Dead Content [VX] Versus Xerza: Ultimate Showdown

[Crazetex]

http://www.rpgmaker.net/~craze/VersusXe ... reen02.png[/img]
Will you ever find Ether Island? I hope so.

So I didn't turn off my computer for, oh, a few years. Because of that, I was able to make a game using a totally legit version of the RMVX trial. To save the game, I copy & pasted the project folder elsewhere.

Anyway.

Versus Xerza: Ultimate Showdown
is the first in a series of Versus Xerza games made in RMVX.

Goals of the series:
-Always complete
-Less than two hours each
-Hilariously bad (yet not parody-esque) plot

http://www.rpgmaker.net/~craze/VersusXe ... reen04.png[/img]
You'll get to explore several distinct enviornments.

This game is 100% complete. It has a begining, a middle and an end. There are no bugs and I have playtested it several times.
It's a complete game with a hilariously bad plot that you can finish in less than two hours. Maybe you'll even do a no-weapon run or a speed-run.
The only caveat is that I can't edit the scripts-- there's some Japanese in the menu and in battle, but it isn't enough to hinder gameplay much (if at all). All of the important words are in English.

http://www.rpgmaker.net/~craze/VersusXe ... reen05.png[/img]
Celebrina is easily the hardest fight in the game.

Characters:
-The Party: You play as a Warrior, a Mage, an Archer and a Cleric. Their names are Patrick, Alonzi, Ulyssa and Richard. The Warrior hits things hard, the Mage casts Force spells, the Archer shoots arrows and the Cleric heals the party. It's a great little team and I'm sure you'll grow to enjoy their little quest to slay...

-Xerza: A demi-god who, in case you couldn't tell from the title, is The Baddie. The party tried to attack her once (for adventure-prone reasons, I'm sure) but she, well... she spared them. Xerza sent the party's vehicles all over the world, however, and you'll have to collect them all in order to enter the Tower of Xerza again!

-Celebrina: Xerza's daughter. I guess that makes her a Quartergod. Celebrina attacks the party, supposedly 'cause they attacked her dear mommy. Awww, how sweet. She's my favorite. ^_^;

-The Goddesses: There are currently four-- Messan, Turoi, Weynoa and Poolie. They control air, earth, fire and water respectively. The goddesses live on Ether Island and sell ethers and necklaces.

-Lara Skye: Just who is Lara Skye, and why is she important? Play the game!

http://www.rpgmaker.net/~craze/VersusXe ... reen06.png[/img]
Your characters have stats.

Features:
-Battles (x)
-Maps (10)
-Story (n/a)
-Vehicles (3)
-Magics (6)
-Bosses (3)
-Dungeons (4)
-Bugs (0)
-Chests (40+)
-Giant Swords (1)
-Towns (3)
-Crazy Old Codgers (1)
-Weapons (10)
-Hats (3)
-Armors (4)
-Naked Goddesses (4.5)

http://www.rpgmaker.net/~craze/VersusXe ... reen01.png[/img]
An epic battle on the world map.

I have no idea how I couldn't have sold you already, but man. This is actually a nifty game. Have you ever played a RMVX game? Maybe that Moonspeak sample game, but pfffft. This is complete, fun and by an experienced (though new around here) game maker! SO PLAY IT ALREADY.

http://www.rpgmaker.net/~craze/VersusXe ... reen03.png[/img]
Yeah, it has a forest dungeon. What? It's an RPG! It HAS to have a forest dungeon! Hell, even Xenosaga has forest dungeons in every game and it's a SPACE OPERA!

 

[Ratty524]

Wait, did a full version already come out? How where you able to get an English version?

 

[Sic Semper Tyranosaurus]

Wait, did a full version already come out? How where you able to get an English version?

A cursory examination makes it clear that it's only partially English.

 

[mawk]

I find your sales-savvy banter to be most hilarious. :'D

Anyway, I've been wanting to see what RMVX can do for a while. The trippy Earthbound-esque battle backgrounds pique my interest especially; I'm sure I'll need to download the RTP and perform some other forms of malarkey to run this, but from first impressions I'll say it'll be worth it. ( ^.^)b

EDIT: "This calls for emergency weapon withdrawal! Draw your weapons with haste!"

 

[Xephyr]

Well...it was a good try, but this game really isn't as fun as you said :P

The battles are too hard, first of all >.>

However, the first ever amateur-made VX game still deserves a placeholder in history.

 

[Luminier]

Well...it was a good try, but this game really isn't as fun as you said :P

The battles are too hard, first of all >.>

However, the first ever amateur-made VX game still deserves a placeholder in history.

Really? I found it quite fun! It may just be the charm of VX's RTP, though...
The boss battles were hard, sure, but the random encounters were cake, if you're well equipped.
Of course, I haven't beaten this, yet. I'm in the ice dungeon, about to go get the airship.

However, the first ever amateur-made VX game still deserves a placeholder in history.

There was at least one other, actually.

I've enjoyed it so far, Tex.

You might want to report this thread, to have the title changed to include "(VX)", as per the rules which technically haven't gone into effect, yet.  :P I don't think the clever title is enough of a head's up.

 

[Crazetex]

Gearpunk: Haha, I love the surprise battle sequences as well. =D I'll probably "cameo" that line (that's the wrong verbed noun but oh well) since Ulyssa is a PC again in VX02. =D

xephyr: Sorry you don't like it as much as others have. Besides the difficulty, was there anything else that I could work on for later projects?

luminier: Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'll report the game if it gets a little more attention, but I don't really expect a small project like this to turn into some ginormous topic-of-the-century dealie.

 

[Diedrupo]

Since this is a Crazetex game, I definately want to play it, however I haven't installed RMVX yet. Does anyone have a link to the RTP?

Update: Interesting, it didn't need the RTP.

Anyway, this is a really cool game. I felt like I was playing an old-school NES RPG, except of course with much better graphics and a much smoother frame rate. I really like VX's default systems so far and can't wait to make my own VX game later on (too busy with my RMXP game currently to switch yet).

Died in the forest against the treasure bosses, seems like I will have to do some old-school grinding! Awesome stuff.

 

[Crazetex]

Ahh, Diedrupo, my number-one fan here. =D

I love grinding, but since this isn't supposed to be a niche game you really only need to have enough to buy equipment. My current project (for the site contest) is quite a bit like Daybringer, though, but with better maps. I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

 

[Diedrupo]

I'm at the 2nd island with the desert cave now. I haven't had this much fun with an RM game in a while.

One bug I noticed, Magic and Agility seem to be swapped around, as the green caps increase Alonsi's spell damage while the witch hats bump up people in attack turns.

 

[Brosek]

..*cough* I cant play this.. you need RMVX to play it?

 

[Diedrupo]

..*cough* I cant play this.. you need RMVX to play it?

You shouldn't... I just downloaded it and it ran fine. Didn't have RMVX installed or anything.

What you *might* need is to set your default region to Japanese. It's in regional settings in the control panel if you're running XP. Don't know about Vista.

 

[Crazetex]

Hmm... I never noticed anything about Magic and Agility being swapped. Probably because I never have enough money to buy hats! =D

I'll look into it for VX02, most definately.

Has anybody else played this, also? I mean c'mon! It's a stand-alone download and a FULL GAME!

 

[Diedrupo]

I lost to Xerza! Just got back from celebrating the new years, going to get prepared a bit better (I didn't have any of the status recovery items) and then take her on again.

 

[Crazetex]

Awwww. Yeah, Xerza is the final boss so.... yeah. Yeah yeah yeah. Yeah!

*cough*

I have some bad(ish) news-- VX02 is going to be delayed for a while, if not canceled. I recently got an offer to work on my dream project with a trusted ally of mine and we've already started production. It's an XP game and it'll definately be posted here, but I can't go into details with incurring wrath. So! I'll try to squeeze in another small VX game (probably not VX02; I want that to be really thought-out like this one) soon, but no promises.

Died: I think you're right about the stats being switched. Upon replaying I noticed that Ulyssa always went third despite ZOMGAGI+++++++++. So yeah, that'll be fixed in my next VX project. =D


Yeah. Yeah yeah? Yeeeeaaaaaah.

 

[theriverstyxoath]

Summary:  I just beat Xerza and finished the game!  She was really hard.  I had to level-up my characters up to level 13 and stock up on tons of items.  It took me most of the day today.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/theriverstyxoath/xerza21.jpg[/img]
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/ ... erza23.jpg[/img]
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/ ... xerza6.jpg[/img]

Gameplay:  Since the battles are based on the RPG Maker 2000 model, they were really fun.  I hadn't played a game with a battle system like that in years.  I feel all nostalgic about it. 

However, it took FOREVER to become strong enough to defeat Xerza!  I had to level up constantly in order to beat the other bosses too.  The battles were just way too hard.  Additionally, the characters and enemies would often "miss" each other during the battles.  This occurred almost to the point of hilarity - rounds would go by where neither side hit anyone. 

Even though the battles were difficult, it did create for some rewarding battle experiences.  An example of such an occasion was when I nearly died while battling the Forest Guardian.  The only reason I survived was because it was about to deal a lethal blow and "missed."  Fortunately, my following attack "connected" and was able to take the beast down - otherwise I would have been toast. 

