[Beta 3.0] Legionwood 2: Rise of the Eternal's Realm, Epic length traditional J-RPG and direct sequel to Legionwood. Options

[Dark Gaia]

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Hey everyone!

Unfortunately, progress on Legionwood 2 has been extremely slow lately. I had intended to have the first instalment of the game out to beta testers by the end of March and publically released early in April, but I might not be able to do that at the moment.

University assignments and writing commitments seem to really be piling up over these last few weeks, and since halfway through March, I've been so busy getting it all done (I'm a journalism major, and that means hunting down sources, conducting interviews etc) that I haven't really been able to put the finishing touches on Legionwood 2 that I've been wanting to.

The first instalment is so close to being finished now; I've finished mapping the last town of the chapter and I just have to do the last dungeon and cutscenes, but that, as well as basic testing, will still require a good week or so of uninterrupted work before I can get the game out into the world.

I probably won't be able to do these last few things until a week or two into April at least, when my first round of assignments will have been attended to (and I'll be on break for Easter) so I'm hoping I'll be able to release the game then or at least get it close to release, before the next wave of assignments shows up before May.

Since I've missed my nominated deadline for release so badly, I'll be skipping the two week beta testing period; once the first chapter of the game is done, myself and some of my friends will test it ourselves and then I'll release it for the public to enjoy.

My apologies, and please stay tuned!

[Dark Gaia]

Saturday, 21st of April, 2012

It's finally out!

The first ever public release of Legionwood 2 (Beta Build 1.1) is now available for download. This release contains the entire first chapter of the game, which represents roughly 3-4 hours of gameplay time, with 4 dungeons, 2 towns and 5 bosses. Links have been added to the opening post.

This release has been tested and as far as I can tell, all bugs have been ironed out, though balancing and difficulty issues may be present. There are also some small bugs that occur as a result of this being made in the Japanese VX Ace (namely that random squares appear in battle text and in the status screen) though these will likely be fixed when I port the project over to the English version.

[Dark Gaia]

BUMP!

Hi guys, just letting everyone know that a new version is out (beta build 1.3) that fixes up quite a few balancing issues from the previously released version. You don't even have to download Legionwood 2 again, as I've uploaded it both in a full download and in a small update patch form.

Here's the changelog:
- Vanishing characters issue is fixed.
- Skipping the intro no longer prevents your characters from getting skills and items.
- Sub Classes no longer provide you with additional equipment options.
- Equipping a Sub Class now incurs a small statistical penalty, to attempt to balance equipping it.
- The Shield Earring no longer grants Attack. It now only grants Defense and Wisdom like it was meant to.
- The Swift Shoes now increase Agility by 20 instead of 50.
- There are no longer squares in the battle text.
- Enemies have had their Attack, Wisdom and Defense increased by 10%.
- The Curse Dryad is no longer encounterable in random encounters.
- Silencing now prevents Magus, Cleric and Rogue Techs from being used.
- Offense Ring, Mind Ring, Shoulder Pad and Shield Earring now grant percentage based bonuses.
- An extra cutscene has been added when the player enters the Forum in the intro.
- The description for the "Energy Bolt" item has been fixed.
- Battle items have been made slightly stronger.
- Inn fade out time has been decreased by half.
- Blacksmiths no longer ask the redundant "can I help you? yes/no" question.
- Various typos have been corrected.
- Shop scene has been upgraded to now show detailed information about purchases.

[kayden997]

Gah, I still have to try this out. Been busy but looks too good to pass up.
(what happened to my beta tester position)

[Dark Gaia]

Due to the fact that the game got delayed, I ended up scrapping the beta testing period entirely. Feel free to give me feedback, though, and I'll keep you in mind for the next release.

[Dark Gaia]

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

Ready for more adventuring?

As of today, the second public release of Legionwood 2 (Beta Build 2.0) is available for download. You'll be able to experience re-balanced gameplay, polished bugs and an entire hour of whole new content taking place in the world of Westholm, extending Chapter One: Emergent Enemies to 4 - 5 hours in length, with 7 dungeons, 2 towns and 7 bosses.

And, with that... I think that's it for now. I'll be taking a few months off Legionwood 2 in order to work on writing my next novel (since publishers give deadlines and all) and running the literary journal that I edit. Apart from updates for bug fixes and little gameplay tweaks, you probably won't be seeing Chapter Two for a while.

But it will come. Eventually.

Thanks for playing.

P.S You can resume playing the game using your old save file. To do this, just download the 2.0 build of Legionwood 2 and copy and paste your save files (Savexx.rvdata2) from the old directory to the new.

However, there is a small caveat: it appears VX Ace handles events after saving differently than VX. In VX, upon game load, the events present on the map will continue as they have been programmed, whereas in VX Ace, the events that were running when the game was saved will play first, even if those events no longer exist. Thus, loading a save taken at the very end of the last release will simply take you back to the title screen. You need to reload a save that was made at any time before the Brennus fight to be able to continue.

I'm aware of the bug now, and have carefully designed the end of this release to allow maximum save file compatibility.

[Seirno]

Been lurking around here for too long. Playing through the game now and loving it, much like the first one. Here are the bugs I've come across so far.

In the Dryad battle, there was some script error that forced the game to close. I couldn't get it to happen again, but I do know it happened the one time when I went to select the -Agility gunner skill.
Going into the colliseum it throws a RTBPeople1-10 and 1-17 missing error. If you wander around, the NPCs they are are just invisible.
During the fight with Brennus, if he uses Sharpen, his attack gets reset to 1 and stays for the entire fight, even when Sharpen wears off.
The notes inside of the Eternal Gate mess up your dialog boxes in a weird way. Sometimes you have one line of text, sometimes two, sometimes three. Seems to fix after you read them all. Also an item randomly appears on the table as you're reading the notes.
Both of the chests that say you get a Mind Ring and Swift Shoes don't actually give you anything at all.
When you open the door to the inn in Everdawn, it changes to a wall graphic.
Several chests in the mountain pass turn from wooden to metal when you open them.
Just got an error in the fight with the Dark Spawn: Scene_BattleCTB line 722: NoMethodError.
Small typo when you're talking to the statue, I believe it was 'thier' instead of 'their'.

This post has been edited by Seirno: May 22 2012, 07:17 PM

[Dark Gaia]

Hi Seirno! Long time no see!

I'll get to work on fixing those issues up right away! To be honest, I still have no idea what's causing the battle crashes - I think I need to update the battle system script. But I can fix those other issues

Thanks for playing.

[lethitax]

Hmm...

- When using the Light Blade on zombies: a resist icon appears, which makes me wonder; is the sword itself still physical, but dishes out more damage to un-deads (dark affinity mobs)? I originally thought it would deal light damage (via the animations used for it), but I'm not sure now after using it for a while. Using skills also seem to deal equal to slightly less than normal attacks on said mobs, so I'm assuming knight skills do not gain the same effect of the weapon? Not sure if I'm making sense here, so feel free to let me know.

- Crumbler also seems to confuse me as it's a cleric based ability that deals heavy damage to undeads, but when used against the final boss in the demo; it doesn't reflect that. I even used silver bullets and that was super-effective, but crumbler wasn't.

- I really liked how when it was your turn; you could select who to use for that turn, but I found that out waay later in the demo. Personally; it would of been nice if there was a small tutorial telling you that you don't have to go with whomever the AI designates, but that's just me.

- A few minor spelling/grammar oddities, but no biggie.

- The inn where you meet up with the rest of your party after the whole Eternal Gate fiasco: the red banner to the right can be walked on and you can head upwards and all around XD.

- I LOVED spamming steal, and I wish I bought extras for that boss encounter when you only have 2 people available. I had no idea those events would take place and didn't stock up, so I'm wondering; what did he have on him?

- The side-quest to head into the supposed haunted mansion: is that even completable? I'm assuming the designated location is beyond the broken bridge?

- Was the Coliseum functional? I don't have a save prior to when the whole Eternal Gate event triggered, since I never imagined that'd happen and I was going to just retrace my steps back there after I leveled a bit, but alas~.

Overall - I thoroughly enjoyed it and will most likely get a cleric/hybrid in the next installment and steal on everyone.

This post has been edited by lethitax: Jun 13 2012, 05:16 PM

[Seirno]

I think I remember seeing that oddity about the battle system too, but I don't think that's intentional. Otherwise it's sort of a one-off turn based battle system if you can keep picking the same person over and over again.

The coliseum is indeed functional; you can fight the first round of it and get a pretty decent armor for winning it. That's all you can do in it right now though. Has some sort of physical resist effect IIRC (and probably not).

And yeah, pretty sure the haunted mansion the quest tells you to go check out is the one across the broken bridge. I couldn't find a way over to it either.

