Arcana, Vol 1: Essence of All - Being Reworked! Options

[EvenAngels]

Since the birth of time there have the Arcana, 22 essences that act as both creators and overseers of the world. The give life, hope and happiness, but also take away all a person has when the time is right.

Upon birth, all beings are approached by the Arcana, and any one of them may become part of that being's soul, dictact that being's lifestyle and traits. Sometimes, the Arcana can also be awoken from within, giving people tremendous abilities when faced with a horrific crisis.

When Einar and Alexia are returning home through the forest from running an errand for a neighbour, bu chance they find themselves taken to a dark and disturbing version of the forst. They are subsequently attacked by a hideous creature which forces their Arcana, the Moon and the Empress respectively, to awaken to aid them in survival before returning them to the normal world. With a feeling of relief they go home to rest.

However, when Einar wakes up the next morning, Alexis is nowhere to be found. Now, with the aid of the Moon Arcana (as well as a variety of companions along the way) he sets out to find his sister, only to discover that something far more sinister has been going on.


Name: Einar
Age: 19
Born in a small forest village, Einar spent his youth caring for his sister Alexia after their mother passed away. He is often very energetic and willing to take risks. However, even he has to acknowledge his ignorance.

Name: Alexia
Age: 16
Alexia is the younger sister of Einar, and has spent almost all of her life in his care. She is a feisty young girl who is quick to anger, but she is also very happy to help people. Wanting to protect her brother, her Arcana awakens at the same time as his to act as support. However, she promptly disappears that night, leading to her brother searching the world for her.

Name: Haze
Age: 16
Haze was born and raised in the small, isolated and unnamed village located at the bottom of the Lucia Valley, reffered to by most as the Lucia Valley Village. The only experiences outside of the village she has ever had are from collecting fruit and vegetables from the local area.

Name: Isaac
Age: 26
A Drifter by nature, and hired hunter by trade, Isaac often comes across as cold. However, those who know him well know that, in truth, he is a kind, caring and understanding individual.

Name: Rachael
Age: 18
A failing Arcane Mage who constantly messes up her examination spells, eventually leading to her dismisale from the Arcane Society. She has a carefree persona but hides something deep inside her.

Name: Aeon
Age: Unknown
A seemingly dangerous man who appears to have lost his mind. He is strangely obssessed with Haze, as well as someone he only ever refers to as "Her".



Graphically, Arcana represents both the normal and abnormal sides of all of us. Ranging from standard country villages to derranged looking habitats, the player will be able to explore a variety of emotions through the games style. The overall colour, style and story progression will striver for a surreal style, including distorted world areas, and "odd" mixtures of textures and colours. This will also be achieved by the inclusion of the "Dark World."


"Magic", known as Arcana abilities, will only be available after a character has "awoken" their personal Arcana, by either finding the corresponding it (know as an Arcana Drop) or through events of the story. As well as this, each character will have and learn non-Arcana skills via leveling, although some will require the use of an item to be obtained.

As for the general feel and style of the game, it takes place in a semi-medieval world. However, it will use modern day social structures as well as having a mild influx of Steam Punk style.



* Customized side view battle system.
* Hidden dungeons and boss battles that require planning and strategy to beat.
* "Secret" Arcana abilities that must be found before they can be used.
* Surreal world and enemies.
* Dark and mature plot.
* Over 200 weapons and armor to find and collect.
* Limited number of skills in battle means you need to think ahead.




Screencap from testing, used to show the quality of dialogue

[Show/Hide] Quotes

Please Note - The following testimonials are from the first ever released Alpha version. Many improvements have been made since that demo was released, and so the demo is not available for download. Sorry.

A Nice Demo That'll Probably Turn Into An Excellent Game

A genuinely creepy feel

The first boss is a doozy, and will probably give you a run for your money the first time

It's truly worth a look, to anyone who plays user-made games like this.

The relationship between Alexia and the main hero seems very realistic so far.

Probably some of the greatest VX mapping I've ever seen.

Suspenseful and engaging

The Battle System is highly engaing and keeps the user awake

The mapping's awesome.

The boss fight was HARD

An awesome game with a good history

This is a very well organized and thought out project and with proper licensing contracts this could be a commercial game

This game reminds me of a darker version of the first few FFs

Enterbrain
Mack
Moghunter
Yanfly

This post has been edited by EvenAngels: Jul 9 2010, 12:23 AM

[Gamerbird]

I like the way you have set out your game topic EvenAngels!

Your game looks interesting as well. Nice combination of the RTP and Mack tiles!
Adding the userbar to my sig

Need any help from me, just ask

[EvenAngels]

Thank you very much for the interest and offer.

[EvenAngels]

Hi guys, sorry for not posting in a while... Just a little update to annouce that we now have a fully working demo available to download! It still only plays through "chapter 1" (since chapter 2 is still in production xD) but it has all the scripts fixed.

It also has some of the areas redesigned to give a more natural and open feel to the game.

[Dark Gaia]

Congratulations on a great looking game and a fantastic looking thread. I often have to tell off people for their threads, so just thought I'd post and say how nice it is that you've set out your thread this way. May play when I have some time too.

[EvenAngels]

Thank you very much. I was hoping to do a decent job with the thread.

[Dark Gaia]

Let me tell you that a good thread is often what makes me want to try the game. You've succeeded in that, I think this thread will draw in a lot of people, but here's a tip:

Don't put info in spoiler tags. People are lazy. Unless there's a huge wall of text in there, they don't want to click to access the information, they want it right in their faces. Accessability means playability. The amount of text you have in there is not a lot, so it's best to just have it openly displayed.

[EvenAngels]

Alright, thanks for the tip! I'll edit that now. Incidentally, there will be more text added later, but to the characters section. The characters are all planned out, but I'm adding them to the topic only when they appear in a demo that's downloadable. Is that a good way of doing things in your opinion?

[Dark Gaia]

That's the best way to do things IMO. If you give people information on what to expect, but they never actually see it in the demo, it can make them feel cheated. On the other hand, sometimes it increases the hype a bit. I think a small amount of info from the full game should be used, simply to add more hype about things to come, but not too much as to cause disapointment. (For example, long skill/character lists detailing features the player will never encounter. A small bio of the characters NOT in the demo is enough to build hype, but don't go too indepth.)

Try to set out your thread like my Legionwood one. I feel that my thread has the right balance of info in the right areas.

[EvenAngels]

Alright. During my lunch break or after work I'll redesign the layout. Thank you very much for the advice.

[Dark Gaia]

http://rmvx.gameclover.com/promo/spruce-up...-post/#more-231

Try reading this as it has a lot more helpful tips and it will help you improve the thread. (Which is pretty good even now)
There aren't many good VX projects right now so I wanna see this get the attention it deserves.

[EvenAngels]

Thank you once again. I shall look through it now (I'm on lunch) and get to work on it later.

[EvenAngels]

I'm really sorry about this everyone! It seems my lack of sleep has caught up to me intelligence wise... I forgot (again) to set the player starting position correctly... I'm uploading (again) a fixed version, this time with the correct location and sprites. I'm really sorry... I'll edit this post and the OP when it's uploaded.

EDIT: Download link now goes to what I think is a working game...

This post has been edited by EvenAngels: Mar 9 2009, 11:26 PM

[EvenAngels]

Just an update to announce that currently work is getting hectic, so I'll be unable to do much on this until the weekend. However, at the weekend I'll be sitting down and thoroughly planning out chapter 2.

[EvenAngels]

Just thought I'd announce that yet another fix for the demo has been made. You can now play through the whole of chapter 1 (or at least, I was able to... )

[Seirno]

Downloaded this a bit ago, but didn't get very far because the game crashed. After the forest goes dark, I was attacked by two eyeball things (Vizio?), one used Cure, then it threw a nil:value and crashed the game.

I'll post a few more comments when I get further in the game, assuming the only battle isn't with those eyeballs.

[EvenAngels]

0_0 It drew a nil value!? That's wierd... I managed to play through the whole demo fine... If you download the current one (which is available by clicking the black download image) it should work fine... All the bugs my team have found were fixed by the current release.

Just for reference though, what was the nil:value for?

[Seirno]

I think it was a nil:effect or something of the sort (I clicked off of it before really thinking), and the version I downloaded was the one from the image in the first post. I'll see if I can get it to happen again, may have just been one of those random things that happens.

[EvenAngels]

That's really weird... I'll see if I can recreate it as well...

[Fayte]

Hey EA, you remember me from gamingenix? Back then you were wroking on a game called Full Gear I believe. Well anyway this game is starting to look nice, and I like your title screen (is the image in the background something you drew or googled?). The only one complaint I have so far (since I didn't do much reading) is the fact that you chose to use the default battle system. Ewwie. There's so many possibilities out there that I personally don't think anyone should use the default battle system. My old computer can't handle the RM's anymore (for some reason my computer always freezes when I try to open the program) But if you would like any help regarding gameplay (i.e features, battle system, ideas to make your game fun in general) feel free to PM me anytime. Since I can't crate my own anymore I'm dying to see my creative ideas come to life in someone else's project.

Good Luck.