[VX][Full 1.4]Prelude of Identity

Prelude of Identity

Background (About the story, and the project)

Spoiler for:

The Project
The series (that's right) takes place in an alternate universe, where events in Earth's history may slightly or greatly differ. Such events would cause (or in some cases, no events) people living in this same time frame to live very different lives. For example, what if WW2 never happened? What if Europeans never left Europe? I have many stories to tell which revolve around my world. This one is just one.

Prelude of Identity will be the first in the trilogy of Identity. My previous game, Tales of Identity, is also related but not connected in this particular game. Each game will offer slight hints of its connection to the others, besides the obvious being: They all take place at the same time, in the same place; Terre de Ferrand.

The Setting
The game takes place in a fictional country in Europe, divided into three major provinces based off a class system. We have the Nobles, who live a modern lifestyle most Europeans today live. The Bourgeoisie who are the 2nd highest rank in the system, they make a living off trade and exploration. Finally there are the peasants, who live poorly and do not live with any modern luxuries. However, some peasants aren't that poor, but just aren't that rich either. The three classes are divided into the three provinces, and most blame the nobles for the problems that arise in this split up.

The Class System
Highest rank to lowest

Highest Class
- Prime Minister (PMs are elected by the people, however since nobles and bourgs make up most of the class system, the PM is usually biased)
- Royal Family (The royal family have no real power, they are mere symbols of the country's past)
- Liberte Knights (With the power of a noble, they serve under the Royal Family and PM)
Nobles
Bourgeoisie
Peasants

The World Around
Due to the events in the game, some countries have been altered from the timeline of history and has been offset by historic changes. Of such countries, one of them is France, which is now known as Ferrand. Most countries around the world have developed into modern first world countries, but Ferrand is the only country to be a first world, second world, and third world country all at the same time. Despite this, the European currency is still the Euro, and the United Kingdom is one of the few countries to keep their old currency, although Euros may be used to purchase items from the UK. This game, and games to come will mostly take place in Ferrand, and will never reach farther the the Mediterranean Sea.

The Story

Spoiler for:

You take the role of Marianne, a Liberte Knight whose strong sense of justice and liberty sets her apart from her peers. In a corrupt and abusive class system, those with the power can bring about the destruction of the entire nation. Ever since the discovery of a mutagen known as Ether, those who have mutated and taken on a new power are taken at a young age and recruited to be used as knights. The children's memories are wiped and they are trained in a specialized battle art. Their full names are changed to a single first name, and only upon reaching a high rank in the chevalier will they learn their last names. These knights can then be used as super soldiers for any purpose the government wishes, causing tyranny to the lower peasant classes.
In the town of Strasbourg live the old Franco-Germans, which has been known as one of the many epicenters of tension due to the aftermath of World War II. Marianne's initial mission is to escort the Prince of Ferrand back to Lyon from the powder-keg town of Strasbourg. Immediately, something goes wrong...

Meanwhile Sierra, a knight of Lyon, learns of another knight's plan to assassinate the prince and the rest of the crew during the convoy mission. Desperate to find and kill the knight responsible, she barges into the Clermont parliament in search for the knight. However, she arrives too late as they have already left early on at midnight. If the Prince of Lyon were to die, the buildup of tension throughout the years of Ferrand's existence might finally explode into a revolt against the noble population. It is up to Marianne and her crew to stop this from happening at all cost... But will they alone be enough?

The Characters

Spoiler for:

Main Protagonists
Marianne
Age: 16
Sex: Female
Origin: Clermont, Ferrand
Class: Knight of Fire
Occupation: Liberte Knight
The main character of this chapter, she is a Liberte Knight for the capital city of Clermont. Marianne was a name given to her by the Knights Legion, and only she knows her real name. Marianne is usually a calm and cheerful person, she is the type to make things work when it comes to disputes. She also has a strong moral standing against drugs, alcohol, guns, and many other things she finds morally offensive. Despite being such a positive person, she isn't very confident in herself as a woman and her appearance. Marianne can also become quite serious when she needs to be, and this causes her friends who are used to her positive side to become concerned. She is a very observant person, usually saying out loud what she thinks, as if to inform somebody else of what she is observing. In terms of combat, she is a very powerful front line fighter, and a decent Ether user. She can use varying types of blades, from rapiers to two-handed swords.

