Okay, asking that question in the correct thread this time.
Did the evil cabal of wizards fuck with Amiel's head to make her believe that she was a normal village girl ? Because I can't figure why they'd throw a perfectly normal girl into their Lotus Eater Machine.
I mean, Taira and Amentha make perfect sense, since one is far too curious for her own good and would have poked at the situation sooner or later while the other was Atreyan's teammate and a know danger on her own. But Amiel ? If her unawakened personality is what she was like before the start of the story, then she was no danger.
She really was a happy village girl before this happened. Yeah, she probably knew some spells but she probably wasn't a fighter. I think when they grabbed Atreyan, they grabbed others by mistake and had to incorporate all of them into it. And as Atreyan said, the awakening process affects people differently. Amiel saw how boring it was to do the same thing over and over and over and over * 1,000,000 and went a little homicidal.
Also, this game was sweet but short. Too bad about the Princess but the Vizier and his allies are going to be in for a rude awakening after giving those four infinite time to master their skills.
I really liked the "opening segment". I had no idea what to expect going in, and that's frankly the best way to play this game. Hence the spoilertags.
the fairly generic RPG story (with hints that something was seriously wrong) was a refreshing change from TLS's more self-aware style. I even liked the item-trading quest. (though the knot-cutting solution you pull in subsequent loops is funny and practical.)
Plus, the fact that it's on MV means that (at the time) I didn't know how to CE the game, forcing me to actually play an RPGmaker game properly for the first time in a long while.
I put thought into what items I bought rather than just getting one of everything. Combat was actually challenging.
Frankly, it FELT like a real-ass RPG game.
Then the twist happens and everything got streamlined. From finding the cat (you don't actually have to see it on the subsequent play-through, you just tell her where it is) to the having party-members making combat easier. Everything got simpler and faster. Which is super fitting given that this was the realisation that it's not a normal RPG-game, and things like grinding, collecting cash or doing dungeons are a lot less important now.
TLDR: The first cycle shouldn't be streamlined. It's not supposed to be. You don't get to cut corners until after you pull the wool away from your eyes.
Plus,
I had a strange bug with money where my cash didn't reset properly, so I got to keep piling up more and more. That made buying whatever sword I needed for the current loop pretty easy. (though going to the Goblin-slayer guy and getting 175g from him is usually enough anyway.)
The only thing that needs more streamlining is the castle. Which feels like an actual RPG-zone, where you need to solve a puzzle and fight your way through the castle to the throne room. This is a problem given that, you the hero, and you the player, have given up on doing the standard RPG-thing by this point and moved onto cutting corners and exploiting the situation for your own benefit. The fact that this is the most tedious part of the game, and that there was (in version 1.0 atleast) no way to bypass it or make it less painful was really irritating.
Some way to ignore the key-collecting minigame on the third cycle onward would be absolutely perfect. (maybe the mage dispels every barrier? Maybe capturing the whip woman helps in some way?)
Also possibly collecting gold for the necklace.
Without my helpful little glitch I'd probably have had to spend 30 minutes looking everywhere for loot chests containing gold to get enough for that item. I guess if you do it at the end of a cycle rather than the start... I tried new things always at the start of the new cycle though.
Running around opening chests for money is a typical RPG senario, which again means it doesn't really fit after the second loop. If you see a chest, obviously you open it, but if you need gold you don't go looking for chests, you look for a way to exploit the situation and cut corners, because to hell with doing things "properly".
As i mentioned above, the golbin slaying gets you about 200g, if there was a way to rack up 500g or so in town it'd be perfect.
Maybe steal some stuff from the houses and sell it? Nick someone's life-savings?
Maybe convince the Sorceress to sell some of her store-stock in the item-shop? (it'd be a huge loss to her, assuming any of this was real, but since it's not, it's just quick cash.)
Alternatively, you could just light the shopkeeper on fire and take the necklace. or maybe just take it and walk out and see how she's programmed to deal with shoplifters?
Frankly, the problem with these things that we ask to be streamlined, is that for someone living in a world with no consequences and who has no respect for the "rules of the world" there's no reason to play along and plenty of opportunities to try something and see if it works. Like blowing the locked doors off their hinges. Or trying to rob and item-shop to see what happens.
Oh, this one isn't really a spoiler, just an odd thing that jumped out at me.
The main character coming back from the dead.
It gets used in the opening of the game, and it IS instrumental to the main plot, but it barely seems to get any play. Compared to the much more obvious mechanic we have to play with, the fact that he just gets back up if he's killed (but only in cutscenes) rarely seems to crop up, and often feels completely left-out. Like it's not important. It's just hanging out there.
