RMVXA Legends of Legacies

[jasonluthor]

Introduction
Hello! My name is Jason Luthor, author of the novel FLOOR 21, owner of a small writing company in the U.S., and fantasy RPG aficionado. I've been working on this demo over the last month and felt that, while there is still some cleanup to be done, it's time to put it out into the world. LEGEND OF LEGACIES is an RPG in the 16 bit era spirit. I've worked hard to implemented a number of game enhancing scripts, including lighting, weather, quest logs, and more. However, since I professionalize as a writer, I believe that is where the game's main strength lies. I hope to entice you into reading about the game and joining me as I work over the next year to complete it. Hopefully I am able to win your confidence and support during this time!

Developed with
RPG Maker VX Ace
Downloadable at
Access it from Dropbox at https://www.dropbox.com/s/3s101p2igf71dnr/Project1.exe?dl=0.

Synopsis

Spoiler: Synopsis

Legend of Legacies occurs untold ages after the Age of Legend and thousands of years after the Age of Legacy. The Age of Legend was defined by myths and gods, and only stories and oral records survive from that era. The Age of Legends is vaguely recorded in history books, and tells of a tribe of technology and a tribe of magic who tore apart the world as they tried to tap the power of a dead god. Three of the younger races rose up to face this unleashed profanity, but though they drove it back, magic was broken, sending the people of the world into the Age of Nations. In a world devoid of magic, people now use Signum, a rune based imitation that is about half as powerful.

The story opens on a young man, Kal, discovered amnesiac and unconscious on the peak of Mount Fell, where the fabled Last Battle between three heroes and the profaned god took place. Escorted by Elder Russo into the village of Boondock, he is tended to and cared for by a young doctor who arrives from Isenly City: Alia. Kal is found to be in good health but refuses to speak. Thinking he must be in shock, Alia and Russo agree to let him stay in the village until he feels better.

A year later and Kal still does not speak. However, he's gained a good reputation among the villagers, and Alia visits him once
a month to see if he's still physically healthy. Kal enjoys a pleasant friendship with her, even though he does not speak, and all seems well. That is until a commotion outside draws the young pair to the center of town, where a towering knight and his wolf hound stand demanding to know the location of the Phoenix Star. Unable to find it, he begins to cast magic and set the village on fire. He then turns his sights on Kal, who utters the first words anyone has heard from him and sets the invader on fire. However, still unable to say where he is from or who exactly he used to be, Elder Russo asks Kal to travel to the capital of their country, Isenly City, to seek help from the scholars of the Royal Academy. Thus is Kal's adventure born.

Characters and World Building

Spoiler: Characters and World Building

Kal: An amnesiac discovered on the top of Mount Fell, site of the famous Last Battle of the War of Legacy. Kal spends a year in the village of Boondock, never speaking until a monstrous knight invades. His first words call forward the dead art of magic, beating back the knight. Still unsure of who he is, Kal sets out to Isenly City to learn more from the scholars of the Royal Academy.

Alia: A doctor who got into the Royal Academy on the word of Elder Russo and who continues to visit the village of Boondock as a means of helping the local community with medical issues. She's Kal's best friend, even if he's been silent in the year they've known each other, and the two enjoy a close friendship.

Astra: The Legendary Adventurer, Astra has spent the last two years making a name for herself among the Hunters of the Hunters Guild. She's commissioned by King Torias Isenly to travel with Kal in search of the famed scholar Solovan, who is the only one who can shed light on Kal's mysterious powers.

King Torias Isenly: The famed king of Isenly, Torias Isenly remains relatively young but is grounded in taking care of his nation. He is concerned with recent events at both Fell Mountain and in the Desert of Azkasham.

Solovan: Improper, snobbish, and arrogant, the head of the Royal Academy is nonetheless an admitted genius. Solovan has worked in all fields of modern research. He's respected among the Knights of Isenly for developing Solovan's Potion, which can held light wounds immediately. His historical research has produced volumes on the history of the country, and he's the most well versed individual on the Age of Legend and the Age of Legacy. There is no more learned individual in all the world... or so he claims.

