Rootbound

[Indrah]

Accha, the carrier of a dried seed passed down in her family for generations, meets a young foreigner called Harid, who carries a similar seed.
After beating him up and enlisting his aid, along with her childhood friend, Loa, they delve into nearby ruins, following the dubious instructions of mysterious characters to unlock the secrets of their seeds and suppress the revival of an ancient evil.
Maybe. Probably. It really looks like the bad guys don't really have much of a plan.​

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 


Game details:

• Lighthearted tone and simple plot, focused on character interaction.
• Visible encounters across three distinct areas. Choose to fight and gather loot or skip them as you like.
• Around two hours of gameplay. Low difficulty.

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Click here to download!​

(No RTP required)​

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Game made for the IGMC 2015 in 3 weeks.
 
Developer: Indrah
Gameplay Supreme Assitant: Zeigfried McBacon (aka the one who did all the icky enemy troops, a round of applause for this man, because without him the game would not be done at all. Or majorly suck.)

Awesome testers: Reverie Raven, Scinaya, Chris, Makio-Kuta, Ms Littlefish, NPC
Real-time Resource helpers: Makio-Kuta (titlescreen), Scinyaa (faces) (non-custom resources listed in ingame credits).

If you liked the game, please throw us a vote! (voting from August 7th to October 2nd)

EXTRAS:

Let's Play by McTricky (playlist)

 

[HuntingSwan]

Awesome stuff lady (and helpers !  Can't wait to try it!  

 

[Banquo]

Hiya!

Looks good! I'll give it a try.

Edit: Do we have to give credits for using purchased graphic packs?

 

[Ms Littlefish]

"Rootbound" is an easy going game that will put you into a wonderful mood. The characters are full of life, personality, are quick witted, and deliver wonderful lines. This is a shining example of how to create a cast of lovable characters is a short span of time. 

 

The game also makes beautiful use of newly released Time Fantasy tiles. The simple mapping style employed in this game combine with the colorful pixelated graphics create a very convincing backdrop for what this game is, a twist on the conventions of old RPGs with a lot of quirk.

 

The combat in this game is simple enough without being boring or insulting to the player's intelligence. Make the best use out of skills and items and you shouldn't have too many nail biters, but you definitely can't get by spamming the attack command!

 

All in all, this is an uplifting game without a huge time commitment, so I very much recommend a play through.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

I can't get over how adorable Harid's face picture is o3o~*

I'll play the completed version when I get back! Best of luck, Indrah and co!

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I sort of had a crush on Harid while playing. 

 

[Indrah]

Wanna know random trivia?

Spoiler

Harid was pretty much inspired by a character of the same name from Romancing Saga 3, who was a desert warrior (though older and not in the same rank). He was one of the best fighters in the game and I liked him a lot, so there you go. I've always wanted to call one of my desert-y characters Harid, and now that wish is complete XD(they don't really look alike tho)

(gotta love awkward ass artwork that doesn't really reflect the ingame sprites, yo XD)

I was pretty torn on whether I should go harder with pairing Harid up with someone so they wouldd *cough end spoilers* I did consider both Loa and Accha, but also the Prince, coz he's a lovely little dork. In the end ...well. The end happens xD (I cant talk about this without spoling, damnit)

 

[dinkledaberry]

Figured I'd post my thoughts on this game from another thread, because Rootbound is awesome.

I really enjoyed this game! Took some getting used to since I also used the music pack from RPG Maker DS but this game had a lot of charm. The story was lighthearted and the characters were pretty funny. I'm glad it ended the way it did as well. It was hilarious and a welcome change of pace from the usual. The battles and skills worked really well together. The unique way you use gemstones to buy equipment was nice, though could have probably been expanded upon, and I liked how you had a set item amount you could restock at the inn. The maps were very well put together and a great use of the Time Fantasy pack. Ultimately I think this game was better than your entry last year Indrah! Very nicely done. Recommend.

 

[Vox Novus]

My review put on your games page as well:

Just finished this Indrah:

First off anybody wanting to try this game out, don't bother if you don't like games that don't take themselves seriously; this is a comedic rpg. That being said:

You have gained a certain reputation in the RM community, things are expected of your games and as usual you don't disappoint. This game is filled with everything that makes up an Indrah experience, excellent mapping, well written charming and hilarious dialogue and naming but perhaps most importantly a well-balanced game. This game reminded a lot of Born under the Rain; another classic one of your games.

