Messages

1

Chrono Compendium Discussion / Re: A Scream from the Underground

« on: May 05, 2010, 03:06:19 pm »

Funny you should mention hatred. A minor but very vocal group exists that hate Fallout 2.

Oh yes, they're present on NMA. Or at least, they were. They seem to have quieted down now that Fallout 3 has shown them what REAL shit smells like.

According to them, the random humor and the city of new Reno completely break immersion. While they have a point to an extent, Fallout 2 on the whole is a great non-linear RPG; the humor is funny, and new Reno has several interesting quests.

Correct on all counts. I've never been on that faction's side. Hell, I embrace Fallout Tactics, something of an issue until BoS and Fallout 3 came along and made Tactics look like gold.

And, depending on which side of the fence you're on, No Mutants Allowed (or the Bethesda forums for you more hard-core gamers twitch monkeys; me not included)

I don't see how twitchy FPS gameplay with little thinking or challenge is very "hardcore" really. It has its place, really, but not in an RPG. Never in an RPG.

Especially not a "sequel" to a game made to emulate pen and paper.

Putting it another way: Doom 3 is good. Baldur's Gate is good. If you mix Doom 3 and Baldur's Gate, however, you'd best know what the hell you're doing. Bethesda didn't, but because they developed the game with the Int <4 crowd in mind and payed for reviews bordering on fellatio, it was a commercial success, proving that stupid sells.

could be considered too serious for their own good.  They don't just defend the series; they become obsessed with it to the point of picking apart every argument that comes their way, no matter how big, small, important, or insignificant it is.

NMA defends the series. Bethesda's forums defend whatever the hell Fallout 3 is. (Because Fallout it ain't.)

I hope that doesn't include us Compendiumites.

</obligatoryhugesize>

Not yet. But if Square-Enix keeps up their shit, the Compendium might go down the same route as NMA, and you can see what kind of conditions make Glittering Gems of Hatred. ^_^

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Chrono Compendium Discussion / Re: A Scream from the Underground

« on: May 05, 2010, 03:18:24 am »

Nice; I've been reading NMA for news on New Vegas. I did a couple Fallout 3 playthroughs with mods and completionist strategies and everything, but after that...the game somehow has no replay value. I need NV.

The great thing about New Vegas is, despite having the same not-RPG gameplay as Fallout 3, it'll at least be done by developers we know can write a good story. Hell, several of Obsidian's people helped with earlier, not-crap Fallout games, so I'm actually excited for New Vegas too. The stab at OXM's "we don't trust Obsidian" bit that Brother None had up last month was quite nice, too.



Another "why are projects off the table" comes to mind.

What about a "totally not Chrono" game? Basically, a legally distinct and non-actionable clone of the gameplay and such with original IP. Or a framework of such, that can be used by people to make many such games? Something that could fill the void left by Squeenix saying we can't play with Temporal Flux here anymore?

3

Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: As May 8th Approaches...

« on: May 05, 2010, 03:06:05 am »

Companies have not only the right, but the OBLIGATION to defend their intellectual properties. If they are given information telling them that a fan project is somewhere doing w/e, however harmless it may be, it's easy, safe and necessary for them to shut it down. The problem was never the fault of the company and the developers & artists shouldn't be blamed or punished for it.

alfadorredux natural 20'd this with his(?) response, but there're also some examples I want to throw out there. Ultima 5 Lazarus and Mechwarrior Living Legends, both MASSIVE projects that the copyright owners knew damn well about, had massive coverage, and in the first case actually got a "oh, cool" out of EA. You could try to argue that it's somehow different because those are mods for other games that step on the IP of the owners of those properties, but it still runs counter to your dubious claim that defense of those IPs is necessary.

If you don't like something they've put out just don't buy it.

That is why I said it was easy to keep my vows, is it not?

I personally think it's more than a little harsh to say nothing good has come from them in the last decade

I was speaking out of anger. Keep that in mind. It would be more correct to say that most of what they've crapped out in the past decade is, well, crap. Speaking of that "d" word again.

(perhaps you're forgetting how long a decade is or something?)

It's perfectly appropriate to round seven up to ten for purposes of hyperbole and/or ranting. Also, putting it that way is a bit dickish (yes, yes, pot meet kettle) and borders on calling the other person an idiot. Not cool.

DQVIII was good & I've heard that Kingdom Hearts 2 game is good, same with Valkyrie Profile 2...

Dragon Quest 8 was developed by Level-5. Valkyrie Profile 2 was made by tri-Ace. Both were just published by Square-Enix. And I'm counting Kingdom Hearts 2 on my "shit games" list. Sorry, but Tron can only save a game in my eyes so much.

FFXII had potential, but loses a lot of points for its main character. I can't pass judgement of FFXI because I haven't played it. (Bannable Offenses makes me interested in trying it. I need to find a free, player run server.)

But perhaps you also forgot about portable games? The FFTA games are solid SRPGs, Sword of Mana is a great remake of the first Seiken Densetsu, all of the FF Advance (& Dawn of Souls) were great, KH: CoM was pretty decent (RE is probably a bit better), everything Matrix Software (FFIII DS, FFIV DS, FFIV The After) has scratched a different oldschool itch, FFT:WotL was something I had wanted to happen (wouldn't mind it happening again in some fashion even) & the same for the first two Star Ocean remakes, I've heard nothing but good things (from people that have actually played it anyways, everyone else just complains about the art style) about The World Ends With You, CTDS was a great 'advanced' port & Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is pretty good (though I need to play more of it sometime)

I should have broken that into more quote blocks, but... Meh.

Sword of Mana was developed by Brownie Brown. (Which is owned by Nintendo.) The FF Advance ports, and FFT:WotL were ported by TOSE, and are covered under the "Old Square GOOD, Square-Enix BAD" thing anyway. TOSE also did the Star Ocean ports, and the originals were still done by tri-Ace. The 3D remakes were, as you said, done by Matrix Software, which is by no means a Square-Enix subsidiary. CTDS was a) a Chrono game, and b) a port of a good game and falls under the "Old Square GOOD, Square-Enix BAD" thing. Valkirie Profile is, again, a tri-Ace production, but some games have been ported by TOSE. Some you didn't cover were the port of Front Mission that, while not ported by TOSE, is still covered the "Old Square GOOD, Square-Enix BAD" effect.

FFTA and TWEWY, I'll kind of give you. FFTA wasn't horrible, but it wasn't super good, either. Still need to play through FFTA2. Jupiter is half-responsible for TWEWY, but they're kind of hit or miss.

Jupiter is also half-responsible for KH:CoM, which I will not give you because it is, in my eyes, crap.

...I don't feel like going over the pre-merger games (yup, it hasn't even been a decade since THAT)...

Restating for the sake of responding to all points, it's perfectly acceptable to round seven years up to a decade. Six? No. Five is right out.

Not only that, but in the years before the merger, Square and Enix were both still sliding downhill. Final Fantasy X, anyone?

And now they're breaking into new genres thanks to Taito, Eidos & IO Interactive (Hitman) which is cool & interesting in terms of future possibilities...C'mon, learn from Capcom & do a big, nasty cross-over game SE!

While all three companies have been consumed by Square-Enix, I'm not sure if they've been tainted yet so I can't really comment.

Mostly it comes down to how underground a fanbase is or not. Not every hack or fangame gets shut down, but the more people that know about your project, the more assholes that know about it that can cry foul to SE's legal department.

Not every company is as litigious as Square-Enix. When we have reasonable entities like Electronic Arts on the field, (that... felt really, really freakin' weird to say...) the amount of blame you can place on Square-Enix's legal team for the shit they pull increases greatly.

Again, it makes NO SENSE to begrudge the creators for some legal matter in another country they probably aren't even aware of (er, the legal matter, not the country...>_>)...

My blaming the company's legal teams for the C&D, my blame of the executives for teasing the fandom with a sequel they don't intend to make, and my blame of their current development teams for making bad games are separate issues, but contribute to my statement that Square-Enix, as it is today, is shit, and cannot be trusted.




I'm going to be repeating myself a fair bit, but I don't want to ignore LinkSlySora.

"Square-Enix" has been thrown around in a lot arguements, but it doens't always mean the same thing. In the case of the C&D, it was their legal team.

And in the case of teasing the fandom with "herp durp a million copies of the second damn port we've released isn't enough interest to justify a new sequel" it was their executives.

And in the case of making bad games, it was their current developers.

Now (for anything I say correct me if I'm wrong)

You're wron- Oh, shit, jumped the gun.

that the only people who directly influenced the letter being sent, were just a few people, not the company as a whole.

You're wron- Wait, no, you're accurate there.

I highly doubt many people within the company knew about it (and the reasons were not because it was bad. Because it wasn't, from those videos it looked like a very well done game). Now wheather

You're wrong. Not in the statement, but you misspelled "whether" there.

or not right they were right in sending the letter.... remains to be seen. I've seen arguements go both ways.

That's where I'm going to go right out and say you're wrong. (And not because you misspelled arguments. I already did that joke. )

From a marketing, public relations, and moral stance, that was a horrible decision. I'd like to see arguments, other than V_Translanka's disproved statement that companies are obligated to crush fanworks, supporting Square-Enix. I really would. Because I can't, even trying to play devil's advocate, think of even one.

And as said early, there have been many good games that have come form SE.

Wrong for entirely subjective reasons. (Hey, you didn't say they had to be GOOD reasons to say you're wrong.)

From all the reading I've done, few have been deemed "Bad" by the fans.

I won't say wrong, this time, I'm overusing that, but I will point you at my statement in the first post stating that some people will buy literal shit in a box if you slap a "Final Fantasy" label on it. Most gaming journalists can't be trusted in the modern industry either because bashing Square-Enix is a good way to end your career. There's an unspoken rule that giving bad reviews to super hyped up games is a good way to get fired lest the publishers take all their advertising money to your competitors and stop giving you "exclusive" looks at their latest piece of shit.

Cynical? Why yes, thank you.

Most either good, or argueable (like Final Fantasy XIII). True it's all subjective, but saying all their games in the last decade have been bad is bit of a strech.

It's not that much of a stretch. Most of the good games that have been released under their name were merely published by Square-Enix. What's left is a small amount of mediocre games, quite a few ports of their good earlier titles, and a whole bunch of shit-tier productions.

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Chrono Compendium Discussion / Re: A Scream from the Underground

« on: May 04, 2010, 12:19:06 am »

Obviously, projects are off the table.

Why?

Not just "why are projects off the table", but why is it obvious?

Last year, Square-Enix made it clear that they are the enemy. Yes, there are still good, talented developers working for the enemy, but as a whole the company has shown nothing but hostility to the Chrono series. We got hit damn hard by the CE C&D, not just from the loss of something that the community had rallied behind, but all of the collateral damage that went with it hurt too. We've bled momentum for the last year while the enemy has sat with their thumb up their ass in regards to the series.

Short of new blood, series wise, there's not much we can do except work on our own fan-made expansions to the series. Attempts that might call down more air strikes in the form of a C&D, but such is a risk we now know. Lord J Esq has the right idea on black ops projects. Or, we can do something perfectly innocent that can be used to give a head start to a project down the line.

Come to think of it, "perfectly innocent thing that can be used to jump start a project" isn't a project in and of itself...

... Which, come to think of it... is kind of obvious...

... Oh you're good.

You could branch the site out to cover not just the Chrono series, but all time traveling related games.

This is what No Mutants Allowed did during the time when it seemed like there wouldn't be another Fallout game. It seemed to work pretty well for them, switching over to covering some general post-apocalyptic stuff. Of course, with the Compendium's focus on analysis, if the Compendium's focus got wider it should be stuck to games with time travel and plot that can be analyzed. But yeah, the NMA approach could work.

We'd just have to avoid becoming Glittering Gems of Hatred here like we (different we) did at NMA. Also, Bethesda is the devil.

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / As May 8th Approaches...

« on: May 03, 2010, 09:30:49 am »

I find myself hating, genuinely hating Square-Enix more and more, as the anniversary of CE's termination grows closer.


I want to see the flagship franchises sink.

I want another Final Fantasy: Spirits Within debacle.

I want to see it all vanish in a puff of failure, for the company to bleed money until it folds.

However unlikely, I wish Square Enix was no more.


Harsh words, sure, and possibly a bit irrational, (possibly) but has anything worthwhile even come out of the company in the last decade? Have they given any indication they aren't worthy of that kind of animosity? No, and more to the point, they've consistently stood between the CT fandom and anything good.

When May 9th, 2009 rolled around, and we were told of the C&D, I made a promise to myself, right there, that I would never buy a Square-Enix product that wasn't Chrono related again. That hasn't been hard. They've not only released nothing Chrono related, save announcing those figures, but they've released nothing good. Sure, rumors have circulated about a third Chrono game, but there have been Chrono Break rumors since the turn of the century. They've only teased us with the rumors, dismissing the idea with scorn and laughing at the fan base. However, can Square-Enix even be trusted to make a Chrono game anymore? No.

The only option for a new Chrono game is the fandom, and Square-Enix is determined to shut down any ambitious project that might make them look incompetent.


In five days, one year will have passed since Square Enix jammed a knife in the fandom's back, gave it a twist, and pissed in the wound. They've shown no sign of giving a damn about the Chrono series despite terminating major fan-initiated projects. Apparently, given their attitude toward the license, for shits and giggles. Sure, the argument could be made that they have the right to do it, but lawful does not mean just.

For my part, I'll be renewing that promise I made, and encouraging others not to buy Square-Enix's crap. (Take whichever meaning of that statement you wish, they all apply, save any involving actual fecal matter. ... Come to think of that, it does apply. Some people will buy dog shit if you slap a "Final Fantasy" on the box.) Hell, I've even encouraged a word that starts with a P and ends in rum. (Bad joke count ++)

Anyone else not willing to forgive just yet?




TL;DR: Fuck Squeenix. Rage. Hate.

(Disclaimer: The above post does not necessarily represent a sane or rational viewpoint, and was made under less than optimal conditions. The poster takes no responsibility for any pregnancies that result from this post.  Do not drive or operate heavy machinery while reading this post. Consult a doctor immediately if you have an erection lasting more than four hours. Werewolves should not take or handle this post due to a specific birth defect. Consult your doctor before beginning use of this disclaimer.)

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General Discussion / Re: The Chrono Compendium - <you fill the slogan>

« on: October 08, 2009, 03:06:24 pm »

Nope, that would have been for the Challah Compendium - Where Angels Fear to Bread.

The Chrono Compendium - Angels don't fear to tread here, physicists do

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General Discussion / Re: The Chrono Compendium - <you fill the slogan>

« on: October 08, 2009, 02:51:55 pm »

The Chrono Compendium - No, we don't have Entity/Lavos slash fiction, stop asking.

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Polling / Re: Did you ever cry while playing the games?

« on: October 08, 2009, 02:19:47 pm »

Does crying manly tears when replaying the old Crimson Echoes demo after the C&D count?


Because if not, almost crying manly tears when Robo was deleted by FATE certainly does...

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Welcome / Birthday / Seeya! Forum / Re: G'Day, mates.

« on: October 08, 2009, 02:10:42 pm »

Edit: Seeing how you're a Troper, I was hoping to find an answer.

Do you, by any remote chance, know what it means to "Screws The Rules With Money"?

Not the target of the question, but I believe it's a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged.

Seto Kaiba repeatedly responds to accusations of cheating with "Screw the rules, I have money!!"

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General Discussion / Re: Causality Break - Original RPG Project Recruiting

« on: October 08, 2009, 02:08:47 pm »

Well, despite the project announcement not going over too well (re-reading it now that I've been getting sleep, I can see why...) work on Causality Break has been continuing, to the point of warranting an update (read: second infodump) that will probably also get a chilly reception. BUT A MAN DOES NOT GIVE UP!!

First update of note is a change from Game Maker even being considered. To use it, I'd have to either buy the full version, or resort to piracy. I'm too poor for the former, and the latter is out of the question for various reasons. Fortunately, I've found a good alternative that has the capacity to do what I want it to. Novashell seems to be a pretty good fit so far, and even without a programmer I might be able to pull off the WRPG plan. (Not to say a programmer joining wouldn't be a very, very good thing.)

Some dialog trees to be used in the beginning bits of the game are being worked on. Mostly unimportant villagers at the moment while I work out more about the more important residents of the town of Colgran. (Oh yeah, the starting town has a name now.) I'll probably dump that first script here when it's done. No "Times are tough" guys here.

In the initial post I didn't mention any big details about the time traveling system. Causality Break uses a dating system closer to that of Earth history, covering sixteen planned time periods. I'm aiming at handling these time periods as realistically as possible, to the best of my ability, keeping in mind that "realistic" is mutually exclusive with both time travel and magic. For instance, I'm considering establishing different currencies for different nations in different time periods. Of course, this is all still in planning, and the difficulty inherent in such a situation for players would be offset by the easily exploited nature of time travel. There would be places untouched by humans throughout long stretches of time where players could stash things to pick up in later time periods. For instance, depositing coins from the Reuvrean Empire, 930 BCE, to pick up in 1952 CE to sell to a museum in that time period, since the ones you still carry wouldn't be nearly three thousand years old. Ambitious, yes, but what I lack in raw coding talent, I make up for with pseudocode and problem solving, so I know it can work. It'll just be a matter of hammering at the problem until I figure out something that works in code. More difficult is the idea of having to disguise characters to fit into a given time period, both for the programming difficulty and the geometric increase in the amount of art.

Time travel itself operates with, rather than gates, whole areas being swapped with their counterparts in a set time period they're connected to. In the early game example given in the initial post, part of the forest near Colgran in 1625 CE swaps itself, trees and all, with the same chunk of forest near Colgran in 999 CE. There would be more dramatic examples to clue the player and characters in to the existence of other points, such as a ghostly lighthouse that keeps appearing and disappearing. Events such as  these would also be the first clue that Era's party aren't the only time travelers. Time travel, however, requires a special quality in a person to trigger the switch. Era is rare in the sheer number of time periods she can switch to.

I have years for each of the sixteen planned ages, but I figure a dump of numbers would be rather poor.

I've also given some more thought to the magic system in the game. I even have a little diagram, crudely labeled until I create symbols of each element and hybrid.

Every creature in the Causality Break universe, save those that predate magic, have an affinity for one of the five base elements. (Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, and Ether) with Ether affinities being exceptionally rare. Between each of the elements is a hybrid, defined by the first users of magic, the Dragons. (Oh, by the way, there are dragons.) Provided I can figure out how to do combination attacks between characters in the party, said combinations would only be capable between characters who aren't of opposing elements (No fire and water users working together) and would be of the hybrid element.

More characters have names now instead of placeholders. I also realized I forgot to give any character details in the initial post. So, I might as well give basic outlines of the first five characters available to the players. The final count will be much larger than Chrono Trigger's, but probably not as huge as Chrono Cross's, and will be less excessive as I'm planning around an active party size of six. The characters themselves lean toward JRPG style, with set weapons and non-custom stat growth. Character names are also chosen based on meaning and geographic relevance.

Character dump following.


Era Jehona Alexandria
A sketch of Era's 1625 design, done by a friend at Anime Iowa back in August
Affinity: Wind
Weapon: Uses a katana exclusively
Home Time: 1625 CE
Era is the main character, a hotheaded young woman sent to live with a close friend of her parents when her home kingdom of Kania was conquered by its rival, Golrana. She studies the style of swordsmanship her father studied, under a swordsmaster from the nation of Eienkoku. (Name likely to be changed if I find I butchered that translation.). She is obsessed with seeing Kania restored one day and Golrana crushed, but until she discovers time travel she knows she's powerless to do anything on her own. She is fairly intelligent, but gives few things much thought, preferring to follow her instincts and let Wulf or someone else handle the things she can't be bothered with. Despite being the heroine, she's hardly the most pure or innocent person in the world, and in the pursuit of her goals her moral ambiguity renders few acts are too evil to consider. She thinks nothing of the strange impulses or thoughts (the player's proddings) she has. As stated in the time travel segment, Era has a strangely high ability to reach different time periods. This, combined with her goals, nets her the attention of numerous higher powers. Higher powers she has no qualms about giving the finger if they get in her way.


Wulf Feuersturm
Affinity: Fire
Weapon: Uses twin guns for ranged combat, wrist mounted melee weapons close up
Home Time: 1625 CE
A sentient humanoid automaton created using lost arcane technologies by Era's caretaker, Wulf's stated purpose is to act as Era's bodyguard. In reality, he is her closest friend, and the sole force that offsets her hotheadedness and impulsiveness prior to the first jump through time. His devotion to her is unquestionable, and even when she undertakes something contrary to his advice and that he disapproves of, he will not leave her side. Despite being a machine, Wulf is every bit as much a person as any Human, but hides his emotions under a cool, stoic exterior. He is warm and encouraging toward Era, friendly and helpful toward allies, but toward enemies his cold, ruthless behavior masks an all-consuming fury. If it will accomplish Era's goals, he will do anything she asks of him, with no ill will toward her. She is his entire reason to be. A human would call it love. Wulf doesn't consider himself human. Seriously injuring Era will cause Wulf to go berserk. Another of his berserk buttons is mocking his name, despite not liking it himself.


Taika Psyche
Affinity: Ether
Weapon: Fights with a staff when not using her magic
Home Time: 999 CE
In the magic-filled medieval years, sorcerers like Taika are a powerful force in the world. Taika, however, despite enormous innate potential, is a witch occupying a rather low rung on the arcane food chain before meeting Era and Wulf. She teaches the two about magic and accompanies them in exchange for a promise to help her escape her considerable financial obligations by bringing her along when they go home. Aside from horrible economic sense, Taika is intelligent and crafty, qualities she uses frequently to take advantage of those dumber than she. As a witch with an Ether affinity and enormous potential, she can cast spells of any element, including powerful Ether spells, but without training such power means little. Due to frequent clashes between her order of witches and Norywen's knights, she and Sieghard do not think highly of one another.


Sieghard von Colgran
Affinity: Earth
Weapon: Proficient with a broadsword and shield (loves to shield bash)
Home Time: 999 CE
Among Norywen's knights, the Order of the Broken Hilt is the most elite, and among the Order of the Broken Hilt, few have risen as fast as Sieghard. The estranged son of the baron of Colgran, Sieghard became so regarded within the order by a combination of skill, luck, and his superiors repeatedly attempting to send him to his death. He has survived the frequent wars between Norywen and its neighbors, every disaster he was sent to deal with, every plague the people of Norywen know, and battles against monsters that should have by all rights killed him twenty times over, as shocked by it all as his comrades. He has, as a result of his experiences become rather cynical, but remains as honorable and courageous as the day he was knighted. Despite his quarrel with the witches, he has no issue with magic in general, and himself knows a fair bit, mostly healing spells. When Era, Wulf, and Taika arrive in Colgran (999 CE), he is assigned by his superiors to aid them in the hopes the witch will sacrifice him to some pagan god or feed him to a demon. He respects Era's determination, Wulf's power, and (begrudgingly) Taika's trickery.


Richard Conrad
(Note: I had to force myself to promise not to make his last name Garlock. I don't think I can get away with THAT blatant of a reference.)
Affinity: Fire
Weapon: His fists
Home Time: Classified
A rogue captain of a former Temporal Incursion Fleet timeship, Richard's philosophy is that it does not matter how intelligent, strong, or well armed a man is, he who has the most courage, determination, and passion will always be victorious. It is this way of thinking that lead Richard to openly rebel against the Temporal Incursion Fleet's policy of maintaining history, with all the horrific wars and the apocalypse intact. Stealing a ship, recruiting a crew of like-minded individuals, and staging his rebellion was easy, until his ship was disabled and left to crash in 999 CE by a retaliatory strike. Left without a working temporal drive, Richard's inspiration was all that kept the crew together until Richard encountered Era. Meeting another time traveler who wanted to prevent a tragedy in the past was enough to revitalize the flame in Richard's heart, learning she had the ability to reach so many ages gave the whole crew new hope. Few if any threats are capable of diminishing Richard's hotblooded valor, and he tries to pass this courage on to everyone around him. He particularly respects Wulf's devotion to the person dearest to him, and sees a kindred spirit in Era. While some of her actions may appall him, he recognizes her goals as good. Especially if she can help prevent the end of the world.


The Phage
The enemy of all sentient life on the planet, The Phage transcends time, space, and mortality. Immune to attempts to erase it from the timeline, surpassing all weapons used to combat it, it is The Phage that marches the planet toward its inevitable destruction. There is no physical law the Phage is bound by, no consciousness that can truly comprehend its whole. The Phage simply IS, and it becomes Era and company's mission to make sure it ISN'T.





Any comments or questions about the project or the info dump would be appreciated. ^_^

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Welcome / Birthday / Seeya! Forum / Re: G'Day, mates.

« on: October 08, 2009, 01:21:21 pm »

Ah, someone else doing a game. Nice! But you had to mention TVTropes, didn't you? XD

I see Rockman ZXA represented in that project, putting you instantly on my liked people list. What's that being done in? The current build, that is...

12

The Lost Sanctum - Completed Items / Re: Find other monster stats for monsters in CT DS

« on: October 07, 2009, 02:59:30 pm »

I can see about transcribing the stats for those monsters and bosses. Or, hell, uploading those pages to Photobucket and letting someone else have the grunt work and the glory. I'm looking for them now.


EDIT: I have the pages, but I'm not sure if Photobucket would be the best idea since it compresses images, and doing it myself is out because, sadly, I'm somewhat behind on my study of kanji...

But I have the scanned pages. 513 to 527, if anyone who knows what they're looking at needs them.

13

General Discussion / Causality Break - Original RPG Project Recruiting

« on: August 29, 2009, 11:25:09 pm »

Well, I've put this off enough. Originally, this was going to be posted around the middle of May, but the blood drawn by the Crimson Echoes C&D was too fresh. While that would have been a good time for a heartless opportunist to make his move, I happen to have a soul, and felt that would be a bit too bad of form. So now that the Crimson Echoes gameplay videos are out, and things have cooled down a bit, I can post this without feeling like a soulless vulture.


Causality Break is, as stated in the title, an original IP RPG, one based around time travel and a cosmic horror. Familiar grounds, no? There's already a rough framework of the concept, world, characters, and events, but this is rather early in the drafting process, after all, so there are character concepts that don't have names or ideas of what they look like, and most of the nations thoughout the world's history are unnamed.

Before getting into what's already there, full disclosure time. I am, first and foremost, a writer. My ability in regards to art, music, and programming is effectively non-existant. As such, without outside help, this will be done, most likely, in RPG Maker with whatever open modifications, editable sprites, and free music I can scavenge. I'm also leaning toward a more WRPG style, with dialog trees (doable in RPG Maker, at least) and hopefully, if I can recruit an interested programmer, Baldur's Gate style (Real Time with Pause) gameplay. There's a good example here with some commentary but the screen a bit cropped. But, as I said, if no such programmer can be recruited, I'll probably be making due with whatever I can get RPG Maker to do.

The plot is, at the beginning, rather simple.

Ten years before the game begins, in the year 1615, the kingdom of Kania is conquered by its neighbor and long-time foe, Golrana. Refugees flee across the sea to Kania's ally, the republic of Norywen, to plan their eventual counterattack against Golrana. The royal family of Kania is believed by the average person left in Kania to have been wiped out.

The game begins ten years later, with a young Kanian woman named Era in northern Norywen, plotting her own revenge against Golrana for the death of her family. Joined by her automaton bodyguard, Wulf, a trip through the woods leads to a sudden jump 626 years in the past, and a chance meeting with other time travelers with disturbing knowledge of the future and the end of the world.

Stopping there for now to avoid ruining any really big surprises. There's more decided, but putting everything out there to begin with would just make things even more cluttered.


The player's role in all of this is not in Era's shoes, but in her head as her conscience. In battle and on the field, you have full control of Era's actions, and the rest of the party, but in dialog and during some choices on actions, the options you get on the dialog trees are closer to "suggestions" than instructions. For example, if it comes up in the dialog tree to ask what happened during the war, Era will answer herself (and thus you) without having to ask something she already knows and necessitate an idiotic and contrived "Oh deary, how could you forget, yadda yadda yadda" exchange. Of course, there's also the inevitable conflict between what Era wants to do and what the player might want her to do. Usually in regards to whether or not it's a good idea to make someone mad. Those kind of situations are being well considered.


Any information I'm forgetting, or any questions? I'm trying to avoid an excessive info dump, but in my perpetually sleep deprived state I understand I might have missed things.

14

Site Updates / Re: Dalton Sighted in Dimensional Distortion

« on: October 14, 2008, 05:58:14 pm »

Awesome! Rematch! Beating him to a bloody pulp never gets old.


Though if he's in there, that might eliminate him from the list of possible extra-temporal influences of Porre... Or maybe reinforce it given the dungeon's nature.

This is gonna be good. ^_^

15

Fan Fiction / Re: Chrono Break (fan fiction work in progress)

« on: October 14, 2008, 05:51:02 pm »

As a writer, I salute you, for your work is such that you honor the craft.

As a Chrono fan, I bow respectfully to you, for your love of the universe reflects in your work.

As a reader, I thank you, for you are creating something great.



Very nice so far. It's painful to read, knowing what fate has mandated, but the good kind of painful. So far it seems an interesting take on the destruction of Guardia thus far. ^_^