[VXA] Legend of something [Full-short-game]

Oh, hi! I did not see you there. Please come in and have a seat.

So, this is my first finished game (of a thousand and one more projects that I have not finished).
It's a small rpg game that will not take you more than a couple of hours to finish, but it has some features that I would like to highlight:

*Simple story with a couple of twists here and there to make it interesting.
*Five different endings, (technically three of them are game overs, but who's counting).
*ATB that requires a little more strategy than just smashing the same button.
*Two side-quests.
*Mode 7 overworld map, light effects, and all the goodness from a variety of eye candy scripts.
Story

Spoiler for:

You are the hero that defeated a powerful dragon and saved the kingdom.
With that kind of fame, even the Good king wants your help, so he ask you a very important mission: Rescue the Queen, from the Vampire King.

Ok, you must be thinking: "So... that's it, vision_bond? Is that all  your brain can do to come up with a story? Shame on you."

In this case, yes. But allow me explain myself.
The purpose of this personal project was to finish a game (Finally! after two months) instead of just procrastinating and playing with tons of scripts that lead me to nowhere.

So, I decided to follow a couple of tutorials and be as fast as possible without using extra fancy stuff that always distracted me, like fog effects, light effects, and other super-duper scripts (I'm sure you know that feeling).
I have to mention that i failed miserably, and fell for the beauty and "sexyness" of a lot of scripts, and I had to use them.
But I also finished the game, YEAH!

In this case the story I chose is the most conventional in videogames: rescue someone and defeat the evil one, just so I had not to worry too much with that part of the developing, and I could focus on the gameplay; but the story has a couple of twists here and there so it can be more interesting.

Character Bio

Spoiler for:

Hero



This handsome guy is the hero of the story.
He likes to go on adventures, find hidden treasures, slay dragons, polish his sword, and long walks on the beach.

Setting

Spoiler for:

The world of this adventure is set on a medieval era similar to ours, but with a hint of steampunk technology.
The world is divided in four kingdoms that have been at war for the last 100 years, but this adventure only explores the capital of one of them and a couple of islands (for faster development purposes).

One of the objectives for this project is to add more content in time. Now that is finished I can focus on expanding the world, but even if this does not happen because I'm lazy, or get distracted with a shiny object, the game is still finished and can be played and understanded on it's own. It's not a chapter or a piece of a bigger game. I hope I can explaim myself, if not, don't worry and just enjoy the game.

Screenshots

Spoiler for:

I knew you will come here first. Well, there you have it, the pics.
Just a little note.
Almost all the maps I used are sample maps, so I could gain some time and make things faster (but mostly because I suck at mapping...) I edited them a little so they were not that dull.

DOWNLOAD v1.1.2
17MB (No RTP)

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http://www.mediafire.com/download/zsniv0fv0zq1kzs/Legend_of_something_v.1.1.2.zip

GAMEPLAY INSTRUCTIONS & TIPS

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*Each enemy has an elemental weakness.
Find it, and use the appropriated "force" magic (Fire force, Wind force, etc.) to make double damage to the enemies, and halve the damage of their attacks.
For example. The slimes element is water, and they are weak to earth, so use "Earth force" against them.

*The "Special" skills require "EP" or energy points.
To gain EP you can do a couple of things:
-Use the "Guard" command to gain 30 EP (also, as usual, the Guard command reduces the damage you receive).
-Use the ability "Focus Energy" to gain 60 EP.
Please notice that EP unless MP, are not accumulative and you have to charge them every battle.

*As in other rpg games, Magic abilities require MP. But please notice that in this game, MP are not restored with potions or sleep.
If you need MP you have to use the ability "Mana Drain", to absorb MP from enemies.

*The "Battle Advantage command" is the bar that appears before a regular battle.
If you don't press the acton button while the cursor is on the middle section and let the cursor go to the red edge, you won't be able to use the "Auto" and "Escape" commands.

*As a rule of thumb, the enemies have their own regions, so you will not find a stronger one, unless you enter its region.
If you find an enemy that is too strong for you, avoid that area, and battle weaker enemies until you gain enough levels.

*Use battle items. Except for some specific cases, the enemies are weak to all status effects.