Screenshot:

Spoiler

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/theriverstyxoath/xerza1.png[/img]

Aside from the very difficult battles, the dialogue was very well done.  I was actually impressed with it.  Since I have been going back and playing a few older RPG's like Secret of Mana, I noticed that the dialogue in the "old-school" games is very brief and sparse.  Not having to wade through a bunch of dialog was a nice change of pace from most games. 

Screenshot:

Spoiler

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/theriverstyxoath/xerza13.jpg[/img]

The only thing I can really gripe about are the dungeons.  Now, it was a good experience to see what it's like to crawl through a "dungeon generator" dungeon.  However, there really isn't a whole lot of difference between 4 dungeons.  It's true that they have features unique to the different element that they represent (the woods, ice, earth, and the last one is Xerza's Tower.), but essentially, they are all just random mazes.  It was somewhat challenging to find my way around each maze, but after a while, it became rather uninteresting.  Without puzzles or other dungeon elements, the mazes didn't provide much variation.

Screenshot:

Spoiler

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/theriverstyxoath/xerza25.jpg[/img]

Story:  There really isn't much there.  I thought it was interesting at first when it seemed like there might be some kind of mythology links behind the story (since there are goddesses).  However, I realized that it was strictly fantasy though and there aren't any mythological references.

Screenshot:

Spoiler

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/theriverstyxoath/xerza20.jpg[/img]

Aside from that, the storyline is actually quite hilarious.  The characters are funny and unique.

Screenshot:

Spoiler

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/theriverstyxoath/xerza14.jpg[/img]

Comments on the Ending: *Major Spoilers*

Spoiler

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/theriverstyxoath/xerza8.jpg[/img]
Ok, so after I FINALLY defeated Xerza, it turns out that it was all just a test of our strength!?  OMG!  After ALL THAT!?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/ ... erza10.jpg[/img]

It also turns out that the whole purpose of "testing our strength" was because the other goddesses are planning to take down Lara Skye - the "goddess-gone-pop-star" who decided to freeze an entire continent.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/ ... erza11.jpg[/img]
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/ ... erza12.jpg[/img]

Overall, It was a creative and enjoyable ending (for such a short game).


Graphics & Sound:  Well, considering that it was all based on the RTP, I can't say much other than I thought craze used it well.  I really like how the world map was laid out especially.  Additionally, I like how the towns are all arranged similarly with fences defining the boundaries.

Screenshot:

Spoiler

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/theriverstyxoath/xerza26.jpg[/img]

Play Time & Replay Value:  After taking all that time to level-up my characters and frantically search the entire world map for "the island that sells ethers", it took me over 5 hours to complete the game.  That's a long time.  It's funny that craze said it took 2 hours to finish "making" the game.  This is  kind of interesting since the whole purpose of RPG Maker VX is to make "game creation" quicker and easier.  It's just funny that it took me longer to complete the game than it did for the creator to make it.  Oh, and no I wouldn't replay it again.  The ending is funny though.


Final Recommendation:  This game is very challenging and I like a challenge.  It was also fun since it was the first English RPG Maker VX game EVAR for download!!!111ONEONE 

I recommend giving it a run-through so that you can make cameos of Xerza and the gang in your games.  ;-)

Screenshot:

Spoiler

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/theriverstyxoath/xerza9.jpg[/img]

 

[Crazetex]

That is a great review and you are now up there with Diedrupo as my favorite RMXP.org members ever. I thought Xerza was beatable (although it was hard) at L9, but I suppose the player knows best. =D Way to be.


Oh, and I didn't make the game in two hours, I beat the game in under two hours. =P The game was made over several days.

 

[Denko]

Hey Crazetex, I felt kinda obligated to stop by after beating your game.
It was very fun, and I liked the simpleness of it. I beat it in about four hours, and I killed Xerza with my party at level 11.
It was very challenging, but I didn't mind. I like games like that. It was also balanced very well, which I'm sure you had to do yourself since the trial only has like two or three monsters already set up.
I fully agree with you that games can be fun without being epic sagas. This is a perfect example. Thanks for making this. When VX is realeased and I make a game, I'll be sure to share it with you.

 

[Diedrupo]

Yes, this was a great game and I look forward to playing many more like it.

I need to get around to writing a review for it on my review site sometime.

 

[Crazetex]

Denko: Hehe, glad you enjoyed it. And yeah, totally send a PM my way when you have a game ready. I'd love to play an English VX game that isn't my own... knowing about everything that's going to happen kind of reduces the fun a bit. :<