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The room where you control the height of the water, you can pull a switch where it shows another room with a gate opening, but the gate is nowhere to be seen in the area, and when I go up to the staircase at the top left, it won't let me go anywhere. (The staircase in the doorway, where you enter the room.)
ok after doctor's review i figured that i'd give it a shot myself. note that i'm a bit more critical than he is. i tend to have very high standards.
i take notes as i play. so this will be in order. imagine me playing the game as i type this (which is indeed what i am doing!!)
the font is absolutely horrible. motw uses a comic font effectively because a lot of the game is reminiscent of comic books. but even then it's a HIGHLY READABLE comic font and uses a larger font size. your font is hard to read. i might have to change it if this keeps up.
the wait time after "get back here!!!" and before i get control is a bit too long. i thought the game froze for a second there. (actually never mind-- see later)
the hero sprite has amazing tits!
hey cool ACTUAL PUZZLES!!!
kauggish joined me physically but isn't in my party? i know, a lot of games do this and it always annoy me. look into caterpillar to show that he's with me but not WITH ME
pig photos on the walls are too bright/distracting. they look important- i keep thinking they're going to jump out and attack me. use more muted colors.
making me check the same door twice is bad game design. most players wouldn't do that unless they press a switch or something where the door would logically change. it seems almost like some cheap trick to make the area more "puzzle"ing
on the other side, the explosion looked very nice. it's rare to see actual DEBRIS in an rpgmaker game, and you did a good job making that.
after Jenkins' (horrrrible name man, for multiple reasons) first line, the game stalled again for a second. I added a note above. It's not the wait, it's the music. it takes a moment to load. the song isn't particulaly fantastic either... maybe make a MIDI version? i doubt much would be lost for this particular song.
how did they get hauggish in the jail cell? weren't they all locked just a moment ago?
try checking the door north of the explosion. Thompson's line is cut off by the message box.
battle time. the battle seems a bit OFF. the graphical reasons are obvious (should be obvious, at least), but the general feel of the battle as well doesn't seem very...action-packed. it would also be nice for thompson's bomb skill to damage all combatants (either all enemies or all COMBATANTS including allies) (okay, adding this bit later-- but i see he gets another skill that does this). it would make sense considering the whole "CLEAR *run behind cover* thing.
after the battle everyone just DISAPPEARS. seems a bit lazy. the enenmies could fade or go out with an animation, and the characters could have walked into dejack's sprite. it's little details like these that would really make a game stand out.
There's a message error if you check the bookcase. "/TomHahaha!"
same thing here after the other battle. they just DISAPPEAR. it looks very sloppy.
I like the heal box being a medical supplies cabinet on the wall. it's a little touch but it's infinitely more interesting than a magical circle conveniently placed on the floor.
The hog crap dialogue on the bridge is cute. Reminds me of the conversations in MOTW (motw comparisons are inevitable, it's currently the best rmxp game there is and yours looks like it's competing for that title). Little side conversations like these help show the characters personalities. I like them (and it's true, if a bunch of soldiers were waling above a mssive pit of crap, they'd comment on it).
the flashback with the axe swing was FANTASTIC. i hope there are more like that. that kind of detail (the animation), if used more often (maybe like when thompson sets bombs and in other places), would really make this game shine.
as usual, after the next fight the pigs just disappear. at least the good guys don't either this time.
Oh good, Jenkins leaves. That makes me a bit happy because he has absolutely no personality and not much of a specific role in battle. In fact i'm going to use this moment to take a little aside and make some suggestions.
your battles are BORING. incredibly so, and it's bogging down what so far has been a wonderfully above-average rpg maker game. my big suggestion here would be to give your characters little battle quirks. you have some in the form of little themes, but it's not enough to make this really stand out. dejack, for example, is the main character, but he has absolutely nothing going for him. he has one tech skill (one that jenkins even shares) and not much else. jenkins is equally boring (i didn't use "punch" a single time). thompson and cunningham have themes to their skills, but it's rather generic. think about spicing them up. for example, maybe thompson has an inventory of bombs, and when he uses his special skills he loses a bomb item, rather than skill points. then you could have bombs scattered around as an item to replenish his supply. little things like that not only add realism to the battle system, but they make it more interactive (ie. you're focusing on more than just button-mashing). i would very much like to see an updated version of this game with an improved battle system that gives characters individual battle personalities.
