Quintessence - The Blighted Venom

[Damaris]

Brilliant game, evened well with a great story. Played through the whole thing in a couple of sessions. Its been a couple of days from when I finished it but here are some observations I made;

1. The mapping - its generally flawless. Though you do tend to use some maps repeatedly its not an issue as the quality of the maps is at an excellent standard. A couple of times I did think "aw I'm back here again".

2. The characters are each unique, the way they speak and act gives them they're own personal profiles which people can relate to. This is one of my favorite things about the game. The way that you prevent in-game play of some of the key events makes you really want to play as the main character - and when you don't get to play as him it encourages you to play through the next part to find out what happens to him and hopefully score another kick-ass scene.

3. Scripts/events. Generally keeping with the high standard of the game however - particularly with the girl... the Arian - her raven transformation ability proves to cause lots of glitches. Adding that particular ability shocked me - the amount of extra events and grunt work you needed to do to pull it off stops my though process. For your reference I encountered most of the errors related to the raven during the carnival section and slightly prior to it. Mostly things like "Stop Animation" or "Through" remain on when they shouldn't be. It happened a couple of times

4. Story. the way that its presented and told is unique - again one of my favorite aspects are the characters however the world and events that occur are so fluent and effectively provide total immersion. For me - this is the glue between the characters. And this glue is superglue. :haha:

I'd like to congratulate this game's author/s as its the most well-constructed RPG Maker game I've ever had the pleasure of playing.

 

[zealex]

Oh wow. Just finished playing. I had already downloaded it on the release date, but exams and stuff have kept me really busy. Finally things are starting to clear up though and found some time today. It was well worth it.
Amazing release as always Reiv. And you always know how to make the best cliffhangers. :D

Well, hope the next chapter doesn't take that long, can't wait. Good luck and take care.

 

[Reives]

Eep, the forum knock-back erased my response and stuff from a while ago.

@Mooglelow:
If it's the one with two guards wielding halberds and guiding an entrance, feel free to use it; but I forgot who exactly was the artist (it's one of the people in the graphics credits). You should hunt that down first.

@Damaris:
Thanks for the feedback! Aye, the transformation system is rather buggy (especially bird form, as you noticed). I'll have to look into it, or perhaps recode it more efficiently in the future as it's very messy right now. Glad ya enjoyed it, Damaris!

@Zealex:
Heheh, yay for cliffhangers. The next chapter shouldn't take that long, the last delay was a fluke.


Oh, I'll be releasing a little demo this week or the next, by the way. It's not exactly a QChap 11 demo, but it does have a town that you'll get to in Chap 11. c:

 

[omen]

Played all through the game and I must say "BRAVO!" Your a master at your craft sir. Playing this game really got me reflecting on my game and how I much I need to improve it lol. Can't wait for for ch 11 keep up the good work.

 

[Eddie]

Heheh, thanks. c': There're a lot to be done in the game-play department though, something I have to keep a lookout for.
P.S. Hey, we joined .org during the same month/year! *high five*

P.P.S. A little symphonic rock experiment song :p
viewtopic.php?f=93&t=61431&start=0

I ditto what they said. You really are a splendiforous dev. Though I wish I could get a High Five too... I got you beat by 20 days.

Actually, in truth. I've been around since the beginning days of .Net. I just like to be stealthy and all Ninja like.

 

[Lazer Kirby]

Wow everyone here says this game is good but a lot of people (but not all) think that this game is bad on RPG Maker Network.

 

[RPGKid64]

Well forget RPG Maker Network, this is a GREAT game with a beautiful story. This game sucked me in the moment I started playing. :D Good job Reives.

 

[Reives]

Now now, everyone's opinions should be respected. c: There are actually many people who don't like it here as well, it's a matter of who's more outspoken. Ya can't appeal to everyone, but you can still learn lots from their feedback.

Here's a little platform map, kinda reminds me of Protoss for some reason, heh:

And here's a little WIP (outdated though):

Spoiler

 

[Lazer Kirby]

Hm... I was afraid that my comment was going to start a flame war.

Oh well, I think I will download this game since my school's out.

*hunts for download link*

 

[Reives]

Pft, flame wars are so 80s.
Dl link's here: http://freebirdgames.com/Q_C1-10.exe

 

[Lazer Kirby]

Well, I played the game for a little bit. It was a decent game; I think Brickroad on RMN should've rated it a 2.5 or at least a 3 instead.

 

[Reives]

Hm, if I were him I would've probably only enjoyed it to a 2's level as well, since what he's looking for is exactly what this isn't. Each to his/her own. c: People have different tastes, it's all fair game.

Oh, and I totally forgot to post this here; sorry for the delay:

Lyra's Melody demo released!

Download here


The demo also contains the town you will arrive at in Chapter XI! Hope ya guys enjoy. :~

 

[Nolund]

Damn Reives, and I thought TBV was amazing. I just played your demo...and just...wow...

Your music is just incredible, and your mapping...I wish I could map like that. You're a genius man...a real genius. Your cutscenes are just amazing. Really great work.

 

[Reives]

Thanks Nolund. c': I had the advantage of time, though; for example, here's what this Quintessence project looked like 3 years ago. Then I played RM games like Memento Vivere and Nadir's Canon and leveled up!

 

[Koriz]

Oh man, you never cease to amaze me.
I've played Quintessence for the first time a year ago, then played Ch9 when it came out a few monthes ago. Unfortunately, my computer was re-formatted so I don't have my old savefile.
Any way I could continue from Chapter 10?

 

[Jstreet]

Hey Reives, you know I love you like a brother, but uh...finish this damn thing already so I can get a full play and a full review in. I remember a while back you said you were going to run it to Chapter 10. It seems like you've gotten more inspiration since then. By no means should you rush things or leave out any crucial elements for the sake of completing the game, but you definitely don't want to keep egging on this chapter by chapter presentation. It's a little belaboring, and I'd hate for you to ruin any attention this masterpiece deserves by over doing the release and re-release method.

Keep composing (both the game and music),
-Your buddy Panda

 

[Reives]

@Koriz:
Hey Kor, welcome back! Yep, you can just snatch the continuation save file here. c:

@Jstreet:
Yeah, that's definitely true. I wanna get this finished soon too, but ugh, I didn't go as fast story-wise as I originally planned in the previous chapters. Good thing is that it's pretty much set in stone as 14 chapters now, so it's a concrete work plan.

 

[Koriz]

Oh, thanks! Now I won't have to go through it again.
I must also say that I was looking especially for an update of Q-TBV when I came here yesterday.
By the way, I saw today that a website of a very popular Israeli newspaper reviewed your game "The Mirror Lied" (another masterpiece, I must say). Link
If you want a translation just tell me or something.
Thanks again! -Rushes off to play Chapter X-

 

[Reives]

Ah, that's cool! Thanks for the heads up Kor. c: TML recently got lucky and got featured at a few major gaming sites, it's great to see it's spreading out. I google-translated it, although some of the links inside the article weren't working for me.

Oh, and the intro in Quintessence got trimmed off a bit this time around - the platform puzzle and the golem battle that were in Chap 1-9 package got moved to a future chapter.

 

[Reives]

There has been some changes, and Chapter XI has been shortened to suit its title more fittingly. The total amount of chapters still remain the same, but things should be more compact (less fillers, for the better). c: This way, there's a decent chance that Chapter XI can be out near the end of the summer (break).

Here're some random screenshots. The first one is from Quintessence's sibling project Lyra's Melody, and the 2nd and 3rd are from Quintessence.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler