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Endless Tales - Book 1: A Nobody's Tale (SRPG Studio FE Fangame)


Athomus
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Endless Tales

Book 1: A Nobody's Tale

Current Status: Demo v. 1 (Prologue, Ch 1, Ch 2, and Intro to Ch 3)


"In her song... these visions... no... the truth... come to me. Does she know this is happening? Is it actually happening? I see his face in these visions... I see her... I can't help but want to hear that song... More and more..."



Created in SRPG Studio; this is a story that has been in the works for months, has finally begun the process of being made into a playable game. While not officially titled "Fire Emblem", the heart of that franchise is deeply embedded in the game... and I've even included the Fire Emblem itself, as part of the narrative eventually (which is why you will see "Fire Emblem" appear in places within the game, particularly in the opening cut-scene"

This demo is specifically to decide if it's worth continuing, and if there's any interest in what I've constructed yet far. It's far from complete, but can be considered a "pilot" of sorts, for the full game I want to make. Let me know all issues, suggestions, questions, and concerns. Thank you!


Credits: 

-Custom World Map generated by Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator

-All character portraits were created using  TheFlyingMinotaur's Character Creator (link is down below)

-All music created by Yuki Tsujiyoko, from FE 4 and 5.

-Additional weapon art and icons by Briver, and found on SteamWorkshop.

-Made by me (Imperade or Athomus as I call myself here... Long time lurker, I've been lukring the FE boards since the old FESS forum days).


Features/Notes:

Spoiler

-Larger file size (500 mbs) is roughly 90% due to the FE4/5 soundtracks. Future releases will not be much larger than this, since game files are comparatively much smaller. 

-This is the roughest state the game will be, since it's the first actual demo. I'm hoping people will play it and play around to see how they feel about the characters, story, and gameplay... and then see what I can tweak, as I my view is limited.

-Game is purposefully meant to be challenging. Large chapters, multiple routes, events that force certain strategies, hidden items and spots that allow for risky speed-run type tactics, etc. I've left plenty of surprises and secrets, so enjoy the little taste I've provided. Nothing crazy yet, but that's only because I've just started experimenting.

-Units have skills, typically only 1 or 2. Certain weapons will provide skills, as well.

-Poison weapons are not in their finished state - they are a bit weak and inconsistent (as far as the DOT goes), and are almost just placeholder for the moment. 

-Currently, in this demo, there are 3 complete chapters: Prologue, 1, and 2.

-The introduction of Ch 3 is also included, to give you a hint of things to come.

-Crit has been nerfed from it's standard 2x or more multiplicative - play the game to determine it's new value, it's a bit more fair now, considering the new systems.

-No weapon level system... If you find the weapon, and your class can use it, you can use it. However, there are unit specific weapons that appear in the story, or can be found. 

-Characters can promote, but their level for promotion is raised to level 15 - and they will all require a particular item to do so.

-Planetary scrolls return, but function as a consumable item that permanently increases a unit's growth in their respective stat category.

-All custom made FE6/7/8 style portraits, made using TheFlyingMinotaur, who's tool can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/7l6wuk/i_love_gba_fire_emblem_spritesportraits_so_i_made

-Story is part of a large over-arching narrative that features Book 2 (Ironically a prequel), which takes places 40 years before the current timeline, and Book 3, which is only 5 years after Book 1. I've essentially written 40% of the whole story already, just in various word documents. Most of the character faces are finished as well

-Optional Gaiden Chapters starting with Chapter 4, that will require a specific character to be at a particular level for the gaiden chapter to activate. This allows for further exploration into the stories of the characters you recruit, so you don't feel like you only know their faces, and not their story. These chapters feature limited characters, and temporary characters, with the promotion items necessary for their respective class found in that chapter, or a unique weapon/comparable reward. 

-Supports to come in the future... Still deciding how I wish to implement that feature, but the potential stat boosts would be useful. Looking forward to input on their inclusion.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

853272069_Chapter1.thumb.png.cf6450bd5fbb043f2e977be8ea8bca7b.png

1068831227_Chapter2.thumb.png.b07fe4b52225e36f0a31499e7eb19101.png

Opening.thumb.png.80624553c5b707f2ec0b47b34bddd127.png

PortUkonIntro.thumb.png.1283d3c0c50b8a01fe820e7de62f6a02.png

Prologue.thumb.png.f37d9297bebd92b27a71098178049174.png

 

Link to game:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DPi5MoyGO4oMQ0_zxqTye_t3YZEBu2Rl

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5y9rd7yiuwp3m4s/A Nobody's Tale (DemoOne).rar?dl=0

Saved in .rar format. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Athomus
Updating with more info
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Ooh, another fellow SRPG Studio user!  I'll have to give this a try!

Though, seeing the file size makes me wonder.  Just how much of the Jugdral games' soundtrack is in here?  My game has like 21 full chapters now and it's only about 154 MB compared to your game's 509 MB.

I would also recommend putting some screenshots in the OP.

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Much appreciated!

Yes, the file-size is because the whole soundtrack of both games is included at the moment... since I'm not yet sure which tracks I will need and don't need. As a side-note, I know the looping for SRPG Studio is a bit odd (or its the files themselves just having blank space, I haven't really looked) and will not restart the track right away for whatever reason.

Your game is certainly an inspiration for using SRPG Studio, because I saw an actual successful demonstration of the tools. I admire how much you've actually completed, a testament to your work ethic. 

The file-size is obnoxious and a hindrance , but there's nothing else, not even the custom pictures I've inserted, that seem to explain the large filesize, despite small game so far. I will continue working on it out of passion as I had, and if you have any leads into how I can reduce that size, other than messing around to find the best way to compress the music files, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'll add some screenshots, too. Thank you. 
 

Edited by Athomus
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18 minutes ago, Athomus said:

Your game is certainly an inspiration for using SRPG Studio, because I saw an actual successful demonstration of the tools.  I admire how much you've actually completed, a testament to your work ethic. 

The file-size is obnoxious and a hindrance , but there's nothing else, not even the custom pictures I've inserted, that seem to explain the large filesize, despite small game so far.  I will continue working on it out of passion as I had, and if you have any leads into how I can reduce that size, other than messing around to find the best way to compress the music files, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'll add some screenshots, too. Thank you. 

You're welcome.  The current build of Sanctaea Chronicles (v2.1.1) only has 15 chapters, but the 6 new ones for v3.0 have already been created and evented.  At this stage I'm working on Supports, writing new Support chains that should've been in the game earlier (I have 17 left) and making every conversation viewable in a new Support Log feature.  I also need to adjust weapon availability and enemy weapon loadouts after having deleted several weapons from the game for balancing purposes, write an instruction manual for the game including a list of Talk conversations for each chapter (you'd be surprised what people get confused about), and possibly address some issues with attack range display.

Sanctaea Chronicles is planned to be shown off at this year's FEE3.  Hopefully I can get Mangs or Mekkah to play it and give it some more exposure.

Back to your game, I have feedback for the Prologue and Chapter 1.

Prologue:

  • The portraits don't look bad (weird CharacterCreator skin tones aside) but they also look kind of smooshed sometimes.
  • "Vulnerary" is misspelled.
  • All of the physical classes have two copies of their weapon type icon.  Are these for normal and heavy weapon variants?
  • I missed a lot of high-percentage (roughly 80-90%) hits on this chapter.  What kind of RNG is this game using?  I'm assuming it's not double-RNG.
  • I'd appreciate it if enemies didn't have invisible item drops.  It's very annoying to have to dump items because of an unexpected item drop, not knowing which one is going to be more useful later.
    • You should be able to make them visible by giving the enemy a copy of that item in addition to their drop.  Don't forget to set their AI not to use items!  This way you won't have to make the stat boosters explicitly player-only.
  • I see this game uses the Weapon Triangle, though there are no advantage/disadvantage indicators.  If you want I can provide you with a script for them.
  • It's kind of funny that the Venom Axe gives Poison Attack as a Skill.  There should be an option in the engine for a weapon to have effects like that innately without tying a Weapon Skill to it.
  • Chest Keys have 1-Range, but Chest spaces can be freely walked on.  I would recommend either giving Chest Keys 0-Range (i.e. you have to be right on top of the Chest to use them) or making Chest spaces non-traversable like indoor walls to make things less confusing.
  • Magnus looks to be very interesting to play around with as essentially a magic-wielding Dancer Lord.  Though his main draw for me is his 1-2-Range.
  • Hendrik makes for a serviceable enough tank, and killing attacking enemies with Ambush is pretty fun.
  • Vidar is also quite solid as the main offensive character, especially with Dual.
  • This map is absolutely enormous for a Prologue map, though I guess being able to save at the beginning of every turn makes things better.  How many chapters is each "book" supposed to have?  This one took me 36 Turns to finish.
  • Playing through the map largely amounts to bait-and-switching, though it did give me a good workout checking enemy inventories.
  • The boss's battle conversation repeats every time somebody fights him.  Not sure if this was intended or not.