There really isn't anything seriously wrong with this game everything is very polished, again as expected of your work. If I were to leave any suggestions it would be these:

-My biggest complaint about the game is the way you used the battlers; they look great of course but the art style doesn't match the rest of the game one bit. I think if you wanted to still use those battlers you should have opened them up in gimp or something similar and run it through a pixelize filter to get a similar retro look. (unless of course that was against the creator's wishes).

-I wish like Born Under the Rain there was an item to return back to town that way I didn't have to walk back when I wanted to upgrade equipment.

That's about it really; over all extremely well done. You've earned my vote.

This isn't in the review but as a bearded fellow got to love Loa's personality! BD

 

[Indrah]

Thanks for the feedback, dinkel and vox! SWEET SWEET VALIDATION XD

About the battlers: there simply was no way to choose. I've already used in other games what few frontal view pixel battlers there are, and I didn't want to repeat them AGAIN. And hoenstly it never occured to me to pixellize the pics, as I've never done so and as far as I know (which isn't much) they don't look that good as a result (besides, the game uses a doublepixel style, meaning they would have to be set at x2 zoom and be a mess).

The going back to town was something I thought about, but I was afraid it would be abused for infinitely going after every comabt, giving the use of items no use (as it is, having the slight time of backtrack and comeback is the prize to pay for a full heal+stock). Tho I agree it was not the best choice. (I'm not used to skippable visual encounters, so pretty green in that aspect.

OH BOY the shops. You don't even KNOW the pain they were. Actually, let me show you. It's evil:

Spoiler

You see that crap? That's ONE item in one of the shops. ONE. EACH ITEM HAS A COMMON EVENT LIKE THAT.

Let me tell you, I regret the 3 tier gems SO MUCH. SO, SO MUCH. They are really not worth the effort. I spent an ENTIRE DAY (and i mean 6+ hours) making it WORK and programming all the shop entries. SOOOO not worth it. 

By the end when I realized it was kinda iffy and meh I was just so tired and without time, so I was like SCREW THIS, IT STAYS AS IS! BLAZE IIIIT!

 

[Makio-Kuta]

My hand slipped and the best character in the game accidentally happened. (I needed a warm up drawing, okay)

 

[Indrah]

Thanks you hoor, now I have profuse bleeding from my nasal cavities O_O *slobbers all over harid*

 

[The Mighty Palm]

I played the game for about 1-2 hours, and this was my mini-review of it.

Spoiler

Personally, I didn't like the game as much as I would have liked. The humor felt a little underwhelming and aimed at immature audiences (not a bad thing, just not my thing), the game really didn't have an identity as far as it's setting went, the characters lacked personality and only seemed to exist for the purpose of exposition and jokes, and there was nothing that kept my interest and made me want to keep playing.
Music was forgettable, Combat was basically default and fights felt very slow. (it was balanced pretty well, all things considered)

and yes, I understand it was a comedic game, I took that into account. Also the text popping up all at once makes it so easy to miss something, or skip an important bit of dialogue. 

Half the time I had no idea where I was going because I skipped through the text.

What I did like though:

Graphics. The mapping was superb. Very cohesive world. Well done considering the limitations of Time Fantasy (Still questioning the Pyramid built in the center of a mountain range though.) The character faces were also excellent. Time Fantasy really needed face-sets like these. I'm not going to say anything about the text not matching the retro look, because

I myself experimented with that, and the only way I could get it to work was with Victor Scripts, which are non-commerical (and therefor not IGMC kosher)

Some of the humor: There were some times that I chuckled. I'm not heartless. 

The balance in enemies was good, even if it felt like there was a specific order you had to fight them in and the idea of skipping them was unacceptable, as you wouldn't stand a chance against the bigger enemies if you did so. 

I liked Rootbound. It was fun. 

Would I play it again? Probably not.

Would I recommend it to someone? Probably not. 

if I had to rate it, I'd give it a 5/10. A good game overall, but with nothing especially standing out.

And I greatly apologize if my criticisms seem unfair in any way. 

 

[Indrah]

@thejesse081 It's completely fine. You articulate your points well, and I accept the game is neither perfect nor suited to everyone. I don't particularly disagree with what you say. Thanks for the feedback 

I'm not really out to justify myself but at this point enough people have commented on it that I may have to put it in context: 

The game was made in 3 weeks as whim and with no planning. If it feels aimless and plotless, THAT is why XD I had nothing to do during the late contest period so I decided to participate with something very small, but as always it blew out of my hands and past the one hour mark, etc. 

Of course, when the last week came I lost my nerve and panicked because there was just NO WAY I was going to make it with everything I wanted, so we had to scrap every single bit of optional content. And the optional content had all the more serious bits, backstory, hard optional bosses etc.

