Firestalker5
Member
There are some reviews for this game, but they are for the very old and outdated version. So this section will be for the new version reviews [if and/or when it gets them].
The War of the Gods:
 One side of the war wanted to enslave the Human race for their own goals and enjoyment. The other side felt they needed to protect the Humans and use their knowledge to advance the Human race to new heights. The disagreement escalated to the point that war was eventually inevitable. Both side fought furiously for over 200 years. The many battles took both God and Human lives. The two oldest God's, Aastra and Minerva, were all the remained when the war finally came to an end after there were no more Gods left to fight. In a final and decisive battle Aastra and Minerva ended the fighting for good and at that moment the world was left without a single God.
 Many wondered why the war was started at all. They all knew that if the God and Goddess of old were still around then the needless blood shed of the Gods War would never of happened. But as it were the God and Goddess of old had long ago disappeared.I don't want to give too much away, but the story starts with the final battle of a giant war, 500 years in the past. The game quickly moves to the present and to a young prince sleeping the day away in his room. His friend, Surge, wakes him up under orders of the King. The prince, having turned 15 that very day, was finally able to leave the castle walls. As tradition the prince/princess, for the first 15 years of his/her life, is not allowed outside the castle walls. They are to learn all the ways of running the Kingdom before being allowed to meet the subjects.
  This is where the adventure begins, for this year is the year that a hermit cult, thusly called for never having ventured out of their underground sanctuary in nearly 500 years, has decided it was time to resurrect their God and they have finally left their sanctuary. A God that is as insane as he is evil. An evil the world has not seen for over 500 years. Phire and Surge interrupt the cult during their unsealing ritual and their whole world is changed.
Will the cult succeed?
What will Phire and Surge do to stop the cult?
Name: Phire Eternity
Age: 15
Background: The only son of the King of Eternity, he has come of age and is now allowed to leave the castle for the first time. Accompanied by his best friend of 15 years, Surge Ascent, his adventure promises to be an interesting one.
Name: Surge Ascent
Age: 16
Background: An orphan found by the king as a young child, he has been raised by the Royal family for the last 15 years. He has been trained to be the next Captain of the Guard when he comes of age and has been the Prince's bestfreind since the Prince's birth.
The Danger above the characters head tells you that a battle is coming in the next step. You can choose to skip the battle [by pressing enter] or continue on with the fight.
The HP/SP Bars at the top of the screen can be shut off in the Options screen.
Here's the demo:
The Crimson Rune: Prologue
Just a few things:
- If you wait long enough on the titlescreen you'll be given a short credit sequence. Hit ENTER or ESC to return to the titlescreen.
- If you hit SHIFT while on the map you'll be given the choice to go to the QUEST or OPTIONS screens.
- Whenever the words "Warning" or "Danger" appear above your head you can hit ENTER, SPACE, or C and skip the impending battle. [some battles are unskippable and you can only a few number of battle before you have to fight]
- There are a few events and side quests in the game that are level specific.
- I have plans to write a Strategy Guide some time soon. Until then, I'll help anyway I can.
If you get an error for the Auto Font Installer script then all you have to do is maunually install the fonts yourself [check below for how]:- Go into the font folder and copy the font there.
- Go to your C drive and then to Windows. There is a folder there called Fonts.
- Open that folder and paste the Font from the Font folder there. The font should install itself.
- Go back to the game folder and start the game. Problem should be fixed.
For some reason the Saves Folder didn't pack with the pack, this would cause the game to crash when trying to save. All you have to do is make a new folder next to Audio and Fonts and call it "Saves" [without the quotes and it has to be capitalized]. That'll fix the problem.
I hope you all enjoyed the game. I would love feed back.
Empty
- Multihit Skills
- Indepth Story
- Overdrives
- Very Challenging Gameplay
- Over an hour of play time
- Automatic Font Installs
The revamp will be out on Monday... Then I'll be taking a small break to work on other, non-RMXP, project that I've been neglecting. After that is done I'll back on this with a new head of steam.
Some of the many changes that have taken place during the Beta phase:
- Included a Lag Reducer [turn on/off shadows option]
- Included a Battle Speed Option
- Included an Option screen able to be called with the Shift button
- Remapped pretty much all the maps in the game so far
- Added a few more scenes of the story
- Deleted some mandatory battles that were unnecessary
- Deleted a few unnecessary scenes from the story
- Adjusted just about all the scenes in the game to better clarify and tell the story
- Completely changed the NPC dialogue box [some people might not like it, but I do]
- Changed the lighting of just about every map
- As said before I've added an option to not watch the Movies by adding alternatives to game
- Revamped the Titlescreen and Menu Graphics [thanks to Rep for the Graphics]
- Added a lot of custom music that I have found online and from members of this community
- Shortened the beginning intro [The long version will now be in Chapter 1 or 2, not sure yet]
- Completely changed the EXP system, The EXP now resets when you gain a level[Thanks to Dargor for this script]
- There are quite a few frankentilesets in the revamp made by me and few in the community
That's a lot of changes and I look forward to seeing how you all like it.I've kinda put Chapter One on hold for a while. After the fiasco that was the bug ridden prologue sent out recently I have decided to rethink my prologue and game a little bit. I since been revamping the lighting [as you can see from the screenshots I posted], I've added a few options [Movies are not needed anymore, The game as alterantives if it can't find the Movies folder], I've changed a lot of the scenes to be more descriptive and I feel they are actually better then before. I've also adjusted the monsters and some of the skills. The game is now a little easier..
I hope to have this newest version out very soon. I'm taking my time in the testing phase. I really don't want a repeat of the last one I put outUPDATE:
Just a small update.
I have uploaded a new version that has addressed most of the errors that Cygnea has pointed out in her review. You do not have to redownload if you have already downloaded the previous version as it changes nothing in the story. The changes are mostly cosmetic in nature and really only make the game closer to being error free.
I hope you all are enjoying the game. Let me know what you think and if you like the game enough tell your friends.
Stay Shiny,
FirestalkerSmall Update:
I fixed the Link to the Movies Pack. Filefront erased it for some reason.Small Update:
I have fixed a few errors that were bugging me and I have fixed a big error that no one seemed to notice. All the saved Game Files will work perfectly so just copy them over.
I hope everyone enjoys the game so far. I'm hard at work mapping and eventing the next chapter. No ETA as of yet, but I think it'll be a good one, It'll be where the story really starts.Update:
I have fixed the download. Filefront erased the file without telling me. You can now download no problem.Update:
Just an Update for anyone still interested:
I have uploaded a new version of the game.
Just a few things:
- If you wait long enough on the titlescreen you'll be given a short credit sequence. Hit ENTER or ESC to return to the titlescreen.
- If you hit SHIFT while on the map you'll be given the choice to go to the QUEST or OPTIONS screens.
- Whenever the words "Warning" or "Danger" appear above your head you can hit ENTER, SPACE, or C and skip the impending battle. [some battles are unskippable and you can only a few number of battle before you have to fight]
- There are a few events and side quests in the game that are level specific.
- I have plans to write a Strategy Guide some time soon. Until then, I'll help anyway I can.
I have made quite a few upgrades to the game. I have written a few of my own scripts [ :thumb: YAY! me!] and I have been able to edit some of the scripts I got to better fit my needs. I have also done some of the spriting work myself [which I suck at so you'll know when they appear]. I've changed some the events to better tell the story and I have made it tie in to Chapter One a little better.
I have also updated all the screenshots so you can see the new version.
I hope you all enjoyed the game. I would love feed back.
I have also updated all the screenshots so you can see the new version.
I hope you all enjoyed the game. I would love feed back.
Scripts:
SephirothSpawn
ccoa
KGC
Sandgolem
Wachunga
Near Fantastica
Trickster
Blizzard
Illustrationism/Raziel
DerVVulfman
Fantasist
Hawk-McKain/RPG Advocate
Rataime
Moghunter
Dargor
cybersam
BlueScope
Soundspawn
Raziel
MiDas Mike/Paul Baker
Myself[Firestalker]
Graphics:
Tana
zanyzora
ccoa
Enterbrain
Naramura
TheInquisitor
Mascarpone
mac
joy
Rye
Rep
Myself [Firestalker]
          Â
          Â
Music/Sound:
Enterbrain
Kinderella
David Schooley
J-Street
Lapensee
Lene
Klace
Rieves
Dan
Titlescreen Graphic:Â Rep [Menu, Options and Quest Screen Graphics by extention]
SephirothSpawn
ccoa
KGC
Sandgolem
Wachunga
Near Fantastica
Trickster
Blizzard
Illustrationism/Raziel
DerVVulfman
Fantasist
Hawk-McKain/RPG Advocate
Rataime
Moghunter
Dargor
cybersam
BlueScope
Soundspawn
Raziel
MiDas Mike/Paul Baker
Myself[Firestalker]
Graphics:
Tana
zanyzora
ccoa
Enterbrain
Naramura
TheInquisitor
Mascarpone
mac
joy
Rye
Rep
Myself [Firestalker]
          Â
          Â
Music/Sound:
Enterbrain
Kinderella
David Schooley
J-Street
Lapensee
Lene
Klace
Rieves
Dan
Titlescreen Graphic:Â Rep [Menu, Options and Quest Screen Graphics by extention]
The following is long and old. I have since fixed all the mistakes from this review and, in my opinion, made the game better for it. I simply post this to show where I have come from on this game.
I really like the opening music and wish you would have taken full advantage of it instead of adding those sound effects as the logo went across the screen.
The option of being able to turn off the shadows was a nice touch as those annoyed me last time, and I wasn?t looking forward to dealing with them again.
Five Hundred Years Ago
The dialogue is much better this time around. It actually feels more like a conversation between two people than you trying to explain stuff to the player. A comment about this line: ?You?ve learned a lot in these past hundred or so years. You still have a lot to learn, though.? That second statement would probably sound better as something like, ?But it?s still not enough,? since ?a lot to learn? and ?learned a lot? sounds like you?re repeating yourself.
