SEALED. (Demo v0.22 available - important update!)

[Ras101]

SEALED.

NOTE: this game has a generous use of swearing, mild but subtle sexual and violent implications, and a hint of religious philosophies (but none related to real world religions). Currently rated as 13+.

SEALED. is a fantasy adventure-RPG, reminiscent of old-time RPGs but with a modern tone. The story follows two villagers on a simple errand that quickly snowballs into a catastrophe involving hidden propaganda and the crumbling of the world.

Setting

SEALED. takes place on the world of Spritz, a mysterious land floating in the cosmos, surrounded by pieces of land called the Outer Isles. Scholars have found evidence that these Outer Isles and Spritz used to form some kind of spherical shape, indicating a Cataclysm thousands of years in the past that tore the original planet apart. A mysterious force, the Phantom Stream, the source of magic and supposedly life, holds Spritz and the Outer Isles together.

The story takes place in the year 1234 during a time of relative peace. However, signs of a shadowy phenomenon called the Phantom Eclipse, where a shadowy darkness engulfs the world and causes strange monsters called Shadows to appear, have popped up, urging several researchers to find a way to mitigate the damage done by these strange and possibly dangerous events that occur every 100 years. The last Phantom Eclipse occurred 15 years ago, prompting particularly concerned scholars to conclude something sinister is behind the shorter intervals ...

Story

Players take control of either Ric or Love, two villagers from the quiet, idyllic St. Lemon. A visit by an old mentor and friend and an errand to return lost belongings quickly becomes a strange and confusing adventure where they are forced into situations beyond their comprehension.

Game Features

Spoiler

Besides the classic RPG themes, SEALED. offers a variety of other features:

• Explore large cities and buildings! Cities are full of lively NPCs and filled with shops filled with hundreds of unique equipment, ranging from Red Stilletos and fancy hats to Runic Chestplates to Bread and Cookies! Take your pick.
• Fully illustrated cutscenes: many events in the story will be depicted with fully drawn cutscenes drawn by yours truly and possibly other commissioned artists!
• Refining: some pieces of equipment can be "refined" with special items, increasing their value even more. Make sure to hold on to these equipment tightly, as they are only one of a kind!
• Encounter Rate Management: in the Systems option, players can freely change the encounter rate to encountering enemies every 5 steps to no encounters at all. No more will your adventures be interrupted by endless random encounters! No more will you have to walk miles and miles just to grind!
• Semi-linearity (not particularly evident in the demo): choices you make along your adventure changes the outcome of certain events -- some of these may be quite major! You can even side with certain countries and change the political outcome of world's countries.
• Unique Combo Skills: chain together skills to quickly rout the enemy in a single turn!
• Dozens of Subclasses: Besides the characters' basic Class, each of them can have up to 3 subclasses, which help them specialize in different battle strategies! Want a Warrior who uses Magic? Go for the Braver subclass! Want a Cleric that's more on the offensive side? Use the Apostle subclass!
• Hundreds of Skills: Literally. With so many subclasses to choose from, some of them unique to certain characters, you have literally hundreds of skills to use, allowing a plethora of unique combinations and strategies in battle. A boss can go down with a variety of strategies -- it's up to you to choose how to shape your characters.
• Up to 20 playable characters (not evident in the demo): with so many recruitable characters, each with unique stats and subclasses, players can choose from their favourites or spread their focus for tricky dungeons where you have to split up!
• Runic language: some people in the world of SEALED. speak an ancient language: Runic. Find Runic Tomes around the world to help translate the confusing language and discover fun easter eggs and even secrets to the storyline ...

Characters

Spoiler

Ric

Ric is one of the main playable characters. He's a rather lonesome guy yearning to find adventure to hone his battle skills. Living in St. Lemon has bored him and he'd do anything to get out of the village. His unique appearance -- white hair and red irises -- is typical of that of the Wyren, an race very similar to humans who were mysteriously wiped out 15 years ago during the Great War. Even Ric doesn't know this, which will become quite a revelation when he hears the true reason behind his race's extinction ...

