Antagonista! [PG-13] [DEMO]

[Grinn]

Antagonista!
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UPDATE (9/20/16): Demo Version 0.02 Download Link
​

Note


While not overtly adult, this game contains an abundance of swearing and thus has a PG-13 rating. Critiques very welcome!


Demo


The demo can be found here. Covers intro and first part of first mission. I'll be posting updated versions as I go along.


LINK


Synopsis


You play as off-beat members of a villainous and tyrannical legion of evil. Your Emperor is hell bent on destroying the “Citadel of Light”, the last bastion of freedom and goodness in the world. Your goal is to complete missions to lower the defenses of this gallant symbol of Democracy and freedom by undertaking various missions.


Unique Features


Winds of Fate: Each round all characters (allies or enemies) gain a random emotional state that provides a bonus to certain actions. Plan your actions accordingly! If you are impassioned- use an attack to deal extra damage but if the enemy is calmed- their defenses will be 150% higher so it might be a good time to heal!


Each Battle Is Unique: Each battle has a unique troops with unique dialogue from the characters during the course of the fight.


Armor Changes Your Sprite: Each new piece of armor is now a fashion choice!


Genre Subversive: Are you tired of every game being a coming of age story where the protagonist is some demon-blooded male with dead parents and a tragic backstory yet is the savior of the universe? Antagonista delivers- play as a bunch of misanthropic villains and destroy the world!


Characters Sind

• 
  Description: The son of a great and powerful tyrant whose crippling came at the hands of his own hubris. Now, wheelchair bound, he must earn back his his father’s approval by serving in his Legion. He use to be a bully- but now he has to learn to think with his head!
  
• 
  Joins: Beginning
  

• 
  Mastermind (Class): Uses plans to buff all of his allies. Useful for clearing buffs/debuffs off enemies as well.
  
  
  
  Any (Weapon Type): Sind can use any weapon that his companions can use. This affords him a great deal of leeway in regards to his role on the battlefield.
  
• 
  Wheelchair (Armor Type): Sind may be crippled but that doesn’t mean he can’t have a battle waggon to ride into combat in! His armor boosts not only his Physical Defense but also his Evasion. Drops attack speed. Later ones have a low % to counter attack due to the spikes and automated defenses the chair provides.
  

Monty

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  Description: Frederick Mountebank Alistair the 3rd is the disowned son of a noble family. He hooked up with a gothy girl and work up with two holes in his neck. Now he bemoans his existence for all time.
  
• 
  Joins: Beginning
  

• 
  Vampire (Class): Drains and dark damage. Constant HP damage while walking on some maps and blood heals him. (Playtest note- I am working on this but it’s not in yet)
  
  
  
  Spears (Weapon Type): Monty does his fair share of impaling. He just likes to stay a spear’s length away from all that unsavory business. Always goes first. Many deal dark damage or holy damage. Two-handed.
  
• 
  Dress Clothing (Armor Type): Monty wears only the finest armor. This boosts his Magic Defense as well as adding a little bit to his Physical Defense.
  
• 
  Special Quality: All physical attacks cause 5% of the damage to be restored to Monty as health. Also takes only 25% of dark attacks but 150% from holy damage.
  

Haadiya

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  Description: A hedge witch who is cursed by a man she scorn to mimic everything everyone else says. She is happy and childlike but a little twisted.
  
• 
  Joins: Beginning
  

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  Doppelganger (Class): Can only use the skills of the enemy.
  
  
  
  Executioner Blades (Weapon Type): Haadiya likes the most brutal heavy blades she can find. They include things like cleavers, guillotine axes, and beheading swords. These weapons have a 2% chance to instantly kill enemies. One-handed but slow to attack with.
  
• 
  Dress Clothing (Armor Type): Haadiya wears only the finest armor. This boosts her Magic Defense as well as adding a little bit to her Physical Defense.
  
• 
  Special Quality: Has a 12% chance to critically hit (all others have a 4%)
  

R.D (“Real Deal”)

• 
  Description: A lone gang-banger who joined up with the Antagonistas to gain some street cred. He just wants to watch the world burn.
  
• 
  Joins: Beginning
  

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  Thug (Class): Can enter an uncontrolled berserk state that causes damage. At later levels he can inflict crippling status effects on his enemies (like stun and poison) via underhanded tactics.
  
  
  
  Guns (Weapon Type): R.D is skilled at using firearms. Raises the wielder’s agility slightly. Later weapons hit multiple times. Two-handed.
  
