RMMV Twice Upon A Time (v0.1.1)

[Naveed]

Twice Upon A Time
Latest Version: v0.1.1​

• Made in RPG Maker MV.
• Available for Windows.
• Current Gameplay: ~2-3 hours.
• Genre: RPG, Fantasy

Download Now!

Spoiler: Download Links

Download Link 1

Download Link 2

Spoiler: Changelog

• v0.1.1 - Fixed the issue where the game would freeze after the Glenn Woods Boss Fight.
• v0.1 - Initial Release!

Spoiler: Synopsis

Leonardo, the strongest warrior in all of Valora, is tasked with the responsibility of bringing a halt to
the plans of the evil necromancer Azrath, who wishes to revive an ancient sealed demon to control its power.

Confident as always, Leo steps into Azrath's castle, singlehandedly plundering him and his plans. However, he
is unable to stop the revival of the beast, wielder of unfathomable power. In a clash that was surely the end
for him, Leo suddenly finds himself still alive, in a peaceful village, far away from the battle he was doomed
to lose. Worrying for his people, he desperately looks for a way to return, to save Valora from the unleashed
evil he had failed to suppress.

How is he still alive? And where, or when, did he wind up?

With plenty of questions but no answers, he journeys through this world he stumbled into. In his adventures,
he finds out first hand that the history of humanity did not go exactly as the books said it did, as he unveils
the stories of human history page by page.

Spoiler: Characters

Leonardo

The strongest warrior of the Valoran Empire, Leonardo was tasked with halting Azrath's attempts
at reviving the ancient beast. However, things don't go exactly as he had planned, and Leo
finds himself in a strange world, unaware of how to return to save his own from the wrath of
the beast.

Angelina

A young sorceress who finds Leonardo unconscious in a forest. She has a liking for everything magic,
and is generally very optimistic and caring towards others. However, she has her own questions that she
wishes to resolve, and to that end she journeys through the land to look for answers.

Character Not Revealed Yet

Character Not Revealed Yet

Character Not Revealed Yet

Character Not Revealed Yet

Spoiler: Screenshots

- The Title Screen

- We have to stop Azrath! But I've gotta light these torches first...

- Why are those guys so much taller than me?

- Skills! Skills!! SKILLS!!!

- The Menu Screen. Because Why Not?

- Is this foreshadowing? Ominous.

- Nothing like a walk through a forest.

- So. Many. Stats.

- The Passive Mastery System. Colorised.

- The Shop Level System. Do you have what it takes to be the loyalest customer, like no one ever was?

Spoiler: Features

> Unique Skills that interact with each other. No random "Fira" Skill that basically just deals Fire Damage.
Instead, skills work best when used in conjunction with each other.

> Smart Enemies. No "Attack Bot" Enemies. Enemies have unique skills so that each one has something different to bring
to the table.

> Equipment Mastery System. Each equipment will have a passive to master, so no equipment will feel like
"fodder".

> Shop Level System. This allows shopping to be dynamic. Buying/Selling earns you shop experience, which allows
you to buy better items at cheaper prices, not to mention earning rewards.

Spoiler: Credits

This project would not be possible without any of the following wonderful people/teams!

Plugins:

Spoiler: Plugin Credits

• Yanfly
• Moghunter
• SumRndmDde
• Himeworks
• Galv
• Atreyo Ray
• Bobstah
• Hudell
• Shaz
• Iavra
• Khas
• Terrax
• mjshi
• Estriole
• Masked
• Amuseum
• DragoonKain
• Nelderson
• Dekita

Music:

Spoiler: Music Credits

• Wingless-Seraph
• FesliyanStudios

Art:

Spoiler: Art Credits

• Celianna
• Hadecynn
• Thalzon
• Avery
• Akashics
• Cintronic
• LexusX
• hiddenone
• Point08
• Haydeos
• MrPyramid
• Franco Giachetti
• pbmojART
• Blarumyrran
• Craftpix
• Chaos17
• Dainiri
• Guyver IV
• Aha-soft
• rgangsta
• Zinx10
• SkottyTV

Spoiler: Ending Notes

This is a project I have worked really hard on to deliver what I could. I know I'm not the best artist, nor do I have an artistically creative mind, so I can't make something that is aesthetically out of this world. Thus, knowing my shortcomings in this area, I have tried my best to overcome this by making the gameplay aspect of my game rewarding enough that is outweighs any deficiency in my artistic abilities.
I hope I have succeeded. Fingers Crossed.

