Astralon - Fall of Order [Demo available!]

[Pumamori]

          

Starting a project, once again.
It's been quite some time since I last worked on a game, but I'm rather confident that this project right here will be completed to the best of my ability. Astralon's story developed over several months, and underwent quite a few complete reworks. Originally, it was named "Alastron" (yes, rather creative indeed!), the completed story that lies before you right now, is pretty similar to this predecessor of sorts in the way it plays out, but the whole focus of the story is something else entirely, for example, the characters remained the same, but the roles they play changed drastically. Either way, what are my plans for Astralon anyway? Well, I wanted to create a classic RPG, in terms of gameplay and story, but mix in some new, original features, that should make it the hopefully great game I've envisioned it to be.

 
​

[SIZE=10.5pt]"What are you fighting for? Peace? Order? The truth? Once you face the end, none of that will matter. When confronted with true chaos, you only fight for yourself." [/SIZE]
​

 
​

[SIZE=10.5pt]“Oh…? I didn’t see you there! Allow me to tell you a story. It’s one about a war. A war of epic proportions. Few years ago, the world was plunged into darkness by one of our kind. One, whose lust for power took over their humanity. It was terrible, let me tell you, every country shrouded in a mysterious fog, monster attacks being the daily fare… Until they came… I saw them myself! Four valiant adventurers who never gave up hope. Four heroes that fought for peace in the world. I can’t remember their names clearly, nor do I think they ever told me, but what does it matter? These four brave souls stood up to the darkness and faced it head-on, no matter what monstrosities they faced.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=10.5pt]The records tell of a legendary fight against this one corrupted human, who’s only remembered as a true “demon”. Nobody knew his old self, but that’s a story for another day. One of the four heroes fell this day – but the others never gave up and ended up victorious. The world was saved… or so it seemed. The death of this… creature, driven by its endless hunger for power, led to a huge impulse. Yes, I remember it clearly, as if it happened just yesterday! I felt so… strong! Magical energy flowing through my veins… From this day on, the entire populace was able to channel their inner powers, casting spells, a true miracle, if you ask me. Either way, let’s not get off topic too much. The three adventurers grieved long for their fallen comrade, but in the end, they realised that their journey wasn’t over just yet. Chosen to rule these lands, since they were the only ones able to full harness and control the magic inside of them, they introduced a new form of government, the old king only keeping power over a single piece of land.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]The council of justice. An era of peace. But not for long…”[/SIZE]
​

[SIZE=10.5pt]Rayden, a young adventurer from the village of Aeston seemingly never experienced this impulse. He is the only one in the entire village who is unable to use magic. As an earthquake interrupted his training, he stumbles upon the Astralon, a mysterious artifact with unknown powers. [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]How will this influence the world?[/SIZE]

 
​

Rayden, the Adventurer.
Rayden is a young adventurer from the village of Aeston. He's brilliant when it comes to handling melee weapons, which is pretty unusual for the times after the great war. His mind is quite keen and he bears the mysterious Astralon. Through the newly acquired power of the "Revelation", he's able to uncover the lies of his opponent and directly confront them with the matter.
​

 
​

Nem, the Dreamblade.
​

Nem is quite adept in close combat, especially with the sword, but he's also able to use magic. He even managed to master a long forgotten technique from ages long past that involves manipulating the power of dreams to smite his foes or enhance his abilities. Because of that, he established a good reputation among the people.
​

 
​

Avena, Bulwark of Hope
​

Avena is a member of the royal guards, however, nobody knows when or how she joined the ranks of these elite knights. She's skilled with light-type magic like most knights, but also tries out the other elements when she got the time. At the moment, she is training with Rayden, to enhance her melee skills, in case someone was to develop a resistance against magic and she wouldn't be able to protect the people close to her.
​

 
​

???, the King's Son
​

Little is known about him, except for the fact that he's cold and dismissive, nobody knows about his goals. Rumors, that he's trying his hands at alchemy are spreading, but there is hardly a reliable source.
​

 
​

Josh, Raph and Clyde. Copycats of a Legend.
​

This group of adventurers is eager to live up to their heroes, the council of justice. However, despite their confidence, they more often stumble through the world rather than achieving any heroic deeds, like when they start to challenge the first stranger they see to a duel again, just to test their newly developed techniques.
​