The Kingdom of Isenly: A young nation when compared against the other nations of the world, Isenly was only founded about a thousand years ago. Today, it is a major power in the southern portion of the eastern continent of Liodan. It is bordered to the south by the Azkasham Desert, which was once a source of major conflict for the country. It counts among its holdings the village town of Boondock, the ferry town of Ferrington, and the mining colony of Roucester. Despite the pride with which it holds itself, the Kingdom of Isenly is overshadowed in world affairs by the Duchy of Alucar, a major political power that is among the oldest nations in the world and claims to trace its lineage to one of the Three Heroes who fought in the Last Battle.

The Azkasham Desert: A sprawling desert to the south of the Kingdom of Isenly. The entire southern portion of the continent was desert or dead until the arrival of the first king of Isenly, who colonized the south. The Azkasham Desert never recovered and remains independent of the kingdom. However, Isenly maintains good ties with the tribesmen who live on the dunes.

Centra: The heart of global affairs and perhaps the most ancient actively existing nation in the world, the Duchy of Alucar is home to Centra, the grandest city in all the world. There, representatives from nations from both the east and the west meet with the Duke of Alucar, who facilitates trade and military alliances between the nations.

Screenshots:

Spoiler: Screenshots

The Title Screen. Fairly straightforward.

Scattered throughout the world are books you can pick up to read more on the background and history of the many nations as well as biographies, in-world details of items, and stories.

Legends of Legacies uses a 16 bit style reminiscent of many Super Nintendo games.

Implemented in-game is a fogging and cloud system to supplement the existing weather effects.

Lighting effects are fully implemented to give a dynamic look to both indoor and outdoor areas.

Combat takes place from a side-view perspective. NOTE: Side-views animations will change during the summer after the character sprites have been fully animated. They currently use a simple sword swing motion native to the battle engine.

A 24-hour day and night cycle is fully implemented. At times, the road may get too dark too see. Fortunately, you receive a lamp
at the beginning of the game to help light the way. Hunt certain monsters that only come out after dark for the Hunters Guild!

Critique:

Spoiler: Critique

Several changes coming over summer. The animation cycles in-battle are standard to the engine, with the sprite simply moving forward and striking using an animation sequence native to the engine. However, all sprites will have their own full animation sequels implemented before release. Second, optimization of light sources will be done for larger areas where slowdown is
occurring, which will be done by implementing a pre-load process. Also, the current state of the leveling system will undergo massive revision. I don't like the fact that the protagonist starts with nearly 600 HP in the standard RPG Maker build, so new leveling curves and enemy difficulties will be introduced. The current build only has the standard fight sequence for the main protagonist, but the test build has scripts in place for implementing different skills like stealing or summoning, so that will be implemented in the future.

Technical Details:

Spoiler: Technical Details

99% of all resources used in the project have been purchased by license and I have full legal access to them. There are some scattered elements I need to cite when I put up the next demo iteration with a credits list.

With regard to gameplay, this is is a topdown exploration system with sideview battling. There is no world map (Final Fantasy VI style) in favor of having all travel on the game maps (Secret of Mana or Final Fantasy X style). Although there will be fast travel later in the game, the hope is to create the impression of a large, explorable world in which leveling takes place continuously while minimizing the need for grinding.

In terms of storytelling, the game utilized multiple cutscenes using the in-game engine and the variety of tools available in the ACE engine. I have a tendency, as a writer, to believe that good narrative and characterization are king. So, the storytelling will heavily emphasize interactions at key moments. Also, there's plenty of flavor text in cities. You can click on lots of random objects throughout towns and in homes. Even if it's just a snarky narrator's remark, there's plenty of flavor text to make sure there's always something to click on as you go. The current download is just under a gig in size, which includes music files and such.

