Maelstrom

[Roland_Deschain]

A project I've been working on for a while, since I left the last time. Ignore some of the placeholder graphics in the screens, I'm just using MIC's character thing from resources until I get a decent one made myself. No screens of combat yet, but they'll be up soon.

PLOT: You are Dakkon, a villager drafted into the King's Army. Since this is currently a time of relative peace, your current duties involve merely keeping monsters away from your hometown of Rengard, a rural town surrounded by the Death's Edge mountain range, a job made far easier by the new border checkpoint constructed in the one break between the mountains. As the game opens, a messenger from King Rillidan arrives, summoning Dakkon to the castle.

Meanwhile, unseen by Dakkon, a renegade sorcerer by the name of Kaadath plots the downfall of Rillidan's kingdom. Fueled by revenge, he is assisted by the demigod Ilarnek, a vile creature who seeks nothing but further power and the ascent to full godhood. Rumors abound that this dangerous duo has spies planted within Rillidan's castle.

And in the shadowy background, the Seven Demons, mighty creations of the First God Darius, advance their plot furthering the coming of Ragnarok.


FEATURES:
-A leveling system akin to Final Fantasy, in which higher levels means greater defense against enemy strikes and greater attack strength, combined with a Zelda-esque real-time combat system.
-A good/evil system in which your actions determine the flow of the story
-A CMS system (finally :p)
-Arcanist Stones, powerful ancient artifacts that, when acquired, either perform a one-shot boost or have permanent, lasting effects

Dramatis Personae:
Dakkon
Age: 25
Weapon: Sword
Bio: A young villager drafted into military service as little more than a glorified town guard, Dakkon is notorious for being a drunk and his sadism. Dakkon is extremely judgemental, tortuous to those he perceives as "evil" and courteous and respectful to the point of worship to those he sees as "good." To all others, he's indifferent but polite.

Rillidan
Age: 16
Bio: After his father's untimely death at the hands of a renegade assassin, Rillidan was quick to step in as king, being the eldest of his three brothers. Though he is young and inexperienced, his chancellor and advisors aid him in keeping the kingdom in a relative state of order.

Kaadath
Age: 37
Bio: No one is entirely sure why Kaadath has focused his energy into destroying Rillidan's kingdom. Indeed, no one is entirely sure who Kaadath is. He began as a no-name apprentice mage of moderate skill before disappearing for several years. What happened to him is a mystery; all anyone knows is that he is out of his mind.

Ilarnek
Age: Ageless
Bio: A minor demigod, son of Mephistopheles, Ilarnek's powers, while minor compared to most demigods, far outclass any human's. His true physical form is a white mask; he exists by possessing an intended host through his mask.

The Demons
Age: Ageless, approx. 2000 years old
Bio: The Seven are a ragtag assembly of once-humans, given immortality and powers beyond their wildest dreams. The leader, Doom, seeks to usher in Ragnarok but it is unclear whether his minions share his goals. The demons are, in order of highest to lowest rank: Doom, Hatred, Death, Madness, Sorrow, Rage, and Arrogance.


SCREENS:

The starting town of Rengard.


The first screen of my CMS.


The inside of a church, because it was there.


The forest I spent about half of yesterday mapping. Well part of it.


And the fix'd compass.

[Dominicy]

I demand a new main character.  Or at least a new appearance, because I'm tired of seeing so-called 'anti-hero' characters, this one is a genuine evil bastard.  I've seen the recolored Alex used in about four of five games, now >.>  Also, your compass thing looks HORRIBLE.  Try to mess around with the colors, that might help.  The story has some potential, given I only skimmed through it, but it'll take some effort to make it anything worth playing through.

Looking over the characters, the whole mask thing has been done, many many times before.  try for something unique.  Make him a sentient weapon or some-such, or just make him possess what's-his-name's shadow.  Sure, those have both been done before - though not quite to the mask's extent - but a mask goes beyond cliche any longer.

My advice is to practice mapping a bit more, try to make everything a bit more closed, and mess around with the story a bit more.  I want to see this work, honestly. xD

[Roland_Deschain]

Well Dakkon is SUPPOSED to be an evil bastard. Not to allow for character development or anything cliche like that, he's semi-based on a dnd character of mine, a paladin who thought he was acting for the good of the land and was exceedingly harsh and tortuous on people he judged as evil but courteous and respectful of anyone he judged as good, indifferent to everyone else. I suppose I should have covered that a bit more... anyway he's less an antihero more a regular hero with a sadistic tendancy.

As for the mask idea... I honestly can say I had no clue it was overused. I've never seen it done anywhere at all, and here I thought I was being original. And I know my maps suck, they always have.

And lastly, the recolored Alex is a placeholder.

[Roland_Deschain]

Fix'd the compass.

[Prpl_Mage]

My advice. Don't use that charset for the CMSs letters.
Open up paint.
Make a picture being 320(wide) and 240(tall).
You can even take a screenshot of your current one and paste it of course.
But please write the text using paint's writing tool. It's far nicer in my opinion.

And the story works, if you manage to make it good.
But then again. None of the Nes-GBA zelda games had a solid story with many plots. That's the good thing.
So as long as you manage to make the battle system challenging and fun: this will be grand.

But just one more minor thing: Why the use of ragnarök?
The northern mythology got nothing to do with demons, just trolls. And Giants of course.
Ragnarök is the end of Midgård and Asgård from which the world would regenerate eventually.

Harmagedon would be a more appropriate term in this case. If it is, the end of the world. That or apocalypse of course.

[Roland_Deschain]

I used Ragnarok because it sounded cool really. >_> There's no real basis for the story besides my high school study hall doodles.

As for the CMS, I like how it looks personally. The font matches the rest of the game's font stylistically and it works. It may not be extraordinarily pretty, but keep in mind the whole thing is WIP.

[Prpl_Mage]

And that''s why I'm handing out advice. So you can keep working on it for the better.
At least try to you know, move the letters closer to each other. That's my main problem.

[Ben]

does the compas ever change direction? Like, is north ever to the left?or down?

[Roland_Deschain]

It might, but isn't right now, due to the game being setup like most traditional RPGs in that the scenery is kinda fixed. As in, if you enter the forest through the west (left) entrance, you enter facing east (right) by the game's compass. Basically you have a fixed North/East/South/West making it easier to navigate quests and such.

[Linkforce]

Recolored alex has too go. Everyone is using him lately =P
Other than that, pretty damn cool.

I actually don't see the problem in using it.  The only thing that's the same is the hair really.  But that's just my opinion though. 

[Nightowl]

Ehh... Should CMS have background?
And the text looks kind of ugly...
Well... Ya know.

Did you inspire that from my CMS?

Linkforce: Hey, could you put new download link to Carpe Diem? It's broken.

[Roland_Deschain]

No, I've had this game going since the last time I left Charas, so a while. The CMS hasn't changed at all since I started work on the game, except yesterday when "Items" became "Status."

[Fisherson]

Iteresting I like your story. I look forward to the devolpment of this project

[Roland_Deschain]

Update!

The ABS is coming along well and all, apart from still not showing damage to the player. >_<

I've coded up to the second boss, enemies, story, and npc's included. Once I get health working properly, the third boss, and an optional boss coded, I'll post a demo.