Castle Paradox

[St. Ajora]

I was planning on putting more variety into these screenshots, but since every midterm has to fall on the same week, all I was able to manage was the intro. Click on them to enlarge them. They look better that way.


A conversation between the three heroes.


An attack on the enemy...


...and his counterattack.

Again, I realize these are repetitive screenshots, but I was hardly able to work on the game this week.

Graphics in the style of Final Fantasy 4/5. Diehard fans may notice a few other references to the series, but it isn't a fangame, so no chocobos, moogles, Ifrit, Shiva, etc.

[Flamer]

nice, I like the colouring for the tiles and characters.

The colour selection of the tiles is a different story... too bright for my eyes (especially since I haven't slept yet and it's 5am)

not a bad effort, looks interesting to play around with.
...and I do see resemblances in the walkabouts with FF4/5
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If we were a pack of dogs, IM would be a grand Hound, CN would be a very ficious little pitball, and Giz...well, it doesn't matter breed he is, he'd still be a bitch
(no offense to anyone that was mentioned)

[lethal255]

Hmmmmm.....Looks like it good be fun. It looks like your using an action battle style instead of the standard ohr fight system( or hit's just a non hero controlled fight). More screens would be nice, but midterms in octobre? Do you have them in the middle of every marking period?
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"what everyone went around calling you white stormy?"

"you mean, there's...a ...black stormy?"

"No"

[St. Ajora]

Haha. No, it isn't a new battle engine, just the introductory "cutscene." Before the Playstation era and its FMVs, it's how the story was told. I find it makes for much more charming exchanges. For example, enlarge the first screenshot and you may notice that one of the characters is nodding.

As for midterms, all major schools that I know of have them in the middle of the semester. I'm guessing you're in high school and have classes that last for the entire school year. College classes are semester-long, so the middle of the term is halfway through the semester, hence midterm.

I'm trying to get more screenshots, but I have very little ready. Complicating this is the fact that I'm thinking of redoing all of my battle graphics, which are currently also in the FF4/5 style. It almost looks too cartoony with such large sprites.

[Shadowiii]

Oh, I thought it was a battle system.

<cheapplug>My game, Stop, had interesting cutscenes like what you are doing, if you are interested in seeing more. The script is included with the file, and the file is unpassworded. </cheapplug>

The graphics are nice, but they look even more FF5/6ish then mine do. The maps are pretty griddy, but they still look nice. Overall, nice start, but you could use some extra touch ups. Unless, of course, they are supossed to be in "perfect crystal world" (which is all fine and good )
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But enough talk, have at you!

[St. Ajora]

I played Stop. It occurs to me that commercial games rely on those techniques a lot more than OHR games, to the detriment of the latter. You plugged Stop as an OHR movie of sorts, but really it has only what a real game should in terms of storytelling.

The map featured there is roughly based on and heavily inspired by the last dungeon in Final Fantasy 4, the last really griddy FF. In any event, you spend about two minutes in that map, so if the tiles aren't wonderful, that's why.

Anyway, here's another screenshot to dispel all those custom battle system rumors.



This is a fake screenshot, since those enemies will probably never all appear together, much less in a cave of all places. Neither of those heroes is in the intro, of course.

The resemblance to the FF series should be especially striking in the hero graphics. I need to work on my enemies still.

[Uncommon]

They're enough like FF4 that you can see the inspiration, but not enough that they look ripped. Enemy sprite are pretty good, too.
Interesting way to do the background. Must've been annoying to get it to import so well. I'm curious how it looks in-game.

Why are girls always better at graphics?

[lethal255]

awww...I was hopping some one was useing my action rpg engine. Oh well.
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"what everyone went around calling you white stormy?"

"you mean, there's...a ...black stormy?"

"No"

[Soule X]

[LeRoy_Leo]

[JSH357]

I like the tiles in the first shots, but they would look cooler with shadows underneath the ice-looking bridge.

Just my two cents.

[St. Ajora]

What you can't tell from the screenshots is that the red background is glowing/pulsating. Since it's a light source, the crystal/ice/whatever casts no shadow on it, but instead the bottom of it slightly changes color along with the background. By some coincidence, all of the shots I took ended up with the same animation frame.

Soule X, are you always so sexist or is are you misrepresenting yourself here and in the Character Death thread? I'm not personally offended at you, but I know dozens of people who would be by now.

[The Wobbler]

[JSH357]

Women ARE horrible drivers. They always talk on cell phones and tailgate while they're supposed to be paying attention to the road. (At least where I live. Rednecks are pretty bad drivers too)

[Aethereal]

I second what JSH said, at least for where we live. >_>

OK, back to the topic at hand, dudes.
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