Sierra
Age: 15
Sex: Female
Origin: Lyon, Ferrand
Class: Knight of the Moon
Occupation: Liberte Knight
Sierra is a knight for the Auxen capital city of Lyon. Her job is to protect members of the royal family, as well as preform other tasks typical of Knights. Being from the province of peasants, her group of knights are also treated as such by the other knights. She easily gets over excited, and over passionate in her endeavors, which usually causes her to fail. Her failures and Marianne's constant successes causes her to become co-dependent on Marianne, as Sierra thinks of her as a superior knight in every way. Despite this, Sierra is the main Ether user of the party, with a wide variety of skills to take advantage of. She is easily one of the most powerful Ether users in the country, as her Ether variation is rare. She also makes a decent melee fighter, since she can duel wield any combination of close range weapons such as sabers and daggers.

Jacque
Age: 22
Sex: Male
Origin: Lyon, Ferrand
Class: Sharpshooter
Occupation: Teacher/Explorer
Jacque is the name of a man whose thirst for adventure ends him up in a lot of trouble. He ends up in a trap during one of his excavations, and would have died there if Marianne and Sierra didn't show up. However, his real profession is not exploring, but it is as a teacher in an orphanage. His exploration of ruins are in the hope that he will one day find something to pay for the children he takes care of. He is a very knowledgeable person and very resourceful when it comes to exploration. Despite this, he still winds up in all the traps and gets the party in a lot of trouble. In combat he stays in the back and shoots with his Ether gun, a gun which uses TP (rechargeable with a skill called reload). He's powerful when he has ammo, and when he doesn't his pistol whip still packs a punch. Using Ether Drives on him can raise his ammo capacity, as he does not gain more TP as he ranks up.

Supporting Characters
Prince Mikiel XVI
The prince is mostly an naive and weak person. He's not very well spoken toward others and he has trouble thinking of goals for himself, which isn't necessarily his fault since he was babied his entire life being a prince. The prince joins the party temporarily as you need to escort him back home, although he appears in combat he is a useless fighter. Having the prince guard the entire time might be a good idea, because if he dies it's game over.

Marius
A hunter who lives in the Clermont Forest, he is a distant relative of the royal family. He likes to dress warm, as well as wear red clothing.

Lana, Knight of Nature
One of your fellow knights from Clermont, she is super serious when it comes to her job. She thinks nothing much of people, just that she gets her job done. After your first mission with her, she has been reported missing in action.

Jane, Knight of Power
She is one of the more laid back knights, often seen at bars drinking. Despite her work ethic, she is a pretty good fighter who was gifted with incredible strength. Although she mostly uses it to beat up guys who try to pick her up at the bar.

Commander Garvin
Your commanding chief, he gives you all the orders. A large and powerful man, he has great leadership qualities. He accompanies you on your first mission to assist in the escort of his majesty the prince.

"Bill"
Bill is the name of the person whom you were to deliver a package to, however his whereabouts are unknown and he seems to slip by you purely by chance every time you get a glimpse of him.

Sean, The Gambler
He's a lowly con artist, and an occasional gambler. He first meets you after stealing a necklace from a friend of yours. He offers to give back the necklace, however you must beat him in Heads or Tails. It's obvious by the way you never win, he's using a double sided coin. Finding him out as a lowly cheater will be the hard part.

Dante Marcel
Grand General of the Clermont Chevalier. He is a noble and extraordinary knight who practices Chivalry to the fullest extent. Not much more is known about this man, as he doesn't show himself often outside his duties.

Christina Celes
A commander in the Clermont Chevalier, little is known about this woman outside of her position. Like Dante, she never shows herself outside of high priority missions.

The Antagonists

Spoiler for ULTRA SPOILER:

Garvin
He betrays you and the country by killing the prince, and his reasons for doing so still seem to be a mystery. His ambition to destroy the royal family and the knights seem to show his motivation may be a political one.

Celcia and Eiffen
This deadly duo are the guardians of the Tomb of the Ancients. Celcia is a rogue Ice Elemental who wields two deadly guns, and she rarely misses. Eiffen relies fully on his fire magic, and never seems to run out of energy. They like to bring in unsuspecting travelers for one on one duels, and they never lost once.

Adler
A political spy from Germany working with Garvin. Not much is known about this man, except that he's a True Ether Mage.

The Details

Spoiler for:

Scripts used:
- Lomexi's Battle Theme Adjuster
- Quest Journal V1.1 + Paragraph Formatter, by modern algebra
- Caterpillar, by unknown
- Advanced Lighting, by Kylock
- Simple Sideview Battle System + Backdrop system, by Claimh
- Moghunter Animated Title Screen
- Syvkals Menu Bars
- On Screen Shop + Battle Results, by Worale
- No Battle Entry Message, by Magica
Music used is from the Xenogears OST
Snake Eater by Cynthia Harrell
Aurora by Eri Kamiya
Graphics are mostly RTP, custom sprites from a character generator, Windows Mobile 7 based window skin created by me.
Quests Available (The ones listed in the mission log)
21 total so far.
Total Maps
165 so far
Expected Game Length
Act I: 5 Hours +
Act II: 8 Hours +
Game Size
65mb

Screenshots

Spoiler for:

This is all of the country you will ever see in this game. You will never visit any places that are clouded over in this game.


