Let's Sperg Let's Sperg: GethN7's Dragon Quest Fangame - Autists and Dragons

[Jaimas]

So a while back, I promised @GethN7 that I'd take a look at his Dragon Quest Fangame, and here we are. Apparently made using RPGMaker, the game itself has a sliding scale of competence about it, as we'll soon see, and while it has moments of profound Autism, the work as a whole is both enjoyable and humorous, which seems to have been the objective.

Prior forewarning: I apparently am in this at some point. No, I don't know where or what's involved, so this should be entertaining for all involved.

Anyone who's played Dragon Quest knows the fucking game's premise by now, if not through the game itself than through the eight fucktillion different works that reference it. World's in chaos, you're the hero, find the shit you need to reach the island to the south, optionally save a princess, kick the Dragonlord in the dick and save the world. Obviously there's a lot more nuance than that, so let's not blather about and proceed onwards.

You have a few difficulties to choose from. If you're sane, you're choosing the easiest, because the others give you substantial gold and XP penalties while making the enemies stronger, and in a game that's already kind of grindy, that's a fun factor basically on-level with being kidnapped by Nora Reed.

Starting out, the game pretty much follows DQ1 exactly - you meet the king, he gives you your quest, he gives you some basic gear to get you started and he bids you to save the fucking world. Then suddenly, the game abruptly takes a turn towards the moon and going in a new direction - You are given two party members, whereas the original was a solo venture. Also your character is not namable and is a very-decidedly not silent protagonist.

Mara is the first party member you get, and is apparently a friend of the missing princess. Don't let her exposition dump fool you; this little nutter is a ball of barely-contained sexual frustration and magic in a red-headed package. She's pretty abrupt and to the point, but frankly works well when paired with the other party members we have so far.

And this lovely lass is Sarah. Every comedy needs a straight man to function, and in this game's case the straight man is a straight woman. She's the only one in the party taking her job remotely seriously and because of that, probably my favorite character in the game thus far, as she comes across as a shit-upon everywoman who nonetheless takes everything seriously. She's pretty much the perfect foil to Mara in this regard.

Moving along, we engage in the time-honored RPG trope of robbing everything that isn't nailed down (and several things that are), and doing some intel-gathering talking to the locals. It's here that Geth's flat-out psychopathic attention to detail truly emerges, because if you're willing to look, you can find out fucking everything about this game's world, about Tantegal itself, and more, from local history and recent events to political and religious breakdowns. It's the sort of insane, anal-retentive attention to detail that is both fascinating and terrifying to me. It's also an interesting quirk because it lets players choose their own level of engagement in the game world and setting: something held over from the original game, as well as the likes of the Souls series.

Unfortunately, we run into our first cameo like 4 minutes in:

Kern (better known as that dude who worked on WOW and Diablo) has a guest role in this game, and he just inexplicably appears in like every goddamned town. I'm fucking serious. This, thankfully, is the only time you are ever forced to engage with him, and it's comparatively short and to the point. He has some level of purpose in the game itself, since he runs constantly back and forth between towns and can inadvertently keep you abreast of information.

I do sort of find his being here sort of obnoxious, but it's hardly a dealbreaker. A few lines of dialogue is nothing to get enfuriated over after the nuttery that was ReGiCiDe: the game where all men are trying to rape you. That's one problem with playing Rat King dross; your overton window shifts and you're willing to put up with more faggotry than you otherwise would, since you've seen true shit and now everything looks better in contrast.

Where were we?

RWBY Cameo. Both teams. At least this one is marginally clever and self-aware.

Item descriptions are actually one of this game's high points. If you know Dragon Quest, you know the series fucking loves its puns. The game doesn't quite have that level of punnery, but does have some fine wordplay and periodically, references:

We've fallen far when I can admit to having chuckled at this. The fuck is wrong with me?

We eventually work our way into town and meet with the locals.

An interesting reference to the real-life Project AFTER. Ten to one says these bastards have a booze budget that dwarfs mine. They gottta take on Eye of Argon, for fuck's sake. I just need to throw Patriarchy Simulator 2000 to the ground and grind it into the dirt until it cries while I laugh as loud and as hard as I can. Interestingly, Geth manages to - somehow - ground these guys in the world's lore, referencing things in a way that actually makes it marginally clever. It's way more than a silly little fangame deserves, frankly, and I'm kind of amazed.

In town, there's a bit of a moment where the group encounters a lesser succubus and Mara elects to desert for a little bit for some grope time. Succubi seem to be a bit of an oddity amongst the demons, as they could not give less of a fuck if they tried about the Dragonlord's campaign of terror. Frankly most of them may as well be on our side which is sort of hilarious. Sarah chides Mara fiercely, however, before Mara flusters Sarah in turn by suggesting she join in next time as Roto tries desperately to keep his cool and fails miserably.

Finally I run into the game's first real issue, when check a well.

This kills me.

So going through that whole morass again, I work my way back to town, stock up goodies, and decide: "Hey, I know how this works. I've played me a ton of Dragon Quest. I'm gonna go level up, then come back and appoint myself the god of death against this fucker."

