Threads of Destiny

[Dukester]

www.geocities.com/hq_zaft





Pics and walkthrough are on the site

Lite version with less wavs 217 megs
www.megaupload.com/?d=BAF257GX


Full version with 70% voices done 497 megs
tinyurl.com/hdmwj


This is a demo made by Dukester and Vindicated with Rm2k3 (and a buttload of charas ressources) and it's time I gave back to the community after taking so much. 2 versions exists: the LITE version with only voices in the beginning (the part with the best voice acting -_-) is 217 megs and the full version which is the same but with more voices clocks at a whopping 497 megs (mostly due to inefficient wav and mp3 compression ) but thank god for storage sites like www.up-file.com and www.megaupload.com to allow me to store files at a fast speed.

You'll find that this RPG definitely has a style of its own, and is a
hybrid between an anime and a RPG, with lots of story cutscenes using battle charas. The battle animations used are pretty neat too, like the ones used by the boss in the tutorial battle, with some taking more than 2 hours to do lol. A full walkthrough is included so completing the game should just be a matter of patience.

Graphics wise there are a lot of custom portraits, parallax, battle animations (especially) but most of the battle charas, charsets and tilesets were taken straight from charas. I have some decent photoshop skills and a lot of effort was put into make the game visually appealing, or at least not an eyesore

Technically there are some pretty innovative triggers used that circumvent some of RPG maker's limitations, such as a Diablo style attribute point spending after each character levels up.

Some triggers are complex, like adding battle commands in battle, adding skills then removing them after the battle is done, as well as a pretty decent summoning system (show invisible monster, switch transform on, change the monster's look, escape when monster numbers are 1 ), while other triggers are really simple but have a cool effect, like having a skill point upon level and having the choice of reducing the mana cost of all your skills by 3 or giving them the
ignore defense property. And wait till you see Shizune's battle system!

There's tons of other effects, just try the game I'm willing to share all the custom ressources used by my RPG and if there's any trigger in it that you want to reproduce or learn how to do it, I'll be
glad to tell you. All secrets are available to the public ^_^ You can add me on MSN thatvietguy@hotmail.com

PS: In the full version the opening story (the part about angels and demons) after you beat the first boss has been considerably shortened in the Lite version, this is an improvement because I felt it was bad on the pacing of the beginning, which has a lot more cutscenes and less rpg-ing than in the later parts. If someone downloads the full version please tell me if I should shorten it up to the part where it says Zaft Corps presents or not. I mostly kept the long opening because the Xenosaga 3 music was gorgeous ;( :p  

[Prpl_Mage]

Wow....Give some time to read through this ok.

Well the game looked great and all but the Tales of-..." characters wasn´t changed so it seemed kinda' weerd.

Now excuse  I´m gonna continue playing the game...

[Dukester]

Thanks Prpl_mage for giving it a try, you're a king among men.

Yea the Tales chars is kind of lazy, but a crazy amount of time
was spent on the customized animations, and the portraits and charsets are not from Tales, at least

When I figure out how to swap colors in photoshop I'll try to customize the battle sprites, until then try not to let it distract you too much.

Peace

[DragonBlaze]

You're game is WAY too big (file size).

Of all your screens, you only have one map, and that one map isn't really that good. The level up system looks interesting, but not that all impressive, its (or rather it looks like) a picture of albel from SO3 as a background, then a 4 way choice message system. I've seen some systems simular to this, but they looked a lot nicer.

So while your game doesn't look bad, it doesn't seem like its worth downloading from someone like me who has dial up.

[Meiscool-2]

This game has nothing new or anything that stands out other then the voices. Your mapping is poor, you mix charasets that don't match, you use RTP graphics, you show no signs of custom made things, or even edits to your battle system. Your lvl-up screen looks like it was made in a few seconds, and your battle graphics don't match... especially the faces.

Don't take what I say to badly... I'm normally a tough critic. Also, you should zip your sfx folder then zip the game folder. It will reduce the file size greatly.

[aboutasoandthis]

Use Microsoft Sound Recorder to speed up the tempo of all of your WAV files. Then play them back at the lowest tempo in RPG Maker. This should cut the file size down a lot.

I've got dial-up too, so no download.

[Skie Fortress]

Um...this actually looked interesting...until i saw 419 Megs!? Gimme a break! Actually you know what? I'll download the 'lite' version, which is still a bit huge, and try it out.

[Meiscool-2]

Originally posted by aboutasoandthis
Use Microsoft Sound Recorder to speed up the tempo of all of your WAV files. Then play them back at the lowest tempo in RPG Maker. This should cut the file size down a lot.

That will compromise the quality of the sounds though. It would sound like a chipmunk speaking in slow-mo

[I Have a Sandwich]

Yeah, I'll agree about the graphics. Even that character on the title is just a red Ky Kiske.

[aboutasoandthis]

 Originally posted by Meiscool
 

That will compromise the quality of the sounds though. It would sound like a chipmunk speaking in slow-mo

I'm doing it an it sounds nice.

[I Have a Sandwich]

For voices or music? Any voice with a poor editor will get chipmunk-y.

[Dukester]

If I knew people were going to judge a game based on a few
screenshots alone I wouldn't have bothered to put them up. Condemning someone's work without trying it is not something I expected from this community, I sincerely hope the rest of the members in this board aren't as short sighted as Meiscool and Dragonblaze, who obviously didn't bother to look beyond the screenshots I attached to give their "well informed and constructive criticisms". If they had bothered to check they would see that each character has a custom battle system, tons of custom animations and innovative things as far as the RPG maker program allows it.

Any RPG maker realizes that their game can't have 100% original content, and that is exactly what charas is for, to provide the ressources to make a decent RPG, even if everything is not entirely customized;

For those who are on dial up, I apologize about the file size, if you sincerely want to download it I can send it to you personnaly, the lite version was made for people like you in mind.

Until next time folks, take care.

[I Have a Sandwich]

Translated: I posted this game thinking everyone would be instantly in love with it based on a few screenshots. But they weren't, so now I'll insult them by calling them narrow minded.

If you see a piece of food in a bakery that looked like it came out of a monkeys rear quarters, was oozing puss and looked overall disgusting, would you try it? Screens are what encourage people to download and try the game. If the screens aren't appealing, then why should they take their own time to 'just make sure'? I suggest either better screens or adjusting to taking criticism.

[Dukester]

That's completely wrong. What you are saying is judge a book by it's cover? What a message to give to aspiring RPG makers, who have to deal with a interface that doesn't allow graphics beyond old school 16 bit quality.

I never boasted this RPG to be godly or that people will be instantly in love with it, all I asked was that people give it a chance before making uninformed criticisms without even playing the game.

If you don't want to play a RPG maker made game because of lousy graphics, the choice is entirely up to you. Just don't come and claim that there is nothing innovative, that it brings nothing new to the table, that there's no custom content without trying the game. Doing so would make you...ignorant.

[Bluhman]

497 Megs!? Jesus... That comes from all those voice-overs, right?