Dead Content To Anywhere

[Despain]

To Anywhere
by Doctor
PART THREE

Okay, picking up from where I left off (and with my newfound knowledge that the puzzles in this game are moreadvanced than I realized, technically), I'm able to get somewhere. I get the sword (noticing the cute little etchings on the bottom of the chests-- Doc's own little "fuck you" to the community), dip it in Abelnard's (or whatever his name is) royal blood, make my way to the king, and then fight him off.

Okay, your dash system is seriously annoying. let me guess, you evented it yourself? if that's the case, it's whats causing a number of random game-freezes at teleports. the game freezes up on me just as i was beginning to get somewhere. but fuck this. i might come back to it this weekend, but this is three-strike-you're-out (i'm lying, I'm going to keep playing anyway because I have no internet in my room to otherwise occupy my time). I'm going to remember to just take my finger off of the space bar when I go through teleports (if there's a move route right after, and I'm holding down the button and/or an arrow key, I think that's the problem. Not 100% sure though, since it's encrypted (faggot)).

But anyway, now I'm very happily back in the OTHER REALM, where (hopefully) it's back to more fun exploration (and I can finally freely move between the two realms). All alone again, though, so let's hope there aren't any tough battles.

So I run through the fireplace and I'm in an egyptian-temple. There's a JARRING teleport which has one of the ultimate teleport no-no's. I'm moving north, but come out of a south-facing door. Couple that with the very sudden change of music and the transition's a bit overwhelming. I'd suggest that you rearrange the map somehow to make sure that the door-directions line up properly. Also why is there a fog in here? The Egyptian pantings on the walls are a cool though. Personally I think that they'd be a little better if they were more faded into the wall.

When I'm talking to the Indian chick in the pyramid, and she's explaining the cured thing, Soleil responds... but the window is on a tile below her, it looks like the floor is talking. The outside of the pyramid looks cool, although the area near the door at the top is weird (not to mention clashes with the rtp). Okay, so there's a little scene in an mismatched, inconsistent desert where suddenly Soleil speaks in a plural, but vows to help her new Indian friend. Okay, whatever. Then there's an IMPOSSIBLY hard-to-read font that announces I'm now in "ArRobtia(?)" the world of sand. I'm in some town, talk to one NPC, and decide "oh fuck, I'm going back to finish the temple". Here I see that there's some kind of bullshit world map which annoys me because it just feels so HORRIBLY OUT OF PLACE compared to everything else that I've seen so far. Plus it doesn't even tell me what these stops are. When I'm standing at a location, the name of that location should be visible somewhere.

So I go back to the temple. At this point I am instantly killed by a snake lady, after two failed attempts to escape. I have no healing items and no dream stones to use at save points. You need to give me more oppurtunities to heal. Make Dream Stones more plentiful, or maybe consider.... i know this might seem radical... but maybe have the enemies actually DROP MONEY? I ran out of salves while fighting the Albernard soldier guy, and haven't gotten any since then (I was never given a chance to heal up after fighting the wizard (who I somehow beat without any salves, relying on Evelyn's water heal magic). You teleport me right to the other world with no chance to go back to any shops or anything (don't even give me an automatic full heal when I'm spending the night at the castle?). Minus 5 points. Let's give it another shot. If I die again right away, fuck it.

Actually, this time around (Since I saved before meeting the Indian twins), I'm choosing to leave the pyramid. Just to see where this route takes me. The dude opens the chest and joins my party. I can totally head north to explore the pyramid some more, but since I'm still injured as balls from my fight with the wizard, have no means of healing myself, and don't have any more healing magic, I say "fuck it", and just go ahead and leave the temple with the guy. Similar cutscene in the inconsistent desert place, same ugly font splash thing, and now I'm at the goat place again. This time, I'm gonna stick around (mostly because I just don't want to die in a shitty battle).

Oh nice, here's a shop. I only have 315 gold because enemies don't drop any, so I'm pretty damn limited. Maybe I should have fought the soldiers, but such a thing shouldn't be required to play through the game (and if it is, there should be some indication of it). I buy 6 salves and that's all I can afford. Dream stones are fuck expensive, which is pretty lame considering how rare yet useful they are.