I appreciate your time for reading this thread, trying out my game, and any feedback you may provide. You're the best!

 

[Lonewulf123]

I'll check this out. saw the driftwood playthrough and it's definitely interesting!

 

[Nhale]

Hey there! I also saw the driftwood playthrough and found it amazing! Been playing for an hour now and I promisse to write a decent review.
Right now, i just wanted to report a bug of some sort.
In Gleen Woods, the game freezes right after Giant Bird boss fight.
Once i finish it, i'll edit a review , but i'm already loving your work

 

[Naveed]

@Nhale Glad you're liking it! Thanks for the bug report, and looking forward to your feedback!
The issue has been resolved and links updated to a newer version. Please download v0.1.1, and sorry for the inconvenience .
You can copy over your previous save folder from the www/ folder and paste it into the newer version.
Download Link 2 (Dropbox Link) is still uploading, so use Download Link 1 (Mediafire Link) for now.

 

[Naveed]

Game Updated to v0.1.1!

Major Fixes:

• Fixed the issue where the game would freeze after the Glenn Woods Boss Fight.

 

[SquallStorm]

Mmmk, so I'm just gonna say I played this, found no major issues aside from things on my end due to a lousy machine.

I love a lot of the systems you've added, the action sequencing is absolutely wonderful, and I would be strongly interested in playing more of this game. You've got a solid title here friend. Followed.

 

[Naveed]

@SquallStorm glad you liked the project and thanks for the support . Means a lot.
Also pretty happy that the game is relatively bug free. Nothing feels worse than releasing a buggy project .

 

[VeggetoSSJ]

Great game, finished the story line of the demo within 2-3 hours as level 4-5, really enjoyed it. Wasn't sure the passive skills from the begin part would retain or not but it seem to take to long to check, 1000+ SP for those passives seemed a lot when each normal battle would only reward you 10-20 SP.

Did find a small bug, where after Angelina rejoins you to go out on adventure and you leave her dad's store, after re-entering the store, the dad gets placed on the tile left of the stairs on the wall, unable to move and I'm unable to interact with him (was hoping to see if I could buy better weapons from him).

 

[Naveed]

@VeggetoSSJ Glad you liked the project . Thanks for reporting the issue, slight overlook on my part and an easy fix.

And yeah you aren't supposed to worry about the passive mastery in the first part, which is why the values are high and the tutorial is later. I haven't managed to figure out how to turn it off at the beginning and enable it later, but will change it if I manage to do so.

Thanks for the feedback .

 

[Poryg]

Very well, let's see. Less than 400 MB is a good start, at least my computer won't be crashing it to free RAM

Hmm, so far the battle looks interesting, even though a bit repetitive. But I am still at the beginning.

 

[Naveed]

@Poryg Hope you enjoy the rest of what's available. Would love to know what you liked and disliked about the current version .

 

[Poryg]

Yesterday I only played till downloads finished so I could go to sleep.
I liked that I died twice against the boss, that means I will need to adjust my strategy And even though I know many things from tips and tricks, I like that you weren't afraid of more complex skills than just damage and stuff.

 

[Skunk]

This might be odd feedback...
But I super like that font.
Also I'll play test this when I get home from vacation!

 

[VeggetoSSJ]

I really liked the quick skills, those that can be used without finishing your turn. During the castle most of the time I just spammed mage focus and then did the AoE wind spell (scanned a few and saw they were weak against wind) that mostly killed all the mobs in that fight (leaving only 1 or 2 with low health behind). Furthermore Ignition did extra DoT when I used Magic Focus. When stacked to 6, it normally does like 600 damage, but with the Magic Focus skill, that got bumped to 900 per turn. Also when using Detonation on a 6-stacked enemy, Magic Focus did a whopping 12K damage at times.