Chapter 1:

  • I like this twist beginning to the chapter.  Quickly establishes that we're in a serious bind while also adding to the world-building.  Also pretty cool that the bandits here are basically the mafia.
  • Lone is not a very good combat unit, true to Thief form.  Her HP-draining personal weapon is nice, but Spd +1 is a pretty underwhelming Personal Skill.
  • Junius is alright as a magic user, though I wish he had a healing staff on him.  Act Again is pretty handy in case he needs a do-over move.
  • Iemke is pretty average aside from her high Mov.  Nevertheless, here's hoping this game doesn't turn into Horse Emblem!
  • Siv is probably the most underwhelming of the bunch so far with her lack of Enemy Phase utility.  Despite this, there are some interesting ways to fix her combat to make her quite strong when she can attack.
  • Bishops are a Tier 1 class in this game?  I wonder what they promote into.
  • The chapter gives you a hint to go south, but you can recruit Iemke more easily if you go to the north.  It's a bit confusing.
  • This chapter was a more engaging effort than the Prologue, which is good.  It took me 46 turns to complete, with that time being spent going north for recruiting Iemke and fighting the Dragontamer miniboss, going south from where I came to fight the Chimera, and then fighting my way back up to reach the boss.
  • I would recommend changing the time of day filter for these night scenes to make them look more convincing.

You still have the individual files for each song in the Jugdral games' soundtracks stored elsewhere, right?  My suggestion for now is to remove all of the Jugdral music you're not already using from your project (including the project folder) and put individual tracks back in when you know you need them.

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Thank you for all the tips/technical information so far! It's definitely a very rough demo since I'm still learning how to use the program so far, but I appreciate it!

-The invisible item drop issue will be taken care of, as I agree I don't like not knowing what a unit will drop.


-The boss dialog repeating I wasn't sure how to take care of right away, I haven't really thought much about what to do about it though, if you have suggestions?


-Bishops are the Light magic users, and upon promotion rather than use healing items, they instead gain half of the 4 magic elements that Mages have access to (Fire And Ice). Don't worry, a dedicated healer (Priest) will be recruitable in Chapter 2, but she's not in plain view, so to speak. You also get a small window of chance to recruit a rather silly, but lore-wise, important optional Jeigan-type in Chapter 2 as well (Not Jarmil, either). He'll be necessary for at least one Gaiden chapter in the future. 


-On the weapon triangle advantage: Yes, if you do have a script for that and it will make the weapon triangle benefits more clear, please do! Magic also, specifically, has it's own counter system that is somewhat in place already. When I have more time I might include a quick document/info section for players to check relevant FE mechanics that are present in this game, so it's a bit easier to learn. I do like to surprise and confuse when I can, though.


-I might just be dumb, but I don't know how to get the game to change filter for night, or grey-scale (if that's even possible)... I think I just don't understand what the program is saying when I look at those options.

-Each book is about 25 chapters as of right now. Chapters 4-22 all also have a unlock-able Gaiden chapters (very limited units, small map, great rewards like promotion items that you can't acquire in any other method, and in general are not easy) that involve 1-2 specific characters, and expand on their backgrounds.

-Yes, all the maps are meant to large and intimidating/slightly non-linear in that way. For example, there is an optional mini-boss that spawns with 2 archers in the Prologue if you choose to open to the gate near the top (not the one behind the boss) named Rasmus: He will only spawn under that condition. There is also a hidden elixir in that first map if you stand on a particular tile, and a very early secret tile that gives you a doorkey - right at the start of the level. Also, if you had played to Turn 40 on the Prologue, Count Heider himself spawns, and is a promoted unit that gradually hunts you down a la Blacknight FE9. This is meant to surprise players who might feel too comfortable exploring the large mansion, and this would remind them that is, in fact, a rescue - and you don't have unlimited time to just dilly dally around the mansion. 

-The hint to go south involves Magnus visiting an open house that only he is suppose to be able to visit. Drops lore hints to a group that becomes important starting in Chapter 4 and on. I thought it would be entertaining/frustrating if players would all go south, just for Iemke, a somewhat useful unit at this point (you have so few, you can be picky, and you'll need as many as you can get because the Chapters don't get smaller - not until the Gaidens, anyway) goes and either steals exp, or dies. 
 

-The Speed bonus for Lone is pretty much a placeholder, I'm not entirely sure what to do with her to give her something a bit more interesting besides basic thief-isms, though her lore and Gaiden chapter are more interesting then she is particular useful... until she promotes that is, as you can imagine. The hard part about unlocking that Gaiden chapter, is you have to level her up, which will feel counter-productive to most people, since she won't be obviously strong and directly useful in combat; makes the gaiden more difficult to access, which in my head seems entertaining. 

I'm excited to continue working on this, and will take your advice as well. Thank you, again!

Edited by Athomus
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16 minutes ago, Athomus said:

-The boss dialog repeating I wasn't sure how to take care of right away, I haven't really thought much about what to do about it though, if you have suggestions?

When giving an enemy battle conversations with playable characters, if you check the Active box in the Select Unit window, the conversation will execute once (unless you free the event at the end) with anybody who the boss doesn't have a special conversation with.

27 minutes ago, Athomus said:

-Bishops are the Light magic users, and upon promotion rather than use healing items, they instead gain half of the 4 magic elements that Mages have access to (Fire And Ice). Don't worry, a dedicated healer (Priest) will be recruitable in Chapter 2, but she's not in plain view, so to speak.

Assuming Priests are Staff-locked, I'm wondering now what sets them apart from Bishops, who can do the exact same job while also being able to defend themselves with Light tomes.

30 minutes ago, Athomus said:

-On the weapon triangle advantage: Yes, if you do have a script for that and it will make the weapon triangle benefits more clear, please do! Magic also, specifically, has it's own counter system that is somewhat in place already. When I have more time I might include a quick document/info section for players to check relevant FE mechanics that are present in this game, so it's a bit easier to learn. I do like to surprise and confuse when I can, though.

I've already PM'd you a download link for the triangle indicator script.

33 minutes ago, Athomus said:

-I might just be dumb, but I don't know how to get the game to change filter for night, or grey-scale (if that's even possible)... I think I just don't understand what the program is saying when I look at those options.

If you open your map and go into Map Information, you can pick Day, Evening, or Night from the Map Color drop-down menu.

35 minutes ago, Athomus said:

-Each book is about 25 chapters as of right now. Chapters 4-22 all also have a unlock-able Gaiden chapters (very limited units, small map, great rewards like promotion items that you can't acquire in any other method, and in general are not easy) that involve 1-2 specific characters, and expand on their backgrounds.

Whoa!  That's a lot of big maps.  And each one has a side chapter attached to it?  So far your game has come the closest I've seen to emulating Genealogy of the Holy War's approach to map design with a smaller amount of giant maps filled with various secrets.  That game only had like, what, ...12 maps in total?

40 minutes ago, Athomus said:

-Yes, all the maps are meant to large and intimidating/slightly non-linear in that way. For example, there is an optional mini-boss that spawns with 2 archers in the Prologue if you choose to open to the gate near the top (not the one behind the boss) named Rasmus: He will only spawn under that condition. There is also a hidden elixir in that first map if you stand on a particular tile, and a very early secret tile that gives you a doorkey - right at the start of the level. Also, if you had played to Turn 40 on the Prologue, Count Heider himself spawns, and is a promoted unit that gradually hunts you down a la Blacknight FE9. This is meant to surprise players who might feel too comfortable exploring the large mansion, and this would remind them that is, in fact, a rescue - and you don't have unlimited time to just dilly dally around the mansion.

Looks like I finished the Prologue just in the nick of time.  Though that one area of the map resembling a pool looked kind of suspicious...

43 minutes ago, Athomus said:

-The hint to go south involves Magnus visiting an open house that only he is suppose to be able to visit. Drops lore hints to a group that becomes important starting in Chapter 4 and on. I thought it would be entertaining/frustrating if players would all go south, just for Iemke, a somewhat useful unit at this point (you have so few, you can be picky, and you'll need as many as you can get because the Chapters don't get smaller - not until the Gaidens, anyway) goes and either steals exp, or dies.

I never visited the red House.  I tried to visit it with Lone, but there was no option to do so, so I assumed it was just decoration and nobody could visit it.  If I remember correctly, visiting a House with the wrong character in a regular Fire Emblem game just leaves the House event freed up until you visit it with the right character.

49 minutes ago, Athomus said:

-The Speed bonus for Lone is pretty much a placeholder, I'm not entirely sure what to do with her to give her something a bit more interesting besides basic thief-isms, though her lore and Gaiden chapter are more interesting then she is particular useful... until she promotes that is, as you can imagine. The hard part about unlocking that Gaiden chapter, is you have to level her up, which will feel counter-productive to most people, since she won't be obviously strong and directly useful in combat; makes the gaiden more difficult to access, which in my head seems entertaining.

Understandable.  Luckily for me I have been attempting to train her so that she won't be dead weight on maps with little for her to do.  I just hope the side chapter's Level requirements aren't too high...

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