Present Day: Eternity Castle
Once again, the conversation between Surge and Hero (the protagonist) is also much smoother than I remember, and that improvement carries over throughout the entire opening scene.
Some errors:
Surge: Well, you are hard to wake-up when you?re out. (wake up)
Hero: Get them to be a little more gentle next time maybe. (?gentler? and taking out the ?maybe? since you started your previous sentence with it)
Throne Room
I also suggest giving the parents proper names (Queen Elizabeth, King Henry). Saying King and Queen Eternity who live in Eternity Castle on Eternity Island sounds a little silly, and makes it seems like they have the same first names.
Queen: You can?t not let him go. (Double negative)
King: ?are here. I want you to be courteous to them while they here. (during their stay)
Hero: Your pathetic! (You?re)
Hero?s Room
Hero: Well come on. (Well, come)
Guard: I?m going to throw-up. (throw up)
Hero: You?re making this easy you know. (easy, you know) We haven?t had a beheading in our Kingdom in over hundred years. (a hundred)
Guard: I can?t breath? (breathe)
Take out the second part of the king?s apology. He already says he apologizes for his actions and then in the next box he does it again, adding ?I?m sorry?. It seems a little overkill.
Hero: You serious? (Way too informal, more of a modern thing to say. ?Are you serious? sounds better)
King: This is the traditional weapon for a 15 year old prince? (fifteen-year-old ? spell out the numbers)
King: With that said? (He?s already used this phrase and it strikes me as odd to use it again so soon)
For some reason, I really like the line about Surge letting the king execute him if Hero is hurt. Nice addition.
Opening Scenes Thoughts
Much better than last time. The dialogue is more natural and I see you?re moving the sprites around to back up their words, which is always a good thing. It?s much easier for me now to get a grasp on the relationship between characters ? Surge and Hero seem to have a relatively easy friendship despite their different social standings, the king seems to be slightly overbearing and probably quick to jump to conclusions, and the queen is the peacemaker.
Menu Screen
Not as blindingly red as it was last time and that?s an improvement. The location menu is still squashing the longer words together however ? there has to be a way to fix that.
Eternity Castle Prison
A better layout than last time, fewer random weapons lying around and less decoration so it has more of a prison feel to it.
Earth Shrine
I like the addition of Surge?s explanation as to why there?s not a temple in the area. It wasn?t something I thought about originally but it makes sense.
Surge: ?building a giant Temple? (temple) ?what so ever (whatsoever)
Earth Elemental: ?awaiting the God?s to? (gods)
Hero: Don?t worry nothing? (worry, nothing)
Elemental: No nothing quite? (No, nothing)
Text: Hero received the Earth Elementals power. (Elemental?s)
Very good job on improving this scene; the characters are actually reacting to what?s happening and the battle, though I lost the first time, wasn?t frustrating at all. I simply reloaded, leveled up a bit and was able to beat her easily. It would have been nice to see Hero commenting on gaining the Elemental?s power, though, even if it was just a, ?Huh? That?s strange, I don?t feel any different.? I always thought it was odd how in RPGs no one really makes a big deal out of being able to summon something ? I?d talk about it all the time.
Nargethia
There?s a problem with the house to the lower right ? when you walk into it and try to continue upwards, you automatically get sent back out.
Man in lower left house: Maybe I should make it into an Inn. (inn ? no need for it to be uppercase)
Sailor: Thats why we? (that?s)
There?s a mapping error at the docks, near the pier. You can go through the stairs and get stuck in the white molding
Mountain Path
There?s a mapping error in the area where you push aside the boulder ? in front of the cave with the potion, you can walk to the right, through the white flower, and end up on another level. On this same screen there?s also a bird stuck over a group of flowers ? top of screen, upper left.
The Harpy Queen battle was pretty easy on my second time around when I realized to ignore her lackey and go straight for her.
Surge: I?m serious Hero. (serious, Hero)
Couple of more mapping errors ? watch those corners because putting flowers and whatnot lets the player walk right through them and access parts of the map their not supposed to.
Ruins
Good atmosphere here, if a touch darker than I would have liked. Probably just my computer settings, though. The junk on the floor and the cobwebs make it much more convincing as ruins than the almost new look the older version had.
???: Prepare my followers. (Prepare, my) ?seal is almost broken my followers. (broken, my)
On the way back through the mountain path, the cave door is blocked by two boulders.
Eternity Castle Revisited
Surge?s sprite is absent during the conversation with the king.
Derrick: ?500 years. (five hundred)
King: Surge are you? (Surge, are) Derrick prepare (Derrick, prepare)
Hero: Father let me? (Father, let)
King: Surge get? (Surge, get)
Prison Again
Guard: ?shut-up? (shut up)
When I found the secret key, the box said that an elite guard was speaking to me, possibly because I talked to one right before that.
Thanks for providing that alternate route to getting through that door. It doesn?t seem like much but I?ve always liked having more than one option.
Cave
Solider: I?m sorry, My Liege. (my) February
The puzzles were easy enough with only that last one giving me any real trouble because I kept running off the edge right before I made it to land.
When the king and Requiem got pushed off, you could see them flying through the black space behind the cave wall.
