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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Screenshots(15)
Menu
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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
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.
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This post has been edited by Zortik: Jun 18 2012, 08:18 PM
__________________________
~Zortik
Designer of Classika! A work in progress. Please click the link below to view the topic thread.
Beneath is a wonderful title made by Stern. If you're looking for a superb project to try, please click this link! An adaption of a novel that LIterarygoth wrote. Loads of custom work and carefully thought out materials.
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.
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.
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
Designer of Classika! A work in progress. Please click the link below to view the topic thread.
Beneath is a wonderful title made by Stern. If you're looking for a superb project to try, please click this link! An adaption of a novel that LIterarygoth wrote. Loads of custom work and carefully thought out materials.
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Classika, 5hr playable demo. Feedback greatly desired!
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Apr 30 2011, 03:38 AM
(this is where I'm currently at in the demo).