So I leave town, get in a random battle, and.....

.....Wind up in an unwinnable battle. We can't hurt the revirock, which keeps reviving its buddies and we can't run away, so game's effectively fucked at this point. I wind up notifying Geth, who at this point sends me an updated version of the game with several fixes implemented.

 

[Jaimas]

So I get the patched version of the game (thanks @GethN7) and we're cooking with gas now. Gather the items (again), level up this time, and everything's great. One thing to note is that this game has an insanely high encounter rate. Like Breath of Fire 2 insane encounter rate. Be forewarned.

We even have some of the Succubi hanging out in the castle. I would fucking love to heart what the good book of Rubiss says about this shit.

So after doing some investimagating, we learn that the nearby cave has something tied to Roto's ancestor, who saved the world once. However, it's apparently been taken over by some kind of knight and now we need to kick his ass and take his stuff. After some time, we work our way over (it's a completely unremarkable one-floor dungeon bisected by a river) and challenge this knight.

This brings back memories. Violent ones.

Pash the Dark Knight is the first real boss. He's pretty damned tough but more of an endurance trial than an actual challenge; if you're remotely well-equipped and are at least level 3-4, this guy is going down as long as you pound him, though his stronger attacks can still pose a threat. A really good example of an early boss; no gimmicks, no bullshit, just a straight up tougher fight.

With Pash dead, the group can acquire the Loto Seal from the dungeon and escape. After a brief trip over to Garinham, where we restocked for the mission ahead, I admittedly ran out of places to go, so lacking better options, I started exploring. Eventually, I found that the eastern gate was the home of a teleporter, but the Dragonlord's minions stole the teleport stone. There was a spare, however, at the Tantegel Keep.

So there was our next objective. Arriving there, we have a bit of a reunion, as Sarah's father is stationed there.

Our party tank is rightly concerned. The Dragonlord's minions have siezed the keep, and to keep them from escaping with the Teleport Stone, the guards sealed them in. With no other option, the team heads in to kick their ass and take their stuff.

They immediately run into more giant cocks than even Mara can handle, but the team is stalwart, and gradually works their way up the tower.

Did I mention that this game has functioning weather and Day/Knight cycles? Because it does. Nice touch, Geth.

Finally, at the top, we run into this guy, who states that this treasure is his. Unfortunately for him, I know his weakness because one of the guards at the gate noticed it and told me. See? Talking to people pays off.

Gareth is tough. With party-wide attacks, 2 actions a turn, and some decent magic, he's an actual threat, unlike Pash. He's very vulnerable to wind, though, which means Roto's bird slash fucks him up. He's also apparently vulnerable to being Charmed by Mara, which I'm not even sure how that works but tells us an awful lot about the kind of women this demon is into (presumably ones capable of triggering an Amber Alert).

We grind him down and soon the demon's dead.

Victoly! With this we can go to Kol.

After a long trip, the team gets to Kol and meets with Roto's Uncle Graham, who encourages Sarah to hook up with Roto. He's kind of badass, with a beard worthy of a man twice his size.

While in town, you can visit Roto's house. It has 4 identical maids that I'm not entirely sure are mortal creatures, and Roto's parents. Roto's dad is fucking amazing.

HELLO SON, HAVE YOU STOPPED BEING A FAGGOT YET



Roto's Dad is both the mayor and an intel source, informing us that a key item of Loto's is in the north tower, but that the Key has been stolen by bandits who took cover in the Pod Forest to the south. He's also proof of the old adage that nobody can be cool in front of their parents. We have our new objective, so after some resupplying and checking the area out, we'll be headed there next.

Soonafter, I find a Casino. An old friend of Roto's is here, and she talks about this new book she's reading.

....Geth did you just reference Monster Musume?

We'll be headed to the Pod Forest next. More as it develops.

 

[GethN7]

I asked @Jaimas to be blunt with me about the good and bad of this game, am pleased he is not either sparing my feelings for good or ill nor refraining from mentioning where I screwed up.

In fact, he even caught a leftover debug battle I added to test the Revirock enemies special abilities, this was added late in the debug process for the latest build and my beta testers didn't catch it and I forgot to remove it before release.

And yeah, I let my autism go berserk and referenced all sorts of stuff, Monster Musume included (my guilty pleasure), but I desperately tried to avoid being annoying about it for the most part, though Mark Kern was the lone exception, as I had him be the exposition guy for the basic game mechanics at the beginning for the noobs if you were so inclined and made his conversation unmissable so you'd know he'd be the resident advice guy.

Also, small addition here: The forest to the South is actually a bonus dungeon of sorts, you can skip if you're inclined and just head on to Rimuldar if you wish, but going through it, getting a certain item from there, and getting it uncursed back at Tantegel Castle will net some sweet early game gear for Mara. The Tower of Kol is NOT meant to be entered except far later, unless you just want release from this mortal coil really early on, because the key is actually found far later on, but Roto's dad just knows they headed south, but not where exactly except for a rough idea.

 

[Sable]

I was wondering when this would get a thread.

 

[A Random]

Fix those dialogue boxes, they are too large for all this talking.

 

[GethN7]

Fix those dialogue boxes, they are too large for all this talking.

Was on my list of things to do by the final build, for now am just trying to get all the game content in and make sure it works during the beta builds phase.

The current roadmap is as follows:

Beta 2.30: Get the normal ending implemented. (working on this build now)

Beta 2.40: Get true ending, bonus dungeon, and all other related content implemented.

Beta 2.50: Final build, clean up ugly UI stuff like the dialogue boxes, hunt down any remaining bugs, and do any and and all additional optimizations if any are possible. This will be the "gold", or final release.

 

[A Random]

By the way, since I cut myself off there, I want to be clear.

Don't shrink the text boxes or anything. Instead, just make use of all that space. Instead of cutting off the sentences, let them add on to nearly the end there, or at least put up some image over on the side fully. It's not like you have to respect the default restrictions with this much space after all.

 

[GethN7]

By the way, since I cut myself off there, I want to be clear.

Don't shrink the text boxes or anything. Instead, just make use of all that space. Instead of cutting off the sentences, let them add on to nearly the end there, or at least put up some image over on the side fully. It's not like you have to respect the default restrictions with this much space after all.

Actually, given the dialogue engine I'm using to add the portraits, it would make more technical sense to condense the text boxes, or at least make them somewhat less opaque so they don't stick out as much.

However, the original DQ games do use a similar premise as my UI though, but it could stand to look a little better regardless.

 

[A Random]

They also weren't HD and had limited space to work with. What's your excuse?

 

[GethN7]

They also weren't HD and had limited space to work with. What's your excuse?

Because it was generally intended to have a retro style feel because I'm a nostalgia nerd. Also, I had to rework the dialogue engine completely once before, and I'd like to wait until I have all the content I planned before making sweeping scripting changes again, last time left all sorts of nasty fragments of old code that drove me and my beta testers more than a little crazy trying to make sure were gone because they caused crash bugs out the wazoo.

Your concerns are duly noted, and I will address them, but as I've learned from hard experience it's better to make sure it's stable and functional as opposed to fancy and buggy, so I'd like to postpone any dramatic changes until I have all the content I planned included first.

 

[c-no]

Seeing how this is, @Jaimas, I honestly want to see what autistic adventure you'll put Roto through. As for what @GethN7 did in putting you in it, one would wonders: is Jaimas going to be a companion or a cameo? Will we have other kiwis in this? (and if I'm in it, will I be a gnome?)

 

[GethN7]

Seeing how this is, @Jaimas, I honestly want to see what autistic adventure you'll put Roto through. As for what @GethN7 did in putting you in it, one would wonders: is Jaimas going to be a companion or a cameo? Will we have other kiwis in this? (and if I'm in it, will I be a gnome?)

@Jaimas, @Null, @Peace and Harmony, @Yaoi Huntress Earth, and @LulzKiller all have characters based off them in this game.

Also, if you pay careful attention, I made several references only hardcore DQ fans will get. For instance, the name of the first boss is the same name given to the MadKnight you can get on your team in the English translation of Dragon Quest Monsters for the Game Boy Color.

In other shoutouts, I slipped in a lot of literature references (you can find one to the first lesbian vampire story "Carmilla" in Tantegel Castle for example), some history references (check Rimuldar), some anime references (like the TTGL one Jaimas noticed), and some other stuff I won't spoil.

As for the plot, as Jaimas noted, it starts very similar to the original Dragon Quest, even follows most of the high points, but I changed a LOT of little details, partially because I wanted to do my own thing, but also because I've always felt the original plot was poorly executed (compared to the sequel and prequel DQII and DQIII, which clumsily tried to fix things while adding in even more inconsistencies) and thus my greatly altered reinterpretation tries to address the logic issues I noticed in the writing while commenting parody style on the original plot in the process.

For instance, the hero Loto had a helmet as part of his heroic gear in DQII, which never existed in DQI or even DQIII, which could have tried to fix things somewhat since it was the prequel made after II that explains how Loto became the hero and how they got their gear, but they never bothered to try fixing this plot hole.

You can eventually find one in my version, and mine makes clear it was a canon part of the original backstory, which if I ever get around to writing a DQIII remake I will fit into the plot so it was always there in a consistent manner.

 

[Sable]

I like the DQ series.

I'd play this game if the RPG-maker art for characters didn't want to make me want to swallow a bunch of rockbomb shards. That one's not on you though.

 

[GethN7]

I eagerly await @Jaimas' next installment of his LS, but until then Beta 2.30 is currently in development, and I have included some notes for my upcoming content in this post:

http://gethn7.blogspot.com/2017/08/dq1-remake-beta-230-in-progress.html

 

[Jaimas]

I eagerly await @Jaimas' next installment of his LS, but until then Beta 2.30 is currently in development, and I have included some notes for my upcoming content in this post:

http://gethn7.blogspot.com/2017/08/dq1-remake-beta-230-in-progress.html

Next update this weekend.

