Sacred Earth: Memory

Obligatory Update

2012-01-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

It's a new year and I still haven't updated this place. My boss said that I should, so here we are!

What's been going on recently? Well, I'm slowly getting work done as usual. I've actually been spending a good amount of time planning the storyline day for day in further depth as well as going back to the very beginning and fixing the sidequests that the player can engage in.

Right now, the quest system is structured so that only one quest may be taken and completed at a time. This is rather slow and cumbersome, so I'm redoing it all that the player may take multiple quests at once. So far, it's working out pretty good. I've managed to finish up Day One and Day Two's redone quests. Day Three has a bigger number of them, so that's where I am now

It's a lot of fixing rather than actual progression, but in the meantime, here have some screenshots.

When it's not fixing things, it's working on scenes, and when it's not working on scenes, it's writing out plans. I feel like I'm moving at the rate of molasses going up a hill, but it can't be helped. In a perfect world, I'd have/be able to do everything I want with great skill and progress at a good steady speed. Unfortunately, it's not a perfect world, so this is the best I can do.

Till next time.

SEM Boss Battle Demo

2011-11-28T19:36:00.000-08:00

It's not a full story and gameplay demo, but we finally have a small release for people to try. The demo contains tutorial explanations for the battle system and a single boss to try out which utilizes all the features of the battle system.

Sacred Earth: Memory - Boss Battle Demo <- Click.

Everything is explained within. All the systems, enemies you will be fighting, and the skills and abilities of your party members.

Have fun.

Update: New Layout & Link Arts

2011-10-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

Holy crap, an update! I know, amazing.

Anyway, I have something tangible to show, so why not?

A new system has been implemented into the battle system. They're called Link Arts. Which is based off of a similar mechanic present in Tales of Xillia. The functionality between the two versions are different however, due to one being a Real-Time battle system, and the other being ATB turn based. What they are in basic terms are co-op skills between two characters.

Link Arts are combination skills like those used in ToX. They contain elements and properties that the character may not have access to otherwise as well as have effects from both command skills involved in the link if applicable. Link Arts are the very last skills to be used in order. After a burst/ether skill, if a Link Art can be used, a message 'Chain Chance!' will appear for about a second. Hold Decision during this time to activate the available Link Art. Multiple Link Arts can be activated if the correct combination of Command Skills are active, but the command skills needed are different for each Link Art, so you also need to take heed of your entire party combination if you want to use more than one in a chain.

Link arts require a command skill from both characters to be active. Once a Link Art is used, the command skills involved in their activation will be ended. What makes Link Arts effective is the fact that the stats of both characters involved in the Link Art with be combined before the effect occurs. All passive effects involved in the calculation will be bolstered by the combined stats of both characters.

All I can say on the decision to include them is...fear not. They are really simple to implement and don't drag me down any. It took little effort at all. Though maybe I am a little biased since I know my own code....Hm, either way!

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You may also notice that the blog's design has changed, I decided to experiment a little and see if I could further customize my blog to make it more...'mine'. I think I succeeded. Maybe.

If you're curious about the art, then here. It makes for a good wallpaper actually! ~~*totally using this as a wallpaper myself*~~

Art by Eredhen

Anyway, that's all from me. In other terms of progress. I've completely mapped and puzzled day 2 and 3's dungeons. I need to add puzzles to the first dungeon still, and I'm currently working on making tiles for day four's events. All I can say in regards to that is; when you're making a dungeon, PLAN THE HELL OUT OF THE PUZZLE YOU PLAN TO INCLUDE BEFOREHAND! Seriously, making a pile of maps and then going back in to add a puzzle REALLY does not work. It really doesn't. At all.

I hope to update sometime sooner than I did this one! But we'll see! Maybe we'll have a demo sometime in 2038, hah!

Till then.

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

2011-09-15T02:38:00.000-07:00

Hello people.

I figured I'd type up a blog post since it's been....how long? A month? Two? I don't even know, but that's besides the point.

You come here to stay updated about SEM(I hope) And so I should do that! Now then, looking in from the outside, it may seem like nothing is getting done. And I personally would be inclined to agree, buuuuuuut....

...No actually. It's not true. Work is being done indeed! What? Well lets go through it all.

I myself have mostly been mapping, editing code, and wishing I could kill myself for having taken on the weight of nearly an entire SNES/PS1 Era RPG dev team alone.

But let's go into detail.

Will you be able to reach Rank 999? Me? I couldn't tell you! I don't have an endgame to gauge things by! Haha!

On the coding end of things, I've gone back and implemented Time Card effects into several party member's skills. What does this mean? Well basically, the Time Card system is now expanded and now more than just a select few characters can take advantage of it. I worked out the theory and Time Cards should theoretically be a very useful part of your battle arsenal once you obtain the use of them. Certain enemies/bosses will also make use of Time Cards, adding a new layer of strategy to the system. We'll see just what you can do with these to turn the tide, huh?

Not very effective...

That's more like it!

Another simple, but substantial edit I've made is that the battle algorithms have been altered. How? Nothing too drastic, I've merely reordered the chain of calculations, which resulted in the number scale of overall damage being reduced by a whole digit yet again. What does this mean? Well, it means that individual hits and damage from a single party member is essentially made ineffective. What now needs to be mastered are elements, hit count, and timing. Coordinate your attacks with your team mates to rack up devastating combo damage in order to win the day.

Day Two and Three actually take place in the same dungeon, but on different ends of the forest. So it's a new experience both times, I will try to ensure that I don't end up doing this kind of thing again, though!

There is much less to speak of on the graphical end of the development spectrum. But I'm doing my best. The current dungeon, which consists of 38 maps, is about half mapped at 20 maps completed. Once I finish those, I will need to create puzzle elements and obstacles and then I can call the dungeon complete. Which brings me to another point.

My approach to dungeons is going to change after this. One of my biggest dungeon inspirations is the Golden Sun series. But I've long since come to realize that I don't have the minds that Nintendo has, therefore, I'm going to switch it up. Rather than unique and specific puzzles, obstacles are going to consist more of field tool use. Figuring out which to use where. Sometimes it will be obvious, sometimes it won't. But use of field tools is going to take center stage rather than unique puzzles. This is easier for me, the developer. This game has to move, and if this helps it move, then so be it.

The others? Well, they're busy, but I do hope they can find the motivation to continue with their designated tasks. SEM will not die. I believe in my work and I hope you all can too! Thank you for your continued support and I will continue my work in the meantime.

Have some art to leave off!

Art by Lazcht

Annnnnd Skie signing out.

Video Update

2011-06-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

So I made a video compiling snippets of recent progress. Here you go.

Hello all, I figure I'd make a new vid since it's been a long time. So I compiled a bunch of progress and tossed it all into this one video. We have several different things going on here, so I'll explain.

First is a rather useless, but nice to look at, feature; randomized title screens. The one you see is completely random and chosen differently every time you start up. Nothing life changing but it was far too easy to implement and I think it looks nice! Haha. The title images were created by my good friend Erika. Yes, Erika, you're awesome! No escape! No denial! 8V

Next we have a battle. The battle shows off two things....okay, three things. First and most important are the function of Time Cards.

They're similar to Mana Khemia in that certain skills used will generate a time card. Time cards have different effects ranging from support attacks to healing and buffing.

In this battle, you can see an example of offensive and restorative time cards. Gunnar's Energy Storm, when extended into Exceed Limit, creates a time card that lets off three additional attacks when Gunnar takes his next few actions.

Patchoulli's Healing Echo creates a time card that when Patch takes her next few turns, the ally with the lowest LF will be healed. This has 4 charges.

Also shown are new playable character, Mir ,in battle as well as Enemy life bars, which are revealed after using Analyze on them.

And finally we have some town, menu, and scene shenanigans. Nothing much to be said here other than the fact that I redid the main menu's layout! Much more functional!

Suggestions and such are welcomed, so feel free to chime in!

And that's all from me. Over and out.

Menu updated: Member Locking

2011-05-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

As I worked on events, I quickly discovered that a certain function would be needed within the menu; The ability to lock certain party members out of use as the story calls for it. I thought I was going to be tearing my hair out adding this function into the menus, but...turns out, it was surprisingly easy. Less than half an hour and this is what I came up with.

So now if a party member leaves for whatever reason, a lock icon will be placed over their party slot and they cannot be moved into the battle party. Obviously because they are not there to be used story-wise. However, you can still upgrade them in the customization menus. I figure it would be annoying not to allow that.

So there. That's all.

Have some random other screenshots to leave off. I'm going to be falling behind the scenes to work on events now, so don't be surprised if visuals become few and far between. Can't see everything now. I suppose I will blog about other things I'm doing in the time for now.

See ya!

We revive!

2011-05-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

Hello people.

We've gotten work done. And by gotten work done I mean we've gotten work done.

The battle system has been entirely finished. All spells, skills, mechanics, and other minor nuances have been taken care of. It's done. DONE. DONE. DONE.

I also spent all last night rearranging the menu codes to account for Mir's rather unexpected inclusion into the game. So for now, battles are done, over with, out of the way. No more. But I won't be implementing battles yet still. I'm going to keep it in wait in case anything else needs doing, so until then, I'm going to focus on creating maps and advancing the progress on story events.

Speaking of which I have spent a fair amount of time outlining the next batch of story events. I hope my actual in game progress will move along so I can create these outlined events soon enough. I'll do my best to get there in a timely manner!

In closing, have some art!

Have I posted this before? I forget. OH WELL-*SHOT*

Nostalgia~

2011-04-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

Since Skie has nothing much to say (although making progress just hush hush) we would like to present an in-depth history of the Sacred Earth series system attempts that sadly didn't go so far~

April Fools~

2011-04-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Well as of 12:29 AM, 4/2/2011, April Fools day is past. With that said, in all seriousness, I(We) are working steadfastly in order to see progress made at a good rate. Here's hoping 2011 will be the year! Wish us luck! = v = )/

Demo Release

2011-04-01T00:16:00.000-07:00

Hello people. Today I have a gift for you all. I'm sure you've been waiting a long while for this, but. It's time to release a demo. Gameplay covers the entirety of Days One, Two, and Three. Mir is recruitable on Day Three. All systems and other nuances are explained ingame.

Download Link

Please enjoy!

Here comes a new challenger!

2011-03-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

Behold, what I have been working on in absolute secret till very recently! A new party member take the stage; Mir Clarence!

She will join the ranks of the heroes as a playable character with Air and Guardian based abilities. But don't worry about spell overlap, her air spells differ from Patch's! She is a unique character whose main shining point is to support the party's stats. She is the only character who has access to status buffing spells in that regard. With all this said, I leave off with screenshots.

Reassigning Stats + Other Stuff

2011-03-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

Hello people, I have finally gotten back to work on this. I've quit all my side groups and other stuff in order to focus solely on this! Anyway, let's move along.

I was experimenting with all party members starting off with 100 in every stat since someone told me that it would make more sense with the fact that you can change character's stat focuses.

But I don't like it. Maybe it does make sense, but it really, really bothers me. I don't care. I have to reassign their stats. So that's what I'm going to do. I am doing this following a specific formula though.

----- Rank Breakdowns -----

A: 110-120
B: 90-100
C: 70-80
D: 50-60

----- Status Rankings -----

Each character has one A, one B, one C, and one D in each of their four stats. Spread out differently for each character to denote their differences.

--- Gunnar ---

Life: C
Power: B
Knowledge: A
Parry: D

--- Veili ---

Life: C
Power: B
Knowledge: D
Parry: A

--- Priel ---

Life: B
Power: A
Knowledge: C
Parry: D

--- Patchoulli ---

Life: C
Power: D
Knowledge: A
Parry: B

This setup will ensure that all characters are strong in one area and weak in another. Then it comes down to working around their innate builds or just sticking to powering up what they're good at. It's up to you!

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I have also gotten work done in other areas as well.

Strike chains now only cost 25 EP max to use. I thought that 30 was too much. That and I like increments of 5 better than 6. I don't even know why I used 6. Let me tell you though, it was a nightmare editing them. Next time I have to make sure these battle processes are all referenced from a single place so that change is easier.

And the stat up formula has been changed for the rank up system. Now the stat you focus on will gain roughly double the amount rather than the unfocused stats. So if you focus on power when you have 76. You will gain 3 points of power on rank up. Unfocused will net you only 1. And as your stats increase, the gains also increase.