Castle: Six Months Later
The Hero-king sprite is rather badly done ? the body type doesn?t match and there?s still some of the original beard on the left side.
Hero: Get the troops we must go at once! (troops, we)
Aastra: You?re not a God Requiem. (God, Requiem)
Requiem: ?sorry, My Lord? (my Lord)
Aastra: I wouldn?t be here now thanks to his blood. (if it wasn?t thanks to)
Careful with those flame graphics ? some of them go through the walls of the castle and it looks odds.
End of Game
The game ends after seeing the castle on fire and being able to save, though something to that effect (?You?ve reached the end of??) would be nice. For a second I thought my computer had messed up. Nice ending; the end shot of the castle, seeing Hero lying defenseless and knowing a crazed god is on the loose suddenly reminded me that I was only playing the prologue and I wanted to see what happened next and how Hero got out of that situation. You could go a lot of ways with this ending, I think, and look forward to seeing which one you choose.
Overall
It?s much improved from last time, though I?d like to see some more interaction between Hero and his parents to make the impact of their death bigger. You did a good job giving Surge a personality but there was very little activity with his parents.
Graphic wise, some people might be turned off by the clash between the hero battles and random enemies. IceAx has a bunch of useful graphics and tons of enemies so you may want to take a look at if you haven?t already. No face sets, but the ones you use only have one emotion anyway so I wouldn?t consider it a big loss to your game if you got rid of them.
The gameplay was pretty straight forward. It might have been nice to have something else to explore in the nearby town, maybe an optional sidequest besides the hide-and-seek game so it didn?t feel quite so much like ?go here and do this?. The castle also struck me as a little bland, though it did its job.
The amount of battles when I was low on supplies, in the cave especially, was a bit overwhelming. Near the end I was simply running from everything, not having enough potions to heal or enough perfume to spam Surge?s skills, hoping I?d get a level up so I could heal myself. In short ? the battles are easy enough, and I?d simply turn down the encounter rate a tad.
I?ll definitely play the next installment.
The option of being able to turn off the shadows was a nice touch as those annoyed me last time, and I wasn?t looking forward to dealing with them again.
Five Hundred Years Ago
The dialogue is much better this time around. It actually feels more like a conversation between two people than you trying to explain stuff to the player. A comment about this line: ?You?ve learned a lot in these past hundred or so years. You still have a lot to learn, though.? That second statement would probably sound better as something like, ?But it?s still not enough,? since ?a lot to learn? and ?learned a lot? sounds like you?re repeating yourself.
Present Day: Eternity Castle
Once again, the conversation between Surge and Hero (the protagonist) is also much smoother than I remember, and that improvement carries over throughout the entire opening scene.
Some errors:
Surge: Well, you are hard to wake-up when you?re out. (wake up)
Hero: Get them to be a little more gentle next time maybe. (?gentler? and taking out the ?maybe? since you started your previous sentence with it)
Throne Room
I also suggest giving the parents proper names (Queen Elizabeth, King Henry). Saying King and Queen Eternity who live in Eternity Castle on Eternity Island sounds a little silly, and makes it seems like they have the same first names.
Queen: You can?t not let him go. (Double negative)
King: ?are here. I want you to be courteous to them while they here. (during their stay)
Hero: Your pathetic! (You?re)
Hero?s Room
Hero: Well come on. (Well, come)
Guard: I?m going to throw-up. (throw up)
Hero: You?re making this easy you know. (easy, you know) We haven?t had a beheading in our Kingdom in over hundred years. (a hundred)
Guard: I can?t breath? (breathe)
Take out the second part of the king?s apology. He already says he apologizes for his actions and then in the next box he does it again, adding ?I?m sorry?. It seems a little overkill.
Hero: You serious? (Way too informal, more of a modern thing to say. ?Are you serious? sounds better)
King: This is the traditional weapon for a 15 year old prince? (fifteen-year-old ? spell out the numbers)
King: With that said? (He?s already used this phrase and it strikes me as odd to use it again so soon)
For some reason, I really like the line about Surge letting the king execute him if Hero is hurt. Nice addition.
Opening Scenes Thoughts
Much better than last time. The dialogue is more natural and I see you?re moving the sprites around to back up their words, which is always a good thing. It?s much easier for me now to get a grasp on the relationship between characters ? Surge and Hero seem to have a relatively easy friendship despite their different social standings, the king seems to be slightly overbearing and probably quick to jump to conclusions, and the queen is the peacemaker.
Menu Screen
Not as blindingly red as it was last time and that?s an improvement. The location menu is still squashing the longer words together however ? there has to be a way to fix that.
Eternity Castle Prison
A better layout than last time, fewer random weapons lying around and less decoration so it has more of a prison feel to it.
Earth Shrine
I like the addition of Surge?s explanation as to why there?s not a temple in the area. It wasn?t something I thought about originally but it makes sense.
Surge: ?building a giant Temple? (temple) ?what so ever (whatsoever)
Earth Elemental: ?awaiting the God?s to? (gods)
Hero: Don?t worry nothing? (worry, nothing)
Elemental: No nothing quite? (No, nothing)
Text: Hero received the Earth Elementals power. (Elemental?s)
Very good job on improving this scene; the characters are actually reacting to what?s happening and the battle, though I lost the first time, wasn?t frustrating at all. I simply reloaded, leveled up a bit and was able to beat her easily. It would have been nice to see Hero commenting on gaining the Elemental?s power, though, even if it was just a, ?Huh? That?s strange, I don?t feel any different.? I always thought it was odd how in RPGs no one really makes a big deal out of being able to summon something ? I?d talk about it all the time.
Nargethia
There?s a problem with the house to the lower right ? when you walk into it and try to continue upwards, you automatically get sent back out.
Man in lower left house: Maybe I should make it into an Inn. (inn ? no need for it to be uppercase)
Sailor: Thats why we? (that?s)
There?s a mapping error at the docks, near the pier. You can go through the stairs and get stuck in the white molding
Mountain Path
There?s a mapping error in the area where you push aside the boulder ? in front of the cave with the potion, you can walk to the right, through the white flower, and end up on another level. On this same screen there?s also a bird stuck over a group of flowers ? top of screen, upper left.
The Harpy Queen battle was pretty easy on my second time around when I realized to ignore her lackey and go straight for her.
Surge: I?m serious Hero. (serious, Hero)
Couple of more mapping errors ? watch those corners because putting flowers and whatnot lets the player walk right through them and access parts of the map their not supposed to.
Ruins
Good atmosphere here, if a touch darker than I would have liked. Probably just my computer settings, though. The junk on the floor and the cobwebs make it much more convincing as ruins than the almost new look the older version had.
???: Prepare my followers. (Prepare, my) ?seal is almost broken my followers. (broken, my)
On the way back through the mountain path, the cave door is blocked by two boulders.
Eternity Castle Revisited
Surge?s sprite is absent during the conversation with the king.
Derrick: ?500 years. (five hundred)
King: Surge are you? (Surge, are) Derrick prepare (Derrick, prepare)
Hero: Father let me? (Father, let)
King: Surge get? (Surge, get)
Prison Again
Guard: ?shut-up? (shut up)
When I found the secret key, the box said that an elite guard was speaking to me, possibly because I talked to one right before that.
Thanks for providing that alternate route to getting through that door. It doesn?t seem like much but I?ve always liked having more than one option.
Cave
Solider: I?m sorry, My Liege. (my) February
The puzzles were easy enough with only that last one giving me any real trouble because I kept running off the edge right before I made it to land.
When the king and Requiem got pushed off, you could see them flying through the black space behind the cave wall.
Castle: Six Months Later
The Hero-king sprite is rather badly done ? the body type doesn?t match and there?s still some of the original beard on the left side.
Hero: Get the troops we must go at once! (troops, we)
Aastra: You?re not a God Requiem. (God, Requiem)
Requiem: ?sorry, My Lord? (my Lord)
Aastra: I wouldn?t be here now thanks to his blood. (if it wasn?t thanks to)
Careful with those flame graphics ? some of them go through the walls of the castle and it looks odds.
End of Game
The game ends after seeing the castle on fire and being able to save, though something to that effect (?You?ve reached the end of??) would be nice. For a second I thought my computer had messed up. Nice ending; the end shot of the castle, seeing Hero lying defenseless and knowing a crazed god is on the loose suddenly reminded me that I was only playing the prologue and I wanted to see what happened next and how Hero got out of that situation. You could go a lot of ways with this ending, I think, and look forward to seeing which one you choose.
Overall
It?s much improved from last time, though I?d like to see some more interaction between Hero and his parents to make the impact of their death bigger. You did a good job giving Surge a personality but there was very little activity with his parents.
Graphic wise, some people might be turned off by the clash between the hero battles and random enemies. IceAx has a bunch of useful graphics and tons of enemies so you may want to take a look at if you haven?t already. No face sets, but the ones you use only have one emotion anyway so I wouldn?t consider it a big loss to your game if you got rid of them.
The gameplay was pretty straight forward. It might have been nice to have something else to explore in the nearby town, maybe an optional sidequest besides the hide-and-seek game so it didn?t feel quite so much like ?go here and do this?. The castle also struck me as a little bland, though it did its job.
The amount of battles when I was low on supplies, in the cave especially, was a bit overwhelming. Near the end I was simply running from everything, not having enough potions to heal or enough perfume to spam Surge?s skills, hoping I?d get a level up so I could heal myself. In short ? the battles are easy enough, and I?d simply turn down the encounter rate a tad.
I?ll definitely play the next installment.
Finished most of the demo, here my thoughts, already shared with Firestalker5 who said I could post them here.
Hidden for length and spoilers
Enjoy!
Hidden for length and spoilers
Â
Menu
Not my favorite design, but my biggest issue is the Location section where the words are so small reading the name can be a pain.
Intro
Not too bad, but there were things you could fix. During the introduction, you have characters moving randomly which makes it look a little amateurish. If they're really needed then try to give them a definite path; they're not there for long so it shouldn't take any time to program.