 

[Jaimas]

Back into it.

The Pod Forest lies ahead, and it's a bit of an outlier as far as dungeons so far go, in that it's fucking awful and I hate it. With all due respect to our own @GethN7, fuck this dungeon.

I spend almost 20 minutes exploring this shithole and find exactly nothing. Gradually I work my way north. The encounter rate is approximately one every seven steps, the place is fucking massive, and there is absolutely nothing of note in 99% of this fucking dungeon. This is mid-area Phantasy Star II design, where there was nothing down half the fucking pathways. It's awful.

Never do this.

Finally, for lack of any other options, I finally find 2 small treasure chests. I nab 'em, and my rewards are a staff Mara was already using and a piece of equipment that appears to be cursed. That's what I get for using the Optimize command. Fawk.

Remembering eventually that the guy who removed curses hung out in Brecconary in the original game, I decide to go back to Tantegel and talk to the the head of the mage academy. He purifies the item, but the thing is scripted wrong, so it's permanently equipped on Mara, giving a permanent penalty to her stats, and can never be removed. Looks like it's stuck there.

Fucking amazing.

Since I'm already on the subject of minor fuck-ups, Geth, I'm also going to take the time to punch a few issues that have been bothering me visually. There are tons of enemies and even character sprites with transparent patches giving them jaggies. It's really obvious on these Almiraj models, and it looks awful. You'll see a really obvious example on Roto in a bit.

While on the subject, the in-game animations range from halfway decent to absolutely awful and I have made better than these. The fact that Bang doesn't even use the correct visual effect and audio effect (it uses the holy spell effect and audio rather than an explosion - that's a fuck-up dating back to RPGMaker 2000) is really annoying and makes some of the game look rushed.

I'd do these goddamned animations for you, but I've never used this variant of RPGMaker. It wouldn't take much to improve. Consider doing so.

Finally I leave this shithole and after failing to uncurse Mara, progress onwards.

The Tunnel to Rimuldar is very blatantly where the Princess was in the original game, and this game makes no bones that your team already suspects that this is where she is since they can hear a woman sobbing. However, the door is locked and there's naught we can do.

An irritating series of random encounters later, we reach Rimuldar.

While in town, we meet Sarah's mother, who happens to look younger than Sarah herself does. The poor girl must have seen some shit. It also becomes immediately apparent that Sarah's physique is an inherited trait.

Serious and with zero tolerance for nonsense, Joanne is Sarah's superior officer and mother. I'm immediately struck with the fact that Sarah is sort of typecast here. Can you imagine if the poor girl had shown skill as a mage? YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN SWORDPLAY AND THAT IS FINAL YOUNG LADY. Sarah's lucky she took naturally to the military, or she'd be fucked harder than Mara in that incident with the lesser Succubus Roto doesn't like to talk about.

Moving on, Joanne bids us to recover the magic key from the brigands who stole it.

But first, we must resupply.

At the town supply depot, a terrible joke is made as it is learned that Kern has been funneling the money earned by his Casinos directly into Tantegel's war efforts and treasuries. This leads to a fucking terrible pun:

ಠ_ಠ

Moving on, we reach the path to the rain shrine. Roto then shows us that as bad as Sarah's puns are, his are infinitely worse. Also his hair has jaggies and he should really learn to comb that shit.

He's not wrong. This area is criss-crossed by deep ravines, purpose and origin unclear.

Moving our way further south and passed the sealed-off Rain Shrine, we see a parked ship, and enter the cove of the feared Cap'n Beardneck! This guy apparently is a ruthless raider who terrorized the coastline of Tantagel until the local privateers put his ass down for good.

Seems he didn't really die. Unfortunately, at this point, I click "Credits" when I was trying to save and it kicks me back to the title screen.

Why the fuck is that even an option in the menu?

Mara is not amused, despite wearing a cursed hat that is now glued to her head. |
No, I'm not letting that slide.

Inside, we see that Tyce apparently was here, as there are piratical skeletons here. These boners, however, are friendly, and they ask you questions about nautical things. If you have any experience with pirate lingo, these are easy as hell, and the bones warn that their cap'n's a right tough cock, and they behooves us to be careful.

Make no bones about it, this will be tough.

More skeleton shenannigans.

We soon meet with the captain, who is also dead as shit. Shantae, would you kindly?

Fighty time.

This shithead is the toughest boss so far. 2 Attacks per round, uses icestorm to fuck up your front lines, comes with backup, and has 20 fucktons of HP to boot. He frequently buffs himself with Fire Force, boosting his ice damage, and he's immune to silence to boot being undead. Tyce's buddies were not kidding, is what I'm getting at.

I beat him after a tough fight that uses all my supplies, then hit F12 trying to screenshot when I remember that that trick doesn't work in this program and the game kicks me back to the title again.

God damn it.

 

[GethN7]

Back into it.

The Pod Forest lies ahead, and it's a bit of an outlier as far as dungeons so far go, in that it's fucking awful and I hate it. With all due respect to our own @GethN7, fuck this dungeon.

