#and its not like people NEED to kill you to eat there's NPC food options

[gem-quest]

[ B A L E S T R A  . . . ]

“A great battle is a terrible thing,“ the old knight said, "but in the midst of blood and carnage, there is sometimes also beauty, beauty that could break your heart.” – George R R Martin

Real Name: Esther Meier (Nicknamed Essie at school, but she hates it)

Age: 19

FC: Alexia Giordano

Species & Class: Celestial Knight

Guild: Moonstone

Description of In-Game Powers: (Sorry this is super long. This is largely based off of DnD Aasimar and Paladins, but without trying to bring in actual divine powers. Instead I tried to make it more centered around a player’s perception of themselves and their actions. If this doesn’t fit with other species or the world, let me know!)

Celestials are what could arguably be defined as a light-based typically Moonstone-aligned species similar to sylphs or fae but without the connection to the environment around them. Instead, they seem to draw power from their own actions and convictions, making them a lot more internal than elemental species. Their path and their thoughts about their path define their progression. This makes their dialogue options, interactions with other PCs, and their approaches to passing certain levels very important in how they develop and the skills they gain. But it also makes their own assessment of their actions pivotal in their direction, unlike many other species. They don’t gain skills just by completing tasks, but based on how they perceive how they completed these tasks. Usually Celestial players tend to go for high Psyche/Charisma stats to boost their mental fortitude and balance. But Balestra doesn’t really understand balance beyond proper footwork. She makes up for this with a high willpower that shot even higher after her return to level 1. Willpower is a double-edged sword for Celestials since it enhances however a Celestial feels about their own actions regardless of whether this has a positive or negative effect, whereas other stats merely increase the potential for a Celestial to regard their action as good or heroic.

The interaction between player actions, player perspective, and leveling opportunities makes them a relatively unpopular species choice except for those gamers who like to save before every major NPC interaction and religiously google the different effects of game routes and encyclopedic lore entries before making any choices. In other words, most people find them tedious with a slow ramp and unpredictable leveling. Now that players can’t exit the game or return to save points, they’ve become pretty rare as they tend to die off quicker. But if they survive long enough and can find a good balance between mental stats, goals, and their class, they can become power houses. If not, they tend to be ineffective or even self-detrimental. An unstable Celestial can be equally powerful, but usually just as destructive to themselves as those around them…whether intended or not.

While they have the ability to learn flight, like sylphs, they have large feathered wings instead of diaphanous insect wings. Unlike fae, some classes of Celestials can even use these as melee weapons or shields, especially with specialized armor. Celestials also tend to have a strong affinity to light and some classes can practice light magic. The power of this is also connected to their perception of their actions, along with stats like psyche and charisma.

Regardless of other stats, Celestials’ main buff is in their luck, which extends to the rest of their party when in close proximity. In truth, Balestra didn’t even want to be a Celestial (or a Moonstone player, for that matter). But her school friends wanted that luck buff, and as always she played along. There was some fault with her copy of the game though, and when facing an attack against her party where she should have died, she ended up using up all of her luck buff (and even her luck stat) to reset to the beginning level while her friends died. In turn, her luck stat points randomly shifted to other traits. She can’t decide if she’s one of the luckiest or unluckiest Gem Quest players. In effect she died. All her items are gone, which happens to dead players. And all of her level progress disappeared. But something happened when she was reset. Not only does she have a luck of zero while still retaining all the negatives of the Celestial species; she lost the wings, flight abilities, and light affinity that are the only other Celestial perks. And moreover (and much more pressing), she can’t seem to use potions or magic on herself. Who knows if she can even get out of the game now if she can’t use Relinquium on herself.

Place of Birth: Berkshire, UK

Appearance:

She is most well known for defeating the wyrm Miro in nothing but the default character attire of white tunic and leather pants (mostly because she was on her second playthrough by then, trying frantically to regain all her lost ground, and partly not caring whether she died or not). While she does have a suit of engraved silver armor which she tends to wear in more active levels, and isn’t opposed to trading out her more martial attire for something a bit more flowy and delicate (god knows she needs whatever charisma bonus she can get on the levels that don’t rely on stabbing things), the beginning character outfit has become a bit of a calling card for her, along with her wild halo of curls. No matter what, she prefers to stick to more medieval or renaissance inspired clothing.

