Dialogue Enhancements Commentary Thread (old)

[Kyronea]

That's the kind of balancing I'm talking about: the perfect balance between being easy enough for those who've never played/aren't fantastic players to pick it up while not being too hard for even Chrono Trigger experts to play effectively. So, I like it. I'll leave the actual determination of all of the stats to you, though if you ever want me to take a look I'd be glad to.

Anyway, I need to rest...as seems to happen lately, I've been up far too long...

[Zakyrus]

That's the kind of balancing I'm talking about: the perfect balance between being easy enough for those who've never played/aren't fantastic players to pick it up while not being too hard for even Chrono Trigger experts to play effectively. So, I like it. I'll leave the actual determination of all of the stats to you, though if you ever want me to take a look I'd be glad to.

Anyway, I need to rest...as seems to happen lately, I've been up far too long...

Heh, yeah. I played D&D for a few years as well as a good majority of the Square games out there -- even the more obsure ones like Vagrant Story (best dialouge in a Square game ever IMO), so when it comes to balanced stats and challenging (but not insane) battles, I am a perfectionist. I did make a challanging type hack before (though unreleased and forever vanished) and I did a really kickass job on it. So going through the monsters again and doing it will be much easier this time. I am going to downsize the Rainbow sword from 220 attack to 190 attack. (because of the Tsunami, Ragnarok, Atom Edge and Eternity Blades being much better -- abeit almost impossible to get all 4 within 80 hours)

[Kyronea]

"The Magical Kingdom: Zeal!" is now uploaded. Would've been finished sooner but I had a hard time deciding what all needed to be considered storyline dialogue and I'm not sure I'm entirely satisfied...but it's up to you, Zakyrus, if it's satisfactory or not.

[Zakyrus]

Very nice. I can't wait till I get that far of adding dialouge... It seems so far from now  ...Not really, most of it's already there, just needs to be updated. Adding brand new strings/PC animations is a pain in the ass though.

[Kyronea]

So it's good? Okay then, good. I'd work on "Break the Seal!" but my mom took the other keyboard away from me, so I'll not be able to tonight. Ah well. At least I got this chapter done.

[Zakyrus]

Yeah. All of your stuff is good. I may change like 1% of it as I am inputting into the ROM (so it formats into the window better) but overall I leave it alone. I am going to start filling out the NPC Dialoug Enhancements list. This will be the dialouge scenes todo after the Chapters are done. By the way, I am thinking that we should do NPC's before we do endings (except the Moonlight Parade endings).

[Kyronea]

Right then. I'd love some guidance for the NPC dialogue, as I've not had any idea where to go with most of it, except for fixing translation errors here and there and making the dialogue sound better.

[Zakyrus]

As for NPC's, even for unimportant ones... just visualize what that NPC's inner character would be. Then give them some random text to say. Usually about events going on, or some history tidbit, or even some random comment about how good their wife's cooking. Can be anything, not too much effort should be put into it. (not to say that creativity shouldn't be there!) Pretty much take a look at any Square RPG and look at the type of things that citizens in towns say and use that concept, just on a CT level.

If you need ideas for NPCs for each area I can compile a list of basic things they could say to you.

[Kyronea]

...I'd like the basic list, if only to use a reference to help me figure out what all they should say. I can come up with stuff for them to say...it just takes longer when I have no real direction to go with it. With direction, it should proceed more smoothly.

[Kyronea]

After a bit of a delay, "Break the Seal!" is now uploaded.
EDIT: So is "The Guru Imprisoned on Mount Woe!" now.

[Zakyrus]

Cool. I have some last minute St. Patricks Day business to take care of. BRB.

[Kyronea]

Heh.
Anyway, you'll note that "The Guru Imprisoned on Mount Woe!" draws heavily from the example cutscene I made way back when I just joined the project, so hopefully that's not a problem.

[Kyronea]

Okay...so I've uploaded "What Lies Beyond?" now...holy crap that was short. If I'd bothered to read ahead in the game script and noticed it was that short I'd have done it yesterday...it's almost too short to be an actual chapter of the game. I wonder if there's a way to expand it somehow...I can't see any way for the main story, but...but surely there is something to be done, yah?

EDIT: Okay, "Lavos Beckons" is now up...damn, close to five hours on that thing. Anyway, for the scene in the hut in the Last Vilage, you'll note that there are special directions for how it proceeds within the script itself. Hopefully the explanation for how I see it going is good enough.

[Zakyrus]

Very nice. As for Last Village stuff... Easy to implement. We should have Marle rejoin before Magus so that she can be in the Magus convo...

[Kyronea]

It's a toss up in my mind between having her rejoin before or after the Magus conversation...on one hand it'd be nice for her to participate in it, on the other I'd like for her to pull a Magus and tell them to wait before leaving her behind so she can rejoin...I still haven't decided yet. Up to you, though, which one would fit better.