THE CEREBRAL SYMPHONY
2 of 5 episodes complete
A Linear-Non-Linear-Ethically-Empowering-Sci-Fi-Fantasy-Psycho-Thriller
made with rpgmaker 2003
Screenshots
More screenshots
Get it here: http://rpgmaker.net/games/2693/
Videos
LP of Chapter One
Preview of Chapter 2
'Pass or Fail' review by Creation
Lowdown
Story-driven, choice-based, distopian 2d rpg game with an emphasis on character development and fun, non-random, side-view, Final Fantasy VI style battles, made up of 5 or so chapters, currently in production. Chapter 1 came out in 2011, Chapter 2 came out in 2012, full version by 2015 or so.
Strong writing, clever system, interesting characters, and an engaging plot...this game is unreasonably good. It is probably the single cleverest thing I've played on rmn, and its ability to take itself seriously even while it's not taking itself seriously borders on the supernatural.
-kumada
overall i enjoyed the game because of the story. the dialogue is good, the characters are good. the setting seems cool so far.
-Link_2112
With just a bit of tweaking, Faenon should have a crazy, unchained game on his hands, and one that I would strongly recommend to anyone wanting to try something different for a change.
-ganonfrog
Story
Brad, a jock, trips one day (at a party, we can only assume), accidentally plunging himself into the hallucinatory world of The Cerebral Symphony where he meets a guy called Luke, who you might wonder is a human metaphor for repressed teenage angst.
Join the schizophrenic, multiple-personality-disorder afflicted Luke, whose destiny (and personalities) you can steer through his individual choices as he bumbles his way through his life as a renegade thief into a big war between the underground cyborg Mafia, the omnipresent, all-seeing Corporation and the corrupt, power-crazed Government.
On the way you will encounter Naomi the ADHD werewolf, Jean the insomniac minstrel, Joanna the telepath with anger management issues, Carys the delusional young stage actress, Simon the narkileptic doctor, Zak the homeostatically imbalanced fighter-pilot, and Jeremy the accident prone Gladiator. He will choose whether in the final estimation it is his more "upbeat" or his "darker" pesonality that will win control of his mind as they battle with his more balanced, "pensive" side.
Begun as the side-project of a bored and depressed fifteen-year old, The Cerebral Symphony has evolved into a claustrophobic, poorly layed-out, passionately-written 2d rpg that may one day be finished and worthy of release.
Features
-Featuring the Fully Completed MULTIPLE PERSONALITY SYSTEM™, where Luke's in-game choices will affect dialogue and plot, alter the screen tint and interface colours and change his battle class and music. You only gain skills in the personality in which you fight! Your choices will affect the story!
-A compelling story and entertaining dialogue (subject to subjectivity)!
-Edited DBS.
-Five different missions.
-About two hours of play-time.
Character list:
NAME: Luke
GIFT: Telekinesis
DEFECT: Personality dissociation
AGE: 17
LIKES: Being insane
DISLIKES: People
WEAPON: Sword
THEME SONG: <<Disorder>>
SKILL SET: MIND
An obsessively psychoanalytic schizoid, Luke extends his psyche via personality dissociation. He has three personalities: Pensive, Upbeat and Dark. You have a loose control over his personality through what you have him do. Some actions bring out his darker side, some his pensive side and some his upbeat side. Each has its own unique strengths, weaknesses, techniques and tactics, and Luke will be more of a match for some opponents in certain personalities. Luke will gain skills as he battles, but only in the personality in which he fights. To make the best use of his abilities, you will have to exploit ALL of his personalities. Finally, please remember that Luke will respond differently to certain events according to his personality.
NAME: Naomi
GIFT: Lycanthropy
DEFECT: Attention deficit
AGE: 23
LIKES: Shiny things
DISLIKES: The Moon
WEAPON: Fists/Claws
THEME SONG: <<Magical Girl>>
SKILL SET: HEALING/WOLF
A sporadically disconnected lycanthrope, Naomi transforms into her lupine state whenever she experiences ocular-lunar interaction. She possesses powerful healing skills, but when in her less amicable form these somehow get forgotten and she becomes extremely aggressive. The result is a strange sort of dichotomy between an intelligent, if not always attentive, woman with a knack for repairing bodily wounds and a crazed beast with a knack for inflicting them. Naomi starts off with all her skills, but these are completely dictated by her state, so she has to be careful about looking at the moon.
NAME: Jean
GIFT: Musicianship
DEFECT: Insomnia
AGE: 29
LIKES: Harmony
DISLIKES: Dissonance
WEAPON: Instruments
THEME SONG: <<Piece for solo guitar>>
SKILL SET: MUSIC
A wandering insomniac troubadour, Jean-Gabriel Figaro Gabbiani is a gifted musician with an intimate and wide-ranging knowledge of a number of different musical styles as well as their mystical and psychotropic properties. He has four instruments at his disposal -the harp, flute, guitar and drum- and each will work with ]varying effectiveness against different opponents according to their resonant frequencies and personal aural tastes (or distastes). As such he is a versatile combatant with a wide range of sonic attacks. However, his insomnia means that he is always tired, and so he will not be able to perform techniques as frequently as others.
NAME: Carys
GIFT: Imagination
DEFECT: Delusional
AGE: 10
LIKES: Performance
DISLIKES: Criticism
WEAPON: None (pet rabbit)
SKILL SET: DELUSIONS
A delusional budding young stage actress, Carys exhibits rare pyschomorphic anomaly whereby her fantastical imaginations actually take on a tangible matter of their own, for a time. Consequently her imaginary friends are far more dangerous than most little girls', which has made for some interesting theatrical spectales in the course of her career. In battle, she projects a series of imagined animal-like creatures imspired by her present companions' personalities -these will alter depending on who else is in the battle party. Carys's own animal-projection is a strange rabbity creation, her ever-present imaginary friend, affectionately known as 'Nibbler'.
NAME: Joanna
GIFT: Telepathy
DEFECT: Rages
AGE: 21
LIKES: Authenticity
DISLIKES: Insincerity
WEAPON: Katana
SKILL SET: MINDREAD
An unpredictably volatile telepath, while most of the time Joanna is a calm, collected woman with the astonishing ability to overhear thoughts and discern persons' motives, she has been known at times to enter into an extremely dangerous berserk state. When enraged, Joanna's already considerable combat skills and powers of cerebral infiltration reach their peak, but she has little to no control over them, and she will lose HP each turn. She is learning how to redirect this latent psychic energy in order to tap into it whilst in a more stable frame of mind. The onset of Joanna's rages are difficult to predict and so to avoid/induce, but as a general rule her telepathic insight has given her a penchant for honesty, passion and integrity and a vehement hatred for artificiality, betrayal and disingenuous behaviour. Joanna has the option of listening to people's thoughts when she encounters them, which she exercises at her discretion. To read someone's mind with Joanna, stand next to them and press SHIFT.
NAME: Simon
GIFT: Experimentation
DEFECT: Narkilepsy
AGE: 35
LIKES: Sleep
DISLIKES: Sleep
WEAPON: Various scientific instruments
SKILL SET: EXPERIMENT
A highly intelligent, narkileptic, experimental psychotherapist, Dr Simon Sergius posseses a genius level intelligence, but this is hindered by his malfunctioning neural networks which are prone to plunging him into a deep sleep at practically any time. Simon is extremely skilled at manipulating neurotransmitters, synaptic flows and mental-chemical states by a variety of experimental methods both theoretical and technological, but is a somewhat unreliable comrade-in-arms due to his uncommon ability to fall asleep on his feet in nearly any situation, completely at random. Simon can manipulate status effects when awake, and will recover health when asleep. As well as Narkilepsy, Simon also has OCD, agrophobia, claustrophobia, coprohobia, and a wide collection of other neuroses and complexes which he collects as a hobby.
NAME: Jeremy (Bain)
GIFT: Strength
DEFECT: Clumsiness
AGE: 25
LIKES: Writing
DISLIKES: Accidents
WEAPON: Fists
SKILL SET: STRENGTH
A fun-loving, supernaturally good-looking and strong, yet chronically clumsy, oaf, Jeremy is possessed of incredible strength. Unfortuantely, his acutely accident-prone nature means that this strength is not always directed in the way that he, or other, intend. When he hits his target, usually not much of the target is left, but accuracy is not guaranteed. To counterbalance these catastrophic tendencies, Jeremy has developed a care-free, laissez-faire mentality and company warms to him very easily. Until now he has made a living as a gladitorial fighter under the name Bain. In battle, Jeremy will often miss opponents, though dealing huge damage when he does connect, and will sometimes cause accidents and hurts his own team members.
NAME: Zak
GIFT: Adaptability
DEFECT: Imbalance
AGE: 15
LIKES: Flight
DISLIKES: Delirium
WEAPON: Various
SKILL SET: SHIFT
A homeostatically imbalanced, highly adaptable pilot, Zak is comfortable in or on virtually any vehicle. His Government training has also honed him as a highly proficient fighter with a variety of different weapons. Nevertheless, Zak's heightened adaptability is offset by his genetic structure, which is in the habit of reorganizing itself, along with his biochemical makeup. Zak has some limited control over these fluctuations, but much of the time they will act randomly. Certain items can be used to 'balance' Zak as desired, but they are expensive, and not always predictable. When balanced, Zak is a deadly foe; when unbalanced, a deadly ally.
MORE CHARACTERS WILL BE ADDED AS DEVELOPMENT PROGRESSES
Get the game here: http://rpgmaker.net/games/2693/
Credits
Faenon -development
Kazachok, PrinceLeoMyshkin -original music
kumada, Link2112 -beta testing
Liberty, alterego, arcan, chana, Deckiller, Demicrusaius, Gibmaker, Happy,
ChuJooRoi, Marrend, Max McGee, Merlinman, psy_wombats, SGCN, Sillydan, Zephyr,
Newblack, RedNine (Contributors to MaMaMa2011) -haunted mansion maps
Known bugs
There are a few spelling mistakes and placement issues here and there, these are in the process of being fixed and the download continually updated as they are found
Progress
Hope to release a new chapter every Christmas, full version by 2015!
Help wanted
If you would like to help with any of the following
-Making maps
-Battle animations
-Sprite editng
then just let me know! Graphics are not my strong point, so I take as much help as I can get!
FEEDBACK WELCOME
