RMVXA White Pearl (~25hr Turn Based RPG) w/ Sidequests + Crafting

[Elyswer]

White Pearl

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Synopsis

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The world of Ottrea constantly undergoes a period of calamity, known as Dark Eras. It is believed that the Dark Eras are caused to happen due to the Priori, who sow the seeds of darkness within the world.
As to why they happen, it is unknown.
White Pearl follows the story of Pearlto, how he met characters with intertwined connections and pasts - and how he became tasked with preventing the forthcoming of the Fifth Dark Era.
This, coupled with the looming threat of the Priori (who are the antagonists of the game), means Pearlto is under immense stress in order to keep peace within Ottrea - lest calamity happen a fifth time.
Even so, the origins of the world still lie in mystery, but a certain someone is there to discover it all.

Screenshots

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Download Here:

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https://elyswer.itch.io/white-pearlrpg

Main Characters

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• Pearlto Divinia: A man of a religious folllowing, childhood friend of Katkin's and person of authority and empathy. Even when faced with a dark threat he is tasked to destroy, he feels regret. Should he question his faith?

• Katkin Elderflower: A friend which Pearlto needed. Born and raised in a restrictive and nobled family just like Pearlto, the two became friends quickly. However, she conceals her family's purpose and origin to the party. Will she tell them, or will her past continue to haunt her. She will have to learn to deal with the past.

• Elsay Valenheart = Sister to Elrise, she is a woman of a well-mannered nature. She struggles with empathising with other people, but she is not without heart.

• Elrise Valenheart = Brother to Elsay, his outward appearance appears to be morbid and cold, however a traumatic experience has formed him into what he is. He harbours a dark secret unknowingly.

• Elyswer Vael = A man of humour, he can lighten up the mood quickly. He is also childhood friends with U'vharr. This man was once an airship pilot.

• U'vharr Tia = The king of Ancarna, a town of richness and gold, although the recent shortage has left the town with a decreased budget – they still have plenty to depend on. When heir to the throne at a young age, he could not fit in with the other children of the town and so he turned to Elyswer.

• Cassopeia Kinnear = A woman skilled in the arts of dark magic, she learns of her identity and connection to a figure long forgotten.

Main Locales

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• Falcon is the capital of the Overworld and it is a bustling and prosperous city. Many mercenaries come and go, seeking fame and fortune in their lives. The capital has a long history of Elderflower protection. From time to time, the city gets it's goods and gold from Ancarna.

• Ancarna is a city known for it's gold mines, where the large portion of the town's success originates from. It is home to the prestigious Tia family, which is known for it's bloodline of success of money, power and gold. Although many leaders in the Tia family have been following from their parents' example, one leader aims to takes a different path.

• Prevesta is a town which is known for their special concoctions and potions. Every year, the town performs a local ritual called the "Harvest" which is held in celebration of Crysania, the Light God who created Prevesta. It is Elsay and Elrise's home.

• Valen is a prestigious kingdom, ruled over by a king of greed and power. The people of Valen have an infamous repuation, as they are usually very inhospitable to visitors and consultants - preferring to stay in their own ways.

 

[mlogan]

@Elyswer Can you please fix your images? They are not showing.

 

[AnimeGirl]

@Elyswer Can you please fix your images? They are not showing.

That's because the Links don't end with .jpg, png or .gif.

 

[Elyswer]

Ah, okay. I've fixed the images now.

 

[Hopeless Dreamer]

Hi Elyswer,

I've played just over 4hrs of white pearl (just reached Valen) and it's pretty good so far. I'll have to play a bit more before it feels fair to leave a review but thought I'd just leave some feedback with you. Apologies if it seems like there are more cons than pros, just felt the need to expand on some of the nitpicks.

Pros:
Lots of lore and dialogue, you've clearly put a lot of care into establishing the world of White Pearl and it shows.
-Being able to check on status conditions seen so far was a nice inclusion too.
Every character having a special command gives them a bit more identity and was a nice touch.
The UI on the exploration screen looks great!
Custom resources and the iconset make skills and enemies stand out.
Changing title screens and inclusion of videos at the title screen and start of game.
-Couldn't seem to return to title screen without watching whole video though I may not have found the right key to do so
Cool and creative skills. Like the use of cooldowns to prevent spamming some of the more powerful skills. Shoulder tackle was super useful!
I like the way you've managed states, there are a lot of options in ways to cripple enemies and most of them work even on bosses. The effects themselves are beneficial or painful but let you still feel in control of characters even if you don't have a solution. I didn't always have a perfect answer to each problem so had to find a work around which was refreshing. Most rpgs just give you a bog-standard esuna or a perfect answer (e.g. poisona for the poison dungeon).

Cons: Basically nitpicks
The left entrance to Falcon cave is blocked until the right path is taken. I'm sure this is intentional but it can take you out of it a bit to see invisible walls. Would a 1 way ledge like in the pokemon games be a good work around as I believe there's another way to get to the left by going right.
Mapping wise there are some nice maps and the parallaxing looks great when you've used it. Some of the maps could use a bit more attention though.
-Ancarna is missing a few trees
-The exit from Falcon to the plains leaves you facing the opposite direction as to when you left and on the exit tile.
-Before going to Darkheart's reside it's possible to take the party and enter Prevesta forest giving you access to the town and caves. There's another invisible wall in this cave. Wasn't sure if this area is supposed to be accessible before getting Elrise back into the party.
Darkheart's reside was pretty difficult as damage could spike rapidly with only 2 party members and sometimes 3 enemies. I had to restore a previous save as I had trouble getting Elrise to the save point without losing him. Saying that I didn't spend much time grinding but a restore point in the first room would have been good. It's a bit difficult to revive fallen party members and wouldn't be too abusable being so far from the save point.
Getting 20G or 1 potion from chests didn't feel that rewarding. Would be nice to see more armour or crafting materials. Stimulating salves would be a great reward, could be wrong but Valen was the first store I remember seeing them in so didn't have many until then.

