Dead Moon Night

[Maebius]

Yep, Have not quite finished the second time, since I keep restarting and trying different things, but I really like the humor of the characters. (yep, especially Mariah too!) Very VERY well done, and an excellent example to this noob of the level of customization and depth this system can have!

Kudos!

 

[punram]

I actually played the game a little while ago, but I've just got around to posting here. This is pretty much my first "review" of a completed game, so I'll try and keep it short and sweet so that I don't embarrass myself too much.

Note - I tried to keep as many spoilers out as I could, so this should be okay for players who haven't finished or downloaded the game yet to read.

Spoiler

Story & Characters

+ The characters, while fulfilling basic archtypes, were all very likeable and interacted well.

+ The humour and dialogue was extremely refined, and often flowed very naturally.

+ The story's twists kept the cutscenes fresh and enjoyable, besides the stellar dialogue and characters.

- Some of the scenarios felt forced, for example, the second-last encounter.

- Some directions in the game were quite vague or misleading, for example, using a stepping stone to cross a river or going back to the wrong church.

7/10

Presentation

+ Clever use of Etolier-style facesets added to the light hearted theme of the game, and portrayed a lot of emotion during dialogue.

+ Edits to the RTP were great, and the choice of tileset as a whole worked very well in terms of setting a definitive design format for the game.

+ Mapping was very well done, with open areas to explore but with still enough guidance as to not becoming stuck or lost.

+ The choice of music was spectacular, with the gothic and quirky themes really screaming (pardon the pun) "Halloween".

- The battle system used fully default graphics - correct me if I'm wrong on this. The RTP battlers broke the simplistic theme of the game slightly, in my honest opinion.

9/10

Gameplay

Firstly, let me say that I'm stunned. Not only was the mod system a huge, huge achievement in my eyes, it's also scarily close to what I'm planning for my game.

+ As stated above, the mod system was a massively enjoyable feature of this game, keeping battles fresh and encouraging the player to think rather than grind.

+ Characters having different types of AP etc. as well as unique equips and skills kept me on my toes and really pushed me to think ahead instead of just the current turn.

+ There were plenty of hidden items and mods to find which makes a replay seem possible - often a rare thing with RPG Maker titles!

+ The actual length of the game felt spot on. Not too long, and not too short, either - a perfect blend of character development and an atmosphere of it being a "short game".

- Encountering enemies seemed all over the place, with some respawning, some not and some chasing you around while others just stood there looking bored.

- Actually taking control of the possessed enemies would have been a big plus!

- While I admire your want to vary the gameplay, I felt the need to build energy up to fly around a bit pointless. The accuracy minigame, however, with opening doors, was very appropriate and enjoyable.

8/10

Total Score: 8/10 - "Brilliant"

 

[Indrah]

@Levicore.exe Glad you enjoyed it! The final scene is my favorite

@Maebious Thanks! It's always awesome to know your brainchildren (aka characters) are enjoyed.

@LordBagardo What is this I don't even come here so I can smother you >3

The minireview is awesome. It's to the point and easy to tell what needs fixing and not. Seriously, thanks a lot for taking the time to do it!

And of course, really proud of getting an 8/10. No one had given the game a numerical score so far, so it really boosts my mood XD

-To be honest, mods are incredible (to me at least. I am aware some people didn't like them, but they're a small enough demographic we're satisfied with them), but the game was too short to blalance them properly. If their drop rate was low, people complained. If their drop rate is high (as it is now) it's a bit too easy to be overkill. Since the game was so short we had to give all the mods in quick succession. Had this been a longer game, it would have been more paced out.

-I am honestly giggling at my humour being called "refined". It's not something I would have considered myself XD

-The enemy encounters: They were made at the very last moment and suffer form a couple problems: I do not usually map in a wide format, preferring narrower, less cluttered spaces (because I get really paranoid about blank tiles). This causes mob placements to be usually forced encounters.

The respawn was made like that because natural respawn (most enemies beign replaced every time) got the testers very riled up and frustrated. We took that **** out and slapped one single respawn encounter of every type across each area in case someone wanted to farm them and called it a day.

Movement and route programming was a very basic Random/Approach and slow/fast, so that explains why some enemies are a bit dumb. We had no time to pull out a refined chasing system, sadly.

-Actually, we had to scrap most of the intial ideas for field skills. As it is, only Robin's gate bashing got completed. The possession was going to be a minigame, as well as the wolf's smell, but we ran out of time. Vlad's was a bit placeholder, perhaps. A remain of what we initially wanted to do with him and we had no time to.

Also we had to rush this bich like insane in the last week. Just saying. That influenced the final product A LOT. (And it still came out good enough for me to be satisfied).

 

[punram]

@LordBagardo What is this I don't even come here so I can smother you >3

The minireview is awesome. It's to the point and easy to tell what needs fixing and not. Seriously, thanks a lot for taking the time to do it!

And of course, really proud of getting an 8/10. No one had given the game a numerical score so far, so it really boosts my mood XD

-To be honest, mods are incredible (to me at least. I am aware some people didn't like them, but they're a small enough demographic we're satisfied with them), but the game was too short to blalance them properly. If their drop rate was low, people complained. If their drop rate is high (as it is now) it's a bit too easy to be overkill. Since the game was so short we had to give all the mods in quick succession. Had this been a longer game, it would have been more paced out.

-I am honestly giggling at my humour being called "refined". It's not something I would have considered myself XD

-The enemy encounters: They were made at the very last moment and suffer form a couple problems: I do not usually map in a wide format, preferring narrower, less cluttered spaces (because I get really paranoid about blank tiles). This causes mob placements to be usually forced encounters.

The respawn was made like that because natural respawn (most enemies beign replaced every time) got the testers very riled up and frustrated. We took that **** out and slapped one single respawn encounter of every type across each area in case someone wanted to farm them and called it a day.

