Legionwood 2: Volume One

[Dark Gaia]

Introduction

Legionwood 2: Rise of the Eternal's Realm - Volume One is an epic length traditional role playing game created in RPG Maker VX Ace and a direct sequel to the much loved Legionwood: Tale of the Two Swords. It is the first installment in the epic Legionwood 2 saga.

Legionwood 2: Volume One features a 12+ hour quest that takes place in the sprawling empire of Trevelle, filled with puzzles, challenging enemies and tons of adventures. The new class and sub-class system allows you to customise your characters to a high degree with over 80 different class combinations available.

Story Outline

Legionwood 2's story follows on from where Legionwood: Tale of the Two Swords left off. It has been nearly three hundred years since Castoth was banished from the realm and the world has been at peace. However, it seems now that this peace is about to come to an end. Barbarians from the western land of Entoban have invaded the empire of Trevelle, occupying two major cities near the western border. Lionel Morton, a guard in the Imperial Capital, has transfered to a battalion assigned to retaking the captured towns. Tonight, they move to liberate the city of Corinthe, where Lionel's lover Clara waits, alone and in danger.

Several other things of note have been happening in Trevelle of late: monster attacks seem to be on the increase for some unknown reason and trade with Charn in the north has mysteriously stopped without notice. Can these things be connected with the war that is seemingly about to engulf the Empire?

Game Features

- An epic length quest with 12+ hours of gameplay and lots of optional side quests.
- An interesting storyline about love, revenge, political intrigue and forgotten secrets with 6 fully developed protagonists.
- Tense Condition Turn Battle (CTB) inspired by Final Fantasy X featuring challenging foes who react intelligently.
- Intuitive class system for a high level of character customisation. Your Main Class determines your stat values, usable equipment and Tech category, but you can also equip a Sub Class, which grants you access to an addition category of Techs. Over 80 combinations are possible!
- Non-linear gameplay that changes depending on your choices. You can't encounter everything in a single playthrough!
- Play with mouse, joypad or keyboard.

Screenshots















Download

The beta version of Legionwood 2: Volume One can be downloaded for free here: http://rpgmaker.net/games/3811/
Please note that this version is outdated. An updated demo will be available closer to release of the full game.

[yuyu!]

I wish you luck with this. Sequels can be hard to pull off sometimes.

It seems the Ace engine is going far, I've only done the demo. I didn't think it was out in english yet? I love the facesets, I take it those were made with that awesome built in generator in Ace? x] I really like the battle system. I didn't check that out much in Ace, but I somehow don't think it's changed much without scripts in Ace (other then the battlebacks).

I'm liking your Lionel character. The blonde hair/brown eyes combo looks very mighty to me. It seems you have some form of main and sub classes going on? That seems very fascinating. With 15+ hours of gameplay, you seem to have your work cut out for you. I wish you luck, I'm gonna keep an eye on this thread.

[DoctorTodd]

Good job, most people can't finish a game and your making a sequel. Any way I'm not sure if that's the default ace window skin but I LOVE IT.

[pacdiggity]

Oh my God. Another Legionwood.
ANOTHER LEGIONWOOD.

Most people in RM communities, like myself, can't say that they've finished one game. You've finished, what, 6? You are crazy awesome, I absolutely loved Legionwood and I am eagerly awaiting this sequel.

[AbsoluteIce]

OhEmGee, Legionwood!
I'm still yet to finish the first one, and now
and new one appears. I hope it'll be as epic
as the first one. 

[Dark Gaia]

Hi everyone.

@yuyubabe: I've actually been making this in the Japanese RMVXAce. Back when the trial was new, someone released an unofficial translation patch for it. This patch actually works on the full Japanese version, so I've had a head start on using it! Indeed, the facesets and characters are made in Ace's generator.
As for the battle system, Ace's default is just VX's with battlebacks. The one you see there has a few addon scripts such as Yanfly Engine and CTB, which I'm using.
As for the class system, it's basically a way to preserve Legionwood 1's customisation but with some structure. Each character can equip a main class and a sub class. Your main class determines your stats as well as your accessible techs and equipment, though you can also equip a sub class and access its tech category as well.

@DoctorTodd: It's not Ace's default windowskin, actually. It's just Legionwood 1's window recoloured to blue.

@Pacman and AbsoluteIce: Thanks for the vote of confidence guys! Expect a playable version soon! I'll make a call for testers shortly.

[Adon]

LEGIONWOOD 4 EVER
I am really glad you are making another one! Impressive, really!
This is probably a bad suggestion for many reasons, but their is a sideview battle system for ace out there somewhere.

