Chrono Compendium
Guru Workshop - Project Forums - Need One? Ask In Kajar Labs => Chrono Shift RPGMaker Project => Topic started by: Mr Bekkler on March 19, 2011, 04:58:10 pm
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Played the demo yet? Liked it? Hated it? Found bugs? Talk about it here!
:D
EDIT: Here's the link to the video walkthrough with Director's commentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8snhGOv40k
Soon to come: Achievements.
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Incredibly slow download... cursed megaupload.........
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I'm sorry, but let's try to keep this thread for discussion of the demo itself please.
Edit: I added a Mediafire link in case people have problems downloading through RMN or Megaupload.
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Well, I downloaded it and played too. I can say that it was very very nice to play! The battle song was so...incredible!
Very well, I found a bug (now start to cry...just kidding xD):
1th. Sometimes the characters following me can walk through walls.
2nd. Nothing.
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Yeah, unfortunately, I know about that bug but can't do much to fix it without rewriting the caterpillar code entirely, and it's already long and tedious. For the full game I might take a stab at it, but the decision I made was it's better to have characters following you a la Chrono Trigger, and end up with them walking through some stuff they shouldnt, than to just have one person on the screen. I put a lot of work into those sprites! Well, most of em, anyway. I have to admit, Sierra the terrorist is a mishmash of two Dragon Quest 4 sprites, and Taven, the girl team member with green hair, is a recolored mishmash of two other sprites from Dragon Quest 4. But in the long run that just made their battle sprites harder (and take longer)to make than if I just based them on CT sprites like Norstein and Rush.
The battle song is "Final Fantasy I Chaos Temple" by The Dual Dragons. (http://www.thedualdragons.com/download%20section.html)
The final battle is " Fire Cross" by LuIza on ocremix.org (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01515/)
The secret boss is "Thrash's Snakebone Pit" by OA on ocremix.org (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01959/)
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Yeah, the sprites were very well-worked!
The walk-through-things bug isn't too bad, correct it would just make the game more beautifuler, you know? One more time: great game!
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You make me blush! Thank you. :oops:
The Overture Team is the best!
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Pretty good despite unable to use the D-pad on my USB controller. I did come across a rather weird yet somewhat funny glitch. In the first monster filled area after departing with the green haired girl, I went up to an enemy, expecting to get into combat. Instead, every other enemy in the current area rushed over and started humping the characters and THEN battle started.
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Yeah that sounds like the first battle I coded, still trying to figure out how to deal with enemies attacking you and having enough time for sound effects and stuff. The effect was pretty hilarious, I call those enemies Snakerats. I think the later battles came out much better.
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The golem is a tough one...
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Just finished playing the demo :D Over all very good! the story is very interesting and dialogues are good. I liked the character art and the music. I think the sprites look good and I really like that each character have their own victory dance, little details like that are what helps define the characters from a visual point of view... Also I like that Taven "pushed her way into your party", instead of just joining you, that made me smile ( :P very Chrono Cross-ish).
Now some small observations:
I couldn't find any important bug, just some little details with collisions here and there, for example:
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/licawolf/cs_room.jpg)
Here the characters can get behing the globe.
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/licawolf/cs_falls.jpg)
In this place there is an invisible barrier, you can't walk over it.
The floor texture in this area here was a little distracting visually, maybe too noisy...once I got used, it didn't bother me at all, but at first it was distracting. I know is based upon the Cursed Woods graphics, but I think in black and white the texture is heavier on the eye (ugh, I don't know if I'm making any sense with that...>_> I'm not fluent in english)
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/licawolf/cs_texture.jpg)
I like the way the end of time graphics were used for the Zeal Falls scenary. The only thing that bothered me was this bridge, it looks good, but since the characters don't walk diagonally and it's very long, it's difficult to transit through it without stopping a couple of times.
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/licawolf/cs_bridge.jpg)
In this part I actually clicked the switch like three times because I thought it didn't do anything, then I moved north and noticed the door. I think maybe after you press the switch, it could be good to add a sound of a door opening or something indicating that something had happened out of your range of vision.