I'd perhaps see if you could work it into the game-play in place of a Game-Over if you lose in battle. (you get kicked back to town, or out of the battle-scene with 1HP and get some dialogue from the party-members.) Maybe you finish the battle with your hero at 0hp you get a scene afterwards where he revives and his party-members react.)
Maybe have a section or two where he dies in cutscenes. Possibly due to recklessness due to knowledge of his situation. Eaten by a boss-monster. Splattered trying to rob the weapon-store. Bomb malfunction.
Hell, I'd like a small scene to trigger when goes upstairs in the inn with X character in his party, and on the way back down he just stumbles, trips down the stairs and breaks his neck.
There's a single beat as whoever's with him just stares in shock, then he revives. Maybe a comment about how that's not the most embarrassing death he's ever had.
Or try to find a way to remove it completely without fucking the main plot too much. Maybe have it so that it's not that he comes back from the dead, but that he can't die at all. he can get knocked down to 1hp and lose consciousness, but he can't actually be killed.
That'd mostly involve changing minor bits of dialogue and having him (or slimey?) start the game with a potion (to heal after the boulder hits him.)
Being invincible is something that's supposed to just hang around passively as an ability. It's the idea of not being able to do something. Just set it so he can't go below 1hp or something. Then if you finish a fight with the hero on 1hp, have a bit of dialogue about how he should have been dead, but survived because of his power.
If your character is supposed to be able to come back from the dead, on the other hand, you sorta expect him to do it every once in a while. He just doesn't. It happens once in the opening, and then it's mentioned in the "Truth" section, but it never really pops up again.
You clearly missed some things, because some of the stuff you asked for, like this, is definitely in there already.
Once the main character has awakened himself he regains memories of being a thief and can pick locks. So from there on you can just open any of the gates in the castle without getting a key. It IS streamlined from the 2nd loop on.
As for money, once you get access to the ruins, there's a flame that gives you cash and equipment for every loop thereafter, and there's a shortcut to it right in town. 600g right there.
You clearly missed some things, because some of the stuff you asked for, like this, is definitely in there already.
Once the main character has awakened himself he regains memories of being a thief and can pick locks. So from there on you can just open any of the gates in the castle without getting a key. It IS streamlined from the 2nd loop on.
As for money, once you get access to the ruins, there's a flame that gives you cash and equipment for every loop thereafter, and there's a shortcut to it right in town. 600g right there.
I did mention that I only played version 1.0 of the game, and I know for a fact that lockpicking wasn't in the first version, because I suggested it as a solution to that puzzle on the patreon. Nice to hear that I had a positive impact on the game though. Good for my ego.
As for the cash thing. The ruins is the place you gain access to after you buy the necklace, right?
After you've done that, you don't really need money anymore. Buying the necklace is the hard-part.
IIRC, it didn't give money in the first version anyway, just items for two characters. (but oddly enough, nothing for the third.)
Teira is fucking adorable, and Ameira is hilarious.
Emantha is okay.
This was pretty good! Until you consider that it was like, as a quickie one-off side project, which I think makes it REALLY good instead. The only thing I wasn't too enamored with was the main character's post-spoiler personality. It makes sense, I guess, but I dunno, I guess I've had enough of that type of character from TLS.
On the upside, Fairy scene was super hot, and I'm really impressed that it seems like impossible to fuck yourself over completely and get totally stuck. I'm not sure if anything especially clever was done to enable that, but I remember really liking that anyway.
I managed to take down the ogre before finishing my first cycle! I think I'd gotten every HP/Atk/Def buff I could, save for the trade one from the fire dungeon and the Enduring Ring (I didn't figure out where to take that Bell. :<). I'd bought the Ice sword for a little boost in attack (mostly for the fire dungeon later), but was otherwise working with free stuff - no helm or cloak or anything. Besides that, I brought Ameira along, to bleed some damage off me and use potions when I wasn't able to do that myself. With some luck and a few near-defeats to edge out another guard for TP before potioning back to full, I managed to just edge out a victory. It was good.
Sierra Lee-kun, Sierra Lee-kun! I want to ask, what did you have to fiddle with to get the stats and HP and shit down to where they were, and have all the other stats actually balanced and workable around that? I really like RPGs with lower numbers like this than RPG Maker's standard 800-hp-at-level-1 thing, but I'm not really sure how to go about converting the game to work like that, because I'm not sure if there's some hidden calculations somewhere or someshit.
Or like, was it just that you didn't have to worry as much about balance, due to the whole 'no actual levelling' thing?
Sierra Lee-kun, Sierra Lee-kun! I want to ask, what did you have to fiddle with to get the stats and HP and shit down to where they were, and have all the other stats actually balanced and workable around that? I really like RPGs with lower numbers like this than RPG Maker's standard 800-hp-at-level-1 thing, but I'm not really sure how to go about converting the game to work like that, because I'm not sure if there's some hidden calculations somewhere or someshit.
Or like, was it just that you didn't have to worry as much about balance, due to the whole 'no actual levelling' thing?
You can set character stats manually if you want, so I created some new battle equations and tried to create a balanced system. I think lower numbers can be fun too, and I really wanted the game to have a different feel than most RPG Maker games. I could say more about it if people wanted, but basically I just went in and set every single stat by hand.
You can set character stats manually if you want, so I created some new battle equations and tried to create a balanced system. I think lower numbers can be fun too, and I really wanted the game to have a different feel than most RPG Maker games. I could say more about it if people wanted, but basically I just went in and set every single stat by hand.
I actually got that same feeling but didn't remember until I read your comment.
It's basically the beginning of every old RPG ever. Doing single digit damage, with double digit health. The first franchise that came to mind was Dragon Quest.
As for setting everything by hand, RPG Maker lets you set custom stat curves or values per level, but I've never tried actually messing with re-writing battle formulae. Ouroboros doesn't have "levelling," so I think it shouldn't have taken any more work than designing a bunch of level 1 characters for any other game.
Ouroboros' battle system seems really minimalistic and simplistic, so I can't imagine it was THAT bad (not saying Sierra Lee didn't put in effort or that Ouroboros isn't a complex and good game, because she did, and it most definitely is) but like I said, I don't really know anything about that... Maybe one day I'll learn.
It wasn't so bad, all in all. On one hand, it's more difficult than just using RPG Maker's automated stuff, where you can click a button and it automatically creates a curve for you - the built-in settings can't produce numbers that low, or at least not good ones. On the other hand, everyone only needed one level, so it wasn't a ridiculous amount to set by hand.
It wasn't so bad, all in all. On one hand, it's more difficult than just using RPG Maker's automated stuff, where you can click a button and it automatically creates a curve for you - the built-in settings can't produce numbers that low, or at least not good ones. On the other hand, everyone only needed one level, so it wasn't a ridiculous amount to set by hand.
Actually, aside from having lower starting values, the idea of never levelling up was really interesting.
You get stronger through items and gain skills at plot-important points.
I mean, it did cause me a little trouble when I bought the wrong sword and couldn't beat one of the mandatory fights, but then I got past that fight by completing the trading quest and getting the ring, so it evens out.
I couldn't progress because I couldn't grind, but then I got better gear and won anyway.
Now I'm thinking about a game where one character levelling up is actually a big dramatic story element. Not in a meta "I just got xp" way though.
Some plot event happens and the main character becomes stronger because of said plot-event. (maybe a training sequence or a small timeskip?)
Which in mechanics-terms means he got a bunch of xp and hit level two.
You'd want it to increase his stats by a way larger amount than normal, if this is the only level-up in the game. Make him feel significantly stronger than he was before.
Maybe mix in a minor sprite/portrait change too.
Eh, i've always been a big fan of gameplay and story integration.
Have you ever wonder how an RPG Character with skills capable of destroying a planet still needs to find a key to pass a door in some kind of dungeon?
One thing i think the hardest to integrate between gameplay and story is "Save and Load" function, especially if the setting of the game is something in a realm of realism.
One fine example is, how they would design a difference in events of when a coded puzzle is solved. Most game ignore it, but i think it would be challenging to make so that the hero and the party comments on how the Hero instantly knew the code to solve said puzzle, when story-wise said code should only be received after for example defeating this certain boss. Some games justifies this by implementing no code-based puzzle at all, or ever-changing password puzzle.
One fine example is, how they would design a difference in events of when a coded puzzle is solved. Most game ignore it, but i think it would be challenging to make so that the hero and the party comments on how the Hero instantly knew the code to solve said puzzle, when story-wise said code should only be received after for example defeating this certain boss. Some games justifies this by implementing no code-based puzzle at all, or ever-changing password puzzle.
I actually know a game where that happen. In the first Grandia game, when you get captured by the army and have to sneak out of the base, there's a closed door that open with a password that you need to get by spying on the soldiers from the ventilation system.
(As a side note, the one you spy on are 3 girls in the process of changing in their locker room. Grandia is pretty damn awesome. )
If this is your second playthrough and you still remember the password however, you can unlock the door outright, at which point your party members are all like "WTF? How did you know the right combination?" "I've got no idea either. Luck ?". I always though it was an hilarious scene.
If this is your second playthrough and you still remember the password however, you can unlock the door outright, at which point your party members are all like "WTF? How did you know the right combination?" "I've got no idea either. Luck ?". I always though it was an hilarious scene.
