I thought maybe I should make a topic about my game.

[Lurker]

Suggestion: to avoid having to rebalance gold drops throughout the game, instead of changing the initial party gold, why not just re-tune some of the costs? E.g., make the early inn, class changes, and early potions cheaper.

The action/cost economy for magic users early game needs tuning too. Being unable to cast a spell more than once before needing to use an MP item is pretty unfriendly. If MP is prohibitive, you'll see people using physical classes more, as they offer more damage/turn when factoring in all the maintenance incurred by MP refills and having inferior gear.

The reason I don't want to make the classes cheap is because I don't want a lot of early game switching. You could just rapidly class change to every class to get all the different level 1 skills.

I could knock the inn down to 20 and the potions down to like . . . 15, maybe. You can get 20 potions from the dojo though.

You might be right about early magic users, but you also have to factor in the rest of the game. I think they're pretty good later on.

 

[mxx15]

Hmm I'm a little stuck, after you climb the mountain I come to loveless town or whatever it's called, I think I talked to everyone there, they were talking about someone who they were mean to and she/he left, so I wondered off and looked around, I found a lab and read up on the story of what happend there. But I can't seem to find out what I'm suppose to do. any idea of what to do? I may just have to look around some more. :blink

 

[Lurker]

Hmm I'm a little stuck, after you climb the mountain I come to loveless town or whatever it's called, I think I talked to everyone there, they were talking about someone who they were mean to and she/he left, so I wondered off and looked around, I found a lab and read up on the story of what happend there. But I can't seem to find out what I'm suppose to do. any idea of what to do? I may just have to look around some more. :blink

Ok, at that point in the game, there are two things you need to do for the storyline. There is a dungeon above the North entrance to the mountain, it looks like a tower in the wastleland but it's name is Rebirth Shrine. This is a mandatory dungeon, so you have to finish that.

You also have to do somewhat of a challenge in the Loveless inn.

After you do those two things, go back to the Loveless inn to advance the story.

 

[Lurker]

If anyone is ever stuck, post-castle, you can go to the foot reader in the castle basement (there are stairs in the pub area and the shop area), and have her give Maria a reading.

That will give you a hint on where to go next.

 

[LurkLurkLurk]

Impressions:

Praise

• I love the atmosphere and humor in the dialog.
  • Lockette is endearingly cheesy.
  • Silly NPC dialog is great.
  • Little touches like silk rope and itching powder in the room where the woman asks about whether her husband's tickling obsession is normal are fun to find.
• The sprites are cute.
• The tickling scenes have detail. This is enormously important.

Problems/Suggestions

• The game shouldn't be balanced around things that are hidden. Dojo potions, barrel gold, etc. are bonuses, not baseline determinants. Well, unless you stuff them in a chest you KNOW players will stumble across, and/or put glittering star animations on all the loot event tiles.
• I constantly feel like I lack direction in this game. The leads are fair, but they're not trivially recallable. Putting a crystal ball in that phones the mystic would be way more elegant than hoofing it to her basement all the time.
  • The map design is a painful throwback to Dragon Warrior 1. Here's what I would do differently.
  • Keep a visual guideline serving as a hint towards where the next area is on screen at all times. A big, green field with no obvious walls would be the worst possible thing a player could have. Knowing that a town is south, and not being able to see it, is okay if there's something like a valley I'm forced to walk through. A quick example of an offense that violates this principle is that big penninsula SE of Golden Noon that does not lead to te castle. There was nothing in that space. There's also nothing in the middle of the poison swamp. I assume the offender behind this is RM2K3's automatic map generator.
  • Rather than making the islands big and empty for future additions, maybe put small islands nearby that have NOT YET IMPLEMENTED event tiles that tell players not to waste their time in those regions.
  • Keep maps as small as possible. If you're not doing anything interesting with a screen, cut it. Examples: The ocean in LO2 had too much useless non-island space. The non-ocean areas of LO2's map were okay, though. Even KP had too much are where nothing was going on, even though there was almost always a point of interest on screen.
  • Abstract more. Less areas that serve no specific, interactive design purpose. I get it. There are people fighting. I don't need that much space to grasp the scale of the conflict.
  • Pay close attention to messages you're sending to the player. Hitting 5 or 6 locked doors sort of tells me, as a player, that I should probably stop looking, and that everything is sealed off (maybe presumably until an event is over). It doesn't incline me to try more doors for the one unlocked one that has a super secret surprise.
• Got a big map? Bring back the Warp spell! And don't forget to make it move the boat/airship/etc. near the town the player warps to.

I would appreciate some kind of walkthrough, and also maybe moving that post-castle map image posted earlier in the thread to the OP, so it's easier for new players to find.

 

[mxx15]

Ok, at that point in the game, there are two things you need to do for the storyline. There is a dungeon above the North entrance to the mountain, it looks like a tower in the wastleland but it's name is Rebirth Shrine. This is a mandatory dungeon, so you have to finish that.

You also have to do somewhat of a challenge in the Loveless inn.

After you do those two things, go back to the Loveless inn to advance the story.

The shrine as in the shrine where you fight the 4 spider boss? If that's the shrine then I did that, so I'm guessing that I got a game over with the Inn lady that that was the incorrect order, Ok time to get to work on this, and thanks for helping lurker.

 

[Lurker]

The shrine as in the shrine where you fight the 4 spider boss? If that's the shrine then I did that, so I'm guessing that I got a game over with the Inn lady that that was the incorrect order, Ok time to get to work on this, and thanks for helping lurker.

You actually have to beat the inn thing. First, talk to the chicken or whatever near the entrance if you haven't already. It's good luck. Then, it's a matter of selecting the right person depending on what she does. Each character has a weakness, strength, and neutral ones. The weakness ones should be obvious.

If people have trouble with this, or just don't like it, I could post the answers, I guess.

 

[slacker2114]

I played this to level 2, then restarted, mostly because of my own screw-ups in the beginning. Other than the xp/gold ratio, I really have no complaints. I use the forest right outside of town to do a little farming, since all but one is level 2 (didn't have enough gold to change the class of all 4 at the same time at the start). And while I think the Cheapshot skill should do a bit more damage since it is a special skill, compared to Charge, White or any of the elemental spells, I'm not really having any problems.

I wouldn't stress overmuch, Lurker. You did an excellent job from what I've seen so far. You should take a bow.

 

[Lurker]

Impressions:

Good

• I love the atmosphere and humor in the dialog.
  • Lockette is endearingly cheesy.
  • Silly NPC dialog is great.
  • Little touches like silk rope and itching powder in the room where the woman asks about whether her husband's tickling obsession is normal are fun to find.
• The sprites are cute.
• The tickling scenes have detail. This is enormously important.

Bad

• The game shouldn't be balanced around things that are hidden. Dojo potions, barrel gold, etc. are bonuses, not baseline determinants. Well, unless you stuff them in a chest you KNOW players will stumble across, and/or put glittering star animations on all the loot event tiles.
• I constantly feel like I lack direction in this game. The leads are fair, but they're not trivially recallable. Putting a crystal ball in that phones the mystic would be way more elegant than hoofing it to her basement all the time.
  • The map design is a painful throwback to Dragon Warrior 1. Here's what I would do differently.
  • Keep a visual guideline serving as a hint towards where the next area is on screen at all times. A big, green field with no obvious walls would be the worst possible thing a player could have. Knowing that a town is south, and not being able to see it, is okay if there's something like a valley I'm forced to walk through. A quick example of an offense that violates this principle is that big penninsula SE of Golden Noon that does not lead to te castle. There was nothing in that space. There's also nothing in the middle of the poison swamp. I assume the offender behind this is RM2K3's automatic map generator.
  • Keep maps as small as possible. If you're not doing anything interesting with a screen, cut it. Examples: The ocean in LO2 had too much useless non-island space. The non-ocean areas of LO2's map were okay, though. Even KP had too much are where nothing was going on, even though there was almost always a point of interest on screen.
  • Abstract more. Less areas that serve no specific, interactive design purpose. I get it. There are people fighting. I don't need that much space to grasp the scale of the conflict.
  • Pay close attention to messages you're sending to the player. Hitting 5 or 6 locked doors sort of tells me, as a player, that I should probably stop looking, and that everything is sealed off (maybe presumably until an event is over). It doesn't incline me to try more doors for the one unlocked one that has a super secret surprise.

I would appreciate some kind of walkthrough, and also maybe linking that map image posted earlier in the thread, so it's easier for new players to find.

My game is being compared to Dragon Warrior 1? That's one of the best compliments I've gotten so far. I grew up with that game.

And no, if I used the auto map generator on the world map, it would look atrocious. XD I made it myself. There actually was a swamp dungeon in the middle of the swamp. As I said, not everything has been added yet.

I disagree with Chekov's Gun, personally, especially in video games. One of my favorite RPGs is Final Fantasy 2j, so I'm pretty used to disagreeing with people.

I played this to level 2, then restarted, mostly because of my own screw-ups in the beginning. Other than the xp/gold ratio, I really have no complaints. I use the forest right outside of town to do a little farming, since all but one is level 2 (didn't have enough gold to change the class of all 4 at the same time at the start). And while I think the Cheapshot skill should do a bit more damage since it is a special skill, compared to Charge, White or any of the elemental spells, I'm not really having any problems.

I wouldn't stress overmuch, Lurker. You did an excellent job from what I've seen so far. You should take a bow.

Ah, sorry you had to restart.

You know, I actually wanted cheapshot to do more damage. It's supposed to be a skill that's extremely dependent on your attack and mystic and it ignores defense, so I thought maybe it would eventually do more damage, but it didn't scale like I wanted it to. Sorry about that, that does need changed. On the other hand, punk is a really, really good class, capable of so much support and tricks, that maybe it's good balance to have some less useful skills.

 

[Lurker]

Ok, I'll write up a whole, albeit concise walkthrough for anyone who wants it, and I'll put the map image in the first post.

Any suggestions on how I should present a walkthrough?

 

[slacker2114]

Here's what happened: I got to the first town and found all that gold and did what I normally do in an rpg, which is buy the best weapons and armor. Then I loaded up on potions and status ailment fixers and thought, "Hell yeah! I'm ready to kick some ass!"

THEN I discovered the class house and did a mega-facepalm. >_<

So like I said, it was my own fault. But I still played it up to the sorceress' lackey at the castle, who kept handing me my ass. That was when I decided to just start over and take it slower.

As for a walkthru, I think it's too soon. I prefer to go at it alone as long as possible and figure it all out for myself, rather than have everything spoonfed to me. Call me old school, but I say what's the point of playing if I'm going to be able to just read about what I can do. I'd wait a month or two on the walkthru and just concentrate on any gameplay changes you may want to make. Just my opinion, though.

 

[JonesyJones]

I would appreciate some kind of walkthrough, and also maybe moving that post-castle map image posted earlier in the thread to the OP, so it's easier for new players to find.

I second most of what Lurk said to you, Lurker (you guys have such similar names it's amazing), but especially this. I don't really know what I'm doing. I mean, I went to the cave fought Pouch (love Pouch btw) and then went to the castle and got my ass handed to me cos I was still level 1. That's not really intuitive, if you see what I mean. And if I get 20-30 exp every time I beat a monster in a wild encounter, but it takes me 1000 exp to level up... well, it's maddening, and grinding isn't especially fun.

But yes, most important thing is WALKTHROUGH! Or a quest journal. If possible, both.

Still love the game though, so don't hate me if I sound overtly negative ):

 

[JonesyJones]

Ok, I'll write up a whole, albeit concise walkthrough for anyone who wants it, and I'll put the map image in the first post.

Any suggestions on how I should present a walkthrough?

Like someone else said, it shouldn't really be your priority, but a walkthrough would be nice at some point down the road. Stuff like "Recommended level: 2" and general directions is how I'd do things 😛

 

[Lurker]

I second most of what Lurk said to you, Lurker (you guys have such similar names it's amazing), but especially this. I don't really know what I'm doing. I mean, I went to the cave fought Pouch (love Pouch btw) and then went to the castle and got my ass handed to me cos I was still level 1. That's not really intuitive, if you see what I mean. And if I get 20-30 exp every time I beat a monster in a wild encounter, but it takes me 1000 exp to level up... well, it's maddening, and grinding isn't especially fun.

But yes, most important thing is WALKTHROUGH! Or a quest journal. If possible, both.

Still love the game though, so don't hate me if I sound overtly negative ):

Well you get 400 EXP alone just from clearing out the confuser slimes in Golden Noon Cave.

The monsters in the cave should give about 30 exp, that's just 20 fights. Also, the pink slime heals you, so grinding there can go really fast.

 

[jax1]

I confirm Lurker solution ,for moving to level 2 just stay in the cave near the pink slime and hunt some monsters ! It's just a few farm but it's really useful ! And for moving to level 3 you can do the same thing in the castle.Just go fighting against the group of two ninja and two kunoichi (the one on the screen) ,they are easy because you always start the fight with the upper hand ,so it allow you to make a lot of damage without been hurts ! And for healing you just have to return to the guard at the entrance of the castle (it cost 20 gold but this fight give you 60 gold !).This fight also give 100 exp each time ,so it's long but useful too ^-^

 

[mxx15]

Soooo, I got past the Inn part, and talked to the pink haired sorcereress, after that she said something about a bridge and that she removed the traps, well that's great but I have no idea where the bridge is I think she said northeast, do I need to go back and get the boat? I really wish I could teleport because I have to walk everywhere and encountering enemies every 5-10 seconds can be a little bit of a pain. 🙁

 

[Lurker]

Soooo, I got past the Inn part, and talked to the pink haired sorcereress, after that she said something about a bridge and that she removed the traps, well that's great but I have no idea where the bridge is I think she said northeast, do I need to go back and get the boat? I really wish I could teleport because I have to walk everywhere and encountering enemies every 5-10 seconds can be a little bit of a pain. 🙁

If you're still in Loveless, you can speak with Chad below the armor shop. He offers a service to move your skiff back and forth, and also a ride to the Haven, where a similar service is offered. Take a ride to the Haven. The bridge is North of the Rebirth Shrine, although make sure you go West around the river. (If you go on the bridge before the inn scene with Mefika, it's a game over.)

