E.M.P.I.R.E. (Slightly Revised Version)

[seven]

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/240/disccasecoverfinaltz7.th.png[/img]
Credit to Cyrtii for the title. Please let me know how to improve, it's why I posted it! :lol: Yes, it's a rather simplistic VX game, but it's a great learning experience, and I, at the moment, am having a lot of fun with it, so I hope you do too.

Spoiler: E.M.P.I.R.E. Introduction

  At first, E.M.P.I.R.E. was just a small organization known as Electric in the city of Megaron in the northern Mainland, which conducted experiiments for new kinds of energy sources. Soon, it had created many labor saving devices, which helped the growth of the city. Realizing that Electric was of use to him, the king gave it all the resources it needed to conduct experiments. The city of Megaron was in a time of prosperity, all was peaceful. That was, until the royal heir took the throne. Believing rumors that neighboring cities were plotting against them and finding Electric's studies nothing more than trivial, he order Electric to instead begin creating war weapons, to aid and fortify the city. Electric began the research, and the results were unbelievable. Soon, Electric rose to power that rivaled even the king's, and by the time he could call them off, Electric had taken control. They could build a modernized utopia. So with their war weapons, and a little help from the royal treasury, they conquered the surrounding cities. Soon, the only other civilization was the southern city of Paleglow, and a small rebellion against Megaron and Electric, now known as E.M.P.I.R.E.

Spoiler: Story

  Two E.M.P.I.R.E. fugitives, Mick Romnoff and Gordon Zigfried, were in a difficult situation. After Gordon helped Mick escape prison, one of the most elite troops in the E.M.P.I.R.E. military soon was after them, and were led right to the location of the rebellion's base. With Gordon captured, it's up to Mick Romnoff and a helpful yet clearly insane man to finish the mess they started before the information gets out and E.M.P.I.R.E. finally silences the rebellion.

Spoiler: Characters

Mick Romnoff:
  A beggar in the slums of E.M.P.I.R.E., the patrol knocked him out and jailed him without a word. After being freed by Gordon Zigfried, Mick attempts escape to start a new life in the rebellion. What he lacks in education he makes up for in skill and determination.
Gordon Zigfried:
  His past unknown, he breaks Mick out of jail, saying that Mick has something they want, and he wasn't going to let them have it, and helps lead Mick to the rebellion. He claims that his loved ones were killed in the ongoing takeover, and he promises to return the favor.
Crimson Eagle:
  Though clearly not right in the head, he comes to Romnoff's aid at the most unpredictable of times. He says he is a knight under the kingdom of the Crimson Cross (which no one appears to be familiar with), acts like a cheesy superhero with a general feeling for justice, and thinks he can fly.
Lieutenant Dragoon:
  His strategy and knowledge are rivaled only by his fighting skills. Though General Swizz may be a higher ranking officer, the lieutenant has influence on him, and is esentially the miliatary's driving force.
General Swizz:
  General of the E.M.P.I.R.E. miliatary, Swizz fights fairly for the city of Megaron. Though a fair leader, Dragoon makes most of his decisions for him.
Drakel Nixon:
  Though skilled in combat, his twisted ways of thinking can make even his fellow troops cringe at the thought of him. He is skilled with a knife but will resort to his fists if neccesary.

Spoiler: Features

• 8 directional movement system gives a more realistic feeling, while at the same time allowing you to get you where you want to go.
• No random encounters. There will be enemies that will have you go into battle on the map in Parts 2 and 3, but there are only story related battles in Part 1.
• No grinding. While I know that many people may consider this bad, I found that if people got through the battles in a breeze, it would simply make the game too boring.
• Other stuff that isn't really worth mentioning. :tongue:

Spoiler: Screenshots

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/7730/titlescreenxp1.th.png[/img]
Title screen.
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/1803/toobadforthatguygb2.th.png[/img]
A small jungle south of E.M.P.I.R.E.
http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/9730/ohnoestrapsfu6.th.png[/img]
A simplistic puzzle.
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/7282/totherescuett1.th.png[/img]
Crimson Eagle to the rescue!
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/9089/worldmapil2.th.png[/img]
World map, complete with cheesy theme song

Spoiler: Demo

Download demo here:
Demo
Check to make sure you have the font "Forte" installed on your computer:
http://files.filefront.com/FORTETTF/;11120390;/fil

NEW! Slightly Revised Version:
Dowload

Please note that everything here is subject to change.

