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Saga Mara Talon is a game about some people killing a bad thing called Talon. You can download it here. It requires the RPGMaker VX RTP.
Explore, loot, and customize in a fast-paced coffee break RPG/board game. Choose where you fight and which bosses to defeat to advance North on the game archipelago, eventually making your way to Talon itself.
Your characters have stats, and due to the naming conventions of the buffs/debuffs I managed to create the skill "Wind Breaker" completely by accident. That's how awesome this game is.
Features
-Fast-paced gameplay; beat the game in less than six hours
-Customize the skills of ten characters
-Switch your party at any time - even in battle - to take down vicious bosses
-Open world lets you train and loot where you want, when you want
-Intelligent enemies study your weaknesses and know your strengths
Please note that the game is fairly difficult. Remember to explore, use your items, and most importantly switch up your party if the going's rough. I do not recommend Hard mode for your first playthrough!
Radeth, that is not helpful. That is spam. Don't spam.
All right Crazetex, I've spent about 20 minutes with this game, writing my thoughts down.
BEGINNING
uh...did I miss the whole game? am I at the end?
Really? Boytoy?
Wait a minute, they said they just destroyed EVILGOD. Doesn't that mean they know each other? How can they be new?
Nice Sonic reference.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd zombies killed me.
ROUND 2
I cannot escape a boss fight, but I can...escape a boss fight?
Huh? Where the hell did I get this gun?
Who *are* these people? They were given barely three words to describe themselves and now the butler's talking to "sydney" about "master vaughn"? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE D:
Why are they randomly talking about....nothing in particular?
...ok, thanks Hibiscus. O_o
If there's like 10 people in the party how come I can only use 4 in combat?
...Ok, really. YOu didn't make ANY interior maps? AT ALL? Not even an inn??
what? where did this shop come from? And why does everything cost more than I can possibly afford?
Ok, really. Why can Seria Lux attack THREE TIMES IN A ROW?
Aaaaaaand I can use special attacks once.
And I'm dead.
Now let's get down to the nitty-gritty.
This post? It's not a well-developed post for a finished game. There's not even an intro to the story posted, although I'll tell you that this post basically reflects the game itself.
Who are these characters? Why are there like ten of them traveling together if I can only use four to fight with? Back to the first question, who are these characters? You've given just slightly over nothing in the way of character development beyond a six-word snippet of each's outstanding personality trait (which, as far as I can discern, leads to seven boring characters, a stereotypical butler guy, a pyromaniac witch, and a non-English speaking alien), and you've thrown us into what, as far as I can tell, is actually the middle-end of an actual RPG. You've defeated what you thought was the evil guy! Now go forth and defeat the real evil!
The reason this works in mainstream RPGs is because they've got 2 very important things: backstory and character development! Even going all the way back to adventure games and proto-RPGs, even text-based adventure games, you are started off with a clear goal: defeat the baddie. You work your way up *to* the baddie, and defeat him. You're not just thrown into the game with little to no explanation as to why or how you got their or why, apparently, the party doesn't know each other despite apparently EVILGOD (great name btw). And yes, I'll admit - I didn't go into the options to find out my mission (which should've been obvious) or find out how to play (which should've been mostly obvious.)
Onto the mapping: There is no mapping. You have a single map, which I appreciate for it's old school aesthetics, but which gets slightly repetitive. The main issue I have is that the place names are forgettable (though as mentioned, props on the STH reference) and they seem to have no bearing on the game itself except for the occasional blurb about how they burned that (weren't they supposed to be the good guys...?) or how sister's brother's aunt's uncle owns the woods. Or something? The second issue I have is actually much bigger than the first: WTH is it with me finding random shit on the ground? Just traipsing about and then suddenly "Oh, look, I found a gun!" "Oh look, a storefront!" Seriously! You need markers for that shit. Especially the stores!
And speaking of the stores, I'm making something like 11 coins per battle, give or take. And yet the items in the stores cost upwards of 100 coins each. How does that even work? It's not balanced and it's not fair, unless the point of the game is to grind for hours to get enough money to buy enough potions to actually defeat the bosses. I can't buy a single potion, let alone phoenix down or whatever which would help me raise my dead allies.
Which brings me to my next point: The battles. When I first started the game, I went left - after all, there was nothing there to stop me, and there was a lovely building in the middle of a desert (which I would have presumed would be a castle or a labyrinth or anything, but apparently not.) And then I got into my first battle against dead people, and....I was dead. Why? Because these were (I assume) high-level enemies that I was not supposed to get to until later. Except that there was nothing to keep me from going over there - no barriers, nothing. And unlike most classical gamers, I'm not trained to immediately go right. Mario came out 30 years ago.
And what's with the boss battles? They're optional and I understand that, though from a story standpoint it really doesn't make any sense. "I am evil overlord, and I am going to stand here until you talk to me! There is no escaping from a boss fight! Unless you say you don't want to right now which is fine y'know no pressure or anything." Died almost instantly fighting Seria Lux, because she friggin' attacks three times per round. There's no balance! The Mousies are too easy and the bosses are too hard.
And that's as far as I got, and that's as far as I'm going to get. Is this *really* a finished game? It has a single map, no characterization and no balance. Think about it.
Alright, alright, show me up, Tindy...I see how it is. :D Sorry, this game didn't really interest me, but the monster's name was Flamer! I just had to point it out. I am sorry.
