Despair Labyrinth (RPG Maker VX GOR game) - Version 0.09 - Updated 4/18/2012!

[ker]

Originally Posted by Takimaru

Depends on how many characters you wish to play through with. As of right now, it should be at least about an hour or so per girl, probably several if you play a low-Purity route (or both low and high). Could always try it after the new patch, which I'm trying to hammer out before the end of the year.

I'd actually double that at least. When you make the game you tend to underestimate how long the game takes to play because you do everything right the first time. When you're poking away away randomly, smelling the petals (Ha, I made a pun!), and seeing whats there the game is quite lengthy.

[Takimaru]

ker-
Haha, true that!
Also thanks for the script, definitely a useful thing for nearly any H-game made with VX nowadays.

nope-
Welp, this game is far from final, so don't expect that to be the 'final' difficulty!
Thyme seems to be pretty popular--she was the first to hit 100 votes on the LoK forums so I made them a bonus picture in appreciation.

[nope]

My suggestion with Thyme is that you don't let her lack of sexual inhibitions get too far. Try to give the player dialogue choices that reflect whether or not she likes what is being done to her. I think you've done this rather well so far but the scene in the stall could use dialogue options - I don't think there are any.

[Takimaru]

Oh, yeah--so far, none of the stall scenes have dialogue options at all. I may add them eventually, but I decided to leave it like that for now because honestly, it's a LOT of work, and the stall H-scenes as is have a ton of conditionals based on Purity.

Thyme has just as many options as all of the other characters, it's just that she starts at a lower Purity. You can raise it somewhat via the shower if you'd like to see her high-Purity options, which vary depending on the scene at hand.

[nope]

Oh, I didn't realize purity had such a large effect on scenes.

[Takimaru]

Yes, that it does. Generally the threshold between high and low is around 50, though you can sleep with the starting maid off the bat (outside of Irine) and the deal with the first pikeman is only about 70 or so, mainly because it was kind of a 'test' thing when the early version only went up to him.

Right now, Purity adjusts your dialogue choices and even what H-scenes you can get. If it's too low, however, you might miss out on some relationships and even party members (Gwyn) in extreme examples, depending on what choices you couple with it. Each girl starts out at a different Purity--a girl like Irine begins at 100, for examples, whereas Emilia is 90, Rhiannon is 70 and Thyme has the lowest default at 60.

[ker]

It's also an exponential thing. So you want to add one set of a triple modifiers (purity) which triples the workload. Then you add in another modifier (experience) which turns those 3 scenes into 9. Then you do that over 8 characters...

Got view everything with an 'is it worth it' filter.

[soulles]

to be honoust here, for me it was all worth it, I know you where referring to Takimaru there Ker, I mean, its most likely not worth it for him at times to add as much as he has so far...

but I for one am realy happy with the game and how it works, yeah the fights most of the times are quite simple, but still, apart from that, the purity thing is what makes it a realy enjoyable game...

I have actualy played through about 6 or 7 of the characters on low and on high purity, and to be honoust, it works realy wonderfull...

I feel this is the best game I have played apart from about 2 or 3 maybe, but those are only higher due to my liking of the artists style or the scenes being animated and the game being realy lenghty as wel... wich are quite scarse to be honoust... ^^

[BlueSlime]

If all goes according to plan, I've a feeling it will all be worth it for the sake of the end product. He's providing an amazing replayability experience for what would otherwise be just another H-RPG game.

[argret]

I think the sexual attractiveness and contrasts of the girls is worth to exploit,like how you can take advantage of the warrior pride of Emilia,or suprise from the possible amount of "experience" Rhiannon might have,or how enjoyable it might be to see Irine's twisted "holy" lusts,or maybe the excitement of Thyme the S&M pro,or how Lanie look for some pleasure through her courses of summon and alchemy,or maybe Sairyn looking for a "beating 100 men" or so stamina challenge (her fiacee sure is the cream on the cake) ? While I like Asella and her "you commmoner" thing the most,some twists and turns like facing a whole band of her following knights after her "hot tales" are widely spread ? maybe on a green field

[shruikaan]

Takimaru, the scene with Gwyn in the version before the 0.08, to have the H-scene with Gwyin, do we have to have low purity or high affection with Gwyn or both? Because when I tried that the last time, I wasn't able to get the scene, and I haven't lost to Red and Blue. I'll try again in the 0.08.