The Town of Dover, covered in snow. Probably my best town in the game.


Some battle footage of a 4 member battle.


The storming of Corsica, is the final part of the game. The town is the only front open to an island built like a fortress.


The Lunar Tower is a bonus dungeon where each floor will have a certain puzzle to solve. A mysterious caller warns you of dangers on each floor and offers tips to assist you. You won't know who it is until you reach the top.

Download
Full Game
Drop Box - Full Game 1.4 65MB

Patch
MediaFire - Patch 1.4 8MB
To patch, simply replace existing files with the files located in the patch.

Demo Downloads
MediaFire - Demo 1.0 39MB
MediaFire - Demo 2.0 39MB
MediaFire - Demo 3.0 [POTM Edition] 49MB

Screenshots looks great, looking forward to the demo.

This looks pretty cool, can't wait for a demo

This looks and sounds really neat. Can't wait for a demo. =o

Wow. This sounds very interesting. I am also waiting for the demo. The screen shots are intriguing.

This does sound great. Good luck.

Demo has been uploaded!

Demo 1.0 Includes:
- New game font: Calibri
- Gameplay up to Mission 2 - Part 1 (Don't be fooled, it took me 3 hours to play it all)
- All playable characters available
- 10 Quests (Main and Side)
- Debug Room with every possible debug option I could think of!

See first post for download link!

Details
Alright, the title of the game, story, and more background info has been added to top post. If you plan on playing this demo, there's a few things you might wanna know.
I've included the debug room I use for testing the game, and in this room I have the following features:
- Level adjuster
- Party management (Cannot remove Marianne no matter what)
- Money, stat, and HP/TP maxer
- Mission sheep (allows you to start at any point in the game)
- Shop with every item available
- Boss Arena (Fight all the bosses in the game so far)
- Author's notes
- Teleport items and map debug items. Let me get into detail about these. There are two items you can get in the debug room, the Blink Rune, and Debugger's Map. The Blink Rune allows you to teleport to ANY map and ANY spot using variables, be careful though, entering the wrong variables will crash the game. The variables uses are: MAP ID, MAP X, and MAP Y. The second item is the Debugger's Map, which allows you to see what MAP ID, MAP X, and MAP Y you're currently positioned at. This may be helpful to you if you plan to use the blink rune. Also the map sets the variables so you will always teleport there.

Aside from debugger stuff, the gameplay goes a little like this: Mission 1: Ultra Linear, Mission 2: Non-Linear. Maybe it's just me, but it felt like I rushed a little on the first mission's set up compared to the rest, so give me your input on that. I also worked the battle system to be as challenging as possible, without trying to make it such a grind. The 3 main characters were built to be ultra balanced, and to play as uniquely as possible. Skills were also made to play as balanced as possible. If anything is too hard, or too easy, or you didn't think I had the right level placement for some skills, leave that in your post.

Alright, enough talk. In short, name any bugs, balance issues, grammar issues, or whatever in your post after playing the demo. Also if you'd like, critique about the story, maps, or anything. Have fun.

Alright, this meets requirements. Thanks for the PM and I'll try to test it out soon.

I have a couple comments on the demo.

1 about the maps: Could use a little bit more detail. But DO NOT get me wrong here, I love how everything is set up. Specifically I'm referring to the forested areas. It just appears to be mostly tall grass for detail. Your towns are done very well. I LOVE THE GRAVEYARD. It made me laugh so hard. And I got rick rolled ...

2 about the skeleton enemy. I came out of the train wreckage and cave at level 5 or 6ish, dealing on average 100-130 damage to everything. Then a skeleton shows up. I deal about 50ish. I get the defense is up and his attack is up a little bit. That's not so much a problem because that alone is decent for a higher level enemy. However, that Drain skill he has destroys me at about 250 damage. I only have 500ish life and he likes to spam Drain. The party member [I can't remember her name] can only first aid me for a little less than he does. I think you really need to tone down that ability. Somewhere around 150ish damage on it is decent and lower it's priority as an attack by 1.

So far, the story is real good. Sucks the prince died  .  <--That's about where I'm at.

I agree with grafikal on the skeleton monster, I'm still leveling up at that dojo to get through the forest.
The skeleton is too strong!

Good game so far, by the way.
I really like the train effect.