Love

Love is one of the main playable characters. She's kind and empathetic ... though she can get quite impatient at times, especially at Ric. She may appear to be satisfied with a quiet life, but she secretly yearns to travel to big cities and explore civilization ... especially shopping. As a Cleric of the Church of Inira, she holds a lot of religious values, but her adventures will challenge everything she has believed in when she discovers the secret behind the upper echelons of her own religion's hierarchy ...

Razzker

Razzker is Ric and Love's childhood friend, adopted by Lady Meredith by the neighboring country of Fidchel and thus is the next heir to the Fidchelian throne. He was mentored rigorously as he is expected to rule Fidchel quite quickly, but all he wants to do is play games, practice his dance, theatre and singing skills and eat ice cream. He joins Ric and Love on their errand to temporarily escape a political coup by opposing political parties in his own country's government.

Bickey

Bickey is an aspiring inventor from Glacia, the large and technologically superior country north of the Spritzite Kingdom and Fidchel. He is on a business trip, working for his sister's company Glacier Tech, to Myle City, the capital of the Spritzite Kingdom, where he meets Ric, Love and Razzker for the first time.

Hymn

Lady Hymn is the Royal Advisor of His Highness King Edwin I. She is a leading researcher in the field of phantomology, the study of the scientific properties of the Phantom Stream. Years ago, she was a teacher at the orphanage where Ric, Love and Razzker grew up in at St. Lemon. It was she who first noticed the shortening intervals between Eclipses.

Kyrie

Princess Kyria Espoir is the next heir to Spritzite throne. Her uncle, the acting King after her mother died, has urged her to take over the throne for him, but Kyrie has been delaying her coronation for some reason. She has been doing her own research on the Phantom Eclipses and believes she has found a way to stop them for good ...

And many, MANY more characters, playable or not, to come ...

Screenshots

Spoiler

Check out the Wiki: http://sealed.wikia.com/wiki/SEALED_Wiki

And also the Walkthrough: http://sealed.wikia.com/wiki/Walkthrough

DEMO DOWNLOAD (v0.22):

Spoiler

http://www.mediafire.com/download/ea8b44ft5rlwt40/SEALED_Demo_v0.22.rar(No RTP)

The demo contains the first chapter of the game (roughly 3 hours of gameplay, not including new game plus). After completing the demo, you have the option to start a new game plus and play as the other character, keeping your levels and skills and gaining some special items in the beginning of the game.

Current Version is v0.22.

Changelog 0.22:

• Another fix for an error about ~3/4 into the demo.
• Small text updates.

Changelog 0.21:

• Another small important fix.

Changelog 0.2:

• Fixed a deadly event problem that will prevent players from progressing when playing as Ric, halfway through the game.
• Reduced the file size from 470 MB to 350 MB.
• Most classes have a basic attacking skill to start off with.
• Small text edits.
• Nerfed the Shadow Slime (first boss).

Wanna Help?

Spoiler

I am currently willing to accept people who wants to help with this project. This is a completely solo project (except for the scripts and tilesets and some stuff), so help can be appreciated. You can:

• Contribute art: whether it's simple character sketches or fully rendered cutscenes.
• Offer some scripting knowledge: I have ZERO programming knowledge, except for recognizing basic stuff like if, then, elses (LOL), so if you think you can improve a certain aspect of this game by modifying any scripts I use currently, it would be much appreciated.
• Help with editing the Wiki: ESPECIALLY with things like skill and item lists, which will take forever. It would be much appreciated!
• Write a proper walkthrough: I have a bare-bones walkthrough on the Wiki right now, but a fully fledged walkthrough, with unique strategies and tips for boss battles or side quests, will greatly help.

What do you get for helping?