 
​

Hendrik. Lilian. Loki.
​

The legendary council of justice, consisting of Hendrik, the melee-expert of the group, his strong desire for justice often leads to him, charging into the most dangerous situations, Lilian, a master of the spear, who enhances her allies ability to fight with multiple spells, even by setting their weapons ablaze and Loki, a mage who's known for only one thing: His merciless nature when he destroys everyone who opposes him in the blink of an eye.
​

 
​

 
​

???
​

A mysterious person, interested in the Astralon. He watches silently, preparing his actions.
​

 
​

• You can totally walk BEHIND trees! Incredible!
  
• A completely uninteresting plot, with no character developement at all!
  
• A plottwist, obvious from the beginning!
  

Alright, I'm obviously just kidding here. But you see, it's hard to list features nowadays, that are unique to a game. You see, everyone can just copy a script and slap it as a feature on a list. It just doesn't mean as much as it did years ago, haha. Either way, I'll try and list everything that matters, even though these features are not unique to Astralon alone.

• After the last major update, good-looking maps with a lot of passion for detail.
  
• Tons of secrets and hidden items, just waiting for you to find them! Exploration is being highly rewarded, even in the demo!
  
• A protagonist, who can be played the way you want him to be played. 100%. Not only are you able to change his stats how you see fit, you can also adjust his style of fighting, equip a lot of different spells, that even regularly change when you upgrade or change your weapon, and you can even adjust the way Rayden's reacting when he's close to death!
  
• Three incredibly helpful party members, that complement your main character, no matter which way you decide to play him.
  
• The "Revelation" system. More on that later.
  
• There is no real antagonist. No "ultimate evil" that needs to be vanquished. It was already taken care off, a interesting, promising story waits for you to explore it!
  
• A whole lot of different weapons and armor, to, once again, complement YOUR play style.
  
• Diversive Skills. They change even by equipping a different weapon. Heck, even two swords should never play the exact same! 
  
• Dynamic, well-balanced fights. I've learned a lot about balancing these past four years, and I dare to say that I know what I'm doing when it comes to balancing.
  
• A "Last-Stand" like fighting system. Just because you're close to eating dirt doesn't mean that you are doomed for real! Every character in your party starts to react differently when they are close to death, completely turning the way you play them around. They could panick, or decide that it's over anyway and go All-In! It's up to you!
  
• Balanced Item-System. Buy all the stuff you want, you can't just tank a boss by buying a bazillion potions beforehand. Every character is allowed to take three items with them, and that's it.
  

All this fuss about this system, but no explanations yet? Let's fix this.
​

What is a "revelation" anyway? To explain it in a easy way, Rayden, in combination with the Astralon, possesses the power of sensing when his opponent lies, or tries to hide vital information on purpose. If he realised that the person in front of him is lying, there are multiple ways to approach the lie. Either, you directly start unraveling the mysteries, or you wait a bit longer until you've gathered more facts and evidence, before you try to confront the liar. If you reached the phase of "Revelation", Rayden goes through all the evidence and facts, and then recalls which statements his opponent uttered.


If the liar is indeed lying, there must be a contradiction in what he says, compared to the evidence to question his entire statement. This isn't that easy, especially if his opponent is lying without being aware of this fact himself, but more to these twists later.

(Every screen that is shown here, may change appearance in the final product.)
​

 
​

Did you suceed in finding the contradiction, it's high time to confront the liar! In the process, a discussion between Rayden and the person commences, you often have to argue, why his statement couldn't have been farther from the truth and explain, how it wasn't possible for the things that happened to have gone down exactly as the liar said.


If the liar confesses at the end, you completed the revelation. It's worth noting, that not all revelation scenes look the same. Depending on the complexity of the whole situation, the layout of the map, amount of statements could change, and roadblocks appearing. Often, people lie without noticing it themselves, which makes things even harder, sometimes, Rayden himself gets locked up in a difficult situation, that might hinder his ability of logical reasoning. One thing is for sure, no two revelations will be the same.