 

[MukanshinBlack]

Game looks interesting.  Was going to give it a short review but the site to download the demo isn't working.  :/

 

[Mirku]

Yea the demo link doesn't seem to work, could you upload it to mediafire or something else that works?
The game itself seems interesting enough.

 

[seven]

Sorry about that!
Link fixed.

 

[MukanshinBlack]

http://www.mediafire.com/?1bzx0xvxzyi

The download demo has a [/url thing at the end which makes it not work so here is the link to make everyone's life easier.  (KoRP, fix the DL link.  :/ )

 

[seven]

Fixed. Sorry about that.

 

[English Ninja]

Tch.

Spoiler

I've defeated Overlord Doomsday, and received a Medal of Honour from King Greedyhands.

Then the scene changes, and the game spits out an error about not being able to find the 'evil castle parallax' and crashes.

Frustrating, since my last save was inside Mt. Horrid, before the multiple fight with Doomsday.

 

[seven]

Oh gay, I've been having that problem for a while now. :pissed:
Anything from the XP rtp I put in the parallaxes folder seems to be randomly deleted. I'll upload a fixed version, though all that's after that is another cutscene and the credits.
I'm very sorry for the inconvenience. :sad:
Errors aside, how was the demo?
Edit: The problem should be fixed now.

 

[MukanshinBlack]

I played most of the demo and had to stop, but I'll say what I thought of it. 
WARNING:  Some spoilers about the game below.

Cutscenes and Dialogue:  The dialogue was okay, although most of it could have been better written.  There weren't any BIG grammatical errors, but there were plenty of small ones.  I may be alone in this, but dialogue during battle is annoying as hell.  Especially in a front-view battle.  It's even more annoying if there's too much talking, like in the first fight of the game.  >,>  Some of the cutscenes, like the first ones, had a nice atmosphere to it, and the characters acted alive-ish.  It sucked that we couldn't control the character at all during them though, as they were long with too much talking.  I'd have liked it better if when the gaurds were looking for me during one of the first cutscenes, I'd have to move fast and whatnot but there was none of that.  Despite some of the dialogue being comical and entertaining, there was too much in my opinion, and I found myself just clicking through it all trying to get it over with.

Mapping and Eventing:  The mapping was bad.  At some points it was decent though.  Generate dungeon = no-no.  That rock-cave-maze was annoying and boring as hell (I'm exaggerating.  It wasn't too bad.).  The eventing was fine; no errors and such.

Story and Characters:  Story is original and nice, E.M.P.I.R.E. taking over and whatnot.  I don't understand the plot though, like how this rag-tag group of 2 men are going to overcome an all-powerful empire.  The main character, Mick, is extremely plain and senseless.  A begger turned rebel hero?  Crimson Eagle is okay, to say the least.  He's actually got a past and personality unlike Mick.  Him being amnesiatic (don't know if I spelled that right) is very cliche'.  I'd say you need to work a lot more on the story and Mick.

Features and Gameplay/layout:  Very basic, very RTP, and very typical RPG.  It's pretty well-made for being one of your first RPGs (assuming that since you said you're learning a lot from this game).  Things that you should look out to better:  make the dialogue scenes shorter if not give player something to do other then read; front-view battle system is a bore so making it more exciting or replacing it may do good; patching up the story giving it more direction and giving Mick an actual background; reading up on and practicing more on VX mapping; and overall doing something to make your game not just a "typical" RPG.

The game was enjoyable, but has room for improvement.  Best of luck KoRP.

 

[seven]

Thanks, Mukashin, for your thoughts.
  I'd have to agree that Mick isn't very fleshed out, I've tried my best to make him feel human, but to no avail. So if you have any ideas on how to make him more human-ish, or stop the super-hero-transformation-kapow feel, let me know, I'm trying to keep an open-mind about it. ^_^ As for the amnesia thing, it was actually one of my goals in the project:
-Improve upon overused plot points
-Put grim and comedic characters alike in light-hearted situations as well as deeply serious scenes
-Have a remotely interesting plot
I guess I liked him better than the main character something, I don't know. Either way, I'll work on it. Grammatical errors? It might help if you point out some, I can't seem to find any. (Not saying my grammar is perfect, it just isn't apparent to me)
   The mapping was kind of rushed, wasn't it? It's never really been my specialty, but I might do some sort of revamp later on. I know what you mean about the dungeon generator... ick.
   Long dialouge was tedious in the first battle. If this is a reccuring issue, I'll just shorten it down. It's true that there was a lack of gameplay, I think I may have put a bit too much focus on the story. I will try to improve this in the near future, as I know many who enjoy gameplay much more than story.
Thanks again for posting you're opinions! I'll certainly take your ideas into consideration. :smile: Just curious, what part of the demo did you get to?

