Truth:The Other Side - Demo estimated 1h of Gameplay!

[shadowcross123]

Game Name:Truth: The Other Side

Engine:RPG Maker VX


History:
169 S.E- Felorian invasion, disturbing the Eastern side of the Noble House Albion, House of Regace mostly left untouched. Jintashi, the ruling body of a minor state is untouched by the war, and with the rapid improvements in technology during the war, benefits most. Agreement formed between the United Commonwealth of Federated States for their technology in return for half of Regace Land. U.C.F.S fights back the Felorians to Iscise River before a truce was finally called. Unfortunately, the UCFS had already released the genetic experiments, 'Arachi' onto the warfield.

183S.E- Jintashi now controls the most powerful state in the World, Vernoth. Technology is flourishing there even as the rest of the World cope with the aftermath of the war between UCFS and the Felorian Alliance. The Arachi unfortunately released into the world now grow increasingly hostile. There are also rumours of more genetic experimenting occuring within the laboratories of Jintashi. Tension among the noble houses of Regace and Albion grow.

209S.E (Present) - Jintashi has begun expanding, invading many of the smaller countries. UCFS can no longer ignore their activities, and send a select party of 3 to assasinate President Barenot. Chride-a famed mercenary, Bryont-a noble, and Kezuka, a loyal war veteran.


Characters:

Kezuka: Battle hardened war veteran. Respected Military Officer, involved in many of the campaigns exterminating the Arachi. Found in the forest on the outskirts of UCFS by a hunting party of Bryont & Gizel Regace who believes that he was abandoned out of wedlock.

Bryont:Noble, son of Gizel Regace and Yukari, who is still living. Father had been executed for seemingly plotted against President in 193S.E when seen talking to Jintashi spies. Loyal to the President, but disgraced among the Nobles due to his father's execution.

Chride:Mercenary, well-informed and light-hearted. Optimistic & always joking. Brought up in a poor family, and due to economic reasons, was forced into such an occupation. When he had made enough money, he returned to his parents only to find out they had died to a plague. Called up by the President for his service permanently after receiving favourable reports of his work.

Screenshots:

Title Screen, credits to Techie

Jintashi HQ

Outskirts of Varenda

Caves

Download: http://www.zshare.net/download/76756501d45cd78b/
V1.1 Demo

Estimated Hour of gameplay!

Credits:Woratana, KGC, Mr Annonymous, Kuplex, Sephirothspawn, Kylock for their amazing scripts, and Techie for the title and gameover screen, Tsukuru's Blog for resources, as well as anyone else who I may have forgotten to credit.



If you have any constructive criticism to add, please do. I'm sure some helpful advice here and there would greatly help. Thanks!

 

[shadowcross123]

Bump Anyone?

 

[Pokémaniac]

I'll play this and give feedback in a few days. I hate to see a project ignored!

 

[dadevvtsvre]

How did I not see this project before? Let me try it out, I'll give you some feedback soon.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

Okay, so I tried out some of your demo. I managed to get to the part where you get the fourth party character and are about to leave the town. Here are some of my thoughts.

I think one of the biggest problems you have right now is mapping. Right now most of your maps could use a lot of work to make them look nice and pretty. Most of your maps (especially the indoor ones) are very large and have way too much empty space. What you should try and do is make your map sizes smaller and compress everything together. That way, there's less empty space, less walking, and makes look more attractive overall. If you're looking for some good critique on your maps maybe check out the Mapping Improvement Thread or the Screenshot Thread. Some of the poorer maps were the upper floor of the inn (that hallway was WAY too wide) and the first room when you enter the castle.

The skills thing at the beginning wasn't explained very well, I thought. There could've been more explanation and I was wondering how the heck to use it in the menu. Though it's a good idea to use.

Random battles are extremely annoying and I thought there were too many in the first scene. Instead of random battles, maybe try adding more walking robots so that when you touch one, a battle starts? Most people prefer this way of starting battles.

I like how the game started off with action! Too many games start off with boring introductions and prologues. Though I was confused as to what I was doing a lot of the time - what my motives were. Maybe I wasn't really paying attention but try explaining to the player why they're doing what they're doing.

The difficult of the first couple of battles was spot-on, I think. Not too easy, not too difficult. Though the final battle with Mr. Barenot was maybe a tad too easy.