Right off the bat with the confrontation between Minerva and Aastra I got the feeling of exposition; I felt the conversation was there simply to explain things to me, not to sound like a natural exchange, something that continues for the rest of the introduction. I get the feeling Aastra's supposed to come off as crazy but you're forcing it. Giving a glimpse of his personality and revealing the rest through the story might work better. You have some grammar problems and the text box shaking I could have done without. There was too much of it and I don't feel that it really added anything of value.
The transition from 500 Years Ago to Present Day was too abrupt and could have been smoother by stretching out the fading of music/screen color for a few seconds. Spelling error with the king ("You were sleeping again?" and numbers should generally be spelled out), and using the slider to change the colors of the soldiers doesn't work very well - they come out looking maroon in the face. The throne room doesn't strike me as a throne room; the water feature is odd and there are two many statues, too close together. The king and player are clearly having an argument but I'm not feeling it. Maybe if the music changed (it's too happy) or you somehow showed the sprites getting frustrated - altering the main characters features to look angry isn't too hard, if I remember correctly. Surge's picture also isn't as high quality as the others but I don't know if that's because the site you got it of or something else.
Eternity Castle
From a purely financial standpoint, letting the prince into the treasury probably isn't the best idea. Giving him a set amount of money and supplies would probably be more realistic.
In the prison, carry the wall tiles over the doors. There's also too much decoration; it's a prison and while you're trying to give that feeling with the mice and whatnot, you're also taking away from it by adding suits of armor, random pillars, pictures, and weapons - my sister thinks it's perfectly okay to have them but I question of the wisdom of having them so easily accessible. What if there's riot?
The game crashes when you try to go to the rightmost room; there?s a graphic missing for one of the people on the beds.
First Impression of Battles
For game difficulty, I'm on normal and convinced that you've made your enemies much too strong. It wasn't a matter how me taking to long to plan my moves, it was a matter of each hit from a bee taking one fourth of my health. Everything acted faster than me so by the time I got in one hit every other enemy had already given me two. Giving their skills such a high cost rate wasn't smart either; starting skills are tricky, but generally you give them enough power to be useful and low enough cost that they can be used effectively - not spammed but also not worrying about having to save it because you can only use it once. For the sake of making it through the rest of the demo without having to restart on a lower difficulty level I went into the editor and raised my stats.
Your end of battle screen is also a bit cluttered with the item and experience boxes overlapping.
Earth Shrine
A few gripes about this: I have no idea how long it would take to defeat the Elemental normally because, as I said before, I edited my weapon/armor stats to make the battles more bearable. Having her heal for five hundred, however, while I was normally taking off a very small portion of her health is very annoying. Her dialogue does not strike me as being a powerful being and the reactions of Surge and Player left me lacking. This is obviously a strange, shocking event, shouldn't their conversation reflect this.
After beating her, the following scene went awry - during the flashback with the angels I suggest either changing to the music or shutting it off completely, though temporarily, for impact. Happy, bouncy field music doesn't cut it for that scene or the Shrine itself, which I thought might be more somber and mystical. There are plenty of sources to get more fitting music.
The Player's graphic was wrong when he was getting back up; for a while he was the green-haired thief, but setting 'fixed direction' will take care of that.
Because I can walk through the mushrooms on a log, I am then able to wander around the map at will. This is a mapping error that should be fixed.
Mountain Path
The shadow script really stood out. I considering this a risky thing to use considering all the problems that can come up with it normally, but in this location I noticed them on nearly every map because of how they interfered with passibility.
These take away the illusion of height difference, interfere with normal mapping, and there are errors where I can travel to areas I'm not supposed to.
Harpy Queen
When the Player and Surge are looking around for the Harpy Queen, I suggest actually having them spin around so their actions match their words. There's also a gigantic amount of blood and a severed head, yet the two don't comment or give it a second look. Even a quick mention before entering battle would be better than this.
Ruins
Immediate mapping errors: don't just copy and paste the grass tiles. Square grass doesn't cut it and the tiles you're using are actually made to connect corners.
I'm a little confused as to how Surge knew who was talking, considering the fact that they never saw who was behind the wall. Despite the fact the people they're talking about haven't left the mainland in nearly five hundred years, the king accepts his thoughts without asking any evidence. While I'm sure he trusts Surge, something like that might require more than just "I'm sure"?
Castle Right After Ruins
Remember to use actions to support your words - when Derrick is yelling at the king to rethink his decision, he's still facing the player. Making him turn to the king would add to the scene.
The king could have at least come with an excuse to why his son couldn't go. There are, after all, plenty of good reasons: he's the only heir, he's inexperienced, he needs to be there to support his mother, etc?
Now that I'm able to explore the castle at my leisure, I'm finding some more odd mapping. I assume you're trying use the water autotile as an accent in the rooms, but it just comes off as misplaced. Don't use the thrones too casually since it takes away from their importance. Having them in the dining room is okay since those are their designated spots, but having them in the guest room is odd.
The mess hall kitchen needs some serious work; expanding the middle of the counter doesn't work. Rooms don't have to be perfect squares/rectangles, so maybe change up the design a bit and add some counters.
