Dammerung: Requiem for Tomorrow

[Mouser]

If you knew everything you loved and held dear was going to be destroyed:

Could you find the courage to fight for it anyway?

Spoiler

Welcome to Dammerung: Requiem for Tomorrow.

Playable Demo:  Download HERE

Space for link to a manual I hope to write soon.

Anybody on this site shouldn't have any issues, though.

The game supports both mouse and keyboard movement and selections.

Graphically, the game is a throwback to the early Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior type games. I've taken inspiration and borrowed (and stole) from Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Diablo, Diablo 2, Xenosaga, Baldur's Gate, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. and I'm sure a host of others.

Mechanically, the game is much less about combat (though there is combat). Ideally, I'd like to have multiple solutions to problems ranging from smooth talking your way through to killing everyone. Realistically, there will be situations that require one or the other, and maybe a few that give you a real choice. Taking the peaceful solution won't cheat you out of out of XP or rewards, although you may get different rewards based on your choices. Grinding is there as an option, but if you follow the story, take up the side jobs that come up, and kill what attacks you as you travel, you shouldn't need to do much of it.

A brief "manual" and advice for those trying the demo:

Spoiler

Armor increases the chance your opponent will miss you, it does not reduce damage directly. Shields block blows from landing, again negating damage rather than mitigating it. Your ATK increases the damage you do with any weapon and increases your chance to hit. Your speed is used to calculate your evasion chance (again, negating damage) and in the calculation for your enemies evasion - so a high speed makes you both harder to hit and gives you a better chance to strike nimble opponents who can evade attacks.

Be sure to get some basic equipment for everyone before you start hunting bounties.  Killing a few random encounters should get you there fairly quickly. Encounters are easiest near the roads, and hardest in the forests and on the beaches. Goblins and their kin are your best source of coin and potions.

Most of the choices you make cannot be undone (except by reloading a prior save) so think carefully. I tried to give every choice advantages and disadvantages, so it's pretty difficult to truly hose yourself unless you're really trying.

This is a story - one that I hope will awaken serious questions in those who experience it concerning life, it's purpose, religion, sexuality, freedom, restraint, and other facets of human existence: good, bad, and ugly. It contains mild language, sexual situations (mostly handled through innuendo and "fade to black"), religious situations (though not real world religions), and other topics that might crop up in a 'grown up' conversation. That said, I haven't put anything in this game I wouldn't want my 12 year old daughter to see or read (she's older now, but I do remember) and I don't plan to [When she was nine, her favorite TV show was Law & Order SVU, so take that for whatever it's worth].

Ok, enough with the disclaimers, on to the game:

Sofia is a young woman living in the mining town of Pleroma. She was an orphan [the only one in the story, AFAIK], who grew up working in the mines. As the years went on, she excelled at her tasks and was rewarded with more responsibility. Ten years after she first went down into the mineshaft, she is now the Assistant Foreman, and a respected member of the community.

Pleroma itself is a fairly well-to-do town. The mine provides everyone with ample work and the rewards that go along with it. Visitors are common, and they spend their coin at the Inn and Pub and enjoy themselves at the local temple.

Spoiler

Jaxl moved into Pleroma several years ago. Despite being surrounded by a town of diligent workers, he has yet to find a job. He lives at the inn paying for his rent by running errands and doing odd jobs. Depending on your choices he is either Sofia's friend or lover.

Spoiler

Note: you cannot 'make' him your lover or woo him in any way. I feel that takes the attention off of the relationship and onto the 'meta-game' of building and maintaining 'relationship points'. Take that away and you are free to experience a romantic moment at sunset for what it is, and not as an opportunity to 'score' more points by saying the right thing. You will be given the opportunity very early on to decide what he is to Sofia: choose wisely, because as with many other choices you will make throughout the game, it cannot be undone. 

Lyrra is a fiery red-headed wench at Maklin's Pub, home of world-renowned Macklin's Mighty Mead.

Spoiler

She's lived all her life in Pleroma, and dreams of traveling and seeing the places she's heard of through all the tales told at the tavern. She's a stout one, able to knock out a drunk twice her size with the large tankard she carries around without spilling a drop from the drinks on her tray.

