Carpe Diem: The Living Flame

[Prpl_Mage]

There's a new demo? Must play

[Linkforce]

Emerates: Hmm....well did you enter the Mayors house yet?  From the side of the house?

Prpl: Yes, go play!!    Enjoy it!

[Emerates]

Yes.  The problem comes after that part.

[Linkforce]

Ok the cutscene is supposed to automatically teleport you over the fence.  Skylar jumps it and then you gain control of him, did that not happen for you?

[Emerates]

No, my broheims just kind of ditched me.  Eventually I just ran it in test mode and cheated my way through the fence.  It might be good to add an extra event that lets you jump the fence one way in case this happens to anyone else.

[Shady Ultima]

I can't seem to get past the intro? When the battle with the two Final Fantasy style guards starts, the game says it's missing a 'spear' resource, and quits. Maybe that's just me? A problem with it not having the RTP?

[Prpl_Mage]

I can't seem to get past the intro? When the battle with the two Final Fantasy style guards starts, the game says it's missing a 'spear' resource, and quits. Maybe that's just me? A problem with it not having the RTP?

I assume that's the Battle animation file for spear attacks. So yeah, you might need the RTP

[Linkforce]

Emerates: hmm you may have pressed a button that messed up the event. I'll try and fix that so it doesn't happen again. Were you at least able to move on?

Shady: yeah you need the rtp sorry ^_^'

[Emerates]

Not without cheating.  Without a backup, the glitch pretty much ephs you.  That's why I suggest adding a one-way jump thing in case, or revising the other one so it can go both ways.

[Linkforce]

Yeah I fixed it right up.  Sorry for the inconvenience Emerates ^^'
I hope you didn't run into any trouble after that!

[zidane912]

so i played your game until the part where yuo fight Leonis and i just got into Bisvale i think its called.  The cave flooding was pretty awesome i like how you made it flood more and more each map.  and leonis was really hard but not unbeatable so it was good.  I gave the game to my bro to play and hes a lot better at writing then me and plus hes older so he sent me what he thought about the game.  Heres what he said.


Yeah, I got to play Carpe Diem, I'm at the part where Alkamar just layed the smack down on those two guys Lascius and Rander (sp?).  So far I like the game a lot.  When I first started polaying it (Chapter 1) I thought it was going to be a boring game, but this just gets better and better with each chapter.  My favorite chapter so far is 3 but if this one continues the way it is, it might be this one.  Haha, you like Haru?  Of couse you would, cause you know I would like his best friend haha.  No but seriously, I do like Skylar, I just think his story needs to be told more...you know more about the other characters then ytou do about him.  I hope the next chapter (which I'm guessing will switch back to him) will focus on him more instead of everyone else.  (Especially that little kid, Ledren?  Or Ledron?  Idk I'm too lazy to check)  Yeah, I don't see how he's an important character except that he saw that flame thing but it's still early in the game.
The only thing I want to see is the actual main plot develop.  So far I'm just going from point to point because of things that happen, but what is the actual plot?  What's the story and what's the bigger picture?  I hope I find out before the demo is over or I'm going to have to go on that website myself and ask the game developer directly, hahaha.  I'll tell you what I think of the rest of the demo once I finish.  If I have time, ask the game maker if he wants a review or something, I still have a couple weeks before classes start.

[SaiKar]

Decided to stop being lame, am downloading now. Will play sometime this weekend and see how things are. I swear though, if I get hit with berserk / blind on that stupid orc boss in the second chapter and die a horrible death without being able to do anything about it, I'm never touching this game ever again.

Edit: as follows is basically every thought I had while playing the game:

CHAPTER 1
* Man, it's kind of annoying not having ANY way to stop the text. After a few minutes I wanted to get a snack and had to just let the scientists babble away their crytic nonsense I didn't understand anyway.
* The merchent gives Skylar a lift of all of like 20 feet down this road.
* "Neutral soldier" seems like an oxymoron
* SKYLAR VICTORY EYE TWITCH!!! He should get that checked out.
* The whole "I needed you to kill the guards" thing seems a bit contrived. And really, was this guy smuggling exactly 1 sword? I mean, the guards DID check the carriage and they found nothing, so unless this merchant has like a thousand swords under his shirt... okay, I'll stop.
* Can't save on overworld map...
* Skylar's face makes him look like an 8-year old girl.
* The overlay clouds on the overworld are cool (first positive comment?!)
* It's weird to introduce a new character and then make it so we can only see a few pixels of the top of his head.
* Christ, is ALL the text in this game the auto-close box variety? What made you think this was a good idea?
* Skylar talks to Haru like he's his father. "You've really matured"? I mean, who says that?
* I think the most lasting impression Chrono Trigger has had on gaming is having the general-purpose fanfare music for when a new character joins the party.
* "There are many save points in this game" my ***...
* I like how there are cats everywhere. Cats are cool.
* Okay, now we're going through a dangerous cave to try to find a ship just so Skylar can reach his hometown for like a day. Talk about impulsive plans running amok.
* I already read the damn sign, don't make me read it again!
* Sort of defeats the point of having visable, avoidable enemies if you can't avoid a bunch of them because they're blocking hallways...
* Haru is about a thousand times cooler than Skylar in combat.
* I do like how the monsters are all of the same style as the characters.
* Not sure why you decided to have the "miss" text say 0 damage. Seems sort of confusing.
* I have a strong feeling that if I ran out of time on the other side of this bridge I would have to force quit the game and restart. Not willing to go back to my last (only) save to test it though. Just sayin, that seems really crappy.
* Oh wait, another save. But now I can't hit the bridge switch for some reason.
* I just found out that you can hold shift to dash. The game sure didn't tell me this! And it also makes me wonder why I have to hold down a key to move faster when you could just make it so you automatically dash and save me a finger cramp.
* Okay, I admit I just control-walked through the walls to avoid these stupid spikes after a while. They got kind of old after about the 5th room full of them. This dungeon started out pretty cool with the lizards and the spikes and stuff, but it seems you kind of ran out of ideas after that and so just put in more and more rooms full of lizards and spikes.
* MAN Skylar blows at combat compared to Haru. I might just stick him on salve duty.
* Save points are awfuly talkative.
* Oh come on, you can totally just walk between those spikes!
* Oh gee, mandatory loss battle at the very first boss fight. That's freaking wonderful. Glad I burned a bunch of healing items trying to win this.
* OKAY WHAT THE HELL. This new guy was totally ****ing useless. Him AND Skylar hit the boss for 0 damage, with the exception of newguy being able to do exactly 3 30-ish hits from his special move which I couldn't use more than 3 times since I have no way to restore MP. Only the allmighty Haru was able to break 0 damage and did 4 or 5 per hit. Meanwhile the boss was hammering away with 20-30 per hit faster than all of my characters combined. I had to use all 10 of my salves and both my cure salves and STILL had both non-Haru characters dead at the end of the fight. So of course only Haru gained any exp.

Actually, you know what, I'm just gunna stop here. This feels like I'm being punked. Is there a secret "not completely get your *** kicked in combat" button or something? That battle was ridiculously overpowered for a first boss fight and the fact that only Haru got exp from that fight pisses me off. I don't think I want to play this game anymore if it's gunna be like that. So yeah. See ya in another year or so.

Edit: Oh, cool, my Rander poses made it into the files. I spent a solid afternoon working on those way back when.

[RPG LORD]

OK, so I played the demo until I got to the first town.
Seriously.
Not being able to skip any text at all, let alone the intro, not being able to save unless you find a save point...wherever you might be able to find one.
I do want to continue playing some day, but come on, some more player activity, especially in the early parts, might not hurt so bad.
I'm not looking forward to enduring that mighty long opening again just to see if I can find a save point somewhere after that.

I don't wish to appear mean after that long absence of mine, but it definitely needs some work.

[Prpl_Mage]

* Oh gee, mandatory loss battle at the very first boss fight. That's freaking wonderful. Glad I burned a bunch of healing items trying to win this.
* OKAY WHAT THE HELL. This new guy was totally ****ing useless. Him AND Skylar hit the boss for 0 damage, with the exception of newguy being able to do exactly 3 30-ish hits from his special move which I couldn't use more than 3 times since I have no way to restore MP. Only the allmighty Haru was able to break 0 damage and did 4 or 5 per hit. Meanwhile the boss was hammering away with 20-30 per hit faster than all of my characters combined. I had to use all 10 of my salves and both my cure salves and STILL had both non-Haru characters dead at the end of the fight. So of course only Haru gained any exp.

I got stuck as this the last time I played.
I think the strategy involved "hope that the boss don't increase its defense", punch it and after it uses that stupid skill - > use your character abilities.

[Linkforce]

zidane912: Thanks man, and thanks for giving it to your brother!  I'm glad he stuck with it and found an enjoyable experience   Tell him to join charas, haha!

SaiKar: Ok, after reading everything you said, I found the only way to rebut this is to go point for point on what you said. 

*It's called an intro.  They're usually long and filled with things you won't understand until you keep playing.  Usually intros do that.  Unless you are playing an action game...this is an RPG.
*I wouldn't say 20 feet but its not too long.  Did you want me to make the road 10x as long and have you go down the whole thing for 5 minutes?  If you also noticed, there was more path leading to the town.  Skylar jumped off early.
*Not even gonna bother with this one cause you would understand why its "neutral soldier" if you continued to play.
*He's winking?  It's called a victory pose.
*You know, it's a fantasy RPG for a reason.  Maybe you can use your imagination for a second and not take everything so literally.  Maybe it was covered in the carriage?  Maybe he just had one stashed away under his shirt that fell out?  Yes stop..
*There's a save in the first village.
*Maybe he has great skin complexion.
*Thanks.
*It's supposed to make you think, "who is that, etc etc."  That scene isn't very long too idk why you must complain.
*No, all the text isn't auto-close in the game.  Most important scenes are but everything else is at your leisure.  And they're called "cutscenes" for a reason.
*His father?  He hasn't seen his best friend in 4 years.  That means they were 13 and 14 when they last saw each other.  A lot of maturing happens in those years.
*Ok
*Many save points meaning types of save points.  You should maybe play past Chapter 1 to see them all.
*'Cats everywhere huh?  You mean the 1 in the inn and the 1 in the item store?  My fault...waaaaay too many cats.
*fighting through a dangerous cave.  Would you have rather just got there and mission accomplished?  It's an RPG not, use your imagination, obviously things are going to not work 100% with common sense.  You could say oh why don't they just swim around the border or oh why don't they just climb over the border.  It's a game.
*Oh no reading a sign twice!
*Maybe I didn't want all the enemies to be avoidable?  Just because you can see them doesn't mean they'll just get out of your way or won't block places off.
*Thanks.
*Thanks.
*Just a design choice really.  I have a "missed" sound effect that goes along with it though.
*You have more then enough time to get across the bridge and back.
*Can't hit the switch?  I'll have to double check that.
*Yes, I should probably include a small tut in the beginning to let the player know about the run button.  Also, I don't like my player sprinting wherever he goes.
*The cave is only 5 maps long, you must have a very very low tolerance...to everything it seems.
*Yeah Haru is a little overpowered and Skylar needs a tune up, I've always had stat issues, gotta work on that.
*They just wanna be your friend.
*Really?  Walk between the spikes?  Dude, give me a break this is a VIDEO GAME.  This isn't some movie where if one thing is off it destroys the integrity and creates a plot hole.  If he could fit between the spikes, then are you really fighting s floating lizard holding a spear?  Are you really walking through a cave with automated spikes in it and random switches that god knows who placed?  You think tiny lizards would actually constitute slicing with your sword when you can just walk over them?  What about those holes in the ground, do they really have items in them?  How does that bridge just appear and disappear out of thin air?  And for that matter, what are those sparkling lights where you can save your game?  What does that mean, save your game?  Is life just a game?  Oh wait, it isn't life, its a VIDEO GAME.  Honestly dude, give me a break.  If you're gonna sit there and nit pick at all the things that you can't except are fantasy and not use your imagination and be so close minded and one sided then what are you even doing here?  If you can't grasp this concept then idk even what to say anymore.
*I agree, this boss battle needs tweaking I'm gonna go back and work on it.

Also, if you're quitting after the FIRST dungeon, then you sir have no patience what so ever.  You can't even give it a chance and giving it a chance isn't nitpicking every small thing, and then giving up once things get hard.  Giving it a chance is at least playing the demo, because it's supposed to show you what the game will be like.  But hey, if you don't want to then that's fine with me.  May I suggest you change your attitude about RPG's in general, if this is indeed how you interpret them, because you're going to continue to be disappointed at anything that isn't on a major console.  Keep in mind....this isn't Final Fantasy or Chrono series or what not...it's an rm2k3 game.

RPG LORD: The above post will answer your points.