HUGE UPDATE

-HUGE UPDATE-

Okay, so it's been quite a long time since I updated that and I've had some trouble with artists leaving, etc. but now the game is back on track and looking better then ever.  The entire tileset was remade by an incredible artist, so check out the screenshots if you care about that.  Right now I'm looking for someone who can design me menus and adjust the battle system (which now unfortunately will be front view).

The characters are also being redone to be a bit more interesting, so expect a lot of changes to this topic.

Back Story

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In the beginning there were eight kingdoms, each ruled by their separate lords.  As the continent was small, war often broke out over minor land disputes, and the little peace which existed was filled with treachery and deception.  This lasted for many years, until finally one kingdom left.  It set sail for the fabled second continent and simply disappeared.  Their castle fell to ruin, their existence become a legend and soon they were forgotten entirely.
Many years have passed since then and the seven remaining lords are beginning to put aside their differences and form new, stronger bonds for the sake of their people.  Two kingdoms in particular have become close and plan to make a new alliance which, should it succeed, will launch the continent of Avendell  into a new age of peace.
The day of the meeting a small group of knights are sent as an escort for the aging lord of one kingdom in order for him to safely reach the second for the meeting.  Before they arrive however the group is attacked and brutally slain, save for one young soldier.  Found during the aftermath he is quickly accused and ordered to be put to death for treason and the murder of his troupe and the lord.
This is where, ironically, his story begins.  Freed from the execution by an older captain who believes in his innocence, they are accompanied by a young witch who was to be killed as well but escaped with them, a depressed cleric who wants nothing more to be evil but can only use healing magic and a silent rogue who is hired to return them for proper execution. 

Now that we've gotten what I'm sure is boring, unnecessary text for you all out of the way, I can describe the actual story, gameplay, characters and...I think...that's all.

Story

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The game puts you in the roll of the escaped knight.  After he escapes it becomes apparent that the assassinated lord was not the only target and many other kingdoms are being targeted.  This causes chaos, each kingdom blaming another and quickly all hopes of peace are lost.

As this happens, there's many reports of individuals roaming about who are clothed similar only to the long lost eighth kingdoms people.  As you play the game you discover what happened to the eighth kingdom when they disappeared, why they returned now and most importantly what their plans are for the rest of Avendell.

Characters

The Soldier

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Raised by the kingdoms "knights for hire" (basically honorable mercenaries) he lost his parents to the war.  As he's had to work for his food along with the other soldiers in the troupe, he's competent with a sword.

Mostly because the others view him as younger and more childish then he is, he's been sheltered from some of the more cruel truths of the world and he tends to believe anyone he meets, no matter how questionable they appear. Because of this he has a tendency to get the others into trouble they could have easily avoided.

Gameplay

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The gameplay will draw most of its inspiration from the legend of zelda, because of the puzzles, graphics and dungeons and final fantasy for it's combat, epic story, character interactions and character customization.

Rather then have random battlers, monsters will be roaming about the map, sometimes ignoring  you and sometimes chasing you.  As soon as you have touched them, the combat will switch to a side view.  At night, stronger enemies will occasionally appear, powerful enough to be considered mini bosses.  They are much more rare then any of the others, but each area will have its own unique "night monsters" and the rewards they give out with be worth waiting for.

Rather then have each character learn specific skills, skills are instead learned from weapons.  Characters can equip any weapon they want to learn any skill they want, but if they equip a weapon they're not proficient with then it'll take longer to learn the skill and they'll do less damage with the weapon.  Hopefully this will allow players to customize their party to suit their own playing styles a bit more.

Features (I'm listing them as I implement them).

Spoiler for:

-100% completely custom graphics+music.  Everything in the game concerning graphics and audio will be completely new.  From the menus to the battles to the areas.  They will not be made by me, I'm instead hiring individuals and will give credit when for everything at the bottom of this page.

*NOTE*
This project is being worked on/funded by me alone.  It will be very slow moving.  This is mostly in part because I'm only going to update if I have something real to show.  For example, I've commissioned monster and spell animations, but I'm not going to show them yet.  The first time you'll see them is when they're completely functional within a battle mockup or video.

Screenshots

Area 1

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*CREDIT*
map tiles-the new tileset artist is k-hos k-hos.deviantart.com/

I think...that's about everything...Like I said, it'll be slow moving, but I'll be watching this topic and any updates made will be REAL updates.  You'll see some real progress here.

nice.

the graphics are beautiful.

Yeah, the artists are pretty great.  The environment tiles (ground+cliffs) are still an in progress, and there's going to be many more variations of each tile so it doesn't look like it was so obviously made with a grid.

Thanks! And especially thanks for the help earlier with the character graphics, I was really confused about that.  It's actually what I was waiting for before I posted this.

New image added, showing that I'm actually doing stuff and working on the combat.

I now know that the battles will work, I just need to edit the script a bit and make everything move at the right speed, position the characters and add in my own interface.

It should also be noted that all the monsters and character battlers in this are fully animated.  I know you can't tell from the images, but they're not just still sprites.

The tileset and character art is gorgeous. Did you do both yourself?

Thanks =)
and no, I commissioned them from some other artists.  If you're curious I left credits and links at the end of the post.

Thank you kindly!

Looking forward to a demo. Nice job to your artists!

Thanks, but it'll be a little while before a demo appears.  Since I'm commissioning for all the graphics and I don't want any of the demos to have any of the default stuff in them, it's moving as quickly as the slowest artist I'm paying =)

GREAT GREAT GREAT AND GREAT 

lol thanks very much!

This looks like it will be very fun. ^_^
(subscribes to thread)

look great especially the characters

wow I'm pumped lol
I'm thinking of doing models for my VX project lol

it looks brilliant so far

The fact that it's basically mostly custom graphical resources is sweet as hell.