When Sofia unwittingly helps uncover That Which Should Not Be Uncovered, it falls to her and her friends to find someone able and willing to deal with the problem. But what do you do when you know the world is in danger and those who could or should do something simply do not care or choose not to become involved?

   
Game Features: I've tried to keep the feel and appearance of the default RTP while ripping out all the guts under the hood. Combat is loosely based on the Diablo 2 system. When you attack, you either hit or miss [miss, evade, or block]. If you hit you do damage within the weapon's damage range adjusted by your stats. If you miss, well you missed. This brings more than one stat into combat, so finding the 'best' gear will mean managing a balance between attack, speed, and defense that works for you against the monsters and bosses you encounter. What works very well in one situation could lead to a quick TPK in another.

Spoiler

Character Classes: You will have several opportunities during the game to 'upgrade' your class. This works similarly to the system in Final Fantasy, except you will always have a choice of at least two classes to select from, and at least two lower classes qualify for each 'advanced' class at every stage. Again, choose carefully, as these selections cannot be undone (except by reloading a previous save ;p). Dancers, Dervishes, Bards, as well as various types of Sorcerers, Priests, and Fighters will be available. More may be added. This system has not been implemented yet so I'm still open to some suggestions here as to specific classes, but the system itself is pretty much set.

Bounty System: You will need to make a name for yourself if you expect people to listen to what you have to say. Hunting bounties is one way of getting people's attention. I suppose it's a bit like the 'hunter' quests in FF XII, but without the endless killing of placeholder mobs to get that one rare spawn. If you're hunting something, it'll be there.

Mini-games: None have gone in as of yet. Very open to suggestions here. I don't want a mini-game just for the sake of having one (a la The Golden Saucer). Dark Cloud 2 did a good job with Spheda and Fishing, though their raison d'etre seemed to be to get your girlfriend in the cat suit bikini IIRC. I would rather have no mini-games than poor mini-games that take away from the story and gameplay. I'm sure there's something that could work here though.

NPC's: The world is not devoid of people. Most will talk to you, often several times. Some will even say things worth listening to. Many will react to you based on choices you have already made. If they have a negative reaction, you may be able to make amends, but not always. Choices have consequences, and will usually bring both advantages and disadvantages to the table. I'm sure that with careful play, you could probably hose your character pretty well if that is your goal.

A word on the 'portraits' with text. Personally, I think the ability to have pictures by all the chat is one of the coolest features of Ace. I am aware that the character generator pictures are not always the most flattering, but I can't justify commissioning a set of builder parts until I'm a lot closer to a full release than I am now. Since dialog needs to be spaced and balanced with those pictures in mind, the RTP portraits are staying in for the foreseeable future. I'll try to screen out some of the scarier ones: either that or work out why females have fangs in the lore somewhere. Maybe not everyone is entirely human...

As for putting special name boxes or titles by 'important' NPC's... My thought on that is "pay attention". I'm not trying to make a game that leads the player around by the nose. Some things you're going to have to figure out on your own. The quest journal records most of the 'important' stuff for you as it is right now.

Spoiler

And finally, PC's:  There will be other characters you can recruit to join your party. Often they will have their own agenda, and you may not be able to control when they decide to join or leave. Some will be mandatory at times, others, not so much. They will have the ability to change classes just as the 'main' characters do, and will level and gain abilities accordingly. The choices you make may allow one character to join you while precluding another.

Credits:

McTricky - music:
                           No Quarter
                           Fuel the Fighting
                           Eyes of the Plight
                          Manaical Prodigy
                          Victory is Close
                          Shadows in Hell
                          You are the Target
                          Victory in Sight

Aaron Krogh
Sonorous Dehiscence    - music packs

Hortator - Main Theme (music)

Reisen - Title Screen graphic

Thalzon   - battlers and faces

despain

jason perry   - sprites

timmah   - animations

Celiana

IsabeltheCreator
Lunarea     - tiles and tilesets

"Some of graphic data in this software are free game resources distributed by REFMAP(http://www.tekepon.net/fsm). You must not use the graphic data which is in this software, for the purpose except playing this game. When you want to get these resources, go to the website above."


