Dead Content Ancients Forgotten [Chapter 1 Released!]

[WeebamNa]

This game is an old version of Alchemy Arcanum, so go play it, not this one. :D

Ancients Forgotten is the first game I started as soon as I bought RMXP, over a year ago. I had worked with rm2k3 for years beforehand and really got into game-making. Along with Blender, a 3D modelling program, I decided to combine the two a bit and incorporate some spiffy graphics as tilesets, battle animations, the world map, and that title page up there. :P

Plot (in a vague, non-spoilery way)
A group of bandits, on an ordinary raid, discover a secret meant to be edited out of the history books. Following the directions, Durgas, a demon that was sealed away fifty years ago, is awakened. Gilden, an elder that was part of the sealing away of Durgas, has lost his wife to the bandits, but something begins to trouble him even more. When a mine is overcome with monsters, Graham of the Bristendil army goes to investigate. Deep in the mine, he discovers that the miners were not the first people to ever go into the cave. The secrets of the ancients begin to be discovered, and learning about this forgotten past is crucial to defeating Durgas, as well as the greater evil that has been awakened... the one that originally created Durgas with the arcane knowledge of the ancients' power.

Characters
Graham:
A commander in the Bristendil army. A young man in his early 20's, he advances his battle skill from not only swordsmanship to alchemy as well, following the advice of his teacher, the alchemist Tomar.

Tomar:
Head alchemist of Bristendil. Is always looking for new ingredients and new spells to create and teach to his students.

Gregory:
The long-standing commander in the Bristendil army. By rank, Gregory and Graham are equals, but Gregory generally has authority due to years.

Vliro:
Leader of the bandits. Greedy, hungry for power, and doesn't mind killing to get what he wants. When he finds the hidden secrets of the seal of Durgas, he is unable to resist the urge to gain enormous power.

Haskir:
A new recruit in the bandits, a young man in his upper teens. Was desperate for money and needed a job so desperately that he joined Vliro and his gang, but didn't know what kind of a mess he would be caught up in. He has very nimble hands, however, and makes a great thief.

Much more characters, several of which will be in later chapters.

Screenshots:
World Map:

Spoiler

Part of Bristendil:

Spoiler

Alchemy Lesson:

Spoiler

Mineral Mine:

Spoiler

Ancient Temple, with a Blender Tileset:

Spoiler

Features/Script Edits/Other notes:
. Custom World Map with a cursor/pointer thingy
. Alchemy System like in "Secret of Evermore"
. First Strike/Back Attack/See the enemies on the map system, like Lufia II. (Or the Research Dungeon, if you played that game of mine) This also means no random encounters.
. Several sprite recolors, tileset edits, icon edits, other little stuff.
. All alchemy battle animations and a few others are custom made with Blender.
. The font and windowskin are also custom.
. This game uses the default battle system, with small edits mostly of looks, and of course the alchemy addition.

Credits:
. Enterbrain
. The Blender Foundation
. vgmusic
Beta-Testers
. Dfizzle
. Alpachix

Chapter 1 is probably about 1.5 hours long.

Download:
Download for Ancients Forgotten's been removed since I've released the much better Alchemy Arcanum. I suppose if you still want the Ancients Forgotten download, you can pm me, but I really don't think you would.
Copy and paste the included Handwriting font file into your C:/Windows/Fonts folder for the game to work!

Enjoy! :thumb:

 

[Æ№∞₧]

looks promising

Hi, please post more than just two words-- they don't help the topic at all and are considered spam/empty feedback. ~R

 

[Zergling2005]

Hello, I just finished the Chapter one demo.
7/10 my friend bravo. here is your critique.

##########SPOILER ALERT!#############
+Story is very captivating, I was really hooked on the bandits counter-story.
+Mapping is pretty good, 4 out of 5 stars on the mapping quality.
+Good use of events, I was never bored for the entire chapter.
+Excellent animation and custom effects, the portal really sells that last room.
+Materia/alchemy system is very cool :smile:
+Pre-emptive system is neat, i liked it.. untill it bit me back! (I got killed once lol)

-RTP tilesets.. hey you knew this was coming. (The custom tileset was great though)
-Sound effects and music are a little lack-luster compared to your gameplay
-Honestly, the boss was too easy I defeated it in 3 turns.

Overall, a great game! I will look forward to your next release of content.
Please keep up the great developing,
-Zerg

 

[Kain Nobel]

When I first saw this topic, I was thinking like this was a Final Fantasy VII spinoff. You want to know why?

First off, the title is called "Ancients Forgotten", which if you've ever played FFVII, then you'll know about Aeris being the last living "ancient" after her mother, Iflana, died. Aeris was the flower girl who joined your party and wound up getting killed at the end of disc 1 but I'm sure you might've known that... who doesn't anymore? lol

Secondly, the title screen... maybe there is slight differences, I'd have to visit that area of FFVII again, but overall it looks like the altar in "The Temple of Ancients" where you must use the keystone to access the labrynths beneath.