But that wasn't even it. I just summarise all the systems I've worked out under the term "revelation", in fact, there are two more systems, not yet present in the demo, I didn't present anywhere else. The first, is the "Reconstruction". Rayden will try to re-create a scene that was mentioned in the statement of the liar (for example), and the player will be able to explore this dreamed up place to look for contradictions there. If one is found, Rayden will adjust his version of the scene, including the new found information, until you get the perfect picture. 


The second one, would be a  "Battle of Wits", a fast paced discussion that most of the times happen, when Rayden doesn't have enough evidence to confront a liar yet. He will try to outsmart his opponents to reveal vital information for his cause unter a time limit. These vary in difficulty, depending on the person you are trying to trick.

Less of a "Plan" list in the future, I'd rather include a list of what I'm working on right now.
​

• All skills and progression for characters. While Rayden currently learns skills up to Level 18, he has a full list of sideskills up to 38 planned. (Max Level)
  
• Creating the layout for the first major dungeon!
  

Indeed, it's not much, because I'm working on a project just as important as Astralon. But I will progress, slower or faster.
​

 
​

​

Astralon: Start of Game Demo v.1.0
​

Download (without RTP) - Download (with RTP)
​

Known Issues:

• Nothing.
  

Latest Changelog - Start of Game Demo 1.0


I'll write down Updates as they come.

​

Astralon: Combat - Demo v.2.0
​

Download (without RTP) - Download (with RTP) - Walkthrough (PDF)
​

Known Issues:

• Nothing.
   
  

Latest Changelog - Combat Demo 2.0


[General]

• Added the same launcher the old one had, but fixed it up. It's all in english now and looks a little nicer.
  
• Finished up everything planned for the demo. Take a look for yourself, it's a lot more polished now. Check the walkthrough for all possible endings.
  
• 
  Rearranged the entirety of the final epiphany. It should no longer be incredibly easy to reach the
  
  
  true ending.
  
• 
  Rephrased receptionist dialogue to avoid confusion when you don't "loose" honor badges after "trading them in" for prizes.
  
• 
  You now need more badges to progress, however, rooms potentially drop more than one at once.
  
• 
  The Shady Guy now also provides you with money. The amount of badges you receive has also changed. It now depends on the amount of beastgems you have, rather than just giving you a set amount.
  
• 
  ...
  

          [Balancing]

• Click me to read more.
  

[Bugfixes]

• Various Dialogue fixes.
  
• Fight Difficulties properly work now.
  
• 
  Fixed music playing in places where it shouldn't. 
  
• 
  Fixed a bug that hindered you to spell the letter "A" from either source.
  
• 
  
  Fixed some typos in the credits. Also, added more people I forgot.
  
  
   
  
  
  

I'll write down Updates as they come.

[Pre-Data Loss]
​

Astralon: Demo "Truth" v.2.1.1 - FINAL
​

Download
​

Known Issues:

• Small mapping issues, that I won't resolve anymore. This version is fairly outdated and I lost all data of it. The download is merely for people who want to see an example of the parallax maps coming up at some point, as well as seeing the screenshots portrayed in this thread.
  

-Scripts and General Help-
​

Yanfly
​

Yami
​

Tsukihime
​

Moghunter / Atelier
​

modernalgebra
​

Galv
​

KilloZapit
​

TDS
​

DiamondandPlatinum3
​

Kread-Ex
​

Ramiro
​

Pacman
​

TheoAllen
​

TinyMine
​

JayArr
​

ShiroiAura
​

JayArr
​

Cynder
​

Everyone else who tested the demo before presenting it here!
​

 
​

-Music-
​

Aaron Krogh
​

Dibur
​

And of course, Calbert Warner, also knowns as the "Schematist", who created a few pieces of original music for the revelation scenes.
​

Take a look, he's creating some seriously awesome music!
​

 
​

-Ressources-
​

Pandamaru
​

Tchaku
​

GrandmaDeb
​

Celianna
​

Indrah
​

http://eurs.blog65.fc2.com/
http://usui.moo.jp/
​

 
​

I really hope I didn't forget anyone, but these were all I noted in the list. If anyone was not credited, please, tell me immediately, so I may adress this issue and credit everyone properly.