 

[MukanshinBlack]

I got up to the part where Mick talks to the king and tells him to look out the window or something, then had to abruptly leave.

Maybe if you say Mick was part of Electric but left because they got power-hungry and became a begger, that'd give him a real past.  Also we could say that he's going againest E.M.P.I.R.E. by joining the rebellion because he didn't try to go againest them before, so he's making up for it.  Reason for a character's actions give him life, most times.  Also making the protagonist have some type of past relationship, good or bad, with his antagonist it comes out better.  (Even if he was just a janitor for Electric, that's good enough.  It would also tie in with your comidic characters and light-hearted story.)

The grammatical errors...  First battle: "As you are clearly not citizensof E.M.P.I.R.E., I have the right to dispose ofyou two. As stated in the code of honor,Section Q, Subsection 12, you are "
Lack of spaces count as a grammatical error, right?

Story is a great thing to focus on but if focusing on it will make the game too boring, few will continue through the game.  Also, don't forget it's a game so gameplay is always greater then story.  If we want a story, we'll read a book. :P

EDIT:  If you can't spell Mukanshin, just call me Black. -_-

 

[seven]

-That certainly gives me some ideas. I'll tool around with it a bit.
-Oops. ^_^ Can't believe I didn't notice that. Fixed, I'll upload a new version later.
-Definately. As I said, I'll try to improve the actual gameplay.
-Sorry for misspelling your name! I'll look out for that in the future.

 

[MukanshinBlack]

Okay.  Best of luck on your game.  Will be waiting for the upgraded version. ^_^

 

[Nickster]

i got to the first town and couldnt move foreward. trying to move on past the bridge he just says something about the resistance. (had the game even mentioned the resistance before then? seems kinda odd.) I talked to everyone in the town, saved the girl with her cat, still nothing. am i missing something? >_>

C&C so far: like some people have said, a few grammatical errors involving word spacing... and i think you could gradually introduce things better, like i said, somethings just seemed to pop out of no where, like that knife guy. maybe explain a little bit about him, or have some cutscenes introducing him... and whats up with the evil thing people are talking about killing in the towns bar? it was kind of a wteff moment for me.

 

[seven]

Stay a night at the inn, then continue south. :smile:

 

[nick5674398]

I played your demo a few hours ago, it was pretty decent, I'll mention the points I remember best. I like some of the dialogue, but it could use work, I like the cutscene when you first enter the cave.

There was plenty of room for fun gameplay, like when the guards were looking for you, the player could try and sneak past them, there is a script on one of the Rpg maker sites that would help with that, or you could do it with events , but that's way harder. I liked the avoiding traps thing, but there weren't enough of them. And when you get the boat, you could make a river rapids game, where you're traveling down river avoiding rocks and stuff.
There should also be more hidden treasure, I say that just because I like finding it. The battles were boring, make some events to make it more intresting

The story and characters were decent, could use some work, but I liked the crimson eagle, but I think you find out his past and history a little quick, actually I think the story is a little confusing, and I don't know anything about Mick other than he was a begger, and was captured by E.M.P.I.R.E.

It was good enough to make me play until the end (so that's good), but could use improvement.

 

[seven]

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you liked some of the characters, and yeah, I kind of wanted to give Mick a "mysterious" feel. I actually put in a lot of treasure in the caves, but it could do good to spread it out a little, I suppose. The battles were sort of boring, and I'll try to think of ways to make it more interesting, but it does improve in places past the demo.
Again, thanks for trying it.

 

[seven]

Update: Added more screenshots.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

The new screenshot's links don't work, just ter let ya know.

Heh, I was actually making a game in RPG Maker 2003 a few years ago called Empire. I actually uploaded a demo onto Phanx Games. Course, I scrapped it...mostly because it sucked horribly.

 

[seven]

That's strange I can't seem to get the screenshots to work. I've tried using it in different places and it works fine. Huh. :/
Added some more character bios.