• You automatically become a beta tester for the final game! (optional)
• Your name will be glorified with extra sparkles in the credits.
• Once the full game is finished, you will get a special code that you can enter in-game for bonus items to give you a massive head start in the game!
• An entire sidequest will be dedicated to you, using your own Original Characters and story! (optional)
• You get a free drawing from me! It can be of your original character or real people or fan art! (optional)

Credits

If there are some things in the game that are not credited, PLEASE inform me as soon as possible so I can correct it. I've tried to keep track of the resources I use, but I may have missed some.

Spoiler

Special Thanks:

Aaron Sebastian Surya for pre-alpha testing.

Enterbrain for RPG Maker VX Ace.

Yanfly for his amazing scripts!

Trass

 

 

Writer:

PhantomStream

 

Artwork by:

PhantomStream

*Trass* for a sketch!

 

Scripts:

Yanfly (Yanfly Ace Engine and LOTS of other scripts)

Kread-EX (Runic Enchantment and various)

Jet (various)

Woratana (various)

rater193 (Albhed Translator)

Mr. Bubble (Auto-Life and Shield Blocking)

Lone Wolf (states causing death)

Galv (Party Manager and various)

Tsukihime (patching system)

regendo (GameOver with choices)

Fomar0153 (More Choices)

Moghunter (Animated title screen)

Emerald (Equipment Sets)

Rachael (for various script help)

 

Music:

Aaron Krogh

Darren Curtis

cyber-rainforce

Joel Steudler

Gyrowolf (2013 Music Resource Pack)

 

Sprites:

Enterbrain

PhantomStream

Rajawali (Giant Snake)

Thalzon (many battlers)

Lunara (clothing parts and various)

 

Icons:

Ying

Whitecat/Whitecafe (?)

Kaduki/Usui

Counterclockwise

 

Tilesets:

Celianna <3

Lunarea <3

 

Windowskins:

EZaxcess

unclesatan

Cassy

Closet

Kaduki/Usui

 

Animations:

Timmah

 

Others/Unsorted:

GrandmaDeb

Background on game development

Spoiler

I've always wanted to create a game of my own, so several years back when I discovered RPG Maker VX, I was really excited. It was only last year, during a Steam sale I think, that I purchased Ace and really put effort into making my dream a reality. It's a good thing I waited too, as my art has improved drastically over a period of only ~2 years, considering I only started drawing 2 years ago!

I have written a novel before, when I was 17. Though not successful (it was self-published), it taught me a good deal about how to plan for a big creative project. My English teacher in high school had always praised my writing which he found surpassed that of his other students, so I am very glad I can put my skill to use for something I enjoy -- making games and telling stories!

I will be quite busy until Summer break starts. But until then, I will continue development on the game little by little and speed up once my exams are over in April!

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy the demo. Please give me some feedback including things like glitches, bugs etc. I will compile as many fixes as I can into the next version. A friend and I have already play-tested the game and found it was playable all the way from the beginning to the end of the demo without fail, but things such as combat balancing and small glitches/bugs or exploits may still need to be accounted for.

 

[Zane]

I have not downloaded the demo yet, as my internet is far too slow

But from what I read it sounds really good compared to saving the world right away.

One thing I wanted to say is I really like the ideas going with the RTP design, that town especially.

The face sets are a nice little edition to the game as well, feels unique. What does displease me is the RTP tiles

from B-E how they aren't lined with the wall or anything Moving pieces up or down 16 pixels really makes a big

difference and would enhance your game that much more but this is just personal peeves of mine.

(I find it weird standing so far away from an object and not being able to walk into a bed or close to a bookcase)

Other then that if I can get the internet to work in my favor I'll give it a go and throw in a more in depth feedback response.

Good Luck on the game!

 

[Ras101]

Zane, thanks for the comment! I kinda agree with the tileset thing, but I figured it wouldn't be much of a problem. I might get around to editing the tilesets if I see other people are bothered by it too hehe

Thanks for the comment on the design and story. I didn't want to make the "saving the world" kinda thing too obvious, I'd rather make the storyline progress gradually and more realistically instead. But I will cross that bridge when I get there aka once the full game is completed.