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  Improvised (Weapon Type): R.D can pick up close personal weapons from everyday objects. These include things like brass knuckles, chair legs, etc. One-handed.  All weapons attack an additional time and later weapons attack more often.
  
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  Tattoos (Armor Type): R.D gets some sick tats. They raise his evasion rate and Magical Defense. No physical defense though!
  
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  Special Quality: Has a 10% evasion rate (all others have a 5%). R.D can also dual wield.
  

Father Dustin Finn

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  Description: A gallant knight who died fighting Sind’s father. He is resurrected and forced to serve in Sind’s unit as a form of punishment.
  
• 
  Joins: Mission reward. (Can’t access yet)
  

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  Phantom Knight (Class): Casts offensive holy and dark magics at his enemies.
  
  
  
  Executioner Blades or Spears (Weapon Type): Father Finn is cursed to use only weapons of violence and thus uses weapons likes the ones Haadiya or Monty uses.
  
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  Knight’s Armor (Armor Type): Finn was a knight in life and still uses knight’s armor.
  
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  Shield (Armor Type): If Father Finn isn’t using a two-handed spear he can use a shield.
  
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  Special Quality: As a ghost Father Finn only takes 25% damage from physical attacks. Takes  200% from holy or dark damage though.
  

Ralph

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  Description: Lost during a boyscout camping trip Ralph has gone feral- living by the scout’s code of honor as his last connection to the human world before the Antagonistas find him.
  
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  Joins: Mission reward. (Can’t access yet)
  

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  Scout (Class): Has low stats but abilities that hit multiple times and always goes first. Has a skill that hides him from enemies for 3 rounds.
  
  
  
  Improvised (Weapon Type): Ralph can only use improvised weapons.
  
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  Light Armor (Armor Type): Ralph lives in the forest and can only use light armor.
  
• 
  Special Quality: Has a 10% evasion rate and can dual wield. Also attack 1 additional time each time he attacks.
  

Supporting Characters Emperor Cornelius the Blackhearted


The tyrannical dark emperor of the world... and Sind’s father.


Credits


Scripts

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  Yanfly Engine Ace (Yanfly)
  
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  Convert Damage (for Vampire) (Yanfly)
  
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  Steal Skill (for Dopplegager) (Yanfly)
  
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  Yanfly Victory Aftermath (Yanfly)
  
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  Yanfly Ace Save Engine (Yanfly)
  
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  Yanfly Ace Shop Options (Yanfly)
  
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  Mode 7 Ace (+rotation addon) (for overworld) (MGC)
  
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  Zeus Lights & Shadows (Zeus81)
  
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  Reedo's Simple Side Battle System (Reedo)
  

Battlers

• Pandamaru (rabbits and wolves)
  

Screenshots

Assets

 

[Grinn]

So I am starting to get art assets in. I'll post up a new demo sometime soon but things have changed a bunch.


Updates:


-Voice acting: We are legitimately aiming to have a fully voice acted game. I've dropped audio files into the game for the first few areas. Mind you they are (mostly) my own voice acting (which is comically bad for the most part) but we have a few friends who are amateur voice actors working on it. I use to do some audio engineering so I can clean stuff up nice.


-Game Length: The target length for this game is around 4 hours. I've passed the hour or two mark content-wise (I can dev speed run it in like... 30?). I want to have the major areas and dialogue all mapped out by the 7th when the big voice acting session is.


-Art: So I've got two artists on staff now. Naiche and Meg. Naiche is doing the character art and Meg is doing the sprite-work and tilesets. Yes, I've paid people (le gasp!) to help out on this. You can see a lot of the concept art and a few finished pieces on the banner.

 

[marcelofernandezmusic]

Got an updated demo?

 

[Grinn]

So, just an update (I'll post another demo up once I fix some stuff)- this has been worked on A LOT. We have full voice acting for like 95% of the current game. I've slotted in a fair bit of it too (cleaning them, cutting them up, importing, and then inserting them is a very time consuming process). Art for the characters is in. Spirits are being worked on. I decided to do paralax mapping on this.


Here is some updated art:

Full Character art (so I don't stretch the hell out of the page) can be found here: ~LINK~


Sprite Sheet


(You can see Sind and Haadiya's new sprite style in this)

Some work on Mist's sprite

I'll see if I can get the game into a form that I'd be able to share as a demo (even for the first area or two). It's guts are kinda hanging open at the moment while I add/remove stuff.


Edit: Added Download link

 

[Junebug]

Just played through the demo.