I spend almost 20 minutes exploring this shithole and find exactly nothing. Gradually I work my way north. The encounter rate is approximately one every seven steps, the place is fucking massive, and there is absolutely nothing of note in 99% of this fucking dungeon. This is mid-area Phantasy Star II design, where there was nothing down half the fucking pathways. It's awful.

Never do this.

Finally, for lack of any other options, I finally find 2 small treasure chests. I nab 'em, and my rewards are a staff Mara was already using and a piece of equipment that appears to be cursed. That's what I get for using the Optimize command. Fawk.

Remembering eventually that the guy who removed curses hung out in Brecconary in the original game, I decide to go back to Tantegel and talk to the the head of the mage academy. He purifies the item, but the thing is scripted wrong, so it's permanently equipped on Mara, giving a permanent penalty to her stats, and can never be removed. Looks like it's stuck there.

Fucking amazing.

Since I'm already on the subject of minor fuck-ups, Geth, I'm also going to take the time to punch a few issues that have been bothering me visually. There are tons of enemies and even character sprites with transparent patches giving them jaggies. It's really obvious on these Almiraj models, and it looks awful. You'll see a really obvious example on Roto in a bit.

While on the subject, the in-game animations range from halfway decent to absolutely awful and I have made better than these. The fact that Bang doesn't even use the correct visual effect and audio effect (it uses the holy spell effect and audio rather than an explosion - that's a fuck-up dating back to RPGMaker 2000) is really annoying and makes some of the game look rushed.

I'd do these goddamned animations for you, but I've never used this variant of RPGMaker. It wouldn't take much to improve. Consider doing so.

Finally I leave this shithole and after failing to uncurse Mara, progress onwards.

The Tunnel to Rimuldar is very blatantly where the Princess was in the original game, and this game makes no bones that your team already suspects that this is where she is since they can hear a woman sobbing. However, the door is locked and there's naught we can do.

An irritating series of random encounters later, we reach Rimuldar.

While in town, we meet Sarah's mother, who happens to look younger than Sarah herself does. The poor girl must have seen some shit. It also becomes immediately apparent that Sarah's physique is an inherited trait.

Serious and with zero tolerance for nonsense, Joanne is Sarah's superior officer and mother. I'm immediately struck with the fact that Sarah is sort of typecast here. Can you imagine if the poor girl had shown skill as a mage? YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN SWORDPLAY AND THAT IS FINAL YOUNG LADY. Sarah's lucky she took naturally to the military, or she'd be fucked harder than Mara in that incident with the lesser Succubus Roto doesn't like to talk about.

Moving on, Joanne bids us to recover the magic key from the brigands who stole it.

But first, we must resupply.

At the town supply depot, a terrible joke is made as it is learned that Kern has been funneling the money earned by his Casinos directly into Tantegel's war efforts and treasuries. This leads to a fucking terrible pun:

ಠ_ಠ

Moving on, we reach the path to the rain shrine. Roto then shows us that as bad as Sarah's puns are, his are infinitely worse. Also his hair has jaggies and he should really learn to comb that shit.

He's not wrong. This area is criss-crossed by deep ravines, purpose and origin unclear.

Moving our way further south and passed the sealed-off Rain Shrine, we see a parked ship, and enter the cove of the feared Cap'n Beardneck! This guy apparently is a ruthless raider who terrorized the coastline of Tantagel until the local privateers put his ass down for good.

Seems he didn't really die. Unfortunately, at this point, I click "Credits" when I was trying to save and it kicks me back to the title screen.

Why the fuck is that even an option in the menu?

Mara is not amused, despite wearing a cursed hat that is now glued to her head. |
No, I'm not letting that slide.

Inside, we see that Tyce apparently was here, as there are piratical skeletons here. These boners, however, are friendly, and they ask you questions about nautical things. If you have any experience with pirate lingo, these are easy as hell, and the bones warn that their cap'n's a right tough cock, and they behooves us to be careful.

Make no bones about it, this will be tough.

More skeleton shenannigans.

We soon meet with the captain, who is also dead as shit. Shantae, would you kindly?

Fighty time.

This shithead is the toughest boss so far. 2 Attacks per round, uses icestorm to fuck up your front lines, comes with backup, and has 20 fucktons of HP to boot. He frequently buffs himself with Fire Force, boosting his ice damage, and he's immune to silence to boot being undead. Tyce's buddies were not kidding, is what I'm getting at.

I beat him after a tough fight that uses all my supplies, then hit F12 trying to screenshot when I remember that that trick doesn't work in this program and the game kicks me back to the title again.

God damn it.

Okay, damn, seems I got what I paid for when I asked you to be absolutely blunt with me, but I'm not going to pull a Brianna Wu, I'm going to take it like a man and work on the problems you mentioned ASAP, and I will hopefully have them fixed so you don't want to see happen to me what happened to Nick Bate next time.

First, as to the dungeon design, that was semi-intentional, as it was supposed to be an homage to those featureless, annoying as shit dungeons from the first Dragon Quest Monsters, minus the randomly generated part. The tileset choice should have been a big clue.