Questions:
Is there a way to turn off skip text option?
-The item log on the right side of the screen is great for keeping track of treasure but I usually miss the standard message as I'm holding down a button when opening treasure chests.
It seems a lot of work went into the crafting system which must have involved a lot of conditional branches and menus but would it not have been easier to use a script for the crafting?
-Found it difficult to know what I was able to craft without trying each option once. I believe there is a synth script out there that would let you show all your recipes on one shop screen and even add more at a later point in the game assuming you can unlock more recipes.
Had a bit of an odd game crash that I wasn't able to recreate so sorry if this is a bit vague. Just before fighting Melvy I had saved just after receiving the White Pearl and went directly north avoiding any encounters. The game crashed just as it was about to enter the Melvy battle. I loaded the save file a few times but worked fine after that.

 

[Elyswer]

Thanks a bunch for testing my game!
The issue with the title screen movie is described in the KnownIssues .txt file, where I'm attempting to find a better fix for future patches. You can return to the title screen after the movie is finished by pressing Enter/X/Square.

Yes, I believe some maps are a bit sub-par as I was learning mapping as I went along. Thanks to bringing that to my attention.

About Prevesta Cave, you can explore that as soon as have the chance to go into Prevesta again with U'vharr, Elsay, Elyswer, Katkin and Pearlto in search for Elrise. There isn't much in the cave, but it's used later on for story purposes.

And it's strange you that you state about the lack of Salves since I thought I gave a few out early on. Oh, and you can buy them at Falcon too - but you don't have much money then! I also found Darkheart's Reside to be a little challenging, but I managed to get through without having to revive anyone. What level were you?

I've no idea how you crashed in the Melvy battle so I'll have to look into it. Did you get an error message?

I totally understand your concerns about the crafting system. I wanted to implement a script, but I had error messages with the menus since I think it clashed with the Luna Engine. Nonetheless, I'm going to have a browse for some better alternatives - but I'm not going to remove the current one so soon since it's going to take a lot of work if I decide to start from the ground up.
If I can't manage to find a working script, I'll refine what I've got instead.

Yes there's a way to turn off the skip text option: Game Config -> Instant Text: Normal

 

[Hopeless Dreamer]

No worries, sounded interesting after all!

Ahh some of that is likely me missing the obvious as usual. Assumed text option was just speed like in the pokemon series, didn't realise there was an instant option. I perhaps should have stocked up on some salves sooner but as you said not loads of money at that point. I got lucky early on despite being unprepared for a few bosses. Didn't start needing them until just before Prevesta I think. Elrise was level 10 at that point, so had roughly about 700 HP with the iron bangle equipped.

That makes sense regarding the crafting system, it would take a lot of work to overhaul that completely. I've played around with one ages ago in vx ace but it took a lot of configuring and can't say I'm familiar with Luna's scripts.

Weirdly enough I don't think I did get an error message. Could just be my computer but figured I'd let you know just in case.

 

[Elyswer]

Ah, you could've done a little grinding with Elrise in Prevesta Forest to bump up his level a bit - but I didn't do that and I turned out fine. Might be the equipment then. I'm going to tweak the enemies anyway.
What bosses did you struggle with?

 

[Hopeless Dreamer]

It wasn't really bosses tbf they all felt quite fair and balanced. I thought I was screwed by not healing on the first boss as it has a powerful lightning attack turn 1 but was able to recover. Most characters seem to have the appropriate tools to deal with bosses but was also quite fun to be caught off guard every so often too. I was mainly losing the occasional character here and there to random encounters so nothing major.

 

[Elyswer]

My intention was for the player to use Guard when the boss used Charged Element as a powerful attack would happen afterwards ^^ so just a little tip there. I'm glad there was a challenge, hopefully you'll get the hang of the rest! I've tweaked the enemies in Prevesta Forest and Darkheart's Reside to be a little less hard hitting and that will come with the next update.

 

[Elyswer]

V1.0.4 is here (yesterday, in fact) and along with balance changes, I made a few fixes. I also added a new battle transition, and a new cut-scene too.

 

[Kokoro Hane]

This project looks really interesting, I'll be sure to give it a go!

 

[Elyswer]

I have made a very quick hotfix for White Pearl, where the error is present in all versions. For those downloading or playing the game, please download the hotfix folder. The download instructions are included in the file and the "Patch 1.0.4 Hotfix" development log.

 

[Elyswer]

With V1.0.5, comes fixes, performance changes to the battle system and a new cut-scene sequence. This concludes the updates for 2017 (unless something major appears), and possibly the implementation of new sequences and cut-scenes as I feel pretty much satisfied with it now.
Have fun, and enjoy your time with White Pearl!

 

[Midge70]

Hi there, I'm looking for help in the Valen waterways. Could you tell me the combination of the levers ? Thanks in advance

 

[Elyswer]

Sure!

Spoiler

Activate all of the four red levers.

How are you finding the game so far?

 

[Midge70]

Thanks for the help and yea I'm enjoying it so far.