The skeleton is VERY weak against magic. lol sorry, I accidently put him in the cave while testing, but it shouldn't be that hard to defeat since it's only the single enemy group. All undead are weak against magic.
You should have gotten at least 2 Ether Drives (adds 10 TP) during the first parts of the game (During train is 1, other one i forgot lol). There's a Hide n Seek minigame somewhere in Clermont that appears after your 2nd visit, reward is an Ether Drive and it can be repeated if failed.
I also added another quest at the pub, it's quite easy and the reward is a free level up (Go there after you just leveled to make the most of it).
As for the maps, I detailed the most important maps the most, some maps are plain because you really don't stay at them very long, or I'm just not finished with it yet.

I might add bonus exp for the dojo once you complete an entire set of matches. Just to make it easier.
I added the two level reward quests in before I released because I thought it might be a little of a grind at the beginning >.<

Anyways, glad you guys are enjoying the game, thanks for the feedback.

I was gonna post the new demo today >.>
But my computer is messed up so I won't get it back for maybe a week. They said a hard drive wipe is unlikely so my project files won't be affected.
Anyways, here's what to look forward to:
- 25% additional story content
- Access to the entire province is available (All previous locations + 1 more town & dungeon)
- Slight balancing in stats
- At least 10 more side quests
- More costumes (Winter Coats for all and a Dress for Marianne)
- Battle Results script addition
- New screenshots have been added to the first post

Nothing major, just more gameplay and the system seems to be working well so I won't mess with it too much.
Will edit post when I get my computer back.

Sounds wicked. I'm looking forward to the new demo. Sucks about the computer though 

Uploaded the demo today.
I couldn't get it up earlier, i had some computer problems.

Anyways, this demo includes all of Act I. All skills and stats have been altered for balance and enemy exp has been raised slightly. Side quests and events will make leveling a little bit easier, and money is also easier to find.

A hint: Make sure you don't spend too much money, you never know when you're gonna need it.

Anyways, enjoy and comment.

Alright, d/ling now.

it looks rather good for a VX game, I'd suggest not using the RMXP battlebacks though, just because MASSIVE DOORS and little bitty midget people.

try making a map, then screenshotting it, and using that for the battleback.
that's what I did for Revenant's battle system and it looks really good and keeps the style of the game in mind/constant

it looks rather good for a VX game, I'd suggest not using the RMXP battlebacks though, just because MASSIVE DOORS and little bitty midget people.

try making a map, then screenshotting it, and using that for the battleback.
that's what I did for Revenant's battle system and it looks really good and keeps the style of the game in mind/constant

Thanks, I'll maybe try that. I attempted it before, but I wanted the background to look sorta, to the side if you know what I mean. A foreground, middle ground, and background sorta thing. Didn't turn out so well, either I'll try screen shots, or maybe I can quickly draw my own.

I'm addicted to this game, still stuck at the forest part but that's because I'm the type of person who doesn't update on equips all the time but instead stocks up on meds >_>;

Yeah, it's quite good. Nice job.

Oh, and you win POTM this month

Leventhan nominated you. I will send a PM describing the process soon.

Congrats for the POTM! 

Congrats on POTM, Mrmoo.

Story sounds good, downloading. Also, congrats on the POTM.

Oh wow, i didn't expect this. Thanks guys!

I was fighting slimes the last time I played(yeah I know, I wasn't that far in the game). Like grafikal said, the maps could use some more detail, but even now, they look okay. The background of the story is what keeps me interested in playing this game. Lol at the name Ferrand, it's just two letters different from the name of my main character. :]

Added new info/screenshots to the first post. Just showing what I'm working on and planning to have done by the end of this month.
- Added more music. Because the current tracklist was missing certain "moods". So I added a few more, jumping up the size from 40mb to 50mb. I hope this isn't a problem, and not to worry there won't be anymore music added.
- More costumes available in Marianne's room. All three characters get a winter coat costume after a certain mission is complete. If a bonus mission is complete Marianne will get her white dress.
- Adding a bonus dungeon in which upon completion will award a powerful sword.
- Extending the Temple of the Ancients. This temple will be similar to the ocean king temple in phantom hourglass, minus the time and annoying traps.
- Extending Dojo. Adding more courses such as survival and boss rush. Training courses now give bonus exp. Also a Cameo battle with other RMRK-VX game characters will be added in later versions.
- 'End Game' mode. Once the main plot is fully revealed and the last mission awaits, all the towns will then burst with side quests and 'End Game' material. More on this later.
- Aside from the 3 main characters, Marrianne, Sierra, and Jacque, other temporary characters will also join as the "fourth member" of the party. Their functions and playability will vary from character to character, but will add challenge and new strategies into battles.
- Character background quests. These quests will reveal information on each of the main character's past and background. Finding and completing them may not be easy though.

I plan to release the next version before the 30th, so stay tuned.