[RMMV]Twin Hearts Saga Volume 1: Resurgence

Now for RMMV!!

Download here:

MV Version:
http://www.nexusmods.com/rpgmakermv/mods/1/?


VXA Version (In a completed state but no longer updated):
http://www.nexusmods.com/rpgmakervxace/mods/6/?



The Game:
 Join Xarien DeMont as he travels through the world of Callusia on a quest to uncover the long lost history of its once-dead heroes, monstrous villains, fabled usurpers, reluctant deities and troubled people. The six islands of Arreh, Westrel, Kjell, Oko, Latruvium and Zaahir await, each with a different horror afflicting their citizens. The fight is already on, but the real battle won't begin until the truth of the Twin Hearts is discovered...


The Players:
Xarien DeMont, a 4th class mage of the Arcane Institute currently wrapping up summer vacation and preparing to head back to school for initiation into the 3rd class when he receives a special assignment from the head of the Institute, the Magus Primus.

Sasaki Kei, an Okona soldier who left behind his life on Oko to seek refuge on Arreh, will join Xarien and together they'll travel across the island in search of answers that lie hidden deep in their world's past.

Supporting Cast:
Verutan Descroix, a warrior priest from a time long past, will be seen here. His role is is great in the past and the present, but ancient magic prevents him from leaving his post.

Father Adan Kirio, a priest of the Church of Dreams. Kindly and wise, he will be an ally of Xarien's...if he stays on a righteous path.

Ranhath Killian, Magus Primus of the Arcane Institute. It is from him that Xarien receives his assignment, and to him that Xarien must report. As the Institute's Primus, he is the most powerful mage in the world but if the darkness prevails his powers will be as nothing.

Khalaal al-Abala, a Zaahiri nomad, bore witness to the rise of the darkness in the Dread Wastes. He'll tell his story to anyone willing to listen.

Aisri Jurulfsdottir, a Kjellite huntress. She is one of the few who have seen the troubles that plague her homeland and retained sanity.

Culea Ambrose of Westrel is looking for work. Unfortunately, Xarien isn't offering anything she's interested in.

Geminius Vitello, former Imperator of Darius' legions in Latruvium, is raising a legion of his own. The land of his birth is calling, but Geminius will only answer with violence.

And many more...

The World:
Callusia is a world comprised of six islands, each with its own distinct culture.

Arreh, the starting island, is where people from all over the world call home, even more so as a hub for refugees fleeing the troubles in their own nations. Actions here will set the stage for the rest of the game.

Westrel, the 2nd island, is where the wealthy wield their influence when they're not enjoying fun in the sun in Port Crescent or the Edgewater resort town. As the seat of power for the world's religious as well as the home of magical instruction, the capacity for corruption is almost endless. Lately though, something strange has been going on in the mountain community of Pineridge...

Kjell, the 3rd island, is where some of the greatest warriors of Callusia's history have hailed from. A hardy people forged in the frozen tundra that makes up their home, they have long prided themselves on their ability to fight. Unknown to all but a few, this icy nation hides a secret that stretches long past
Callusia's earliest recorded history.

Oko, the 4th island, feudal home of the samurai and ruled with an iron fist by Shogun Kawashi Ito. Much of Callusia's earliest history is preserved here, but
Kawashi guards it jealously. When the darkness visited the Okona, restless spirits began to assail the living, and the key to bringing peace to this land will lie in putting them, along with the dark power that raised them, to rest for good.

Latruvium, the 5th island, home to the mightiest military force in the world, ruled by Dominus Darius Lucius. Oko's closest neighbor and oldest partner, the recent troubles throughout the world and in their own lands have brought these former allies to the brink of war.

Zaahir is the final island, a desert waste populated by tribes of nomads and ruled from the great walled city of Abala by Emir Modatta al-Sayeed. It is the catalyst for the troubles and the dangers there will be the greatest Xarien will face, from the walking dead to the root of the darkness itself.
Each of these islands has a unique problem to solve, but the key to solving the troubles of today lies in uncovering a shrouded past.

FEATURES
The WHOLE island of Arreh:
12 exterior maps including 1 major town, 1 minor town, 1 small village and 1 large marketplace
43 interior maps including 3 caves, 1 old keep, many homes, shops and other buildings
Wandering enemies, no random encounters
7 side quests of varying lengths
A visit to the island of Oko:
14 maps to see while exploring Sasaki's backstory, with much more to come during the pair's inevitable visit to the island.
A basic karma system that will determine which of the final 2 side quests you'll be allowed to tackle. Will also determine the ultimate ending of the story (but that's several volumes away still)
A quest journal with step by step instructions for each quest in the game
A crafting system that enables you to make your own spells and potions
Stat point distribution on level up
Around 2-3 hours of play from start to finish including side quests and miscellaneous tidbits with the denizens of Arreh, especially if you do everything and talk to everyone, highly recommended especially if you wish to see Sasaki's story.