[cozziekuns]

Heh. Leigonwood was probably the first VX game I played and finished.

Hope it lives up to its name. Good luck with this, Dark Gaia!

[Dark Gaia]

Hey again everyone!

@Adon: I know. Someone's converted Tankentai over already. But I'm actually choosing not to use a side view battle system in Legionwood 2. From my experiences with the first game, I found that having to animate all the battle actions actually restricted what skills could be made. Some effects and targetting options failed to work in the system at all. The flow of battle in Legionwood 2 is important enough that I feel not being able to see your party on screen is a worthy sacrifice. Besides, many classic RPGs in the past used a similar system, such as Dragon Warrior and Phantasy Star.

@cozziekuns: I'm trying my best to make it a worthy successor to the first Legionwood. My goal is to make it superior in almost every way. For one, the writing and characterisation in Legionwood 2 is decidedly better than it was in Legionwood 1.

[AbsoluteIce]

Hey again everyone!

@Adon: I know. Someone's converted Tankentai over already. But I'm actually choosing not to use a side view battle system in Legionwood 2. From my experiences with the first game, I found that having to animate all the battle actions actually restricted what skills could be made. Some effects and targetting options failed to work in the system at all. The flow of battle in Legionwood 2 is important enough that I feel not being able to see your party on screen is a worthy sacrifice. Besides, many classic RPGs in the past used a similar system, such as Dragon Warrior and Phantasy Star.

@cozziekuns: I'm trying my best to make it a worthy successor to the first Legionwood. My goal is to make it superior in almost every way. For one, the writing and characterisation in Legionwood 2 is decidedly better than it was in Legionwood 1.

When you sleep at an inn in legionwood 2, if a character is fainted, will he/she
be restored, or do we have to go the the 'church'? o;

[Dark Gaia]

It's like Legionwood 1, in that you'll need to go to the sanctuary to get them revived. It's more effective this time though, since there aren't any save crystals (instead you save anywhere you like) to fully heal the party for free.

[AbsoluteIce]

It's like Legionwood 1, in that you'll need to go to the sanctuary to get them revived. It's more effective this time though, since there aren't any save crystals (instead you save anywhere you like) to fully heal the party for free.

This all sounds so promising.
[spoiler]I feel like I'm going to piss my pants  [/spoiler]

[Adon]

So I think you still want the difficulty, right?

[Dark Gaia]

Yes, I want to keep the difficulty of Legionwood 1 intact, though I've made the earlier stages of the game a lot easier than the first game's were. You should idealy be able to play without much trouble at the start of the game and be really challenged later on.

[Mishka]

When this game was announced, I was stoked. I'm not just saying that to be nice; in fact, Legionwood (which I gushed to you about after I finished the game on RRR a few years back) is one of the very few RPG Maker games that I look at without the filter of "RPG Maker Game" over my senses. This list is incredibly small and very very strict, even moreso for a game that makes use of the RTP AND EVEN MORESO that it used Tankentai and Kaduki resources (which I normally equate with some of the most generic of RPG Maker games).

You're one of the few developers that actually thinks about the players of your games as you're developing them. The games have good and satisfying balance, decently-written dialogue, and aesthetically pleasing arrangements of graphical elements and music.

So, in short, I can say news of a sequel to Legionwood quickly brought me to orgasm.

[Dark Gaia]

Hi Mishka,

I was very heartened to read your comments. I'm flattered you regard Legionwood with such high esteem. I'm doing my best to make sure that those who loved it will feel that Legionwood 2 is a worthy sequel. My most important goal is to make sure the game feels right to the existing fans. They loved Legionwood for a number of reasons and I'm mindful of these reasons while developing the sequel.

In any case, the game is coming along nicely and I'm sure you'll appreciate the small touches I put in especially for people like you. If all goes well, the release of the first chapter should be by April. Rather than releasing an hour long demo and having it playable some time next week, I want to take my time and make sure that the first release contains quite a lot of content to keep players busy for a while before I continue work on the second chapter and beyond.

[EvilM00s]

Absolutely, Legionwood was very entertaining and well put together!

[Dark Gaia]

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd pop in with a little progress report I prepared a few days ago, just to let you know that work is going smoothly on Legionwood 2 and that a release is on the cards very soon.

Sunday, February 26th, 2012

I'm pleased to announce that work on Legionwood 2 is going very smoothly. So far I've clocked about three weeks of solid work on the game, and if work continues at this rate, I should estimate the first playable release to be out before April.

