Classika, 5hr playable demo. Feedback greatly desired! Options

[Zortik]

RTP Included

RTP Excluded

Controls
Z: Confirm
X: Cancel/Menu
Shift: Hold to run
Alt+Enter: Press for full screen.




Classika is set in a medieval, swords and sorcery time frame. While magic is known in the world, it is not a common ability. Those blessed with the capability to perform magic are usually offspring of previous magic users. There are two forms of magic; Sacred and Elemental. Sacred magic has the ability to heal allies as well as inflict punishment on enemies. Elemental magic is a bit more potent in the offensive area than Sacred is, but it also has the ability to effect weapons, armor, minds, and bodies to directly improve or impair abilities. There are 3 major kingdoms in the world of Classika, though Leah and Ethan's story take place in the Kingdom of Atalaria.

The game begins inside of Wollen, Leah and Ethan's home town, where they are requested to go into the field to retrieve some ingredients for the local alchemist.

[Show/Hide] Leah

Name - Leah Vaughn
Age - 15
Gender - Female
Class - Fighter
Hair - Black
Eyes - Blue
Height - 5' 6"
Weight - 127 lbs
Hometown - Wollen
Notable Features - Fiery-tempered
Notable Possessions - Headband
Likes - Violence
Dislikes - Being controlled, social norms
Favorite Saying - None

Leah is an only child, born to Catherine and George Vaughn. She has lived all of her life to this point in the small village of Wollen. She has a short fuse and tends to speak before thinking. While this can bother some of the other villagers, Ethan and her family recognizes that she is just a very honest girl. Well, honest and loud.

[Show/Hide] Ethan

Name - Ethan Mantell
Age - 15
Gender - Male
Class - Cavalier
Hair - Brown
Eyes - Green
Height - 5' 8"
Weight - 139 lbs
Hometown - Wollen
Notable Features - Mumbles a lot and talks to himself
Notable Possessions - A chain around his neck with a dark gem attached to it
Likes - Leah (God knows why)
Dislikes - Salted rabbit, Vance, debt
Favorite Saying - None

Ethan was raised by friends of his late parents, Miriam and Tony, who have their own, older, son, Zachary. Ethan's parents were killed when he was five. He hates being indebted to anyone. When he turned fifteen the elders decided he should move into his parents' old house and start making a living for himself, as he was nearing adulthood. He has been living there for 2 months, slowly learning of the hardships associated with home ownership.

[Show/Hide] Vance

Name - Vance
Age - 27
Class - Soldier
Hair - Red
Eyes - Blue
Height - 5' 11"
Weight - 172 lbs
Hometown - Unknown
Notable Features - Bright Red Hair, Military uniform
Notable Possessions - None
Likes - Order
Dislikes - Cruelty
Favorite Saying - None

Vance is a lower ranked soldier in the Kings army. Even though he has been in service to his Majesty for several years now he has not advanced due to his tendency to speak out when he disagrees with something. He is well educated and tries to think of others before himself. He joins Leah and Ethan to find out whether or not the rumors about his captain's dubious actions are true.

[Show/Hide] Pockets

Name - Pockets (Herbert Buford)
Age - 10
Class - Thief
Hair - Blonde
Eyes - Blue-Green
Height - 4' 3"
Weight - 88 lbs
Hometown - Phendra
Notable Features - Beret, missing baby teeth
Notable Possessions - Ferret named Dook
Likes - Rock candy and pickles (not together)
Dislikes - Milk
Favorite Saying - "He/She did it." (Points at nearest person/animal)

Pockets has been a thief his whole life, raised by bandits to pay off his mother's debt. He runs into the story's main party in the port city of Phendra, where Leah's brashness and loud mouth get them involved in the shady side of the city Pockets is familiar with. At the end, he and his pet ferret, Dook, join the party - whether or not they want them to.

[Show/Hide] Story

In the world of Classika, there are three kingdoms that have maintained peaceful relations with one another for countless years. The peace was brought about from the desire to pursue a study into a new form of travel. Researchers and mages worked together in order to develop what is now known as a keystone. The keystone is about the size of a small rock or pebble and when used with the proper command words, will transport the holder and whomever is touching or being touched by the holder to the location where the keystone originated.

The keystones require several years to produce for a single mage, so larger cities with the resources can mass produce them, while smaller villages and hamlets usually only have a few (if any) at their disposal. In addition to knowing the command words to use the keystone, the keystone was be made from a gem that can be naturally found in the area. For instance, you cannot bring in a ruby and request it be made into a keystone for some city. You would need to first go to that city and find a gemstone of a high enough quality that was found in that area, and then find a mage who would undergo the process of imbueing the gemstone with its magical components.

Because of the steps needed to be taken to create one of these, explorers have set out to find exotic and unique locations with the hopes of finding quality gem stones to bring back and have imbued. There are many keystones that have been made for one exotic location or another, but one keystone has a legend greater than the rest. A rare black gem with red streaks throughout it was found near a horribly maimed mage. The last words of the mage was the name of the location he had obtained it, then he passed away. It was said that the recipient of those last words went on to turn that gem into a keystone, and that it would lead to a very dangerous place where humans would be granted unparalleled power.

It was the law of all of Classika that this keystone should not be used for personal gain, but would remain unused until a time came that they should need it.

Over time, the legend had grown but the details were lost to the ages. Only a select few knew about the keystone and even fewer among them knew of the correct command words. Peace continued to reign across the world for another 200 years.

However, the keystone was stolen during a betrayal of the kings army, where a large portion of the guards who were responsible for guarding it betrayed the king and made away with the item. This happened 20 years ago, and while the people are oblivious to the importance of the matter, the king has desperately been trying to find it.

The story begins in Wollen, a relative new village, where Leah and Ethan will be waking up to help out their village. Since the hunters and gatherers are too busy, the village elder Saul has bade them to venture into the forest to collect some materials for the local chemist.

[Show/Hide] Screenshots(15)

[Show/Hide] Menu

[Show/Hide] Maps

[Show/Hide] Battle

[Show/Hide] Additional Credits

[Show/Hide] Scripts:

KGC_InterfaceForWin32API
[RMVX] +Title Screen for Highest LV Acto
YERD_SceneMenuReDux
Kylock Light Effect VX
YEM Core Fixes and Upgrades
YERD_MonsterReappearFix
YERD_UseItemFix
YEM Custom Message Melody
YEM Battle Engine Melody I
YEM Battle Engine Melody II
YEM Battle Engine Melody III
YEM Battle Engine Melody IV
YEM Battle Engine Melody V
kgc_steal
YEM Steal Fix
Enemy Multiact
Lufia Movement
YEM System Game Options
YERD_VictoryAftermath
YERD_VictoryExtend
YEM Victory Compatibility
YEM Debug Menu Extension
KGC_ExtraDropItem
KGC_CategorizeItem
KGC_AddEquipmentOptions
YERD_ExtendedEquip
KGC_EquipExtension
YERD_SceneShop
YERD_SynthesisShop
KGC_DistributeParameter
Dash Speed Change Snippet
ORIW+MM_ChestPopUp
Map Saver
TPuzzle_Cell
TPuzzle_Dropblock
TPuzzle_Scene
YEM Snapshot Battle Back
Custom HUD Melody
Melody Fix
AS: AntiLag
Centered Command Window

Asbiecat
qtpi0121 (Children sprites)
Jalen
FenixFyreX
IceDragon
Rajawali
Ookie Panda
Smarthious
NZ Nathan
Kefra
Kumi
PINEDAVX
Moogle
Rainbow Jello
Rajawali
Sketcy Sketch
Bart (Zelda, Link)
Avadan
Dezmoody

Antares for most villagers

Aine edited Clara and Pockets' bases

Ray321lolz, BloodArrow - Colored Chests

Battler version of main characters found at this site:
http://lud.sakura.ne.jp/index.html

Enterbrain for the base program, including RTP for both VX and XP.
Enterbrain for all sounds and music from VX and XP.

Please let us know if anyone was left out. Thank you

Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated. If you would like to make use of any of the artwork or sprites we have implemented, send us a PM and we will provide them directly to you. Just please credit us somewhere as we try to credit others for what we have used or edited.

RTP Included

RTP Excluded

Support Classika by adding this banner to your signature.

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This post has been edited by Zortik: Jun 18 2012, 08:18 PM

[Milonar]

I'm playing Classika right now. I haven't finished 3 hours Demo yet, still, I will try to complete it as soon as I can. In my opinion, Classika is quite good. There is just one problem. Maps in Classika look very decent, doesn't have any special and I can say it looks boring to continue the game more. As you can see, there are lots of RPGVX projects outside there that have pretty maps. If you want to get some attention, you have to improve the quality of maps in the project. That will help a lot. You don't need to make your maps look beautiful as others, you just need some improvement, add some shiny effects like example.

I haven't found any errors or bugs yet. Well, the monsters are a bit strong for new comers- who are not good with RPG- games.

Finally, just only my thought, I think you need to change the font of Classika. Because the font you use now doesn't look any interesting, so I guess you should choose another "good-looking" font...

[Zortik]

I'm playing Classika right now. I haven't finished 3 hours Demo yet, still, I will try to complete it as soon as I can. In my opinion, Classika is quite good. There is just one problem. Maps in Classika look very decent, doesn't have any special and I can say it looks boring to continue the game more. As you can see, there are lots of RPGVX projects outside there that have pretty maps. If you want to get some attention, you have to improve the quality of maps in the project. That will help a lot. You don't need to make your maps look beautiful as others, you just need some improvement, add some shiny effects like example.

I haven't found any errors or bugs yet. Well, the monsters are a bit strong for new comers- who are not good with RPG- games.

Finally, just only my thought, I think you need to change the font of Classika. Because the font you use now doesn't look any interesting, so I guess you should choose another "good-looking" font...

Thank you for the compliments. I'm very happy that you enjoyed your experience with the game and took the time to post your opinion of the game here.

Yes, the basic RTP Tileset does leave something to be desired. A lot of people look at the default tileset and find it ugly in favor of either Mack's or parallaxing. Personally, I believe the basic Tileset can be attractive when used correctly. As for the adding some shineyness to the maps I'll have to decline for now. The games setting and mood is a bit dark, and since all of my enemies are events that you can directly encounter I need to be careful with event management to avoid lag. Also, as opposed to the theme of adventure and discovery, Classika needs to have a feel of traveling for the sake of achieving a goal.

I am almost finished with the second demo which will dive head first into this aspect of Classika, and I do not want to ruin anything for those that wish to play.

As for the font, we tried out several other fonts but came to the same conclusion about the mood it set. I'm very sorry that you didn't find the look of it very appealing though. All I can hope is that the story telling and gameplay made it manageable.

Once again, thanks a lot for playing the game. Even if you do not continue to follow Classika it's very much appreciated to know that people are seeing and playing the project you worked so hard on.

[Ashalinia]

Ok I tested this a few days ago but I'm commenting now.

So basically what happened (if the demo hasn't been updated yet) was I spammed the spell Fire Wall Test (sounds like it's not supposed to be there) and one hit killed every monster in one turn.

After 20 or so of those fights, I got sick of spamming the spell and gave up because I got lost.

All I'm saying is, that spell probably shouldn't be there or at least changed.

[Zortik]

Ok I tested this a few days ago but I'm commenting now.

So basically what happened (if the demo hasn't been updated yet) was I spammed the spell Fire Wall Test (sounds like it's not supposed to be there) and one hit killed every monster in one turn.

After 20 or so of those fights, I got sick of spamming the spell and gave up because I got lost.

All I'm saying is, that spell probably shouldn't be there or at least changed.

Oh, I'm sorry. I think I may have accidentally linked my backup of the game.

No, the firewall test is not meant to be in the game. I'll look into that now and make the necessary changes. I was using that spell and a few others to see how directional things worked from both a player and enemy perspective in the YANFLY Battle Engine.

I feel pretty awful for wasting your time like that.

Edit: No, I linked the correct version. I just missed that somehow. I'm in the process of uploading a version that does not include the broken spell of easy mode power leveling It should be updated within 10 minutes from the edit time on this post.

As for you getting lost, I'm very sorry to hear that. Hopefully you came across some treasures while you were inadvertently exploring. The mushroom grove is in the North-Eastern portion of the forest. There is an event that plays when you enter the correct map for the first time where Ethan will point out that you are nearby.

Even though it sounds like you did not have an optimal first impression, I still thank you for taking the time to download and try the game.

Edit #2: And the new download has been updated. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

This post has been edited by Zortik: May 3 2011, 04:15 AM

[Ashalinia]

Oh I didn't mean to make it sound like it was a waste of my time, I really enjoyed the game and all, it's just that I was making it easy by using that spell, I don't mind downloading it again and retrying it.

[Zortik]

Oh I didn't mean to make it sound like it was a waste of my time, I really enjoyed the game and all, it's just that I was making it easy by using that spell, I don't mind downloading it again and retrying it.

You're too kind. You were actually very polite and to the point. I never thought for a second that you felt you were wasting your time, it was more of a scenario where I felt that a good first impression was slightly tarnished because of my negligence. So, I apologized for not having my best foot forward.

As for whether or not you wish to download the updated version of Classika, I leave that ball in your court. I'll admit that the spell is broken, and will allow for easy progression through battles. However, Classika isn't about the battle system. It's about the story. It isn't a title that will leap off at a frantic pace either. So, this demo doesn't even fully step into the true story, but does lay a lot of the groundwork that will be necessary for me to build a great story on.

Thanks so much for playing. <3

[Stern]

Hallo Zortik!

I want to emphasize that I haven't yet finished the demo (more details below)

My overall impression of Classika is that it's a good game. To make this easier to read I'll dissect it into some parts:

Story & Setting

The first thing I noticed when I started was the fact that I got thrown right into the world of Classika. There was no direct setup or background story explained. Obviously a "setup" isn't required in the start of every game. The world can be explained by various events happening and or NPCs talking about the world. This would gradually let the player know what's so special about this planet/world/land.
I didn't get a sense of where I was (except for the town names) or what kind of state the world was in.

The actual plot itself is very down-to-earth and the writing feels solid. You did a good job of starting off with some simple task and then further raising the tension when the event in the mountains happened. The story so far feels original and creative.

Characters & Dialogue

Your characters are portrayed pretty well and they definately felt believeable. Personally I prefer older main characters, but that's just my personal preference. The dialogues are well written and I don't think I found a single spelling- or grammar mistake. To me that's a very good thing as it didn't distract the attention from what was being said because I was looking for errors. I definately liked the quirky humour and the discussion about the green hornet had me laughing.

Something I found interesting was the fact that you seemed to focus more of the spotlight on Ethan rather than Leah.

Some examples:
- You explained about Ethan's past and about his late parents.
- Ethan had these moments of inner dialogue. We got to read about what was on his mind more often than Leah.