Northeast is where you can go after you cross the bridge, there's another city there.

 

[Lurker]

Ok, if a certain something in a certain casino teleports you to a desert, do not save your game. Reload your last save.

I'll update the first post with this.

 

[mxx15]

at the graveyard I beat Josh again, and when I get to the tomb it ask me for a code, and it said a hint is outside, I checked all the graves and looked around for any hints but I can't find it. It's a 4 digit code.

 

[JonesyJones]

Well you get 400 EXP alone just from clearing out the confuser slimes in Golden Noon Cave.

The monsters in the cave should give about 30 exp, that's just 20 fights. Also, the pink slime heals you, so grinding there can go really fast.

'Just' 20 fights? Ugh. And I hate to say it, but I'm playing this game for the tickling scenes, I really don't like I have to grind for an hour just to get to my fourth tickling scene. I count three true tickling scenes (tickled by the sorceress' pet, game over trap, lose to Pouch). If I have to name a major gripe, it's the leveling system. C'mon, how about instead of a thousand exp needed to level up, make it five hundred.

Make no mistake, I like a lot of things about this game, but the combat system and the grinding for exp thing is a real dealbreaker for me right now. I'm like at the 1700 mark for three character and 1100 for another and the fact I'd have to grind, heal, grind, heal for ages just to keep the plot going bugs me like hell. I want to keep playing, and I want to know what happens next, but the fact that I'd have to grind all my chars to level 2 just to progress the plot makes me want to get up and do something else.

Sorry, for being so negative, Lurky, it's just really bothering me ):

 

[Lurker]

at the graveyard I beat Josh again, and when I get to the tomb it ask me for a code, and it said a hint is outside, I checked all the graves and looked around for any hints but I can't find it. It's a 4 digit code.

Yep, the hint is in the graves. Outside there are four patches of graves. Going from left to right, top to bottom, the graves display numbers (the cross ones).

'Just' 20 fights? Ugh. And I hate to say it, but I'm playing this game for the tickling scenes, I really don't like I have to grind for an hour just to get to my fourth tickling scene. I count three true tickling scenes (tickled by the sorceress' pet, game over trap, lose to Pouch). If I have to name a major gripe, it's the leveling system. C'mon, how about instead of a thousand exp needed to level up, make it five hundred.

Make no mistake, I like a lot of things about this game, but the combat system and the grinding for exp thing is a real dealbreaker for me right now. I'm like at the 1700 mark for three character and 1100 for another and the fact I'd have to grind, heal, grind, heal for ages just to keep the plot going bugs me like hell. I want to keep playing, and I want to know what happens next, but the fact that I'd have to grind all my chars to level 2 just to progress the plot makes me want to get up and do something else.

Sorry, for being so negative, Lurky, it's just really bothering me ):

I wanted to make the starting levels a little lower, unfortunately, you can't set your own exp curve values in RPG Maker games. Everything is so level 99-centric, that it's really hard to make a good exp curve for only 16 levels.

 

[Lurker]

I dunno, do people want me to just release another version of the game where there's more exp and gold at the start?

 

[JonesyJones]

I dunno, do people want me to just release another version of the game where there's more exp and gold at the start?

I reckon it'd make the game more newbie-friendly. But you should wait till a few more people voice their opinions 😛

 

[mxx15]

Yep, the hint is in the graves. Outside there are four patches of graves. Going from left to right, top to bottom, the graves display numbers (the cross ones).

That helped, but how do I count them? The max number is 4 and some of the patches has 6-9 crosses, I assumed that you count them only in one row, because all 3 rows of the patches had 3 crosses, so I assumed that it was 3, but the bottom left patch confused me, it had 3 crosses total in 2 rows except for the last row, it had 2. Albert Einstein give me Strength!:scared I could probably get the number down, but the game over scene takes time. Or if I could just keep trying the number without the scene it wouldn't be as hard.

 

[Lurker]

That helped, but how do I count them? The max number is 4 and some of the patches has 6-9 crosses, I assumed that you count them only in one row, because all 3 rows of the patches had 3 crosses, so I assumed that it was 3, but the bottom left patch confused me, it had 3 crosses total in 2 rows except for the last row, it had 2. Albert Einstein give me Strength!:scared I could probably get the number down, but the game over scene takes time. Or if I could just keep trying the number without the scene it wouldn't be as hard.

Oh sorry, I wasn't specific enough. n_n; The cross graves should appear to look like roman numerals. The bottom left patch might help you see what I mean.