 

[CrazyCrab]

I wanted to give it a shot but the 474.35 mb makes it somewhat hard...

For a demo it might be worth trying to decrease the size since that is going to put off a lot of people.

I'll download it and give it a shot later on, I'll edit the post to tell you what I think.

EDIT: The audio folder is huge, you may want to remove some stuff from the demo to make it more accessible. Besides I only got to play for like 40 minutes since Ive got to do something else, but I feel like the criticism is going to be somewhat general anyway.

Stuff I liked:

+ Custom portraits etc look really nice, same goes for tiles.

+ The subclass system looks great.

+ Bug free so far.

+ I loved some of the humor. Some of it seemed silly though.

Bothersome stuff:

- Like I said, some of the humor seemed out of place... like the tissue reference.

- The main character swears like a sailor for no reason and while I'm not bothered by it too much you may want to mix things up a bit since some people will be for sure.

- Its a shame you don't have any skills at the start, even some really basic ones. They would help since the combat was a bot like 'bash the attack key till they die'

- The shadow slime is such a difficulty spike You should give the player a chance to retreat before the combat to grind a bit or at least save.

- The panels are a bit too bright for my taste, but i guess its just a matter of preference.

Overall it looks promising, the annoying stuff is kinda minor and can be easily fixed. Keep it up 

 

[Ras101]

Thank you for the review CrazyCrab!

Okay, I'll have to see about what the bothersome stuff you said. Thanks for telling me about the difficulty spike because of that stupid slime haha I just knew it was going to be trouble. It was easy for me, but I should have known because I'm the one who created the game -_-

About the panels ... er, what do you mean panels? ._.

As for the skills, I guess I could have every class have at least one skill in the beginning. Thanks for telling me!

For characterization, I wanted Ric and Love to be contrasted greatly, hence his aggressive choice of words. He's supposed to be rather rude and I did give fair warning on the swearing but if it becomes too bothersome for some people, I'll ... "sanitize" his dialogue. If you play as Love, you'll notice a change of tone.

The audio folder IS quite big. I'll remove some unused music in v0.2.

 

[CrazyCrab]

Oh, I shouldve made it more clear.

I meant the UI, it blends a bit with the bright background.

 

[Ras101]

Okay. I might change the default windowskin. You can change the windowskin in the systems menu in the main menu in the meantime to something more palatable.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

wow it has a Wiki... gonna read that one first

 

[Ras101]

The Wiki is still incomplete. It has a lot of missing pages and I'll be making lots of edits as I develop the game. Thank you for the interest though!

 

[Ras101]

I guess it's been 72 hours. Bump post! Actually, an important bump!

Demo v0.22 is out and has a very important fix! So please, if you've downloaded v0.1, download the new v0.22 one here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ea8b44ft5rlwt40/SEALED_Demo_v0.22.rar

Changes include:

• Fixed a deadly event problem that will prevent players from progressing when playing as Ric, halfway through the game.
• Reduced the file size from 470 MB to 350 MB.
• Most classes have a basic attacking skill to start off with.
• Small text edits.
• Nerfed the Shadow Slime (first boss).

 

[Trass]

I tried sketching your MC if you don't mind xD


http://puu.sh/7xmND.jpg


I'd make a faceset but I don't think my drawing style fits your game lol

 

[Ras101]

I tried sketching your MC if you don't mind xD

http://puu.sh/7xmND.jpg

I'd make a faceset but I don't think my drawing style fits your game lol

Aww, thanks! It's a good sketch hehe. I will surely add you into the credits!

 

[Ras101]

BUMP!

It's been a while since I last got feedback. At this stage, I've already begun working on the full game, so any bugs/exploits that are reported when playing the demo will be accounted for in the final product. I won't be changing the demo any more, so v0.22 should be the final version of the demo. However, I'm still looking for feedback on the game so far! Also, I've made a few more sketches of some characters. I hope you guys like them.

 

[nio kasgami]

the graphics are awesome : D!