The current alpha demo includes all scripts to be included in the final build except for the script to implement additional skills. The length of the demo runs from the opening sequence, the travel through the wilderness, and the meeting with the king in Isenly Castle.

Credits:

Spoiler: Credits

Until I implement an end of demo credits screen, the only credits I believe I need to give are:
Intro song: Verdure
Music used: Verdure by PeriTune
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

Scripts:
Splash Screen
Thanks to Casper Gaming (http://www.caspergaming.com/)

Symphony Engine
Thanks to Yami.

Crafting, Item Appraisal, Quest System, and Advanced Time System
Thanks to Daimonius (http://daimonioustails.weebly.com/)

All other resources, included music and chipsets, are licensed to the developer for use in commercial projects free of
attribution.

 

[jasonluthor]

Well, now we're done with initial introductions, so it's time to talk about the first major mission line.
Following Kal's arrival in Isenly City, he's told he needs to find the scholar, Solovan, who understands the old Legacy War better than anyone else.
However, Solovan is at an archeological expedition in the Blackwood. So, it's up to Kal and his newly assigned royal guard, Astra, to cross the miniature mountain range, pass through the Blackwood, and arrive at the archaeological site. The Blackwood plays the part of connecting the country of Isenly to large parts of the eastern continent and the global power, Centra.

During this mission though, the Blackwood is cut off from that part of the world due to a bridge collapse. Fortunately, you can still reach the archaeological site.

Spoiler: Click the Button for Images!

This represents the mountain range you cross to reach the Blackwood itself. You get a minor expedition opportunity through the cave interior.
(not sure about that graphic glitch on the cave page, will have to look that over. )

Once through the cavern and the mountains, you reach the Blackwood itself. It's fairly large and split into multiple sections, though this
represents the largest section of the Blackwood you have access to.

And then you arrive at the archaeological site itself.

Inside, you encounter your first major puzzle, a four switch room puzzle meant to test your reading comprehension

Once through this introductory section itself, you reach the depths of this forest temple. The point was to create a section that seemed
to be more than just a dungeon. Instead, it's a place that was actually used at one point, so there are beds and chairs in the area. As
the first major dungeon of the game, it's large enough to keep people fighting and battling for a bit. Outside, in the archeological site,
people can retreat and rest in one of the tents if they're not equipped well enough to survive inside the dungeon, so they get a chance to
level up a bit.

This does constitute a pretty large stretch of the game intended to level up the character throughout the process. However,
it's also intended to help characterize Astra and Kal better. They get lots of dialogue opportunities, for instance, at the archaeological
site. However, there's also a tavern halfway through the mountains and woods where adventurers can rest. This opens a cutscene that,
again, allows for characterization between the characters.
Of course, missing from all these images are lighting effects, environment effects, on-map enemy placement, and other things that
will make the entire experience more interesting.

 

[Dutch Power Creations]

Just a heads up as a co-developer; large map tend to lag once you populated them with graphic plugins and parallel events. It is mostly wise to just make another map when transferring a player to minimize the FPS (lag) the player might get.

Good luck!

 

[Rhino]

I like the mapping and 16 bit style! And your world sounds well built, personally, I love a good story above all else, so good luck with that!

One thing I have to say though, the screenshot of your dialogue window would really get on my nerves... There's too much blank space on the right side! I feel like for a long dialogue, the player would end up clicking a few extra times to see lines that you could have fit if the text extended further across the screen. The only time the text should look like that is if you had a face graphic, otherwise, do try to fill it appropriately! If you prefer having the text look like that, I'd recommend decreasing the width of the text box to match.

 

[jasonluthor]

Just a heads up as a co-developer; large map tend to lag once you populated them with graphic plugins and parallel events. It is mostly wise to just make another map when transferring a player to minimize the FPS (lag) the player might get.

Good luck!