I was pleasantly surprised by the execution. The writing was decent. The opening cinematic was quick and established everything that needed to be established without wasting any time. I respect a writer who doesn't waste time or get overly wordy. Overall pretty good.


Suggestions:


I don't know how gameplay will develop later on, but between all the different character abilities I felt a bit overwhelmed with options early on, especially when I could just spam attack and get through the battles quickly enough. I'd suggest making the animations a little bit faster too. Combat in RPGmaker games has always been a bit iffy for me in general because designers tend to run into the trap of making it long, but not necessarily challenging, so it just bogs the game down. Just be careful not to fall into that trap.


In the status screen, the character bios get cut off by the edge of the screen.


A few lines of dialog for the combat "Four of us against one? Hardly sporting?" were repeated several times and got a bit distracting.


Lastly and most importantly, you mentioned you want to add voice acting to the game. I humbly suggest that you do not. I didn't hear any voice acting in game, so I can't say if you and your friends are good or bad, but you don't get much benefit from adding it even if its done well, and if it's done poorly it'll be an absolute disaster that will annoy the hell out of the player throughout the entire game. Seriously, text is perfectly fine, and it lets the player read at their own pace. If you absolutely must have the characters make noise when they talk, I'd suggest doing what Undertale does. I don't know what the term for that is, but it gets the job done.


Anyway, keep it up! I have high hopes for this one.

 

[VicWhite]

I always wanted to play a story for the side of the evil party / antagonist


So thanks for making this desire real, or at least, DEMO STAGE real, hehe. I will play and, if you want, give you some feedback.


Hugs,


Vic White

 

[IamGilgamesh]

I couldn't move once I arrived at the cow scene. I could only control what direction I faced.

 

[Grinn]

I couldn't move once I arrived at the cow scene. I could only control what direction I faced.

Huh. That's weird. Didn't have that issue before. I'll look into it. Weird.

I always wanted to play a story for the side of the evil party / antagonist


So thanks for making this desire real, or at least, DEMO STAGE real, hehe. I will play and, if you want, give you some feedback.


Hugs,


Vic White

Always! Glad I could scratch that itch!

Just played through the demo.


I was pleasantly surprised by the execution. The writing was decent. The opening cinematic was quick and established everything that needed to be established without wasting any time. I respect a writer who doesn't waste time or get overly wordy. Overall pretty good.


Suggestions:


I don't know how gameplay will develop later on, but between all the different character abilities I felt a bit overwhelmed with options early on, especially when I could just spam attack and get through the battles quickly enough. I'd suggest making the animations a little bit faster too. Combat in RPGmaker games has always been a bit iffy for me in general because designers tend to run into the trap of making it long, but not necessarily challenging, so it just bogs the game down. Just be careful not to fall into that trap.


In the status screen, the character bios get cut off by the edge of the screen.


A few lines of dialog for the combat "Four of us against one? Hardly sporting?" were repeated several times and got a bit distracting.


Lastly and most importantly, you mentioned you want to add voice acting to the game. I humbly suggest that you do not. I didn't hear any voice acting in game, so I can't say if you and your friends are good or bad, but you don't get much benefit from adding it even if its done well, and if it's done poorly it'll be an absolute disaster that will annoy the hell out of the player throughout the entire game. Seriously, text is perfectly fine, and it lets the player read at their own pace. If you absolutely must have the characters make noise when they talk, I'd suggest doing what Undertale does. I don't know what the term for that is, but it gets the job done.


Anyway, keep it up! I have high hopes for this one.

Writing


Awesome! We were kind of worried it would fall flat!


My goal is, eventually, to make it essentially binary (attack defend) and give each character a semi-critical ability or two. No more.


So like Sind would be "buff" or "wipe" (debuff enemy from tides of battle)


Monty would be the passive drain.


RD would be the stun thing.


Finn would heal.


Mist would resurrect folks at 1 HP.


Rolf will multi attack.


Haadiya though is going to be your option character. Kind of fill whatever is needed (aka the abilities of RD, Finn, Mist, and Rolf).



The character bios were from an earlier draft. Gotta reduce/remove them. Thanks!


The "Four of us against one? Hardly sporting?" line got reprinted. I gotta fill that in. Good catch.


Voice Acting: So that was something we wanted to do from the outset. We have some place-holder stuff in there right now. One thing I CAN do is have an option for turning on and off the voice acting.