​

​

 
​

​

 
​

​

​

And that's about everything I have to say about Astralon!
​

Do you like this project? Do you want to support it? That's awesome! And I have just the thing for that! Yes, a banner! You can put it into your signature, linking to this thread or the demo download, or you could just put in there and say how much you despise this way of advertising and want to kill off an alien overlord llama because of it!
​

 
​

​

 
​

Thanks for lookin through all these pieces of information, have a great day!
​

 

[hiromu656]

Just played through the demo, it was fairly short so I didn't get all that much to critique. The mapping is well done, I didn't see any issues with the combat or any grammar errors so this is definitely a good start. The Revelation system was cool, the one in the demo was pretty easy so I'd like to see what more you do with it. Keep up the good work.

 

[Pumamori]

Thanks for your feedback!

Glad you like it so far, the revelation scene was definitely just a pretaste, there's a lot of complexity coming in later! ^-^

 

[Shadowfrost Zenbiniar]

me and my inability to play this god beautiful game

This looks nice, the characters seem cool, and I will definitely support this

Will play later.

 

[Pumamori]

Glad you deem it that beautiful, haha ^-^

The maps were a lot of work, I jumped a bit in mapping-skills. I even made a little before-after kinda thing, originally to show people that I AM able to make a few nice maps, 'cause I was being laughed at for my RTP mapping at first :/

I found the screenshots! 

Before:

Afterwards

(Note that this particular screenshot is outdated, however, it comes close to the current product.)

Excited to see if you like it or not! ^-^

 

[Kyuukon]

I played the DEMO. I had fun. Nice maps. Keep up the good work

 

[Pumamori]

Thanks! Did you like the revelation? Was something too hard/easy? 

It's hard to judge from stuff like, "I like it", though I guess I could assume I did it right then, huh? ^-^

 

[Kyuukon]

Thanks! Did you like the revelation? Was something too hard/easy? 

It's hard to judge from stuff like, "I like it", though I guess I could assume I did it right then, huh? ^-^

Haha, sorry I just didn't feel like writing. But yee, I didn't expect it in the least so it's a nice touch to add (and very original). It was easy though (maybe to the point of causing a little bit confusion? or maybe it's just my lame english).

Another nice touch was the hidden items in the forest (like that hidden path protected by the slim I was like "why isn't it following me?" then "Oh..." xD!).

I wonder how much time till we see full release. It'll take long mostly due to parallax mapping but it's worth it no doubt.

 

[Shadowfrost Zenbiniar]

Thanks! Did you like the revelation? Was something too hard/easy? 

It's hard to judge from stuff like, "I like it", though I guess I could assume I did it right then, huh? ^-^

Heyo!

I just finished the game, and I found it exciting.

I did a stream of it, I'll upload it soon enough!

 

[Pumamori]

A stream? With microphone and everything? That'd be awesome to watch! Thank you so much! ^-^ I'll definitely take a look at it.

As for Kyuukon, glad you found it to be interesting! I'm spending a lot of time with little details, most of the time because I do parallax mapping, and I don't want to let my effort go to waste, so I'll add a lot of stuff to explore within the map! ^-^ 

If anyone even cares, there are in total... about 8 or 9 secrets in the demo to be found, counting  every item you get. They are not -all- recorded in the savestate though.

Curious if anyone manages to find them all (;

 

[Shadowfrost Zenbiniar]

A stream? With microphone and everything? That'd be awesome to watch! Thank you so much! ^-^ I'll definitely take a look at it.

Here's the stream and things

Basically the only problem was that everything was relying on magic, like spawning a horse from nowhere but other than that I had fun.

 

[Pumamori]

Let me adress a few of the issues. Now don't get me wrong, I will resort to the cheap "Buaatt dis be magixz uf courze it workz!!!111" at times. I think you were putting a bit too much thought in little details.

