From what I played of it, I wanted to like it, but as a fan of Dragon Quest, I feel this game is missing a lot of the charm and feel that makes Dragon Quest, well...Dragon Quest. I'll admit, I might be a tad nit-picky here, but this is coming from someone who has enjoyed a lot of the DQ games and finds some of the design choices a bit jarring.
First point. Roto. I don't know where to begin with him. First off, he talks. This pretty much breaks the first rule of every Dragon Quest ever. That being the Hero NEVER talks, with the exception of the game saying '<Heroname> explained this to someone' or whenever you get a Yes/No prompt. The whole idea of Dragon Quest has always been that you are the hero. The hero doesn't speak, because the hero is you. The hero is meant to be a silent protagonist because you're filling his shoes, and thus he doesn't speak for you. Second, the generic hero with a headband look doesn't fit Roto at all
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This is what I was expecting, as opposed to what I got.
Second, although to be fair you said you're addressing this: Towns feel too big. There's a lot of empty space and it almost feels like the towns could be a lot smaller if they didn't have all this open space that served no purpose. It's hard to find anything and figure out what's where when you have to do so much walking.
Third, the title theme completely put me off. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Jam Project, and that song would be perfect...If this were a Super Robot Wars game. The first thing any DQ player expects to hear upon opening a Dragon Quest game is this:
While I applaud the direction you're going in trying to expand on the barebones plot of DQ1 (Which let's face it, was pretty bare bones, that's one aspect of the game that did not age well at all) the overall look, feel, and tone doesn't feel like what one would expect in Dragon Quest. Where's our more quirky and lovable sidekicks? The ones I got felt like the typical mage and knight out to restore her honor types. Look at followers from the prior games: We had the brave Ragnar, a headstrong and passionate soldier who was in his 50s who proved age was nothing in Dragon Quest IV. VIII had the ever so great Jessica, a fledgling magician out to prove herself but wasn't afraid to speak her mind, the ever lovable bloke we call Yangus, and prettyboy Angelo who just can't seem to realize he's NOT the maker's gift to women like he thinks (At least when it comes to Jessica!)
Mechanically, the game seems fine aside from the town problems you mentioned you're working on. My complaint is more on the 'feel' of it. It just doesn't feel like Dragon Quest in terms of its presentation. That said, please don't take this as an attempt to discourage you. Far from it. You've got good groundwork in mechanically, but down the road once you get the gameplay ironed out, I would recommend going over the overall presentation/script to give it more of a Dragon Quest feel.
Well, this is fair criticism, quite a bit of it is valid.
However, I have to say some of the choices were deliberate.
First, talking hero, done on purpose.
Why? Yes, I know, betrays the DQ feel, but thing is, I wanted to do my own thing, hence the talking hero. I figured if I made a straight up remake, it would be boring, so I figured some DQ mainstays would have to be tossed aside to do that. Also, I like writing heroes with dialogue, it's my strong suit.
As for the design, I'm a terrible artist, and I like the RTP/DS Rpg Maker graphics, hence my sticking with that for the character designs. Love the original DQ stuff, but not very much RM resources to complement it.
As for the towns, still working on that. Plan to justify their space by adding more dialogue and sidequests and shrinking the ones where even that's no excuse.
As for the title theme, I know, divisive choice, note I still kept all the traditional music because I agree, but if you follow the English lyrics of the song I picked, it does fit the tone the original DQ was going for:
Desperate times, people want a hero, people want divine intervention, hero expected to face mortal odds, hero told not to fear death and bring deliverance, that's the short version.
Still, I get what you mean, and if enough people think it sucks, I'll change it.
Also, as for the characters, yeah, kinda basic with Sarah being my no-nonsense knight, thought I tried to make Mara my pithy hedonist snarker. Lora (who is PLAYABLE) has her own personality, but mostly she's just not down at all with sitting on her butt and doing nothing, and instead of the classic princess of the original version, she wants to give the Dragonlord a piece of her mind.
I'm a bit of a sucker for romantic comedy, so you'll notice the various girls hit on Roto and various characters ship them together (this will have a resolution if you fulfill certain conditions)
Finally, I consider this more a "reinterpretation". I love Dragon Quest, but my efforts are a pale shadow of the original at best, so I decided 80% of the work would be me doing my own thing, since I can't match the original creator's genius and I know it, though before the gold release, I definitely plan to have as many touches of the original included as I can.
Good thing I saved before I used it. But walking out is another matter...