“Delicate in every way but one (the swordplay) God knows we like archaic kinds of fun (the old way) Chance is the only game I play with, baby We let our battles choose us” – Glory and Gore, Lorde

Places Most Likely to be Found In-Game: When not clearing levels, she tends to wander the Valley of Monsters since it’s Destrier’s home level. She’s found he’s easiest to deal with in a setting where he belongs, and becomes increasingly harder to control in more incongruous places (Few can forget that disastrous foray into the peaceful Moonstone haunt of the Gardens of Finvarra where Balestra and Destrier learned that no, eating fae NPCs does not count as eating fairy food. Balestra is needless to say not very popular among her guild). Beyond being known as a strange pariah figure people tell stories about having glimpsed speeding through levels in little more than the default character attire, she has gained a reputation as a pretty capable monster hunter for those in the market for parts but unable to handle battling beasties themselves. So she tends to spend more time in the monster-infested areas of levels than most players.

Current Inventory:

Not really inventory, but has somewhat tamed (keyword somewhat) a griffin she calls Destrier. To her that’s basically naming something horse, but she’s killed so many other mounts that she tries not to get attached. The two get along like a house fire. He has all the worst attributes of cats and birds; namely wanting to steal and then eat anything remotely shiny, wanting to kill and then eat anything that moves whether alive or not, not wanting to eat anything actually given to him as food because he didn’t get to kill it himself, being at once stubborn and proud while impressively lazy, and being altogether too smart for his own good and too stupid for Ess’s.

Halberd x 1

Quicksilver Longsword x 1 (This magical sword has the ability to change forms, shifting between rapier, longsword, knife, zweihander, and other bladed weapons which provide different stat bonuses. But it does have the distinct drawback of slowly poisoning its wielder with every use, lowering their hp and psyche dramatically for a period of time. The more its transformation powers are activated, the longer this effect lasts, which can eventually lead to an almost permanent madness. It has also been rumored to be addictive, causing the user to want more and more to shift between its forms.)

Rope x 1

Fire Salamander Gizzard x1 (Rare drop from Fire Salamanders used as a fire starter. Not as fast or reliable as a potion, and a lot more work to acquire. But if you can’t use potions you learn to make due)

Astragali Fortuna x6 (hippogriff knucklebones covered in runes which must be coated in the intended target’s warm blood to be used. They are rolled and then either buff/nerf a stat or induce the effect of a random potion in the game’s database depending on the symbols rolled. The probability of which potion effect is induced depends on the rarity of the potion. This effect does not last as long as a real potion’s. It is about as often detrimental as helpful to its target and is regarded by most players as unreliable for both personal and offensive use. A high luck score increases the chance of a positive outcome, as in part does willpower. But the exact formula for the RNG behind the item is unknown, and most players regard it as a possibly disastrous joke item.)

Venison Jerky x10

Full suit of armor x1 (she usually just wears bits and pieces since it does tend to lower her dexterity)

Beastmaster’s Gorget x1 (Ess actually isn’t a rider, but she needed that speed of a mount to regain her level progress, and she desperately wants to fly again. So she still uses a mount despite not having any of the helpful traits of a Rider player like knowing where your mount is, being able to call it, or being able to control its actions in battle. The gorget helps limit some of those problems. She thinks of it as a “Rogue Griffin GPS” with a bit of a defence buff. It ties him to her by a certain distance though it doesn’t really force him to obey her at all)

Strongest character trait: Stubborn, and she hates that about herself despite how many times it has saved her.

Strengths: creative and determined when she has a goal. She’s had to go about the game very differently her second time around, but she hasn’t succumbed to any of her handicaps yet and in many ways is a stronger player now than she ever was with her original group as her original Celestial Knight self.

Weaknesses: Conflicted, overthinking, and overly controlled when in reality she’s a lot more instinctive than she allows herself to be. She still has a hard time trusting herself 

Player Stats: (I’m going based off of an average individual stat score being 5, so the average total should be around 50. But if that doesn’t seemed balanced, please let me know! Also, after Balestra used up all of her luck returning to level 1 instead of dying, her luck stat was redistributed randomly to her other stats –hence her having 2 sets of numbers. She thinks of herself like a paladin pre-glitch and something entirely different afterwards. The closest she can think of is cursed).

STRENGTH: 6  || 7

DEFENCE: 5  || 6

CHARISMA: 2  || 2

PSYCHE: 2  || 2

WILLPOWER: 6  || 9

CAUTIOUSNESS: 2 || 2

AGILITY: 8  || 8

ENDURANCE: 6  || 7

INTELLIGENCE: 7  || 7

LUCK: 6  || 0

Destrier Stats: He was once a fightable monster, right? So that means he has to have stats. I just figure he’d have fewer stat points than a PC, so I arbitrarily gave him 2/3 the total points I gave my PC. Again, let me know if that’s unbalanced. Since Balestra’s not a Rider (despite acting like one a lot of the time), she doesn’t get any stat bonus from him. He just does his own thing, which only sometimes aligns with what she wants him to do. She’s only able to marginally control him based on having a higher willpower and charisma, though only barely.

STRENGTH: 7

DEFENCE: 5

CHARISMA: 0

PSYCHE: 0

WILLPOWER: 7

CAUTIOUSNESS: 1

AGILITY: 6

ENDURANCE: 5

INTELLIGENCE: 3

LUCK: 1

Personality:

tld;dr: She’s goal/cause driven but without a cause, has spent so long being a malleable persona shaped by family and peer expectations and status but has found that without that microcosm she’s just a hollow shell reeling with misplaced anger and stifled independence that’s eating her from the inside out. She is quite intelligent and has taught herself to be disciplined despite actually being much more volatilely reactive than she’d like to admit.

Inscrutable, private, and quiet

Determined (when she has a goal, although she gets frustrated and dangerously unpredictable even to herself when she feels aimless)

So used to carefully crafting her image that she’s lost a lot of her internal sense of self and self-worth. She’s also quite comfortable with blanketing herself in little lies rather than show people the more vulnerable reality underneath. This doesn’t always mean she tries to make herself more appealing, sometimes she tries to push others away with lies instead.

Creative and Resourceful

Does best when faced with a problem. She likes solving things, and tends to pull herself together when faced with an external threat.

Vacillates between a guilt complex and a rigid disregard for the effects of her actions. In reality, she’s somewhere in the middle, but it’s unsettling having to face both what she’s done and how she’s not entirely sorry about it in order to actually come to terms with herself.

Overthinker to the extreme, but more because she’s trained herself to be so. In reality she’s pretty instinctive and reactive. But from family, school, and friends she’s learned to gauge every possible effect of her actions before taking a step. This led her to be paralyzed by indecision and more of a follower in real life, but now that she’s on her own and in charge of an even more instinctive and wild creature she’s had to chip away at that protective calculation and just act. It’s terrifying and freeing all at once.

Has a hard time reconciling her softer side with her sharp and harder tendencies. She tends to come off as biting, rigid, and distant but has a softer and more delicate side she tries to bury. 

Quite independent but doesn’t fully trust herself. She’s so used to being part of something and deferring to others that she feels at times lost being on her own. She has cycles of loneliness and defiance where she just wants to push people away and forge her own path.

Has a very dark sense of humor, but she doesn’t let that out for just anyone. She’s gotten most comfortable with Destrier, just by sheer amount of time spent with him and the fact that she has few other people to talk to. Sure, he doesn’t quite talk back, but he has his own brand of snark and the two have a weird back and forth.

“And each man stands with his face in the light. Of his own drawn sword, ready to do what a hero can.” –Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Biography: 

Why was she here? Esther asked that often, as she stared down the slathering maw of some fabled beast with nothing but a halberd between them, as she grasped tight to a half-tamed griffin’s feathers and fought it all the way into the sky for some semblance of control, or as she sat alone beside a sputtering fire and stared up at the false constellations of another simulated night which seemed to hulk too low and too heavy above her.

Why was she here, in this chaotic mess of monsters fighting for nothing, in this broken body which couldn’t remember how to heal or shine or fly? Of course, she knew the answer. Every time a blow missed, or a lingering wound ached as she tried to find some substitute for a potion, or a new party passing on a trail gave her the wide berth of a plague ship, she knew. Helena. Everything had always been Helena.

It was Helena who found her when she first started Wellington, when she was just some state school scholarship kid whose father was a jumped-up real estate agent with notions. It was Helena who dragged Esther to her family’s events like some new toy to show off, where Esther would sit still as a statue while Helena left her to talk with old friends, afraid to touch anything, afraid they would know she didn’t belong. It was Helena who had crowned her “Essie” and stared down the boys who threw pencils in her curls to see if they would stick. But it was Helena who would braid her hair into messy pigtails and make sure to tug, just a few times, just to see if she would wince. It was Helena who tasted like candy apple vodka and stifled laughter at a pre-exam party, all the grace and perfect ease of a sun with its planets in orbit. But it was Helena who kissed her full on the lips and left her wide-eyed and speechless, and then told her in that whimsical tone that made it seem like you had a choice through the underlying bite of a command, “I think you and Thom would be cute together. I think I would like that.” It was Helena who threw the two of them together. Thom with his clumsy, grasping hands and his jealous streak. Thom who only had two things in common with her; the fencing team (where he waddled about like a safety hazard with an epee), and Helena, who they would do anything for.

It was Helena who was beautiful and bright, shining and sharp, commanding and fickle and cruel. So of course, after graduation when their group was thrown to the wind and Esther found herself at the Sorbonne for Medieval Studies which Helena had always called “pointless, dull old nonsense,” when Helena had called up “on a whim,” Esther dropped everything. In all honestly, there hadn’t been much to drop. Her father had called the day before. Something about a bad deal and money troubles, how they couldn’t afford her program or apartment anymore. Something about money for the next train from Paris. Something about problems at home, something with his secretary, of course because her father didn’t have the creativity for an affair beyond the cliche. So of course Helena appeared like salvation, something to follow, something to hide in, something to drown herself in so she wouldn’t have to think. Instead of packing up her apartment and buying a ticket home, she spent the last of her money on a VR headset for this new game Helena had heard of. 

It was Helena who wanted to be in Moonstone; she heard there was a level just for Moonstone players to throw wild parties, that the simulation was better than any drug on the street. It was Helena who wanted Esther to be a Celestial; it would be more fun for everyone with that luck bonus, and that much easier for them all to get to that party level. And nobody else wanted to play as one, they were “hopelessly dull” after all.

But it was Esther who got them through the levels. It was Esther whose fencing skills saved them from beast after beast, whose studies gave her hints to riddles the rest of the group were too impatient and bored to puzzle through. It was Esther who first heard the announcement, that there was no way out of the game anymore, that relinquium was off the market and chances to bribe Jacqueline were disappearing. And she heard the whispering, how Thom and Helena and the others wondered how much their parents would pay to bribe their way out, how it really wasn’t that much fun here anyways, how they all just wanted to leave. They were all so sure, so confident with their parents’ money behind them that nothing could hurt them, that they could just leave when they were bored. They didn’t even spare a thought for her, they didn’t even stop to wonder what would happen if they left her behind, just like they never stopped to wonder what would happen to them if they didn’t have her there in the first place. 

It was Esther who suggested storming the dragon’s lair. She told herself she just wanted to convince them why it was worth staying, why they needed her, why they couldn’t just leave her behind. But she knew it was a lie. Thom was the first to die, and she didn’t have to do anything. He was always rash, thoughtless, always trying to impress and always falling short. Those clumsy hands that had fumbled with her uniform as she disgustedly lay there and thought, ‘this was what Helena wanted,’ never really got the hang of the in-game sword mechanics. Not even Esther’s luck bonus could help him. For a glorious, fire-choked moment somewhere between heaven and hell as the dragon slashed him to pieces and charred the remains, Esther felt right. She felt free. Some tried to fend off the beast, but they were of little use without her there to lead the charge. The others tried to flee, desperately trying to search through inventories for any potions or scrolls to help. But Esther had always been the fastest, and she had luck on her side. Their blows came to nothing. Their magic fizzled in their hands. They were left shocked and frozen as she swung at them in perfect, practiced confidence. Helena didn’t even have time for fear. She just stared with offended disbelief, as if somehow she was more upset Esther had acted without her approval than that Esther was plunging a sword into her chest. And then there was nothing, Esther had killed not just some random NPC, not just some nameless member of another guild or even some unknown from her own guild; she had killed her friends. She had swung the sword with the vicious satisfaction that they would well and truly die. And worse, she didn’t care. For once, it felt right. She didn’t stop to think. She didn’t worry. She just swung her blade.

The last thing Esther remembered was the dragon reaching down for her; the sharp kiss of its claws; the warmth of flames as her hair and face and glorious wings charred away. And then she was back at the beginning, with nothing.

Relationships:

Char 1 -

Balestra Playlist

Heretic Pride || The Mountain Goats

Falling || HAIM

Glory and Gore || Lorde

Horse & I || Bat for Lashes

Arsonist’s Lullaby || Hozier

Torches || The Oh Hellos

Miracle || CHVRCHES

Shrike || Hozier

I of the Storm || Of Monsters and Men

The Yawning Grave || Lord Huron

Fire Rides || MØ

Extras:

Esther Playlist

Oxford Comma || Vampire Weekend

Friends || RAYE

Don’t Save Me || HAIM

Karma || Years & Years

The Hamptons || Transviolet

Academia || Sia

Mirror || IDER

Only if For a Night || Florence + the Machine

Other:

After she glitched out she can’t use any potions. She doesn’t know exactly why, but she simply can’t affect herself with temporary magic without horrible glitchy side effects (this does not make her immune to spells from other players though, much to her general dismay). It’s made regaining levels a bit of a nightmare, but mostly she just misses being able to fly. It’s also meant that she’s had to get creative on some levels, especially those tailored to other guilds where the main strategy for non-guild members is a specific magical item. Also, because of this she doesn’t know if she even can leave the game, since the only method now is the potion Relinquium.

Hasn’t been the member of a party since her original party was wiped out and she reset back to level 1. She also has little to no guild loyalty. In fact, she seems much better suited to Obsidian and enjoys most of their claimed levels more than those of Moonstone, which tend to have more goals and interactions which wreak havoc with her corrupted Celestial nature.

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/euclidice/balestra/

#balestra #esther #moonstone #character info #is this all based around the premise that I really like making knight and armor dolls? Yeah mostly #but there are worse reasons to do something

[sandytree1]

Really great analysis of Zelda Breath of the Wild. I love his thoughts on exploration and environmental storytelling.

Reduced focus on narrative due to simplistic story

Maximize freedom - early Ganon kills needs to be possible

Not capitalizing enough on the backstory other than the main quest

At first the Forgotten temple seems like just the kind we’re looking for, but once you come over the shrine the place feels tainted a little. Instead there could have been some kind of mural on the back wall which visually explained another version of the backstory. 

Zelda could have chimed in more often every time we found a relic of Hyrule’s history. Voice acting without interrupting the gameplay. 

The map itself was just a generic terrain overview 

Place names appeared only after they’ve been visited

Prevents lazy players and developers from relying on it too much

Destructive trend: entering an area causes its place name to appear in bottom left corner. 

If the temple of time didn’t say “Temple of Time” down here, how would you know it was the temple of time? First it was the piano theme. Link could only discover this was the temple of time by opening the Sheika slate map. There’s nothing visual cues, items in it or anything around that even suggests it was somehow related to time. In other words, it’s actually not a temple of time. It’s just a generic cathedral with a name attached. 

Ocarina of time had the same issue

Tons of details scattered around the world, big and small

You can tell these Bokoblins have been practicing their archery

Arrows in the entrance gate of Kakariko village hint at either a bored villager or something even more sinister 

These guys are delighted to have found some durians

Riju’s seal plushies wordlessly hint at her immaturity

Robbie’s lab used to be a lighthouse 

The three hinox holding the keys to this shrine couldn’t have possibly been alive when the Sheikah erected the hint tablet, but they also happen to live inside massive rib cages which were the actual giants referred to in the text. 

Many NPCs have quirks and moments to be discovered

Koko struggling to stay awake so she can protect her sister

But Hyrule suffers from the sense that there’s not much definitive history to be found

Next to Hateno village, there’s a dilapitated horseback archery course. A nearby house holds some arrows, which presumably would have been sold to customers. Even it’s location on the main road makes sense for a business. All these things paint a picture of better time when the owner would solicit passing travelers. Riding a horse through it while picking off a few neglected targets sells the post-apocalyptic setting because it tells a story and even allows the player to become a part of it in their own way. 

Not many ruins like this to come across though 

Most relics of the past just seemed like generic stone structures or burnt out houses. Makes sense that not EVERY place should be meaningful. But some places that should be aren’t. 

Lake Hylia’s bridge is bookended by two towers complete with arrow slits and battlements, but there’s no way for guards to enter them. There’s no doors, no interior, and thus no sense that this was ever actually in use. 

Lanayru Promenade, the Coliseum, and Akala Citadel give off the same hollow impression

Guardian husks are well utilized in a couple of places, most notably Fort Hateno. But they crop up a bit too often for their own good, robbing them of some of their importance. 