Going without planning or my usual team (I only had Ziegfried to help me with the combat, and even then I dictated his work, so he didn't have that much freedom) I relied a lot on my own vices and what I could do, and that is *drumroll* DIALOOOOG! XD I know it's quite probably too much but it's just how it came out. 

And uh...that's all really. No planning, rushed deadlines and cut content. Summarizes why the game came kind of shoddy XD (Goes for all entry games tho, anyone could do better with more time, so it's no excuse).

 

[Chaos Avian]

@ Makio-Kuta... I'm inclined to disagree on the best character

Spoiler

Don't ever stop being you~ :3 

 

[Makio-Kuta]

@Chaos Avian: Well, I suppose that's true; the real best character is the big brother, but we can award the title to these other scrubs to make them feel better I suppose.

 

[Bonkers]

@Chaos Avian: Well, I suppose that's true; the real best character is the big brother, but we can award the title to these other scrubs to make them feel better I suppose.

Pls.

Daddy is the best character.  He makes steak.

After playing for two hours and at the last temple now portraits would have made the conferences between characters so much smoother.  I don't really notice them talking so much as they are trying to figure things out, but that gets lengthy after a bit.  Finding that emerald vendor was pretty fun, I didn't think to explore all of town and missed out on some early higher tier gemstones.

It's been enjoyable, but I must be playing a different version because to me combat is rather tough even with good skills and gear.  It's the lower numbers that make me feel like that is more impact in a shorter time than usual.  I may be doing the wrong type of attacks, since for the Lion Sage I was dealing 1 damage per turn on everyone but Loa.  She seems to be the only one that can get past physically tough enemies despite the Magic Stabby and Magic Poke skills I have.

 

[Indrah]

I leave for a day and come back to this THISNESS. WHAT IS GOING ON *yanks fanart savagely and puts it in a safe for eternal safekeeping ;A;*

@Chaos Accha was my fave too, but then again all the heavily armored women with no ****s to give tend to be (I have a type of char I like, what can I say). (Thankls for the piccc~ <3<3)

@palladin SOMEONE WHO SHARES MY LOVE FOR DADDY. I really wanted to include him more, but ran out of time and couldn't do anything but the most basic game. Woe ;-;

Facesets were not even going to be a thing at ALL initially. Scinaya offered to give them a shot so I used them in the menu, but they were done very late into the development cycle so it was never an option to have them in dialog. I am personally biased for using portaits (coz I like them and i like dialog) but they were not in the game's budget as I did not have anything that fit on hand nor could I comission them. Since the game was going to be a short and brief (AHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH) thing, I assumed the already fancy sprites would do the trick. Never really expected it to run so long ;-;

And yeah, I'm aware the game gets too talky. There was no planning so I relied on what I knew, ergo dialog-laden aimless lighthearted fluff XD

About combat: if you're having trouble simply haul ass back to town and buy all the equipment upgrades possible. There's even 4 freebie gems scattered in town up for grabs. They make a world of difference, especially if you give the +stat accs to the chars (+mag to Loa and +atk to Harid=duo of eternal massacre). It's really easy to make Accha IMMORTAL too (regen came out way more powerful than I expected, oops). Every level comes with a new skills (levels 2-3 give active skills, while 4-5 give passives). If all else fails, poison the crap out of enemies XD

Honeslty I didn't have a lot of trouble, but I'm the DEV, so I don't count. Most people had an okay to easy experience. Are you skipping most of the fights/underleveled? The problem we soon noticed (but too late to change) is that balancing such low numbers is hard, since even one stat point can drive you into overpowered territory (for ****s and giggles start the game and with the town gems buff up harid with +1 and +2 str accs, he massacre his way through the ruins XD)

 

[Bonkers]

I just finished up, and yes those small boosts put me over the edge.  I managed to finish without so much trouble now.  I liked the epilogue and the rant at the end.  This was a fun little game even if you didn't get to include everything you wanted too.  I'd recommend it for casual play.  Very nice, but double the intended time even with all optional content you didn't add.  I can't imagine how long it would have been with the extras.

 

[HuntingSwan]

Played this game on my stream last night (what was I thinking trying to multitask?)

It's a very polished, well cared for product.  

It knows exactly what it wants to be, which is a light hearted comedic romp.  The tone is very consistent and it hits the genre spot on.

The combat was really fun, even if by the end of my stream I was losing my concentration lol.

The battles are tough and challenging, which I found personally very enjoyable.  There's scope for customisation too, with equipment setups and many skills to choose from.

The environments are mapped to a high standard and the time fantasy tileset adds lots of visual flair.

Rating: 4 (out of 5!!!!)