Story

On the continent of Sera, power has been evenly split between three nations
for decades. Reins, an industrious nation in the north. Balkia, a shining star
in the deserts in the south, and finally The Nobungian Union, a group of
allied tribal states in the east. War raged between all three nations, until
the Nobungians buckeled under pressure and agreed to peace. Despite that,
the feud between Reins and Balkia has continued for an additional 20 years.
Few people today even remember what caused the war to begin with, making it
a pointless struggle. Both the Leaders of Reins and Balkia are too bitter to
seek a ceasefire, and will not stop until the other nation is destroyed. While
they slowly destroy each other, the Nobungians sit and wait.


Our story begins with a young Reinian soldier named Lucian, injured on
the battle field from a stray arrow to the leg. Lucian has been sent home,
where he will finally be reunited with his love, Kira. Kira is the daughter
of one of the most respected men in Reins, Darius. He is the Head Captain
of the Knights of Rein and has held this position since the mysterious
death of the last man to fill this position, Gabriel.


The very same night of Lucian's return, a sinister force has returned to
Reins, one that was thought to have been destroyed long ago. A force
that seeks vengeance upon Darius, and will drag both Kira and Lucian
into conflict. Lucian and Kira's reunion is going to be cut short, and
Lucian is about to be thrust upon a dangerous journey. A man who thought
he was finally free from fighting is about to learn that his struggle has
only just begun.



Features

-Sideview Battle System and some special battle features, including being able to steal items from enemies
-Lockpicking Minigame for getting to secret areas or opening certain chests
-Large Party System, with up to 8 members total in the final game
-Multiple Sidequests that can allow you to receive secret weapons and even a secret Party Member.
-Stealth scenes
-Deep Storyline with a unique and varied cast of Characters, as well as some unexpected plot twists
-25 Hours of Gameplay! Over 500 maps and 125 monsters.
-Half of the music is non-RTP, as well as many graphics
-Lots of Puzzles
-Learning Curve, with easy battles early on and very difficult and strategic battles later in the game.
-'Easy Mode' for new rpg players. Allows you to skip battles so you can progress the plot.
-Read Me file with party member strategies, tips and a list of element efficiencies.

Characters




Demo Screenshots




Full Game Screenshots



Download the Demo
Download Demo V2
Download Demo V3

Download the Full Game
Download Bloodsphere v.1.1
Download Bloodsphere v.1.2
Download Bloodsphere v.1.3



Notes
I have been working on this game on and off for the last year and I had posted a version over it titled Red Moon a while back on here. Since then I have changed a lot, including the title as well as adding a sideview battle system. Currently I have finished it up to the end of Chapter 9, with the demo containing the first four chapters. I am planning on there being around 20 chapters total. That being said, I am looking for Beta Testers so anyone interested just let me know.

Please feel free to leave any feedback on what you liked or what I can improve for the final version of the game. I hope you enjoy what I have so far.

Updates
Jan. 17 2010: I haven't posted anything in a while but I want everyone to know that I am still working on this game lol. I am very happy because I finally got my scripting issues FIXED :-). In honor of this I posted some new screenshots from the final game.
Jan. 25 2010: I posted up some more screenshots, I am making good time and have finished more of the game as well as fixed a new glitch that i found! Most importantly i posted Demo v.3 Which is about an hour longer then Demo v.2 and fixes alot of the glitches from Demo v.2
Jul. 1 2010: Finally updated the topic again. I am still dilligently working on the game, I am roughly 75% done with the entire thing now, and I expect the final game to be done sometime in the fall, likely September. I threw up some more screenshots of later in the game, as well.
Jan. 4 2011: I have finished the game! Check it out with the download link, and I hope you enjoy the game! If you have any questions post in the topic, I will try to promptly answer them.

Project Status
100% Complete

Credits
Battle System: Enu, Atoa, Kylock, Cairn
UMS: ccoa
Party changer: Dargor
Actor face: Jens009
Lockpicking: Eilei
Character Bios: Truthful Tiger, Italian Stallion.

UPDATE: Ok, I managed to fixed part of the scripting problem that I am having with Dargor's large party script, but i am still having trouble with the experience problem. No matter what I try, characters not in your party do not gain any experience after battles. I went back to replay the demo Dargor made for his script and i noticed that even in the demo for his script with out of battle experience on, characters not in the party do not gain any experience, so now I am completely stumped. Does anyone know how to fix this?

This is amazing i want to help test it also where did you get those facesets they are awesome

So far I like your game very good cut scenes.Plus nice battle system I wouldn't mind help testing this game cause I can tell it gonna be a good game.

Hey thanks for the comments guys, I am glad you like the game. Right now I have found a NEW large party problem involving members getting added/removed from the party. Ugh, I don't know how so many games have 8 person parties and yet I can't get it working right

I am probably going to try using a different large party system (I heard the Blizzard one is good) but once I get all this sorted out I can get a beta version of the game up for you guys.

Update: Well I figured out the adding/removing members from the party problem I had. You have to manually re-add people to your party using the regroup command during areas where your party splits up, which is kind of weird but whatever. I have tried other large party scripts but they aren't compatable with my Battle System so I guess I'm stuck with a game where people not in your party don't get any XP, which isn't how I wanted it but I have come to far to just completely scrap the game.

well as long as the game is doing fine i can't wait to see a newer demo up yet.

If you still want to be a beta tester i can throw up the entire game that I have done so far onto mediafire or something and you can play through and test it. Specifically I want some insight on if the lack of the entire party getting experience from battles hinders the game alot or not.

Well from what i can tell is that people outside of the party still get exp. Oh and I just finished the demo i love it the fight with Asher was annoying. One quick suggestion would be to increase how much gold you get from monsters it seems that you don't get enough to buy items with I found my self going back to where you get Erik to get money due to the monsters being to strong with low equipment.

i don't think people would minded if poeple not in the party doesn't get exp just look at pokemon games they don't give exp to pokemon box so I don't think that it would be that much trouble.

Yeah alot of people seem to agree that you don't get enough money from monsters. Did you complete any of the sidequests or buy a pickaxe to mine from rocks? Me + My old Beta Tester made alot of gold from doing sidequests or using the pickaxe to mine the rocks in the Raz Ghash mine. Plus you can get some really good weapons from the sidequests (like the Pirate/Merchant Sidequest in Port Azire).

All in all though I am glad you enjoyed the demo. Thanks for the comments!

Yea you do get alot from the side quest but you kinda use it up buying item when your trying to level up. Well I use most of my money on sp items and revival items training.

Great work! That's a cool game I like it. I'm not finished with it (I started to play it yesterday...) but I'm quite impressed.

Hey i'm letting you know that i'm alomost done testing so far there are no bugs with it and it coming out great.

Nice man. How is the balance/difficulty so far in your experience? Like are the characters underleveled or anything?

I'm going to try your game out for yeah.. heheh.. you can try my game out too. it's called Tales of the Dragon Crystals

The game is pretty good so far.. I'm actually impressed with the lock picking part.. Kind of reminds me of Oblivion. wtg..

Hey sorry I haven't posted in a while my computer crashed so couldn't get on for a while but I think the game is good so far you can released a update of the demo when ever your ready, but one thing can you give Zane more powers in earlly lvl's he's good to have in party but with out powers to help it kinda gets hard killing groups. All and all its good to go and I hope you keep on going.

p.s. be on the look out for my game it will be here soon.

Yeah I was trying to go for Zane to be like the powerhouse of the team (at least until you get the 7th party member ) so early on hes more about brute strength then using skills but I can definetly give him more. Sadly I haven't worked on my game in like a month and a half because I have been busy with classes lately and working on other projects lately but I defiently intend to finish this game.

Hi guys, sorry I haven't responded or posted anything in a while, I had been busy with alot of other stuff. I am still working on this game and I managed to fix the problems I was having with my scripts! I posted some more screenshots as well from the final game.

Moving as requested!

Thanks for moving this!

I uploaded Demo v.3 Which is an hour longer then v.2 and fixes pretty much all of the major glitches from it. This will probably be the last demo before the final game comes out.

I've been playing your project and so far I'm quite impressed. The story is like a typical chase where main character and whoever he protects runs away. So fair I've just got to chapter 3 and I will play more when I find the time later. The games plot seems solid but could have possibly been set out better. I liked the cutscenes, the drama and the dialogue was well presented. That girl kept saying uh...to show how shy she was which you did a great job on. I liked the battlesystem you are using, tankentai rules. I love your titlescreen too. I defeated your first boss, that purple haired girl, I hope she becomes a good guy.

What I didn't like was some of the mapping which I thought was to big and empty. Like the prison and the houses in the towns. You should consider making them smaller and more detailed. Also when your exploring in the wilderness the maps aren't so detailed and too empty. This should be looked at.

I didn't like the fact that you had hardly any skills to use at the start, maybe you could have added at least one skill for character to use at start. I believe an rpg game should start of with character knowing a few skills especially if they've had combar experience like main character who was in war.

The battles were good, neither too difficult or easy which is good to start off the game but so far I've only bumped into one enemy party. Stupid dump chickens. You could have added maybe more enemies there like goblins or something else too keep the enemies more varied.

I also didn't like the fact that weak potions were so expensive considering your equipment was around the same price range. You could maybe lower it to possibly 20 Gold although you do get an Inn to rest in for cheap.

I think so far your game is going really well although you may want to look at somethings in it that need changing. I haven't completed the demo yet but I'm enjoying what I've played so far. This game is better than most of your average projects made using this tool and if revamped could be one of the very best ones so good job. After I complete the demo I will be looking forward to playing the full version. One thing you could do for the full release is make it playable without rmxp as some people who have played your project may not have the program.

Ok I continued playing through your game and still I am impresed. The story really gets more interesting. That thief was cool and the purple haired girl who was betrayed by her best friend. Loved that in the story. There is personal conflict as well as the main conflict taking place making the game interesting. I love the characters so good job. Ok heres the bad stuff about your game. The good thing about your game is that the battles got more challenging as you progressed on.

These were what I disliked. The amount of skills for characters is minor and mana costs so much and mana is consumed so easily.
It seems that Inns get ridiculously expensive as you progress through the game. I couldn't afford to stay at one for 100 Gold because I was thinking of spending a little time training. Also, Potions are so damn expensive that I can't buy enough. When facing that green haired dude, I stand no chance because by time I get there I got no Items left for healing and no mana left to face of the final boss. This means I'm stuck here at this point and cannot progress as I saved the game before the battle with him. Now I've tried beating him without potions, or mana so I'm giving up at this point of your game. I'm too busy to replay the whole thing all over again and this disspoints me. I felt that there weren't enough potions and too many chests had to use lockpicks on them, a lot of lockpicks were so hard to figure out that I didn't open them up because they were taking so long. I felt you could have had more chests in the game.

I bought a lot of useful equipment, mainly kept up to date with weapons though. These were the levels of my characters when I fought Asher:

Lucian= Lv10
Sirena= Lv10
Aerion= Lv 9
Eric = Lv 8

But due to no mana, no potions and no chance to get or buy potions before battle I got stuck so I won't continue on.

I give your project a 6/10 for it's well constructed story and great battlesystem.
Now the 4 points of are because of the negative things I found in the game such as the non detailed maps, lack of varied enemies and other things like skillsets.

Thanks for the comments Obsorber! The Asher bossfight in Chapter 4 is one that alot of people have said is really challenging so I am going to rework it for the final verison. One idea I have is to have it fully recover your party before facing him so your character's aren't weak when the battle starts. This part sort of has the same problem that that one part in Final Fantasy Tactics had where if you save before hand u can get screwed if you were too weak and it sounds like that is what happened to you

The Inn prices being too high were also something I noticed, i wanted to try to have some form of inflation with them but I think it jumped up to fast so I am going to make them cheaper. Also regarding the lockpicks, I have found that sometimes there were glitches with the "easy 3 pin" set up which i used for the majority of chests earlier in the game, so I am going back and changing alot of them to not have to be picked for that reason.

Thanks for playing and thanks for the comments on what to improve

I liked the Asher fight it took a while but when I finally beat him
I was very happy with myself thinking ya I'm awesome I finally win woohoo
I hope you don't change it to much

What I think I will do is put a treasure chest (non lockpicking too) with 3 or 4 SP Potions right outside the fortress before the fights begin so that the player can have some extra help. I'm afraid if i do a recover entire party this part will be too easy and I want Asher to sort of be seen as the first major challenge in the game so I definetly don't want the battle against him to be a breeze.

Yeah that's a good idea. If you just tweak it a little it will end up perfect. Your game was so good that it just inspired to make a new epic fantasy rpg game with rmxp. I'd forgot the feeling of creating one and got used to Darkness in my games. I think I'll return back to the old epic fantasy style and create a new game...

So far out of your characters, that theif is the one I admire the most.

I am honored to have inspired you to make a new game lol, I will definetly check it out when you have a demo out.

Erik I would say is one of my favorite characters in Bloodsphere too, I'm trying to make him funny and memorable but still coming from a dark past (mission accomplished?). I'm hoping his interactions with Aireon are amusing too since they are both polar opposites.

Hopefully a good relationship may form between the 2 of them. And yes, you succeeded in making the audience care for Eric and how he is because of his harsh past. A totally magnus character to add to your epic plot.

Wow that looks really great!
Especially that lockpick minigame, did you make that yourself? does anyone know if there's a VX version to that?

No I didn't make it myself it's a script i got. There may be a vx version of it, but I don't know about that.

Okay, played the demo... not till the end, but still...

I liked the story. Well, it clinched, but those cliches are well developed later on. And I enjoyed the game.

But I have some negative remarks.

1) Mapping. Plain. The interiors are too big and spacious, there are not much objects inside. Same for exteriors. Well, the mapping in chapter 4 was a little better than in previous chapters.

2) Graphic and music - RTP. Not much of new content added. One char and several music tracks.

3) Balance. That is the worst part. And I'm not talking about difficulty of fights. Yes, they are difficult. But... The amount of gold you receive from them is too little! And add that staying in inns later on is getting more and more expencive - in the last stop staying in the inn costed more than 75-100 gold. It's a robbery!!!!

And what the worst - the prices of weapons and armor are too high. And without them you can't defeat enemies!! When I discovered that in the last shops armor and weapons costed more than 100 gold for each, I was devastated! That is no good. You should increase the amount of gold you get from winning fights. Because of that I could't defeat that damned prodigy swordsman!

4) And last - some minor things:

When Aireon joins your party, you find out that her weapon is... RUSTY SWORD!!!!! What a disgrace to the Knights!!! One of their leaders can't even afford to have a decent sword and armor!

And that is all. Hope you will make your game even better!

Hello everyone, I updated the topic again. I am now 75% done with the final game and I am on track to finish it by fall. I have posted up some new screenshots from later on in the game, showing more locations and more of the battle system. Also, I'm still interested in beta testers to test the final game when it's done so if you are interested let me now. The game itself is currently 20 hours long (including sidequests) so I estimate the finished game will be 25 or so hours long.

I haven't played this verison yet(don't plan too since the full game isn't to far away) but I would love to test your full game when it comes out.

Moved to Long Demos upon request.

Thank you. I'm still working hard on the game and I have made lots of progress, I'm currently almost done with chapter 17. The final version of the game will be out in the year 2010 so be sure to look for it sometime this fall! Also, once i'm done with the final version I would like to have a few beta testers to play through it and let me know what glitches there are and things so that the final, complete version of the game will be as glitch free as possible.

Alright... well um... I actually did play the demo v.3 and it was great. I read some comments above saying its too hard... I don't believe it is at all really. I got through the game with medium difficulty at most. Also looking forward to the final version.

Yeah what I tried to do was have a true learning curve in the game. Alot of RPG Maker Games I have noticed are either hard all the way through or consistently easy. I wanted the early chapters to be easy and the farther you get, the harder it gets. Frankly I am gonna need beta testers input on the difficulty once I have finished the game because the last few chapters are WAAYYYYYY harder the ones in the demo, so if the beggining is already considered too hard I hope the end game isn't impossible for most people.

Also: Did it let you load your old save from the last demo or did you have to start from the beggining? I'm just wondering cuz then I could maybe have an unfinished Beta for now and the testers would be able to load their saves when the finished beta came out.

Well since I got a new computer, I didn't have my old save file.

Update: I have finished the database and the game itself up to the end of chapter 18! So close to being done I can almost taste it! In honor of my achievement, my computer decided to break! Before you (as in the 3 people actually anticipating this lol) start freaking out, I have extensively backed up my files with Bloodsphere so I didn't lose any progress with my game. Due to my bad priorities however I failed to back up a term paper for one of my classes that I was almost done with... so yeah today is a sad day in that regard . The combination of broken PC plus having to rewrite a term paper are gonna delay when I finish the final version of Bloodsphere. I was anticipating it being finished in October but now November or even December seem the most likely options.

Well I just got my computer fixed, so in honor of that I would like to release a beta version of Bloodsphere that heads all the way up to the end of Chapter 18 to a few people who would like to be beta testers for me. I'm trying to finish Bloodsphere before the end of 2010 so having more people beta test now while I finish the game up will save time for me and make it easier to meet my deadline. So if anyone is interested just let me know and I'll set you up with a link!

You already know I want a link so go ahead and give it here lol.

Hey guys, I realized I haven't given an update in a while so I figured I would let you guys know whats going on. I am still working on Bloodsphere but production has been delayed for a few reasons:

1. This has shaped up to be without a doubt the hardest and most work intensive semester of my college experience.

2. I haven't gotten alot of feedback from my beta testers on what to fix

3. The unholy combination of Minecraft, Plants vs. Zombies and Call of Duty Black Ops. These three games pretty much had me addicted and I haven't touched RPG Maker in the last 2 weeks, sorry guys <_<

I am currently working on the Final Chapter though, so once I'm done with that I'm just gonna make a few changes throughout the game (assuming my beta testers leave me more feedback) and the final version should be up. Either End of December or now I'm thinking early January are likely times for the final version to be released, so be on the lookout for it!

Whoop Whoop the finished version of the game has now been uploaded for your enjoyment!

Nice one m8 I'll download it

I've noticed something - the part where Lucian grabs the stick from the ground, I opened the menu and there is an Army Lance already in the menu that gives Lucian 100+ attack - is that supposed to be there or is it a mistake?

Feck yes that is a mistake. I had to revise the intro and you aren't supposed to have it in the new intro. That's weird it was supposed to clear your inventory o.O

Ah well, it's not a problem anyway.

Good game, I'm thinking of reviewing this game and posting it on my website. I know I'm not professional developer or anything like that, but I know what sucks and what doesn't suck. I'll have to finish the game first, before reviewing it.

Yeah sure dude that sounds great. I just fixed the glitch and uploaded the new version to rpgmaker.net too.

Moving on request, it is now a full game.

My first question about ur game. How do u change the bgm when u face a boss battle? I'm confused on how to do it.