Also the system's tab has been updated. It was long overdue, but it's done now!

Annnd with that, I leave off with art! Till next time!

Art by TorriRAWR

Testing and Discoveries

2011-02-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

Hello people.

I had some friends play the game in it's current state in order to gauge how well the game runs and is designed, as well as how well written the game is thus far.

I came away with some very interesting results, and thus, some changes were made.

This interface should be familiar. Okay, not really, but the idea should be.

Field tools will be making a return to SEM. It just has to be done. Dungeons are bare and merely strolls through the scenery without them. So as it has been suggested, Field tools should return in order to mix up exploration once more.

The tool menu is tied to the same process as the main menu, so it was relatively easy to create it. It only took about ten minutes in fact! But that's besides the point here. The menu is tied to the shift key and when pressed, this interface will slide in from above. You merely press left or right to move the highlight over the tool you want and then cancel out.

All the tools from SEB, minus the watercraft, make a return. A slashing action replaces it, and a new tool called the 'Memory Fragment' is also available. This was included based on the point that dungeons were long and save points were few and far between.

Memory Fragments are consumable saves. You open the tool menu and select it with Z/Enter. If you still have fragments, then you will be prompted to save, and then a fragment is consumed. When you enter a dungeon area, you are given three fragments. No more, no less. Once you run out, that's it. Your Memory Fragments are replenished when you leave and enter a dungeon area again.

And on the subject of the design of the areas where you can use tools; they will not be as obvious as SEB with panels or glaringly obvious recurring cues being placed around. You will have to experiment.

And that's all for this update. Have some art!

Art by Replicated-Marchen

Updates

2011-02-01T08:57:00.000-08:00

So I've been doing some work. Obviously. But yeah. Have some screenshots.

At the top left, Battles have received some additional interface in my effort to not hide any information from the player. This time, it's a counter to show just how many uses you have left on your command skills. This way you won't screw up and waste turns trying to reload those commands only to get an 'already active!' message. Wasting turns would be a HUGE disadvantage in this battle system and I don't want that to happen!

Timecards are an enemy system, don't worry about that right now. No enemy has utilized it just yet. The interface is just there for now. But it will be used soon! = v =

I am also working vigorously on story events as you can see in the top right! I don't want to spend my life tweaking the mechanics! Right now I'm nearing the end of the events for Day Two. I just need to complete three more events. But unfortunately those events require sprites. God I hate getting stuck in spriting limbo which forces me to stop event creation, which in turn brings the game to a grinding halt. It's infuriating really. = ^ =

At the bottom right, we have the Soul Crystal system. Nothing's different. But I did take the time to fully edit the spell descriptions to tell the player what special effects each spell has! So that should help in deciding what spells to get.

Otherwise that's it from me! I will continue working and things will fill out as we finish them!

Have some art in the meantime.

Art by Chesslechat

Skills: The Neverending Saga

2011-01-14T07:48:00.000-08:00

And so, I come to update once more. What about? Skills again of course! Coming once again from DBAce09aura.

Ether spells have received a reworking. Not a total revamp, but now, all ether spells have special effects attached to them to insure that they all have a use! With these new spell effects in play alongside other character specific details, it serves to make the spells you want each character to learn even more important along with the way you level their stats and which passive abilities you have them learn.

An example of some effects implemented would be...(taken from the design document)

*Thunderbolt: "Bypasses Bolt resistance."
*Shade Imperial: "An additional skill may be used after." (FROST/FLAME/BOLT)
*Crystallize: "Reduces target EP by 10"
*Aqua Rune: "Disables Ether Skills."
*Petite Flamme: "Inflicts BURN status."
*Earth Rage: "May grant Caster PRY UP status."
*Aero Burst: "Regain 5 EP if BP is full."

...And so on and so forth.
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I took the time to implement fancy little animated area openings for dungeon locations. It's all very organized, so I don't have to work hard to edit it if necessary!

Area Rank Limit determines how far you can level in an area before your EXP starts getting severely cut, forcing you to move on to stronger areas. That's also implemented just fine. I just never got around to displaying that information to the player till now. *hits self* But it's all out of the way now!

In other news, I also have cut the amount of enemy targets from 3 to 4. The coding for 4 enemies will still be there, but I will only ever use three unless some special circumstance comes up for 4. That should speed battle up a bit more.

And I leave off with art! ~~I may be overlapping with this. I'm not sure!~~

Art by JIHAUS

Skills, skills, skills

2010-12-29T05:51:00.000-08:00

Poll is closed early as it is obvious what the verdict is. Now it's time for a different discussion.

I was thinking about it was I was working on adding an element to Gunnar's strike chain. I saw the conditions for his 'Gamble' command skill and....I realized how useless it is. It's a rank 2 command skill in which you deliberately cut the damage you could be doing in order to have a random chance to MAYBE do more damage. No one is going to use that.

So the solution? Gunnar needs a new command skill! I discussed with dbace9aura and JIHAUS and now I bring this to you. Here is the current base idea, unedited.

New Rank 2 Skill: Convert
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* Change longbow into crossbow. Lasts 3-5 turns.
* Disables Burst Skill command, even with full BP. Also disables Sacred Will.
* Each step of Strike Chain costs 1 Ether. More hits, less damage.
* When an offensive Ether spell is cast, 10% of Power rating influences potency, but automatically reverts to the default longbow. Doesn't apply to elemental barrier-type Ether spells.
* Rank 1 Skill will appear in its place when in effect.
* Focus command will revert it back to the longbow. Reversion also takes place if the user is killed in battle.

I'm thinking that all these effects for one command may be a bit much. The Ether spell bit looks a bit out of place. In fact that COULD be another command! In fact, lets cut that out and do a bit of editing...

Rank 2 Command Skill: Barrage

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* Each step of Gunnar's Strike Chain has alternate animations with a different weapon and halved cost at 3 EP instead of 6.

* Disables the Burst and Ether commands, even with full BP. Also disables Sacred Will and Exceed Limit.

* Maximum hits are increased, but the damage modifier is even less than normal.

* Rank 1 Skill will appear in its place when Barrage is active. Allowing for dual effect.

* Lasts 5 turns. Once the turns are up, the Barrage's effect ends.

OR

Rank 2 Command Skill 2: Arcane Boost
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* When an offensive Ether spell is cast, 50% of Knowledge rating influences spell potency on top of the normal damage algorithm routine, Doesn't apply to elemental barrier-type Ether spells.

So, tell me. What do you think should be his new command? Feel free to comment on the matter in the cbox or on this entry. I will also put up a new poll. Looking forward to your opinions!

Have some screenshots to leave off!

Small Update

2010-12-25T03:45:00.000-08:00

Hello people. I know I haven't touched this blog in a long while, but I am still working on this.

Bad news first, the completion of the base battle system has been halted indefinitely in anticipation of a tool called 'RPG Maker 20XX'. The features promised sound like just the thing I need to make production and completion of the battle system and the game overall that much smoother. But I HAVE done a little more tweaking to the numbers in the battle system in spite of that.

I noticed that early Burst Skills are actually WEAKER than Strike Chains. For example, Gunnar's Twilight Arrow is WEAKER than his Base Strike Chain. Amazing how I didn't notice this before! It was an easy fix though! Since the numbers of the battle system are easy to manipulate, it wasn't hard to readjust things. All skills have a certain multiplier that determines the level of damage regardless of what your attack is. So Skill X will always do more damage than Strike Chain. I just needed to give skills the multipliers they needed to be useful! Though, taking Elements into account, damage will greatly fluctuate regardless, so better watch out for that! Maybe I should give Strike Chains elements so that they also are governed by the elemental damage fluctuation.... POLL!

At Rank One, Gunnar's strike chain does about 60~70 damage. With a multiplier of 4 and a hit count of 3 at 79 PWR, Gunnar's Twilight Arrow does 93-103 damage. And when PWR increases, the damage done will still always be more than a Strike Chain. Easy, huh?

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On the story side of things, I'm actually progressing again! I had stopped to wait on the battle system completion that was taking forever to happen, so I went ahead and started plugging away at the story again. I am now working on the events of Day Two. I deviated from my initial plot outline to account for certain new mechanics, but I think it actually works better than before. Less wordy, and less event work while still getting character dialogue and objectives across.

I'll keep doing what I can do and hope that 20XX is worth it! In a meantime, you all enjoy your christmas, you fortunate people out there.

Have some art to leave off.

Not colored in because my BG skills are nonexistent. Sorry! ' ^ '

SEM - Town Layout & IDE

2010-11-07T21:49:00.001-08:00

Just an example of the new town layout. You can accept quests, see small side scenes, visit the battle arena and library, and find out about current I.D.E.s

Available scenes and quests change often depending on events passed and the which day it is. So if you're on Day 2, then Day 1's Quests and Scenes will be gone forever.

The last bit of the video shows how I.D.E.s are actually encountered. And fear not, they won't be that easy. I was testing.

Not dead yet

2010-10-31T19:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last update. So I'm just updating to say that no, we are not dead.

What's been going on then? Well I've been working on refining some of the old systems and tightening up the battle system a bit.

First order of business; There is a new system in place to replace monster hunting quests. It's called I.D.E Detection System. How does it work? Well when you're on the field, if you get close to a designated I.D.E Zone, then this setup will appear.

With this information displayed, you can choose whether to face the I.D.E or turn back. Some I.D.E's may activate when you try to access side paths in areas, so it may be necessary to defeat some I.D.E's in order to get to them.

I.D.E's are categorized by levels between 1 to 10 in order to signify difficulty. Of course, a Level 1 I.D.E will still be challenging in the beginning. So the player must use their own judgement to decide whether or not they want to face an I.D.E. . ~~What does I.D.E stand for you ask? Ohohoho, guess~~~

On the battle end of things, I made a small adjustment to the way enemies work. All enemies now have 100 EP max like the party and they regenerate alongside the party. I figure that it wouldn't be fair if enemies didn't follow the same rules as the party a bit.

Another planned change I want to make is to phase out having a walkable town. Instead there will just be a panorama and there will be symbols on it to show available quests, an NPC comment, or story events. The world map already does this, so it is not a hard change to make. I just need to get a town pano is all.

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And to leave off, have some art!

Music

2010-10-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no meaningful updates on my end, so have some music from Troy Grant!

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And to leave off have some art.

Art by Nessiah

Soul Shaping Discussion

2010-09-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

We'll be having a different kind of entry today. I want to discuss the Soul Shaping system.

From the system section:

When you travel about dungeons and field areas, you may find material called 'Soul Essence' laying about. Some of it is hidden, some of it is in plain sight. It is up to the player to find them. You spend your collected Soul Essence on this menu here to gain stat bonuses to help your characters alongside Rank ups. Think of it as a reward for going out of your way to find them. Each character has a max Soul Rank of 20. The cost of increasing a character's Soul Rank is the number of the next rank. So advancing to Rank 13 will cost 13 Soul Essence. That is about all there is to the menu.

However, I got an Email from DBAce9Aura who brought to me his opinion on how the Soul Shaping System was kind of bare as it was. After thinking on it. I agree with him. He also gave me plenty of great ideas on how to improve it. Many of which I plan on implementing. Right now, here is what I have.

As you increase your Soul Rank, in addition to gaining stats, you get additional bonuses in the form of passive abilities based on which category you choose when ranking up. There are 9 passive Abilities. They are divided by category and rank. So each category has three ranks of passive abilities. The catch here is that there are twenty Soul Ranks. So you can only gain 3 passives from the system. What you get depends on your choices. But you can gain any combination of Rank 1, 2, and 3 passives. Here are the passive abilities planned.

-- Soul Striker --

- Fury - 10% of Max HP is added to damage when performing Burst actions. Gained when getting to Soul Rank 5 via Soul Striker.

- Ail Strike - Chance to inflict a random status effect at the end of a Burst Action. (Poison/Debuff/Stop Movement/Freeze). Gained when getting to Soul Rank 10 via Soul Striker.

- Exceed Strike - Burst Damage is increased by 50 for each EX Block the attacker has in stock. Gained when getting to Soul Rank 20 via Soul Striker.