I'll revise some stuff then open up a few more areas. All but the last area is done. Just not with pretty graphics, voice acting (though it's been recorded), and stuff. However, that opens a much larger amount of stuff to comment on.


Thanks SO much for your feedback- everyone!


I was actually super terrified to post this up and was really concerned no one would comment XD


EDIT #1: Junebug, are you sure you have the most recent demo? I'm now seeing the bios anywhere. I thought I had removed them and they don't exist in my current incarnation of the game.


EDIT #2: IamGilgamesh, I found the error with the movement and fixed it. My paralax tileset is transparent so I inadvertently used the WRONG transparent tile to paint the passable area.


Edit #3: Here is the updated file ~Link~

 

[IamGilgamesh]

Excellent! Downloading now!

 

[Grinn]

Excellent! Downloading now!

Fantastic! Let me know what you think and any bugs you run into

 

[IamGilgamesh]

Will do! Dropping my demo/beta today, so I haven't got to it yet, but I will. Lately I been trynna play games on Sundays when I take the day off, for research and development and whatnot, so there's a good chance I'll be playing more this Sunday.

 

[Grinn]

Will do! Dropping my demo/beta today, so I haven't got to it yet, but I will. Lately I been trynna play games on Sundays when I take the day off, for research and development and whatnot, so there's a good chance I'll be playing more this Sunday.

I wish I could "love" this post, not just "like" it.

 

[Canini]

Looks cool (giant bunnies!), I´ll take a look. I am working on extending my writing portfolio. If I find it worthwhile, may I review this game on my blog?

 

[Grinn]

Looks cool (giant bunnies!), I´ll take a look. I am working on extending my writing portfolio. If I find it worthwhile, may I review this game on my blog?

For sure!

 

[LadyBaskerville]

This looks cool! I like the idea of playing as the villains, and the character art is great! Downloading the game now

 

[Nate-Nite]

It looks really nice from the screenshots (I'll play the demo later) but one comment I have is that some of the layout looks a bit too balanced? Although, the humor portrayed in the screenshots "I...guess we are killing the bunnies then..." feels pretty natural although kinda meta, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just don't see that a lot.


Looking forward to playing the demo after work!

 

[Lymmet]

Looks nice! I like the idea of playing the baddies.

 

[Grinn]

Looks nice! I like the idea of playing the baddies.

I know right? It was way too much fun to write for this!

It looks really nice from the screenshots (I'll play the demo later) but one comment I have is that some of the layout looks a bit too balanced? Although, the humor portrayed in the screenshots "I...guess we are killing the bunnies then..." feels pretty natural although kinda meta, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just don't see that a lot.


Looking forward to playing the demo after work!

Balanced? Like you'd like to see it not so "clean" looking? I got a HUD mod on it so I'll see how I can make it look a bit more fun


I'd LOVE any feedback you have on it. I'm watching this thread pretty close

 

[Nate-Nite]

Balanced? Like you'd like to see it not so "clean" looking? I got a HUD mod on it so I'll see how I can make it look a bit more fun


I'd LOVE any feedback you have on it. I'm watching this thread pretty close

The best example I can give is if you cut some of the scenes down the middle, (mostly interiors) they're nearly mirrored. Sometimes it can be used effectively to either show precision/leadership in castle settings. In the prison, it feels dark, but that would be a case where it feels too "clean" but I was more talking about the mirroring, which can take away from the experience and sometimes point out when there's not a lot going on in the map, if that makes sense.


Finally got around to playing the demo, and before I start, I should mention I used Winebottler to play it (hooray for non-PC) so some of my criticism might just be the emulation and no one else will experience it, if that makes sense.


I really like that you have voice acting for nearly all of it, it makes it all flow pretty nicely, though some might not be a fan of it, so you might consider having the option to turn it off. The characters themselves are distinct and match the style you were setting up for them when it came to gameplay. At the same time, there were points that the characters felt extremely one-note, but it is early in development so I'm guessing that will probably change as the game goes on.


The graphics are hit and miss for me, just because I prefer the 8-bit sprites more than the 16-bit, it feels like it fits better, except during the battles (specifically the battle screen) but the characters are well animated and drawn.


I did experience a glitch or two. Some of the overlays pop in noticeably, the second scene for example had a few frames before the overlay came in. Also, there were a few times that the audio began for me before the text box had advanced (specifically from different characters).


I did have fun though and I look forward to see where it goes from here (admittedly, I think I got to the end of the demo, but I might've missed something). Thanks for sharing and hope that helped some and wasn't just a long ramble...