You aren't the first to complain this is fucking bullshit, though, and I already simplified the design somewhat due to some complaints from beta testers, so I don't mind swinging an axe to this again and chopping out a lot of the cruft.

I do admit I reused this idea for a later (bonus) dungeon that is also a forest, but I designed that one so you could either waste a lot of time going the wrong way, or you could blitz through it in under five minutes going the RIGHT way (hint hint).

As for the cursed item code, go ahead and stop here before you go any further into this, I thought I fixed that crap, and here's where I need to explain a little vagarity of RPG Maker VX Ace's engine.

One of the options in the stock, no added scripts engines is a "fixed" equipment tag, so certain equipment will be stuck on you until it is removed via another event. I deliberately tried to keep this as simple as possible, especially because bugs had been noted with this before and I and my beta testers were pretty sure this had been beaten before release, and I checked the event code, this should NOT be an issue unless there is some remnant event code from earlier events present I did not remove somehow, please send me a copy of your save file so I can look into this, and I will send you back a report on what went wrong and an updated link to a game build that has this fixed.

I already have an idea what went wrong though, seems to be a horrible stock engine bug involving conditional events that reared it's ugly head again (this has forced me to simplify a lot of other similar events elsewhere in other situations because it causes events like this to bug out even though they shouldn't), already have an idea for a workaround to get past this, just need to see that save file of yours so I can confirm the problem.

For this, @Jaimas, I offer no excuses, merely my solemn promise I will immediately work on this and get back to you with a fix ASAP, and I beg for your willingness to believe me on this point until I can honor my word.

Onto this complaint:


Since I'm already on the subject of minor fuck-ups, Geth, I'm also going to take the time to punch a few issues that have been bothering me visually. There are tons of enemies and even character sprites with transparent patches giving them jaggies. It's really obvious on these Almiraj models, and it looks awful. You'll see a really obvious example on Roto in a bit.

While on the subject, the in-game animations range from halfway decent to absolutely awful and I have made better than these. The fact that Bang doesn't even use the correct visual effect and audio effect (it uses the holy spell effect and audio rather than an explosion - that's a fuck-up dating back to RPGMaker 2000) is really annoying and makes some of the game look rushed.

I'd do these goddamned animations for you, but I've never used this variant of RPGMaker. It wouldn't take much to improve. Consider doing so.


I couldn't agree more. I tried to use HD optimized scaleups of some monster models, and unfortunately it seems I should have applied more rigorous manual editing to make sure they looked good. This will be addressed before you continue as I will re-examine my battler folder and address this issues ASAP.

As for the spell animations, I'm not going to lie, messing with the animation engine was not my strong suit, so I tried hard to use stock animations with some moderate adjustments to simulate what their DQ counterparts would be like, and I dropped the ball badly on some of them. If you can point out some of the worst offenders when you send me that save file, I shall work on this ASAP as well.

The Bang spell in particular did originally have an explosion sound, but I changed it after complaints it was too loud despite scaling down the volume, but thankfully I'm competent enough now in an audio mixer I can make my own customized boom noises to fix this. The graphic effect was deliberately minimalist to simulate the NES version of the effect, but I agree even with that in mind it looks pretty crappy, so I'll work on that too.


As for Sarah:

Serious and with zero tolerance for nonsense, Joanne is Sarah's superior officer and mother. I'm immediately struck with the fact that Sarah is sort of typecast here. Can you imagine if the poor girl had shown skill as a mage? YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN SWORDPLAY AND THAT IS FINAL YOUNG LADY. Sarah's lucky she took naturally to the military, or she'd be fucked harder than Mara in that incident with the lesser Succubus Roto doesn't like to talk about.


Sarah was styled as a "military brat" character, and her mother's artwork was chosen because I wanted to show where Sarah got the buxom Amazon look from and to contrast with her no-nonsense nature. If you compare the artwork for Sarah's father and mother side by side and then mentally photoshop most of their dominant traits together, you get Sarah's look. Sarah took to the military lifestyle and despite her looks turned out to be a serious young woman with a strong sense of morals, which, given she's friends with a total hedonist, was done for deliberate irony.

I also admit I injected a bit of my personal beliefs into these design decisions, as I wanted to dispel the notion that women looking attractive and being able to take them seriously is a mutually exclusive design decision, and I also admit I semi-based the design choice for Sarah's mother after an IRL woman I know who looks younger than she is but also has a military family, good looks, and firm moral character.

At the town supply depot, a terrible joke is made as it is learned that Kern has been funneling the money earned by his Casinos directly into Tantegel's war efforts and treasuries. This leads to a fucking terrible pun:

I couldn't help myself and referenced Mark Kern's "aggressive navels" Twitter joke into a in-universe joke, though to be fair even Mara thinks that's retarded.

He's not wrong. This area is criss-crossed by deep ravines, purpose and origin unclear.

I wanted to space out some areas, so I added a bit of padding in spots like this area, especially since a plot critical area and a bonus dungeon would otherwise be very easy to get to nigh instantly.

Moving our way further south and passed the sealed-off Rain Shrine, we see a parked ship, and enter the cove of the feared Cap'n Beardneck! This guy apparently is a ruthless raider who terrorized the coastline of Tantagel until the local privateers put his ass down for good.

Seems he didn't really die. Unfortunately, at this point, I click "Credits" when I was trying to save and it kicks me back to the title screen.

Why the fuck is that even an option in the menu?

First off, reverse the Captain's name if you want a laugh.

As for the Credits part, that was a placeholder for when I insert the credits into the ending, I did this partially at the request of the guy I got the music from so he could see what I used his music for, but that purpose has been served, so I can remove this option now.

Captain Beardneck is a bonus boss, a partial Treasure Island shoutout, and a shoutout to a boss battle in Dragon Quest Monsters 2's second main dungeon world.

Also, I recommend using the Print Screen Key, this issue you noticed with F12 is hardcoded VX Ace BS.

Again, I apologize for all the problems you noticed, please send me a copy of your save file and an extensive list of all issues you noticed, this will be fixed ASAP and I will release a bugfix version of the game to address the concerns ASAP, so please stop here before continuing so I can do just that and I will fix these issues.

 

[Jaimas]

Okay, damn, seems I got what I paid for when I asked you to be absolutely blunt with me, but I'm not going to pull a Brianna Wu, I'm going to take it like a man and work on the problems you mentioned ASAP, and I will hopefully have them fixed so you don't want to see happen to me what happened to Nick Bate next time.

First, as to the dungeon design, that was semi-intentional, as it was supposed to be an homage to those featureless, annoying as shit dungeons from the first Dragon Quest Monsters, minus the randomly generated part. The tileset choice should have been a big clue.

You aren't the first to complain this is fucking bullshit, though, and I already simplified the design somewhat due to some complaints from beta testers, so I don't mind swinging an axe to this again and chopping out a lot of the cruft.

I do admit I reused this idea for a later (bonus) dungeon that is also a forest, but I designed that one so you could either waste a lot of time going the wrong way, or you could blitz through it in under five minutes going the RIGHT way (hint hint).

As for the cursed item code, go ahead and stop here before you go any further into this, I thought I fixed that crap, and here's where I need to explain a little vagarity of RPG Maker VX Ace's engine.

One of the options in the stock, no added scripts engines is a "fixed" equipment tag, so certain equipment will be stuck on you until it is removed via another event. I deliberately tried to keep this as simple as possible, especially because bugs had been noted with this before and I and my beta testers were pretty sure this had been beaten before release, and I checked the event code, this should NOT be an issue unless there is some remnant event code from earlier events present I did not remove somehow, please send me a copy of your save file so I can look into this, and I will send you back a report on what went wrong and an updated link to a game build that has this fixed.

I already have an idea what went wrong though, seems to be a horrible stock engine bug involving conditional events that reared it's ugly head again (this has forced me to simplify a lot of other similar events elsewhere in other situations because it causes events like this to bug out even though they shouldn't), already have an idea for a workaround to get past this, just need to see that save file of yours so I can confirm the problem.

For this, @Jaimas, I offer no excuses, merely my solemn promise I will immediately work on this and get back to you with a fix ASAP, and I beg for your willingness to believe me on this point until I can honor my word.

Onto this complaint:


Since I'm already on the subject of minor fuck-ups, Geth, I'm also going to take the time to punch a few issues that have been bothering me visually. There are tons of enemies and even character sprites with transparent patches giving them jaggies. It's really obvious on these Almiraj models, and it looks awful. You'll see a really obvious example on Roto in a bit.

While on the subject, the in-game animations range from halfway decent to absolutely awful and I have made better than these. The fact that Bang doesn't even use the correct visual effect and audio effect (it uses the holy spell effect and audio rather than an explosion - that's a fuck-up dating back to RPGMaker 2000) is really annoying and makes some of the game look rushed.

I'd do these goddamned animations for you, but I've never used this variant of RPGMaker. It wouldn't take much to improve. Consider doing so.


I couldn't agree more. I tried to use HD optimized scaleups of some monster models, and unfortunately it seems I should have applied more rigorous manual editing to make sure they looked good. This will be addressed before you continue as I will re-examine my battler folder and address this issues ASAP.

As for the spell animations, I'm not going to lie, messing with the animation engine was not my strong suit, so I tried hard to use stock animations with some moderate adjustments to simulate what their DQ counterparts would be like, and I dropped the ball badly on some of them. If you can point out some of the worst offenders when you send me that save file, I shall work on this ASAP as well.

The Bang spell in particular did originally have an explosion sound, but I changed it after complaints it was too loud despite scaling down the volume, but thankfully I'm competent enough now in an audio mixer I can make my own customized boom noises to fix this. The graphic effect was deliberately minimalist to simulate the NES version of the effect, but I agree even with that in mind it looks pretty crappy, so I'll work on that too.