but who knows? maybe it gets better as it goes on. but remember that the first introduction with the game's battle system is important. first impressions matter a lot.and my first impression wasn't that great.
back to the game.
i love all the little bits of RACISM in here. our main heroes are continuosly just rude to the villains using their race as an insult (including all the tubby and fatty jokes). i hope that this extends a bit more in the story as it goes on, and the hogs are eventually handled in a more humane way. otherwise all these things would just go ignored and wouldn't be recognized as character flaws within the humans.
What does "tactics" do? This was a big criticism of mine of motw. your skill descriptions say physically what the skill is (ie. talk tactics) but doesn't say what it ACTUALLY DOES in battle
this battle with the hog captain seems to go on FOREVER
yay backtracking!! i think i might be the only person in the world who actually LIKES backtracking. maybe it's because i like metroid
the little music scene with the prisoner transporting was cool. yay bonus features!!!!
MAGICAL ORB AND DARK LORD ZAGOLTH man this whole scene is beginning to kill the game for me. i'll hope for the best and trudge through it though. the music hurts my ears a bit too, i had to turn it down.
soon helped by the maginificent ship sequence. i think that some splinters and debris during the SLICING would have made this better, but this was well done. especially the part where they are loeading up the miniboats when the larger ship is burning.
but then of course it has to say THE LEGACY OF ZAGOLTH in giant red letters and remind me of the bullshit jrpg evil wizard story
a little over a year ago and they're kids now.. what? Did that say fourteen MONTHS or fourteen YEARS. i swear it said months but maybe my eyes were decieving me. i'll assume it was years. his class also still considers him to be an ARMY VETERAN
OH GOD
OH GOD
you're a fucking brit. ELEVENSES
don't use words like "elevenses" you are lucky that i know that that means because a british friend of mine explained it to me. but you're alienating a LOT of players who wouldn't know what that means. it would only confuse the hell out of them.
ugh. the entire game just stopped being interesting with this whole flasback bit. it seems like your everyday generic rpgmaker garbage now. you were doing REALLY GOOD up until now. and from the journal's LIST OF BORING MUNDANE TASKS IN BORING MUNDANE RPGMAKER TOWN it looks like it might be this way for a while.
i'm going to close the game and take a break. please tell me that it picks up again SOON, because if not then i have no reason to go back to it.
i take notes as i play. so this will be in order. imagine me playing the game as i type this (which is indeed what i am doing!!)
the font is absolutely horrible. motw uses a comic font effectively because a lot of the game is reminiscent of comic books. but even then it's a HIGHLY READABLE comic font and uses a larger font size. your font is hard to read. i might have to change it if this keeps up.
the wait time after "get back here!!!" and before i get control is a bit too long. i thought the game froze for a second there. (actually never mind-- see later)
the hero sprite has amazing tits!
hey cool ACTUAL PUZZLES!!!
kauggish joined me physically but isn't in my party? i know, a lot of games do this and it always annoy me. look into caterpillar to show that he's with me but not WITH ME
pig photos on the walls are too bright/distracting. they look important- i keep thinking they're going to jump out and attack me. use more muted colors.
making me check the same door twice is bad game design. most players wouldn't do that unless they press a switch or something where the door would logically change. it seems almost like some cheap trick to make the area more "puzzle"ing
on the other side, the explosion looked very nice. it's rare to see actual DEBRIS in an rpgmaker game, and you did a good job making that.
after Jenkins' (horrrrible name man, for multiple reasons) first line, the game stalled again for a second. I added a note above. It's not the wait, it's the music. it takes a moment to load. the song isn't particulaly fantastic either... maybe make a MIDI version? i doubt much would be lost for this particular song.
