Zevia's Let's Play

[Zevia]

You can now catch me streaming as part of the RPGMaker TV project over at the RPGMakerTV Twitch channel. If I am the lead streamer at the time, I will export the videos over to Youtube and post the links here.

If you have a request, please feel free to leave a post in this thread or send me a PM. I will be streaming through RPGMaker TV unless you specify that you'd prefer I just give you my personal feedback and playthrough.

Let's Play means I played the game from start to finish (or as far as I was able to get). Let's Try means, for one reason or another, I decided to give the game a rest before reaching the end.

Older reviews and playthroughs can be found here.

Let's Try: Dynasthir - Evernight

Let's Play: Farko

Let's Try: Melody of the Dragons / Dragon Song

Let's Play: Finding Chibi

Let's Try: Storms of April

Let's Try: Eremidia: Dungeon!

Currently playing: via RPGMakerTV: Demon Hunter

List of Future Games To Play (in no particular order)

- Immortal Sins

 

[Matseb2611]

Hi again. Just been watching your LP's of Central Impulse. So far watched the first 3 parts and will watch p4 in a bit, and it's been really helpful to see a player's reaction to what's happening in-game. One of the things I realised is how I never made it clear what each status effect is (Disabled is Paralyzed, Corrupt is Confused (attack anyone), Manipulated is attack only allies, and Leaking is energy loss for a few turns). But seriously, many thanks for doing this LP, and I've got to say your voice acting has been really awesome and funny.

 

[Zevia]

You know, I actually thought leaking was an HP poison, not energy. I figured most of the status effects were pretty straight-forward, but I wasn't really sure about corruption (poison? confusion? charm?) vs. manipulation until I was struck with them fighting the Central AI.

Glad you liked the off-the-cuff VO - I think, in hindsight, I wouldn't have given X3 such a robotic voice, since all the characters were supposed to be very human-like. I just wasn't sure how robotic the robots were supposed to be. Thanks for watching, though, I'm glad you enjoyed the feedback.

Not sure what game I'll be picking up next for a LP - I've been back to work on my own project, and I'm trying not to get too sidetracked or distracted so I'll eventually finish it. I was looking at Incitement for a little bit - has anyone else done an LP of that yet?

 

[Matseb2611]

Yeah, your voice acting made me laugh on many occasions because I think it fit the scenes really well, and also every time you said "An excellent hit!!!". BD

I've got to say though, that is impressive how you've defeated the final boss with your characters at around lvl 14. Normally when playtesting I intended for him to be challenged at around lvl 17 or higher, though I guess in the end more depends on your equipment and battle strategy and you seemed to pull it off really well (even if your characters did get corrupted a lot).

Cool. Does your project have a thread here on the forums?

I don't think anyone has done an LP of the first Incitement. It is a bit of a lengthy game though (8 hours on average) and it's not as streamlined as Central Impulse, so some parts of it might seem kind of unfair. I am looking to update it soon to fix some of those issues, but I still think the second game in the series will be a lot better and it's probably better to just wait for that instead (I'm looking to release the full beta version in about a couple of weeks' time).

 

[Zevia]

I think if I hadn't picked up that reconstruction tech, I wouldn't have been able to do the last battle. It was the only party-wide heal I had, and Saf has a couple hard-hitting AoE abilities on top of his ability to strike two opponents in one round. Having the regen even if a character is stunned or something worked out well, too.

I think I should've spread some of my restorative and healing abilities around a bit more, too - X3 didn't seem to have very high damage, so I just piled all my party buffs, healing abilities, and E+ items on him, but ultimately it meant that when he got disabled or corrupted, I was kind of in deep ****. I pumped up his HP and made sure to stock him with corruption and manipulation antiviruses so he would always be available to cleanse other people of various ailments, but that didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped. It also meant it took longer to get everyone buffed up, because X3 could only do one thing at a time. If I had given, say, the C-ATK buff to K2, the L-ATK buff to X3, Toughen to E1, Hasten to H6, and then reconstruction to whoever the fastest party member was (or to whoever I equipped with the Action Plus Add-On), I could've gotten group buffs out significantly faster and more effectively. It also wouldn't have been so devastating to have one particular member knocked out, too. A second strong repair might've been a good investment, too, but I was low on funds through a lot of the game.