Talking to the sage (typo: obscurs). The sage's sprite is annoying as fuck. Her hair has a HORRIBLY HIGH saturation that forms a really nasty contrast with everything else. (typo: "why don't you stay here tonight" has a period instead of a question mark). She sends me outside, where everything is purple, and when I try to go back inside... nothing happens. Nothing at all. At least put an even there that makes the hero turn around. Also now I can walk to the edges of the map and nothing happens. This is just incredibly sloppy. You're losing your momentum. Minus 3 points. Also the map is really dark and it isn't easy to see the sage hovering hear the water.

Um... so now I'm randomly in this sky garden, and my newly-met Indian friend wants me to help him destroy these people? But one of them was just being nice to me...sort of. I totally don't get what's going on, and I think that such a sudden transition (after being in the desert world for only like two minutes, during which all I did was buy some salves), is a seriously bad move on your end. I feel lost, confused and overwhelmed, and not in the good way.

You have some teleport errors here, too. When I walk off the edge of the map, you teleport me to the edge of the next. ie. ON TOP OF the next teleport tile. If I want to go back, I have to step off of the tile and back onto it. You should always teleport the player one tile past the teleport tile itself, so they don't find themselves bumping into the edge of the screen to no result.

And for some reason that fog is STILL HERE? I didn't say anything about it because in the desert, it made a bit of sense. Like a sandstorm or something. But up here? Man you REALLY need to fucking cut back on these fogs. You seem to use them on like every fucking map in the game, to the point where they don't really DO ANYTHING because you're using them so much. Minus five hundred and forty points for this whole sequence here (including the fog and teleportation errors). This puts you into the negatives bro, you're gonna have to wow me to bring me back up.

So I'm fighting some trees, and I use Madu's "magma blast skill". For some reason is uses PETRIFY instead. So Soleil is dead and now Madu is paralyzed, one of the treemen is petrified. I just sit here for like 3 minutes waiting for something to happen and then they kill me. Yay, another game over. You need to work on the balance, or at least give me more healing oppurtunities or something. This time I'm going to use two of my salves before I even enter battle, to make sure that I'm all healed up (I shouldn't have to use items like this at the beginning of a dungeon). I'm fighting the tree again. The fucking thing is healing faster than I can damage him. It kills Soleil again. And then somehow Madu has an entire turn wasted because the enmy hits me while I'm trying to make a selection. Is that a glitch or was I stunned or something? But either way, I'm dead again.

Fuck this shit. It seriously went downhill WAY TOO FAST the second I hit the pyramid area. I don't know what happened man, did you like suddenly get really lazy or what? You need to work on the game balance here, the trees are way too hard and I have this shitty useless new party member (whom I care absolutely nothing about). I don't really understand what you were thinking with this whole thing, but it's like I just jumped into a totally different game, one that I don't like nearly as much as the first.

 

[Doctor]

Given your own admittance that you evaded nearly all of the fight in the castle, it comes as no surprise that you're severely underpowered and get your ass kicked. Try and fight some of easier enemies such as the roosters, since you can see the enemies on the screen, evade the trees.

Monsters don't drop money but drop materials, which you can sell for money.

Unless you saved in the gardens, I'd recommend heading back to the Dark Era and recruit some more party members. If not, give me an hour to whip something together and get you a third party member. Or was it a fuck this shit in the "I'm not playing anymore" sense? If so, thanks for the notes you've given so far, they'll be helpful, although I must say you get discouraged rather quickly by small things (are you having a bad day?) and I'm disappointed you're giving up because suddenly it gets hard.

And it's not fog in the sky garden, it's clouds.

 

[Despain]

Unless you saved in the gardens, I'd recommend heading back to the Dark Era and recruit some more party members.

what? that's possible? that's really fucking shitty design then, bro. you TELEPORT ME AWAY FROM THEM and point me to a new direction, it's not intuitive to go backwards when the only logical direction is forward. you should maybe at least tell the player that such a thing is possible, or have the party members go with soleil in the first place. it might not have felt like i was suddenly (and quite randomly) playing a totally different game.

i mean i was just starting to get used to the characters and the story, and then you just shit all over that without warning?

also grinding is stupid anyway. i thought this game was above that because of the way the stats increased themselves and the way skills were learned.

 

[Doctor]

Unless you saved in the gardens, I'd recommend heading back to the Dark Era and recruit some more party members.

what? that's possible? that's really fucking shitty design then, bro. you TELEPORT ME AWAY FROM THEM and point me to a new direction, it's not intuitive to go backwards when the only logical direction is forward. you should maybe at least tell the player that such a thing is possible, or have the party members go with soleil in the first place. it might not have felt like i was suddenly (and quite randomly) playing a totally different game.

i mean i was just starting to get used to the characters and the story, and then you just shit all over that without warning?

also grinding is stupid anyway. i thought this game was above that because of the way the stats increased themselves and the way skills were learned.

You might be right, I'll need to add a couple of scenes to try and make the transition smoother. Although it surprises me you didn't even TRY to go back. But the point is that every world sort of is a different game, with its own storyline that doesn't cut through with each other, although there is one global quest that leads to the end.

And it's not grinding, but you can't expect to get through the game by fighting only boss battles. It's not grinding, it fighting every three enemies to make sure your HP gets above 200 once you reach the final boss :\

If I get you a third party member, will you at least try and finish it so I can have the full feedback?

 

[Despain]

And it's not grinding, but you can't expect to get through the game by fighting only boss battles. It's not grinding, it fighting every three enemies to make sure your HP gets above 200 once you reach the final boss :\

this is true. i fought every battle in the game other than the soldiers. in the dungeons i make sure to fight all of the regular enemies. the soldiers (i fought like three or four groups i think in total) felt like they were extras. if they were necessary, i'd suggest having some roaming around and looking to fight you, like the regular enemies.

although the problem is more in the healing and stuff that i mentioned and less in the leveling. it should be possible, in a good rpg, to get through a game severely underleveled if you just use items properly (and often). that's a strategic thing and it has to do with playstyle. a good rpg should be able to be played underleveled (but with proper strategy, ie. more plentiful items and skills to work with) or powerleveled (ie. grinding and zipping through). it's a natural sort of difficulty level thing that the genre tends to lend itself towards (which is like the only really positive thing i can say about the genre as a whole).

also don't make me a thirt party member. i'm going to try and tough it out if i have the time. but really the jarringness of the SUDDEN MASSIVE SHIFT IN TONE didn't too very much good for the game. i think that a BIG help here would be to introduce the world map earlier in the game, maybe when you're going from the swamp to the castle town (after mathias gets kidnapped). that way it wouldn't be so sudden. because the introduction of the map, coupled with the egyptian theme, the new characters, the different perspective in that one map in the desert, and then the flying people and then BOOM SKYGARDEN before you even get used to the desert setting-- it's seriously overwhelming and kills the most important thing about the game: the feel.

 

[Doctor]

You know, I always felt that sequence of events happened really fast too (it originally happened even faster), but my main goal was getting the linear story stuff out of the way first.

I'll keep it as it is in the demo for now, keep the revised version for the full feature.

And technically, you can only go through a game underleveled to some extent, because you'll need money to get all those items you need, and money comes from the monsters, etc... But anyway, I'll give you a third party member. Volrath was able to complete the Sky garden with 2 party members because of Bamihi's killer chain lightning skill, but Madu's skills won't work as well.

But, anyway, here's to give you some hope: You can sell the materials the monsters drop, and there's a shop in the gardens (in the southern parts).

 

[Doctor]

I've uploaded a patch for those unfortunate enough to get stuck on the gardens with only two characters. You can find a third one with the caged villagers.

 

[HarryE]

Given your own admittance that you evaded nearly all of the fight in the castle, it comes as no surprise that you're severely underpowered and get your ass kicked. Try and fight some of easier enemies such as the roosters, since you can see the enemies on the screen, evade the trees.

Well, to be brutally honest, Doc, I DID fight the soldiers at the castle (Not all of them) and I keep dying, nor do I have enough money to buy more salves.

I'm in the garden now as well, by the way. I'm enjoying this very much and it's very interesting. The idea of the "Island" reminds me a lot of the game 'Myst', if anyone ever remembers that?

 

[Tempus]

I don't know why you people are getting your panties in a bunch about these soldiers. I fought them easily with 1 salve/soldier.

 

[Despain]

Volrath was able to complete the Sky garden with 2 party members because of Bamihi's killer chain lightning skill, but Madu's skills won't work as well.