how did they get hauggish in the jail cell? weren't they all locked just a moment ago?
try checking the door north of the explosion. Thompson's line is cut off by the message box.
battle time. the battle seems a bit OFF. the graphical reasons are obvious (should be obvious, at least), but the general feel of the battle as well doesn't seem very...action-packed. it would also be nice for thompson's bomb skill to damage all combatants (either all enemies or all COMBATANTS including allies) (okay, adding this bit later-- but i see he gets another skill that does this). it would make sense considering the whole "CLEAR *run behind cover* thing.
after the battle everyone just DISAPPEARS. seems a bit lazy. the enenmies could fade or go out with an animation, and the characters could have walked into dejack's sprite. it's little details like these that would really make a game stand out.
There's a message error if you check the bookcase. "/TomHahaha!"
same thing here after the other battle. they just DISAPPEAR. it looks very sloppy.
I like the heal box being a medical supplies cabinet on the wall. it's a little touch but it's infinitely more interesting than a magical circle conveniently placed on the floor.
The hog crap dialogue on the bridge is cute. Reminds me of the conversations in MOTW (motw comparisons are inevitable, it's currently the best rmxp game there is and yours looks like it's competing for that title). Little side conversations like these help show the characters personalities. I like them (and it's true, if a bunch of soldiers were waling above a mssive pit of crap, they'd comment on it).
the flashback with the axe swing was FANTASTIC. i hope there are more like that. that kind of detail (the animation), if used more often (maybe like when thompson sets bombs and in other places), would really make this game shine.
as usual, after the next fight the pigs just disappear. at least the good guys don't either this time.
Oh good, Jenkins leaves. That makes me a bit happy because he has absolutely no personality and not much of a specific role in battle. In fact i'm going to use this moment to take a little aside and make some suggestions.
your battles are BORING. incredibly so, and it's bogging down what so far has been a wonderfully above-average rpg maker game. my big suggestion here would be to give your characters little battle quirks. you have some in the form of little themes, but it's not enough to make this really stand out. dejack, for example, is the main character, but he has absolutely nothing going for him. he has one tech skill (one that jenkins even shares) and not much else. jenkins is equally boring (i didn't use "punch" a single time). thompson and cunningham have themes to their skills, but it's rather generic. think about spicing them up. for example, maybe thompson has an inventory of bombs, and when he uses his special skills he loses a bomb item, rather than skill points. then you could have bombs scattered around as an item to replenish his supply. little things like that not only add realism to the battle system, but they make it more interactive (ie. you're focusing on more than just button-mashing). i would very much like to see an updated version of this game with an improved battle system that gives characters individual battle personalities.
but who knows? maybe it gets better as it goes on. but remember that the first introduction with the game's battle system is important. first impressions matter a lot.and my first impression wasn't that great.
back to the game.
i love all the little bits of RACISM in here. our main heroes are continuosly just rude to the villains using their race as an insult (including all the tubby and fatty jokes). i hope that this extends a bit more in the story as it goes on, and the hogs are eventually handled in a more humane way. otherwise all these things would just go ignored and wouldn't be recognized as character flaws within the humans.
What does "tactics" do? This was a big criticism of mine of motw. your skill descriptions say physically what the skill is (ie. talk tactics) but doesn't say what it ACTUALLY DOES in battle
this battle with the hog captain seems to go on FOREVER
yay backtracking!! i think i might be the only person in the world who actually LIKES backtracking. maybe it's because i like metroid
the little music scene with the prisoner transporting was cool. yay bonus features!!!!