The princess's dialogue is screwed up - there are marks in the conversation that shouldn't be there. Also, is she a visiting princess or the player's sister? The guests, who are obviously important enough to have rooms in the castle, are never explained.
Watch how you use your text headers; I spoke to the queen before talking to the soldiers at the front entrance and now each other them has her face and name. The same thing happened with the prisoner.
The fact that there's no choice but to let the prisoner out bothers me. If it's really so important that he be released, maybe you could at least give the player two choices (immediately free him or try to pick the lock/something) and have the other lead nowhere. Right now I can't help but think what an irresponsible prince this kid is.
Opening the chest in the ruins, after going through the big room and climbing the stairs, froze my character. The graphics were still working but I couldn't move and had to shut the game down.
There's also a graphic missing when you try to enter the sealed cave. This was doubly annoying because I had transferred all the files onto another computer that didn't have RPG Maker installed and had to go back, fix it on the first computer, and transfer it again to continue working comfortably.
Something really strange happened when I went into the cave - there were two of me. I'm pretty sure you made an event of the player and didn't move the player himself.
That's one unconcerned trader.
When I was trying to enter the second cave room, I once again found a missing file, this time a waterfall sound. Might be my fault - maybe when I transferred everything, I somehow missed it. Either way, I skipped that part and set myself right into the ceremony room so I could finish the demo.
Couldn't find the 'laughing_man' sound either, edited it out to complete the fight. After he killed me, the graphic for both the player and Surge's down positions were wrong.
After that scene the screen went black for so long, I went back into the editor to see what happened next. After not being able to trigger the next scene I finally stopped. I figured you'd be happier getting a partial review than waiting for me to figure my problems out. Personally, I think Surge's and the King's deaths would have been a nice place to stop for the demo.
Overview
The text speed is a little slow, especially in scenes that are supposed to be frantic or urgent.
Personality wise, I find both the Player and Surge to be a little bland, the latter more so. While the Player obviously resents having to carry some much responsibility, Surge is...boring. I'm not sure if that was intentional or if it just came across that way but you might want to try and work on that. Since you're killing him off you want the player to grow fond of him and really show the friendship between the two in order make that scene have more impact.
The story's not bad - sure it looks a cliche at first, but you've said you're trying to take it in a different direction and there's still time for that. Still, most players judge a game by the beginning and might be turned off by the plot they're seen so far.
Not my favorite design, but my biggest issue is the Location section where the words are so small reading the name can be a pain.
Intro
Not too bad, but there were things you could fix. During the introduction, you have characters moving randomly which makes it look a little amateurish. If they're really needed then try to give them a definite path; they're not there for long so it shouldn't take any time to program.
Right off the bat with the confrontation between Minerva and Aastra I got the feeling of exposition; I felt the conversation was there simply to explain things to me, not to sound like a natural exchange, something that continues for the rest of the introduction. I get the feeling Aastra's supposed to come off as crazy but you're forcing it. Giving a glimpse of his personality and revealing the rest through the story might work better. You have some grammar problems and the text box shaking I could have done without. There was too much of it and I don't feel that it really added anything of value.
The transition from 500 Years Ago to Present Day was too abrupt and could have been smoother by stretching out the fading of music/screen color for a few seconds. Spelling error with the king ("You were sleeping again?" and numbers should generally be spelled out), and using the slider to change the colors of the soldiers doesn't work very well - they come out looking maroon in the face. The throne room doesn't strike me as a throne room; the water feature is odd and there are two many statues, too close together. The king and player are clearly having an argument but I'm not feeling it. Maybe if the music changed (it's too happy) or you somehow showed the sprites getting frustrated - altering the main characters features to look angry isn't too hard, if I remember correctly. Surge's picture also isn't as high quality as the others but I don't know if that's because the site you got it of or something else.
Eternity Castle
From a purely financial standpoint, letting the prince into the treasury probably isn't the best idea. Giving him a set amount of money and supplies would probably be more realistic.
In the prison, carry the wall tiles over the doors. There's also too much decoration; it's a prison and while you're trying to give that feeling with the mice and whatnot, you're also taking away from it by adding suits of armor, random pillars, pictures, and weapons - my sister thinks it's perfectly okay to have them but I question of the wisdom of having them so easily accessible. What if there's riot?
The game crashes when you try to go to the rightmost room; there?s a graphic missing for one of the people on the beds.
First Impression of Battles
For game difficulty, I'm on normal and convinced that you've made your enemies much too strong. It wasn't a matter how me taking to long to plan my moves, it was a matter of each hit from a bee taking one fourth of my health. Everything acted faster than me so by the time I got in one hit every other enemy had already given me two. Giving their skills such a high cost rate wasn't smart either; starting skills are tricky, but generally you give them enough power to be useful and low enough cost that they can be used effectively - not spammed but also not worrying about having to save it because you can only use it once. For the sake of making it through the rest of the demo without having to restart on a lower difficulty level I went into the editor and raised my stats.
Your end of battle screen is also a bit cluttered with the item and experience boxes overlapping.