Then there should very seriously be some sort of indication telling you to go back and get those characters (or maybe have them go along with Soleil to begin with?) It's entirely unintuitive to GO BACKWARD to a major area that you've finished with when a new one is suddenly open to you, especially when the plot is beginning to move forward.

 

[Despain]

although on the plus side this has motivated me to pick up rpg maker again for the first time in a while. i was working on an open-ended exploration-heavy game similar to this (not sandfall) so i might play with that again this weekend.

 

[HarryE]

Oh! Found the merchant chicken. I hadn't thought of seeling the dropped items. Weee!

 

[Doctor]

Bruno: What characters are you using? If you're stuck with two, download the "patch" to find a third along with the caged villagers.

Maybe it's the randomness of the stats increase that makes it so some people end up with a hard time while some others go through it in a breeze. On my end I didn't have much of a hard time, I'd like to see what you people are doing.

 

[HarryE]

Naah, forget it. It was my incompetance. Bought meself some salves and elixiers.

And no, I've got Mathias and the Captain.

Uh? I've got the bombs and bombed those big rocks there, but I've gone over the walkway but cannot get onto the other side. Am I missing something or is it a glitch?

I'll go download the latest version, just in case.

 

[Doctor]

Yes, the patch should fix that teeny bug.

Since you only have three characters, you'll be able to recruit a 4th if you go back to the caged villagers in the patched version.

Just make sure to download the patch and not the entire game (After a while, I thought "what was the point of uploading all the music and fonts?)

 

[HarryE]

Yes, the patch should fix that teeny bug.

Since you only have three characters, you'll be able to recruit a 4th if you go back to the caged villagers in the patched version.

Just make sure to download the patch and not the entire game (After a while, I thought "what was the point of uploading all the music and fonts?)

I menat as well as the other two. =P

And I've already started the download. Ah well...

 

[Doctor]

What other two? I didn't see you mentioning them.

Oh, and by the by, to answer your question from a few post back, yes Myst was a great inspiration for the game, which is actually why Evelyn's full name is "Evelyn Myst".

Volrath was able to complete the Sky garden with 2 party members because of Bamihi's killer chain lightning skill, but Madu's skills won't work as well.

Then there should very seriously be some sort of indication telling you to go back and get those characters (or maybe have them go along with Soleil to begin with?) It's entirely unintuitive to GO BACKWARD to a major area that you've finished with when a new one is suddenly open to you, especially when the plot is beginning to move forward.

Yes, you said, already. And I will.
Although I thought that if anyone would try to go back, it would be Despain.

 

[Untra]

Spoiler: 300 word review on To Anywhere

Doctor seems to have successfully made a point and click adventure game that does not need a mouse! Back when I was eight or so, adventure games were the shit, with the goal of one to use everything in your inventory on everything in the world before you could hop on board the designer’s train of logic and proceed with the story. The game begins with a nicely scripted intro, although it does seem pretty cheesy, if almost hard to concentrate on. Things begin with a quiet intro of a lovely beach and a quiet serene background.

Then there’s a character selection screen. At first this choice of four characters seems rather limiting, but you can then choose their specialty. I figure its sortof innovative, but I honestly could care less for such selection screens. It almost detracts from the story knowing that you could’ve been the Viking warrior with the enhanced sexual stamina stats (regrettably, this is not one of the options).

I chose the red headed chick. “Somebody the Voyagerâ€

 

[Doctor]

Mine replies: http://www.rmxp.org/forums/index.php?topic=55113.0

 

[regi]

All right, just continued the game. The Sky Garden had some good puzzles, once you figured them out (I was puzzling over how to get to the switch that opened the jail for awhile). The only thing I thought a bit disappointing, though, was that you received the bombs at the very end of the dungeon. You could've made some better puzzles with the new item, but I guess you can save that for later dungeons.

So the heroes managed to return to the desert town alive. What I don't really get, though, is what the Garudas had against humans in the first place. They didn't reveal any reason why they captured the villagers (before I had to fight the 3 boss enemies). Will this be explained later in the game, or did I miss something?

Anyway, I finish the dungeon and returned to the pyramid again. I decided to do a bit of exploring, and found myself in a HUGE maze full of rooms and enemies and switches. I found the Isis Orb, attached a lever to a switch, and roamed around the entire place. But now I can't figure out where to go.
By the way, a few other questions. What's the curse do, and do I need one of the desert people in my party when I explore the pyramid?