If you say the busts of the char are not even used in game then I guess it doesnt even matter seems like a lot of work to not even really use but to each his own. I aware of that battle system and im not a fan, not really a fan of ANY of the vx/ace battle systems, they pretty much screwed ppl when they came out with the default one, they just got lazy after 2003

Yeah, I stumbled across a whole bunch of RTP busts and just randomly wanted to utilize them. So, I went about customizing them to match the sprites and facesets we use, lol. Since I had no use for them in game, I decided it would add a tad bit of flavor to the main page.

I can agree with the battle system pains. I'm sure if I took the time to try and master the Melody battle system and create some legit animated battlers it would feel so much for fluid and enjoyable. But, it's functional for now.
I actually started with VX. So I have no personal experience with any engine prior to this. So, I'm reluctant to criticize it's strengths/weaknesses based solely on other users reviews. Though I can appreciate their personal tastes and respect their viewpoints for that reason.

I'm looking into getting away from the sideview battle systems for my next pet project. Don't get me wrong, having a sideview system is great. But it requires a solid battle system, a ton of sprites (or animated battlers), and a really heavy hand at modifying skills so they function and look appropriate. I'm going to be drawing on an old RPG, Lufia 2, for inspiration to try and recreate that look for battles. It's frontview, but the player sprites are present on their various 'stat boxes' and react/change based on taking damage, status effects, dying, etc.

Anyway, that's a whole nother topic and would just cause this thread to go off on a tangent. Thanks for the chat though

This games dialogue is a pretty fanciful satire on RPG pit-fall/cliche's. Overall the UI and presentation is pretty good stuff; the added facial expressions also gave me a good laugh.

What I liked -

Spacious Mapping, even the cave dungeon with the Chimera had a lot of areas you could go through, with an easily observable main path; in-case you get lost. The towns and insides of the buildings are also well-done and there's plenty of neat furniture compositions; although there weren't many/if any hidden items outside of Wollen.

Some NPC's and character interactions are unexpected, and adds a lot of humor, without losing out on the seriousness of the situation.

Battle system has a lot of effects I haven't seen yet, and those I'm accustomed to are put into roles I wouldn't expect them to be used in.

Being able to auto-dash and increase said dash via a special item instantly won me over; I mean yeah, you have teleporting gem-stones, however, you're still going to do a lot of walking, so it is a tremendous help to be able to move normally or higher than normal, especially since monster encounters don't depend on RNG.

Decent amount of diversity with monster encounters for a short-demo, and I enjoyed how you had those unique encounters with the Pixies, as well as the mechanics behind facing one of them.

Good chest placements, had me running into every wall/crevice in every area.

The "rest" feature is a good alternative; considering gold is a tad scarce, unless you farm loot (and even then; some of the items are a tad pricey). A proper way to regulate item usage early on, and helps you in later areas as well, so you can conserve what little you have, without jeopardizing yourself too much.

AP system; always a good way to get some bonus points to accentuate your char's and help mold them into what role you'd like to have them play in a battle.

STEAL! Love it, every RPG should have it (imo).

The puzzles in Konami Tower. Lots of good fun to be had in there.

Story has a lovely feel to it, and even with all the whimsical jabs; there's a tone of seriousness and progression both in romance and plot twists~.

The after-battle dialogues.

Difficulty; sure it may be easy to farm and gain stats, however, it doesn't mean bosses aren't challenging as they have their own arsenal of lethal attacks as well as being able to use two moves per turn. Defense also scales well enough to make a difference as you gain it, but it isn't a crutch that you can rely on to get you through entirely.

Decent variety of skills.

Concern/Questions:

- The first cave dungeon seems to be bugged; the monsters in their don't move, except for their animations and if you move into them, nothing happens. The bug itself continues to be there after you return to Wollen, and is only fixed after you go through the cave and re-enter it from where you came from the first time. Does that make any sense?

- The Prison dungeon was also bugged in the same way, except touching monsters will trigger a battle. When I reached the exit and re-entered the place: everything moved as it should.

