Update: Beta v0.5
This version is the version where I get to upload a beta of sorts and you get to play it. The beta demo contains one dungeon in the game along with the tutorial and the inter-mission area. If you're interested, the download link is in the demo section just below this paragraph. Any feedback, comments or suggestions regarding any aspect of the game are greatly appreciated. Also, reporting of any major or game-breaking bugs would be of incredible help in further development of this project. Enjoy!


In order to run this application the RPG Maker VX Ace run-time package (RTP) is required. You can download and install it from the official English RM website. If you already have RMVX Ace, the RTP is automatically installed with it.
Download Alignment v0.5 Demo (RTP not included)



“Alignment� is an evolution of my previous attempt at a project “Evolution Gears� which was highly focused on classic RPG gameplay. Unfortunately, “Evolution Gears� proved to be too much for me to handle with its 9 classes and 33 skills per class so this is in some way a simplified version of that project. As stated, “Alignment� is very much focused on simple RPG gameplay taking from both western and Japanese styles and mixing them to get the best of both worlds. As a logistic measure it was a good idea to keep the project small but still expandable enough to broaden the gameplay experience if needed.


In the Artherian capital of knowledge and research, the free city of Ordian, everybody is preparing for the passing of one of the Moving Worlds over Artheris. Instructor Eric Podmore, a high-ranking official in the Ordian University plans on using the new, powerful energy cannon to transport a team of researchers to the Moving World in an attempt to find out more about it. Argos Tyrian, a knight in the city’s service and Eric’s close friend, is supposed to lead the expedition. Before setting up the cannon, though, the instructor tasks Argos in eliminating mage-general Korvis, a well -known extremist who plans to sabotage the expedition by destroying the energy cannon. Reaching the general’s hideout, Argos and his group find out that Korvis has some unexpected helpers, the Kaal’Khadar demons. They now have to breach through the fire-mage’s hideout in order to reach and apprehend the mage-general, fighting through a number of his followers, powerful lieutenants and creatures under their control...








Different classes
Alignment offers you 5 different classes to play with in the Beta v0.5 with plans on more after the v1.0 release.

Yanfly Engine Ace
This project proudly features a host of Yanfly Engine Ace scripts making it extremely interesting and diverse.

Over 72 character skills
Be it active skills or upgrades you will have a lot of choice considering the skill combinations in combat.

Upgrading System
If you had enough with dull, basic skills such as Attack or Guard, the upgrade system in Alignment allows you to configure and adjust them according to the situation.

Encounter Symbols
Every enemy troop in Alignment is visible and active. It will chase you if you come too close or it will run from you if it deems your party too powerful. This also allows you to choose your battles or to avoid them altogether.

Charge Turn Battle System
The CTB allows you to plan your moves and to hinder your opponents’ by adding a new layer to the familiar turn-based combat.

Alignment
The smart use of primal element alignments to utilize their respective skills will be the difference between good and excellent tacticians.

Varying experience
Multitude of skills, randomized encounters and optional mini-bosses make for a different playthrough every time.

So...can you also mention that the RTP is REQUIRED, even though it isn't included? And where I can most likely acquire a copy of it >_>?

I'm sorry, I figured that RTP requirement is common knowledge. You can get the RTP at the official website for RM.

You don't have to include the RTP if you don't want, but some may choose not to play unless you provide it. However, you should mention whether or not it is required and link to RMWeb where they can download it, just out of courtesy (again optional, not required). Personally, I like that option the best, but everybody has different opinions.

I'm pretty new to this type of stuff, so common sense in this community might as well be a foreign dialect when I read it. Thank you for providing the link/download.

Now onto the impressions:

Pro's;

- Intro/Tutorial was a splendid way to set the player up in terms of basic game mechanics and details.

- No class restrictions on gear (except for weapons), yay!

- You have a pretty interesting menu scheme, and everything in each sub-menu is neatly done and organized in a very user-friendly manner.

- The skill system is rather interesting as well and a lot of abilities aren't common in most RPG's that I've played, which yields some interesting ways to progress in battle; in terms of usage and strategy.

- Along with the skill system; you also have those alignments as a key focal point in utilizing skills within battle. (which makes perfect sense considering the title of the game) It goes without saying: there's a unique dynamic involved when you have more optional ways to win.

- Bringing more team-mates means a higher risk of engagement; as each of them follow you on the map, and if anyone except the lead member interacts with the monster sprite: they get a freebie pre-emptive on you. I know this is mentioned in your original post about either being more sneaky with less party members or just facing everything on every floor, but I never understood it until I actually played.

- The randomly generated equipment you gain whenever you go through the same dungeon in a new run; I ended up having to restart the game for several reasons (which I will explain later), but I enjoyed getting the different equips each time.