This almost made it feel like Ethan was the main character, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.


Combat

I really, really liked the way your combat system worked and looked. Enemies on-screen felt so much nicer than random encounters. The fact that I could explore freely without having to worry about taking too many steps felt like a relief. The interface in the Battle-sequence looked very stylish and clean.

The actual difficulty on the encounters was pretty easy. To me, the cost on heal spells felt a bit high. Most of the time I found myself just using normal attacks and saving the SP for heals. The fact that characters got fully restored upon leveling up helped a lot, but this also meant that I never had to use any potions or salves.

I must've done something wrong though, because I was slaying monsters like a breeze and then I met the Chimaera and got my ass handed to me and I couldn't beat it (this is where I'm currently at in the demo).

Environments & Ambience

There were some parts where I thought the mapping could be improved (see examples in misc), but overall you're using the RTP pretty good. I do like your style of mapping it's not too simple but not too clutter-ish. I got the impression that the world of Classika was a pretty peaceful place. I guess if you were to add something, It'd be some different tints and some fogs very opaque fog somewhere, but that's if I'm gonna nitpicky.

It's hard to comment on the music itself as it's only RTP music (I think), but you used it well and the music didn't feel out of place anywhere.

Miscellaneous

In this spoilered image there's a few misc things that isn't super important but I thought I could bring them up anyways.

[Show/Hide] Big Image

1 & 2. The first image is from Classika. All I wonder is why you're using the "first" grass tile? The second image is a similar map with the second grass tile. Using the second one, the rough grass don't get the sand around it.

3. I think this is pretty self-explanatory

4. You can't see it in this picture, but I was followed by a monster in the cave. I was on one side of a rock and the monster was on the other side (as indicated with the red circle). It still started combat. Is that supposed to happen?


5. I think this is also pretty self-explanatory.



6. The signpost on this screenshot didn't say anything, was that on purpose?



7 & 8. Here again is a map-comparason. It just shows some tips on how you can enhance your mountain-sides a little bit.

Some random stats:
I'm currently at the Chimaera.
I've taken 8200 steps.
I have 1528 Gold
Playtime: 2:51:10
Leah is level 10
Ethan is level 10
Vance is level 9



TL;DR - Classika is a game that is far above average, it's very enjoyable and has some quirky humour. It has a few minor flaws though.

I'll be following the development of your project and also adding your support bar in my signature.

/Regards,
st3rn

[Zortik]

Thanks for the very in depth and constructive review, St3rnb0rn!

I've taken a lot of your suggestions to heart and have begun the overhaul of the mapping process. I will be revamping all of my cities to drop the tiles from 3 down to 2. I will also replace the grass tile I had used throughout the game with the correct one. These changes will take a significant amount of time (I have nearly 200 maps to correct ^^), however I hope to have them taken care of as soon as possible.

Your screen shots in particular were very helpful. Thanks to them I was able to quickly and efficiently locate the problems and fix them without much trouble.

Leah most certainly is the main character though. Ethan is just playing a very significant role at this point in time, You'll notice as the game progresses that every character that joins your party is very important to the game.

As for the Chimera, yeah he is rather tough. I have lowered his SPI a few points to accommodate situations where he may use his wind spell twice in one turn. I encourage you to make use of Vance's stat lowering abilities though. They drastically cut down on the damage taken each turn and each debuff will last for 3 turns when effectively applied. I wanted all the normal battles to be fairly simple, With the exception of the rarer encounters that might come along once in a while where you'll have a fight on your hands. The bosses though, I want them to be a challenge. So that when you do beat them, because of careful SP rationing and skill use, you feel triumphant.

Lastly, I have begun writing out a proper introduction to Classika that will be incorporated at a later date. This will showcase some of Classika's history and touch on a few key details. This introduction will be based off of the Introduction to the story spoiler you can find in this topic.

As for an update to the games status. I have finished all of the story and eventing that lead from the Mountain Path to Wollen, and then returning to Morriston. All of the maps are finished as well that lead to the Port Town of Phendra. I have the new monsters created, most of the new weapons and armor, and all of the transportation events connecting the maps done as well.

What is holding me up currently:
The story line eventing for Phendra ( 10% done )
Calibrating the database for the new weapons, armor, and enemies ( 85% done )
Adding in treasure to the new area's for those that like to explore ( 0% done )

Optional updates that are not critical to release:
Remaking the maps so they make the best use of the available tiles ( 5% done)
Remaking the skills so they are all completely custom made. In addition making them exclusive to either players or enemies so I can further configure them to scale appropriately ( 0% done )
Adding in the Bounty system to allow you to look for monsters or people that have a reward set for their death. ( 80% done)

I want to present the next phase in the story, however I would prefer to remake all of the maps (at the least) before I put up a new demo. As things currently stand I could have the newest installment of the demo ready to go within 2 weeks (Provided I have enough time to work on it). If I choose to fix the maps before releasing the demo, then a new demo will not be available until the end of next month at the earliest.

[Zortik]

Update:
The story line eventing for Phendra ( 45% done )
Calibrating the database for the new weapons, armor, and enemies ( 90% done )
Adding in treasure to the new area's for those that like to explore ( 70% done )

Optional updates that are not critical to release:
Remaking the maps so they make the best use of the available tiles ( 100% done)
Remaking the skills so they are all completely custom made. In addition making them exclusive to either players or enemies so I can further configure them to scale appropriately ( 0% done )
Adding in the Bounty system to allow you to look for monsters or people that have a reward set for their death. ( 80% done)


If this pace continues I should have the next installment ready to go within two weeks. I just finished completely overhauling all of the maps. So, when it is released, if you notice something out of place please let me know. After spending almost 20 hours of steady work on revamping the maps I can't imagine I got every little thing. (Even though I tried)

This next demo will place the game at a minimum of 3 hours to go from start to finish. That's if you do nothing but go directly from point A to B and ignore looking for treasure, exploring alternate area's, and/or trying to kill the optional bosses. If you try to do everything you're looking at approximately 5+ hours of game time.

The new demo will also include a generic save file for those who have played the first demo. This new demo will start you in Morriston, shortly after Vance joins your party and you have received the Morriston Keystone. If you still have your save file, you are welcome to copy that over and use it in this game. I am fairly certain that the changes I have made have not included the addition of any switches . I am not completely sure of this, but I'll leave the decision in your hands. Gamble with your old save or start just in Morriston and go from there.

[Amy Pond]

Loving it so far. Is that the default menu system? Even if it is it's nice, clean and usable.

The mapping is above par too and looks nice considering it's VX.

[Zortik]

Loving it so far. Is that the default menu system? Even if it is it's nice, clean and usable.

The mapping is above par too and looks nice considering it's VX.

Thanks so very much for the compliment. I'm really happy to know that you're enjoying the content thus far! ^^

The Menu system you're looking at is actually the YERD_SceneMenuReDux script. I wanted to keep it very simple and basic though. So I spent a few hours and cut out a lot of the stuff I felt cluttered it up or was unnecessary for Classika.

The mapping, actually, just got overhauled a bit further. St3rnB0rn and a few members of the IRC (Robin and Sailerius I believe) offered me some tips for improving them even further.

This post has been edited by Zortik: May 18 2011, 10:02 PM

[Ace in Space50]

Playing right now... so far its good!

[Zortik]

Playing right now... so far its good!

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying yourself. If you find the time, please let me know if there were any parts of the story or game that stood out for you in particular. Whether it's good or bad, I appreciate any and all feedback.

Also, this is a request for some assistance. I'll soon be reaching a point where the next installment of Classika will be ready to be released. However, no matter how much I test play there will be things that I'll miss or not realize needs to be explained in further detail.
So, I'm asking for your time to help me. If you would be willing to test the next installment and provide feedback for any broken events, over or underpowered enemies, map errors, etc. Just respond here and let me know if you'd care to take an hour or two out of your day to help out.

The only thing I request is that you have played through the current demo. You don't need to go see all the extra's, just get through the storyline up to the point where you defeat the Chimera in the Mountain Path. Also, that you don't ruin any plot developments that you will get to see before everyone else. I will be trying very hard to have no errors present, so in the best case scenario for myself I'll just get a load of responses back stating that you couldn't really find anything.

This post has been edited by Zortik: May 19 2011, 11:07 PM

[KD648]

I don't know if you remember, but you helped me find a "scan" skill thread for my game. In return, I thought I could play through your demo and offer some feedback.

First, let me say I think your game has a lot of potential. I like the way that the different character classes are set up and I feel like the plot is progressing smoothly. You have a really nice way of keeping the story interesting without any revealing anything. There's enough different elements (Ethan's necklace, the King's Key thing in the cave, Vance's captain, etc) to make it feel like every individual element is part of something greater that I haven't uncovered yet. And I have to admit that the "secret cow level" is the best thing I have seen in any RM game, including my own. I applaud you good sir.

Now the obnoxious, nitpickey things that I'm going to complain about. Just so you know, I always give the "what would I do" thing after each negative comment, but it's just as much for my own sake as yours. Forcing myself to think of a solution helps me grow as a developer, and you should feel free to ignore my suggestions if they don't work for you. It's your game, and I don't want you to feel like I'm imposing my ideas on you.

[Show/Hide] Obnoxious stuff

1) I like the way that you use different movement patterns with different enemies on the world map. Figuring out the pattern I need to take to avoid a fight became kind of a game for me, but I found that I ended up fighting the enemies that followed the character a lot more than the other types. I fought A LOT more rodents (Rouse if I remember right) than plants or spiders, and it got kind of tedious. You did a nice job of mixing enemy types within troops, but I still faced certain enemies way more than others. My Solution: Mix up which enemies have which movement patterns. Some mice follow you, some move randomly like the plants. That way you see more of all the enemy types and figuring out what patter type a particular enemy is can be a game too!

2) The battles came down to mostly mashing the ATK button. As I thought about why this was, I realized that I was afraid of using any skills because they cost so much. I understand why you did this because it makes the boss battles tense and exciting as you have to think carefully about your skills, but it makes the non-boss battles a grind-fest as you have no room to play around. My Solution: Have a skill "Upgrade" system where your skills upgrade in both power and cost as you use them (Final Fantasy 2 did it). That way you have "weak" skills to use on lower battles in an attempt to upgrade them, but you also have your favorite, more expensive skills that you need to use to survive the boss battles. Or, if that's too complicated, make the skills cheaper but don't automatically heal when you level. Then players will feel they have more room at the beginning of a dungeon to play around with skills, but by the time they get to the boss they will be drained and will have to use their remaining SP carefully.

3) The dungeons feel largely repetitive. It feels like a massive amount of time spent walking through random maps just to get to the boss. Especially with how players (me at least) feel like we don't have room to play with skills in the fights, the dungeons can get really boring really quickly. My Solution: Either throw some puzzles in, or if that isn't your style, make the exploration "high risk, high reward". Meaning make the treasure chests really hard to get to, but have great items in them. You have treasure chests now, but I felt like the items inside weren't rewarding enough, so I ignored them. I would have been more interested if I was constantly debating whether or not I could "afford" the price I'd pay in HP and SP to get a valuable item. Also, as a side note, In the first dungeon I could never tell which path was "correct" and which was a side path. I liked the second dungeon better because I could decide to actively explore, rather than just guessing.

4) I felt like the game could have used just a bit more tightening up. Just attending to the minor, boring details would have made it a more appealing play. Examples I can remember are that poison and paralysis don't last once a fight is over, yet I can still use the cleanse skill outside of battle. You still have to select a character's "action" even when they are paralyzed or incapacitated, which is a waste of time and slightly confusing. Lastly, the game "remembers" what you did last round and sets it up for you again, which I didn't particularly care for. That's a personal preference, but I select actions so quickly that a lot of times I would select the wrong thing because I assumed my "icon" started on attack.

5) The Chimera battle is WAY too hard compared to the rest of the game. I stopped there because it got to the point where it took 15 mindless battles to grind out a level, but I still couldn't kill the chimera. He can kill a character in one round, and can decimate half of the entire party's HP with one spell. Either tone that fight way down or make the battles leading up to it harder so the player starts to get what they're in for. To me, it felt like the difficulty curve was a 90 degree angle for that one and I got frustrated and quit. My solution: The Chimera would be plenty strong with only one attack each round. When it can attack once before and once after you can heal each round, it's actually impossible to keep up, let alone do any damage to it's huge HP bar.

And just a few bugs I noticed:
1) In the second dungeon/cave thing the yellow flowers can be walked over, so when they are placed on the walls of the dungeon, you can walk into inaccessible areas.
2) Right before going into the cave Vance warns you if you're going the wrong way, but it forces you to take one step further rather than forcing you to turn around. I don't know if that's a bug or a choice, but it confused me.

I think this game is exactly where it needs to be at this point in development. The core of the game is strong, and as playtesting continues the difficulty curve and minor issues will be ironed out into something really enjoyable. Congratulations on a great start! I look forward to the finished version.

[Zortik]

I most certainly do remember you. I'm thrilled that the thread I found for you ultimately led to you finding the script you needed. However, I never expected you to in turn try out my demo and offer some much appreciated feedback! Thanks so much for that!

I'm also really happy and relieved that you are enjoying the way the story is unfolding. This really isn't going to be a story where you have a 100 different ways to do everything and there are tons of mini endings to potentially unlock. It's simply a story about Leah and Ethan and what happens to them in Classika.
As for the cow level... You're the first person to say anything about it! So, you get bragging rights (If you want them) ^^ I had a lot of fun writing out that little bit, and if you didn't check every teet you pick has a different conversation with it.

[Show/Hide] Massive wall of response!

1) I'm hoping that the gentleman who assisted me in making the script will get back with me this fall and continue working on it. Right now, it's functional but also ultimately incomplete. Ideally, in the final method their would be items and/or actions that you can perform to 'stun' the enemy or enemies. This would allow you to stop those annoying aggressive type monsters while trying to circumvent the others (or stunning them too).
I appreciate the suggestion about mixing some of them up, Like with the spiders, plants, and rouses in the beginning area. But that in turn would also eliminate the familiarization of which enemies move in what pattern.

2)Near the top of my to do list is completely revamp all of the skills in the game. This includes removing some abilities and replacing them with others for the player. In addition to this I would also drastically overhaul the cost as well. I'm still trying to find that balance that sits well for the game where you don't mind using skills to obliterate the trash mobs, but in the same breath you don't just ignore the fact that you have a basic attack as well. I might be taking out the heal upon level up feature, and reducing the SP cost of many of the abilities. It'll be one of those things that I'll just need to do lots of testing to figure out. However, I am also greatly appreciative of the outside input as well. Since it may point out things that I am not aware of.
I'm not familiar with what you are talking about in regards to the FF2 skills, I'll have to look that up later and try to see what you meant.

3)Yeah, I think having the ability to get through battles faster will help ease up the feeling of spending too much time exploring. However, I am going the route of High risk, high reward. For instance, in the mountain you can find a hidden boss that is guarding an accessory that increases your run speed by X4 on the map. In addition in each dungeon there will be either a weapon, accessory, or piece of armor (or all of them possibly) that will be geared towards the looming boss encounter. In the forest you can find a fire dagger, and in the mountains is a lighting spear and wind shield.
As for the forest, I don't want to beat the directions into the players brain by using numerous autorun events. It's why I put a simple direction on the sign just outside of Wollen saying that the mushroom grove is North East, then an autorun event on the map where the grove is where Ethan tells you the path to it is in the southern portion. I might have to add an autorun event on the first map after you leave Wollen (For the first time) stating you need to head east first. Just in case people don't bother with the sign.

4) You bring up an amazing point about having cleanse be used outside of battle and the poison and other such affects not carrying over. I felt that because healing wasn't very easy at first, I should make it so poison doens't carry over, then I just figured well if poison isn't carrying over then none of the others should as well. After I revamp the skills and everything else I will actually have poison and some other statuses carry over as they typically should.
The selecting a characters action is an annoyance of the battle engine I'm using, (Yanfly's) I've asked around, but I'm yet to get any responses back as to whether or not this can be fixed. Personally, it annoys me as well.
I've made the same mistake as you about the game remembering what you did last round and wasting a turn theoretically. I don't mind making the changes and since it's not an ATB their isn't as much of a need to have it remember anything, since you're not racing to make decisions. I'll sincerely think this one over.

5) Yeah, I've actually toned down the Chimera battle a good bit. I created the battle with the intention of it being hard. But, I had a hard time balancing it because of numerous problems. During this balancing period I knew full well what I needed to do to win, and that was use Vance's atk, def, and spi lowering abilities. It more or less eliminated the need to heal every round, and made it so I could actually attack with Ethan every 3rd or 4th round. But, I then began calibrating the battle to this battle strategy... and it got a bit out of hand. I'm very sorry for the headache it probably caused you. I tested it out a good bit, and while it can still be tough if you are just unlucky (you miss a lot and he crits a lot for instance) it is much more manageable.

I had no idea about the flowers causing that problem. I went ahead and combed through my maps and fixed those right up.

I noticed that little bug when I was overhauling the maps. A completely idiotic move on my part, I made the change so that it works correctly now. (Though I am at the point right now where I'll be deleting those events very soon. I'll have the next installment ready to be beta tested by the (well 1 at this point in time) people that offered to go through an initial quick test of the new content.)

I'm at a pretty hectic point right now with stuff going on, so I can't say when it'll happen, but I will gladly try my best to return the favor to you and go through your game. Thanks again for all the feedback and suggestions you provided. It really helps with the motivation to keep on going!

-Cheers!

[Zortik]

Sorry for the lack of updates in the past few weeks. Had a whole lot on my plate with getting used to a new job (3rd shift) while also getting Married this past Saturday

However, I have found some time to work on Classika. I have more or less finished the direct storyline portion for the next installment. I just need to do some heavy editing before I open this up to anyone that is interested in assisting me with a quick beta test. What I have left to finish up is to add in shop keepers, NPC's, flesh out the bounty system and implement that (As of right now you cannot turn in the Chimera Paw), and finish the mapping and other such silly things for an optional area that opens up just South of Morriston. The optional area will feature some fun and engaging puzzles as well as a hefty reward for getting through it all. However, it will be incredibly difficult (But not impossible) to complete right off the bat.

For those who have played before and would like to continue roughly where they left off, I will also be making a generic save file starting in Morriston after you get the keystone for Morriston and are ready to head towards the mountains. If it has been a while since you first played then I encourage you to play from the beginning to see the many tweaks and changes that have been made as this game has come along.

Also, I am thinking of removing the system that lets you spend ability points when you level up. However, I am torn about whether or not I should do this. So, what do you think? Do you feel that the items I have included in the game to increase Str, Def, HP, etc. are enough? Or do you think that missing out on the 1 point per level system would make the characters slightly less interesting since you lose that marginal amount of customization?

[Adrien.]

Defualt lighting and tiles are bad. Your indoor mapping is gross.

Explanation:

You have used lighting around windows and your windows and other illuminant objects which is fine how ever make the room realistic in those terms. For example with how bright the interior looks you don't need lighting, dim it down and make it look like its a bit darker so the effects of the light take on the room and make it look realistic.

Out side use fogs, sun light and clouds, also dim the maps out side a bit to take on some of these other effects.

Your mapping out side is bland and gross. Add more detail and make it look more realistic. In door if your going with the over view with the ceiling ripped off like you seem to be doing add the out side elements to the out side of your indoor. so if there is a tree beside the house add he tree beside the house inside. or just paint the world black inside.

You can still get your classic look with a touch more detail and realism in lighting.

[amerk]

Okay, so I've played approximately two hours into this and had to stop. I won't say the mapping is terrible, because it's not, but I definite agree with other posters that it needs to be livened up a bit. A few details, for sure, but I recommend to stay away from the dungeon generator, as the cave and the prison cell appear to have been designed with.

My problem is that there seems to be no sense of direction, nor any real rewards. You begin the game on a quest for a special mushroom. The first dungeon alone could take over an hour to uncover all the secrets. Way too much for an initial dungeon, when you don't know where you are going. Prices for everyday items are too costly, enemies don't drop gold, and the few things they do drop that you can sell aren't worth a dime. So basically it's back and forth in an already long forest dungeon as you fight to build levels and then run back to town to sleep and restore, all because you can't afford to use any heal items.

After that, it sort of becomes one dungeon after another, one battle after another. The game just became very boring. There hasn't been much for story so far: you find a mushroom, then you try to find your dad, something about keys, then you are in jail, and somebody tries to break you out... and in between all of this battle after boring battle.

If this was akin to a dungeon crawler, I could see going this route. I'm not one for dungeon crawlers, but there are lots of people that enjoy them. But as this game appears to be aiming for a more traditional rpg, it needs some work: perhaps a little more on the story angle and less of constant battling.

[Zortik]

Adrien,
I can appreciate the fact that many people are sick and tired of anything remotely default in an editor. After all, the vast majority of games you may try do use these tiles (regardless if they are used in the best possible manner or not) and I'm sure you're just sick and tired of seeing the same thing over and over. However, this does not mean that they are 'gross'. I will fully welcome any comments on how to improve my mapping if a person takes the time to explain how I can improve it.
For instance, your recommendations to change the default lighting and use fogs. I actually tried to use fogs in my game already, but it caused a severe amount of lags because of the battle system I am using where you see the events and they move when you move. It caused the movement to be 'choppy'. So I decided that even though this would add a wonderful amount of atmosphere, it was more or less game breaking because of the lag.
The one thing I can definitely try to change though would be the brightness of the rooms for when you are indoors. Would you happen to know of a good setting to represent an interior? Otherwise, I'll just have to play around with it until I can find a suitable level.
As for adding more detail, I did have a lot more detail on my maps. Considerably more actually, but it caused my computer as well as all of my friends computers to lag as they were exiting combat and moving around and/or moving from map to map. So, I worked pretty hard on lightening up the details in order to prevent this problem.
I also tried the keeping everything black route with maps. This might sounds stupid, but the only reason I did not like it was because it bothered me that it was completely black outside and light was coming through the windows and such. I have also tried adding in additional details around the homes that represented the details outside of it. If you are basing your comments solely off of the screen shots, then I can understand that you would not have known this.


Amerk,
Thanks for playing as well as the comments. This is my first game I've ever made and it's been a steady learning process about what works and what does not. Please, skim over my reply to Adrien in concerns to the mapping If you have any direct suggestions for changes I'd appreciate the assistance/guidance if you could take the time to help me improve.
I actually made the cave and prison by hand, I did not realize they represented the dungeon generator. I don't know how I would change them to make them less like that. I don't necessarily want to make them very wide as neither of those maps were ever meant or designed to have wide pathways. I do not know whether or not you intend to play any further so I am hesitant to explain what the cave connects to. If you do intend to continue please do not read the spoiler, even though I will not spoil any direct storyline information.

[Show/Hide] Cave

The cave actually connects to a pretty huge mountain area that is just north of Morriston. This is the only way to reach Wollen and the player must navigate it in order to return home.

I want to completely revamp the database actually. In the long run I want random battles to not last as long, skills to be cheaper and for item prices to be more balanced. I have actually done some tweaking of the HP of enemies and the SP cost of various skills, but it's only brushing the top of a problem that needs to be completely worked over. I have actually added in additional reward for the player to explore these area's as well as some additional direction for the first dungeon to help with where to go.
As for the monsters dropping sellable items instead of Gold, that's a preference that I strongly desire to stick with. Anything smart enough to carry Gold, Items, Weapons, ETC. Will drop those, however critters and monsters will not have that on them and so you sell the items you collect from them after a battle in order to get your spending cash. I will also note, that it's only the first town where the shopkeepers heckle you about who will buy from you and who won't. It was meant to add flavor to the merchants since it is your hometown. Every other city (Unless it's because of a special circumstance) will both buy and sell to you indiscriminately.
I want to debate with you that their is actually ample story present, that in fact the problem lays in my database management and that because of the length and repetitiveness of the random battles and exploration you felt that the story was not enough to justify the amount of 'work' you have spent on the game. I do not want to make the players to become bogged down with story that could be experienced from playing the game. As I progress with making Classika I know that it's a work in progress and will need to constantly be updated in order to reach its full potential. It might be that my method of doing this isn't the best way, where I first try to iron out the straight line of the story and then add in layers of buffer and/or depth around it to further develop the world and characters within.

Thank you both for your comments and suggestions, I hope that you will continue to encourage myself and others in the future to become better developers. It's always a wonderful feeling when you check your game topic and you can see that someone enjoyed your game, even if it was only aspects of it, and they were interested enough to take the time and write up a comment about it to help it become better.