-- Soul Guardian --

- Healer - More LF and EP is recovered from Focus and LF from LP Revival is increased. Gained when getting to Soul Rank 5 via Soul Guardian.

- Watchful Guardian - LF and EP recovered from Crisis Recover is doubled. Gained when getting to Soul Rank 10 via Soul Guardian.

- Stalwart Guard - Parry is increased by 100 Permanently. Gained when getting to Soul Rank 20 via Soul Guardian.

-- Soul Magus --

- Rejuvenate - Regain an extra 2 Ether each passing turn. Gained when getting to Soul Rank 5 via Soul Magus.

- Magus' Will - Start off battle with an additional 10 Ether. Gained when getting to Soul Rank 10 via Soul Magus.

- Mystic Power - Ether Skills gain an additional bonus damage modifier based on current EP * 3 + Soul Rank = bonus damage. Gained when getting to Soul Rank 20 via Soul Magus.

And this is it. You can only get any combination of the first, second, and third passive abilities. So you can never get Fury, Rejuvenate, and Healer together!

As a note, I've decided to cut all passive bonuses from Strike Chains. They are meant to be basic attacks only for reducing enemy barrier. Making them more useful will take attention away from burst and ether, which would mess up the real focus of the battle system in my opinion.

This is what I am currently implementing. Is this good? Should there be more passives? Is it a horrible idea and I should burn in hell for all of eternity?

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And to leave off, have some art!

Art by Sathane

Video: Quests & Brave Clear & RANKUU UPU

2010-09-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

"Apologies for the off sync-ness. My laptop isn't exactly cutting edge now.

This is just an example of taking quests from NPCs as well as the Brave Clear, and Hit Counter Systems.

Battles will present you with random restricting challenges that you can adhere to gain a large boost to your battle score if fulfilled, which gives you the chance to get a higher battle grade, which in turn increases your overall SP and RP gain. But know that it is entirely optional. You can ignore these conditions. You merely won't get the Brave Clear Bonus for following them.

The Hits and Damage Counters are also two new systems I've implemented. On top of giving you a general idea of how much damage you're doing, your hit count gets added onto your damage in real time as they connect. So damage will actually escalate as the combo rises.

You also get a bonus onto your SP at the end of each combo based on your total damage. So deal as much damage as you can in order to get lots of bonus SP!"

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In other news, I have been plugging away at story events. Refining them and making sure they flow together. I've also got battle voices for most of the party, so that has also been implemented. However most of the work I've been doing is in the design document. Typing out ideas and setting others in stone. Why am I doing all this instead of advancing the story? Well I'm moving too fast and others need to catch up mostly. Amusing as that way sound. I also want to consolidate the game's engine before I march off and make story and battles, then end up having to go back and fix things!

That's all from me, have some random art to leave off!

Art by Nebelstern

And then there were updates

2010-08-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

Hello people. I've been working on SEM here and there when I could. I have some progress to show you all.

Or rather, a bunch of screenshots.

The last one is the highlight here. It's the new system I've been talking about implementing in the place of the now defunct Crossovers. It's the Combo Chain system. At a glance, it's just a hit count and damage display, but the catch here is that your hit count is added straight onto your damage in real time as your hits connect. It applies to Strike Chains, Bursts, and Spells. I also have to note that I shamelessly stole this idea from Jaymonius. He deserves the credit for prototyping the idea. I just went and made my own as well as added my own twist to it.

So yes, this is it.

So where does SEM stand now overall? Well that demo is still looming closer ever slowly. What's the holdup? Well Lily needs to complete the art for all demo relevant characters, and I need to finish the Soul Essence menu pictured above as well as finish applying the combo chain system to burst skills. After that I need to polish up the sidequests and make sure everything runs together well, then we'll be cruising down demo street~

Until then, have this art!

Art by Psychephilia

Numbers and stuff

2010-07-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

I posted this elsewhere, but I figured this was good blog material. I go over this briefly in the systems section, but this is more in depth. What we have here is basically how the battle system handles numbers.

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Damage Algorithm = (User's Offense * Skill modifier / 10) - (Target Defense / 20) + (Random Number 1-5) * (Elemental Modifiers) + (Critical Check) / (Target's Barrier)

Offense: That stat used for offense can either be Power or Knowledge. Power is used for Melee and Knowledge is used for Magic. This stat is divided by ten to make up your base damage.

Defense: The stat called Parry reduces damage from both Melee and Magic attacks. It is divided by twenty before being taken into the formula. Since it is divided by twenty in the formula, this means that damage will always be dealt and that it is very hard to overcome damage with defense. Only reduce it.

Skill Modifier: Skill modifiers are merely a single number that the offensive stat is multiplied by at the beginning of the formula. It can be a number anywhere from 2-15. Different skills have different skill modifiers. Obviously higher skills have higher modifiers generally, but since they cost more EP(MP) it's a tradeoff. As a general rule. The less hits a skill has, the higher the skill modifier. To a point that is, the highest skill modifier a starter single hit skill could have is 4.

Random Number: This is merely bonus damage that is added onto the base damage in order to diversify the numbers seen. It is randomly chosen and can be anywhere from one to five.

Elemental Modifiers: Nearly every attack has an element attached. Depending on the target's elemental rating, the damage is reduced or multiplied accordingly. Each Character/Enemy has an elemental resistance that ranges from -1 to 3 on each element.

If it's -1, then damage is tripled.

If it's 0, then damage is doubled.

If it's 1, then it does normal damage.

If it's 2, then damage is divided by two.

If it's 3 then damage is divided by three.

So it's important to check resistances and use the right skills and spells so that you don't waste EP doing little damage.

Critical Check: Depending on the skill in use, there will be a different critical check used. There are four types. 1/2, 1/3, 1/5, and 1/10 chances of striking a critical. As a general rule, the less hits a skill has, the higher it's critical chance. The more hits, the less chance there is to crit.

Barrier: This is a value that all enemies possess. It is like a second HP value. As long as they still have Barrier remaining, then at the end of the damage algorithm, the calculated damage is divided by 2. Even critical damage is reduced by this. Some skills can ignore barrier and strike directly at HP.

Crossover Damage Algorithm: User's Offense * User's Rank * Skill Power / Target Parry / 25 + Elemental Check + Critical Check + Barrier Check

For crossover skills, the user's Power or Knowledge is taken and then multiplied by their current Rank, and then multiplied by the Crossover Skill's Base Power. Base power is different for each crossover. The result is then divided by the target's defense, and then the whole thing is divided by 25. After ALL of this is calculated, the skill's element is taken into account, followed by the critical check, and finally the barrier division.

Another thing to note about this all is that the player will never miss. I despise missing and I facepalm every time I see it happen in other games. Therefore, I got rid of it. I do believe that is it for my numbers. I'm not a big math person so I try to keep it as simple as I can.

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Now for general progress. I have finished all the sprites I need to get back to work on making the scenes to finish off day one. Once I finish all that and test it myself, it will be time to allow the team to test and give opinions, and THEN we continue onto day two of the game. It feels great to finally be making a GAME instead of just spriting and setting up systems. I'm pretty excited myself actually!

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To leave off, have these.

Art by Hanaratsu-Kairi

This here is music track from the game composed by Troy Grant. He makes some pretty epic music and I'm glad to have him aboard!

And that'll be all on my end! Till next time!

Video: Trial Gameplay

2010-07-08T20:15:00.001-07:00

Yep. For those who don't get to try it. Here's a video for you.

Marching On~

2010-07-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

It seems that my passion for GoA is beginning to die down for now. So while I'm free from it, I'm working on SEM some. So far I've completed the intro scenes and began on the first scenes from the first story quest. I got a friend to look over my current script for the scenes to come and he gave me some very good rewordings and other fixes, so hopefully it won't be too terrible now.

Anyway, I'll leave off with these sprites and a screen and rush back to work while I still feel inspired.

Later~

Under...construction.

2010-06-07T08:44:00.000-07:00

Art by Evokid

Hello peoples. No I'm not dead...yet. And I'm still working, albeit things have slowed down considerably, but things are moving. I blame life sucking my soul dry. But on the other hand, I have been participating in some new RP group called GoA. I've never done it before, so it's been a fun new experience. But anyway!

In regards to SEM, what have I done? Well It's mostly been on the writing and design side of things. I've been designing quests, monsters, skits, and story events for the first 'Day' before I go and actually make them. I pretty much finished that and I made 2 out of the 5 quests available on Day One. I still need to design the monsters for the Bifrost Plains as well. If only it was as easy as messing with the default database. Instead, I need to set their LF overflow value, their Max Barrier, EXP values, and Elemental resistances all from the battle events page. It's tedious for sure. But nevertheless. It could be a lot worse. Other than that, a whole lot of story events need to be made. Which means hooray, more spriting!

And speaking of sprites, I finished Veili's new sprites and I implemented them all over her old animations.

So Veili is now good to go. I really don't want to be messing with battle stuff again, so hopefully this is the last I have to hear from it for a while.

Also, someone mentioned something about how terrible the element icons in the status menu were a while back? I think it was DBAce9Aura. I'm too lazy to check. But yes, your wish has been granted.

Courtesy of Nessiah. Thank you. ;A;

And on the artistic side of things, Lily has finished Mireille's faces. Here's a sample.

Funny story; Lily, Haus, and I are all in GoA, so we'll probably be blowing most of our time on that for a while! Ohoho~

Anyway, see ya later.

Some changes have been made

2010-05-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

Hello people. I'm not completely okay yet, but things are starting to look up a little. I got a job so I expect my free time to tank. But I'll keep working and try to get a sizable demo out. I can't say when but I don't want to rush and make mistakes, so we'll see.

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There's something else I want to address. If you aren't observant, then you may not notice that Nessiah has been removed from the team list and Lily is there now. Well a lot of things have happened now, and I feel really bad about it. But I think everything that can be done was done. There are no problems between us and we're still friends I hope.

And on that note, allow me introduce Lily. If you've visited the Magician's Quest link in the blogroll then you already know of her. She's a good friend of mine and she's agreed to take over from the ground up. So treat her well, okay? Here's an example of her work for the curious.

These are the faces that will be shown during skits. Which are side conversations that can be passed over at player discretion. They serve mostly to flesh out characters and give player insight on their opinions about current events, the people around them, and each other.

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And while we're on the subject of changes, Veili is getting one as well. I figured we had the chance since artistic resources were being done from the ground up again, so Veili will be getting changed into her SEB2 outfit. This way she and Gunnar aren't wearing the same thing! Plus it's a more interesting design. I've already started remodeling her sprites for this. Don't worry, it won't take too long at all. I pretty much just need to reshade the hair on her SEB2 sheet and then edit her SEM specific OB sprites and we're done. Here is what I have so far:

As you can see, it's looking better and it'll be less of an eyesore to see the same thing on two characters!

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And then have some screenshots! One thing to make note of now is that there are elements on the status menu now, so you'll know what NOT to do with your characters now. It's all on you~

Also, yes that battle screenshot demonstrates Crossover. You see Mir attacking but she doesn't have a battle HUD! She was called in by someone else for an EX Block.

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Annnnd I think that's about it for now. Have some art to leave off!

Art by Kafuka-Chan.

Till next time~

It's Sunday and I have nothing to do.

2010-05-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hello people. I'm posting because it's Sunday and there's nothing I can do in regards to my situation today. So! Time for some SE Blogging!

You may be wondering what the heck I could be posting about, but! I actually have been working on SEM a little in the time where I could do nothing else at the moment. Kinda sad huh? With a serious situation at hand, I open up RPG Maker and work. I seem to have a natural skill for downplaying serious things. Well I guess it's okay, since I really can't do anything till monday anyway. Then it's back to the grind for me.

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Well anyway! In the time I've been absent, I've managed to finish mapping two travel areas: The Bifrost Plains, and The Icefall Labyrinth. Both of these locations will be used for various quests, so they needed to be large enough to have a variety of locations within them to execute quests at.

Here's my map designs for the two locations. The red dots illiustrate which maps are done, for the 'Beginner' sectors are available to the player in both locations with the rest of the areas temporarily blocked off for now. It's large enough with just the beginner areas, so the demo should have enough to do within them.

And now have some actual screenshots of the areas themselves.

In spite of my life situation, things are actually coming together pretty well! It's possible to travel through both areas, fight battles, gain SP/RP, advance your skills, and rank up. I'm actually finding it pretty fun to play through myself. But then, I made this game according to what I would find fun, so I suppose that's a given.

One thing that I have noticed is that ranking up, is a slow, laborious process. That's not to say that you don't get stronger after fighting many battles, but with the results I had from playing through the Icefall Labyrinth, I found that gaining SP and advancing my skills happened faster. I was Rank One throughout the entire area, almost Ranking Up at the end but not quite! It's kind of like Valkyrie Profile and it's slow leveling system.

Is this a good or bad thing? I don't know, but with the way it looks, endgame will probably be level 20-25 at that rate. I guess we'll just have to make some adjustments and see. Maybe doubling the RP standard will help speed things along. It would be a waste for endgame to be Rank 20-25 when Max Rank is 999!

Anyway a demo is not too far off! I need to link the story events to the gameplay and create a few more events, some new sprites, get those skit faces in, and then I think we'll be in business!

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I also want to take this time to go over that Crossover option in the menu.

Basically it means nothing now! 8D

To be more specific; I redesigned my approach to that system. Crossover is yet another battle related system that makes use of EX. You see, at first Crossovers were going to be cameo character related skills that you could unlock and then set to your characters in the crossover menu. This means that each party member would have their own Crossover partner and in battle, you could call them to execute a skill for 1 EX Block. With this in mind, it was possible to create a combo of Burst/Ether Skill -> Exceed Limit -> Crossover -> Crisis Recover.

However I've cut that away and simplified it so that the system required no menu. How it works now is that during quests and the storyline, you may meet characters who will actually accompany you during the duration of the quest or storyline event such as Rhia, Alvis, Mireille, Mir, Etc. These characters will join as a GUEST. When you have a GUEST character with you, then you can call them in battle for a crossover skill. Which works the same as mentioned above, the difference being that all party members will use the same crossover skill instead of having their own. GUEST characters will leave the party once the event or quest is over, so Crossovers are not always available.

Hope that answers some questions! And as a bonus, here's a draft of the Crossover Menu before it got cut. There were going to be ten slots for cameo related crossover skills from other RM games. Deciding who was in and spriting them all was kind of a pain, so I decided to stick to SE related characters. There will still be cameos and easter eggs hidden here and there. Find them~

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And to leave off have some art!

Art by Kamikaze-Kaito

And that's all! I'm going to continue focusing on solving my problems this week, but I'll see if I can keep this sunday thing going maybe. But there likely won't be an update for a long while. So enjoy this large one! Bye~

Erm...

2010-05-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

And at the drop of a hat, things have suddenly gotten really serious for me. I don't think I will have time to work on SEM or anything for the foreseeable future. I have some massive problems to deal with on my own now. The project is safe, and nothing is wrong. I've backed up too. But I can't work anymore for now.

I'm terribly sorry Anaryu, but Nightmare will have to wait. Maybe we can continue it even after game gale, if it's not done!

Zue, I'm sorry but sprites for Grimoire Nocturna will have to wait too.

And to Cloudreach, I hope to see the chaingame complete someday!

And to the rest of the SE team. SEM is not canceled nor will it ever be, please wait for me!

Thank you and bye for now!

Time to disappear

2010-04-25T22:14:00.001-07:00

Past entries have been reinstated. Why? Well if anyone wants to read back, then they can feel free. Some people have complained to me about that, so this is the least I can do.

Basically I've decided to freeze all activity on places like forums, twitter, youtube, and this blog. All in order to get to work on SEM for a while. I'll post a public SEM demo once I have the work done. I've decided such will be my consolation.

Maybe once I feel like I'm back up to speed, I'll actively blog again, but not before then. No, nothing is wrong with the project at all, I just want to get work done. If any of the people who have been helping me need to talk with me, then I'm always on MSN. And once again, thank you for your continued help. We'll have this out the door yet!

Goodbye~

Sorry~

2010-04-23T20:15:00.001-07:00

There hasn't been an update for ten days now. Sorry to say that I haven't been working. I got caught up in an art improvement rush for myself so I've been drawing constantly for the past few days. I keep telling myself that I should get to work on SEM, but I keep gravitating back to artwork! Sad how this hit right as things were picking up speed dev-wise. I'm sure this is just one of those phases that I'll get out of eventually. So till then please bear with me.

Have this art in the meantime!

Later~

Video: Tutorial Scene

2010-04-12T12:21:00.001-07:00

SEM - Tutorial Scene

Linked because the embedded video is causing all sorts of problems. And yeah, it was on youtube, but it'd be silly to not put it here too. So here it is!

And then story work began

2010-04-06T07:35:00.001-07:00

I finally finished all the damn field sprites needed for the beginning and onwards for a good while. I need to make some specific event sprites for this and that, but that can be done when I come to it. Now I can start making story events and gameplay! So I'm off to work! Maybe a demo won't be too far off. Hopefully nothing else gets in my way for a while.

Anyway! That's all I really have to say. I'll leave off with this and get back to work~

Art by JIHAUS

Gotcha!

2010-04-01T00:56:00.001-07:00

This goes out to everyone who really thought this blog was gone for good.

Though this blog isn't gone, I AM removing my SEM stuff in other places. I downsized my youtube and deleted my RMN profiles for good. No need for them when I have this. SEBII Blog is gone for being outdated. No worries though. It will start back up when it's time.

And now for something completely different.

2010-03-31T06:17:00.001-07:00

I had the weirdest dream last night.

There was this giant futuristic cargo truck speeding down a super highway. I mean, it was massive! And a lot of people were working on this truck as it sped towards it's destination. But there was one person on this truck that seemed to be captive or something. So he decided to escape. He was constantly on the run on this giant truck. Dodging bullets, escaping explosions, the works.

He finally made his way to the very front of the truck where there was a single driver. He was a pretty cool dude so he crashed in the passenger's seat for a bit. But the driver warned him that he'd be captured if he just sat there, so the guy got out of the truck and hung onto the front of the truck as it reached it's destination, then just hopped off and escaped in the confusion. I woke up there.

I haven't seen an action movie lately either, so this is pretty amusing.

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Regarding SEM, I'm currently stuck in spriting limbo. So there's not much else to be said there. It's hard making a full/nearly full custom game. Nevertheless, things are getting done. I just need to do a little more and then I can get back to work. However I've been taking a bit of a break in order to work on art for the past few days. I've wanted to try some things.

To leave off, have this. These two are NPC characters. They're not astronomically important to the story, but they are friends of the party, so you'll be seeing them in side scenes and taking quests from them a lot.

Art by Myself

Title Screen

2010-03-23T11:09:00.002-07:00

The title screen was finished a couple days ago. I need to create the gallery still, but I'll wait till the last moment since guest/fan art could come in at any time.

The last part is the beginning of the intro. No worries, that's the only bit of text you'll be seeing against a black BG. I'm trying to make sprites as animated as I can, so I'm making many poses for cutscenes. This will probably kill me, but we'll see!

*Sorry for the delayed sound. No idea how that happened, but oh well!

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On the battle side of things, I applied some patches to the engine to get rid of autobattle and the row command. It's not a huge deal to the end user, but to me, it's a great thing. Autobattle would break the system if used, so it was a huge pain to have to see it sitting there all the time.

The row command was less annoying, but it was still pretty non essential to the system and it was just another unnecessary command in the battle menu taking up space. So it's good to see it gone.

So in short, there's one less button you have to press at the beginning of battles!

Someone asked how the elemental resistance system works, so I'll explain.

Each enemy has an elemental resistance that ranges from -1 to 3 on each element. Depending on this number, an elemental attack will do more or less damage.

If it's -1, then damage is tripled.

If it's 0, then damage is doubled.

If it's 1, then it does normal damage.

If it's 2, then damage is divided by two.

If it's 3 then damage is divided by three.

So it's important to check resistances and use the right skills/spells so that you don't waste EP doing little damage.

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I'll just leave this here and be on my way~

Video

2010-03-17T17:12:00.001-07:00

Nessiah made me do this. :|

Have a new video.

The first boss of SEM proper. The great frost harpy as her name implies uses all sorts of ice attacks. Since this is the first boss, not a lot of features are available. So you can't increase Ice Resistance since you have no Ether Spells at the time. The strategy here is to use your custom commands to boost the effectiveness of your strike chains and focus in order to avoid getting OHKOed by her ice spells.

To finish her off, save up enough EX to take her down with a triple Exceed Limit rush.

As a note, the skill [Frost Judgement] is the boss' EX Skill. It's not actually weak, but since the characters are defending against it. It's something I just implemented; Defense against EX Skills. People complained that enemy FBs were unfair since they did a lot of damage regardless of whether or not you were defending. Well now it does matter. Defending divides FB damage by 3, so there you go!

If they weren't defending then [Frost Judgement] and Absolute would have definitely OHKO'd either Gunnar or Patchoulli.

Things may change with the final cut, so don't take this as being definitive.

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And to leave off, have some art!

Art by JIHAUS

Game Development has finally begun

2010-03-15T18:31:00.002-07:00

I've finished the last menu finally. This means that all front end systems holding me back from making the game are out of the way. So now development on the game's maps and events are finally in full swing.

So what's my focus now? Well I'm mostly just mapping out the beginning areas of the game and creating character field sprites. Once I get things started off, I'll begin work on 'Chapter 1'. My possible demo completion point will be 'Chapter 1 & 2'. I say possible because there may not even be a public demo. But I'll decide later down the road.

Now onto my next point. I'm not a great writer at all. So I'm considering having someone look through the game's writing and fix/edit it once the time comes. I learned my lesson with SEB1 and Project DOAD. What's the lesson? Don't bother trying to write when you suck~!

With that said, have some screenshots.

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And to leave off, have some art!

Later~

Soul Evolution system complete

2010-03-07T14:27:00.002-08:00

I managed to finish the Soul Evolution system is record time! It's all set up now. I just need to expand it to the rest of the party and then I can call the menu complete for now. This is actually pretty exciting. Once I finish this menu. I can finally start working on the game events and maps. It's been a long haul but I'm finally almost there. :3

Here's the final verdict.

You go from main menu to advance. Nothing special.

And then we get this. Your party is displayed at the top, and you can scroll through them with left/right.

The important thing here is the crystal layout under that. The way this works is that there are three skill categories. Burst, Ether, And Special. You spend SP on each category in order to gain skills from them. Each category has 5 ranks.

Burst gives you OB skills, which are used with the Outburst Command.

Ether gives you standard spells. However since each character has two sets of spells and only 5 Ether ranks, you have to choose between the elements you want.

Special gives you things like Exceed Limits and other passive abilities.

Choose your category, get a rundown on the skill that will be learned, and then choose to learn or not.

And that's all there is to it!

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And to leave off, have some art! It's Rhia. She's joining the show from SEB2 in order to help our heroes along the story.

Art by Zanktus

Status Menu fiiiiiiiiinally finished!

2010-03-05T13:35:00.001-08:00

After five centuries of procrastinating, I finally finished the status menu. It actually wasn't all that bad. I came up with a much more efficient way of storing character stats and applying them to the number display with the least amount of work. Here's what I have.

EP isn't shown because it's a static value that'll be reset after every battle. And Life shown is Max LF. That does increase, so you probably would want to know how much you have.

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Also, I forget if I mentioned this before, but the battle party size has been reduced from 4 to 3. This increases the speed of the ATB a bit and it reduces the skills the player has at their disposal. I think it will provide a little challenge and make players choose who they want to take a little more carefully.

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And to leave off, have some art!

Art by Nessiah

Sacred Earth History Lesson: Part 3

2010-03-02T10:54:00.001-08:00

Angelic Awakening was the game I was working on before the original SEB. It was actually a fairly successful project in the public eyes compared to my past projects. Unfortunately the project's engine was very sloppy and disorganized and that was ultimately my downfall for this project.

A mysterious bug in the field movement system completely ruined the development of Angelic Awakening. It still haunts me to this day as it was a project with a ton of potential and I was actually working full steam on it before that bug completely killed it.

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The story of Angelic Awakening took place a couple years after Mystic Legends and Axis Saga. The people of Miltiades, still struggling with the creation of the new world have banded together to form The Miltiades Alliance. A new order consisting of Humans, Beasts, and Eltians working together. Their purpose being to find a new world to inhabit. They turned their sights on Monervera, the world of angels. Monervera is a land abundant with natural resources and ether energy fills the air to a much higher concentration than Miltiades.