Being able to slot your abilities around to whoever you want to use them is a really nice feature, though. Sort of reminiscent of materia, though I like that each character also had their personal bonuses so it still mattered who you brought to the fight. Although, considering that almost every single HP+ and E+ item I came across went to X3 and he still was only baseline compared to everyone else, I might swap him out for E9 or B5 if I were to play again. And although the restorative items were so expensive that I never bought any at the shop, it was also nice that you picked up so many around the station - and that their inherent value also meant I had good fodder for selling to purchase more equipment.

Yes, I do actually have a project thread on the forums - I just updated my demo with a new area, in fact. If you're interested, it's over at http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/18152-northwall-demo-updated-32014/

I'll hold off on Incitement, though, per your recommendation. I might take another short break from my project to do another LP once I'm done with my next area. If you have your beta out for Incitement 2, I'll give that a try, then. Otherwise I might take a look at the early projects or projects in development and see if there's maybe something that hasn't received much feedback yet.

 

[Matseb2611]

Yeah, you've pretty much explained it all. Everything hopefully plays a part, which character you give certain skills to, which characters to give HP+ and E+ to, and so on. I tried to balance out and give each character good and bad sides. X3 for example isn't so high on health, but he has a really good long-ranged attack and luck stats (kind of the equivalent of a mage in a fantasy setting). I think K2 is probably a bit imbalanced, because he seems a little too good, and everyone uses him. Hehe.

Nice. I've had a brief glance at your game's thread. I notice from the screenshots the locations have a really nice atmosphere to them. I'll try to give the demo a go sometime in the next few days and will post some feedback.

And yeah, sure thing. I'm aiming to release full beta of Incitement 2 sometime in the first week of April.

 

[Zevia]

X3 for example isn't so high on health, but he has a really good long-ranged attack and luck stats (kind of the equivalent of a mage in a fantasy setting).

Really? I found he was often doing like 30% of the damage that my other party members were doing - though I wasn't sure if that was a problem with X3, or that a lot of enemies were largely resistant to fire damage. That was part of the reason that I loaded him up on buffs and heals - everyone else seemed to be better at doing damage, so I wanted to have X3 do all the buff work while the others did the DPS.

 

[Matseb2611]

Yeah, normal attack is considered as close-ranged in the game, and X3 is only good at long-ranged, so basically long-ranged skills. It is a lot like the mage mechanic, where mages don't deal much with their default attack. H6 is kinda the same. She is more of a long-ranged character. On the other hand K2 and F9 are strictly close-ranged. E1 and B5 are more or less balanced between both and can take up either role. 

 

[Zevia]

You know, I did not pick up on that at all. Although I mentioned early in my LP that I assumed C-ATK was melee and L-ATK was magic, by the time I actually got to weapon upgrades, I thought they were just two attack elements, like plasma, fire, and physical. Since some of the weapons were described as "long range weapons," I thought that anyone wearing a long-range weapon would do L-ATK damage and anyone wearing a close-range weapon would do C-ATK damage.

In hindsight, knowing how RPG Maker works, that doesn't make much sense, but I definitely didn't grasp that a long range weapon equipped on a character would still mean they had a close range attack.

 

[Matseb2611]

Yeah, I guess it's one of the game's shortcomings, since I had no idea how I would enforce the L-ATK for normal attack, hence why you might've noticed the L-ATK weapons also give some C-ATK bonuses (so that their default attack wouldn't be too weak), but not as great as the C-ATK weapons. Maybe this idea was a bit too ambitious for my skill level. Hehe.

 

[Zevia]

Just about to start a Let's Play of Tutorial Town (listed in the Let's Play Requests thread) over at www.twitch.tv/zevia

When I'm done, I'll upload the videos to Youtube.

EDIT: Let's Play and review are now in the OP of the thread.

 

[Zevia]

Just about to start a Let's Play of Incitement 2 by Matseb2611 over at www.twitch.tv/zevia

I'm just doing some sound and video testing at the moment to make sure the quality is good, then I'll begin playing. When I'm done, I'll upload videos to Youtube.