Yeah! Thanks for the heads up. Definitely a part of testing will be determining if the effects and processes are causing slowdown. Fortunately, the RPG Maker system is simple enough to copy/paste and then pare down the maps to smaller sizes, then just remap the teleport effect between rooms. For the lighting system, there is a preloading process that helps reduce lag, but we'll see how effective that is in practice once I've got a chance to really implement it, which will be fairly soon (don't want to map out extensive stuff and then have to redo it).

I like the mapping and 16 bit style! And your world sounds well built, personally, I love a good story above all else, so good luck with that!

One thing I have to say though, the screenshot of your dialogue window would really get on my nerves... There's too much blank space on the right side! I feel like for a long dialogue, the player would end up clicking a few extra times to see lines that you could have fit if the text extended further across the screen. The only time the text should look like that is if you had a face graphic, otherwise, do try to fill it appropriately! If you prefer having the text look like that, I'd recommend decreasing the width of the text box to match.

I did some pretty extensive testing of the first demo before releasing it and in all that time, never even considered this! I'll definitely have to go through the dialogue sooner than later so I don't have pages of dialogue that don't fill the boxes. Thanks for the head's up, I would never
have even considered this a sticking point. Thanks for the compliments as well!

 

[jasonluthor]

One thing I've been toying with is relationships in the game. Although this will never be Mass Effect or The Walking Dead, I've been trying to implement dialogue choices to give players some input into how relationships unfold. Responses can increase or decrease the good will between party members. Certain cutscenes will only trigger with improved relationships, and I've also been toying with the idea of having relationship dependent buffs. The better your relationships, the harder your party members will fight for you.

I'm currently wrapping up the first, large dungeon, which includes the Blackwood Forest and the Greenleaf Temple. By the end of the Temple, your party will be up to three characters, and cutscenes and dialogue will be in full flow. Since I know the download is large, I'll probably post a playthrough of the first portion of the game to give people a chance to see what the game is like.

 

[LinkFarfán]

Looks great, but I agree about having large maps, you may want to tone those down, just a personal opinion but I really dislike large dungeons, but you can make those work out with some cutscenes in between.

 

[jasonluthor]

Looks great, but I agree about having large maps, you may want to tone those down, just a personal opinion but I really dislike large dungeons, but you can make those work out with some cutscenes in between.

I doubt the dungeon sizes will shrink in terms of scope strictly because one way I gauge a lot of my map sizes is by my own experience with RPGs (go figure right?). So, I feel the scope of the dungeons is fairly on par with stuff I enjoyed and feel works. However, I also didn't want to make a game that is just sheer dungeon crawling. There's a big emphasis on storytelling and narrative in the game. So, the eastern portion of the world as it stands consists of a medium sized woods and mountain range before you reach a tavern. At the tavern, a fairly long cutscene takes place.

Then you move into the Blackwood, which by its nature is massively large (not a single map, but several maps), because in-lore it's supposed to be the largest woodlands on the continent. But just running through woods for a half hour isn't fun for everyone either, so there are points in the journey when cutscenes do take place to talk about regional lore of the woods and your party member's own feelings on the situation. This feeds into the first real dungeon, Greenleaf Temple, but before you go inside, there's a cutscene, an archaeological expedition where you can stock up on supplies and sleep, and so forth. The Temple itself has cutscenes once you step inside, at points in the temple, and so forth.

So yes, there are big dungeon sections, but they're not just monotonous crawls without breaks. Every effort is taken to use the environment to enhance the story and lore of the world. I hope you'll enjoy the video demo I put up in a few days. It might help give you a sense of how the adventure will work

 

[bgillisp]

One suggestion: Can you put your screenshots in spoilers please? Otherwise it makes the page really slow to load.

 

[jasonluthor]

One suggestion: Can you put your screenshots in spoilers please? Otherwise it makes the page really slow to load.

You got it buddy! Updated it just for you... and everyone else that needs it of course.