The Alliance made the first move, sending forces to strike various checkpoints of the Angel's strongholds as well as assassinating the Arch Seraph. War broke out after this act of aggression. It was a full on war between The Alliance and The Angels.

Which brings us to our present story. Remiel, a human who was adopted by the previous Arch Seraph, is a soldier currently enlisted in the Monerveran Army, much to his dismay. He along with his best friends Eristina and Liore serve in the army and do their best to help out in the war effort. They are soon joined in their journey by the demon, Astell, who came to Monervera to warn the Arch Seraph about the conspiracies of the dark council, the group currently ruling Ixtanel after usurping the ruling power from Lilith, the true heir. Mireille, an angel child who at first was stalking Remiel's group thinking they were enemies, but soon joins after witnessing the movements of the demons, and Clarinei, a whimsical and airheaded general from The Alliance army who decides to abandon her post and join Remiel in order to stop the true threat.

The six of them are removed from the main army by senior soldier, Marauldin, and now from a new secret investigation force for the angelic army codenamed, 'Angelus'. They are then charged with the investigation of several strange matters unrelated to the war with The Alliance. Remiel and his group soon discover that the Dark Council is planning their own strike on Monervera. They then work to stop the demons at every turn.

The worst happens when the group realizes that the true threat isn't from The Alliance or Ixtanel, the true threat was a mere child by the name of Lydalia. A half demon, half angel. This child, seeking vengeance against both the angels and demons for the life she was given stole an ancient artifact from the temple on the Millunia Mountain Shrine, The Creation Material, and used this artifact to strike down the angels, the demons, and the alliance. Lydalia's ultimate plan was to use the power of creation to create a new world, a paradise that she could reside in forever. Free from hatred. pain, and fear. A paradise just for her.

The only one unaffected by Lydalia's attacks was Remiel. It is soon revealed that Remiel was not human, but in fact the god of creation, merely in a dormant state of being. In response to Lydalia's rampant and uncontrolled use of the power of creation, Remiel's dormant soul awakens and he along with his friends move to defeat Lydalia and end this madness once and for all.

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Angelic Awakening is the game with the strongest ties to the current series. A good amount of characters are in the current series, and the storyline of AA still has effects in the current series.

Remiel and *Astell are the parents of Veili and Gunnar. Astell is also Melodia's mother. Both are still in the current series.

Liore is still in the current series as well and has already shown up even. Can you guess who he is?~

Mireille is in the current series as well. She's shown up in SEB2 and SEM.

Lydalia is in the current series but hasn't shown up yet.

Eristina is in the current series but hasn't shown up yet.

Razhell and Lilith made their first appearances in AA, and are still in the current series.

The Arch Seraph was actually a character from Axis Saga. Claire. She was the previous Arch Seraph's best friend, and the ruling power carried over to her after she died.

*Astell was previously named Komachi, but it's been changed due to it's out of place nature.

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And now for what the game looked like before it fell. I still have this project actually, but working on it is a huge question mark at this point. A huge HUGE question mark. That map movement bug considered. But enjoy these screens.

Filler~

2010-02-26T21:10:00.001-08:00

Have some 4komas!

Till next time when I actually have something to show!

Sacred Earth History Lesson: Part 2

2010-02-24T17:40:00.001-08:00

Axis Saga: The Angelic Demon was one of my lesser known projects. And probably the worst one. As much as I hate to acknowledge it's existence, it WAS part of the Sacred Earth Series.

The story of the game was that hidden from Miltiades were two realms, Monervera, the realm of Angels and the Ixtanel, home to demons. Angels and Demons, had a long established, yet shaky peace treaty. A single event would crush this already crumbling treaty. A halfling was born. Half angel, half demon. For an Angel and a Demon to conceive a child was the most vile sin that could be committed. War broke out. The Devil Lord, Feaj led the demons to battle, and the Arch-Seraph Anna led the Angels.

The child was taken to the safety of Miltiades to live a normal life, away from the angels and demons who would never accept her. Her name is Rasya.

21 years later, Rasya discovers her origins through an unexpected event and learns of the secret war that has been waged since her birth. After countless acts of aggression against her, she then decides to travel to the two realms with the hopes of stopping this war and bringing harmony to Angels and Demons.

Rasya succeeds in stopping the war by sacrificing her life and ascending to the land of the gods to become one of them. She then reveals to both sides that the one responsible for causing this war was Lucrevia, a rogue goddess who was using the war to gather power in order to strike down the gods for casting her out as well as retake what she believes was her rightful place. Rasya defeats her and the angels and demons both make peace and the world of Monervera and Ixtanel are revealed to Miltiades as their moons.

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This game was by far the most detached from the rest of the series. At least I feel so. But there are a few obscure things to point out.

This game actually took place at the same time Mystic Legends. And both stories reached their high points and ends at around the same time. But the casts from each never met.

This game introduced Ixtanel and Monervera to Miltiades for the first time.

Rasya is still in the current series as a goddess, though she hasn't shown up yet. For a time after ML, she was actually the only one left. Since she became one right around the time the original gods fell with Guardia in ML.

Cyllya, one of the party members is in fact the mother of Priel and Patchoulli. She was a full fire dragon. Their dad was Aeru, a temporary party and NPC. He was human.

Chaos, one of the party members actually was the father of Lilith and Razhell, two characters in the current series.

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And now for some shots of what the game looked like. I do not feel proud for having thought this game was good at some point. But it's still a part of SE history, so I'll have to bear with it. orz

Annnnnnd that'll be all for today. In SEM news, I'm working on the status menu, so there's that too.

Sacred Earth History Lesson: Part 1

2010-02-23T20:08:00.001-08:00

The Sacred Earth series started around 6 or 7 years ago with a game called 'Mystic Legends - Symphony of The Goddess'

It's story revolved around a dual scenario of two protagonists. A rookie mercenary by the name of Leon Elsa, and a wandering vagrant female ninja by the name of Mai Aizawa. These two had different stories that converged at certain points. So it would have been beneficial to play both scenarios.

The general story for both scenarios was that long ago, the gods of this world fought against of the goddess of creation and sealed her away. Her name was Guardia. Guardia had lost faith in mankind and had decided that the only way to save this corrupted world was to start over and erase everything. The other gods didn't like this and they fought together to prevent it. However, the gods all faded themselves as a result of the fighting.

Fast forward to present ML time and Guardia's children, Veldina, Lanaan, Felghana, Milenya, and Scyllya have succeeded in breaking the seal on their mother, and now she is free to erase this world without the interference of the gods. The gods in spirit form appeal to both protagonists to stop her and grants them and their allies their remaining power. With these newfound powers, the heroes do battle with Guardia's children and then Guardia herself. In the end the conflict had a negative effect on the world. Land all over Miltiades began to sink into the sea. The gods and guardia pooled together their last remaining strength to raise the land out of the sea and into the sky, where it would stay for an unknown amount of time. Guardia is defeated and in her last moments, she realizes that mankind isn't totally irredeemable and makes a promise to amend her mistakes in the next life. The gods fade as well and promise to see the heroes again soon. Guardia's children Lanaan and Felghana survive the conflict and go on to live normal lives among the people.

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Some of the characters and events in Mystic Legends were actually the originators to some of the current SE characters today as well as setting up the current world.

Leon Elsa for example is Relima's father. Lanaan is her mother.

Mai Aizawa is Talin's mother.

Felghana is still actually in the current series. Though she hasn't shown up yet.

Flann was actually in ML, albeit her design has changed massively from here to currently.

Alzilory was in ML as a child and the events that made him the way he is in the current series happened in ML.

The world in ML was normal. Continents were on the sea and the world was a pretty typical earth. The conflict broke the land and the sea threatened to swallow up everything. The gods raised the land into the sky and it became the world it is in the current series.

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And now for screenshots of how the game last looked before it fell. Please note that I no longer have this game project.

Have a good day.

Character: Morrighan Alazne

2010-02-19T01:33:00.001-08:00

Age: 15
Race: Demon(Nephilim)
Description: A fallen angel, or more specifically, she and her brother were born of demons who had angelic heritage. Very prideful and has a habit of treating others as lower than herself. She is quite spoiled and demands the best of everything. Quite an ego on this one.

Morrighan's combat abilities are a complete mystery. She seems to make use of a massive grimoire to create and amplify magic spells, but the exact nature of this is filled with question marks. It would be best to avoid her until further notice.

Morrighan and her brother were the children of nobles back on Ixtanel, the world where demons reside. This lifestyle has given rise to her spoiled and demanding nature. She appears on the continent of Garenia along with her brother, Tyr, and their contracted Summoner, Scion. They appear to be scouring ancient ruins for something, but no one knows what exactly. Gunnar and his friends who are helping Fae Lin, happen to come across them and things slowly begin to spiral out of control...

Remaining Skill Video

2010-02-13T23:39:00.001-08:00

Here's the last one.

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I've also been writing out a whole mess of character profiles and outlining the new storyline. I had Nessiah and JIHAUS take a look at them. It turned out to be pretty fun. It's a whole lot less of a headache to me when I'm not trying to get the story down word for word, paragraph for praragraph. But a general list of bullet points seems to fit me much better. =w=

I promise I'll stop guarding every bit of story like it's my newborn child soon! But till then, you're still in the dark! Ohoho~

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In the meantime, have an amusing comic!

Art by JIHAUS

Later~

Videos

2010-02-10T09:02:00.001-08:00

Arc makes a point. I'll post those videos here too.

SEM Update

2010-02-09T14:36:00.001-08:00

Tear down that wall!

Okay, real update this time.

2010-02-07T12:01:00.001-08:00

Joking aside, I do have some stuff for you all this time. I decided to do some skill overview videos for the party. I've also been spriting....as usual. As I said in my twitter, the 'whip' effect is the most impossible thing to make!

Anyway, Video!

Youtube Video
(Resolution is too big to embed so, link it is!)

The video goes over Veili's OBs and her commands. A pretty brief video. But then, Veili isn't the most special character out there.

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Annnd now have some sprites.

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Now I know I've been really secretive about the story. But I've just made some huge changes to the story. You see those two dark skinned ones above? They're now an important part of the story. And with them moving in, some other characters are moving out to the sidelines. I won't say much more than that.

On the other hand I think I should express what my vision for this game is. The big picture I'm looking at is an open world kind of game. There's a story to follow, but it there's also lots of side distractions like quests, minigames, and side events with cameo characters. If you've played Paradise Blue, then that's what I'm looking to create this time around.

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Annnnd we'll leave off with some art.

Art by JIHAUS

See ya.

SEM Update

2010-02-04T15:47:00.001-08:00

My work here is done.

Update Update Update

2010-02-03T09:43:00.001-08:00

Hello peoples. It's been rather quiet around these parts lately. I've been doing some work here and there, but I've been slowed down quite a bit by other unrelated tasks.

Life is throwing curveballs at me right now in regards to my future. It's really stressing me out. Massive headaches ahoy! I also have two fairly large spriting commissions to work on, so that's getting in the way of work as well. But hey, it's money!

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Anyway I made some new skills for Priel. I have one more skill to make for her before all her base skills are complete. Have some screenshots. Making a video would be too much effort.

And then I worked on Patch's charset some. It's good to get the base down first. Making the rest gets relatively easy after that!

But I haven't had the time to do much else yet. I still need to finish the status menu functions and then work on the skill learning menu and then we'll be in business! I can't wait till the main engine is complete. The story and events have been running through my mind for a long time now. The time for me to finally apply it is nearing.

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Anyway to leave off, have some art. Nessiah drew this several centuries ago back when SEB1 was released. Yeah, don't ask. :V

Art by Nessiah

Catch you later~

I come bearing randomness

2010-01-23T21:45:00.002-08:00

Hello peoples. I'm not really updating with SEM in mind this time. This is a random blog post mostly regarding other stuff!

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I got back into Mabinogi. It's an MMORPG. This is probably a kiss of death in regards to progress, but I couldn't resist! I had fun with Mabinogi back in the open beta, so I came back to it. We'll see how long this stint lasts!

