[RMVX] Spellbinder

[originalwij]

STORY

Almost a century ago, an ordinary young man was possessed by an evil spirit accidentally let loose. This spirit, the Visigoth, bound himself to this young man's body with powerful magic and spread fear and chaos across the land. He had taken over almost the entire world in a matter of weeks. All that remained was a stronghold held by the most powerful spellbinders. They knew that they could not beat the Visigoth, so they laid a trap for him. The trap worked. The spirit was separated from this unfortunate young man and banished to the ether. Fast forward to several years later. That young man was now an apprentice spellbinder. He had moved on with his life and had even learned to embrace magic. However, the Visigoth, before being banished, made a vow to return. He just had to bide his time and wait for the right opportunity. He would be back. This was disconcerting to the young spellbinder, because once bound to him, the Visigoth could not bind with any other human ...


WORLD

The world known only as Erf has a system of elementally based towers that provide a protective barrier between the human world and the spirit world. Harmless spirits, such as spiritflies, can pass through this barrier, but the barrier blocks any malevolent magic beings. The four main towers each reside on one of the four main continents. This, obviously, is a world filled with magic. The world government is known as the Magistrate and consists of the most powerful wizards, witches, sorcerers, mages, and spellbinders from all over the planet. Each continent is governed by a Proxy. This Proxy also is responsible for the barrier tower on his or her continent. When the barrier is up, the world is generally an eden. No war, no poverty, no illness. If the barrier were to fall ...


CHARACTERS

Seydoth
Class: Spellbinder
Our protagonist. He became a spellbinder when that evil spirit was removed from him, due to the enormous amount of magic energy that passed through him. He is a little impatient and fed up with being an apprentice. While rough on the outside, he has a heart of gold and rarely refuses a request for help. His manners may not be the best, but he dedicates himself completely to whatever endeavor he pursues and never gives up. If you need someone you can count on, this is the guy you call.

Tamsiss
Class: Sorcerine
In a word, serious. She is work first, work second, maybe play tomorrow. She is known mostly for her healing prowess, however do not underestimate her! She is an accomplished sorcerine that can match any sorcerer in battle. She lives with and takes care of her younger sister. She has strong family values and is extremely loyal. A must for any team.

Zheryn
Class: Necromage
Self-proclaimed famous hunter. Master of the darker magics. Comedian, or so he thinks. Loves to joke around, especially during awkward or inappropriate moments. Very well known amongst some of the seedier people and in some very strange places. A man who is always in search of a good time and a better drink. Overconfident almost to a fault, but it suits him well.

Lyithor
Class: Fairy Knight
Sergeant in a classified section of the military. When you want someone or something dead ... this is who you get to do it. Do not ever question her loyalty. Fairy Knights are forged of great honor and pride. She is the only knight ever to receive the Magistrate's Cross, the highest honor achievable for a soldier. She is also an expert in espionage and infiltration.


SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler

NOTES

NOTE 1: All credits are displayed at the end of the game.
NOTE 2: Please report any odd occurrences, bugs, or tile errors.
NOTE 3: Criticism is welcome (both good and bad), but please tell me WHY it's awesome or WHY it sucks.
NOTE 4: I STRONGLY recommend you play in FULL SCREEN if playing on some older/slower PCs.
It WILL lag in towns and the intro will not sync correctly otherwise.
NOTE 5: If the font doesn't seem to work, delete the FONT folder in the game and it will use a default font.
NOTE 6: Do NOT re-post without permission.
NOTE 7: Enjoy! 8)


DOWNLOADS

Updated to Version 1.06 (minor fixes)
Wij's Downloads

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From my mind to your PC ....
~Wij 8)

 

[udivision]

This looks really good, although the screenies look a little blurry to me. I'll try it out and give feedback when I can.

 

[yamata no orochi]

Okay, having played the first thirty minutes or so of the game, I have to say that this is incredibly impressive.

The systems are very well presented and coded. The one thing I really miss is a quest log to record different tasks, but the menus, binding system, etc. are very well done and the little touches like the save recommendation icons are really neat. Probably the weakest element so far is the story--the writing itself isn't too bad, but the plot itself is a little generic so far. Then again, I'm in the very beginning of the game so it might very well improve.

The musical introduction was very well put together; although I'm not such a big fan of the song it did fit the action pretty well.

At any rate, this is one of the more impressive complete projects made in VX that I've seen. Assuming I get farther in the game I might leave some more comments, but currently the lack of response to this project so far is pretty criminal.

 

[bacon]

Hey this looks really neat. Your story concept is a little bit overdone but i think that so far, you present it nicely so far. Plus anyways, I am sure it sounds better actually playing the game. I like that you dont have terribly generic classes such as fighter and warrior but instead really stick with the theme. Your characters seem interesting and they look like they are well developed.

