The Most Amazing, Boringly Long RPG Ever! (Yes we're serious about the title)

[naruzeldamaster]

At last, the re-creation of my noob-mistake filled trash heap of a game for the 2014 indie developer contest has been completed. It's been tweaked, fixed, spiced up, and re-written(almost) entirely from scratch. The demo contains the first 20-30 minutes of the game and should give you a basic idea of the goal of this fun loving comedy RPG that doesn't take itself nearly as seriously as it should be. (Heck even most of the characters are aware (and embarrassed) that the story doesn't take itself that seriously.) Fans of earthbound may enjoy this story since it has a similar tone and sense of humor and there really is hopefully a lot to like. It's made to be accessible to those new to the genre while still respecting all the familiar tropes and character arcs old school pros have come to love (or hate...) throughout the years. If you're wondering why I changed the title from "Tales of The Heart" Well I'll be entirely honest, it was cliche as all get out and kind of mislead people into believing that it was intended to be a 'serious' game 90% of the time.

A simple to follow, fun story that loves to laugh at itself: As a satire game starring both a writer and a programmer as the protagonists, there sure is a lot of love for the technique in using a video game to tell a story. There are loads of tiny references littered about, how many can you find while still trying to make sense of what's going on? 5, ten perhaps? Who knows, there's at least three or four in the first chapter. Instead of asking what a fourth wall is, ask why was it put there in the first place. 

Battle Lost Souls: The Seven Deadly Sins (appropriately named based on their character and personality) have been wreaking havoc on poor Ronnie and Kim's story for an RPG that they're working on. It's your job to take control of either one of them and set things right. You can start by calming the angered lost souls found littered about the land. The flames of hate block your story progression so you may as well defeat them anyway. Why they thought it was a good idea to suck the creators of said story into the game they were trying to destroy is beyond me...

Look ma, no random battles!: It's sickening when people artificially pad game time with random encounters (cheers to you gamefreak) so I've cut those out, not so much to limit the amount of time spent on developing enemies, more to make for a quicker; less stressful adventure.

Mind Blowing Plot Points: Well duh, it's an RPG, can't have a good one without a few of these. Just remember, there's no reason to take the blue pill or the red one cause well yeah, it's not that awesome either way. Also if you have any understanding of Japanese Shhhhhh it's a secret! 

Character Driven Story Arcs: TMABLRPG (wow that's a mouth-full....) will have a total of 8 chapters, each dedicated to developing the main characters along with the plot. I might not hit every note that most AAA studios attempt to, but I can try.

High Quality Music: Yeah, see that big 219 MB Filesize? The audio quality is totally worth it yo! I don't see the game's filesize getting much bigger than that (due to audio at least) though. Also it's partially because it includes the Run Time Package stuff too so yeah.

Class Specific Battle Themes: The eight classes of the game have unique battle themes, giving you an excuse to try them all out and see what you like most.

Demo V 1.5(Yeah skipped versions 0.5 and 1.0 cause I'm crazy like that, booyah!) Download: https://www.mediafire.com/?3qsf4o97ya39fwc

Changes: Slightly altered story, Added Notch (if you get this reference you're probably facepalming about now), fixed all 'noob bugs' and if there are any left I'll fix them in the next update.

Changes 1.5.1: Fixed a game breaking bug that stopped you from progressing through the game after a certain point, it may be a demo but it was a big bug with an easy fix so yeah.

 

[Sato1999]

Yeah no problem with the versio ID but... isnt 1.0 used for finished games and 1.1+ for implements?

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

It'd be nice to see some pictures and a more well-formatted thread.

 

[naruzeldamaster]

Yeah no problem with the versio ID but... isnt 1.0 used for finished games and 1.1+ for implements?

Isn't the demo a 'finished' Product? It's not the full game but it's a completed project. Half of the joke is that it's been redone twice before because of data loss and other things, thus 0.5 and 1.0. It is the final version of that part of the story, if that makes any sense.

It'd be nice to see some pictures and a more well-formatted thread.

Those will come in a bit, but I'm using mostly default content either way and some DLC stuff. As for the format, the mod approved of it so I assume it's formatted well enough as is. Pictures will be added in a bit.

 

[C-C-C-Cashmere (old)]

Those will come in a bit, but I'm using mostly default content either way and some DLC stuff. As for the format, the mod approved of it so I assume it's formatted well enough as is. Pictures will be added in a bit.

It's formatted well enough, but I'm not gonna press the download button, and I suppose a lot of others won't, if they can't see at a glance what the game's gonna look like. It's the first place most people look, mostly. But it sounds like you got that under control so I'll just wait to see how this project looks. It might look fantastic.

 

[Sato1999]

Yeah he/she is right.

Screenshots are really important if you want other people to play your game.

Would you buy a game with the name "Super Smash Bros Ultimate" if you didn't see Mario or Link and some pics in it's cover?

 

[naruzeldamaster]

It's formatted well enough, but I'm not gonna press the download button, and I suppose a lot of others won't, if they can't see at a glance what the game's gonna look like. It's the first place most people look, mostly. But it sounds like you got that under control so I'll just wait to see how this project looks. It might look fantastic.

One of the reasons I'm hesitant about using screenshots is cause I'm using the default content for the most part, my goal with this game is to see how far I can stretch the standard Run Time Package and DLC art. Though here's a couple of screens anyway. 

Title Screen: Less is More!

Normal Gameplay:

Feature Note: Talk to the girl with fox ears to test out a class before you choose it for good, be careful though, once you go downstairs you're stuck with that class for the rest of the game. Feel free to try all the classes before picking one.

In Battle: Fighting lost souls is similar to Earthbound, I happen to like the default combat system since it's simple and enjoyable.

There really isn't a whole lot to see in the demo, just the prologue chapter of the story that gives you just enough information to keep you curious about what's going to happen next.