A Reflection

Holy shit! It's an entry!

Seriously, this is just a reflection I had posted elsewhere. I figure it would make for a good read, so I'll make it an entry.

It's been a while since this was finished now. I look back on it now and I can't help but shake my head at all the mistakes I made.

First and foremost was...the writing. People have said that the dialogue was terrible and the characters were too samey. While I don't agree about the characters, I can see the point about the dialogue. This has been plaguing me for years now. I try to write my best, but it never turns out to be good enough. However with each attempt, I learn what NOT to do. Of course, that doesn't really tell me what I should do. It's kind of like process of elimination, heh. It's strange though. No one said much about Angelic Awakening's writing, so I must have done something right there. Maybe it was a fluke, haha.

Secondly, the menu was pretty badly designed, though it served it's function well enough. The worst thing about it was that it was map based. The numbers in the main menu were also out of control and I could never pinpoint the issue. Luckily I've improved my abilities since then. So map based menus are a thing of the past now. Here's hoping I'll do better.

Third was the battle system. I felt that I managed to create something fun enough, but there were many balancing issues, especially with spells and items. Spells could wipe out your party in an instant. On the flipside, items may have been TOO useful. As Nessiah demonstrated. Farming for zelum was easy enough with Gems of weakness. On top of that Outburst Crystals and Burst Gems ensured that you would always have special attacks ready in record time. I suppose in a way, this kind of balances out the cheapness of enemies, but I don't like it.

Lastly was field movement. The way I handled this was to just delegate field stuff to four tools. Nearly all the field challenges involved these tools. But the method for handling them was pretty clunky. GZ from GW mentioned that it was annoying to have to press a key to switch your current tool, and in retrospect, I agree with him. The system was only an annoying aesthetic.

I was actually going to create a big patch for the game that would've had a new menu, a load of edits and fixes and a new skill learning system. But in the end, I grew tired of dealing with the game and decided to focus my improvement efforts on SEB2.

Despite it's problems though, I think I managed to find that some people enjoyed SEB1 for what it was, merely an rpg condensed into a single location.

The other day Neok mentioned that games like Summon Night: Twin Age and Luminous Arc reminded him of the style of my games. It was actually a surprise to me. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? No matter though. That's just my style. Some people enjoy it so it's not like it's an astronomical failure. Not to mention I enjoy working this way.

Getting back to my main points. I plan to try and address SEB1's major faults in SEB2. Especially in the areas of battle and field movement. Writing is not my strong suit, but it's not in me to delegate that kind of thing to someone else, so I'll just do my best to characterize better and avoid dialogue pitfalls.

All in all, SEB1 was a good learning experience and I hope to do better with the sequel.

Sacred Earth: Bonds Closed

It's been a long haul, but as of now, Sacred Earth: Bonds is finally closed. Version 2 will not be completed unfortunately. Development has begun on Sacred Earth: Bonds II. All feedback gotten from Sacred Earth: Bonds will be applied to the sequel.

I thank everyone who played or was a help in the development process in some way, thank you again.

Sacred Earth: Bonds 2 Blog

And with that, this blog is officially closed for progress.

See ya.

Update: SEB Version 2

Although I'd like to be finished with this game, I still have work to do. Well I followed up on the first wave of feedback and I'm working on a new menu, a new skill system, and adding new scenes for tutorials and other stuff. And then I need to get all the voices into the scenes and contact the stragglers.

Here are some screenshots to leave off

Downloads

Easy Mode: http://rapidshare.com/files/147316599/Sacred_Earth_-_Bonds_Easy_Mode.rar.html

Normal Mode:
http://www.garuderobe.org/SEB/Sacred_Earth_-_Bonds_Normal_Mode.rar

Unknown Mode: http://rapidshare.com/files/147318991/Sacred_Earth_-_Bonds_Unknown_Mode.rar.html

--------- General Notes ----------

Databases to change difficulty, switch in the database of the difficulty you want to have
http://www.savefile.com/files/1803012

Download this and replace it in your folder. It fixes the main menu.
http://gamingw.net/pubaccess/47608/Map0007.rar
http://www.savefile.com/files/1802294

Voice Acting is incomplete actually. I figure I can save that for later and allow people to actually play the game, which matters the most. I'll rerelase once I get that done, but what you see here is the full game from start to finish.