CREDITS

Lunarea's Furniture
Celianna's Inner Tiles
Mack's original tileset
Inquisitor's RMXP exterior tiles
Recife's bloody tiles with Rainbow Jello's recolors/additions

EB's Materials for VX: Samurai
EB's RPG XP Remastered OST

Momope's Bloody downed charsets

Soruve's facesets

Eathrock's faceset/charset recolors

Rajawali's anaconda charset

Plugins in MV:
Zalerinian/Ramiro/Hudell/Dekita's MVCommons
Terrax's Lighting System
Vlue's recipe crafting
Kino's Book plugin
Alistair's Stat Point Distribution
Victor Sant's Basic Module and Fog Overlay
Hime's Enemy Reinforcements
Gamestailer94's Quest System
Yanfly's Region Battlebacks, Main Menu Manager, Message Core, Battle Engine Core and Action Sequence packs
Galv's Event Detectors


Scripts in VXA:
Rafael Sol Maker's Ace Perfect Fog
Khas' Awesome Light Effects
Modern Algebra's Quest Journal, ATS: Special Message Codes
Enu's Sideview Battle System
Yanfly's Passive States, Item Menu, Region Battlebacks
Dekita's Perfect Stat Point Distribution System
Estriole's Advance Text Reader EX
Mr. Bubble's Tactics Ogre PSP Crafting System, Reader Functions for Features/Effects
Hime's Enemy Reinforcements
game_guy's More Self-Switches
V's Awesome Options

Your game sounds interesting! Ill certainly download it and give it a shot soon.

You may want to add some screen shots of your game to this thread. It'll let people see your work and give some feedback!

Some screens added!

Sounds cool I think I'll download it once I get home.

So I've downloaded your game and begun playing.

So. Much. Text.

I appreciate the about of background you've put into your world. I really think that adds to a game. But getting more than six screens of text every time I talk to a stranger is a bit much. Perhaps you could think of a way to consolidate the way the info is related? Again, I'm glad you've put so much thought into the history. It just seemed a little early in the game.

You've done a good job making sure the player knows what's going on in the beginning, but I've reached the first quest and am trying to find the Cove. I'm sure you've made it obvious and I'm just missing it. At any rate, I'll continue to play later and let you know.

One last point though: some of the shadows you've added seem a little... off. Light generally only comes from one source and in this screen:

It's coming from three different directions. Think about redoing that on your maps.

Looking forward to playing more and giving you more feedback!

Edit -
One last thing. The font you use does not show the "w" well. It's cut off on the left side in both upper and lower cases.

@bluntsword -

Thanks very much for playing, and thanks for the feedback! The shadows are something I have a love/hate relationship with, and at times I did go overboard. Just one of many things to fix.
As for the walls of text, they're more current events than actual history which is why it's so difficult to present it differently - if I could, I'd put it in a book that you could pick up from a bookshelf and read at will, but each person telling their story from their own corner of the world makes that non-optional. I'll take another look at the dialogue and see if I can't trim it down some without hurting the presentation.
As for the Cove...my fiancee's big complaint is that it was never really clear where you were supposed to go. For your playthrough, the Cove is on the southern coast. Colossal map with lots of ridges and such - that screenshot is actually where you need to be, the ladder below the statue leads to the cave you need to go through. Now, I'm open to suggestions as to how to make it clearer to the player where they should be going. You may have noticed I put up a few roadsigns here and there, shall I put in more? Or maybe just have the questgiver provide directions? I prefer roadsigns here only because this is where your main character was born/raised so I would think it is implied that he knows where he's going, but I'm up for anything. Let me know!

I ran into a few road signs that had nothing to tell me which was confusing. The person giving the quest doesn't have to know your character was born and raised here -

Capt - you do know its southeast from here right?
X - of course! I grew up here!

No prob.

You mean the roadsigns didn't tell you what you needed to know, or literally didn't say anything? I'm re-working the dialogue in the inn right now, I'll add directions to the quest dialogue as well.

Just one didn't have anything on it. Ill try to find it so you can know which it is.

Annnnnd, one suggestion: I'd consider having a "Is this your first time playing?" Question at the beginning. That way someone playing your game a second time could skip all the instruction text in X's house. Just a thought.

Just one didn't have anything on it. Ill try to find it so you can know which it is.

I found a few and updated them - had the priority set wrong.

Annnnnd, one suggestion: I'd consider having a "Is this your first time playing?" Question at the beginning. That way someone playing your game a second time could skip all the instruction text in X's house. Just a thought.

I like that idea, I'll see what I can do - if I do, I'll likely skip the entire tutorial and just jump to the meeting with Ranhath.

Will hopefully be able to post an updated version very shortly. I shortened the dialogues with all but two of the inn characters - one, because you can skip it by not buying her a beer, the other because the information there is (at least if read) pretty integral to the story as a whole. Going forward, I'll try to keep the conversations short and sweet, or at least keep the long ones few and far between.

Ill give it another download shortly :-)

Much appreciated! I'll update the OP when the new file is ready to roll.

I just started playing the game, I've noticed a bug just downstairs of Xarien's room. If you approach the paper sitting on the table near the bookshelves, the paper will transform into a stuffed animal; make sure the event is set to "Direction Fix" so something like that can't happen.
Also, on the final bookshelf to the right, the left side event for that shelf has an error in which you can repeatedly take the "Psychological Controls" book an infinite amount of times. By the way, the book system is an awesome addition.
When crafting potions/spellstones (which is another awesome feature) would there be a way for you to have it play a different sound after they've been created, for potions at least I wouldn't think you'd be using a hammer.

I got killed in my very first fight against three rats, just me testing his basic attack strength. But, I feel like it might get pretty annoying if you get killed while casting heal (which happened to me).

I tested out your option of saying that you are not new to game, if you go upstairs you cannot search any of the places that held your armor/staff. I'm guessing you meant for the player to start with these items but he does not, and upon going upstairs, the starting scene will play. And when you go downstairs the other event will play which are obvious bugs.

That's all I caught for the bit of playing I did, I'll finish the demo some time later, but the concepts you use for the game and very cool, I can't wait to see more.

Thanks for the feedback! When you select the option of already having played, you were supposed to be able to start with all the stuff you would normally collect during the tutorial - equipment, spells, etc. I'll look into that.
I'll get that book fixed ASAP, and look into the stuffed animal as well...that one's weird, I've playtested that section millions of times and never caught that.

The SE for crafting the spells should be different - that hammer sound is the default one for the crafting script, I guess I forgot to change it. I'll make sure that one gets taken care of as well.

I'll also see about balancing the rat's attack power as well. It never occurred to me, but once you mentioned it I can see how getting that particular troop while you're still solo could be an annoyance.

I'll update the OP when I have a new version up, if you come across any more issues between now and then be sure and let me know!

A new version is up which should take care of the issues you've noted. I'm using the generic item SE for the cooking/alchemy/spellmaking recipes for now unless and until I can find one more suitable to each particular aspect of the crafting system.

I adjusted the rat's attack somewhat. Also adjusted the troops to include a 1 and 2 rat attack group and removed the 3 rat group as long as you take the most direct path to the marketplace. Stray from that and you'll be in for a fight. Also, the 2 rat group has a lower setting so it shouldn't pop up as often as the single rat.

When selecting the option that you've played before, you should now start with all equipment, and the intro sequence will no longer play when going upstairs afterwards.

You will no longer be able to get unlimited copies of the Psych book.

The note on the table has direction fix now applied - again, I've never seen that issue pop up personally but I hope this fixes it for you!

Thanks again for the feedback, I really feel like I'm moving towards making the playthrough experience as flawless as possible and this is all stuff I can apply to the later areas of the game going forward.

The stuffed animal problem only occurred when you activate the event before you're supposed to. When I get out of school I'll get the updated version and continue playing.

More Feedback:

The bushes in front of the Magic Shop (at the Marketplace) is set to below player. So I can walk on them. Also when you talk to the man at the Inn (who's at the bar) you shouldn't be forced to buy a beer, it's pretty much losing 10 gold just for speaking to him.
I love how the owner of the weapon/armor store runs across the room to sell you things, it's great!
I was kind of surprised that Sasaki didn't start with a sword of his own, since he starts with a sword skill.

At the start of the game I'm sure the man Primus man tells you to recruit someone in town, then go to Lake Arreh, but recruiting him seems like a pretty bad idea. It costs 500 coins which is what you start with, so you have nothing to use on potions (getting poisoned pretty much screws you over), a weapon for Sasaki, or to use the Bar. It makes it almost a must to grind heavily, since monsters only drop around 10-20 coins at the beginning.
Actually I take much of that back, because the Medic woman doesn't seem to work. She doesn't say anything to you so I couldn't buy potions anyway.

I'm working on the maps for the next island. I don't foresee any major changes to the first island, I'll probably expand some of the story behind the forest cave treasure and of course fix any other bugs that are found but other than that it's basically done the way I want it. For those that are graciously donating their time to play this through and offer their feedback, I have a question:
Should these islands be released in an episodic fashion where each one is a separate game?
This would allow for smaller downloads (I do plan on removing the RTP requirement at some point in the future as well), but it presents another problem. Are there any scripts available for importing characters/saves from the prior area? I know there was one for XP or VX - that or any other method to do that would work.
Otherwise, I'll be sending an updated EXE as new areas and other content are added which means increasingly large download sizes. I know that's not a problem for most people, but others are stuck with bandwidth caps that might think twice before grabbing such a monster.

Missed your post, guess I was in the middle of typing my last one when yours went up! Anyhow, I've made some changes to address the issues you found.

The bushes in front of the Magic Shop (at the Marketplace) is set to below player. So I can walk on them. Also when you talk to the man at the Inn (who's at the bar) you shouldn't be forced to buy a beer, it's pretty much losing 10 gold just for speaking to him.

Done and done. Bushes are fixed, beer is now a choice and not a requirement!

I love how the owner of the weapon/armor store runs across the room to sell you things, it's great!

Glad you like it! I thought it was kind of a neat, silly thing to do. My fiancee thinks it's dumb, so I'll be sure to show her that others appreciate it!

I was kind of surprised that Sasaki didn't start with a sword of his own, since he starts with a sword skill.

Yep. When you say it out loud, it does seem kind of silly, but I'm working it into Sasaki's backstory as we speak, so it will remain as it is for now.

At the start of the game I'm sure the man Primus man tells you to recruit someone in town, then go to Lake Arreh, but recruiting him seems like a pretty bad idea. It costs 500 coins which is what you start with, so you have nothing to use on potions (getting poisoned pretty much screws you over), a weapon for Sasaki, or to use the Bar. It makes it almost a must to grind heavily, since monsters only drop around 10-20 coins at the beginning.

Hearthold Keep is where you need to go after you get Sasaki. Also, I lowered Sasaki's price to 400 coins, so you can buy his sword as well if you choose to, and by the time you make it to him hopefully you'll have enough extra coins for a potion or two. Magic potions and antidote potions are available at the general store (above the medic) for 25 and 20 coins respectively. Poison wears off in 100 steps as well, so it isn't a permanent affliction but can be a pain in the butt without those antidotes.

Actually I take much of that back, because the Medic woman doesn't seem to work. She doesn't say anything to you so I couldn't buy potions anyway.

Fixed her as well. She doesn't sell anything, but will provide a full recovery free of charge! The reason I'm doing that is because eventually I'll figure out a way that resting in the inn (also provides full recovery) will grant some temporary bonus stats(ala fallout 3/new vegas/skyrim) and therefore be worth the cost of resting there. The new version is up, feel free to download, thanks again for your time and attention!

I'm downloading the updated version now. I'll probably play it later tonight and get back to you.

Just a quick update, exterior maps on the second island are about 75% complete. Once that's done, I'll move to interiors (a MUCH faster process) and then on to eventing, which I'm looking forward to most of all.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy5dJ7lqQMw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy5dJ7lqQMw</a>

That brought a tear to my eye.

Anyhoo, nice vid! A bit much text, you say? I'm open to suggestions on what text should be shortened up some or eliminated altogether! In the meantime, I'll take another crack at tightening up the dialogue a bit and providing better direction during the quest.

In general update news, I have one remaining exterior map on the 2nd island. The completed maps still need some prettying up, as do some on the first island apparently, so I'll probably do that all at once before I release the next version.

While all (two) of you are waiting patiently for the latest and greatest, thoughts on it so far aside from the text? Any features (like cooking) that I should just do away with? Any I should add for the next playthru? I've been considering MA's quest journal - that might enable me to provide that direction that's lacking (like how to get into the basement when you don't read everything), as well as eliminate those tutorial screens that pop up in the beginning. What say you folks?

P.S. The difference between a regular room and a suite at the inn? About 150 coins I think. Other than that, not much yet. Would like to figure out how to work it so a stay in the suite will give you some temporary bonus stats like how Fallout 3 gives you 10% more exp, and Skyrim gives you something as well I believe.

There's a new version up, using MA's quest journal script. Fixed a couple other minor annoyances as well. The quest journal at this point will be your most valuable asset in completing the quests in the game. It still doesn't flow quite as naturally as I'd like, so there's still work to be done for sure. Anyhoo, if anyone is interested, please do give it a try! I'd like as much feedback as I can get.

Quick edit: The filesize has been reduced pretty dramatically - it's about 40ish mb now. This is due to me removing a bunch of audio files. I'm pretty sure I have everything in there that is in use at the moment, but if you happen to find one missing please let me know.

Your new version has you start in the Magic Shop of Arreh Marketplace, not in the original place and no indication of what I should be doing.
Luckily I remembered the way home and got it back on track.


Also Error: Unable to find Audio/BGM/Dungeon4