Movement and route programming was a very basic Random/Approach and slow/fast, so that explains why some enemies are a bit dumb. We had no time to pull out a refined chasing system, sadly.

-Actually, we had to scrap most of the intial ideas for field skills. As it is, only Robin's gate bashing got completed. The possession was going to be a minigame, as well as the wolf's smell, but we ran out of time. Vlad's was a bit placeholder, perhaps. A remain of what we initially wanted to do with him and we had no time to.

Also we had to rush this bich like insane in the last week. Just saying. That influenced the final product A LOT. (And it still came out good enough for me to be satisfied).

Ah, with the encounters and field skills, I had guessed as much, saying as you had a very limited deadline to meet. I'd say the final product was definitely a great effort for the dev time though, especially with the distractions of the mod system and custom graphics to take care of.

Oh, and on the humour... What can I say, it was a lot more neatly executed than the majority of retail games I've played, let alone the other games on this forum. It certainly beats the "LOLZ I REFERENCED AN INTERNET MEME" trend I've been seeing for the past couple of years.

But yeah, anyways, I'd love to see more of this! Perhaps another short game of what takes place after, or on the next Dead Moon Night, would be sweet.

 

[Indrah]

But yeah, anyways, I'd love to see more of this! Perhaps another short game of what takes place after, or on the next Dead Moon Night, would be sweet.

Ugh don't tempt me ;m;

It's hard enough working on main agme as it is already without being driven to the delicious realm of sidetrack projects. In Searc of Dragons must be finished, godamnit ;M;

And ahaha, Lorelai, Queen has to be finished too. And I wanted to do that island game, and...

Pff, at this rate we're not getting to commercial ever OTL I will be forerver stuck in finsihign projects and being waylaid by contests.

 

[RyanA]

Frickn' love the character portraits :3 Did you do them, Indrah?

 

[Indrah]

They're from Etolier (site is dead now) and heavily edited by Scinaya. I claim no art whatsoever :I

 

[slimmmeiske2]

They're from Etolier (site is dead now) and heavily edited by Scinaya. I claim no art whatsoever :I

Etolier isn't down. You can find it right here.

I've started playing the game. Loving the characters

 

[Indrah]

Ooh. THat's new then. At the time DMN was in the making, I went to the site and it was dead. Must have been a temporary thing.

 

[Scinaya]

They're from Etolier (site is dead now) and heavily edited by Scinaya. I claim no art whatsoever :I

XD Mort (and Vlad pretty much as well) were done practically from scratch within the style. ;w;

And someone apparently thought same as me... Head priest must have been a pervert. XD He even left his coat and hat in Mariah's room and obviously goes through her room as he pleases on his way in and out.

 

[Stoic]

Hey guys great game! I don't play through many RM games these days so I'm usually pretty selective but I'm glad I spent time with this one. Both the visuals and combat mechanics were top notch! I found the dialogue charming if not laugh-out-loud funny. I quickly became overpowered once I started stacking certain mods which made fighting a breeze. Later fighting became a bit tedious (esp. that cave section) as I wasn't getting anymore new mods that I needed and there was often no way to avoid battle. Also there were a lot of cool looking mechanics, like the burst ability for Vlad, that I didn't get to try out because I was taking out enemies so fast. Too bad more time couldn't have been focused on balance. Still it was a fun experience and I enjoyed the cute twist at the end!

 

[Zack]

Wow, this game is not only well-put-together, but it's freakin hilarious! I named all the characters after bodily functions and innapropriate parts! (LOL)

 

[Fomar0153]

Wow, this game is not only well-put-together, but it's freakin hilarious! I named all the characters after bodily functions and innapropriate parts! (LOL)

I wonder what the worst line that produced was.

 

[RyanA]

Probably the part about the ______ agreeing to carry the ______ :3 Anyway, I got around to playing a little of this, I like it, very much :3

 

[RainbowGrenade]

I started playing last night, and I absolutely love it!  I wanted to go ahead and let you know tonight before I started it up again and forgot.  Unlike a lot of rpm games, it's easy to forget that it's not professional.  the sense of humor is great, and the portraits are adorable.  So far, I think it's fabulous!

 

[senpoRiot]

nice game
talk about unexpected turn of events!! haha

 

[Guy]

This game is so much win!

I loved it!

 

[gbanshee]

I'm past the first boss now, and here are my first impressions:

The game is not only fun, but funny as hell too. I really like these kind of character interaction jokes (something I liked about "In Search of Clues" too) and you seem to be an expert at this kind of thing. The characters are very well designed (Robin the unconfident warrior... his face picture SCREAMS his personality).

Now onto mechanics: the mods system is great in theory - I'd love to see you develop and improve it further, but at this time it has SERIOUS balance issues, like the aforementioned Skeleton Mage stacking and availability. 10 minutes in the game I had 3 skeleton mages, making Robin breeze through most of the stuff with one hit. If you work on the balancing of the mods, then I'm REALLY keen on seeing this system in your future games - it has great potential and I like it much more than the usual, boring level-up system.

 

[Aeslynn Winterfell]

So I was finally able to play and complete this game and I have to say it was alot of fun!  I really liked the cute atmosphere and tone as well as the comedy.  I also really liked the way the battle system was created to play up each characters unique identity and it was a nice touch.  I can see alot of hard work went into this project and all I can say to that this is an awesome and well designed game!

 

[gbanshee]

Finished the game, it was very good! I liked the little plotwists at the end. You presented the characters perfectly, I loved every single one in my party (especially Robin, he's adorable xD). There were major balance issues though - the game is too easy. I'm playing The Grumpy Knight now and the balance there is better, so I guess the system is taking a better shape