- I noticed some oddly placed tiles, which didn't hinder me in any way, but I just saw them and thought: "Oh hay, this might be note-worthy!!". Screenshots below;

http://s426.photobucket.com/albums/pp341/X...t=Classika1.jpg
http://s426.photobucket.com/albums/pp341/X...t=Classika2.jpg
http://s426.photobucket.com/albums/pp341/X...t=Classika3.jpg

- I accidentally screwed up the event triggers; I remember that my third party member was asking us to return to Morriston, but that's where I'm confused on whether I forgot something, or it never triggered for me: I was supposed to head into the Inn, when I came back, but I'm not sure if I did use the Inn and the event didn't trigger, or I forgot to use the Inn. Either way; nothing happened in Morriston and I ended up going to Phendra(sp) and triggering the events there, but when I came back to Morriston and used the Inn: I triggered that scene. It wasn't too much of a consequence and the game still worked fine after-wards, but I'm just noting that it seems like you can change up the order of scripted events.

- Some weapons and equips lack any explanation to them, I'm guessing some of it is still unfinished.

- This one requires a screenshot as the image itself explains it better than I ever could(this applied to everyone);

http://s426.photobucket.com/albums/pp341/X...t=Classika5.jpg

-

-

- When Saul sends Leah and her male counter-part back home; he says that he smells dinner, but Leah's mother says it's lunch....or maybe I mis-read what Saul said? @_@ Just something I found confuddling!

- Magic seems a tad under-whelming right now. I have Ethan at 145 SPI, but he only does about 500-ish, and that's if the enemy is weak against that element, but a normal attack from Leah does about just as much.

- Those stone items you can use to stun enemies on the world map; I can't use them outside of Wollen's monster areas.

Miscellaneous:

- Are the steal-able items going to be default for the final game, or tweaked later? Because the pixies have Agility Up, and some other encounters have those same stat+ potions; like the ones in Konami Tower, and the fight against the thugs.

- Speaking of those stat+ potions: got any ideas on what you're going to name them, yet?

- Why are there so many supply shops in Phendra? And why do the weapon/armor shops in the poor district have better items compared to the wealthier side?

- What plans do you have for Tetris?! I must know this! It is imperative I know!

-

- 500 exp per Pixie!

/PageBreak----------------------------------------------

Gotta say, I'm psyched to see what the future holds for this project. Good luck and glad you were able to get back on it.

First, let me say how much I appreciate you taking the time to detail as much as you did. (And I am utterly floored that you took the time to tell me what you liked, let alone the size of that list!)

I'll begin by addressing your concerns though:

The first cave dungeon seems to be bugged; the monsters in their don't move, except for their animations and if you move into them, nothing happens. The bug itself continues to be there after you return to Wollen, and is only fixed after you go through the cave and re-enter it from where you came from the first time. Does that make any sense?

It does make sense. There are multiple global switches, and variables, that tie into each event and how it moves based on your movement. And whether it's affected by a flash pellet. I'm going to run a few tests in my game to try and recreate the situation. At the moment, I'm thinking that you might have froze the rat monster or plant prior to entering the cave, and while the timer was up it caused a hiccup in executing the script to control their movements. There is also the case that the monsters events themselves need a new once over on their pages to make sure I didn't goof up with the conditional events. This could be the case since you encountered a similar, albeit slightly different, scenario in the prison.

I noticed some oddly placed tiles, which didn't hinder me in any way, but I just saw them and thought: "Oh hay, this might be note-worthy!!".

That's a carry over a poor mapping organization that I had. I made every house on a large map. And thanks to the anti-lag script, there wasn't much (if any) issue in me using it that way. Unfortunately, as I redid my mapping over and over to better meet my growing standards, they started to sneak into view when you're in other buildings. I just need to take an hour or two out of my day and make each home be it's own map.

I accidentally screwed up the event triggers; I remember that my third party member was asking us to return to Morriston, but that's where I'm confused on whether I forgot something, or it never triggered for me: I was supposed to head into the Inn, when I came back, but I'm not sure if I did use the Inn and the event didn't trigger, or I forgot to use the Inn. Either way; nothing happened in Morriston and I ended up going to Phendra(sp) and triggering the events there, but when I came back to Morriston and used the Inn: I triggered that scene. It wasn't too much of a consequence and the game still worked fine after-wards, but I'm just noting that it seems like you can change up the order of scripted events.

Fantastic catch on your part! I had set up multiple switches to try and keep the story moving as intended, with you being able to get to Phendra ahead of time you just get an extra party member ahead of schedule. I deliberately set it up in a way that the previous events weren't directly impacting this newest scenario. Honestly, there is no spoilers or severe impact from going to Phendra first. Other than maybe fighting a tougher than usual boss battle. But that's only cause of where the demo ends. If it continued on from there it would allow players to skip some story that is a bit critical . I'll see where I made the goof up.

Some weapons and equips lack any explanation to them, I'm guessing some of it is still unfinished.

One of those things I missed. I actually had a good bit more database work done, as well as the start of about a dozen new maps/events. However, the game became corrupt and I lost all of that work. I keep regular back ups though, but losing that did a number on my motivation. When I returned to working on it, I just skimmed the items/equipment and missed that there were some descriptions missing. Thanks for the heads up.

This one requires a screenshot as the image itself explains it better than I ever could(this applied to everyone)

This ties into what I explained above. There must also be some missing note tags that properly classify and organize the equipment. I'll be sure to go through them all and update as needed.

Konami Tower glitch
Nice details here, I'm sorry that it didn't reproduce the awesome treasure chest rewards. But hopefully the exp was a nice sorry for killing him again, and again, and again >_>

More than likely just a switch issue. I'll see if I made a mistake with self switches or anything silly that might have carried over from testing.

Bounty Shop glitch
There are multiple conditional events there, but the bounty shop was left very very unfinished. It still needs a bunch of work and flavor text. Thanks for letting me know, I'll go back into the event and tweak it so that it's just a one at a time thing.

When Saul sends Leah and her male counter-part back home; he says that he smells dinner, but Leah's mother says it's lunch....or maybe I mis-read what Saul said? @_@ Just something I found confuddling!

D'oh! The whole spider thing was a brand new addition to the story, and I made it after having not really touched this game for 6-7 months. There is no good excuse for that, I just didn't do my research. I'll adjust it to say lunch as it should be

Magic seems a tad under-whelming right now. I have Ethan at 145 SPI, but he only does about 500-ish, and that's if the enemy is weak against that element, but a normal attack from Leah does about just as much.

Yes, I'm currently remaking all of the skills in the game, and multiple versions of them. This way, I don't have to share a single spells stats across a multitude of creatures. And instead can cater their stats as intended, then assign them their version of the spell so it does what I want in regards to damage.
Ethan's spells will be getting revamped to draw more fully from his spirit modifier. The flat damage won't change much, but there will be more return on investment and a much more noticeable wallop as his stats rise.

Those stone items you can use to stun enemies on the world map; I can't use them outside of Wollen's monster areas.

That's no good. I need to take this one back to the chopping block and do some heavy retesting of the environment to see what is causing the breakdown. I'm hoping it's a simple oversight on my end, but we'll see. Upon reflection, I can't recall if I tested each map on its own. I did multiple test runs in the Wollen area to ensure effectiveness. However, that was a bit lazy of me. I'll give it a good investigation.

- Are the steal-able items going to be default for the final game, or tweaked later? Because the pixies have Agility Up, and some other encounters have those same stat+ potions; like the ones in Konami Tower, and the fight against the thugs.

No, the stealable items will change. I intend to isolate stat modification items to bosses, rare bounty monsters, and potentially end game super baddies. So there is a reward for grinding/fighting them. Right now, they're on the fairies as a means of tempting the player to use their fastest character to steal a really good item, or try to stun it and kill it for the delicious exp instead. In a later version, the fairies will probably be carrying another high value item. Just not a perma-stat one.

I've entertained some idea's. My current one is leaning towards ____ Elixer. Where I'll be putting an in game historical name that fits what kind of elixer it is. I just haven't settled on which will represent what, or whether or not I want to use other names and expand on the lore even further.

- Why are there so many supply shops in Phendra? And why do the weapon/armor shops in the poor district have better items compared to the wealthier side?

The wealthier part of town will actually be selling items that are equivalent to two towns later in the game. A significant upgrade that won't be easily gotten, since the price will also be hiked. The various odds and ends shops will also start carrying drugs/powder that can be used in battle for a stat boost... with consequences. Each shop will have it's own perks for sale, and they'll have a few storyline appropriate pieces of equipment. For those players that don't have the coin to spend on the overpriced uber gear

- What plans do you have for Tetris?! I must know this! It is imperative I know!

Tetris is there solely for your distraction. Pockets will eventually retrieve it from where he lives and it will be unvieled during an immediate storyline event afterwards. From there, it'll just lurk in your inventory for whenever you're bored.



- 500 exp per Pixie!
Yup! They're your grind mobs for those players that relish the fun of finding the rare high reward monsters. There will be several more like this littered throughout the game, rewarding the player for being lucky or persistant... or both!


Phew, that was a short novel .

I really want to take the time and "gush" over the positive things you highlighted. But I'm going to post this for now, then come back and edit it. Or, in the chance you've replied since then, I'll probably include it in a follow up post. We'll see.

Also, Be sure to keep an eye out for an NPC in the next town with the name of
"Leth" I'll be putting in some placement text for the time being. However, I fully intend to corner you with a PM and weasel out some fun commentary (that wouldn't stand out in the game too terribly). However, I'm also happy with making up my own fun little things too.

I'm not very savy when it comes to witty humor, but we'll see how that goes when we have to cross that bridge. Honestly, though; I'd say you know the trade better than me.

Glad you liked my reply though, not all of it is something I'd address for you to fix, but rather what I've noticed in my time of play (which is roughly 9 hours), but things like the extra keys you get isn't a big concern for me; I just realized I had some extra's carried over from opening the door to the next floor.

Also, sorry to hear about the corrupted game you had to scrap. But take your time with this, there are bound to be obstacles and set-backs, but it is entirely up to you and you alone; whether this continues forward or not. Best of luck to you and keep on fighting the good fight, sir.

PS - I actually didn't farm that "boss", but a "whuuuut?!" followed by another "I have to do it again?!" was mentally reverberated, when I saw what was happening. Luckily, everyone leveled off of the last one and I knew enough about the boss already, so I had a much easier time dealing with him/it.

PSS - Hrrm, also forgot to mention that after defeating Konami Tower: the boss bgm replaced the normal battle music in every encounter.

PSSS - Leah learns a skill called Focus at around level 13-15 (I think), but it doesn't do anything. Sorry, promise that this was the last thing I wanted to mention.

This game is definitely something special. Zortik’s writing skills have really come out in this project and I think his services could turn one of the bigger projects into something really special. I loved playing this game and was genuinely sad to see it end which is rare for me. I appreciate that Classika is still in its development phase but damn it Zortik! You had better finish this game!

Read the full official RMG Review of Classika here

Well, I'll just have to look for your opinion in regards to what that NPC has to say. The story portion of the next demo is about 80% done. And I'm building up the database to accommodate the increased character level, which you've already reached . The current demo was intended to be over at level 11-12. Focus doesn't have any effect just yet, it'll eventually work as a means to turn Leah into a more destructive force while sacrificing defense.

Thanks again for all the comments and really helpful suggestions. You've given me a fantastic list to use for check marks. I intend to resolve all of the legitimate issues prior to releasing anything in the form of the next demo. Other than resolving why the flash pellets aren't working (It seems like I need to recreate all of the monster events and retrack the events versus the location of where the pellet is to register collision).



Thank you so much for the review. It was a wonderful read and I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to write this out. It was very well written and gave me a huge boost to moral. If it's okay with you, I'd love to work with you to get some form of banner to showcase your review and also inform the reader they can click on the banner to navigate to your review.

This is the first RPG game I've ever worked on, and Conundrum (a completed puzzle game) was made in the span of 6 hours for a contest. Other than these 2 titles though, I've never had any prior experience with game design.

I have a third title in the wings, but I am refraining from working on this at all until I complete Classika.
It will have custom graphics (tilesets, sprites, animations), custom music (working with a stellar composer already), and I will be parallaxing all of the maps.

In regards to story though, Classika will have about 10 hours of just pure story. I estimate that there is about 3 - 4 hours of just pure story gameplay currently, and I've already written out enough to cover about another 1-2 hours of gameplay. Just need to get the database created, and to take my physical sketches and turn them into actual maps with the resources I have on hand.

P.S. On a side note, I'm having a terrible time replicating the glitch that was encountered with being able to get to Phendra before traversing through the mountain. I'd appreciate it if anyone else could try to head there if they are at that point in the demo.

Also, I'm pleased that nobody has found my debug room yet . I put it in a convenient area and has a whole bunch of goodies that I can grab during a legit play through to super buff up my team. Well, that, and also the ability to play with some ridiculous things. Anyhow, it's VERY hard to find, but it will stay out there even after the game is completed. Though the potential game breaking events will be removed, and there will just be super duper awesome rewards instead.