Also, I did try it out, and one thing that I really liked about it was the skill system, and I do wish that it was used more. :D I am sorry for being short about it, but it just wasn't really my thing. I am sure other people will like it. Another thing, I do agree with Tindy on the mapping. :D
Way to miss the entire point of the game. The idea is to ditch all of that filler crap - angsty heroes that cry over kidapped shallow love interests, massive dungeons with annoying puzzles, etc. - and focus purely on RPG gameplay. Go play a roguelike or something, for god's sake.
@chaos: Way to miss the point of most of his review; he talked about balance, money, item costs, combat difficulty, lack of direction, and a lower level of content than he expected. Are these not related to RPG gameplay?
@Karsuman: So someone wanting to be interested in the characters, especially if they look like they'd be interesting to learn about (unique and powerful personalities), means they only like games you find stupid? with bad dialogue?
I'm still trying to find a point to that post, it's like you're trying to invoke some RPG version of Godwin's Law.
I would kill for the kind of feedback that guy gave, yet all I see are some side-liners knocking him for spending time on it; do you NOT want people to play this game and be honest?
@Tindy: I think it's great you played this and gave your thoughts, especially in such an expanded extent; a developer has to read feedback and find the good points to improve upon that a reviewer makes, and a reviewer has to be honest and make good points while ignoring the spite of rabid fans.
I didn't see you criticizing any points. If his post said anything about wanting FF or Kingdom Hearts dialogue, or suggested Crazetex use bad dialogue like squenix products, I apologize for not seeing it and misunderstanding your post. I read it as "I wanted to know more about the characters."
Keep in mind it's his review, in other words, his opinion and I think it's perfectly fair for him to say he wanted to know more about the characters and was frustrated that there wasn't more to see. Even if character development wasn't the goal, knowing that people WANTED to know more about the characters is important feedback as well.
top of the page for two days with no new replies and some mods/admins coming in to bash me and make undeserved comments (except for some of tindy's valid points, even if s/he didn't read the thirty-second help blurbs or realize that you have two and a half parties to use if one gets beat up, I do agree with some of it)
nice forum
also, this game is exactly the same as my other games, mos def http://rpgmaker.net/games/1212/ (Complete, non-linear quasi-horror/adventure RPG)
I'm gonna have to side with Anaryu on this one. You know I love you guys, in a way that's totally acceptable in manlovedom, but let's be honest; asking people to "understand" and embrace Craze's motives in making games the way he does is a little unrealistic.
He was given very good, very detailed criticism. That's more than anyone could hope for.
top of the page for two days with no new replies and some mods/admins coming in to bash me and make undeserved comments (except for some of tindy's valid points, even if s/he didn't read the thirty-second help blurbs or realize that you have two and a half parties to use if one gets beat up, I do agree with some of it)
Have fun completely ignoring some well-deserved criticism - things you'd do well to take heed of. But if you prefer to shut out any "bashing" (alright, moog's post was pushing it but blink_ had some legit points), be my guest. Just don't make threads here. If you have any problems with us, take it up with another mod or admin. That's all there is to it.
I like the look of this game ^^ and it's good to see more people finishing them. What RPG Maker is this? I think it is VX. Anywho, congratulations on not making the world map look square and blocky, that is what maps made with "that rpg maker" normally look like but from your screenshot it looks more fluent and at least a bit realistic. I will download this later, no time at the moment.
I'm interested to see how an RPG would work with no plot... since RPGs are basically about the plot, that is why one plays them. I will try it nonetheless.
Have fun completely ignoring some well-deserved criticism - things you'd do well to take heed of. But if you prefer to shut out any "bashing" (alright, moog's post was pushing it but blink_ had some legit points), be my guest. Just don't make threads here. If you have any problems with us, take it up with another mod or admin. That's all there is to it.
The only post that critiqued the game was tindy's, which I recognized as useful and agreed with on some parts, even if I don't think h/she really got the game. It will be pretty hard/somewhat unfair for a newcomer (although there is an easy mode that is, well, easier), but in my testing it seemed solid, but then again I am the creator and thus biased/know how it works. As for the character/story desire... I can see somebody wanting more with the characters, but whatever - that doesn't really need to be in a response to you!
tl;dr version: if you think barcode dude was being helpful, I don't see it.
top of the page for two days with no new replies and some mods/admins coming in to bash me and make undeserved comments (except for some of tindy's valid points, even if s/he didn't read the thirty-second help blurbs or realize that you have two and a half parties to use if one gets beat up, I do agree with some of it)
nice forum
also, this game is exactly the same as my other games, mos def http://rpgmaker.net/games/1212/ (Complete, non-linear quasi-horror/adventure RPG)
i know youre going to respond HEH YOU DIDNT PLAY IT SO SAY ALL YOU WANT but ive played into a bit of your other games and your habit is to make a basic rpg that is suppose to be critical and innovative because of its "back to basics" aspect, and again, thats not a bad thing, but afterwhile imo it doesnt make for a good experience.
also this is coming from someone who doesnt even use rpg maker or know little to anything about it but
Fast-paced gameplay; beat the game in less than six hours
is NOT A FUCKING FEATURE its actually a turn off imo. and idk what pretentious stuff chaosproductions was talking about LOL U PPL LEARN TO PLAY ROGUELIKES HEH but the way he described it made it sound like a shell of a game.
i know most games made in rpg maker have lame jrpg plots and characters etc but it doesnt give an excuse to make a "point a to point b" game
however, everything i said could be wrong and i could just be ranting. who knows? either way, good luck with your game and future endeavors
