Eternal Sonja Trailer

[daoman89]

I know it's been awhile since I've mentioned I was going to create a trailer, but I finally did!  It's not the best quality, but it's good enough.  Cut me some slack I posted a demo and other crap for this

http://youtu.be/mlRN0wOzXAg

[drenrin2120]

That trailer is wayyy too long to keep anybody's interest. With a trailer you want to give people a taste of the gameplay, but not too much! So they'll want to see more.

Anyway, about the looks of the game, RTP is RTP and I really just don't like the rtp battlers, but that's just me, it's really not that important. I like that your dungeons don't seem to be linear and just crammed with monsters. The dialogue bothered me a bit, but I can't quite place my finger on it, it just really didn't feel natural. But dialogue can be really hard to do right. I would suggest looking up some tuts on that (I don't know of any, so a google search would be best).

[Meiscool]

I think I agree with dren on the dialog. It feels almost like you are trying to force the personalities through the text, making it feel unnatural.

Some of the dungeon ideas seemed cool, especially cooling the lava. RTP is limited but you used it in imaginative ways.
The mapping bothers me quite a bit... Things like grass edges on bridges and whatnot... but I am a mapping whore so ignore me.

And, as dren said, it was long. However, it was probably meant to be a gameplay trailer, not a teaser

[daoman89]

Yeah i saw it was over 9 minutes and i was like whatever haha. 

I'm not sure what to say about the dialog.  It may be it shows their personalities without being properly introduced as they would be if u play the game.  Dont forget, some parts of the dialog were cut off.  So some parts of the scene jumped to another part with no transitioning.  Otherwise you wouldve had an even longer video hahaha. 

Let me know about a piece of dialog you didn't understand and I'll see what I can do or maybe explain to you why it said that blah blah u get point haha

[Natako]

I feel that you spent too much of the trailer focusing on things which did not really need to be focused on, such as the battle system and menu screens. Trailers are meant to intrigue and draw interest, so it would be better not only to shorten it as mentioned but to focus more on the unique elements of your game, such as glimpses of your puzzles and story which would draw a potential player in. You probably haven't completed the whole game yet and were using what you had on-hand, so I won't harp on that too much. Let's be honest, people play turn-based RPG's primarily for the stories, the dungeons, the environments, and the puzzles rather than for the tried-and-true turn based systems unless the developers have really brought something new to the table. But enough nitpicking about the trailer since this is a work in progress and there was only so much you could include in it.

In addition to what's already been said, I noticed that you're skirting around some possible cliches. It's difficult to tell from a 10 minute video, so maybe I'm wrong. The characters seem to be a bit archetypal - for instance, there's the intrepid hero, the wisecracking mage, and...well, at one point, I saw a cleric-type character with a bow, I believe. I could be wrong; maybe you've done something new with them that I can't see from the trailer, but that's how it came across to me.

Also, the promise. Big cliche. Things of this sort are very common in JRPG's and anime.

There's one more nitpick I have, and then I swear I'll shut up. This is more of a pet peeve of mine than anything else, but I find it rather distracting when a custom RPG borrows its spell and ability names from commercial RPG's like Final Fantasy.

I'm interested to see what you make of the game, though. I'll have to give the demo a try when I get a chance. Morally ambiguous stories are always something to look forward to!

[daoman89]

lol u dont have to shut up.  cliches are hard to avoid.  I see them in game after game or show after show etc.  I chose the spell names because most people will know what they are rather than the weird ones I've seen in some recent RPGs. 

The promise was cliche, but I believe it to be necessary for the story. 

I'll give a brief explanation for the 4 main protagonists for you tho.

Vash- The one that shows the most concern towards others, besides Cheryl.  He seeks revenge on the group Sonja because of what they did to his home town.  It is that that drives him forward, sometimes interrupting proper decision-making.  He is easy to manipulate.

Kyro- Vash's best friend, but on his own is a coward.  Due to a horrific event during his childhood, he's very careful and will try to get out of anything that puts his own life at risk.  But in time, he slowly overcomes his flaw of fear.

Arte- The intellectual and strategist of the group.  It takes a lot of focus and patience to learn how to read about using magic, which is why he's the knowledgeable one.  But being that, he's also very cocky and arrogant.

Cheryl- The group's motivator and only person of the group to keep everyone in their right mind.  Without her, the group would emotionally fall apart.  She's very forgiving and merciful.

Yes the turn-based battle system is there, but some of the fights require strategies to win. 

The people whom I have told the story to have found it interesting and wonder how the hell I came up with a lot of the stuff haha. 

And i've come up with some interesting ideas of potential environment puzzles and such.

All in all, this isn't suppose to be a legit game that's aiming for profit.  Just a fun lil hobby to express my imaginative side.

[Natako]

rather than the weird ones I've seen in some recent RPGs. 

There are only so many ways you can say "Fire", after all.

[Meiscool]

I think the persona series did the best job with making new names for the elements. Agi = fire, Bufu = ice, Zio = electricity, Garu = wind. They add suffixes and prefixes to stronger variants.

Just throwin' ideas at ya.

[daoman89]

It won't be hard at all to chance spell names cuz I don't think there is any in the dialogue haha.

I could just put them in German.  Fire = Feuer, Feuera, Feueraga...  Ice = Eis, Eisa, Eisaga...  Thunder = donnern, donnerna, donnernaga... lol

[Archem]

Something that simple seems kind of transparent. Maybe a corruption of German, or other languages?

[drenrin2120]

ICEGO

[Natako]

TORGO



Ok, I'll admit it...that was bad.

[Cerebus]

The master would not approve.

[daoman89]

How about...

Burn I, Burn II, Burn III

Freeze I, Freeze II, Freeze III

Shock I, Shock II, Shock III

[daoman89]

What I could also do is sorta an idea from FF2, even tho I didnt really like it, but basically the only way to gain stronger magic is by using it a certain amount of times rather than just leveling up.  Same with white magic.  If you want to heal deadlier ailments, you need to use Panacea a lot rather than using items to heal.  However, white magic would require more uses because it can be used outside of battle. 

Kyro being the green mage sort of, he can learn his skills by... hmm...  I'll make them available at shops lol.  and Vash will be the normal level up.

As for the most powerful skills, they will remain via sidequest.  If u have any ideas, just throw them at this topic!