Right now I'm a level 14 Elf focusing on Melee combat. I want to learn some magic, but everything costs an arm and a leg! >:V

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Sands of Destruction(Or World Destruction as it's called in Japan.) came out the other day, so I acquired it. It's actually pretty fun so far. It's a pretty normal RPG on the DS and not a stupid SRPG, thank god! The battle system reminds me the Xenosaga/Xenogears what with the sparse menu combat. I'm still trying to understand the game since the game doesn't even bother to give you a tutorial rundown on the battle system and menus. You just get thrown in. I managed to pull off a twelve hit combo with one of my characters and I have no idea how. I was just pressing buttons! It must have something to do with timed button presses.

Storywise, it's interesting so far. Your party is out to destroy the world rather than save it. But the protagonist is the typical country bumpkin who somehow ends up being central to it all in usual RPG fashion. I am curious to see how 'destroying the world' works out.

For a game about destroying the world though, the characters are all fairly lighthearted so far, I've found myself laughing a bunch of times. Makes me wonder how this will turn out with a walking comedy sketch of a party like these guys.

My one issue with the game so far is that I'm about 2 hours in and I have yet to have any real freedom. The events have just been railroading me from place to place for the most part. I want to move around and truly be free already! Don't be another Suikoden V!

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In Sacred Earth news, I've been working on some sprites here and there. Have these.

Progress

2010-01-16T11:05:00.001-08:00

Art by JIHAUS

So I've been doing stuff.

It's kinda dragging on now I have to admit. I'm only about halfway through my to-do list in regard to reaching the goal for actually getting to create the game.

Hell, I'll even put it up for all to see.

----- To Do List -----
- Outline story and characters at base level (DONE)
- Create starting party sprites and add to battle system. (DONE)
- Design and Create Base Menu. This menu is a lite main menu. It shows the party, their Next EXP and and other stuff. There only 3 menu options; Status, Advance, and Exit to Title. It also shows quest objectives for the forgetful.(DONE)
- Finish main menu. This means other functions such as ACT/WAIT changing and Stat Focus changing.(DONE)
- Finish spell effects. Earth, Air, Water, Healing, and other MISC effects needed.(DONE)
- Balance out the numbers in the battle system(DONE...?(not))
- Start and create custom spell and element system(DONE)
- Add elements to OBs and Melee EXLs(IN PROGRESS)(DONE)
- Intergrate the locks on EXL/SW for the Rank system (DONE)
- Create the Status Menu (IN PROGRESS)
- Create the Soul Evolution Menu
- Create Final Map sprites for NPCs, and party characters.
- Finalize all characters in battle. That means finish OBs and SWs, make sure they can target all possible enemies, etc
- Perform final battle system checks to make sure everything runs together as best as possible. Also, check balance. I am worried about spells. They may be too good.
- Perform final menu system checks to make sure everything is running smoothly.
- Start Mapping some areas to start.
- Begin game creation in earnest. <-- THIS IS OUR GOAL

This is going to take forever. I wish this could get done faster. =A=

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In other news, I finished the custom spell and element system. Spells now follow the same algorithms as Strike Chains, Outbursts, and Exceed Limits. They also have the benefit of being elemental as well as having the same passive effects as the aforementioned classes of attacks.

Have a video.

This video showcases the new Ether spell method as well as the main menu and the battle ranking menu.

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And with that, I'm off!

Annnnd back to work

2010-01-09T08:40:00.001-08:00

Art by Jimmyly

Okay, I think I'm gonna take a break from Nocturne Rebirth. I learned a good deal from playing it, so I hope to improve the quality of my gameplay even more.

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First order of business is the menu again. I have two menus left to make. The status menu and the Soul Evolution Menu. I'm gonna do Status first, then Soul Evolution.

I'm using the same design as SEB2 for the status menu. So If you must see it;

Though Exceed and Burst Blocks will not be shown. To prevent stockpiling, I'll be resetting those values after each battle. Hoho~

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On gameplay related matters, I've made some decisions. Well, two actually.

First is that Ether Spells will now be custom instead of based on the database. What does this mean? Well they can hit more than once now, and I can apply my custom algorithms to them so that it's more balanced alongside all those overly fancy Burst and Exceed skills. Plus, I can give spells Exceed Limits too! That automatically increases their usefulness. The drawback? I'll need to create a custom elements system so that custom spells are more or less effective based on the enemy. But I have a good theory on how to handle it. I think this will be great. :3

The next gameplay related decision? I've dropped the field HUD and the encounter bar in favor of touch encounters. Touch encounters are simply easier to manage than the encounter bar. I'll save the encounter bar for SEB2 or something.

And lastly, have a video.

This video shows some new enemy actions. The big one is the new Counter/Reflex abilities. Some enemies have a special ability that allows them to automatically react to a party member's actions. usually in the form of a counterattack.

Some abilities I've come up with are...

- Chain Counter - Enemy will crush Strike Chains and counter with own attack.

- Ether Counter - Enemy will counter the use of Ether Spells with their own spells.

- Burst Counter - Enemy will crush OBs and counter with their own Burst Attack.

- Exceed Counter - Enemy will crush Exceed Limits and counter with their own Exceed Limit.

- Sacred Counter - Enemy will crush Sacred Wills and counter with their own Sacred Will.

- Focus Crush - Enemy will punish focusing characters with an attack.

If you guys have any ideas, feel free to let me know!

Also there IS a difference between 'Reflex' which is shown in the video, and 'Counter', which is not.

Reflex immediately crushes your action and damages you.

Counter will allow you to take your action, but then you will be countered afterwards.

One is more severe than the other but you pretty much don't want to get caught by either. 8D

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We're getting closer to finishing all the systems. Once we do, it's all just a matter of actually making the game for real. Gotta keep trucking.

To leave off, have some art.

Art by JC of The Red Flame

And away I goooooooooooo

The return of randomness

2009-12-30T11:40:00.001-08:00

Cogwheel & Another0

So I haven't been working.

What have I been doing then?

I've been playing Nocturne Rebirth!

It's a japanese RMXP game by Cogwheel and a plethora of other skilled dudes. Seriously, it's one of the best RM games I've ever played. Sure, I don't understand a word of it, but the game is so well crafted and awesome that it doesn't matter to me. I'm about 5 hours into the game so far and it's epic stuff. The battle system is awesome, the field handling is awesome, the level up system is awesome. Everything is just so awesome! D:

And it's HARD.

Random enemy groups can kill you if you're not at the top of your game. And bosses will slaughter you time and time again until you finally figure them out. Hell, the second boss had me raging for about 7 tries till I finally figured out it's gimmick. Right now I'm on the 4th boss and I just narrowly lost to it. :|

But yes, this game is a shining example of what RMXP can do if you're not a 'copy/paste 500 random scripts, make my game for me!' moron that seems to plague the western RM communities! If you don't mind playing in jp, then I highly suggest giving it a try! Click on Cogwheel's name under the picture!

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In other news, our little circle 'Cloudreach' decided to start up a chain game. It's a sort of game creation event where one person works on a game and then passes it along to another person till everyone participating gets a turn. I thought it was an interesting idea, having everyone work on a chain story where the next person in line decides where to take the previous person's story. So I decided to have a go at it. I'm currently working on my part at the moment and I'm almost done. Once I am, then I'll pass it along to the next person and then I'll get back to work on SEM. In the meantime, have some screenshots.

Later~

Christmas Update

2009-12-24T22:35:00.001-08:00

Christmas? Are you trying to make me laugh? Disappear from my sight...

I share Flann's sentiments by the way. But enough of that! Enjoy your materialism day, all of you people with normal, stable lives!

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Moving on, I have an update for today. It was an idea I've had brewing for a while now. What is it?

I call it the Battle Ranking System. How does it work? Well you see; during battle your progress is actually being monitored behind the scenes. Once the battle is finished and you're back on the map, a battle report will show up and display how well you did. Based on certain variables in battle, you will get a score. Based on this score, you get ranked from either Rank D to Rank S. Depending on the rank you get, your SP/RP gain is multiplied anywhere from 2-5.

So basically it's to your benefit to do well in battle and get a good grade in order to increase your SP/RP gain! The values that affect your score are as follows;

Remaining LF: Each party member's remaining LF to taken as a percentage and that percentage is added to the score.

Remaining EP: Remaining EP is added to the score.

Souls Remaining: You gain or lose points based on if you've had no deaths, if you died a little, or if you died a lot.

Turns Taken: The amount of turns each member went is combined and then you gain or lose score based on the resulting value.

Brave Clear Complete!: This is a boss battle only condition. If you follow the Brave Clear Criteria during a boss battle, then you gain a huge bonus onto your total score.

And now for the Ranks and their multipliers;

Rank D - No gain, just the base value provided by the enemies, which isn't much on it's own. Ranking up will be a far off dream if you keep getting Rank Ds.

Rank C - Gain is multiplied by 2. It's more than Rank D, but it may not be sufficient for Ranking Up in a timely manner.

Rank B - The middle ground. Gain is multiplied by 3. It should be enough to comfortably get you to the next rank at average time.

Rank A - Gain is multiplied by 4. It's not Rank S, but this is just fine as well. This is usually what you plan to shoot for, since Rank S may be hard to consistently get.

Rank S - The best battle rank. Gain is multiplied by 5. You will get a lot of SP and RP with this Rank. Do your best to get this when possible. Usually you'll need Brave Clear Completes to get Rank S

Good news is, it's all set up! It's not just another throwaway concept. I think this will add more meaning to battles and the gaining of SP and RP.

Have a screenshot rundown! I'd post a video but I really don't feel like recording tonight.

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In closing have some art. JIHAUS thinks that Luxuria doesn't have enough art. So he drew some.

And with that, away I go!

Menu Update

2009-12-21T09:21:00.001-08:00

So I spent all of yesterday working on the main menu. I finished the front end of it already. All party member displays along with Next RP, ACT/WAIT, and Soul Alignment work, and SP digits are in. I ran into some annoying bugs here and there, but it's done and sorted out now! Here's a rundown.

Here we have what shows when you press Esc/X on the map. It easily displays the amount of RP needed to advance to the next rank, who's active or waiting, and which Soul Alignment each character is set to. No LF or EP is shown since those values are replenished after every battle.

If you press right once entering the menu, then your party windows will be highlighted. You can scroll through them from left to right as you please.

Once you get to the character you want you can press Shift to change their battle condition from ACT! or WAIT. You only need one character to be active at any time, so you can go forth and do your crazy self imposed solo missions or whatever else you may have in mind!

Now if you press Enter/Z on a character, then their Soul Alignment shifts to another stat. The stat displayed will be the one that the character gets more of upon Rank Up. This is your new avenue of customization!

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I guess that's all for now. I'll be working on the status menu next. I can only thank god this isn't as extensive as SEB2. I can't wait to go back and start tearing down some walls once this is done, heh.

And to address the current poll. the amount of votes in each section will determine the frequency of puzzles. Judging by the current results, moderation seems to be the general consensus. Perfect. >:3

And I leave with art.

I cannot remember who did this, so fail for me!

What's that I hear? "What is this madness!? Caith's not in SEBR!"

Yeah? Well too bad!

*runs

Trucking onwards

2009-12-16T08:05:00.001-08:00

Art by Jimmyly

Okay so freely grow clearly won the vote. I'll take that in mind when designing the Soul Evolution System.

My current 2nd draft idea for it at the moment was a sort of traditional level up system. Each character has a 'Rank', and when you win battles, you gain RP, or Rank Points. Once you gain enough RP, your characters will 'Rank Up'. Ranking up will increase a characters Life, PWR, PRY, and KNW each by /20 of their their current value.

What's the twist here? Well there are a few. The first is you can set each character to focus on a certain stat so that upon Rank Up, they gain more in that area. For example, you can set Priel to focus on KNW and then upon Rank Up, Priel will gain KNW equal to /15 it's current value rather than /20.

The second? There is no 'Rank Limit'. You can go past Rank 99 and keep growing your characters as you feel. Though as a limit of the digits I plan on coding it'll technically be Rank 999. But I doubt anyone will get that high...maybe.

The third is that you gain special passive abilities from Ranking Up. for example, at Rank 5 let's say a character will gain an ability to nullify critical hits. At Rank 10, a character will be able to use their Exceed Limit. At Rank 20 Revive Time is cut in half. And then at Rank 30 a character's Finish Burst/Sacred Will is available to use. These aren't exact values, but an example.