- Pretty sleek looking character/enemy models. I also liked the bgm as well.

- The unique take on your main character being a professor and the university being the main town; where you can purchase/sell what you need after each mission.

- The mini-bosses; they add an extra challenge and the rewards aren't that bad either.

- Upgrades give a good twist to further customize each character and accentuate their specialties, but they also have their faults and not each upgrade skill; whether offensive or defensive will be viable; especially since you start off at level 1 and can't afford to replace a normal basic attack for a 5 EN per hit attack.

- Love the mapping so far.

Con's;

- You have a plethora of skills, but you can't really utilize much of it. Yes, this is a demo, but the list of skills for each character early on is quite good in terms of quantity, except each costs 100 SP, which is 4 levels per. This gives rise to another problem: what skill do I get now that will be useful early on? There's no way to test skills; unless you purchase them, and starting off: you only get 1 choice for everyone, and if you pick incorrectly, then prepare to start over or deal with it until you get a skill book or level up 4 times. I'm not sure of how to deal with this concern, but I just wanted to mention that it took me a few resets, until I found a set of skills across the board that would be useful right from the get-go.

- I'm on the fence about how your EN costs get higher as you level. On-top of the growing scarcity of resources and a good amount of encounters to get through; including mini-bosses, I can't say I like it, but most of the encounters I did engage in could of been avoided, so I'll chalk it up to personal preference.

- The randomized loot you gain per encounter: I ended up with 5 large blue crystals and 4 small blue crystals, but rarely any greens, which were very vital for me, as I enjoy clearing the entire floor, before moving on. And even if I were to ignore most of it: I doubt staying level 1 will help me by the end of the demo. Of course I do have a cleric, but I ended up getting the skill that gives everyone 2 turns of invulnerability, as I found that to be just as important as healing. (Might I suggest 200 starting SP for everyone in later updates?)

- When you level everyone to 2: you gain 2 upgrade points to spend on any of your 4 heroes, but if you want to reset: it only returns 0.5 points back. My concern is: this was not mentioned at all in the tutorial, which only stated I gained 0.5 UP per 2 levels. The abilities are still there, even after I hit reset, and the function only worked once for me; if I tried to reset Argo's guard points after resetting Eric's, it wouldn't work. Furthermore; those UP skills still remained accessible to me.

(Personally, a confirmation pop up before purchasing an upgrade would also be help-ful, so people don't click too fast and get two upgrades on the same char by accident, which is one of the reasons why I needed to restart the game).

- Lack of viability; after 6+ battles, everyone is basically near or close to death, and unless RNG has favored you in monster loots or you did get a healing skill with your first 100 SP: prepare to have a tough time in floor 2+. Even with the free skill books you can get lying around; it doesn't guarantee you'll get them on the char you want, as they randomly select who gets them and the game selected Argo for 200 SP, and by some form of divine luck: 100 on the cleric to FINALLY get a healing ability.

- The lack of experience points after downing mini-bosses makes me frown.

- The Illusionist class was rather bland and useless, and it was very hard for me to decide on what skill to give him as he does not have many perks to build up the PW gauge, like Argo's, so he always starts with 0 when I align him. I ended up getting the minus Attack for 3 turns ability, which even then, I didn't use very often. Almost every other skill he had; required so much more PW. You do have that guard ability that uses EN in exchange for 100 Power, but that is not very viable for each and every encounter, as that'll just drain your EN dry rather quickly. Maybe give him some EN abilities as well?

- The Berserker class is the only one capable of taking advantage of low hp via Rupture; and that was by far the primary skill that got me through each encounter after 6-8 battles, when I couldn't afford to take anymore damage on anyone. The Cleric's AOE shield for 2 turns was also very useful versus mini-bosses and in some clutch situations against those bat swarms that can potentially hit you for 100 damage.

- Quite tricky/difficult to get a pre-emptive on mobs. Why can they see you when they're facing the other way? Is it the light that's giving you away?

- You usually end up taking more damage than you dish out. Taking 100 hits from bat swarm isn't sustainable. You start out at level 1, but most encounters can dish out 40+ damage.

- Not enough experience gained per encounter, or the exp requirements are higher than they should be. We're not getting a full heal per level up, so why do I need 40 for level 2, when I need about 4-6 encounters just to get there?

- No back tracking, and the way your saves work also gives me cause for concern: I'm forced to save after each floor or go without it and risk losing everything. I also can't go back to floor 2 after going down the rope leading to floor 3, why? I would rather prefer being able to go back to the beginning and having a stationary save point (which may even give heals, since it seems health items can be excessively scarce depending on RNG). I wouldn't even mind if this save point was on floor 3 or 4, along with those mini-saves per floor, but having only 1 time to save, whenever you reach a new floor, while you want to explore everything; just makes me want to skip most of it and get to the next floor, rather than spend time to check out what that floor has to offer. (imo).

Bug/Glitch's;

- If you cycle through each characters list of skills too quickly, while hitting the action key: an error can occur and the game shuts down.

- The mini-boss on floor 3 causes another error that not only shuts down the game, but also corrupted my save files: none of them work now and I need to restart (again).

- Re-climbing that rope from floor 3 back to floor 2 doesn't work, instead; you can actually go onto the black space and walk along the tiles there.

- When I accidentally spent my 2 UP points into Kelbrand and restarted from the first save after the tutorial: Kelbrand still had the UP abilities I originally gave him, even though everyone was back at level 1.

- Some minor grammar/spelling issues.

Overall; You have a great looking game with a good presentation in terms of user interface and the battle system along with the sprites look fun as well. But the game-play felt daunting at times; with the Illusionist having no worth-while skills to invest in, and not enough starting SP overall to properly settle you into the game. I found myself primarily using Rupture only as my main source of damage, while having Guardians Blessing as a secondary, in-case I was about to face a mini-boss, or had everyone below 100 hp (which was the case for half of the later encounters on floor 2).

I also did not finish floor 3 or get any further as that bug with the mini-boss, which also corrupted my save files have shaved off my motivation quite a bit, as I had already restarted this game 6 times total by then:

First time, because I couldn't get back to floor 2 and fight a mini-boss I missed.

Second/Third, due to screwing up my UP allocations; the second time, because Hypnotic attack replaced Eric's basic attack; and using EN per hit wasn't going to work.

The final three restarts were due to testing out the wide-range of skills you had for everyone, although most of them I out-right ignored as the costs were too high, and what little remained that seemed viable: weren't very useful, especially for the Illusionist. Argo to a lesser extent atleast had an AOE stun attack.

I don't believe I could of even gotten as far as I did without Rupture. But yeah, I might pick this up at a later time for a 7th run and give any further impressions, but for now: good luck with your game! I had fun...somewhat.

@lethitax First of all, thank you for an immensely useful feedback. Second, I am already making improvements based on your comments which will definitely resonate to consequent dungeons.

Some of these issues are already taken care of. For instance, a simple 60-70 bump in base HP across the board allowed me to go through the demo without a Cleric in the party.

I also took note of the Illusionist class...I hope you did know that his 10 PW skills increase his PW by 50 and his 50 PW skills increase his PW by 100 which allows the use of top-tier skills. If you didn't, though, that's a mistake on my part. In either way, I now made it more clearer. Also considering the Illusionist class, he now has a few adjustments to his skills which, hopefully, make him more useful in general.

Back-tracking was originally in the first version of the demo (as well as access to the save scene from the menu at any time), but due to some feedback (mainly about exploitation of random drops and encounters) the any-time save access had to go out and I didn't want for the player to able to save at a checkpoint than re-enter the room at any time to save the game again. I am now considering a checkpoint system which isn't tied to entering the room to make back-tracking work.

Thanks again for great suggestions and I hope you'll check out the next version of the demo and, eventually, the completed project.

Well, with the Illusionist: I always had to spend 1 turn to get him to 10 PW, and that's assuming his normal attack doesn't wiff or gets evaded, which would mean I'd need to expend another turn to get that amount. I didn't get any SP books on him or get him to level 4 to get another skill either, but my point is: I've had some encounters where he's missed two to three times in a row, and he doesn't get anything for it in return.

The thing about back-tracking and saves that I wanted to elaborate on was:

Back-tracking; I just wanted to be able to take care of unfinished business, because I did not know that floor 2's summoning circle required me to take down a mini-boss that I missed, and I wanted to go back and re-explore the place (since it is dark, and I know I missed some areas). I'm not sure if it's possible, but you don't need to have the mob/mini-bosses re-spawned. There are games where encounters are a one-time thing, even if you go back to the previous floor. I just didn't like being slighted out of the dungeon you made, because I wasn't thorough enough.

Saves - A stationary save at the farthest depths of a dungeon or half-way (depending on the length, I'd say every 4-6 floors would be a good time to plop down one, if you still have another 4-6 to go). If you didn't have enemies re-spawn, then I don't see a problem with a stationary save where you can either have a free one-time heal-up before you continue, or you can install a camping system. Either way: it's better than knowing that if you screw up and die on encounter 7; then you won't have to re-do the entire floor from scratch, especially since everyone is a tad squishy early on, and there isn't much in terms of Skills to help alleviate that besides a cleric. Or if you messed up during your exploration of that floor, and don't want to restart from the very beginning each time to rectify those errors.