Some of your transitions seemed too abrupt. Specifically, the transition after you beat Mr. Barenot to Varenda, and when you discover that the President's been murdered. Try slowing them down a little and make the transitions slightly longer for dramatic effect.

Your dialogue could be improved a little. I can't think of any specific examples right now but just be wary of grammatical mistakes and overusing elipses. ( ... ) There were also a couple of points where dialogue was cut off by the message box and I couldn't read the rest of the sentence.

But yeah! Decent game. Keep working at it; take this advice into consideration, and good luck!

 

[coyotecraft]

I didn't read anything in your thread. I played straight through the demo until I died fighting the werewolf. I didn't look around and explore.

I think there might have been a mistake in the scene when you're 4th member joins. I was reading fast and wasn't really catching everything they said. I noticed this faceset pop up during that conversation (old man,white hair red headband). I was like, wait he's not in the room. Didn't he die?

I like how you can re-distribute AP points freely. Especially since I have know idea how the game it going to work. I don't have to worry about distributing points the wrong way.

The random battles got a little annoying in the caves. 2 steps and I'm fighting the same monsters again. It made me want to get out of there faster rather then look for chests to open.

 

[shadowcross123]

@dadevster: Thanks for playing my game Yeah, i agree in the first half or so the mapping was pretty bad. There was quite a large time gap between that period (after the inn) and when i continued, maybe play on abit longer and tell me what you think about the rest of the maps? I MIGHT redo the first part of the game in my next demo of the game which i hope to release in about 1 and a half weeks! Haha, and for the storytelling components all i can say is i'll do the best i can. I'm not exactly the best writer of dialogues but i hope to improve :D

@coyotecraft: Hmm... yea i had the exact same problem with too many random battles in the cave but am changing the encounter rate in my next release as well as spicing up the monsters slightly so it doesn't get too boring. Ok, i'll check out the error you mentioned. Did you manage to find the switch in the dungeon? Oh, and can i know exactly how you died during the fight with the werewolf, so i can balance the gameplay if i made him too hard or overpowered etc. And thanks for the advice given!

 

[coyotecraft]

I'm pretty sure I was just underleveled with basic equipment. I walked straight to the back of the cave, like I said I didn't look around. I think I remember hitting a switch that opened a door somewhere but I didn't look for it.

 

[Pokémaniac]

I agree with what's already been said, basically. Keep at it!

 

[shadowcross123]

UPDATE! Demo v1.1 out now, fix to all the issues raised as well as added gameplay of about 20 more mins!

 

[Emertinel]

Did you leave your game unencrypted on purpose? Because now I can open it up and edit stuff in it...
Ok I started the demo and

Spoiler

I see Comic Sans MS. WORST. FONT. EVER. PERIOD. to use in an RM game. It doesn't fit.
I hit start, and I'm greeting by a black screen, which is also a no-no. The cutscene that follows is actually good. Whoa, and that battle system is pretty cool. Also, the skill dual attack makes no sense; it only shows the animation attacking once. Also, balance is horrible. I can kill the guards without taking any damage at all. They die in two attacks.

WHOA YOU START AT LEVEL 15, 13, 13? WHAT?

Wait, L and R to switch between characters? Those won't work. I like the skill point spending system. The game's a little too easy now and when it's easy, it's boring. But I'll play on. Okay, you have conflicting themes here. There are robot guards and computers, and yet you use swords and spears and fight guards with spears and chainmail? Is this the future or medival times?
MORE SPACEBAR MASHING ACTION I think I'll stop here, it's not bad for a first game, but it's not really good. I'll look at the maps in RMVX and judge it from that.

Rating it 3.

EDIT: After looking over the maps, the mapping is pretty good. But is that RTP SKILLS AND ANIMATIONS I SEE?!

 

[shadowcross123]

Well, i believe in leaving games unencrypted so if like people wonder how i did or executed a certain function, they can check it in the game file. The first part is sort of a training dungeon so yea, you're not actually supposed to face much challenge there, just carry on further in the game first. They're at level 15 and 13 cause they're supposed to be seasoned veterans, i find it sounds somewhat weird if a war veteran is at lvl 1 :O The reason for this technology disparity is due to the fact that all this technology is held only within the hands of a few (Jintashi). If you do have the time, i hope you can play it till the end of the demo, thus giving me a more holistic review of the game Anw thanks for trying it out!

 

[Emertinel]

I will probably try it again. I was testing it out on my retarded computer, so it lagged like hell, ruining the experience for me.