EDIT:

 

[Matseb2611]

Awesome. The first episode. This has been really helpful already. I am glad to see it wasn't too confusing to find the sidequests. Don't worry too much about not being able to afford all of the latest gear. I intended for the player to be finding it in the dungeons or as sidequest rewards, and to get mostly just the top priority items from the shops.

In regard to bosses and debuffs, pretty much all bosses can be debuffed and inflicted with some states (burns for sure, though not so much with stuff like paralysis). Even the final boss is not totally immune to debuffs. It's just they all have varying degrees of resistances to this stuff so you might not succeed on the first try, but you could on 2nd or 3rd, etc. Generally to debuff an Atk is a lot harder than to debuff Def or Agi.

Burns basically deal some slip damage for a few turns and also debuff one of the stats. For example fire burn deals 5% HP damage every turn for 3 turns and also lowers Def slightly, and so on. You can find descriptions to all these in the manual (there'll also be a room in Cosmosis lab in-game where you can read some of this stuff).

But seriously, thank you for this feedback. It's been really helpful already and I'm looking forward to part 2. I know it's been a bit too easy so far, but I thought it'd be best to start the game off easy.

 

[Zevia]

Will be streaming more Incitement 2 over at www.twitch.tv/zevia in a few moments. Going to read up on debuffs in the included instruction manual real quick, then do some sound/video quality testing like I do every night before starting to record, then I'll be on it for a bit.

As usual, will upload the video to Youtube when done.

EDIT:

 

[Matseb2611]

Oh wow. 1 hour 40 minutes. Just watched the whole thing. Love your voice acting by the way. It's really funny, especially when you did Worrbug. Looks like there are a few minor passability issues I've missed and also the transfer on those stairs.

I noticed you've always been asking 'what did I get?' after completing sidequests. You know if you check the 'Missions' section, the quest rewards are listed on each quest. Glad those sidequests weren't too hard to find either.

Also, just to clear up something you were wondering about in the video - Eryn's healing ability does indeed take intelligence stat into account.

Thanks again man. I hope you're enjoying the game.

EDIT: Almost forgot. That track that plays in the subway is called 'Bass Echoes'. I got it from Jewelbeat.com.

 

[Zevia]

EDIT: Stream cancelled due to emergency tonight.

 

[Zevia]

Part 3 of Incitement 2 is now up.

 

[Matseb2611]

Awesome! You're quite far in and I see you've had fun with some of those boss fights.

I noticed you've missed out on the 'First aid equipment' in the shops later on. When the party splits up and one of the teams doesn't have Eryn, you could get that and teach one of them the 'First aid' skill. (likewise it's good if you want an additional healer in the party).

In regard to the sidequest where you have to find the hammer, perhaps where I've hidden it is a little unfair.

Spoiler

It basically appears back at the hangar and only after you've gotten the quest. But I guess not to worry. The reward is only one of those Sarodan suits.

Once again, thanks loads for this LP. As usual, I noticed a few errors that I'll need to fix in the game. You're pretty much 70-75% into the game now. There'll be a lot of optional content to do after the next mission, so it all depends on how much of it you wish to do. 

 

[Zevia]

Spoiler

It basically appears back at the hangar and only after you've gotten the quest. But I guess not to worry. The reward is only one of those Sarodan suits.

Spoiler

There aren't any other sections of the game that teach you that you need to backtrack for something, that I recall. Everything is always in a place you just haven't been to yet. If like, say, the medical robot you have to rescue were back at the hangar in the early side mission, or something to that effect - something that teaches the player, "You may need to revisit areas for these side missions," it wouldn't be unfair.

But since the only time I've gone to the hangar in the 4 hours or so I've been playing the game is to leave the level, that's not something that would've ever crossed my mind. Given that, from what I understand, you can revisit any towns before the end of the game, I might run into it there, it could be fair - but the reward will be pointless at that point, as it would be a downgrade in gear.

 

[Zevia]

Will be streaming shortly for Incitement 2 - Part 4 at twitch.tv/zevia. Just doing a quick video/audio check before beginning play. When the stream is done, I will upload the video to this post and update the OP with the link.

EDIT: Heading off to bed. When the video's done processing, here's the last section of the Incitement 2 Let's Play: