Crossing - Chapter Two Released!

[Xephyr]

Crossing

Crossing is an original game made by Xephyr. This is probably his "ultimate" project, culminating almost 10 years of experience with the program (heh...amazing to think that I was only 9 years old when I started messing around with RPG Maker) into a complete, enthralling gaming experience. Once this is completed, he plans on discontinuing use with the program forever. He figures that if he bought the programs...he'd better complete a project at some point.

Story
Crossing follows young Lucas Syles, a troublemaker but a kind-hearted man with good intentions. He is quite poor and lacks drive, and lives on scavenging for food and scraping by. One day, however, he is forced into events he never dreamed of.

What is the secret behind Skye Corps, the company that suddenly and mysteriously releases the incredibly revolutionary Tablet, a small pill that, once taken, grants you the ability to use the Magical abilities advertised on the pill?

What is the secret behind Clara Cestus, the girl that lives alone in the woods and will go to great lengths to retrieve her priceless diamond ring?

What is the secret of the mysterious Crossing ritual, one that is only completed once every 99 years, and is happening this year?

Who is the cloaked man, who seems hell-bent on making the lives of our main characters absolutely miserable?

How are all these events connected? What is Lucas's involvement in all of them? Find out by playing my game.

Screenshots
Prologue:

Spoiler

Chapter One:

Spoiler

Chapter Two:

Spoiler

[img=http://i45.tinypic.com/2s80i8w.png]
[img=http://i46.tinypic.com/34pxsg4.png]
[img=http://i46.tinypic.com/1zqy4k7.png]
[img=http://i46.tinypic.com/141pgyf.png]
[img=http://i45.tinypic.com/14j2tsk.png]
[img=http://i49.tinypic.com/svorxt.png]
[img=http://i48.tinypic.com/t50fma.png]
[img=http://i45.tinypic.com/dq3nes.png]
[img=http://i45.tinypic.com/erhaio.png]
[img=http://i50.tinypic.com/e7e0aq.png]

About the Game
Some of you may be turned off by this, but I do not care about mapping. I simply don't. My mapping is pretty decent simply because of my extensive history with this program, but it is by no means great or even good. There are some projects here with gorgeous parallax maps and lighting effects...this just is not my thing. I'm looking to finish this project, not get an hour into it and stop because making each map takes me a week.

With that said, I focus heavily on story and making gameplay interesting. You may encounter fairly extended periods of dialogue and no battles; if you do not like this, you will not like my game very much. I have a passion for crafting dungeons, however, and my extreme skill with events allows me to make some sweet stuff. I love puzzles, and you will definitely encounter puzzles in this game.

On the battling side, I certainly enjoy my games to have strategy. This game is quite unique in that probably every one of your characters will have access to every single element in my game's world. Because of this, there's a pretty strong emphasis on attacking enemy's weaknesses (this point is really driven home in the first real dungeon, which is present in the game's current demo).

So, to conclude, if you enjoy an intriguing story with well-written, intelligent dialogue, interesting puzzles, and battles that emphasize strategy, you will enjoy this game.

Credits
Yanfly Engine Ace - Ace Battle Engine
Word Wrapping Message Boxes, by: KilloZapit
Unchange Map to Battle BGM made by: Chicheater
XS - Popup Item Author: Nicke
PAC Main Menu Ace (1.2) by Pacman
Tilesets found in the Gallery; by Dinga M
Music by Aaron Krogh (http://www.rpgmakerv...commercial-use/)


Download
CHAPTER TWO IS NOW RELEASED

Click Here for the Download

Your save files from Chapter One will work. Also, if you have a save file from the Prologue or just wish to start from the beginning, that is all fine too and will work perfectly!

This game is now up to ~3 to 3 and a half hours play-time.

Be sure to keep your save file for when subsequent chapters are released!

Thank you for your time!

 

[Xhukari]

Is it wrong that the red plants in the first screenshot made me think of vileplume? xD

---
Why do you switch from third and first person in your first paragraph?
The 'story' you listed (which is more of a rhetorical question of each character) is lacking a bit in terms of hooks I think :p

And your 'About the Game' part is also a mess. You open with saying you do not care for an important part of RPG creation because it involves effort, and then go on to be pretty arrogant of your skills in the other areas.

You do understand the purpose of threads like these is to encourage and convince people to play your game? All you've done is left me uninterested.

 

[Xephyr]

Is it wrong that the red plants in the first screenshot made me think of vileplume? xD

Absolutely not. It looks quite a bit like Vileplume lol

Why do you switch from third and first person in your first paragraph?

I don't know. To make it more dramatic.

The 'story' you listed (which is more of a rhetorical question of each character) is lacking a bit in terms of hooks I think :p

If you say so. I hate opening a thread for a game and having a six paragraph essay describing endless amounts of lore. I'd rather there just be something brief, vague, and interesting enough to make me want to experience the story IN the game.

And your 'About the Game' part is also a mess. You open with saying you do not care for an important part of RPG creation because it involves effort, and then go on to be pretty arrogant of your skills in the other areas.

You do understand the purpose of threads like these is to encourage and convince people to play your game? All you've done is left me uninterested.

I'm being blatant and up-front with people. I'm not going to sugarcoat things. I don't care about mapping much. My maps are still pretty decent in the grand scheme of things, but I'm not making gorgeous maps because I'll never finish the project if I do.

I'm arrogant with my skills in other areas because I'm simply great at them and I know what my skills are >_> A very wise RPG Maker named VOLRATH (go play Master of the Wind to find out about this guy) once told me that I should focus on what I'm good at and flaunt it to make my game as good as possible in that area. Since I'm average at best at everything else, I just have to deal with it.

If this thread does not draw you in, you will not like my game. It's as simple as that. There's not much more I could say to convince you of that. It may seem like my "About the Game" section is being a strong combination of ignorant and arrogant, but that's just the facts of the situation and it's letting people know what to expect if they play my game. And what they should expect is a good story, cool dungeons and gameplay, and pretty generic mapping. If you like that, you'll enjoy it.

 

[decanos78]

Oddly.. ur mapping reminds me of a cross between two snes games - "terranigma" and "final fantasy - mystic quest".. I have to be honest though .. not much of a fan of rmvx character graphics, it reminds me too much
of pokemon, which I HATE! lol
your mapping IS pretty basic but I totally agree with you, if your tallent lays in story telling then mapping is
not really an issue, the key to a good game is being able to pull in the player, and the key to that is a good solid story, which seems to be what you are aiming for.
goodluck with this project, hopefully it will get a full release, at to which end I will probably give it a go just
to see exactly how good your story telling really is ^.^

 

[MarioSuperStar]

I really was enjoying it, but this weird bug came out. In the cave, when I pushed a boulder against another, which resulted in none of them moving, the game freezes. I'd suggest that in the Move Route of the boulder you should put Skip if impassable(I can't remember which is the name) on.

 

[Xephyr]

I really was enjoying it, but this weird bug came out. In the cave, when I pushed a boulder against another, which resulted in none of them moving, the game freezes. I'd suggest that in the Move Route of the boulder you should put Skip if impassable(I can't remember which is the name) on.

Ohhh geez, wow. Yeah, sorry about that, I didn't check "skip if can't move". I'm a moron >_<. It's fixed now though, for future releases!

I hope this bug didn't set you back too much. Another bug you should be aware of: when you're in town, after a certain fight with a lot of bees...don't go back to your house to try and heal up in the bed. That is also fixed at this point.

Chapter One is finished and is being beta tested now, so that will be released soon and hopefully be completely bug free!

 

[MarioSuperStar]

Somehow, even with the use of RTP and the default battle system, it felt really unique to me, or at least entertaining for the time I played. Congratulations.

 

[Xephyr]

Well thanks! I definitely like to think I have a pretty good and unique product here, and most sentiments so far have agreed with me!

Expect more of the same as the next few chapters release. I'm making pretty good progress so releases should be rather frequent.

 

[Xephyr]

CHAPTER ONE IS RELEASED

http://www.mediafire.com/?n2h7wc7u3jb69iv

After a lot of struggling, I made it so your save files from the Prologue WILL WORK. And, if you haven't played through the Prologue yet, that's perfectly okay! You can start from the beginning!

Chapter One includes at least an HOUR of new gameplay, featuring fascinating story elements, lots of great gameplay segments, and some extreme excitement! If you enjoyed the Prologue of Crossing, you will LOVE Chapter One!

Please leave me any feedback you can think of. Enjoy!

If you want to see what you're getting into, here's a bunch of Chapter One screenshots:

Check 'em, dawg!:

Spoiler

 

[decanos78]

Why do you switch from third and first person in your first paragraph?
quote]

LOL i was thinking the exact same thing.. :P

 

[Maneo]

Good game. Looking forward to seeing more of this.

I got to the part where you have to avoid fireballs, that was tricky.

 

[Fanatik007]

link on mediafire is dead, ca u re-upload pls

 

[Xephyr]

link on mediafire is dead, ca u re-upload pls

The link was broken because I forgot to update this thread. I now have Chapter Two finished!

Link:

Click Here for the Download

 

[Bladezuez]

just downloaded this game and am gonna give it a try. seems to be an interesting one.

 

[Xephyr]

just downloaded this game and am gonna give it a try. seems to be an interesting one.

And how'd that go? :P