This post has been edited by Seirno: Jun 14 2012, 08:54 AM

[Dark Gaia]

Hi everyone,

Yes, Seirno is correct; the haunted house cannot be accessed in the current build of the game. That is a quest you'll be able to undertake in Chapter Two. The later stages of the arena will also be expanded on. The plan is to have one extra stage per chapter, so the final arena fight will therefore become available in Chapter Four.

I'll look into the oddities with the resistance of the Light Blade and Crumble. I'm still not too sure how Ace's element resistance system differs from VX and what effects stack or overide each other, so it's merely a case of tweaking them. The undead enemies have 10% resistance to Melee, which is probably why the "Resist" tag pops up, though the weakness should overide that and still inflict the extra damage.

The Lich enemy is kind of a trick fight. I set him up expecting not many people to be able to Steal from him, but if you DO think to get someone else the ability to Steal, you'll find he has a Phylactery, which, when used, instantly destroys him! he doesn't have any good equipment, though.

Glad you enjoyed the game. More is to yet to come!

[Dark Gaia]

Hey everyone!

If anyone's stuck, you can check out a video walkthrough of Chapter One made by Michaelkur. It goes all the way from start to finish and shows the sidequests, too, so it may help if you don't know what to do next. Find it here: http://rpgmaker.net/...3811/media/455/

In other news, Chapter Two is going along smoothly. I'm not far enough to set an exact release date yet, but I estimate that the next release should be done by August or September. Chapter Two: Aftermath and Alliance will add another four hours or so of gameplay to the game. The story sees you journeying out of Trevelle into Entoban to try and establish an alliance with the barbarians and find out who opened the Eternal Gates. There are two new towns to visit, five new dungeons, 20+ new Techs to try out and 2 new classes (Barbarian and Ranger) and a new character that you'll be able to unlock as you go through the story in this chapter. This chapter is also more non linear than Chapter One and will have multiple side quests to complete, as well as branching scenes and scenarios that are dependant on the moral choices you've been making in the game so far. You'll be able to face one of three distinct bosses at the end of the chapter, depending on Lionel's morality.

I'll bring more news as I get more done

[Kimidori]

^the link is not properly copied

[hero501]

Yeah i like this game, good job man

[Dark Gaia]

I'm glad you like it. The next release (Beta 3.0) is coming along smoothly, and should be out within the next two months. I hope you'll keep an eye out for it!

[Dark Gaia]

Hi again, Legionwood fans.

I'm just popping in announce that work on Beta 3.0 of Legionwood 2 has resumed. I put the game on hiatus so that I could re-release an updated version of the original Legionwood with completely rewritten dialogue but now that this is done, I'm free to make some long-awaited progress on Legionwood 2.

I know better than to give a release date, but it should be out around October. Make sure you keep checking up at my website for more updates.

Peace!

[Dark Gaia]

Tuesday, August 21st 2012

Hail, Legionwood fans!

As of this week, I'm resuming full time work on Chapter Two of Legionwood 2. Previously, I had university assignments as well as admin and publishing stuff with my novel to take care of, but I'm happy to say that I've got a few weeks coming up where I don't have any other matters to attend to, and I want to use this time to really push myself to work on the game and get the Beta 3.0 release closer to being in a playable condition.

At the moment, Chapter 2: Aftermath and Alliance is roughly 30% complete. I was aiming for a late September release of the new version of the game and if I can still meet that, it would be great. On the other hand, I'd like to continue working on the game at my own pace, and take my time making sure that the new content I release is properly tested and worthwhile instead of rushing it, so please don't hold me to that release date. I just wanted to post and say that yes, Legionwood 2 is still being worked on, and I do still have plans to finish this game, and I want to make sure that you guys get the best game possible.

Some info about what you can expect in Beta 3.0: Chapter 2: Aftermath and Alliance will see Lionel and the party travelling out of Trevelle into the neighbouring nation of Entoban to try and establish a peace treaty with the invading barbarians before full scale war engulfs the two nations. They'll also try to enlist the help of the king of Entoban in the quest to find out how to close the remaining Eternal Gates and discover more about who is behind the plot to infect Legionwood with the Darkness and their motives. Meanwhile, Lionel will continue to cope with the loss of Clara and forge bonds with his new friends. They'll race to stop the enemy from opening yet another Eternal Gate and, at the end of the chapter, one of the party members will die. In addition, you'll get to play with two new classes (Barbarian and Ranger), 20+ new Techs, and experience the consequences of Lionel's moral choices, with certain side quests, dungeons and bosses being sealed off in favour of others depending on the path you've chosen.