READ THE TUTORIALS. You have two chances to do so in-game.

Make liberal use of spells like Cold Protection, Blaze Shield, and Storm Barrier, etc. They increase elemental resistance and should help out a lot.

Winning a battle with a finish burst is never a bad thing if it's available.

Gems of Bravery and Weakness aren't as useless as you may seem to think.

There is a sixth field tool hidden in the tower. Find it if you want to get stronger faster.

There are two endings. Which one you get depends on something that should make itself fairly obvious when the time comes.

Any other issues feel free to talk to me.

--------- Controls ----------

Arrows = Move character/menu cursor
1 = Enter the menu
2-5 = Field tools
Z/Enter = Action
X/Esc = Cancel

Release Notes 1

The release tomorrow will have three downloads according to difficulty. Easy Mode, Normal Mode, and Unknown Mode.

Easy Mode's enemies have pathetic stats and your SP gain is doubled, allowing you to grow your characters faster and breeze by enemies with little effort.

Normal Mode's enemies have the standard settings that I started with, SP gain is also normal. Nothing special about it. Some may find it a little hard though.

Unknown Mode's enemies have a large boost to all stats, but HP. SP gain is the same as normal mode, but to make up for it, the player starts out with more items and SP.

I did this to avoid difficulty complaints I got from testing really. Download easy mode if you're not really into difficult stuff. At least it won't stop you from seeing the story play out then. Otherwise, normal mode should do fine for anyone with half a brain and some strategic thinking. Unknown mode is just there for masochists.

I'll rerelease a fully voiced version after my VAs get their collective acts together.

Profile: Zuleika Miria

Race: White Wolf Beast

Age: 21

Gender: Female

Abilities: Heightened senses, Ridiculous strength

Weapon: Flashing Wind(Nodachi, an asian type sword with a very long blade)

Likes: Messing with Melodia, Things that don't require too much effort, Cooking

Dislikes: Bothersome people and things, Getting wet, Seafood

Personality: Zuleika is a rather mild individual, she's not crazy like Melodia and isn't quiet like Talin. She prefers to stand back and observe the situation before striking. She was raised in an Eltian village and trained by a woman named Naru Suzuharu in the way of Eltian swordplay, so she is a bit of an oddity among the Beasts due to her Eltian upbringing. With her monsterous strength and heightened senses, she can sense when an opponent is coming and can strike back with more than twice the force. Truly a force to be reckoned with.

Zuleika is a terrible, terrible cook. She's capable of making things like rice and basic curry, maybe even doing it well, but anything beyond that will somehow be turned into a mutated toxic mess capable of killing thousands with a single taste, so says Melodia and Talin...and Alzilory.

Zuleika also has a younger sister by the name of Kell Miria. She's the reason Zuleika travels around working in a mercenary-like fashion. To make enough money to send her sister to school. She did manage to make enough already though, so it's a mystery why she still hangs out with the group.

Profile: Luxuria Albion

Race: Human

Age: 18

Gender: Female

Abilities: Manipulation of Water, Knowledge of human weak points

Weapon: Dawn & Dusk(Dual Ether Guns)

Likes: Taking care of the group, developing new technology, mothering Melodia(much to her annoyance)

Dislikes: Nothing in particular~

Personality: Luxuria is a young woman traveling with Alzilory for reasons unknown. She's very knowledgeable about the human body, Human or Humanoid, and knows how to exploit the natural weaknesses in them.

She has a charming demeanor and no one that knows her can really stay angry at her for long. She uses two Ether guns in battle along with Water Ether arts. Using water to distract or heal and her guns to exploit weaknesses from afar. Luxuria has an older brother by the name of Eldis Ablion, and a younger sister by the name of Rhia Albion. Strangely enough, they're all separated and off on their own paths, never really meeting one another.

It's also worth noting that Luxuria's family invented guns and then went on to invent ether guns. Which would explain her skill with them. Guns as weapons are still relatively new to the world and haven't caught on yet though. The Albion family is also the group that's leading the technological revolution of the new world. The family and their business are constantly researching new technology and practical uses for them in their attempt to bring about their vision of "The New Age" for mankind.