MAGICAL ORB AND DARK LORD ZAGOLTH man this whole scene is beginning to kill the game for me. i'll hope for the best and trudge through it though. the music hurts my ears a bit too, i had to turn it down.
soon helped by the maginificent ship sequence. i think that some splinters and debris during the SLICING would have made this better, but this was well done. especially the part where they are loeading up the miniboats when the larger ship is burning.
but then of course it has to say THE LEGACY OF ZAGOLTH in giant red letters and remind me of the bullshit jrpg evil wizard story
a little over a year ago and they're kids now.. what? Did that say fourteen MONTHS or fourteen YEARS. i swear it said months but maybe my eyes were decieving me. i'll assume it was years. his class also still considers him to be an ARMY VETERAN
OH GOD
OH GOD
you're a fucking brit. ELEVENSES
don't use words like "elevenses" you are lucky that i know that that means because a british friend of mine explained it to me. but you're alienating a LOT of players who wouldn't know what that means. it would only confuse the hell out of them.
ugh. the entire game just stopped being interesting with this whole flasback bit. it seems like your everyday generic rpgmaker garbage now. you were doing REALLY GOOD up until now. and from the journal's LIST OF BORING MUNDANE TASKS IN BORING MUNDANE RPGMAKER TOWN it looks like it might be this way for a while.
i'm going to close the game and take a break. please tell me that it picks up again SOON, because if not then i have no reason to go back to it.
Hrmm. I know, I know... But I came up with the storyline for this game a looong time ago, and I'm in far too deep to change it. Maybe I should change it from an orb...
And don't worry. There's one more scene with the backstory, and then it comes back to the present with the second dungeon.
And yes I am a brit. Is that a problem? IS IT? HUH?! HUH?! :P
And don't worry. There's one more scene with the backstory, and then it comes back to the present with the second dungeon.
And yes I am a brit. Is that a problem? IS IT? HUH?! HUH?! :P
Des, you can't review a game unless you've played it entirely, no matter how godawful it can be (I played through Phylomortis, for god's sake!) That kind of players who just go "I played for five minutes but I decided it sucks so I'm sure the rest sucks so I won't play kthanks" Makes me want to stab you with scissors (I'm incidentally holding scissors right now). Are you planning on playing the rest?
Bruno: Despain did raise some good points, you could try and fix some of his nitpicks, like the message box thingies, or skill description (I actually had a note about that, but I lost the post-it I wrote it on). But don't listen to him too much, he's biaised against everything.
Bruno: Despain did raise some good points, you could try and fix some of his nitpicks, like the message box thingies, or skill description (I actually had a note about that, but I lost the post-it I wrote it on). But don't listen to him too much, he's biaised against everything.
Doctor":1xybg2xe said:
it's not a review. it's my notes. and it's not my fault i the game suddenly gets BORING. if i don't want to keep playing a game, it's the fault of the game's creator.
never EVER tell someone to IGNORE FEEDBACK. you're preventing this game from being the best it can be.
forgive me for actually being CRITICAL OF FLAWS
The story is flawed from your perspective. On my end, I found nothing wrong with the story so far.
It's like if I went to MotW saying "Your story involves trashing walmart, that's wrong. It's flawed, change it now or else EVERYONE is going to hate it".
Geez, I know that anything slightly reminiscent of Jrpgs aren't your cup of tea, but don't ask him to change his entire concept because you don't happen to like it. It's just impossible to please everyone.
It's like if I went to MotW saying "Your story involves trashing walmart, that's wrong. It's flawed, change it now or else EVERYONE is going to hate it".
Geez, I know that anything slightly reminiscent of Jrpgs aren't your cup of tea, but don't ask him to change his entire concept because you don't happen to like it. It's just impossible to please everyone.
If you don't want to play it, that's fine, I guess. I suppose this game just isn't for you. Can't please everyone, and I'm sorry you feel like that. I just think it's a shame since this game has a lot of other things to offer.
And I am using your notes, Despain. They are very helpful and I am addressing the issues you had. Thanks for your feedback.
@Artbane: Thanks. You know, if itwasn't for MotW, I never would have got off my ass to make this.
EDIT: I've read your notes, Des, but here are my comments, just so you know I've read them.
I am a little confused, though Why is Jenkins such a bad name? I thought it was a classic army name, which is what the character is about. I'm surprised noone has shot me down yet for using cliche army names like Jenkins, Thompson and Harrison.
As for the sharing skills thing, I think it's probably backfired on me. I thought that since they were all trained together they would all share skills. But adding more personality to their skills couldn't hurt.
For the record, punch stuns an enemy, which is something noone else in the party can do.
And I guess you didn't unlock Thompson's "Bear trap" skill, either. I'll just say what it does here. He lays it down and in a random number of turns later, a random enemy will step onto it and begin to bleed.
For the record, Tactics increases your hit rate, agility, and attack.
Also, Swordsman's step (a skill Dejack learns) increases agility and evasion.
And yes, I was a bit worried about the bit with the kids. I wanted to demonstrate that Zack and Dejack had grown up together as children.
And I am using your notes, Despain. They are very helpful and I am addressing the issues you had. Thanks for your feedback.
@Artbane: Thanks. You know, if itwasn't for MotW, I never would have got off my ass to make this.
EDIT: I've read your notes, Des, but here are my comments, just so you know I've read them.
When I first chose the font, I thought it was fine, but my beta-testers disagreed. I decided not to change it, since if I did, the widths of the words would be differed and I would have to spend hours and hours going through every single message to check that all the words fitted in the windows. I may have to do this if anyone else has this problem.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
Yeah... I tired to fix that but it didn't work, did it? I'll change the body to another army-ish body.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
I did consider having him in the party, but since he's only there for 5 minutes or so, and you don't fight anyone with him or anything I thought it was pointless. Furthermore, if he was in the party, that may suggest to the player that they have come to some kind of agreement or something, since they are now officially on the same 'team' as it were.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
I thought I had, but if you think so I'll tune them down a bit more.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
Yes, other players have reported that. I will fix that for the next version.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
Okay, sure.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
I am a little confused, though Why is Jenkins such a bad name? I thought it was a classic army name, which is what the character is about. I'm surprised noone has shot me down yet for using cliche army names like Jenkins, Thompson and Harrison.
A wizard did it. (Seriously, I'll put some keys on the wall or something for the next version)fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
Fixed.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
I see what you mean, but I think that this would take too much effort to use the skill therefore and just be a hassle to the player. Especially considering the upcoming boss fight.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
Also fixed.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
I can do that, sure.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
Thanks. It's one theme of the game that Dejack doesn't know any magic at all, instead using the skills he learnt in the army.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
On par with MotW? Now you're being silly. Thanks, though.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
Yes, I can do that. I guess it's down to me wanting to get this game out as soon as possible that made me not do this.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
I like your thinking. My one concern is that in the database I've used up most of my top number of items, so that the player has to continually scroll down to use a regular skill they'd be using often.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
As for the sharing skills thing, I think it's probably backfired on me. I thought that since they were all trained together they would all share skills. But adding more personality to their skills couldn't hurt.
For the record, punch stuns an enemy, which is something noone else in the party can do.
And I guess you didn't unlock Thompson's "Bear trap" skill, either. I'll just say what it does here. He lays it down and in a random number of turns later, a random enemy will step onto it and begin to bleed.
Yes, that is intentional. I'm glad someone picked up on this, actually. Why do you think Kauggish is so pissed off?fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
That's a good point actually. I'll fix that for the next release.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
For the record, Tactics increases your hit rate, agility, and attack.
Also, Swordsman's step (a skill Dejack learns) increases agility and evasion.
You think? I suppose I should lower his health then.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
We've discussed this.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
I considered that but didn't know how to implement it properly, since I'm no good at small detailed sprites. I'll give it another go.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
When I read this, I was confused a bit, since it was supposed to read Handyman. But I checked it and yes, you're right. I have fixed that now.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
And yes, I was a bit worried about the bit with the kids. I wanted to demonstrate that Zack and Dejack had grown up together as children.
Well, I don't think it's aleinating. Since it's only one word in the ENTIRE game, I don't think it's really THAT big of an issue.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said:
This section doesn't last that long in retrospect. When making it, I imagined it as a sort of cutscene while doing taks in between, like Quintesssence.fffrrggwwwwwtttttt":1ne2atd4 said: