Castle Paradox

[msw188]

Hey, my name is Mike Willis, and I have just uploaded a copy of my first ever demo. The problem is that because I got an error message while doing so, I did it three times, and now there are three copies of my demo for download! Is there any way to delete a game from the list? The name is Hero's Journey Demo_0. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

In any case, I'm hoping that someone will try the game out and give some sort of (probably negative) review. For anyone interested, be warned that my favorite rpgs of all time are the Dragon Warrior series for NES, and this game is in many ways a tribute to those (along with some Final Fantasy elements for good measure). I'd really appreciate some feedback on the general gameplay.

Thank you!

[Iblis]

Ok, my first thoughts after playing for a couple minutes.

1) Well, there's no real basis in this but I'm a bit skeptical about the 10 hours you claimed. Nothing personal, just going with the odds.

2) The red, white, and blue tiles in the castle are REAL hard on my eyes, you may want to change those.

3) Standard practice is to use black outlines on sprites, not white.

4) You need a second frame on your attack. I know you want to make it oldschool but without the second frame the guy flashes and it looks weird.

5) Is the music original? If it is then it's pretty good, especially for a first time. It's not offensive at all.

EDIT: Ok, there was a big fan on while I was first playing, so: 1) The battle theme, while not being too bad a song in general, should not be a battle theme, imo. 2) I really like the song in the cave/forest. It's cool.

6) Please, oh god, PLEASE increase Colin's speed.

7) It's largely graphically unappealing, but it's definitely not the worst I've seen.

8) Don't steal town names from DW4. Izlit = Izmit, Burkeland (or whatever it was) = Burland. Seriously, if you're gonna steal stuff, at least be a little sneakier about it.

EDIT: Ok, just don't steal in general. Do NOT put moogles in your game. It's just wrong.

Well, anyway, so far nothing has been too bad, and you get 5 points for getting me to do more than just load it and say "UGH!"
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OHR Piano

[msw188]

Okay, maybe I should clear up. First, the game was originally meant to take place in the same world as DW IV, but at a later date when the names of certain places had changed slightly with time (except Endor, the main castle in that game and now capital of Enex, the main good guy continent). When I heard that Enix had already done this, I scrapped that idea, but I have a hard time letting go of my favorite names from there, so many have stayed and will stay. Most names that you can think of have already been used anyway, what's it matter where? I feel similarly about the existence of moogles, etc. Is the use of orcs in any video game stealing from Tolkien?
The music is all original but for the town, which is my ear rendition of the theme from "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum. The outside music was originally me trying to figure out one of the themes from the Lord of the Rings movie, but I failed, ending up with that song (which I kinda like anyway).
As for the ten hours deal, I guess I overestimated, but I went by my own playing style, involving gaining levels and money for equipment, etc. If you've beaten Part 1 (which is essentially Part 1 from DW IV, just because I needed an idea to test how to 'make' a game-line) you're between one sixth and one seventh of the way through what I have so far.
As for speed, I personally hate the fast paced orientation of games like Chrono Trigger, etc. (although that was a great game anyway). I'd like to have the option to make battles turn-based in the future, because I like the idea of battles as strategy based, NOT time based. I especially wish there was a way to bring back the importance of effect-based spells that could be so powerful in the DW series, but were never as effective in meter-based battle.
Anybody else's comments are certainly welcome. And to the previous author, thank you for taking the time to try out the game, even if you're criticism seems a little harsh at times. I really appreciate you're reply.

[Iblis]

[msw188]

Just wanted to say thanks to you again for showing genuine interest in trying out my demo. If you do continue through it, you'll realize that almost every name is taken from somewhere, so I'm afraid that may disappoint you, but I'd like to say that in general the game gets a little better as you go on. You see, I started Part 1 almost immediately after downloading the engine (right after going through the tutorials, actually), so as I went on I began to get better with using the different abilities of the engine, especially tags and scripts (there's almost no scripting in Part 1).
I'd also just like to say that right now, moogles are kind of a Squaresoft thing, but the only way things of this sort become widespread is if people spread them, although this can be seen as good or bad, depending on your point of view. But Tolkien is hailed as a genius precisely because his creatures have become commonplace, so why not Squaresoft's as well? Just my opinion.
Also, thank you very much for your compliments on my music. I've found that many OHR games rip both music and graphics directly, which seems to me to be worse than taking names of places. I'm trying to avoid that, although the result is graphics and music that are hardly up to the 'usual' standard, you might say.

[Aethereal]

[Iblis]

Two things:

1) Oh, don't get me started on RM2K. Those guy'll rip ANYTHING.

(plus, RM2K blows in comparison to the OHR)

2) FFH rips graphics and music, and it's one of the most popular OHR games ever.
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OHR Piano

[Setu_Firestorm]

Well, dude, I'm workin' with RPG2k for NKReborn, and you better believe I'm goin' original (I'll probably be the only one).

Ya know what the problem is with RPG2kers? The fact that they have EVERYTHING handed to them on a silver platter, so they're too darn lazy to make their own crap!

Although I imagine a few are original....
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[msw188]

I shouldn't have said that about "many OHR games", I mostly just read you guys' reviews and several have the word "ripped", especially in the music department. But I'm new to the community, so I really can't say much on that.

By the way, this is still supposed to be a thread about feedback on my demo! I'd very much appreciate the thoughts of others, if they have the time to try it out. I finally uploaded a screen shot of where I happened to be working on (if you see it, I'm trying to keep dates straight so that if I continue to make more of these games in this world but in different times, as the plan goes, I don't end up contradicting myself).

Thank you again.

[Friend]

As far as I know, Orc just means evil in old english... Or something to that extent. Tolkien took it and used it as a name for his creature... I might be wrong though. Orcs, fairies, and elves are the sort of thing that people usually associate with a medieval fantasy world. I wouldn't charge him of being unoriginal for using any of these creatures(although moogles are strictly FF... heh.) Besides, I don't look for originality in a game, I always look for the content and execution.

As of now, I really can't tell how good your game is since I haven't played it. Maybe it's a little harsh, but I'll be honest with you... I only play OHR games with reasonable graphics.

Friend,
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"I am Collins. From my position in the moon's orbit, I watched Armstrong and Aldrin land and walk on the surface. I was so close to the ground of the moon, and yet I returned without having trod upon it... I am Collins." -Friend

[Aethereal]

Hence why I used the word "generally". And to be honest, FFH was good at first, then I kind of lost interest in it. Call it the fact that I prefer originality, and that it was too easy.

(For the record, I speak of the Hardtype version.)
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[Blazes Battles Inc.]

[msw188]

About the text boxes, I only found out about changing sizes once I had started working on about Part 4 or so, and I meant to go back and resize them all before releasing this demo. I suppose I'll just do that before the next one (whenever that will be). Also, I am seriously considering redoing Part 1 in general - there's only one type of npc because I had only made one by that time, and was more interested in making maps and things than npc graphics at the time. Since then I've made more colors for them, but only a few general townsfolk npc graphic sets. I suppose I'll try to do that by the next update as well.
How come none of you guys like my horrible floor tiles? I like them! Ha ha. I suppose that I'll do something with them when I get the time. But seriously, if you're trying out the demo, try to put up with Part 1 and get to the later Parts, by which time I had learned how to use tags, scripts, etc. And maybe gotten a liiiittle better at drawing (not much, though).

[Iblis]

I plan to get as far as I possibly can in this game, just because.

[Fenrir-Lunaris]