That's my plan at least.

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In other news, I've been doing spriting STILL. The amount of spriting that needs to be done seems endless, but I'd rather not think about it and just do it. It feels less like a chore that way. Have some previews.

Updating Gunnar's field sprites. Once I finish that I'll have to make misc field action sprites. Fun.

This one here is special. This is Veili's Ice Demon form. No worries it's not a spoiler. The intro will blow it up quite quickly. It's going to be funny. 8D

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And speaking of Veili's Ice Demon form. Here's the concept art for it.

Art by JIHAUS

That's all from my end. Back to work!

Fun with sprites + Question # 12839712

2009-12-10T02:58:00.001-08:00

So I've been working on sprites, I'll show some now.

Remake of Gunnar's last OB, 'Element Sword'. It's one of the only two OBs that he kept from SEB1! We'll see how it turns out in the new version!

This is an enemy sprite sheet. There isn't much because monsters don't need much. one or two sets of attack frames for enemy FBs should do.

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Well it looks like Exploration is winning the quest method poll. I think it's decided then, thanks guys.

Next, I have another question for you all.

I'm working on the character growth system at the moment. I was discussing with someone about stat caps, and he got disappointed that there were going to be caps on stats.

In SEB1, there was no limit to stats, you could get to 999 in everything for every character if you tried. While I don't know of anyone that actually did that, it was very possible.

My new idea was the enforce character stat caps on advancement. Here's a snippet from my design document on the matter

"
----- Character Stat Caps -----

I've decided to enforce GUST/Atelier style number scales with my battle system. I choose this to make larger numbers mean more down the road. It's not impressive to see your characters bust out 1000+ damage right at the start. But when they start out hitting for fives and tens, when you finally start doing 1000+ damage. It will be much more rewarding. Plus I think it ups the challenge and it feels more exciting.

That's the idea at least. It's already been implemented. Now to see how it turns out in the long run.

I've also had the tentative idea of enforcing stat caps that are different for each character. I figured this would be good to make characters good at something and bad at something else.

Here are the caps for everyone.

--- Gunnar ---

LF : 336
PWR: 345
PRY: 207
KNW: 385

--- Veili ---

LF : 445
PWR: 330
PRY: 245
KNW: 190

--- Priel ---

LF : 480
PWR: 465
PRY: 290
KNW: 120

--- Patchoulli ---

LF : 305
PWR: 185
PRY: 215
KNW: 430
"

So now I come to you, what do you prefer? Unique stat caps for each character in order to accentuate their strengths and weaknesses? Or cap free stat advancement with no negatives?

I'm putting up a poll on the matter so let me know! Thanks

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And finally, have some art.

Art by Rairy

Video MK III

2009-12-08T14:59:00.002-08:00

Have a video. I made a ton of really subtle changes so it may not seem like much, but it operates fairly differently underneath.

The big new change would be the new number scale for the game. I lowered everything by one digit in order to be similar to Mana Khemia/Atelier series. I think it works well and makes things more exciting. Plus when you finally do manage to start throwing out 500+ damage, it'll be worth it.

And for those wondering why your characters are just randomly reviving. That's another underlying system that's in place. There are no revive spells and no items in the game. Instead. Each character comes into battle with three 'lives'. When a character falls, they come back after 10 turns with some LF and EP returned and they lose a 'life'. After that particular character runs out of 'lives', they're done for the battle.

And have a sprite!

Original Sprite by Jimmyly, Edits by Skie.

And away I go! *whoosh!*

Starting on the menu and other musings

2009-12-05T12:45:00.002-08:00

I know we've all been calling this game SEB Remake and SEBR and so on. But this game actually does have a title. It's...

Logo by Hanzo Kimura

SEBR is it's 'Devname'. But when it comes time, this is what'll be plastered on the title screen and everywhere else.

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So I'm currently in the process of simplifying the game. I've now come to the menu. This is what I have so far.

All pointless menu options have been cut out. I've mashed all the character growth systems into one revised menu to make it simpler than hopping from menu to menu all the time*cough *SEB2*cough*

There are no HP numbers on the party because there are full recoveries after every battle. Is this okay? Or MUST there be character HP shown? :V

SP digits will be shown once I get to that. 'Act!' and 'Wait' are merely indicators to tell who's in the battle party and who's not. The player will be able to adjust who can fight from here. Finally, 'Objective' will tell you what your current quest is and where to go, so that you don't screw up and forget like an idiot! >:V

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In other news, you remember that quest menu I was working on? I'm thinking about scrapping it. I was working on the main menu last night and I got to thinking.

"Why should I constrain myself to handing out quests through a limited menu?"

So now I'm thinking about scrapping it. My alternate approach was to have NPCs in town that had an indicator over them that would show that they have a request to be done. You could just talk to these people, accept or deny, and then go off and do it!

No going to some arbitrary menu to do that stuff. What do you think?

Actually. I'll just make a poll. You can tell me that way. Or you can comment. Both work!

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On the graphical side of things. We have these!

Why am I showing Kell here? Well, let's say she's relevant to SEBR.

Art by Nessiah

And have some sprites!

I think that's everything for now. See ya~

Ugh, time to get back to....w-work.

2009-11-22T12:35:00.001-08:00

So, uh...Projects are finally off the backburner. I'm getting back to work. I feel kinda sad though. I'm going to miss my spontaneous rage/boredom blog posts centered on games and randomness.

Ah well, I guess I can't take a break forever.

Here's what I'm working on now. I'm currently writing up all character skills, like so.

---- Gunnar Skills ----

--- OutBurst ---

1. Twilight Arrow - EP Cost: 10 - Hits: 3 - Light Arrow Erupts intop energy pillar on target.
2. Judgment Arrow - EP Cost: 20 - Hits: 5 - Light Energy forms into laser blast.
3. Iron Feather - EP Cost: 30 - Hits: 1 - Boost Party Stats with invigorating power. All Stats + 30
4. Energy Storm - EP Cost: 40 - Hits: 4 All - A volley of light arrows rain upon enemies.
5. Element Sword - EP Cost: 50 - Hits: 1 - Strike all foes with the element sword for major damage.

--- Ether ---

1. Dark Cry - EP Cost: 10 - Element: Shadow - A black sphere rages on the target.
2. Shadow Barrier - EP Cost: 15 - Element: Shadow - Protect an Ally against Shadow Element.
3. Devil Ray - EP Cost: 20 - Element: Shadow - A pillar of shadow energy erupts under target
4. Shadow Aura - EP Cost: 25 - Element: Shadow - Protect the party against Shadow Element.
5. Shadow Star - EP Cost: 30 - Element: Shadow - Dark Meteors rain down on the target.
6, Electroshock - EP Cost: 10 - Element: Bolt - A single lightning bolt strikes the target.
7. Bolt Barrier - EP Cost: 15 - Element: Bolt - Protect an Ally against Bolt Element.
8. Judgment Bolt - EP Cost: 20 - Element: Bolt - Several lightning bolts rain down on target.
9. Bolt Aura - EP Cost: 25 - Element: Bolt - Protect the party against Bolt Element
10.Sacred Lightning - EP Cost: 30 - Element: Bolt - Divine Lightning strikes the target.

It helps me remember what the heck I was going to give so and so character in regards to skills. With SEB2, I mostly just ad libbed character skills based on graphics on hand at the moment. This is a bit more organized.

I'm also working on the Community Requests Board. Here's what I have so far.

One major change I'm making to this board is that I'm cutting the number of requests per chapter from 10 to 5. Just to get on with development. I'm making cuts in other areas as well in order to allow me to actually get to making the game. It's not good to be stuck in pre-dev limbo forever!

I also made this to get back into the groove of spriting. Had to try and get used to Windows 7 Version of Paint.

Anyway, I'm getting back into things, yeah. It's a little hard though, since now I have to recall all sorts of things and rewrite all my old info. I'll get back on my process eventually though.

I guess this marks the end of random gamer rage blogging for now!

Later.

The Return of Stuff and Things

2009-11-20T13:13:00.001-08:00

(This one's for you Neok! >:V)

...So yeah, obligatory boredom entry. What have I been up to these days? Wellllllll I scanned in a metric boatload of drawings that I almost immediately scrapped on my DA! Have one!

And then I made some throwaway sprites for other people like that one game Vylternia Chapters. Like so.

I was supposed to do more, but Despite hasn't contacted me, so I assume my job is done! Oh well! 8D

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What else...So I was haunting some game sites and I discovered that Super Robot Wars
Endless Frontier EXCEED is in the making. YES, another traditional rpg on the DS! It's incredibly fanservice-y though. Even more so than the first game if the heroine is any indication. Trailer for the record.

But still is looks like it's going to be even more fun than the first game. I look forward to it.

In regards to other commercial games coming out Lufia DS was announced! YES! It's a remake of Lufia II! HOLY SHIT YES! It's a 3D Action RPG and all the character designs of old have been thrown away! YESSSSSSSSS-wait, wait, wait! WHAT!? NOOOOOOOOOO!

Scans to demonstrate.

It actually looks like it could be fun in a way, but....I'm going to miss my good old classic 2D Lufia II. :<

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In the middle of my scouring of youtube, I also found this. It's an RM CBS.

Looks interesting. Hopefully Mastervlad can build on what Eternal Sonata started.

Anyway I'm off!

The battle for the Holy Gra-I mean, Tears Crown begins!

2009-11-10T11:55:00.001-08:00

Hello losers, how's everything going? :3

Me? I've beaten Nostalgia. Easy game through and through...except for Airship battles. But anyway. Summon Night X came out in japan. So of course I have to try it out. It's good fun. Another NORMAL RPG to play on the DS! It's 2D too! I know, what is this madness!? I can only hope this gets localized, like how Tales of Hearts should have been localized. >:|

It starts out in typical Summon Night fashion. Choose either the male or female main character(I chose the male, He looks cooler. 8D). Then watch a long winded intro play out. Yeah, I know. PEOPLE TALKING IN AN RPG!? Well then you haven't played a Summon Night game. They have the most long winded intros ever. But once you get past that and start playing, it's good fun. Have a video.

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In other randomness...I got an external HD yesterday and got all my important stuff off my laptop. It's a much better backup method than a dinky flashdrive. So now my project's future is no longer in jeopardy. Hooray!

Anyway, I leave off with randomness.

Ah, how nostalgic

2009-10-29T16:35:00.001-07:00

So in my neverending battle against the evil lord of boredom, I got my hands on the new DS RPG 'Nostalgia'. It's a typical by the books rpg, random turn based battles, characters and a story that trips nearly every cliche in the book, etc.

...This is exactly what I needed. A good old NORMAL RPG on my DS. There are way too many goddamn SRPGs on the DS, it pisses me off. Mostly because they're all on the PSP. But anyway, I want to lay waste to my enemies and freely explore maps and solve puzzles! Not to move my characters around a stupid grid and navigate a ton of command menus!

Needless to say, I'm enjoying the hell out of this game. Sure, the personalities of your party members are pretty much paper thin archtypes. But I like them anyway. There are random battles, but I'm okay with that. The battle system itself is nothing like anything I'd make. It's slow typical turn based fare, but I like it. You can predict every major plot point before it appears, but I don't mind too much.

The game pulls it all together and makes it fun.

That's really all that matters in my opinion. It would be nice if the story was more varied and the characters were deeper than their assigned archtypes. But that's just an add on to good gameplay.

I'm about 10 hours into the game and loving it. Though the game is a little easy, character battles in particular. Not even bosses are a real challenge.

On the flipside, airship battles are 'LOL EFF U' hard at times. They play like 'Wild ARMs 3's Sandcraft battles. Each of your party members mans a part of your airship for battle. However Nostalgia uses small number scaling for stats. So at Lv 20, my main character has about 143 HP. The Airship starts out with 100 HP, and airship enemies generally hit for about 30-60 damage. Now you can have anywhere from 1-6 enemies on your ONE airship so needless to say, you get gang raped. My Airship's HP now is 310, but I'm still getting my butt kicked if I run into a bad monster group.

tl;dr it's a huge contrast from the laughably easy character battles.

Anyway, that's enough from me about Nostalgia, go play it.

And to finish off, have a visual.