[Takimaru]

Updated, btw. I'm pretty happy with this update, as pretty much all of the uber-pixelated CG's from the early version have been replaced with shiny new ones, making for an overall better-looking game.

argret-
Thanks for posting and sorry about the slow response; often in the weeks leading up to an update, particularly in a slower-moving thread, I try to save room so that I don't end up double posting for purposes of the update. Great suggestions that I will keep in mind--as we go along, I'll work to make each girl's experiences more unique, and have started with 0.08.

shruikaan-
Basically, in order to get the campfire scene with Gwyn, you'll need a relationship score of 2 or higher. Make sure to stand on the cell exactly two spaces right of the bonfire (on the bottom part of the mat) and hit Space / Enter or whatever you use for confirm...though actually, you should just be able to walk over it for the thing to work. Here are the three conditions that need to be met to trigger this event;
- Red and Blue Dead
- Gwyn Rescued (and in party, obviously)
- Gwyn Relationship greater than or equal to 2

Tested it in my most recent version and it's still working properly, so yeah.

[Alkalannar]

I don't know if anyone else has posted this, but the warrior who uses twin swords sometimes uses two-handed swords instead.

Also, from the description of some of the swords, they ought to be one-handed, but aren't.

Don't have details since this is off of memory. Sorry.

[Takimaru]

No worries. Actually, Emilia is able to wield two-handed swords by nature, mainly because I meant her to be a jack-of-all-trades warrior class. As long as there are no two-handed swords that she can wield with one hand like a boss, then we should be good.

Since there are two kinds of swords and the rest of the weapons are relatively distinct from one another, I'll go ahead and put two-handed in front of 2H swords for future updates.

[shruikaan]

Originally Posted by Takimaru

Updated, btw. I'm pretty happy with this update, as pretty much all of the uber-pixelated CG's from the early version have been replaced with shiny new ones, making for an overall better-looking game.



shruikaan-
Basically, in order to get the campfire scene with Gwyn, you'll need a relationship score of 2 or higher. Make sure to stand on the cell exactly two spaces right of the bonfire (on the bottom part of the mat) and hit Space / Enter or whatever you use for confirm...though actually, you should just be able to walk over it for the thing to work. Here are the three conditions that need to be met to trigger this event;
- Red and Blue Dead
- Gwyn Rescued (and in party, obviously)
- Gwyn Relationship greater than or equal to 2

Tested it in my most recent version and it's still working properly, so yeah.

Thanks, I'll try it.
About the special Emilia H-Scene, the room when it occurs, is the one at the left the room where there is a exclusive H-scen for Asella?

[Takimaru]

Yes. You can trigger it by interacting with the left side of the large bed at the very end of the room (provided you've been sent to the Chambers by losing to a Silent Assassin, Kalen, or Xanrud once beforehand as a condition).

For all characters, you can also sleep in the bed in the middle room just to restore HP/SP.

[nope]

I won't have time to play this update for a while longer, but a few suggestions:

1) It'd be nice to have some way to fuck up by doing something your character might actually do rather than having to surrender battles. You could do this without making the game overall much more difficult by giving the opportunity to make mistakes. Say the player finds a potion somewhere with an unknown effect, and if the player decides to drink it, her stats are nerfed so she might lose easier Or, say, a sidequest where the player is asked to find a weapon or other useful item for a character in the labyrinth; if the item is useful and the reward insignificant, the player could "fuck up" by giving the item back rather than keeping it for herself.

2) Follow-ups to previous encounters. This might be too much effort to be worth it, but it'd be awesome to meet the sailors again. I say too much effort because it'd create another thing to take into account when writing scenes; not just which character and that character's purity level, but also how the past encounters went.

[Takimaru]

1.) So basically traps and what not? Sounds pretty good, actually, and should provide some more variety to the game. I'll likely implement it in the next Division (after 0.10), but maaaybe beforehand if I can figure out where I want to go with that.

I plan to make the game progressively more difficult as we go along, mainly by nerfing some OP things, such as status effects. However, I don't want it to be TOO hard, 'cause let's face it, most people aren't playing this game for the amazing combat system, heh. Admittedly, combat is the aspect of this game that I spend the least time on, so if anyone is experienced with number crunching or balancing in turn-based RPG combat, they'd be welcome to test.

