RMMV Shadow Hearts: Revenant

[Thorfax13]

Warning: This game contains some instances of disturbing imagery and strong language. Player discretion is advised.

Pierce was a normal boy, living a somewhat uninteresting life. Although he enjoyed excitement wherever he could find it, exciting things never seemed to happen to him very often.

However, one night when Pierce was riding a somewhat empty train, reading newspaper clippings on recent events, he heard a scream. It didn't take long for Pierce to find that strange monsters had overrun the train, and the other riders were dead. And behind it all, appeared to be a man with long, red hair. This encounter would change his life forever.

After escaping death, and making his way through an unfamiliar area, Pierce meets a new ally named Elan, who informs him that he is now in control of a power that the red-haired man also seemed to possess. A power called Malice which, while incredibly strong, is also incredibly dangerous, constantly threatening to take over and turn its host into a twisted monster. Now Pierce, along with his new ally, must take action to stop the man with the red hair, before he can use the power he has to become unstoppable, all while trying to keep control of the power himself.


Shadow Hearts Revenant is a spiritual successor to the game series Shadow Hearts for the PS2. Although not a direct sequel, it shares some themes and ideas present in the original series.

Shadow Hearts Revenant is a turn based RPG in a modern setting, with elements of fantasy and horror, and is still in very early development.

On a final note, an older version of this game was posted on these forums a couple years back, using VX Ace, however I no longer have access to that account, nor do I even know if that thread still exists, so I'm making a new thread for the new, updated version.

Pierce
A headstrong young boy who finds himself in control of a terrible power called Malice, which makes him one of the only ones with the power to stand up against the enemy with the same power.

Elan
A man who founded a small camp to house the survivors of recent monster attacks. Although not in possession of it, he seems to know a lot about Malice due to his own encounters with those who control it.

Marcus
A mysterious man who also possesses the powers of Malice. He, unlike others, embraces the incredible powers it gives him, and is using them to fulfill his own desires, even at the cost of innocent lives.

Sunny
A young girl that Marcus has expressed a particular interest in. Although not very strong herself, she seems to be in control of a different type of power that is invaluable to Marcus.

• A story-driven game with a dark atmosphere and horror-based elements, given a more modern setting, giving a new twist on the turn based RPG genre.
• A fully customized battle system, featuring the Judgement Ring, which tests your skill for each attack to get the most out of each action.
• A magic system which features abilities unique to each character, learned by completing certain objectives, as well as an Orb Magic system, allowing you to equip shards which grant different skills when equipped.
• A variety of skill types with different effects to give you more options in combat.
• A dynamic battle style, with custom action sequences for each skill, making each ability feel unique.
• A bestiary which allows you to view info on each monster defeated, allowing you to plan future encounters.
• A music book, allowing you to hear any song in the game any time you'd like
• Passive states for each character, giving them bonuses that are always active for them
• A world map system, allowing you to easily visit any place you've unlocked.
• Multiple different areas with a variety of challenges along the way, including a Pit Fight, where you can fight different rounds of enemies, sometimes with extra conditions to make the fight more challenging.

First off, the game is still in rather early stages of development. Naturally, a lot is up to get changed, but what is present is a rough idea of how the game will look. Any suggestions for how things should be balanced or changed are always welcome, and I'll definitely accept and consider all feedback I get.

Also, bugs are likely. If you find any bugs that I might have missed, definitely let me know, and I'll do what I can to fix them.

The current demo is playable up until the start of Everett Cemetery, and basically ends after the first major cutscene there. This demo will likely get you somewhere between 2-3 hours of playtime, depending on how quickly you rush through.

In addition, the game comes with a variety of text docs, among them being a guide to the puzzles and challenges in the game. The guide is presented line by line, with the solutions to the puzzles getting more obvious as you go down, so read one line at a time if you need hints, but still want to figure it out yourself.

All credits are included in the text documents as well, and as far as I am aware, I have credited all the sources that I have used, barring a few I may have overlooked.

Click the link below to download the game. It is a RAR file, with one folder for the game, and another folder for the various text docs.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7vnqvz8y7wzsy0/Shadow Hearts Revenant.rar?dl=0​

 

[Rhino]

Sounds cool I've never played Shadow Hearts, but who doesn't like a modern fantasy!

The only things I would say looking at your screenshots, is that it might need a graphics update. The faces are in different styles which is kinda jarring.. Maybe either use all generated faces, or make a request for some new ones? You don't have to use the RPG Maker generator, I think you might be able to find a royalty free/CC character creator somewhere in the depths of the internet, and just crop as necessary.

And the other thing is I noticed you're the using MOG fast travel plugin. I think it might be a good idea to change the UI graphics there too, the flowers don't sound like they fit into the horror elements, but I think your battle UI looks pretty neat

 

[Thorfax13]

Yeah, the faces are something that I'll probably do something about at some point, it's just that the faces in the forward facing style are faces that I like the design of, and are hard to reproduce, gotta figure out what I wanna do.

And yes, the map screen is something that's gonna get updated, I just missed that when I was redoing all of the other designs, I'll get on that at some point.

Also I just realized that I'm an idiot, and accidentally sent the wrong deployment of my game to dropbox cuz it was late last night when I made this, so I'm fixing that right now, so the correct download link will be there. (I have several different deployed versions on my computer, just didn't select the most recent one.)