Modern Algebra    - Journal Script
V.M. of D.T    - Gametime Script (not in atm, may or may not get used)
Shaz - mouse script

And of course Enterbrain/Degica for making RPG Maker VX Ace

If anyone feels I've left them off this list, just shoot me a PM and I'll rectify that.


 

If you've read this far, I hope I've sparked a bit of interest in you. The demo takes around four to five hours to play through, depending on how thoroughly you talk to everyone. It's relatively bug-free at this point: I'm calling it a 'stable' release without reservation. I hope some of you will give it a try and don't be bashful about letting me know what you think.

 

[Mouser]

This post for known issues and changelog:

Known Issues:

Healing potions deal "painful blow" when critical effect occurs (you're healed for double).

Characters can 'nullify the magic' when attempting to use the Guard Skill or when eating a ham sandwich.

Changelog:

5/7/14 - Demo 1.0 released: Pleroma through Lumina Sound.

5/12/14 - 1.01: fixed two tileset issues. Thank you Indrah!

5/13/14 - fixed an event that would reset the mine in Pleroma, breaking the game.

6/4/14 - added "manual" to the main project post.

 

[cabfe]

I wanted to download it for my upcoming vacation time, but both versions (with RTP and without) return with a 404 error.


Could you please check your links?

 

[Mouser]

Should be working now - just one link, so you may have caught it when dropbox was synching.

 

[cabfe]

It's working!

Downloading right now.

 

[Mouser]

I've gotten some great feedback on my blog, and since this is the official thread I'll repeat what I said there, here:

If something sucks, and you can tell me why it sucks, in my book that is Awesome Sauce!

If something's good, and you can tell me why, that's ok too  ^.-

Feedback so far:

Maps: too big. I know the first inn, especially, is huge (you could probably build a village in it). I think I got better in the second town. That's something that I'll have to work on for release two, along with the next scene. If there are any other specific mapping issues you see, again, please don't hold back.

Magic: The 'plan' is to have magic come in with the class changes that happen at castle #2 (right after where the demo ends). That's why the magic shop is closed and you do have MP bars showing. That said, I'm getting pretty consistent feedback that combat needs to be more interesting, so I've got to come up with some skills that a miner, a wench, and a peasant would "realistically" have. Suggestions welcome: I'd like something more interesting that just cleave, double strike, and dual attack, all of which I've coded the attack command to use automatically if they are present - you can choose 'normal' attack from the skills window if you want to use that instead for some reason.

Filesize: Because of the way I installed the game and the packs, I can't do a non-RTP install. That is what it is and isn't going to change. I have trimmed the BGM folder to only include tracks that are used, and converted them all to .ogg's (saved about 120M there). I'm also posting this game on pretty much every online community I'm a member of, gaming or not, so I can get all the feedback I can from varied type sources. One file makes that easy.  The good news is that as the game grows, the filesize won't increase all that much because most of what it needs is already in there.

Truthfully, I've downloaded plenty of one hour demos that are a lot larger than 300M (or even 400 or 500M)  so I don't see that as a huge issue. I understand some people have more limited internet, so I'll do what I can to keep the size what it is and only update when I've got enough new stuff added in to make it re-download worthy: the current plan is a new download with every new 'scene' finished: each scene should be in the three to five hour range, content wise. If I fix something major, I'll update the file, but I'm not going to go the nightly/weekly build route.

Structure: The game goes from a story heavy beginning, to a combat-heavy middle, and then a story-heavy (with some combat - Big Bad at the end) ending once you've seen the king and get sent to your next stop. Let me know what you think of that cycle - is it something I should keep following as a pattern, or do you think something else would serve the game's story better?

To me the story is paramount, but it needs to be fun to play at the same time (hey, there's that "Target Audience" thing, to borrow from another current thread). Sofia, Pleroma, Atziluth, and Lumina Sound are very deliberate names and should give a pretty good idea of the direction the story is headed, or at least some clues as to the type of story it will be - especially if you can get to the end of the prologue (demo).

Please keep the feedback coming and keep it honest!

 

[Indrah]

Well, as asked I tore it apart:

 

[Mouser]

Thank you Indrah!  Yes, you ranted a bit, but there was a lot of good stuff in there for me to use.

One question if you remember - what's your computer setup and what were you doing when you got those mouse crashes? That's a straight up game-breaking bug that I wasn't able to find on my machine, so any help you can give me there would be great.