As for Sarah:

Serious and with zero tolerance for nonsense, Joanne is Sarah's superior officer and mother. I'm immediately struck with the fact that Sarah is sort of typecast here. Can you imagine if the poor girl had shown skill as a mage? YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN SWORDPLAY AND THAT IS FINAL YOUNG LADY. Sarah's lucky she took naturally to the military, or she'd be fucked harder than Mara in that incident with the lesser Succubus Roto doesn't like to talk about.


Sarah was styled as a "military brat" character, and her mother's artwork was chosen because I wanted to show where Sarah got the buxom Amazon look from and to contrast with her no-nonsense nature. If you compare the artwork for Sarah's father and mother side by side and then mentally photoshop most of their dominant traits together, you get Sarah's look. Sarah took to the military lifestyle and despite her looks turned out to be a serious young woman with a strong sense of morals, which, given she's friends with a total hedonist, was done for deliberate irony.

I also admit I injected a bit of my personal beliefs into these design decisions, as I wanted to dispel the notion that women looking attractive and being able to take them seriously is a mutually exclusive design decision, and I also admit I semi-based the design choice for Sarah's mother after an IRL woman I know who looks younger than she is but also has a military family, good looks, and firm moral character.

At the town supply depot, a terrible joke is made as it is learned that Kern has been funneling the money earned by his Casinos directly into Tantegel's war efforts and treasuries. This leads to a fucking terrible pun:

I couldn't help myself and referenced Mark Kern's "aggressive navels" Twitter joke into a in-universe joke, though to be fair even Mara thinks that's exceptional.

He's not wrong. This area is criss-crossed by deep ravines, purpose and origin unclear.

I wanted to space out some areas, so I added a bit of padding in spots like this area, especially since a plot critical area and a bonus dungeon would otherwise be very easy to get to nigh instantly.

Moving our way further south and passed the sealed-off Rain Shrine, we see a parked ship, and enter the cove of the feared Cap'n Beardneck! This guy apparently is a ruthless raider who terrorized the coastline of Tantagel until the local privateers put his ass down for good.

Seems he didn't really die. Unfortunately, at this point, I click "Credits" when I was trying to save and it kicks me back to the title screen.

Why the fuck is that even an option in the menu?

First off, reverse the Captain's name if you want a laugh.

As for the Credits part, that was a placeholder for when I insert the credits into the ending, I did this partially at the request of the guy I got the music from so he could see what I used his music for, but that purpose has been served, so I can remove this option now.

Captain Beardneck is a bonus boss, a partial Treasure Island shoutout, and a shoutout to a boss battle in Dragon Quest Monsters 2's second main dungeon world.

Also, I recommend using the Print Screen Key, this issue you noticed with F12 is hardcoded VX Ace BS.

Again, I apologize for all the problems you noticed, please send me a copy of your save file and an extensive list of all issues you noticed, this will be fixed ASAP and I will release a bugfix version of the game to address the concerns ASAP, so please stop here before continuing so I can do just that and I will fix these issues.

Thanks Geth. Much appreciated. Also, allow me to state that for all my problems, I am enjoying this game. Sarah is easily my favorite character and the pairing of her with Mara and Roto works sort of well.

I'll upload my file after I re-fight Captain Beardneck.

EDIT: Done.

 

[Splendid]

and yeah, I let my autism go berserk and referenced all sorts of stuff, Monster Musume included (my guilty pleasure)

:powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel::powerlevel:

 

[GethN7]

Thanks Geth. Much appreciated. Also, allow me to state that for all my problems, I am enjoying this game. Sarah is easily my favorite character and the pairing of her with Mara and Roto works sort of well.

I'll upload my file after I re-fight Captain Beardneck.

EDIT: Done.

@Jaimas, I'm going to give you a heads-up when I get all the issues fixed and even post an update on my blog about it, but I found out what the problem with the cursed equipment was, and this is the kind of crap that makes me facepalm.

The problem you had with getting the item removed was a rather strange bit of autism on the game engine's part. The game engine has the "fixed equipment" tag take absolute priority no matter what you do, so even though I set it up to subtract any cursed equipment, including equipped items, which should ordinarily remove the item from the inventory and from the character wearing it, the "fixed equipment" tag was overriding the command to remove the item even though it otherwise works fine, so I had to add in an extra bit of sanity checking to make sure it worked.

Basically, I had to add some additional conditional branching to explicitly check for an equipped item, then to remove that specific item regardless of it's special properties, which will force unequip that item, then a spare copy of the cursed item will be added to the inventory like I originally intended.

(Apparently, upon examination of the stock game scripts, the equip engine requires you be explicit about who is wearing the item if the "fixed equipment" tag is applied before it will be removed, which is strange because the event code would work just fine if this was not in play otherwise, meaning there are two ways to remove equipped items, but only one of them works with "fixed equipment" items, and they don't have any documentation to make clear which one you should use with the "fixed equipment" tag)

I plan to test all the cursed equipment and make sure this works properly, because I do not want to have to go through this song and dance again, but not only have I gotten this to work, I can confirm you can take the unequipped version of the cursed item to one of Tera's assistants and get the much better purified version back now.