Altaria: Deus ex Machina (Updated: 08/01/09 9:37 AM)

The current RPG I'm working on is called Altaria: Deus ex Machina, If wants to provide advice/constructive critisizm, feel free, after all..."A delayed game is a good game, a bad game is a bad game forever.", what Miyamoto said.

Plot

Setting
The RPG takes place on a fictional world called Altaria, and areas are accessed via a world map.

Characters
Major Characters
Dylan: The young hero is the game, also the chosen one for the Mana Amulet, a mystical necklace related to the Mana Spirits. He has curly brown hair, brown eyes, semi dark skin, is 6'00" feet tall, and has a X shaped scar on his left palm. He is the son of Burl, who was the general for the Sable Army, but his father is deceased now. His class is Warrior, and he is 15 years old.

Burl: He was Dylan's Father, the General for the Sable Army, and the last Knight in the prophecy for the Mana Spirits. Not much is know about him at the beginning, and his cause of death is unknown.

The Mana Spirits: The Mana Spirits, which are considered Deities on Altaria, and the seven of them created Altaria together. Fire, Earth, Water, Ice, Wind, Light, and Darkness they are. Like most Gods, they keep watch on mankind, answering his prayers, protecting his kind when they need it, giving gifts to those worthy of it, and punishing the sinned. But, lately, bizarre unnatural incidents have been happening on Altaria.

Unknown: The mysterious man. He despises all forms of nature except humans, and machines, and wishes to replace fauna, and flora with his machines. But, to ask...is he linked with these strange events on Altaria?

Minor Characters
The Golden Frog: A frog with literally gold skin is said to exist in The Forest Path, appearing rarely, those that catch, he will give them something if they let him go.
The Mighty Catfish: A Catfish who lives in a den underwater, in the world map, something may happen if you throw a object into his den...

Storyline
There exists a magical world know as Altaria. The people of Altaria relied on 7 Mana Spirits for most things...the mana spirits. Fire, Earth, Water, Storm, Ice, Light, and Darkness. Strange occurrences have occurred on Altaria, and the spirits have been imprisoned by strange malevolent entities. What's going on, and in this man linked to all of these events is he merely a puppet to these dark events?
The young boy, decides out of his own curiosity; decides to check out what's going on, not aware he gets himself thrown into a whole world-wide calamity.

Locations
World Map: The World Map, duh. Where you access the actual areas, and such.
Sable Village: The starting town in the game. It's where Dylan grew up for most of his life, and the village relies on a crop that relies on wind strength to grow.
The Forest Path: A small forest path that is very close to SV, it currently has no use, except for the random encounters with The Golden Frog. You have to cut through this forest to reach the Sable Graveyard.
Sable Forest: A forest south of Sable Village, it is much larger than TFP, and winds on for several miles, past it is the Sable Graveyard.
Sable Graveyard: Where any of the deceased Sable villagers are buried. Dylan's Father was burried here, along with other people. Though...something is hidden under Burl's tomb...
Sable Windmill: A ten story high windmill, that Sable Village relies on, unfortunately, it has stopped functioning completely, preventing Sable's famed crop from growing.
Sevil: A medium port town east pf Sable. Know for their commodity in fish, however their catches haven't been good, as lately, something has spooked the fish, and scared them offf.
S.S. Titan: A ship that use to carry minerals, metals, and jewels from Sable to Sevil, and back and forth. Due to, one day; the S.S. Titan end up sinking northwest of Sevil for no apparent reason. Now, in the present age....it has mysterious rose out of the ocean. Perhaps this what spooked the fish?

Progress
Whole Demo: Around 60 to 80 %.
Whole Game: 25%.
Locations
World Map: 30%
Sable Village: 100%.
The Forest Path: 100%.
Sable Forest: 100%
Sable Graveyard: 100%
Sable Windmill: 100%
Sevil: 65%
S.S. Titan: 20%

Screenshots

Rainbow Windows = not fun.

And your mapping needs some work, but other than that, I like. 

Rainbow Windows = not fun.

And your mapping needs some work, but other than that, I like. 

I agree with the rainbow windows, I thought they would look good with the whole Mana Spirits theme, but nah, though, I'm sticking to it till I find a better one.

Updated with a new screenshot.
I have a question, fellow RPGMers, does the screenshot for Sable Forest look good, or does it need to be a little lighter, or darker?

Your nature is to symmetrical. Forest don't have paths magically "drawn" out. The player has to work through the map, it actually has to be a challenge. Put some more trees in, some more flora (plants, flowers, shrooms). I noticed how you bunched the mushrooms together, fungi grow randomly, so you might want to take a look at that. Also, that farm lacks a lot of trees and plants. Other than that, not bad.

And is that 3rd screenshot your world map? If so, it needs some SERIOUS work, and I can't put enough emphasis on the word SERIOUS.

Added a new screenshot, which is a improved version of Sable Forest.
About the criticism, thanks for that.

I believe Sable Forest looks a bit too dark, I orgineally intended to make it the type of forest a bit above the normal ones.
Weather I sould keep the darknesss, to make it harder to trek through, or lighten it abit...

Bad title.
You should change the windowskin and improve your mapping by reading more RMXP tutorials.
Nature is Random!

Bad title.
You should change the windowskin and improve your mapping by reading more RMXP tutorials.
Nature is Random!

I know, really bad title, mind's still blank on that.

For the flora placement in Sable Forest, I used a random number generator. One set of numbers, 2 numbers per set, the first representing the "X Coordinate", and the second representing the "Y Coordinate".