As for the mapping - I'll redo the first town for sure. "Compress" the mine as well, and probably 'cull' a few parts of the second.

I'll have to think of a good 'hook' to get the story going. You suggested borrowing from another game: I may steal the start of Lufia - where you are the adventurers that seal the witch up in the first place. Then fast forward to the present. That would start with some high level content with nice abilities and stuff.

I know you mentioned three tile high walls a few times. Some things just don't look right on two tile high walls. I tried to vary them a bit, but like you said, pretty much the whole first town needs to be remapped and redecorated. Combat is supposed to be simple till you get to your first class change, but I obviously erred way too far in that department.

A lot of the 'what to do' is addressed in your journal, but I'm obviously not bringing that out and making the main quest obvious - I may give that its own section separate from the side quests and journal entries.

Much work to do.

Thank you again - an hour of good advice is hard to find

Editing to avoid double posting and upsetting Shaz

Starting to get feedback from other sources. Interesting, but not unexpected. Fans of more 'open world' type games like the beginning and story. Fans of more 'linear' games, not so much. Some think the journal is too much hand holding.

And vampire teeth - my kingdom for some female mouths without vampire teeth.

The story is the one thing above all I'm married to, but that doesn't mean I can't tell it better.

Note to Indrah after watching the Let's Play a 2nd time (trying to soak it in): you left town with a purse full of money but no equipment (didn't even equip the ring you were given). That's why it took you so long to kill the rats. I'm not saying combat can't be better - I know it can be and needs to be, but if you go out fighting barehanded (or with starter weapons) without "monk" next to your name somewhere, expect long battles.

Another thing you didn't like (and I'm very open to suggestions here) was the screens explaining the controls in the beginning. I have to assume that the player has never touched an RPG Maker game before in their life. The game engine controls are not standard: The engine is designed so you play on a PC with your right hand over the arrow keys, index finger hits enter for action/confirm and pinky hits Ins on the numpad for menu/cancel. Left hand holds your beer (maybe I should include that <.<).

Last thing: Your response to the gate guard asking you to prove yourself was the assumption you would have to "grind for three hours". I'm sure you're representative of a lot of players, so I've got to make that more clear, but you don't. It adds content - four bosses to be specific (you don't even need to kill all four). Every game has 'gates' - broken bridge, river/ocean that can't be crossed, no ships at the harbor, boss that has to be killed, something has to be found, etc... That one happened to be a bit more obvious, but I'm trying to vary them so it isn't always geography holding you back.

Back to remapping...

 

[Zevia]

Gave the demo a try. You can find the LP over at my LP thread: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/25194-zevias-lets-play/

Here's the review I wrote up for it:

Review for Dammerung: Requiem For Tomorrow

Spoiler

There was one prominent note I was given before I started playing this game - talk to everyone multiple times until you notice they're repeating themselves. I was given a second note, but it's irrelevant to the review.

My guess would be that I got that note because that's really the game's greatest strength and is probably the aspect the creator spent the most time working on. The entire NPC population has evolving dialogue that reacts to the story at hand - talk to some miners, they tell you about some scary stuff. Set off an explosion, they all ask about the explosion. It's not just story-important characters who change their dialogue up to help move the story along. Almost everybody you can talk to will react to the world around them.

So that's actually pretty cool. That is a level of detail and care that most games don't go into. Admittedly, if you aren't interested in the minutiae of the day-to-day life of what are, effectively, a bunch of random citizens and workers that are not otherwise important to the story, it's a detail you're going to skip quickly. But if you're interested in exploring a world, it should be right up your alley.

I didn't really get a chance to play with it that much, but there's also a fame system. Presumably, as you complete sidequests/"bounties," you also gain a reputation, and everyone will react to you differently depending on your reputation. This seems to imply that every NPC will have page after page of complex dialogue options that are all hinged on various switches and variables, and that's a pretty impressive amount of work to sink into conversations.

So honestly, I'm pretty impressed with the wide variety of dialogue options you get with everyone in the game, and moreso with what the game looks like it unfolds into as a result.

However, as I mentioned, I didn't really get a chance to get that far into it, because the rest of the game is missing some serious polish.