The screenshots are pretty good. You have some inconsistencies in styles and it looks rather odd. Your mapping is a little bland you you use too many objects and color. You also have really wide open spaces. It definitely isnt terrible but i t could use some touching up and some more love.

Is this your first game released?

Anyways Ill check it out when I get the time and see how it is.

 

[originalwij]

@macon ... no this is my 2nd game, but my first serious one. (first one was a humor/joke community game)

@everyone ... updated the download to V1.05! [minor bug fixes]
(see original post)

 

[Crystalgate]

The game looks great and the dungeons are well designed so far. There are however some big problems I've spotted.

Having the character walk to the New Game, Load Game and Exit options is neat, but wastes time. The game over dungeon is also useless since dash is disabled, making it faster to hit F 12 and reload from there. If you want to keep this feature, the walk should be as short as possible and dashing shouldn't be disabled.

Some fights are luck based. There is one worm enemy which can paralyze me and it's placed in a solo dungeon. The boss in the very same dungeon can also one-hit kill me if it scores a critical hit.

 

[originalwij]

Updated to v1.06!
(minor fixes)

 

[originalwij]

Just an FYI ... due to many PM's, comments, e-mail and IRC requests ... I will be making a "sequel" of sorts to this game!
So stay tuned for Spellbinder 2! [working title]

 

[R.J.]

The screenshots look colorful and bright, which is good. The story seems a bit weak though... The whole "this spirit cannot bind to another human" sounds like a plotdevice / deus ex in order to put emphasis on the main character.

 

[sanggameboy]

Thank! It's really nice!
You made title very... perfect !!! ( 1 0 2 )
That is good !!! Downloading you game !!!
Battle system so nice and i haven't seen it before !!! :angel:

 

[Kain Nobel]

Everything seems rather enjoyable so far, but I'm down to my last elixir so hopefully I find more soon. One suggestion, request even, would be that you can make a way for the player to know if the enemy has no skills to bind VS just pure guesswork. Frequently I get a "Failed!", then I'll get a buzzer with a (\) sign next turn (which makes me think there is nothing left to bind), but then I'll try again anyway and just get another "Failed!" which makes me uncertain.

Besides those issues, I really like whats been presented so far. The arrows help you find your way around, which prevent the player from having to run into random walls and guess where a door might be. All the tutorial information is short and informative, thankfully. Although it was very slow to watch, I liked how the introduction was played out and synchronized.

The encounter system is nice for at least letting you know "Hey, this encounter is coming about... now," but I can't help but feel like somewhere, down the road, we'll be able to do something with it. Things you could do would be making special hot and cold zones with your terrain areas, or even safe zones, on the same map. An example would be FF8 world map; walk on road and you're encounter-free, forest is double encounters and everywhere else is just normal. Its especially nice to know the recommended level to take on the encounters, but thus far haven't had trouble getting by on lower levels.

Again, I need to find some elixirs. Moreso, I need to go to bed for work, c'ya!

 

[Graydar]

Playing through WM tower, I noticed the tune sounded familiar....then the name.

Stone Tower, from Majora's Mask.

Oh you~

The game's well put together from what I can see, and no complaints so far, except that the little girl and the man in the town your begin in often get in your way and annoy you, but apart from that, nothing.

Edit:

Seems to me the trading UI is a bit complex as well. Not sure if this is the standard trading system, but just finding out how to sell and buy things is a real hassle if you don't know the F1 button to look up the controls (which I didn't, until I accidentally pressed it in-game), and having a little "basket" in which you sell/buy things is annoying as well, as well as a little confusing.

Edit2:

Appears to me that run chance is 100%, and that the difficulty in this game either obliterates you, or does nothing.

atm, I'm level 8, going through E'rf tower, and all of the fights can completely obliterate me in a couple of moves if I don't plan everything correctly. Most fights leave me with half or less health, and I'm eating through potions pretty quickly.

Purple chests are surprisingly easy. I expected a mini-boss instead of a ton of smaller enemies, which are dispatched of relatively easily whenever you have a half-ton of items which damage all of your enemies, and do a ton of damage to each enemy individually anyways.

Poisoning can't kill your enemies, which annoys me, because it feels a waste of a turn to simply "finish off" an enemy.

The little shrines which replenish your health are nice, but slightly confusing the first time around. Some text saying "Your health and MP have been restored!" would be nice.

 

[coyotecraft]

This isn't your typical Rpg maker game. I'd recommend everyone play this, if only to watch the introduction.
The song in the beginning is Lacuna coil - Spellbound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_VS2B48c24