While I'm here I might as well say, I've gotten the game's battle engine updated with an ATB side view battle system. Graphics have been been updated with dual layers for lighting and fog. I recently learned how to calculate pixel screen size to do customized parallax and overlay images, so that helped. All that's left to do is finalize Greenleaf Temple and we'll be good to go for the first video demo. Included in the game at the time of the demo's release is the appraisal system and crafting system, so things are looking good for first release.

 

[jasonluthor]

Job Class: Mechanist

So, in the world of Legend of Legacies, magic has been nonexistent for thousands of years. So, since there's no magic, what sort of support class can there be?

Well, to help replace magic, technology took a big boost in the form of Mechanistry. Mechanistry is the art of pursuing means of performing many of the same duties as magic used to, including healing and dealing damage.

In the game, Alia, a graduate from the Isenly Royal Academy, plays this role. As primarily a support role, she enters the party with two skills: Debilitate and Heal. Debilitate weakens an enemy to physical attacks, while heal, well, it heals party members. Because there is no magic, no MP is used. However, there's still a cost to Mechanistry. All of Alia's skills are item based, so every time she uses a skill, it consumes an item in her inventory. Debilitate requires a debilitator, as an example. Heal requires unique healing items.

While any party member can use a healing item in battle, Alia's just better at it. Her Mechanistry skill heals more HP and can even be applied party wide. So, even if another party member has a potion, it's better to wait until Alia's turn roles if you want more healing or want party-wide healing. Her physical attacks are pretty pathetic when compared against her teammates, but her support skills can really weaken an enemy to attacks and buff a party with superior fighting powers. As part of her special skills, she'll get offensive attacking skills that use TP in the traditional fashion whenever she has the right tools in her inventory. So, while she won't be dealing much damage on a turn by turn basis, she'll still be able to do some decent damage every now and again.

As the adventure progresses, her potential item based buffs will include the ability to reflect spells, raise defense, raise attack power, and so forth, just in an item-based manner. This item based system will also be used to cost gold in another job class, probably

 

[Eviticous]

You said there's no world map final fantasy 6 style, there is a world map all the way up till 10.

 

[jasonluthor]

You said there's no world map final fantasy 6 style, there is a world map all the way up till 10.

I think you're referring to this quote :

There is no world map (Final Fantasy VI style) in favor of having all travel on the game maps (Secret of Mana or Final Fantasy X style).

Yes, the way I phrased it, I can see how it might be confusing to some. It's meant to convey more accurately, "There is no world map such as the ones used by Final Fantasy VI in favor of having all travel on the game maps such as in Secret of Mana."

 

[jasonluthor]

Job Class: Adventurer

In my previous post, I talked about how the Mechanist role is meant to replace magic healers (given the lack of magic in the world). The Mechanist is differentiated from the combat roles by being a item using support role. I realized while playing early portions of the game how necessary that role would be by the time Alia entered the party, because two fighters with no support class have to take turns healing each other and it's pretty ineffective.

However, with the Mechanist class complete, it was time to turn my attention to differentiating the Adventurer class from the Wanderer class. The hero, Kal, is a wanderer and functions as a basic introduction to combat. Attack, Special Attacks, Guard, Items. The Adventurer class is a little bit different. On a hit by hit basis, the Adventurer hits for more (although this class also has lower defense). The Adventurer class also has access to a unique, damage boosting ability called Focus that ups the damage of the next attack by 12.5% (a stat that is still being adjusted).

The Adventurer class also differs from the Wanderer class in how special attacks are delivered. The Wanderer class delivers a straight forward attack with the click of a button. The Adventurer class requires combo inputs. The first few combos are easy to remember, but they increase in complexity with levels and more advanced combos. Astra is a hand to hand combatant and so delivers two hits per round on her average attacks, while her combo-based special attacks deliver more damage than any other party member's physical combos. The input system also helps to keep the combat system fresh instead of always being a click-fest of spamming attack or special attacks.