The maps are quite large and extremely bare. They could probably be cut down by about 70% and still serve the same purpose - or, if it's absolutely important to give the sense of sprawl or depth, then a lot more work needs to be put into making the maps more interesting. Since hardly anything in the world can be interacted with, save for the occasional bookshelf, really, I'm going to start cruising through a lot of the background without any regard to something that is not an NPC, since they're the ones with the interesting interaction (sort of - I'll get to that in a second). And if what I'm cruising through all looks the same, I'm going to start zoning out and basically ignoring the fact that the game even has maps.

There are some mapping areas that further pull me out of the experience - for example, the bottoms of tables appear to have no legs, there are some cobblestone tiles that stand out as clearly contrasting, and I came across a wall that had no wall, leading east out of town. It was just a ceiling tile that came to an abrupt end.

I'd like to think I'm really not that critical of art and map assets, but the level of blandness in the maps is kind of jarring, and serves to remind me that I'm playing a game made with autotiles.

Speaking of art assets, and I'm only going to briefly address this because the creator has already mentioned he's aware of the issue in his game thread... Holy ****, the faces. They are... Absolutely frightening. I think an exorcist needs to be called in to Pleroma. Or maybe there just needs to be less in-breeding. Yowza.

Now, as impressed as I am with the volume of dialogue, the quality is hit and miss. I didn't see any glaring spelling or grammar errors - not that it was perfect, of course - but some of the dialogue seemed kind of... Off. I'm not entirely sure if it's a deliberate choice or it's just me, but the game's men are misogynistically overbearing at times, and none of the women seem to have an issue with it. At first I was kind of surprised to see that the main character, an orphan who hardened herself working in the mines and eventually worked her way up to assistant foreman, was a woman. Not that I found it unbelievable, but that most games don't usually go that route. It was actually kind of refreshing - "hey, a strong woman who's not strong because she's motherly or some ****."

But then she just casually accepts all the various creepy-looking dudes calling out, "Hey, girl." I have the feeling if they could've been patting her ass and wolf-whistling at her as she walked by, they would have, and she just accepts it all with a smile and a flirtatious wink. It's sort of unsettling, really - and it's not just her, literally every female character I came across seemed to express the same kind of attitude and sentiment.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for free sexuality and female characters being able to express themselves in any way, shape, or form - especially in a video game where the rules of the real world don't have to apply. Clearly, Pleroma is not a patriarchy, with many of the miners, a presumably physically demanding job, being women. There's no slight against them for being women, no accusations of being weak, no one complaining that "they're working under a woman" or anything like that. Even the priestesses at Kassandria's temple, who openly sleep with pretty much anyone who asks (because that's how you recover your HP/MP), are not slut-shamed or considered inferior. The priests fill the same role, so it's not like it's only the women who are treated with this open sexuality.

It's just that there are a lot of side comments that reflect a more male-dominant, female-submissive atmosphere that neither gender questions that is a little offputting after being presented with this presumably gender-equal society.

Some of the characters don't seem nearly as emotionally affected as they ought to be, either, and I think that's a combination of eventing, music, and dialogue. When Mitzi effectively sacrifices herself to try and seal in the witch Magdalene, there's no sense of loss or caring or even that Sofia even really notices. The two of them start running out, but when Mitzi stays back to blow up the tunnels, Sofia pretty casually strolls out. She doesn't seem nearly as upset about the indifference to the whole affair the mayor takes on, either - I think this would be the equivalent to watching a movie or TV show and calling the actors "wooden." It seems so much more like script-reading than real emotion.

The equipment system is a little confusing, primarily because all the numbers are the same hue. When you go to increase your attack, it's not readily obvious that your attack is being increased (by having the number be green or, if it's decreased, red, or whatever you want to do). The shift in stats kind of blends into the background, so much so that I didn't even notice that raising my attack power by 20 actually just raised my damage from 2-4 to 2-5. I was extremely disappointed when I tripled my attack power, only to do the exact same damage I had been doing before. I had the same issue with defense - I raised my defense by 20, tripling my default 10, but I didn't notice a difference.