The 1 skill that didn't show it's full potential was the bleed on crit skill. Whenever i used this skill, it did not crit at all, defeating the purpose of its added effect, so I only used it when other skills where on cooldown or i would just normally attack.

Other then that skill, I really love the skill mechanic of this game, they complement each other so well.

 

[Poryg]

Alright, so we are immediately thrown into the game. Which by itself is not bad. But the hero is very cliché. He has no background, there's nothing about how he became a hero, he only had his childhood dream and became a badass super hero saving kittens from the trees and looking tough if I say it like that.
The story itself is very fast paced, but that isn't always a bad thing. But with a very fast paced story with a weird hero, how would you like people to enjoy the game? Fights? I kind of doubt it.
I know it is still in alpha, but I will be very frank... I don't mind easy games. But the game should be better balanced. The balance has been thrown out of the window.
We have WAY TOO MANY random encounters. Especially since you aren't meant to level up in the tower. The hero, despite being a level 85 hero, the best warrior in the world, is not so good after all. He has a selection of skills which he relies on, like a Pokémon. And even though I died a couple of times, because I wasn't used to these skills, once I got a knack of it, it was all over. Ignition, electric skill, Focus, Magic Focus, Quick attack and then BAM! Penta slash! Everyone dead except for bosses who had only half HP left!
Turn 2: The barrier skill.
Turn 3: Strong wind.
Turn 4: Detonation.

And the boss was history. Only sometimes they hit me with one very strong attack and I was the one who was dead. But then I just loaded, didn't use Magic focus and found that the boss decided to not use his powerful attack.
As I said, I don't mind easy games... But I don't like when stuff gets repetitive. I didn't even need to use my ultimate jutsu, because if I did, I would deal 13000 damage on the first turn... Where is the fun in beating bosses then?

There were dozens of skills, dozens of states... But what in the world do they do? Am I supposed to be worried? Is the darkness serious? What is that state with chains? Should I be worried about that uncleansable death mark? (Well... I survived that one actually).
I have to say, the basic states were explained and they were explained quite well, introducing an interesting strategy aspect, but what about the rest?

I liked the phoenix ring though. If the balance wasn't so bad, it could be an interesting strategy aspect.
And I also liked the different species classes. However, they deserve much more than a simple description on the help file, especially if they are having other specifics than just winged creatures being immune to physical weapons unless you tie them to the ground.

But back to the story, even though the battle was the main part of the demo.
As I said earlier, the story is very fast paced... Which is troublesome by itself, since it's kind of a strange story... But as it is, it is very bland too, with several unnecessary mistakes in storytelling as well.

1. The skeleton talks about how good he is, but then he says "well, let's get this over with.", which is off character. I know it is hard to establish a battle, I do these mistakes too, but it is worth mentioning.
2. Dying scene when the A-guy summons a monster, but then as the monster gets summoned, he immediately revives?
3. After the God teleports you, you enter the scene with clock ticking in reverse direction. There is a brief BGM. It's not suitable for the BGM to shift like that for only few seconds due to being on a map, it makes the scene weird.
4. Leonardo gets thrown off by having clothes that are not his, but then he immediately forgets about it. Not to mention, since he looked mortified when he explained that it wasn't like how it looked when her dad disturbed them, I find it weird that he wouldn't get thrown off by the fact that she saw him without any clothing.
5. How does that girl even get him to the village? Alone? Is she strong enough? And how does she get a person in his state into the village without causing any commotion? It's not like you find a handsome young boy lying unconscious in the grass every day, especially since you are a young, single girl overprotected by her father.
6. Her dream definitely needs more work. Because as it is, it is dull. There are no emotions in it.
7. The father's change of heart doesn't make sense. It is too simple, unprecedented. And an overprotective guy trusts a complete stranger, absolutely legit too.
8. How does that hero not notice a decrease or change in his powers?
9. The father is too young. They look like brother and sister, not father and daughter.

