Final Moon

[Doan the Nado]

It can be downloaded at the Domain:

www.doanthenado.com/hosted-material.html#lunar-FM

Lunar: If you want me to change your game's description, just post here or PM me with the description you'd like.

[doyleman]

I tried the game, and wow, this game needs some... sprucing or something.
I had no idea that I had to run into the enemy for me to hurt it (I hit square atleast 10,000 times, nothing happened), and if I'm in a battle and hit stats, I somehow die, and when I jumped for the ladder, I fell into the water and died...

This game fustrated me like no other. Not that it was bad, I'm sure there was many good things in it, but atleast telling players what to do helps, mini tutorials here and there. Also, I found the sword graphic of [] to be annoying! it lasted like 4 seconds per hit, which may not seem much, but it gets old.
I couldn't get far because I could never reach the ladder from jumping off a cliff shortly after the 1st couple battles, so I can't tell you much about the game plot wise.

I hope this didn't discourage you or anything, its just that when one doesn't know what he's doing wrong when what he's doing seems right (pressing square seemed like it should hurt the enemy, not running into him) gets on one's nerve.

anyway, if you were to put tutorials and stuff in, and check out why I can't seem to reach the ladder, it could be better.

[LunarMoon2]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've actually thought of making this entire part of the game a tutorial and seeing to it that it'd be extremely hard to die in this area but a RPG Maker 2 guide said that it'd be best not to provide a tutorial unless the battle system was very complicated (Ex. Final Fantasy Tactics).
I originally made it so that you could indeed hit the enemy without touching them but I ran into problems when it came to implementing combos and abilities. You can't move the party with an action script and considering the fact that pretty much everything about the fighter class requires such a thing, I decided to go with the current method (considering the fact that this pretty much uses a 2D battlefield, that shouldn't cause to much of a problem). If the method you suggested gets the majority of the popular vote, I'll use it though I rather not convert due to the fact that it will unnecissarily complicate the battle system. However, ranged weapons and spirit attacks can ONLY be used if you're not touching the enemy.
As for your ladder problem, if you look closely, there's a ditch of water between the ledge and the ladder. In order to jump at all, this includes the ditch, you have to press the Square button as soon as you hit the ledge. If you don't press it, you will indeed fall. However, I've decided that since this is the first level, the player won't be killed instantly for failing to jump the ditch but will simply be picked out of it without penalty. However, in later areas, the penalty for falling into deep water or a "bottomless pit" ,as they're called in many platformers, will be much greater.

[LunarMoon2]

Sorry, for the extremely delayed reply, Doan, but I wanted to completely finish the first three chapters of the game before my reply. This would afterall be where you first have control over a Dark Knight (Aark), however, I wasn't able to finish that area quickly enough so I'm just going to send the very polished version of this area. Additions include a larger amount of special attacks that you can use, large touch ups on the appearance of the area, a new intro, the ability to jump, and a complete tutorial. Despite my absence, I've been quite busy.

As for the description, could you please simply put the following? "This is the first few minutes of LunarMoon's game, Final Moon (includes an action battle system)."

[LunarMoon2]

The game has been released.

[manji]

i had a hard time playing through your demo of Final Moon. i see lots of potential, but the execution doesn't feel so smooth. i think the whole 2D battle system is a great idea though.

battles are a little confusing, and i still don't know if i'm doing things right. i got stuck in the cliff area, after i came out of the building with the blue orb that teaches you an ability.

[LunarMoon2]

Thanks for playing. I'll send you the code in a personal message for being the first person to review the demo (It won't actually do anything until the next version of the demo). In order to get past the cliff, you'll have to press the square button to jump. You'll have to move over along the edge for one step and then press it as soon as you take a step.

What was it that you found confusing about the battle system? Did I give to much information at once (that speech about the elements may have been a bit long winded) and were you able to follow the tutorial? The difficulty wasn't too high for the first level, was it (you said that you had a hard time playing through it)?

[manji]

-Thanks for playing. I'll send you the code in a personal message for being the first person to review the demo (It won't actually do anything until the next version of the demo).

cool. thank you for making it to play.

-What was it that you found confusing about the battle system? Did I give to much information at once (that speech about the elements may have been a bit long winded) and were you able to follow the tutorial? The difficulty wasn't too high for the first level, was it (you said that you had a hard time playing through it)?

right, it wasn't necessarily the game difficulty that made it hard, but more the execution of battle commands and how to get them working. in what order do you execute attacks? when you're next to an enemy, do you press the directional button towards them, then square to attack, then whatever other button combination? i couldn't seem to heal myself either.

as for your battle tutorial, i think it's mostly pretty good. i was just having trouble pulling anything off in battle and feeling like i was in control. the elemental tutorial was maybe a little long-winded(only because i've been playing video games and RPGs for as long as i can remember), but ultimately, i thought it was very thorough and quite detailed.

the dialouge/story is looking and reading nice so far. i think you're on the right track in that department.

your enviornment could use a little more detail as well. such as, in the demo, the opening scene(especially!) or even room in which you start. adding some more texture detailing wouldn't hurt.

[Kumo Shinagi]

You have lots of potential for this. I few suggestions:

-Fix your messages. Type them and make sure your messages don't wrap around the text window.

-The environment is kinda bland looking, especially the opening ship scene. I'm sure you can find some textures that can be used there.

-The battle system, albeit is a very unique build, needs some tweaking. Somehow I couldn't attack the enemy.

-The visual effects, though cool, could use some alteration. For example, when the ship expoded, you can use the explosion objects in the VFX editor.

So far from what you have, your project has great potential, it just needs some fine tuning and adjustment.

[LunarMoon2]

right, it wasn't necessarily the game difficulty that made it hard, but more the execution of battle commands and how to get them working. in what order do you execute attacks? when you're next to an enemy, do you press the directional button towards them, then square to attack, then whatever other button combination?

You are correct.

i couldn't seem to heal myself either.

When you select the healing spell, you have to put in the combo, R1, in order for it to work. You’ll know when it works by the visual effect. In the next version of this game, it won’t be selected from the menu but it will instead be used by first pressing the Triangle button and inputting the combo (R1).

the dialouge/story is looking and reading nice so far. i think you're on the right track in that department.

Thank you. The story gets much better about halfway through the second demo. It also becomes a lot darker and focuses more on the characters' inner conflicts.

-The environment is kinda bland looking, especially the opening ship scene. I'm sure you can find some textures that can be used there.

I had actually been thinking about adding a few more test tubes behind the computer (as of now, the only test tube present is the one that holds "Adam")

-The battle system, albeit is a very unique build, needs some tweaking. Somehow I couldn't attack the enemy.

Manji pretty much explained how to attack pretty well.

So far from what you have, your project has great potential, it just needs some fine tuning and adjustment.

Thank you. Third time’s the charm.