Also, the first battle I encountered - not even outside town, in a dungeon, or in any atmosphere that suggested I would be getting into a battle - almost gave me a game over. I had no special skills, I had no items, and the guard command appeared to do absolutely nothing - so it was literally "attack" or "escape." I often missed or did 0-2 damage, while the mouldy slime in the cellar was doing 20-25 damage to me per hit. I picked up new armor and a new ring, but when I came back, it was a repeat of the first battle - I just had better luck with misses and hits and damage and all.

Even after I picked up a party, despite completing all the sidequests I was able to find in town, I never received any more money or useful items. So I ventured out of town, unable to upgrade any of my equipment, and eventually was led back to the starting town's "bounty board." I was informed by the game that completing early bounties would be easier than completing later bounties, so I figured the very first bounty I encountered could be completed by my starting party of 3 members.

However, I was wrong - one character did 0 damage, but having access to no items, special skills, or any commands other than fight, had no option except to just keep telling him to futilely whack away at an enemy that would not take damage. The escape option was not around this time, so, over an agonizingly repetitious and slow battle, I was eventually whittled down in an inevitable defeat that I didn't feel like I could've done anything more to prepare for.

In short, the game feels very raw and still "early development." It kind of feels like a first pass of a rough draft of a game, where I've only come upon it as all the various dialogue intricacies have been introduced. There doesn't seem to really BE a combat system yet, and the story doesn't feel particularly engaging, mostly because all the characters kind of treat every situation the same - they have the same level of emotion to deciding to be a stripper in a pub out of boredom (that's really a thing that happens, by the way) as they do to possibly setting a powerful demon-witch free.

I'd be very curious to see where the game ends up finishing with all the detail given to the NPCs. However, I think future builds need to have a lot of that attention to detail spread around to other aspects of the game.

 

[Mouser]

Also, the first battle I encountered - not even outside town, in a dungeon, or in any atmosphere that suggested I would be getting into a battle - almost gave me a game over. I had no special skills, I had no items, and the guard command appeared to do absolutely nothing - so it was literally "attack" or "escape." I often missed or did 0-2 damage, while the mouldy slime in the cellar was doing 20-25 damage to me per hit. I picked up new armor and a new ring, but when I came back, it was a repeat of the first battle - I just had better luck with misses and hits and damage and all.

I added a bit of a 'manual' to the OP to explain the combat system a bit better. That first battle is intentionally difficult - you can't Game Over on that one. The 'better luck' you had the second time around was your equipment working as intended.

 

[shayoko]

last post was in june? is this dead?

either way amoung other things the 1st town south of the exit of the village cant be entered

/

as for mouse crashes(i never actually sue the mouse if at all possible for these games)

is when  i try a f12 reset every game with a mouse script ive played has this same error

/

seems ive done all i can in the demo apparently so...

b4 anything honestly overall not interesting,alot of npcs not saying anything i really care about,cliche stomping out the evil demon(ignoring humanitys problems)

having sex to regain life and mana was amusing tho

grammar wasnt to bad tho i like good grammar :3

Random Thoughts

Spoiler

nice title screen!

female leads ftw! and dependable too!

wandering npcs is a really bad idea especially in single halls...they tend to block you in!

mapping is nice

alot of lore in this XD gl remembering it!

thats a unique way to gain life back! and for free too

demon girls always have to be evil why??? wanted her as a pet...or better yet as a playable character
or even better then that the main character of a story revolving around killling humans or not :3

how does the townsfolk know your leaving??? only the mayor is supposed to know!

world map is huge which is fine but having a faster way to travel would be nice and as always a random battle cancel

interesting you dont learn skills by lvls

Overall

as for saying if this is a good or bad game....umm

-mapping was hit and miss

-characters ify

-story was crap

-bountys were interesting

-fame too

-journal was awesome

-alot of interactivity with npcs but not much with objects

though id still finish it if the game were done right now

id honestly say pass on it

/

in the demo i assume you cant

Spoiler

-get past the guards at the castle

-see whats happens witht eh girl at the pub in you home town

-find out why the sailers seem weathy or where there captain is

-fix the bridge

^find the workers for it

-boats to cross ocean

basically a good amount fo stuff

all that aside if you do finish and improve the game and need a tester or something pm me and i would not mind replaying it

Grammar - not many yay! if your english native between the title and reading it you should be able to figure them out.