• So, basically, the problem is, that in a world, where -everyone- but the protagonist, from the current knowledge available, is able to use magic, THAT people rely on magic? Well. ****.
  If you refer to me, abusing this fact by putting on armor out of nowhere, well. You're totally right. I totally am!
• It's not like the horse "spawned" out of nowhere anyway. She did have it with her at the beginning, she just made it disappear for some time. Say, it doesn't necessarily have to be teleported away. What if she's just a little boaster who tried to look more impressive by making her horsey invisible? Just an example, I won't directly change the way she gets off or on her horse here, haha! ^-^

Spoiler

• I think at one point, you mentioned, that the bosses deal too much damage, and Avena should join in after a set period of time, rather than having Rayden go "low" first? Now that's bad decision, I could go rant about game design choices for hours, but I'll keep it simple. It wouldn't be as much fun, as well as rendering the game's narrative worthless. "But wai, u cud turrteley jus smsh thes guyz fazez in!1" Well, yeah, you could. But you wouldn't deem magic as useful now, would you? "Oh, great, everyone has magic. Oh, these guys have magic AND come in twos! Ah, whatever, I don't have magic, but let's just bash their heads in, 'cause I can!" *puts on shades*
• I weakened them to the point, where they can't possible kill you before reaching the set limit of hp. Avena is supposed to be stronger than Rayden, being a royal guard AND being able to use magic to her heart's content.

Oh well, now reading these lines I wrote, they do seem a bit rushed. Well, at least I hope your questions were answered. ^-^

It was an enjoying watch, I think I even saw a error I overlooked in one of Avena's lines just there. Thanks a bunch for playing! Glad you enjoyed it

 

[Shadowfrost Zenbiniar]

Let me adress a few of the issues. Now don't get me wrong, I will resort to the cheap "Buaatt dis be magixz uf courze it workz!!!111" at times. I think you were putting a bit too much thought in little details.

• So, basically, the problem is, that in a world, where -everyone- but the protagonist, from the current knowledge available, is able to use magic, THAT people rely on magic? Well. ****.If you refer to me, abusing this fact by putting on armor out of nowhere, well. You're totally right. I totally am!
  
  
• It's not like the horse "spawned" out of nowhere anyway. She did have it with her at the beginning, she just made it disappear for some time. Say, it doesn't necessarily have to be teleported away. What if she's just a little boaster who tried to look more impressive by making her horsey invisible? Just an example, I won't directly change the way she gets off or on her horse here, haha! ^-^

Spoiler

• I think at one point, you mentioned, that the bosses deal too much damage, and Avena should join in after a set period of time, rather than having Rayden go "low" first? Now that's bad decision, I could go rant about game design choices for hours, but I'll keep it simple. It wouldn't be as much fun, as well as rendering the game's narrative worthless. "But wai, u cud turrteley jus smsh thes guyz fazez in!1" Well, yeah, you could. But you wouldn't deem magic as useful now, would you? "Oh, great, everyone has magic. Oh, these guys have magic AND come in twos! Ah, whatever, I don't have magic, but let's just bash their heads in, 'cause I can!" *puts on shades*
• I weakened them to the point, where they can't possible kill you before reaching the set limit of hp. Avena is supposed to be stronger than Rayden, being a royal guard AND being able to use magic to her heart's content.

Bold 1: Yeah, basically in a sense, I get its a plot important device, but I think its a bit much of hammering it into the ground, but hey that's me, and I did say how I enjoyed it.

Bold 2: Honestly, I didn't have a problem with the horse lol, but on thinking, it was kinda strange how it kinda appeared and disappeared out of nowhere. Which brings up back Bold 1. But honestly, I don't have a problem with the horse, I actually had a very great laugh from it.

In Spoilers: 

• I think at one point, you mentioned, that the bosses deal too much damage, and Avena should join in after a set period of time, rather than having Rayden go "low" first? Now that's bad decision, I could go rant about game design choices for hours, but I'll keep it simple. It wouldn't be as much fun, as well as rendering the game's narrative worthless. "But wai, u cud turrteley jus smsh thes guyz fazez in!1" Well, yeah, you could. But you wouldn't deem magic as useful now, would you? "Oh, great, everyone has magic. Oh, these guys have magic AND come in twos! Ah, whatever, I don't have magic, but let's just bash their heads in, 'cause I can!" *puts on shades*
• I weakened them to the point, where they can't possible kill you before reaching the set limit of hp. Avena is supposed to be stronger than Rayden, being a royal guard AND being able to use magic to her heart's content.

I said the bosses do too much damage, because it  went from 3-6 in a heartbeat and I thought, (Holy crap, I am gonna die in this demo). When I mean join in, I meant at like turn two or three, but I see your point yes.

