Thoughts on Build so far

Guess this is the best place to post this considering I don't see a board for game feedback but this works just as well. So I'll start.

It would be easier to have this just as "Journal" rather than Canter's journal. We know he's the protagonist and the player should be able to infer that without issue. Also it would fit inside the menu window.
I also feel there's too many menu options right off the start. It would be easier to introduce them one by one.

I know the items have yet to get descriptions but even if they don't receive any descriptions it would easy to write something like +50LP -2SPI. Attempt to make the player become familiar with the game's terms rather than have them fully fleshed out in the description. It's just simpler to reference



I'm just going to assume this is unfinished as I really hope we don't put gold in our sandwiches to make them.


I assume you're using Yanfly's message script. You should use \ii[x] to denote Item X. It will show up ingame as the item's name along with it's icon. Same goes for \iw[x] and \ia[x] for Weapon and Armor respectively.


I'm not sure why, but I thought I couldn't equip the gloves because the right-hand box didn't show anything inside of it. I assumed I had no gear to equip. Threw me off for a second.


The square there is an issue caused by the font you're using.


For a place that's being ravaged and things are scarce, wouldn't a good idea be to implement some sort of script where the shops have a limited stock? Also I own everything because no prices.


Battles are an attack-fest because the cost of magic is not worth the LP, even if the attacks are relatively strong. Special care towards the battles will be necessary if you wish to make them part of the game. Otherwise they become uninteresting and can turn off a lot of people from the game.
By the way I got into this battle extremely randomly by talking to some lady at the pub. It would help to have more point of reference (A cutscene ahead of time) instead of meeting an arbitrary talking to a person. Like, I don't mind the arbitrary talking to lady to lead up to this battle, but a cutscene on the map of Gabriel being approached by the guards and then asking Canter for help would look a lot nicer than suddenly being teleported into battle. It made me think the lady wanted to kill me or something.


It would help to know the effects of these food items in battle. I've stated something like that above. Just have an extra line that says something like +10%HP


This pub map is way too large. Try to make the inside of your buildings match how they look on the outside. The amount of walking space on this map is probably about as much as you get outside in the town of Stenback.


Strong language generally doesn't flow well in RPG Maker games or through text. It comes off as a cheap shock to see the word "fuck" rather than "this is the situation" in most circumstances. It would take a lot of mood setting to make the word "fuck" in the game come off as a genuine "oh damn this guy really hates us". I would probably use the words "piss off" instead of "fuck off". Would fit better, imo.


I assume this needs more work. If you need help with any event/quest writing I can help with that.

I know in Stenback you expect the player to talk to people and mention Nirav, but you can only mention it to a few select NPCs. You should really allow the player to mention it to everyone, even if they don't have anything to say. Otherwise it's a bit of a turnoff. It really helps you to expand on lore. Some NPCs may know nothing, some NPCs may give some more insight to the area or what have you.

I like the way you handled Shops and Inns. Very simplistic and saves on map space. I mentioned above shops should have limited inventory and probably high prices unless it's a place where inventory isn't really a concern. If you can re-visit a place, perhaps switches or variables to mark when a shop has stock again would be a good thing.

The game runs slow for me, I think this is due to the amount of scripts used. Menu navigation is slower than my inputs which really shouldn't happen.
The world map is especially crazy laggy.

Thanks for all the input, Luke.

First off, I'm not sure why the font looks like that for you. It's not as large on my end, so 'Canter's Journal' fits in the command window for me and there are no squares after enemy names.

Other'n that, you can chalk the errors and stuff in the demo up to my incompetence with RPG Maker and my general laziness.

My original plan was to enable the 'Say' command for every NPC, but my concern was that players would spend a long time trying every key term with every NPC and it would be too time-consuming. But I can bring that back if it'd improve things.

I'm going to tone down the scale of the game and make things simpler. Having as many features as the game has right now is courageous, but then so is jumping into a dumpster full of used needles.

Keep in the say command for every NPC and have some other people do some writing. If it's not /just/ you doing all the eventing it can be easy to offload some of the misc work to other people.

Luke pointed out many thoughts that I agree with, but I have a few points of my own to make.

-First off, the font size for "Canter's Journal" was fine for me ... it fit in the menu as well for me.
-I forgot to try making sandwiches and that, nor did I really bother to buy anything as the shops seemed incomplete (which is to be expected, I understand its just a demo ). I'm assuming that's why none of the food items had descriptions? Because they can't be used until you make them into a sandwich/item? Or are we going to eventually make them usuable, but just making them into an item via a recipe will reap more benefits than just the alternative of eating the ingredients?
-I really like the dialogue circles. LOVE THEM. I went to continuously use the dialogue circles, in case more new dialogue appeared. There wasn't any, but its something to be considered ... would it be tons of trouble to making the circles change colors when there's new dialogue or its been used and done? Maybe this is a silly idea but if you are dialogue hungry like me, it would be awesome, lol.
-The world map was SO LAGGY FOR ME TOO. I had no clue where I was going until I looked at the bottom left corner. Glad you added that, haha.
-I forgot to try the danzelopam ... is there any special effect that comes when you use this item?
-I found the fighting extremely tough. This could just be me, but I relied on magic because the monsters didn't die when I just straight up attacked, even when I had the pistol AND sword equipped. It was a bit easier in the fight with Gabriel, as he can heal, thankfully. But even then, it consumes TONS of LP. Again, I understand this is just a demo though.
-I understand wanting simplicity, but I was pretty bummed to learn you can't go into the shops. =/
-Plot question - if Nirav was just destroyed, and now this new town, what will be the cause of this? Have we sorted that out yet?
- I LOVE Jacquio. (Hope I spelt that right). However, I wanted to clarify - Merchants like Jacquio are simply fixing up old relics ... so is Slade going to be more the "fixing up relics with magic/cool effects" and inventing? I just want to clarify. Otherwise, my first thought was ".... THEY'RE THE SAME WTF SLADE IS FAR SUPERIORRRRR!" hahahaha. Of course, whatever you ultimately decide is fine. My love for my characters gets in the way sometimes. xD
-I didn't mind the harsh language. Maybe that's just me. It seemed more realistic to me.
-I pictured things a bit more wastelandy ... not so much desert-like, but just ... every now and then, you see garbage, junk, etc. I'm not criticising, but maybe that would be cool to add in. :p
-All the music is prime. Love the intro intro (where you can pick new game, continue, etc).
-If we want that encounter with Gabriel to be a permanent thing, if you'd like, I can write something for that? Unless someone else already has, haha, or has an idea in mind. I agree that the sudden fight was a bit like "oh ok WERE FIGHTING NOW OK YA" lol. But I understand the plot hook idea and I like that. Other than maybe a little lack of dialogue in that part, maybe on the guard's behalf (that's where I would add stuff in, if anything), I really liked that encounter. I actually half expected Dartz to be in there somewhere brawling or something, lol.

All in all, good start is good. Of course there's kinks to be worked out, but I approve of the direction the plot is going. After they leave this town .... what then? Do they deviate to Gabriel's quest (who sent the guards, why, etc), or do they continue with Canter's? Any thoughts? I'm just curious.
Also, one last question, lol .... is there any way I can help you create maps? I understand that that could be half the battle and I still have tons of free time on my hands. Is there a way for me to like, create a map and just send it to you?

Glad the text was good for you, Steph.

I haven't bothered with implementing sandwiches yet, because there are so many. There's a lot of work to be done in the 'Recipes' menu. Because of this, I haven't worried about adding good descriptions for food items. I think you'll be able to consume the ingredients raw, but making them into a sandwich is more efficient.

Ideally I'd like each circle to be able to "hold" multiple dialogues. Changing its colour isn't a problem.

Danzelopam will remove certain status effects that haven't been implemented yet.

I was hoping to make a game that was pretty difficult, but I think I may have went about it the wrong way. The thing is, magic will, at first, consume quite a lot of LP, but as you level up, you'll get more LP at your disposal.

I'll probably add actual maps for shops and inns in the future unless people like what I'm doing now.

The cause of the destruction was collateral damage from the war, which I think is what we established at the round table discussion. This means that the war happens somewhere far away during the 3-6 years that Canter is on his journey, and Nirav and Stenback are caught at the edge of the "blast zone" or whatever. With Nirav being completely demolished and Stenback being damaged a bit and still having survivors. I don't know. Does that seem like a bad idea?

Jacquio is a scavenger and seller of relics. Slade takes these relics and enhances them with extra parts and the like.

I'm just working with the graphics that I have.

You can certainly write whatever you like. The game I let you download should be editable.

Just gonna quickly reply to this in point form.

-k, good idea with the sandwiches and the ingredients.
-Cool. Again, the dialogue circles are an awesome feature. Makes the creation of the game easier, I would think.
-Also cool idea with the danzelopam.
-I approve of the idea of fighting being difficult considering the way are game has been created so far.... but I also disapprove because it was so annoying fighting. I know I would personally keep fighting and levelling until its easier, but I'm not sure everyone who plays our game will do the same. :S
-Ok. Well I suppose, let me know. I will gladly make some maps for shops and inns if you need help or anything. I personally think it adds to the game, but again, that's just my opinion.
-Ohhh ok. I was totally thinking ... way more ahead in time. Because if this war happened globally, no matter where Canter was, he would be in some kind of global disaster/war. So if he experienced nothing, then I assumed that our Event Horizon/Global war/destruction/whatever happened at least before Canter's lifetime (how old is he again? Like ... 20? So like 20 years ago Event Horizon happened?). idk. I'm not saying anything, lol, this is just how I thought of it in my head. :p However, the way you addressed it also makes sense and is a viable route we can take. I think it just means our Event Horizon was not very global ... perhaps just a war (no major weather disasters and such). It also leaves the potential for pockets of societies to be untouched or blocked off. I dunno .... its not entirely up to me, these are just my thoughts.
-OHHH ok. That's right. That makes sense too. Sorry. Blond moment. :p I approve of Jacquio the scavenger/merchant regardless.
-Ok. I may start coming up with stuff to write.

On the topic of battles being hard, there's a difference between a battle being hard and a battle being annoying (and annoyingly hard). The problem with the battles right now is that even if you do have magic at a reasonable cost, the enemies don't do anything interesting and neither do the main characters, so they're left with only the ability to attack. That just turns a fight into pressing spacebar until it's over.

My suggestion is to play Master of the Wind (RPG Maker XP game) and see how they do battles. The battles are tough, but never boring.