EDIT: Proper link is up, that link goes to the game as it should be played

 

[JMsoup]

I've played the demo until just before the military base, and its really polished overall!
I noted down some random thoughts while playing., which might be useful for your continued development.
I am by no means providing a criticism as I myself am not experienced in game design, so take it as just some thoughts from a general player.
The bolded ones might need looking into though, as they directly affect gameplay.

Spoiler

Train
Pierce doesn't appear afraid of the monsters, reducing the horror feeling.
Pierce, the normal boy, living a somewhat uninteresting life, has knuckle dusters...?
Cool attack system
Maybe make the first encounter weaker in damage to let the player get a hang of the attack system
*Super lag on the transition to the first boss (the skeleton thing)

Forest
First few monsters only attack
No skills for Pierce so far
Graveyard grave that reads "Died of an unknown causes" should be "unknown cause" instead
Not gonna question why the graveyard wants its jewel
First puzzle is not overly complicated, but satisfying to solve
Didn't know I had to speak to the chest again to get the jewel, had to make a trip back and forth

Cabin
Is Homicide supposed to be upside down lol
Mana leaf and talisman of luck has no use early game
Bumbled my way through the torch puzzle and somehow it worked
The battles get a bit stale after awhile. Even with the monsters having skills its mostly variants of damage. Pierce also hasn't learnt any skills yet.
*Boss battles really lagging my computer up (takes around 20sec for the battle to load)
The lag helps me time the attacks though lol

Camp
Pierce teleports to Elan's camp? Or if Elan dragged him there, how did he even find Pierce?
Mapping looks great
Shopkeeper looks more hero-like than Main Characters XD
Optimistic Micheal: "The people here are less than social" *Talks to people* They friendly as heck.
Oooh so that's why there weren't skills before
*About passive powers text: press [17]X ?
So many tents in the Camp and I'm stuck using disposable ones

Ruins
I HAVE A POWER MARCUS KNOWS NOT OF! THE POWER... OF PUZZLE SOLVING!!!
Ooh yeah, battles much more fun now
Guardian Ultimate's cure is pretty much useless
The crystal shattering effect is awesome
Looking at the passives, I won't use a tent and keep their hp around 40%
Look ma, I can walk on water!
*Can't flee battles
Quite alot of waiting between dialog boxes (about 10-20 frames?), slows down the pace somewhat
*Cataclysm can be used out of battle but does nothing
Elan: *When first entering dungeon* "These ruins are mysterious and no one knows why it was built" *In final chamber* "Let me give you a long exposition about this ruins"
Woah, the graphics for the last room is amazing
Not sure if the deadpan response of the playable characters to everything are on purpose
Took me awhile to realise Marcus was standing behind the hands
Elan: There's someone calling for help. Pierce: Lets go there and kick some ass

Halstad
Sandy: Here something to give your girlfriend *Gives seal of might* Uuuh nope.
I wanna play at the casino
The kids in the park are... adults?
Soldiers: You are not authorized to enter this base. Pierce: You must be mind-controlled by an evil guy. Imma kick your ass
Pierce really likes kicking asses
Seriously, is Pierce supposed to be a stupid hulk-like who just solves everything with violence?
So they don't kick the assess of the guards to go in, but hire the mafia... to kick the guards' assess to go in?

 

[Thorfax13]

Thanks much for your comments, and some of these are definitely things I'm gonna look in to. A few things I can try to justify, though:

Pierce may be normal, but sure, he likes excitement and fights. He is a bit headstrong, but character development will happen, don't worry.
Yes, Homicide is supposed to be upside down
Marcus has more things he personally is focusing on doing than getting those relics, so if at all avoidable, he wants to avoid having to spend all the time solving those puzzles to get through to the end.
At the end of the ruins, it's not so much Elan knowing everything about the ruins, but more-so knowing about the relics kept inside.
And as for immediately wanting to take out the soldiers, they mentioned that they could feel Malice inside them, so they know they're not regular soldiers and are pretty bad.

I do appreciate your comments, and I will definitely try to look into some of those to try and make things make a bit more sense. I'm glad you enjoyed what you've played so far, though.

 

[Abdulla Al-Farsi]

Sounds really really good

And the feedbacks of the other member make me want to play it.

I'll download it soon.

Wait MY feedback

 

[Thorfax13]

Been working on some new content, so there's definitely more to come. Thanks to anyone who's tried the game up to this point.

Here's a quick preview of the new dungeon area

 

[Thorfax13]

It's been a little while, but I made a new update with the full next dungeon, the download link in the first post is now updated to be the latest version.

 

[Eviticous]

To be completely honest it feels like your mapping needs a lot of work, the main concern is , it looks like you placed things randomly. Like you were just clicking and dragging. I would take a bit more time and focus on the aesthetics. Plan out where the character can walk, the items of the room and the significance they have, if any.

Don't decorate for the sake of decorating.

 

[aiden_jayce]

Hello @Thorfax13 can you tell me please how did you make the animated portraits circle things when you battle? thank you

 

[ScottyTheVideoGamer]

Hi huge fan of Shadow Hearts, sadly only came across this recently due to coming across a youtube video of it. Was wanting to try it but the link is dead. Can anyone reupload it please? Thanks