Annnnd awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay I gooooooooooooooooooo

The Wheel of Fate is NOT Turning

2009-10-25T18:57:00.001-07:00

It's time for yet another boredom blog post. Yessssss!

So what have I done to stave off the looming dark cloud of evil(and boredom) this time?

I've been playing BlazBlue. Story mode specifically. I tried Arcade mode on Hard. I can't beat Hakumen. DAMN YOU HAKUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

I actually really like the presentation of story mode in BB though. It's like a perfected version of GGXX's story mode. To be simple though, I suppose you could say it's like a visual novel with fights here and there. It's really addicting. You have to play through each character's individual story to unlock two extra story paths and then after you beat those, you can play the true ending. The true ending is the most epic thing ever. Unlimited Ragna is also pretty damn cheap to play as!

I hope story mode in Continuum Shift takes place after Calamity Trigger's story mode, because I really want to know what happens next. That is, if there WILL be a story mode. *glares at Guilty Gear Accent Core*

'Teach me, Miss Litchi!' is also the most hilarious thing ever. Seriously, I laughed like crazy. I only wish there were more episodes. D:

Well, despite all the fun I've been having with BlazBlue. I doubt that it will last very long. That dark cloud of evil is only going to draw closer and closer until it finally consumes me. Maybe it's for the best, huh?

I need to plan...

Edit: onooooooooooooes, I forgot a visual! Here have this.

Later.

The Wheel of Fate is NOT Turning.

2009-10-25T18:14:00.001-07:00

It's time for yet another boredom blog post. Yessssss!

So what have I done to stave off the looming dark cloud of evil(and boredom) this time?

I've been playing BlazBlue. Story mode specifically. I tried Arcade mode on Hard. I can't beat Hakumen. DAMN YOU HAKUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

I actually really like the presentation of story mode in BB though. It's like a perfected version of GGXX's story mode. To be simple though, I suppose you could say it's like a visual novel with fights here and there. It's really addicting. You have to play through each character's individual story to unlock two extra story paths and then after you beat those, you can play the true ending. The true ending is the most epic thing ever. Unlimited Ragna is also pretty damn cheap to play as!

I hope story mode in Continuum Shift takes place after Calamity Trigger's story mode, because I really want to know what happens next. That is, if there WILL be a story mode. *glares at Guilty Gear Accent Core*

'Teach me, Miss Litchi!' is also the most hilarious thing ever. Seriously, I laughed like crazy. D:

Well, despite all the fun I've been having with BlazBlue. I doubt that it will last very long. That dark cloud of evil is only going to draw closer and closer until it finally consumes mt's for the. Maybe i

My despair. Feel it.

2009-10-20T08:47:00.001-07:00

Wow, I am so bored these days that I'm blogging about it. There's not much else to do. :<

FFTA2 is getting annoying. My handy sketchbook has been run out too. At least I went out with a nice group picture for the last page. Too bad I can't scan still.

So what have you losers been up to these days? Is Tales of The Great Old One finished yet? Did Anaryu fall off Mount Everest? Has Ocean given in to the Foodmonster? Is Sacred Eternal Seraphim Cirno done yet, Nessiah? Has Project DOAD gotten that one star review yet? Has Neok made AAG even more impossible while I wasn't looking? Will I ever stop asking inane questions? Find out next time onnnn, Cloudreach Ball Zeeeeeeee

*cough*

Moving along. I read that Ar Tonelico 3 was announced a bunch of days ago. I like the character designs so far. But...but...Why 3D!? D:

I guess it's sort of inevitable with the industry these days. 2D is very quickly becoming obsolete. Every game review I've seen for 2D games these days has been 'bawww the graphics suck!', which is kind of a downer. I like 2D :<

First it was Trinity Universe, then it was Atelier Rorona, and now it's Ar Tonelico 3!

To their credit though, they look great imo, but...but...3D! D:
Oh well.

What else...

Have some random videos!

*Skie runs*

So we meet again...and again...and again.

2009-10-15T11:21:00.001-07:00

Beware, there is not a single mention of Sacred Earth in here. You have been warned.

I swear, if there is a god of luck in some far off mythology somewhere. I formally present to you this message:

SCREW YOU!

SCREW YOU WITH A RAKE!

*ahem*

So over the past few weeks I've somehow managed to catch a cold, get over it, catch another one, get over that, and then catch yet another one on top of that. Back to effing back! What the hell? >:V

Needless to say I am not happy sitting here running through paper like some kind of sniffling, sneezing automaton...

Heh, an automaton.

I AM A SNIFFLING AUTOMATON *BZZT*...*SNIFFLE*

ANYWAY, moving away from my health issues...

I've beaten 'Star Ocean: The Last Hope' some days ago. Thank the heavens. I have to say though. The last boss is so cheap and annoying. I mean, I beat him on my first try, but all of his attacks are all designed in such a way that they all piss you off. The ending was nice though. Too bad I didn't get the special endings. Ah well, I'm not playing that again. Moving right along.

I also picked up 'Final Fantasy Tactics A2' upon beating SO4. I was already playing this but I had put it down some time ago. Getting back on my current playthrough, I'm currently just messing around doing quests and training my party for the big story mission that I lost to the last time I was playing. I hope to finish that soon. As much as I hate to admit it though, this is the best DS SRPG I've played so far. Imagine if Paradise Blue was an SRPG and you have FFTA2, heh.

What else...Ah right, I'm almost out of sketchbook paper. I've been drawing a lot and I'm actually happy with a good amount of them. Too bad I'm definitely not going to feel like scanning all that crap in once I can. I guess that's not too bad. It's not like every piece has to to leave my sketchbook...right? D:

Anyway, I leave off with random visuals.

Art by KeyPassions

Still alive...barely

2009-10-09T06:40:00.001-07:00

It's been many centuries since I made a blog entry. It's been really....er, busy for me as of late. So I haven't been working on my projects much...or at all. I've switched modes from RPG Maker to drawing and playing games.

I've been playing 'Star Ocean: The Last Hope' at the moment. In all honesty, it's a terrible game in many, many aspects, but it's one saving grace is the battle system. If only that battle system was attached to a getter game! Ah well, I'm almost finished with it. Just a little bit more and then I can free myself from it, ...'kay?

What else. Ah, right. Drawing. I've been doing a lot of drawing in my sketchbook recently. I think I've gotten a lot better in that aspect. But I bet my tablet-fu has regressed. It's been a long while! D:

It's a shame my scanner won't work on this computer. Otherwise I'd show some of my recent work.

ALSO!

It's a little late incoming from me, but Project DOAD was finished and released in full some time ago. I decided to forgo custom music and just release the game. It pains me to not have what would no doubt have been some excellent music from tyvb, but he had his own problems to deal with. Anyway, it's there on it's blog page.

I'm also helping out with a cross over game effort called Cross Retro. It's actually really amusing, but it's still in progress. Check out the test videos!

And finally, can't end a blog entry without some kind of visual. Let's see now.....

Aha, Videos!

"Caith is not pleased"

Alright enough dumbassery. Skie signing out! ( ' w ' )/

Video: Boss Test Final + Menu Musings

2009-09-19T14:49:00.001-07:00

Annnd we have a video with all characters in and such.

Let's see now. All characters are playable, most of the spells have been given custom spell effects, barring Earth Rage, all systems are demonstrated.

I already explained Kell's strategy. Flann's Strategy is to attack with debilitating fire spells and then support Kell with a Fire Barrier spell to make up for her weakness. However, Kell does not do the same for Flann, so you can easily strike at her weakness and take her down first. Kell, however is more dangerous since she has an AOE ice spell on top of three other ice spells, giving her three chances to reduce your Ice resist to nothing and deal ridiculous damage, as you can see in the video.

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Anyway, in other news, I was brainstorming ideas for how to avoid having to make a custom menu. I do believe I've found it. Delegate all the character growth systems to town locations and savepoints or what have you. This would reduce the need for a tricked out base menu to about say....0%? I am however going avoid the default menu still. I'm probably just going to provide a simple objective/quest reminder menu to replace an involved main menu.

Also that poll totally is not going to decide who the main character is. That's already done. It's more of a 'who do you like more?' thing. I wouldn't delegate major story decisions to a poll.

Speaking of story, I've already outlined the the basic game flow for SEBR. I'll share it with you. It'll at least show that I'm doing something other than battle stuff.

--- Game Flow Design ---

Follows the pace of the old SEL. Take missions, explore and do other stuff. Once you finish the general missions, the story mission will open up. This constitutes a single chapter.

So, game flow is...

Chapter Begin Scene --> Free Missions and Exploration(5) --> Story Mission --> Chapter End Scene

--- Mission Board Design ---

The game takes up a mission based system. You go to the Mission Board, choose requests and fulfill them. Once you've done enough, then the story mission will open up. Finish this mission and the chapter will end. But you can still explore and finish the other missions before doing the story mission.

-- Mission Types and Difficulties --

Hunt: Take out a specific monster. Usually a strong monster. but can sometimes be a group hunt.
Gather: Gather items for the client. Amount and type vary
Volunteer: Minigame type missions where you must assist the client in whatever they do.

- Difficulties -

Easy: You will have little trouble completing this mission.
Normal: There may be some challenge involved in this mission.
Hard: There are many challenges involved with this mission.
Expert: The challenge level is through the roof. Fulfill at your own risk.

- Rewards -

There are no items in SEBR, so Rewards are going to have to be SP and Ether Shards. With this in mind. I should balance it so that Missions are the best source of SP and Ether Shards.

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That's all from me. Have some randomness to leave off.

I come bearing goods

2009-09-07T00:16:00.001-07:00

So I've been doing some work. For today, we have some screenshots, a video, and some art.

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And here's your video.

This is a test boss battle with the new battle system for Sacred Earth: Bonds REMAKE. I'm also using this to create a first time basic non-random boss strategy.

This boss has a set routine to lower your ice resistance with two ice spells, and then strike with a big ice spell for maximum damage, and finally heal afterwards. So you have to counter her ice spells with ice protection in between taking your own actions while finally still dealing enough damage to counteract her healing. If you slip up even once, you probably WILL die. Luckily I didn't in this video, but I lost once.

The key is to either strike at her weakness, which is fire, or whittle away at her Barrier and deal maximum damage.

As you can see, this is much more strategic than SEB1, off the bat. I'm hoping to keep stuff like this going and expand on this as I go.

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And finally, some art.

Meet Fae Lin. She's a fairy of undetermined age. Isn't she cute? Well you'd better get used to her. Because she's your save point. Oh and I forgot to tell you, She's got the rudest mouth ever. Good luck~

Art by Nessiah

I guess this section is back in action again

2009-08-30T14:28:00.001-07:00

Since I'm fixing and redoing many parts of this game. I guess I should keep my progress here rather than make yet another page.

Well after a long break due to lack of general will to work and a gaming binge, I finally came back to my work and found that I no longer felt incredible laziness while looking at my incomplete work. So it's back to the grind for me!

So what have I done so far?

I re-outlined the story. The overall story is mostly the same, but the execution in the beginning is far far different, and from there, many things will deviate from the original. What does this mean for you? You'll have to see, hoho~. A big factor that contributes to this is the inclusion of Patchoulli and Priel from the getgo. So the story is definitely going to be altered to accomodate for them. I'm actually looking forward to having them in from the start to interact will all the characters they missed out on. Basically, those two got screwed really bad in the first version. They were hastily shoehorned in. Now they're getting their chance. I'm also redoing other story details that I felt weren't all that great.

Graphics-wise, I created Veili and Gunnar's all new sprite sheets for battle, and I'm working on Priel now. For some reason, I've been dying to make Priel's new sprites. So this will be fun. I also made a new battle interface design. It's much better looking than both SEB and SEB2's I feel. This new look easily displays OB and FB without getting in the way of the art. So that's a win for me.

On the technical side of things, the battle system has been altered and more unified. So hopefully it will play out a lot better than previously. I've taken some inspiration from SEB2, but not so much to make them clones of each other. I'll post a battle system outline entry separately for what I have done and what's to come.

Anyway, have some art to leave off. It also shows Patch and Priel's new designs. No screenshots and such yet. I'm saving that for later.

P.S. We have a new poll up. As usual, the winner is what I'll go with.

Art by Nuechan