Two months seems to be a long time to wait for a demo, but, much like Legionwood 1, I'll be releasing the chapters for this game one by one. The game will have four chapters, and each playable release will add a new completed chapter. You'll be able to transfer save files across releases to keep playing your game. This means that the first Legionwood 2 release will contain the entirety of Chapter One: Emergent Enemies, which all up is about 3 hours of gameplay. That's a long demo!

Rather than releasing a short tech demo this week that doesn't really satisfy anyone or give a real taste of the game, I'm deliberately taking my time so that the first demo release contains quite a lot of content to make it actually worth playing while you wait for the next release.

Chapter One: Emergent Enemies allows you to play with five of the game's classes, unlock the first two tiers of Techs and take on 28 different monsters. It will contain two towns (Corinthe and Ironrim) and four dungeons (Hunter's Cave, Elder Forest, Ironrim Mines and The Necropolis) of which one town (Corinthe) and two dungeons (Hunter's Cave and Elder Forest) are complete at this stage in development.

Stay tuned!

P.S Let me take this opportunity to ask what you as prospective players of Legionwood 2 want to see from the game. I'm committed to making Legionwood 2 a much better experience than the first game and if there's something you'd like me to implement or any suggestions you'd like to give, the floor is open!

[Dark Gaia]

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

Legionwood 2 needs testers!

The first playable release of Legionwood 2: Rise of the Eternal's Realm, containing the entirety of the first chapter, is only a few weeks from wrapping up. To help make the game a more enjoyable experience for everyone, I'm going to initiate a closed beta testing period prior to the game's release. If you would like to be a beta tester, please send me a personal message expressing your interest.

Beta testers will receive the release on March 25th, two weeks earlier than the general release. Two weeks will be given for beta testers to play the release and provide feedback, which will be implemented in the release to the general public.

So, who wants to play Legionwood 2 early?

[Zerothemaster]

I would love to!

And that falls at a perfect time for me, because all the really huge assignments that are causing me angst right now end before that, so I should be good to go!

[AbsoluteIce]

Dear Dark Gaia..
[spoiler] YOU'D BETTER LET ME BETA TEST
OR I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN LIKE
THE SHEEP YOU ARE![/spoiler]
Now, please pick ME as a beta tester.
[spoiler]I'm joking, I won't hunt you down like a sheep..Virtually.[/spoiler]

[Dark Gaia]

Hi! I'll add both of you to the list. You don't need RPG Maker VX Ace or its RTP or anything; everything is included in the download.

@Zerothemaster: Ha. Generally, my assignments all begin to get stressful around that time. Anyway, March 25 isn't a definite date. It's an approximate, and the game could be released either a week earlier or a week later, depending on what happens.

[Dark Gaia]

Hi everyone! As of today, I've recruited ten testers and I think that should be enough for now
Thanks for everyone who is offering their time. I appreciate it quite a lot.

[Dark Gaia]

Sunday, March 18th, 2012

The release of Beta Build 1.1 is iminent!

Hi everyone.
Just informing you that progress on Legionwood 2 has been very steady throughout this month. I've managed to fully complete all areas up to the final dungeon of Chapter One and once it is finished, the first installment of the game will be ready for testing.
Before passing the game onto the beta testers, I'll play one or two runthroughs myself to ensure that the basic mechanics are in place, and then I'll be sending download links to those who registered as testers. Beta testers will receive download links via PM sometime within the next two weeks and then full public release will follow shortly after.

Stay tuned!

[Dark Gaia]

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Hey everyone!

Unfortunately, progress on Legionwood 2 has been extremely slow lately. I had intended to have the first instalment of the game out to beta testers by the end of March and publically released early in April, but I might not be able to do that at the moment.

University assignments and writing commitments seem to really be piling up over these last few weeks, and since halfway through March, I've been so busy getting it all done (I'm a journalism major, and that means hunting down sources, conducting interviews etc) that I haven't really been able to put the finishing touches on Legionwood 2 that I've been wanting to.

The first instalment is so close to being finished now; I've finished mapping the last town of the chapter and I just have to do the last dungeon and cutscenes, but that, as well as basic testing, will still require a good week or so of uninterrupted work before I can get the game out into the world.

I probably won't be able to do these last few things until a week or two into April at least, when my first round of assignments will have been attended to (and I'll be on break for Easter) so I'm hoping I'll be able to release the game then or at least get it close to release, before the next wave of assignments shows up before May.

Since I've missed my nominated deadline for release so badly, I'll be skipping the two week beta testing period; once the first chapter of the game is done, myself and some of my friends will test it ourselves and then I'll release it for the public to enjoy.

My apologies, and please stay tuned!