2.) Actually, I have been doing that, but typically based on how many requests I got. From earlier patches I was overwhelmed with requests for 'more twins', 'more dominatrix', 'more Gwyn' and so on, which is why I put additional scenes beyond the first for those characters, partially due to the demand. I get a lot of people saying that they liked the sailors scene, but not necessarily that they'd like to see those three guys again. However, if I get a couple more requests in that fashion for those guys, I'll definitely look into it.

[nope]

Originally Posted by Takimaru

I plan to make the game progressively more difficult as we go along, mainly by nerfing some OP things, such as status effects. However, I don't want it to be TOO hard, 'cause let's face it, most people aren't playing this game for the amazing combat system, heh.

All the more reason to make the game more difficult outside combat rather than within it.

The combat system itself isn't bad, just kind of generic. That all the characters have unique and varied abilities helps a lot.

[Stratiros]

I've played through with Rhiannon and Asella.

First reactions for Rhiannon. Playing through with her was interesting, I had to buy a ton of potions to keep going and prevent lots of loses. I had a bit of trouble with the bosses until I hit them with a status effect. Then berserking solved every problem. Though I lost to Red and Blue the first time because they blinded me and I didn't buy extra Panaceas.

For Asella I tried to go through without using the consumable potions since she can heal. This didn't work very well at first, though I found her dialogue whenever anything happened to her very interesting. Xanrud was a very difficult fight. I couldn't land as many hits as I was used to with other characters, but he couldn't damage her with anything except Rogue's Blade.

I really liked the bath scene, saw it in both runs. Though are you supposed to be able to get it if you can't get the bed one yet?

I also really liked Asella's new scene in the new area. Seeing more of how the characters interact and info about the world was quite nice. That is the reason I make sure to get captured by the assassin's once with each character.

Also, more events like that in the future would be greatly appreciated. Meaning that winning a fight gives a choice of having fun with the loser.

As for other thoughts on the game. One thing that struck me as something that could be cool, though I don't know if it's possible to implement, is enemy attacks which have different effects based on the purity of the defender. Something like more Crass enemies have a 'Cop a feel' attack that caused a de-buff to high purity girls without affecting low purity ones. On the other side, since you implied that the arcane division would be coming up soon, an 'Incite Lust' attack that caused hit and evasion penalties that worsen with low purity.

Another random thought that would probably be way too much work to implement. Gear that affects events would also be a fun thing. Something along the lines of wearing the dominatrix outfit while interacting with female NPCs gives a slightly different, or maybe just extended, sex scene. Or maybe just having particular scenes that rely on the player having something equipped and if they don't the scene isn't present.

[Takimaru]

Yeah, defense isn't exactly Rhiannon's strong suit per se, though she does have the max HP to not be a total glass cannon. I think she can do the most physical damage in the least amount of time, as her 'berserk' type effects are stackable, and combining them with Whirlwind Slice makes for a devastating finish.

Asella on the other hand excels at defense, and I've found that stacking both defensive spells / stances is almost broken. Heh, which dialogue--the low or high-Purity ones?

And well, the bed one is more difficult to get considering you had to kill both Red and Blue and NOT lose to them, so... yeah, the bath is somewhat easier (still need to modify it to only trigger if relationship with Gwyn is over 2, though). The only reason why I made it so that you had to kill the two thugs was during testing, I sometimes found them in there waiting for me, and figured that having romantic sex with Gwyn while the thugs were still chasing you probably just wasn't a good idea, both flavor and mechanic wise.

Yep, you'll definitely see more character interactions between the 'Primary 8', especially since them being in your party is very unlikely (outside of temporary join-ups for battles).

I suppose I could always make a 'Horny' status effect (which could adjust based on Purity) in time for the Arcane Division's debut come 0.10, which would be appropriate flavor-wise as a new mechanic. It'd be easy enough to do. Also, I figure that a pheromone-spewing creature can ultimately do a better job of turning the girls on than some dagger-wielding thug just looking to get off.

Mm, dunno if I mentioned it in this particular thread, but I actually meant for the dominatrix outfit to be usable for Asella x Rhiannon, but alas, it totally skipped my mind. Could easily do a conditional branch with that.

[Stratiros]

For Rhiannon I was mostly just using regular attacks because of her low mp. I wanted to save all I could for her condition effects. I also didn't realize her rages were stackable, good to know.

With Asella the high purity options were interesting because of her character. The low purity ones tended to be quite humorous for me. How much she was resistant to everything up until the act actually starts then orders the person around.