Call for live Beta Testers:

Also, I'm pleased to announce that, this time next week, I'll be taking advantage of RMN's "testers only" download option and uploading a "live beta" for selected beta testers to play. This will be a chance for beta testers to play the new content as it is created as I upload new builds weekly, allowing me to test new additions while Chapter 2 is still in development and correct issues as they arise. The best part is that you'll be able to experience the chapter as it unfolds before I release the "proper" Beta 3.0, containing the complete Chapter 2 to the public. If you're interested in being a live beta tester, please reply to this post or PM me. Only six people will be chosen (I still want to have some people around to play the public release when it comes out), so post fast!

*please keep in mind that you will be required to have an account at RMN, so that you can be added as a tester and be given access to the download.

So far, we have:

1. Crystalgate
2. edchuy
3. Hesufo
4. DOA_Hitomi
5.
6.

[Dark Gaia]

Beta 3.0 is out!

Well met, Legionwood players! The third public release of Legionwood 2: Rise of the Eternal's Realm, Beta Build 3.0 is now online and ready to download. This major update includes the first half of Chapter 2: Aftermath and Alliance, adding around 2 hours of new content, including new locations, new Techs and one of two new classes (Ranger and Barbarian) to play depending on your morality, as well as numerous tweaks and bug fixes to existing content. In this release, you'll finally start to get to see your moral choices come into play as dungeons, treasures and quests change depending on the decisions you've made, and you'll need to play through the Beta twice, on both moral paths if you want to see it all.

The original plan was to have all of Chapter 2 available in this release, though this wasn't possible due to time constraints. Much of the time I spent working on this release was used to make sure the existing content is stable and free of any remaining bugs. I've updated all of the game's scripts and overhauled the engine while also tweaking the game's art style a little and implementing some more non-linear elements to the game in both of the chapters. All of this extra work unfortunately meant that I wasn't able to complete all of Chapter 2 as I had planned, so I decided to cut the chapter in half and save the rest for the next Beta.

So, if you've been itching for some more adventuring, download Beta 3.0 of Legionwood 2 and tuck in. This Beta contains over 6-7 hours of old-school RPG gameplay with more than enough content to (hopefully) keep you busy until the next big release. Players who are continuing from the previous release of the game can simply copy and paste their save file ("Save01.rvdata") into the Beta 3.0 directory to continue from where they left off, while new players can feel free to start right from the beginning and experience all of the new surprises that the revised Chapter 1 has to offer.

At the end of the Beta, remember to retain your save file for use in the next release, and please don't forget to report any bugs or issues that you find so that they can be fixed up.

Well, that's it for now. Please enjoy the new additions to the game, and stay tuned for news about Beta 4.0 and Legionwood going commercial (possibly), when it happens.

For those too lazy to scroll back to the opening post, get the Beta here: http://rpgmaker.net/games/3811/downloads/3435/

[Fleta]

Dark Gaia!

Glad to have you back working on Legionwood II. I adored the first one and now I'm adoring this one as well. I just tried to get the Lich (again, I've never had much luck fighting him) and after getting him down somewhat I came across the following:

Script 'Scene_Battle CTB' line 815:No method error occurred undefined method 'item' for nil:NilClass

Is this the error mentioned in some of the earlier posts and has this been solved? I'm wondering if it has something to do with when he summons 3 zombies to help him? Also, you mention that he has something that will destroy him if you can steal it from him. How do you get someone (I assume it would be Felix) to learn how to steal? I haven't seen it in a tech store.

[Dark Gaia]

Hi Fleta. I'm glad you're enjoying the game so far. Actually, you're the only person who reported that bug (my beta testers and myself got through that battle without any trouble) though somebody reported experiencing a similar error in a later battle (Wind Elemental) when a boss summons more enemies. They said it seemed to occur at random, and only if they'd used F12 to reset the game. In either case, I'll probably remove that summon event from the battle to ensure that it works until I can have a scripter look at it and fix it. By the way, is this error occurring in Beta 3.0, or do you have an earlier edition of the game? The error used to occur randomly in battles for no reason, but I fixed that and now it seems to be isolated to one or two specific points in the game (much like the old Stack Errors of Legionwood 1).

The "Steal Item" tech is available in the Corinthe Tech Store. Felix has it learned by default, but he isn't in your party for the Lich fight, so you can buy it and give Aelia or Lional a Rogue sub-class to allow them to steal the Phylactery.