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/licawolf/cs_switch.jpg)
On the battle sequences I think it should be more evident which enemy is attacking you, I know the enemy in question flashes briefly, but it is so briefly I didn't noticed it at first and during the first fight I didn't get who was attacking me. I'm not saying there need to be fully animated sequences for each enemy attack, but maybe a more evident effect? moving the sprite slightly or using an arrow to indicate the attacker.
The Golem was though(but not impossible) the first time I played it, but when i played the level again, and explored the whole woods and equiped all the tabs, the Golem was a piece of cake.
I really don't know anything about balancing battle stats and stuff like that, but are Earthbound characters going to gain some kind of technic equivalent to the aura eventually? Not having one could be a disadvantage for them compared with the other characters. I did not feel Rush was strong enough to compensate his lack of aura, but i may be wrong.
All of these are observations from my point of view, and from a first playthrough perspective :) Frankly I think the game does work pretty well the way it is already, and it looks very promising. Very good work! :D
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Thanks for the input!
I can't really change too much of the battle system, but I'm trying to find a good way to make the enemies move when they attack, if it proves too time consuming to be feasible, at the very least the bosses in the full game will move some.
I was thinking about possibly giving Rush some techs but haven't reached a firm decision yet. Might start a poll. I'll definitely pump up his stats a little more.
For Zeal Falls, TheMage made the maps for it (and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it for the first time!) and I kind of like that it's difficult to get around that diagonal part, it makes the platform that looks like the End of Time a more suspenseful reveal. The whole place is sort of constructed to be looked at and taken in. This is Zeal at its ethical prime!
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Ah yes, the grainy snowy area.... I will admit at first the texture did strain my eyes. You might want to soften that up.
EDIT: Here's a good 52 examples of bad game development to take note of http://www.gametrailers.com/video/angry-video-screwattack/65116 I hope this helps polish CS up! ^^
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I can soften the woods :wink:
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Just finished! :D I think I found all the secrets bwahahaha and I didnt find any bugs, well maybe one, everytime I walk over the healing square in the secret room I get attacked by the boss I already defeated but hey he got me to level 30, and made the golem a peace of cake! Also freaking awesome techs and I love the battles, they look lik there on the map just like Chrono Trigger, and I like how walking in certain places may trigger a battle :D
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I haven't even defeated him yet! Awesome! That's Nightmare, he has 6661 HP, and the Golem has 1666 HP. In case anyone was wondering.
EDIT: Beat him for a video playthrough.
SPOILER
Tip: Taven's spell Paralyze. In or near the beginning of the fight. Never comes undone unless you have an item. It's actually a very cheap spell, the first Taven gains, and can become THE superspell when facing huge whompers like that. Not to mention Rush's secret weapon and 25 power tabs in the same location, I don't think his lack of magic is a downside if you explore a lot and use your items right...
...though I can't expect people to think TOO much about strategy in a fan-made game.
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*opens RM2K3 and diminishes it to 1 HP* friggin thing annoys me
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Aw there both a piece of cake once u hit lvl 25ish!
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um when i try to open it up it says "the RPG maker 2003 run time package is not present or not registered"
help please
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um when i try to open it up it says "the RPG maker 2003 run time package is not present or not registered"
help please
Check out www.crankeye.com and download the RPG Maker 2003 RTP. That should fix it.
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eh... in the end I just installed RM2K3 itself......... *shrugs* it's fun to tweak stuff anyway
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um when i try to open it up it says "the RPG maker 2003 run time package is not present or not registered"
help please
Check out www.crankeye.com and download the RPG Maker 2003 RTP. That should fix it.
thanks i will see if it works i am downloading it now
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um when i try to open it up it says "the RPG maker 2003 run time package is not present or not registered"
help please
Check out www.crankeye.com and download the RPG Maker 2003 RTP. That should fix it.
thanks i will see if it works i am downloading it now
And don't forget to install the fonts from C:\Program Files\rpg2003\fonts in your windows font folder (should be something like C:\Windows\Fonts)
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saw no font problems on Windows 7 despite not doing that...
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thanks it worked the game is awesome
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thanks it worked the game is awesome
Glad to hear, friend! Enjoy!
saw no font problems on Windows 7 despite not doing that...
I have Win7 too and didn't have any problems but did have a problem beta testing Lance's demo. It's a just-in-case measure. Not every comp is the same, and not every rm game is the same.
I'd rather give advice you don't need than not give it when you need it. Does that make sense? :D
EDIT: And PSZ, I edited my post at the top of this page with the secret to kill the secret boss. And really anything that gives you a hard time.
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It's a secret boss? o.o The golem is pretty badly hidden if it's a secret boss, not to mention interfering with the storyline. lol
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Golem is clearly not a secret. I'm talking about Nightmare.
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I edited the first post to include a link to the video walkthrough, it reveals all secrets, spoilers, events, strategies, etc. I went through and annotated the whole video so whenever new music plays, to the best of my memory, I labeled it, and general tips and strategies are talked about. It is about an hour long.
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Awesome!!!
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Great, but I've already found everything xD
And...You'll change the secrets's places later, right?
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Yes, the secrets and a lot of other things will be different in the full game when compared with the demo.
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I just completed the demo. I like. The concept of an early Zeal Kingdom is intriguing to me. I can't wait to see how the story unfolds in the full game!
One of the things that I noticed is when you are defeated by an enemy, the game just takes you back to the beginning of the fight, yet no HP, thus defeat automatically. It creates an endless loop. Maybe I am just not doing something right. I would expect to be left at the title screen or load screen.
The Ozzie, Slash, and Flea characters jumped right out at me! I enjoyed that.
Is there a way to create a blizzard landscape as in the pre-fall Dark Ages? To me the environment seems to be the tail end of the ice age. Unless Trigger happened to occur in the winter and Shift is in summer?
Keep up the good work! You all have great talent!
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I just completed the demo. I like. The concept of an early Zeal Kingdom is intriguing to me. I can't wait to see how the story unfolds in the full game!
One of the things that I noticed is when you are defeated by an enemy, the game just takes you back to the beginning of the fight, yet no HP, thus defeat automatically. It creates an endless loop. Maybe I am just not doing something right. I would expect to be left at the title screen or load screen.
You are doing it fine, that's entirely my fault for rushing the code for the battles. Technically it should be a game-over but it was not a default setting and on a few battles I missed it. As it turns out, after watching peoples' playing habits who are familiar and not familiar with RPGs, it seems you either never encounter the bug or it happens over and over and over and over (the nature of the loop). I am proud of my team and the demo, but it is not problem-free. I'm very glad you enjoyed it, we have a lot of plans for this story! I can offer strategies to avoid the bug at least, make sure your magic users are "charging" but you only need to select it once, more than once doesn't do any extra charging. Rush is good for physical attacks and there are lots of tabs and secret weapons hidden in there to make it all easier to eventually decimate the enemies. Toward the beginning of the game, if you grind in the Academy forest, be sure to go back in and use the healing square (it's free!).
The Ozzie, Slash, and Flea characters jumped right out at me! I enjoyed that.
<.<......>.>.....<.<......I don't know what you're talking about! (Actually nobody else has caught that yet)
Is there a way to create a blizzard landscape as in the pre-fall Dark Ages? To me the environment seems to be the tail end of the ice age. Unless Trigger happened to occur in the winter and Shift is in summer?
Keep up the good work! You all have great talent!
It's not summer necessarily but the game does take place in a more progressive world than what we see in Trigger. The huts are more comfortable, and in greater number. The Enlightened venture off Zeal once in a while. They travel by ferry, because the Sky Bridges haven't been built yet. In the full game you'll witness (among other things) the literal and figurative rise of Zeal and the decline of the rest of the world as a result.
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I just completed the demo. I like. The concept of an early Zeal Kingdom is intriguing to me. I can't wait to see how the story unfolds in the full game!
One of the things that I noticed is when you are defeated by an enemy, the game just takes you back to the beginning of the fight, yet no HP, thus defeat automatically. It creates an endless loop. Maybe I am just not doing something right. I would expect to be left at the title screen or load screen.
You are doing it fine, that's entirely my fault for rushing the code for the battles. Technically it should be a game-over but it was not a default setting and on a few battles I missed it. As it turns out, after watching peoples' playing habits who are familiar and not familiar with RPGs, it seems you either never encounter the bug or it happens over and over and over and over (the nature of the loop). I am proud of my team and the demo, but it is not problem-free. I'm very glad you enjoyed it, we have a lot of plans for this story! I can offer strategies to avoid the bug at least, make sure your magic users are "charging" but you only need to select it once, more than once doesn't do any extra charging. Rush is good for physical attacks and there are lots of tabs and secret weapons hidden in there to make it all easier to eventually decimate the enemies. Toward the beginning of the game, if you grind in the Academy forest, be sure to go back in and use the healing square (it's free!).
You have VERY much to be proud of!
The Ozzie, Slash, and Flea characters jumped right out at me! I enjoyed that.
<.<......>.>.....<.<......I don't know what you're talking about! (Actually nobody else has caught that yet)
That made my day! As soon as I saw the three sprites I got the sense that it was them. If they weren't together I'm not sure I would have made the connection, until I spoke with flea.
Is there a way to create a blizzard landscape as in the pre-fall Dark Ages? To me the environment seems to be the tail end of the ice age. Unless Trigger happened to occur in the winter and Shift is in summer?
Keep up the good work! You all have great talent!
It's not summer necessarily but the game does take place in a more progressive world than what we see in Trigger. The huts are more comfortable, and in greater number. The Enlightened venture off Zeal once in a while. They travel by ferry, because the Sky Bridges haven't been built yet. In the full game you'll witness (among other things) the literal and figurative rise of Zeal and the decline of the rest of the world as a result.
I am really excited for the full game! I was intrigued at the prequel concept before I played the demo but afterward I am immensely looking forward to the full release!
The first time I played I told the woman in Algetty to talk to her husband again. Then I got to thinking that maybe it had some sort of repercussion for later in the game (like the woman with the plant in Zeal that becomes Fiona in spirit) Then I played again and told her to hit him and I THINK that causes him to sell weapons.
Anyway, good job again!
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First of all, I very much like the idea of a Bekkler-centric prequel. Since he is described by Belthasar as a zealian Contemporary and yet has clearly managed to attain some kind of incredible longevity (possibly through the use of robotics) in CT, he is a figure who begs to be explored.
Regarding the story:
The idea of using the Nu's as save points is nice, but makes one wonder why they did not serve this point in CT. More problematic, I find, is that Belthasar and Norstein Bekkler created the Nu's, as it is a rather anticlimactic resolution to the mystery behind their existence as well as behind Belthasar's diary entry: "Everything begins and ends with Nu... That is what I believe, at least for the time being" Why would he write this about his own creation? The only remaining point of mystery in your telling are the special ingredients from which they were made. This appears to be an unnecessary deferral of the enigma, which could still work, if explored in the course of the story.
Something else that jumped out at me: It does not seem logical to call the non-magic users the "Earthbound", while all humans are still living on the earth. This inconsistency reminds the player that this is a fan-made prequel to an existing game and hinders his or her absorbance in the experience
Dialogue:
Aside from some grammatical errors, I found some lines rather weak. The "terrorist's" exclamation, for example, that she is in fact an "activist" and that the corrupt Zeal needs to go down immediately makes this character into a caricature instead of a character whom we should take seriously (as indicated by the existing character art of her) Granted, this also holds true to some extent for Dalton, but in his case, the joke was more unique and less cliché.
Oh, and shame on you! You made a Back to the Future reference! This breaks the 4th wall too much, in my opinion.
Gameplay:
...though I can't expect people to think TOO much about strategy in a fan-made game.
If you take the project seriously, those who experience it may do the same.
I would consider giving Rush either physical techniques (like Ayla or Sabin from FFVI) or having him gain magical powers as part of the story. Simply because he is otherwise boring in battle.
There is a great lack of balance in the battle system. The characters level up after almost every battle and the stats increase tremendously (this is OK for the demo, but not an actual game) At the beginning, Rush was annoying, because he was the only one who could not use the incredibly cheap Aura technique (which eliminates the need to restore MP with items, and even HP- except against an enemy which is too strong to beat anyway). However, after equipping him with his ultimate weapon (which hits twice) and giving him most of Belthasar's power tabs, he became a horrific monster who pretty much made the other two characters and their attack spells irrelevant (until I found Norstein's ultimate weapon in the forest, which allowed him to inflict a bit more than half as much damage as Rush per hit).
Aside from Taven's cheap paralysis tech (which made my first battle against the Golem extremely boring), she is not very useful. Her attack techs are weaker than Bekkler's and her healing techs are not even necessary as mentioned above (except maybe to heal Rush).
Presentation:
I constantly had the impression that the RPG-maker software had extremely limited you. There were a lot of little things. The almost immediate executions of magic attacks without preparation was confusing and inorganic. The lack of diagonal walking was clumsy (and, while using an analog stick, very uncomfortable)
, especially when taking stairs or diagonal bridges. The monsters which are shown being reloaded while one leaves an area. The lack of a confirmation after having saved the games. It is little things like these that detract from the experience. But if you cannot do anything about it, you cannot do anything about it.
Ah, and the music. I find it a bad idea to use music from non CT games, especially from Final Fantasy, since this is especially recognizable and distracting. I also feel like you tried to cram in too many pieces, with a different piece for almost every island on the world map. Even the island on which the forest (where the boss battle is) is seemed to have its own music, even though there is seemingly nothing else other than the forest to be explored. If you look at Chrono Trigger there were only a maximum of three tracks for the world map in each era(in 1000 A.D. standard, village, and Epoch). And only two per dimension in Chrono Cross. It would make your presentation more unified and allow you to be more selective in your selection of tracks, if you were to reduce the amount.
I hope my criticism does not discourage you. I am interested in the development of your project.
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I hope my criticism does not discourage you. I am interested in the development of your project.
Not at all! I think the biggest problem with our team is that few people will say "THAT IS A BAD IDEA BECAUSE XYZ" and because of this, we've added more people for quality control. Critique is EXTREMELY important and I value it very highly. As such, I'm prepared to give you a thorough and hopefully satisfying response.
Now, before I get into specific counterpoints to your points, I want to emphasize that the demo was rushed to have it out there, I wrote it and coded it almost by myself, with most of the maps done by TheMage and consulting done by others on the team. When we made the demo, it was still not fully fleshed out (though I had a completed plot outline to work from) and I wasn't sure where to go with some of the dialogue. Most of it was written on the spot while coding. We have another writer now who is helping me beef up the plot outline and I think it's damned impressive now. While the basic plot points of the demo still exist in the full game, almost no dialogue or specific events that happen in the demo will live to see the full game. We've replaced just about all of it for the sake of better exposition and gameplay in general. Really the demo is meant to be a showcase for the kind of art and music that will be spread out through the game and to give a little taste of the story, albeit in a heavily compacted form.
First of all, I very much like the idea of a Bekkler-centric prequel. Since he is described by Belthasar as a zealian Contemporary and yet has clearly managed to attain some kind of incredible longevity (possibly through the use of robotics) in CT, he is a figure who begs to be explored.
Bekkler is the biggest mystery in the Chrono series, in my opinion. I chose the name Mr Bekkler as sort of a joke, but while working on an RP (the Re-Temporal Odyssey, which is on this forum) I really got to peek into the Bekkler family's possible history and I loved it. I had many ideas for a Chrono fan game that never amounted to anything because I was waiting for Crimson Echoes and Chrono Crisis at the time, but once the CnD hit, I knew it was time to just do it. I'm really glad that others have a similar interest in the character.
Regarding the story:
The idea of using the Nu's as save points is nice, but makes one wonder why they did not serve this point in CT. More problematic, I find, is that Belthasar and Norstein Bekkler created the Nu's, as it is a rather anticlimactic resolution to the mystery behind their existence as well as behind Belthasar's diary entry: "Everything begins and ends with Nu... That is what I believe, at least for the time being" Why would he write this about his own creation? The only remaining point of mystery in your telling are the special ingredients from which they were made. This appears to be an unnecessary deferral of the enigma, which could still work, if explored in the course of the story.
In the new version, Bekkler and Belthasar don't create the Nu, but they do use them. We have a different creation story that actually retains a lot of the mystery and still makes sense with Belthasar's writings we're familiar with in CT. I realized having Norstein able to create life from the get-go isn't good storytelling at all, and that it could be used in a much better way.
Something else that jumped out at me: It does not seem logical to call the non-magic users the "Earthbound", while all humans are still living on the earth. This inconsistency reminds the player that this is a fan-made prequel to an existing game and hinders his or her absorbance in the experience
This is a great example of why critique is necessary. I hadn't even thought about the relevance of the "Earthbound" name. We'll have to figure out a good way to deal with it. Either they won't be called Earthbound or we'll have to throw in an explanation. Either way, it'll take a little thought and I'm glad you brought it up!
Dialogue:
Aside from some grammatical errors, I found some lines rather weak. The "terrorist's" exclamation, for example, that she is in fact an "activist" and that the corrupt Zeal needs to go down immediately makes this character into a caricature instead of a character whom we should take seriously (as indicated by the existing character art of her) Granted, this also holds true to some extent for Dalton, but in his case, the joke was more unique and less cliché.
Oh, and shame on you! You made a Back to the Future reference! This breaks the 4th wall too much, in my opinion.
Rest assured the full game will not have pop culture references or memes or anything of the sort.
Also, we've added a significant amount of introduction before the demo takes place that works to show the characters' personalities and lives better than just throwing the player right into the thick of it. Most of the feedback we've received about the demo suggested that it jumps right in too quickly, so we've tried to add more world-building before the initial conflict in the school takes place. In the full game, the terrorists are part of a faction with a name and a specific goal, and each character has their own motivation, so hopefully it will come across as better planned than the demo was.
Gameplay:
...though I can't expect people to think TOO much about strategy in a fan-made game.
If you take the project seriously, those who experience it may do the same.
Understood, the battle system being unbalanced was the other big source of complaints so this is getting an overhaul as well.
I would consider giving Rush either physical techniques (like Ayla or Sabin from FFVI) or having him gain magical powers as part of the story. Simply because he is otherwise boring in battle.
There is a great lack of balance in the battle system. The characters level up after almost every battle and the stats increase tremendously (this is OK for the demo, but not an actual game) At the beginning, Rush was annoying, because he was the only one who could not use the incredibly cheap Aura technique (which eliminates the need to restore MP with items, and even HP- except against an enemy which is too strong to beat anyway). However, after equipping him with his ultimate weapon (which hits twice) and giving him most of Belthasar's power tabs, he became a horrific monster who pretty much made the other two characters and their attack spells irrelevant (until I found Norstein's ultimate weapon in the forest, which allowed him to inflict a bit more than hals as much damage as Rush per hit).
Aside from Taven's cheap paralysis tech (which made my first battle against the Golem extremely boring), she is not very useful. Her attack techs are weaker than Bekkler's and her healing techs are not even necessary as mentioned above (except maybe to heal Rush).
I didn't expect people to really put much thought into the battles, but that was my folly. What I was going for was Rush is supposed to be stronger and faster than the others, magic users physical attacks aren't strong but their magic is, and there are hidden tabs and secret items all over the place so if it seemed too hard, people could just get the hidden stuff and run through it quickly. Lance7 is actually helping me out with the battle system for the final game. He's taking care of the statistic balance and the actual enemy stats and attacks. Even better, we're going back to calling the "magic" Techs instead of Aura, so that Rush can in fact have some attacks. What we have planned now is 10 individual techs for each playable character (4 plus 2 optional PCs) without the use of any RTP animations and without "cheap" effects like Taven's paralysis move that never goes away in the demo. The "Charge Aura" spell has been changed to heal much less, allowing the battles to actually have some challenge to them.
Presentation:
I constantly had the impression that the RPG-maker software had extremely limited you. There were a lot of little things. The almost immediate executions of magic attacks without preparation was confusing and unorganic. The lack of diagonal walking was clumsy (and, while using an analog stick, very uncomfortable)
, especially when taking stares or diagonal bridges. The monsters which are shown being reloaded while one leaves an area. The lack of a confirmation after having saved the games. It is little things like these that detract from the experience. But if you cannot do anything about it, you cannot do anything about it.
Unfortunately there are some things we can't fix. The battle system itself is not editable, so other than the stats and animations, we're stuck with what we have.
I have yet to write or find a script that runs diagonal movement without breaking other features. I've come to a compromise on this, in places where diagonal movement would be more natural, there will be diagonal movement, but only one direction will need to be pressed. It's a simple trick but will be much more fluid to just hold down a directional button rather than constantly hit up right up right up right, or whatever direction is needed.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "the almost immediate executions of magic attacks without preparation" but what I think you mean is the fact that there is no real tutorial in the demo at all. In the full game, before Norstein's class starts, the player will be able to visit other classrooms and have practice battles and learn other game mechanics in kind, so hopefully that helps a bit as well.
Ah, and the music. I find it a bad idea to use music from non CT games, especially from Final Fantasy, since this is especially recognizable and distracting. I also feel like you tried to cram in to many pieces, with a different piece for almost every island on the world map. Even the island on which the forest (where the boss battle is) seemed to have its own music, even though there is seemingly nothing else other than the forest to be explored. If you look at Chrono Trigger there were only a maximum of three tracks for the world map in each era(in 1000 A.D. standard, village, and Epoch). And only two per dimension in Chrono Cross. It would make your presentation more unified and allow you to be more selective in your selection of tracks, if you were to reduce the amount.
I agree and disagree here. While I personally find nothing wrong with the music choice, I don't like the placement of a lot of it. It was indeed very crammed, I really wanted to just showcase everything I planned to use at that point but couldn't fit it all in, so I chose sort of a representative selection that would again give a kind of taste of the range of tracks we'll be using. The problem with that is the demo's adventure doesn't cover much ground so the music seems more like a messy soundtrack than a tasteful sampler. A lot of the problem there is that the game doesn't feature time travel and thus we don't have the luxury of having several world maps, so each continent is actually expanded upon with its own flavor. My intentions with the music are to find high quality remixes or new recordings of Mitsuda's work, but he wasn't the only composer in the Chrono series, so I've gotten some music from other square and enix games of the time, sort of as an homage to CT's dream team consisting of both square and enix developers. This is more of a personal preference, and I can understand that some people might not like it at first, but when we get the game out, I'd encourage you and others to try and let it paint its atmosphere around you. If there is a general consensus that anything in particular stands out as being completely inappropriate, of course we'll find something more suitable.
I really appreciate the feedback and hope we can live up to the expectations of the Chrono series! Let me know if you have any other comments or questions, I love talking about this stuff. :D
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This is a great example of why critique is necessary. I hadn't even thought about the relevance of the "Earthbound" name. We'll have to figure out a good way to deal with it. Either they won't be called Earthbound or we'll have to throw in an explanation. Either way, it'll take a little thought and I'm glad you brought it up!
The name itself raises some questions and even puts the premise of your game into question, since it implies that the Zealian's ascent to the heavens was nearly simultaneous with their acquisition of magical powers, thereby the inherent link between not having magic and being bound to the earth. This in turn, makes it seem likely that Zeal had been in the heavens much longer than 15 years before the events of CT (though I do not recall if there are any more hints about this in CT).
However, you can probably make it work somehow, if you think hard enough. :cry:
Also, we've added a significant amount of introduction before the demo takes place that works to show the characters' personalities and lives better than just throwing the player right into the thick of it. Most of the feedback we've received about the demo suggested that it jumps right in too quickly, so we've tried to add more world-building before the initial conflict in the school takes place. In the full game, the terrorists are part of a faction with a name and a specific goal, and each character has their own motivation, so hopefully it will come across as better planned than the demo was.
Jumping into the action is good. But some things should be prepared. For instance, if Norstein's brother is going to be killed, their relationship should be demonstrated at least a little bit so that this be a meaningful event, and not merely a quick plot device to motivate the protagonist.
Even better, we're going back to calling the "magic" Techs instead of Aura, so that Rush can in fact have some attacks. What we have planned now is 10 individual techs for each playable character (4 plus 2 optional PCs) without the use of any RTP animations and without "cheap" effects like Taven's paralysis move that never goes away in the demo. The "Charge Aura" spell has been changed to heal much less, allowing the battles to actually have some challenge to them.
You could theoretically keep the name "Aura" for the magic/alchemy users and give a different name to the command in Rush's menu (à la Final Fantasy VI)- "harvest" for example, if you want to run with the farmer joke.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "the almost immediate executions of magic attacks without preparation"
I meant that when you select a technique in Chrono Trigger, there is a slight delay, the character raises his arms to the air (or something similar), gathers his powers and THEN unleashes the attack. In your demo, however, when an attack is selected, it is unleashed instantaneously, at the same moment in which the menu disappears. This confused me at first, because, as I was not certain if this was an Active Battle Mode or not, I could not tell if that was the enemy's or my own attack. I understand it now of course, but I still find that the techniques lack visual and sonic preparation.
Unfortunately there are some things we can't fix. The battle system itself is not editable, so other than the stats and animations, we're stuck with what we have.
I have yet to write or find a script that runs diagonal movement without breaking other features. I've come to a compromise on this, in places where diagonal movement would be more natural, there will be diagonal movement, but only one direction will need to be pressed. It's a simple trick but will be much more fluid to just hold down a directional button rather than constantly hit up right up right up right, or whatever direction is needed.
Edit: I had asked if something in the vein of CE could be accomplished, without having informed myself sufficiently about the terms of the C&D-letter from SE.
I agree and disagree here. While I personally find nothing wrong with the music choice, I don't like the placement of a lot of it. It was indeed very crammed, I really wanted to just showcase everything I planned to use at that point but couldn't fit it all in, so I chose sort of a representative selection that would again give a kind of taste of the range of tracks we'll be using. The problem with that is the demo's adventure doesn't cover much ground so the music seems more like a messy soundtrack than a tasteful sampler. A lot of the problem there is that the game doesn't feature time travel and thus we don't have the luxury of having several world maps, so each continent is actually expanded upon with its own flavor. My intentions with the music are to find high quality remixes or new recordings of Mitsuda's work, but he wasn't the only composer in the Chrono series, so I've gotten some music from other square and enix games of the time, sort of as an homage to CT's dream team consisting of both square and enix developers. This is more of a personal preference, and I can understand that some people might not like it at first, but when we get the game out, I'd encourage you and others to try and let it paint its atmosphere around you. If there is a general consensus that anything in particular stands out as being completely inappropriate, of course we'll find something more suitable.
I would still advise you to be careful. Near the beginning of the demo, you utilized Kafka's Kefka's theme from FFVI. For anyone who recognizes this theme, it is the equivalent of having portraits of Kefka hanging on the hallways in the magic academy- in short, it is (whether you want this or not) a clear reference to the character of another game who has nothing to do with the world of Chrono Shift.
I really appreciate the feedback and hope we can live up to the expectations of the Chrono series! Let me know if you have any other comments or questions, I love talking about this stuff. :D
:)
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You know, I've been helping you guys with this game for well over a year now...
...and I haven't played the demo!
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Haha you should check it out Boo it has some fun secret treasures n' stuff