*If you find the encounter rate too annoying use the item "Holy crystal" to repel enemies.

*As a rule of thumb, the next point to go is near, unless otherwise indicated. Search a little. You won't get lost.

*Check every object. You never know when are you going to find something useful.

*Always check behind the curtains.

*The game has two sub-quests. It's not difficult to find them, I suggest you to look a little.
But if you are impatient and want to know, I will give you a little spoiler about them.

Spoiler for:

*One begins talking to the bartender.

*One begins investigating the mansion on the town.

If there are more doubts I will update this list.

CREDITS

Spoiler for:

Graphics
*Enterbrain
*Celianna
*Rico

Music
*Enterbrain
*OnClassical
  http://archive.org/details/OnClassical-BachPartitas-Vol.I
*Bumps and Grinds Bill Grundy - Morris Levy - Sonny Lester

Scripts
*Yanfly
*Yami
*TDS
*Zerbu
*Brandon
*MGC
*Moghunter
*Khas Arcthunder
 arcthunder.site40.net
*DiamondandPlatinum3
*Mithran
*Mr. Bubble
*Neonblack
*Casper Gaming
 http://www.caspergaming.com
*Seiryuki
*DoctorTodd
*Galv
*FenixFyreX

Testers
-Matseb2611
-
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Game created by
*vision_bond

All comments and feedback would be very appreciated.
Now go and play the game! What are you waiting for?
EDIT. Uploaded v.1.1.2

Spoiler for:

v.1.1.2
*Fixed a game-breaking error.
*Fixed various minor errors.
*Added some minor cosmetic details.
v.1.1.1
*Objects like shelves and drawers, among others are interactive.
*Lowered encounter rate, due to popular demand.
*Made some adjustments to the enemies and their status.
*Corrected several small bugs and errors.
v.1.1.0
*New title screen.
*New window skin.
*Added a new item that allows to repel enemies.
*Corrected some errors and modified some game details.
  Special thanks to zigman32 and Matseb2611 for their feedback.
*Each NPC have more dialogue lines. Now it's more interesting talking to them, and in some cases the info they give is relevant to sub quests.
*Two sub quests added.
v.1.0.1
*Corrected several grammar errors.
Special thanks to Shezou of the RPG Maker VX Ace community for his feedback.

First of all.
I uploaded a new version of the game. v.1.1.0
All the changes made, are listed in the first post.
Second. Would any admin be kind enough to move this thread to the "Substantial Projects" sub forum?
Thank you in advance. =]
Also, I would like to make a few comments about the new sub quests that I incorporated in the game.
This is in spoiler so you can decide if you read it now, or after you complete them.
This is just some insight of the making process of the sub quests.

Spoiler for:

*The first one is your typical fetch quest, you bring back a couple of items and get in exchange another. Just to give a little variety to the main quest. But I also  wanted to incorporate the (also classic) idea of having two powerful alternative bosses.
The reward of this sub quest is inspired on Dragon quest VIII. When you see it, please give me your opinion about it.
*The second one is based on the "Escape the room" type of game. This was originally one of the multiple projects that were never finished by yours truly. It was going to be a short game that would not take more than 10 minutes to finish.  But I liked the idea so much that I wanted to resume its development, and then it occurred to me that I could incorporate it to Legend of something as a sub quest. And so I did.
I like the overall adaptation of this mini game. Originally it did not have any story. It was only a character without face that had to escape from one of its nightmares.
The story that I came up with, for this sub quest blended so well in the game that I liked it more just for that.

First of all I just uploaded v.1.1.2 of the game.
Now, if all is correct with the new version, (and I really hope so) this will be the last one. I would not update it, unless there is a game break error that needs to be fixed.

For me this has been a really fun project and a personal success. Even if it's not the most original game or the most fun, I learned A LOT making it, and I feel really good for finally finishing a project. I think all the objectives that I had for this game were fulfilled and that gives me extra happiness.

Like I said before, this is just a basic game with a basic story and a basic gameplay, but that was the goal from the beginning, so I could gain experience for my next game that will be a little more complex.

Thanks to all of you that gave this little piece of software a try, and special thanks to all of you who gave me feedback and helped me improve this game.

Well, that's it for now. See you around.