Though her defense is crazy, I had bosses doing 0 damage a lot of the time. Though when they didn't deal damage, even if they hit no status ailments were ever applied. Is that intended behavior or was I just lucky?

On my run with Asella she wound up at 16 purity by the time I met Gwyn. I choose the nice/flirty options and she didn't move in for anything in the first scene like she did with Rhiannon who was much higher purity at that point. I killed Red and Blue and won the next big fight, though the bed scene wouldn't trigger until after I'd done the bath scene twice.

The idea for the thugs wasn't that they were turning her on. It was that they would embarrass a high purity character, causing some sort of status ailment, and a low purity one wouldn't be phased by their antics.

Ahh, that sounds like it would be fun. Also, during the AsellaxRhiannon scene I found it kind of odd that having your way with her caused Asella to gain purity rather than lose it. I was wondering what the reasoning there was.

Also, something I just thought of. Are the same levels of purity for events going to be present throughout the whole game? It seemed like their was a step where they go from resisting everything to enjoying everything all at once. Given an entirely new division would there be further low purity, highly decadent by regular standards, options. Not necessarily more scenes for a certain enemy, but rather a different cut off to where she started enjoying it. Or instead more scenes like Gwyn's which raise the stat?

[Takimaru]

Yep. You can expect a reasonable nerf to various skills in later patches, but like I said, the combat system is what I spend the least amount of time on, sooo yeah. As of right now, combining Irine or Asella's defensive skills does make for pretty much an indestructa-tank.

And yeah, you do need high Purity to be able to put the moves on Gwyn. Eventually, I'm going to make all romantic relationships or events raise Purity, and in turn, certain characters are going to need you to have relatively high Purity to even stand a chance with them (in terms of getting them in the sack).

Okay, I get what you mean by the proposed attack then.
Not exactly sure why raping Rhiannon would boost Purity--probably just a bit of a mistake on my end. Will have to fix that.

I will constantly be offering more options to recover Purity later on, so that it just doesn't plummet lower and lower to where you're basically mindbroken the entire game (though I suppose you could, if you wanted...). The Purity system was similar to Violated Heroine in origin, I guess, though that game had 4 different scores which are honestly a pain to keep track of, yeesh...

[Raijin]

Hi Takimaru
I'm following your game from its beginning, to be honest I'd never thought a game I discovered on the LoK forums could be that good and... long =P

But I don't write it just to congratulate you, I have a suggestion (niark) !
9 characters and so much CG for each one, I just think it takes too much time to unlock all of them in the gallery (congratulations for the gallery too, never thought it would be possible ). Well, I wanted to suggest you to make a sort of chapters system, which could permit to skip some steps of the game we all went through a lot of times, even if I still love them

Hope you got my mind, I'm used to be misunderstood when I try to type huge paragraphs

Thanks again

[Takimaru]

No no, I completely understand what you're saying. Hrrm... well, I don't think the game is currently THAT long to warrant one, however--it looks like as it goes on, we'll be having some kinda chapter system whether I want it to or not. The limited amount of common event slots in one project essentially makes it so that I can only add so many H-events, all in all.

So yeah, once we get past the Arcane Division, there'll likely be an 'Episode 2' of sorts--if each project file has maybe two divisions, then this game can be completed in 3 different 'chapters', or project files, each loaded to the brim with H-events (with extra slots already allocated for potential new characters and what not). Hopefully that'll spare you some replay value.

If not, I COULD always just send you a version with the debuggers' tools (instawin device, teleportation device, level adjuster, purity adjuster, etc.)

[Raijin]

You're right, the game itself isn't so long, it's just to have to redo everything each time there's an update or a gallery to complete

And this debugger's tool would be really enjoyable as long as it may be used just while the game isn't finished

[Riposte]

I don't suppose anyone could post a savegame with all the CGs? I quite like this game (it actually manages to stand out amongst the gazillion RPGmaker games) but I don't really have the patience to go through everything with every girl, and I'd like to take a look at the rest of them.

[Takimaru]

Edit:
Check your PM's.

[soulles]

Originally Posted by Takimaru

Edit:
Check your PM's.

you got a save there for all the cg, cause I would actualy like one as wel... ^^

[DudePerson]

Same, Looking for full CG file. I don't exactly feel like replaying all the characters to get the CGs again :P