I also noticed one bug btw.

Spoiler: bug in the path

After they finish a dialog about where to go, the father took the path as highlighted in red and then faced down. But that one is impassable and he didn't even jump.
Other than that, I haven't noticed any bugs, well done for that! (except for a minor bug when you return from the forest and try to go up, she still says the forest is down, even though you need to enter the house to face the furious father-brother)

The background music is not too good. It is unintrusive, which means it is not bad. But it is not good. It doesn't get part of the scene. It doesn't enhance the scene and the scene doesn't get more alive with the music. I have nothing against it, but nothing for it though.
However, the mapping is pretty strange. Huge maps full of cramped corridors, where there are two contrasts, an empty demon castle and an overloaded forest. Two extremes and none of them were pretty.

Overall it wasn't a bad game, I have to say, and in spite of heavy rtp usage there seems to be some nice work done. It surely has potential and really nice battle mechanics, but there's still a lot of work to do.

 

[Naveed]

@Poryg Thanks a lot for the great feedback! Letting me know what didn't work so well is the best way I can improve.

But the hero is very cliché. He has no background, there's nothing about how he became a hero, he only had his childhood dream and became a badass super hero saving kittens from the trees and looking tough if I say it like that.

Technically he's quoted as a great 'warrior' not a hero. He's the strongest fighter in the army is all the player needs to know at the moment. More of his character will be revealed later on.
I didn't want to bog down the intro with a huge cutscene before the player finally gets control of the character, so I opted for larger story parts to be shown later.

We have WAY TOO MANY random encounters.

Glad to know ^_^. The random battles mainly serve for the player to understand and experiment with the skills, and for the tutorials. Maybe I'll add an option for the player to adjust the encounter rate.

I have to say, the basic states were explained and they were explained quite well, introducing an interesting strategy aspect, but what about the rest?

If you pressed cancel on the actor command window, the party command window would show up where you could check the party's status effects. All the states that actors are affected by are explained there. It's written in the Help File, but I agree that this isn't explained anywhere else, and not everyone's going to read through the entire Help File. I'll think about adding it to the tutorials.


For the general 'easy' feel of the first part, I wanted to keep it a bit on the easier side since after all this is the first dungeon the players are going to play through, not to mention the fact that the player is currently supposed to feel overpowered. I might have to work on the balance of the two focus skills though, those are a bit OP at the moment.

As for the story-telling, I agree that some of the aspects you mentioned do need work (some of them I actually overlooked, so thanks for making me aware of them), while others are general liberties that most RPG stories tend to take. I'm more concerned with progressing first and then coming back to refine the small-but-adds-quality parts.

Thanks again for the killer feedback . Will keep it in mind as I improve on the project.

 

[Poryg]

Well, I can definitely understand the fact that you don't want to waste time with cutscenes at the beginning. When I do opening cutscenes, they always seem so long to me...

The random encounters are ok for the player to get acquainted with the skills, but after the first boss they become a burden unless you rely on the limit meter to fill. I only used it to escape once I began using the mana (and thanks to the green crystals (or phoenix ring) I could really let loose).
Also, my issue is with the balance overall, not really with hero being OP. I kill off one weak enemy after another, then a boss casts several seemingly irrelenvat attacks... And from time to time they use a mega attack dealing 5k damage, killing my vulnerable hero. There is so much of a contrast between weak boss attacks and strong boss attacks. Contrast as strong as thousands of damage points, controlled by sheer RNG.

Well, I'll definitely keep the help file in mind next time. I hope

 

[Goodniss_Gracious]

I just saw the Driftwood playthrough. I'm downloading this game as soon as I my Mac and get a PC.

 

[MidnightGames]

hey Naveed, what's up with the rpgmvo files for the audio? Why aren't they .ogg?

 

[Poryg]

Encryption.