Earth Shrine
A few gripes about this: I have no idea how long it would take to defeat the Elemental normally because, as I said before, I edited my weapon/armor stats to make the battles more bearable. Having her heal for five hundred, however, while I was normally taking off a very small portion of her health is very annoying. Her dialogue does not strike me as being a powerful being and the reactions of Surge and Player left me lacking. This is obviously a strange, shocking event, shouldn't their conversation reflect this.
After beating her, the following scene went awry - during the flashback with the angels I suggest either changing to the music or shutting it off completely, though temporarily, for impact. Happy, bouncy field music doesn't cut it for that scene or the Shrine itself, which I thought might be more somber and mystical. There are plenty of sources to get more fitting music.
The Player's graphic was wrong when he was getting back up; for a while he was the green-haired thief, but setting 'fixed direction' will take care of that.
Because I can walk through the mushrooms on a log, I am then able to wander around the map at will. This is a mapping error that should be fixed.
Mountain Path
The shadow script really stood out. I considering this a risky thing to use considering all the problems that can come up with it normally, but in this location I noticed them on nearly every map because of how they interfered with passibility.
These take away the illusion of height difference, interfere with normal mapping, and there are errors where I can travel to areas I'm not supposed to.
Harpy Queen
When the Player and Surge are looking around for the Harpy Queen, I suggest actually having them spin around so their actions match their words. There's also a gigantic amount of blood and a severed head, yet the two don't comment or give it a second look. Even a quick mention before entering battle would be better than this.
Ruins
Immediate mapping errors: don't just copy and paste the grass tiles. Square grass doesn't cut it and the tiles you're using are actually made to connect corners.
I'm a little confused as to how Surge knew who was talking, considering the fact that they never saw who was behind the wall. Despite the fact the people they're talking about haven't left the mainland in nearly five hundred years, the king accepts his thoughts without asking any evidence. While I'm sure he trusts Surge, something like that might require more than just "I'm sure"?
Castle Right After Ruins
Remember to use actions to support your words - when Derrick is yelling at the king to rethink his decision, he's still facing the player. Making him turn to the king would add to the scene.
The king could have at least come with an excuse to why his son couldn't go. There are, after all, plenty of good reasons: he's the only heir, he's inexperienced, he needs to be there to support his mother, etc?
Now that I'm able to explore the castle at my leisure, I'm finding some more odd mapping. I assume you're trying use the water autotile as an accent in the rooms, but it just comes off as misplaced. Don't use the thrones too casually since it takes away from their importance. Having them in the dining room is okay since those are their designated spots, but having them in the guest room is odd.
The mess hall kitchen needs some serious work; expanding the middle of the counter doesn't work. Rooms don't have to be perfect squares/rectangles, so maybe change up the design a bit and add some counters.
The princess's dialogue is screwed up - there are marks in the conversation that shouldn't be there. Also, is she a visiting princess or the player's sister? The guests, who are obviously important enough to have rooms in the castle, are never explained.
Watch how you use your text headers; I spoke to the queen before talking to the soldiers at the front entrance and now each other them has her face and name. The same thing happened with the prisoner.
The fact that there's no choice but to let the prisoner out bothers me. If it's really so important that he be released, maybe you could at least give the player two choices (immediately free him or try to pick the lock/something) and have the other lead nowhere. Right now I can't help but think what an irresponsible prince this kid is.
Opening the chest in the ruins, after going through the big room and climbing the stairs, froze my character. The graphics were still working but I couldn't move and had to shut the game down.
There's also a graphic missing when you try to enter the sealed cave. This was doubly annoying because I had transferred all the files onto another computer that didn't have RPG Maker installed and had to go back, fix it on the first computer, and transfer it again to continue working comfortably.
Something really strange happened when I went into the cave - there were two of me. I'm pretty sure you made an event of the player and didn't move the player himself.
That's one unconcerned trader.
When I was trying to enter the second cave room, I once again found a missing file, this time a waterfall sound. Might be my fault - maybe when I transferred everything, I somehow missed it. Either way, I skipped that part and set myself right into the ceremony room so I could finish the demo.
Couldn't find the 'laughing_man' sound either, edited it out to complete the fight. After he killed me, the graphic for both the player and Surge's down positions were wrong.
After that scene the screen went black for so long, I went back into the editor to see what happened next. After not being able to trigger the next scene I finally stopped. I figured you'd be happier getting a partial review than waiting for me to figure my problems out. Personally, I think Surge's and the King's deaths would have been a nice place to stop for the demo.
Overview
The text speed is a little slow, especially in scenes that are supposed to be frantic or urgent.
Personality wise, I find both the Player and Surge to be a little bland, the latter more so. While the Player obviously resents having to carry some much responsibility, Surge is...boring. I'm not sure if that was intentional or if it just came across that way but you might want to try and work on that. Since you're killing him off you want the player to grow fond of him and really show the friendship between the two in order make that scene have more impact.
The story's not bad - sure it looks a cliche at first, but you've said you're trying to take it in a different direction and there's still time for that. Still, most players judge a game by the beginning and might be turned off by the plot they're seen so far.
Enjoy!
