per strike! Eventually, Bull Rush is outclassed by Quad and Five Slice, but when you first get it, it is extremely powerful. Seems like almost fixed damage that doesn't scale with his stats that much? As it did just over 900 against the lava dungeon boss, and I had the skill for quite a while before that

Spoiler: Bugs/Issues

• The 5000 steps trophy description says walk 1000 steps
• Check the water auto tile for the ice cave. It has 2-3 pixel wide straight gray lines around the corners
• This one is important. Your music. There were some pieces in there that I believe are copy righted. There was lyrical music over the credits, and you listed in said credits you had Dark Souls music in your game. Now, maybe those pieces are free use, or heck, maybe you have a license for them. I don't know. But you have to be very careful with copyright and license stuff, even in 'just an RM game.'

Spoiler: On the ending...

...
...
Okay.
So. I like the trope. The game ends where a lot of games start - 'restore the crystals' deal. I like how the statue in the town is replaced with Jake. There is so much here that the player can expand on - how many times has this happened? Who was before Medivia? Is this a common cycle, with the gods replacing each other whenever someone attempts to revive Ashtzyeeps (yup, that's how I'm spelling his name, I'm sorry)
But that was way, WAY too abrupt. The game is finished, so the dev probably won't rework it, but for any future game the dev works on...
Writing wise, please don't do that. It was a literal deus ex machina. Give players a build up. Have some similarities between the godling and the god/goddess. Have a physical tell - of any kind. A change in appearance with emotion, such as eye colour change. You don't have to go the 'orphaned child taken in by the village' route, but the character should mention something significant in their past that is a clue.
So when the godling transforms and takes their true form/power/what have you, players don't go 'wut'; they go 'OOOHHH, so that's why X happens!' or 'Hey! That's why this character has Y trait!'
A connect-the-dots moment; an explanation.
Had there been those clues or hints dotted throughout the game, I would have LOVED that ending, and all the possible implications. While Jake's child follow the same fate, and replace him? What does that mean for this world; everyone loses their memory every time a god is replaced?! So, what's real, and what happens if someone ever remembers the previous god - oh, now I want to write that...
Yeah, rambling is over. I hope it helps you with any writing in the future, dev :3

Ending aside, this was a great, casual game to play. The humour is on point, the combat is balanced - though certainly on the easy side. Characters have personality, and the game overall plays well. Puzzles are enjoyable without being too challenging. There's very few bugs or issues. Map design is consistent and fits the game. The various mechanics mostly fit well together, such as the extra attacks in combat, or the extra stats after combat. The exception there being Brenda's level-up system.
Good job, dev. This was fun ^-^ I may come back and do my completionist run through haha

 

[Walldeaf]

Finally after almost a month worth of updating, adjusting and adding even
the smallest of details, today the game is ready.

 

[Walldeaf]

A Thief's voyage got a really good playthrough yesterday from D757Gaming.

Go check it out.​