I saw that they weaken you to a point, but only when I rewatched the video. Sorry, that was my mistake

Oh well, now reading these lines I wrote, they do seem a bit rushed. Well, at least I hope your questions were answered. ^-^

It was an enjoying watch, I think I even saw a error I overlooked in one of Avena's lines just there. Thanks a bunch for playing! Glad you enjoyed it

You answered all my questions yes. I do plan to playthrough the entire thing, so look to that!

lol, Your hack is flawless so far(in more things than none). Keep it up

 

[Pumamori]

You kinda defeated the purpose of the spoiler with your quote, lol, haha xD

Actually, there are a few things you missed, like a health potion you could get before the fight starts. ^-^ In general, 

Spoiler

until you reach the points. about 2~3 turns should have passed, even if they'd be critting every single hit and using their strongest attacks. Weird if it appeared earlier ^-^

 

[Shadowfrost Zenbiniar]

You kinda defeated the purpose of the spoiler with your quote, lol, haha xD

Actually, there are a few things you missed, like a health potion you could get before the fight starts. ^-^ In general, 

Spoiler

until you reach the points. about 2~3 turns should have passed, even if they'd be critting every single hit and using their strongest attacks. Weird if it appeared earlier ^-^

Darn sorry.

Really now.

Spoiler

Ah I see now.

 

[Pumamori]

Alright, time for another update, and man, I'm sure this will receive a lot of negative feedback, haha x)

I've been working on something, namely, the sequel to Astralon. 

Wait, what? The sequel? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Why would you create the sequel to a project, that is not even close to being finished!?

Wait up there, me. You of all should know better. I am someone who struggles with keeping my motivation up, if I'm working on a single project, working on a "sequel" (gameplay is drastically different, it just tells more of the story behind the scenes), not only gives me the ability to try out new features that MIGHT make it into "Astralon", but it also helps to keep my motivation up. 

Either way, after a bit of playing around with several engines, here's the way the fights in the sequel, and maybe Astralon could look like:

And I'm certainly not putting that in the feature list, haha. It's been a lot of work, what do you think? Would it be worth it to implement, or would you rather see the old, "basic" one, faster done in exchange? 

Also, last and least, I've been working on the layout of the first little village of Aeston, it should be done soon, thought it might not be worth another new version just for that. ^-^

In addition, I made a little commission on some art, mainly, a battle cut-in for Rayden. So, there you go. Sorry for the water mark, it's unavoidable.  

This was done by the talented Cynder. Go check her art out! She's awesome! ^-^

 

[Kyuukon]

That happens to me from time to time: I start thinking and planning other projects when I'm not even 50% mark on the first one! I think you should stick to the original one and work on different areas of it depending how you feel at that day (mapping? dialog? eventing?). It might be hard some times but as you progress it get easier (or so I believe).

That's why I chose to make an interactive novel with somewhat few maps, because I knew I wouldn't be able to pull a 'full' RPG like this

 

[Pumamori]

Well, the problem is, sorry for the insanely late reply by the way, I did look at it, but forgot to answer, I have to do the mapping first anyway. And with this new style, which is parallax mapping, it just drains every single bit of motivation out of me. I mean yeah, it looks nice and WHEN I'm done with it, I get motivated to make exploration fully worth it, but the process is a long one. 

I have an interactive novel of my own in the works right now, just to get a bit of motivation in, before I continue to spent all my free time with Astralon, haha x) 

Thanks for the nice advice! If anyone else feels like having some feedback for the demo, I'd greatly appreciate that! ^-^

 

[Shadowfrost Zenbiniar]

Woah I'm so late on this <_<

So help me understand;  Are you going to be completing Astralon or not? Either way, i'll be here to help as always, because I love how the game looks and how it'll turn out.

 

[Pumamori]

No worries! I will never abandon Astralon, I would never forgive myself, haha x) 

It's just that Astralon was planned as a simple, RTP - Game, that should have solid balancing and a nice story, with some additional interesting twists to the genre with the revelations. However, now, that I use Parallax Mapping, it's a process so extremely tedious, that I loose motivation the moment I think about working on it. I will complete it, and if it kills me, but I won't ruin something that started off so good by working on it, when I don't feel like doing something.

Thanks for your support! I really appreciate it. If there's anything you'd like to see in Astralon, just post it here! ^-^