Anyways, after reading the story and stuff it doesn't appear like it has anything to do with VII, but I'd still recommend changing either the title or the title screen so it doesn't throw the fanboys off. This looks like it might be a pretty neat game, but there isn't really much to give feedback on until I check it out.

I've never could figure out how the hell to work Blender, it seemed like anything I did I was stuck rotating a box and couldn't do anything, but seeing how well your title screen turned out I might give it a try again.

Good luck with this project, if I have time I'll try it out and give you some feedback.

 

[WeebamNa]

@Zerg
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'll for sure make the boss a little harder; I certainly didn't want a boss that was too hard and kept people from completing it, so I took the chance at him being too easy.

Sorry about the RTP Tilesets, but I'm glad you liked the custom one! That makes me want to make another one. In chapter two, there will for sure be another, maybe more.

@Kain Nobel
Yeah... maybe that's why nobody has wanted to play this for so long, thinking it was a fan game. Actually, I had no idea what I wanted the title for a while, and had "History of the Peace" the title at first, after the book in the game, but that sounded too weak. :P

I'd never played FF7 until I was just completing this game. I was thinking of titles, and googling "Ancients Forgotten" yields several sites talking about the "City of the Ancients, Forgotten City," from FF7.

When I beat FF7, I was thinking how similar the title would sound, although the stories are completely different. They would have to be, since I'd never played FF7 or knew about its story when I was making this game, haha. :P

I don't think the title screen looks anything like the keystone altar place. The city of the ancients in FF7 is a very underwater/ocean/shell theme.

Update for next release
I plan to improve the characterization of several characters in Chapter one, mainly Graham. He doesn't really show a story or much of a personality, so that will change with the update.

Also, I'm in the process of drawing faces for every main character to show while their talking. I've tried a lot and finally have come close to pretty decent looking faces by drawing them in the GIMP.

In addition, the alchemy system will have been improved, and spells will level up the more you use them, much like they did in the SNES game Secret of Evermore (which you may or may not have heard of, since IMO, it's the most underrated game in history xD). This addition is already fully scripted and functioning, so it's ready to go. :thumb:

In chapter 2, there will be a more in-depth steal system, with enemies having a common item, and rare item that can be stolen, some with 3 or more perhaps. This hasn't been scripted yet, but should be an easy addition to the steal system already in place (which was barely able to be used in chapter 1, since you get the skill at the very end. :P)

As for when this will all come, I'm not sure if the updated chapter 1 would be enough to release on it's own, it might come with chapter 2... which might be a while. If a lot of people want it, I'll release it before chapter 2.

Thanks for the interest; this thread has been dead for too long. :grin:

 

[Dovydas]

ARGH.
For some reason, my computer can't install the font. It says it's being used by another person or program and thus I can't copy, but it's not opened, or such.

 

[Kyoru]

Based on the information given in the first post, the project looks decent.

But you didn't mention what kind of battle system you're using. Side-view? Turn-based?

 

[Kain Nobel]

I wasn't talking about the 'City of the Ancients' but rather the 'Temple of the Ancients' (that pyramid thing that turns into the black Materia.) Bah, whatever its off topic by now, this game sounds like it might be cool though so I'll have to check it out and give you some feedback later.

PS; Putting the font in the C:/Window/Font/ folder alone might not work. You might want to right-click the font and select "Install"... alternatively, I wrote an auto font installation script, you can PM me if you want a copy for your next project.

 

[WeebamNa]

The battle system is basically just the default, as the only changes are looks and the alchemy addition. I'll update the first post to include that.

 

[Sawnik]

I finished the first chapter, and it left me wanting more. Good work, keep at it!

 

[RPGKid64]

So far the game is okay from what I've played. I lol'd when I heard Illusion of Gaia and Super Mario RPG music in there.

 

[jackmcdonald5]

Man....I loved this! :biggrin:

Everything was how i like it,

* No random encounters but enemies that regenerate was a good chance to train.
* Finding the ingredients for alchemy made everyting more interactive and that little helpful glow was, well, helpful. Also there was enough ingredients scattered to take away the repetative chore element.
* I actually thought the mapping was pretty cool, i loved the custom tileset but then i don't have anything against the RTP either when used so skillfully. :grin:

I think i saw a few minor bugs but this was the biggest one:

Spoiler

Your right about the characters too, they require a depth of personality to make the player actually give a damn about them. But it's early days yet right? :grin:

Cool game and good luck with the next installment.

 

[WeebamNa]

Glad you liked it! I'll look into that bug.

The next installment will be... a tremendous improvement. I still have a lot of work to be do, but just to mention a few of the new stuff coming, there will be a custom active battle system with turn meters and cast times, all mapping will be improved, faces for important characters, alchemy that levels up with use, and a few sidequests.

If anyone is planning on playing this game sometime, I'd actually recommend waiting a month or so until I release version 1.1. Your patience will be well rewarded.

And those that have already beat chapter 1 here will be able to use their save for 1.1 to try out the battle system and to do the sidequests.

 

[ebhz.Ash.4rm]

Nice to know the works coming along, I look forward to the next part, found the first one very good.