This might be an underlying problem in how all of these ruins ultimately stem from a single event, leaving you with little to learn from their downfall. 

Considering the focus on exploration, archaeology seems like a fitting inclusion. 

So some decorative artifacts could have still been lying around in a few places waiting to be sold off or be displayed in Link’s home. 

Nintendo is family friendly, so there’s a lack of human corpses in the overworld, although they could be used to great effect in storytelling. 

Flashbacks, voiceovers, murals, architecture, corpses, spirits, artifacts ... All these avenues for fleshing out the world remain largely underutilized. Probably because of the extra resouces it would take, but maybe also because the area text engendered some complacency about how severe this problem was. 

If discovery is a reward for exploration, then another detrimental trend is the reuse of Hyrule. 

You don’t need to be a Zelda expert to identify Death Mountain and figure out that’s probably where the Gorons are. Try to remember back to that first Ocarina of Time playthrough. Gorons were a new addition in that edition and entering Goron’s domain resulted in a bunch of discoveries about them: they can roll around, they eat rocks, they have a chieftain, they’re having troubles, and they have a unique culture to be experienced. 

These renditions of familiar faces are superb in their execution though.

Zora’s domain looks beautiful

Korok forest looks more lush than ever

The Rito bird nest is an inspired design

Fantasy races are often homogenized, but here each race has tons of variations within themselves. 

Completionism and sense of permanence

If not for the blood moon, clearing out enemy camps might have been: the satisfaction of taking back Hyrule. Presumably this isn’t possible for technical constrains and ensuring the world remains filled with combat encounters and resources no matter how long the players take to explore. If they felt that their actions had an impact on Hyrule, it might be enough to motivate them instead of more combat engagement, not less. 

Tarry town quest is weak. Essentially it involves talking to NPCs until you find the right one, gather rewards, then repeat times five. At least nice to have gathering wood to be the focus for once -- more purpose to the mechanic. Relaxing to be working towards building a town and the mundane way than usual for a Zelda title. But repeat too many times, it can feel like a slug. 

900 koroks to find -- to make sure an average players will stumble across a reasonable amount

Standout areas to appreciate even if they lack permanence or distinct rewards. 

Thai flow forests reduced visibility

Lost woods: entry puzzle, three well-rounded distinct side quests, a cave of ordeals, most lively rendition of a forest town yet

Yiga clan hideout has enforced stealth plus unique boss

Eventide island

All these places have something in common: they’re restrictive

Just look at the path to Zora’s domain: 

more restrictive gameplay can lead to more memorable outcomes

It rains here and its a mountainous region. So the most reasonable option for progresss is to follow the path, which makes the player run into several enemy encounters. Given the choice you might be the player who fights them just because, but if you’re the type to go around, placing them right here in your path makes them more of a threat, which encourages you to take them out. 

Nerf the paraglider a bit

Won’t work if Link can continue to effortlessly glide over so much terrain

Should function more like Skyward Sword where it was simply used to break falls. Would make a fast way to descend without being so easily abusable. 

Shield surfing would then be a more feasible way to cover distance by speeding down sllopes. 

Actually more satisfying to cut down trees to cross ravines

Their camouflage is too easy to notice. 

So such ambush tactics is just what this kind of open world needs. 

Others have similar tricks: Octorocks, Koblins, minor talus, Yiga clan members. 

At worst they feel like random encounters

Problem: easy to run away after they reveal themselves 

Lionels and mounted bokoblins are the only real cases where fleeing might result in death

Deku scrubs, Bodongos, and the likes are missing - but also present due to octorok vairants accomplishing much the same thing

(... TBC 32:33) 

Something addictive about trying to grab that perfect shot of wildlife (photographer) 

BOTW doesn’t have enough variation given its size

Eventide island: people value every equipment and food they can obtain

Players can make it harder for themselves by sticking to self-proposed rules

making an experience feel real (reality) vs making it simply look real (realism)

Pro mode simply hides the menu items ➡ more immerssive

#Zelda #BOTW #Zelda: Breath of the Wild #analysis #notes

[xseedgames]

Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection Micro-bloggery Round-up

A very Zwei Q&A with editor Nick!

1) I've got a huge backlog of games. Why should I bump Zwei to the front of the queue?

It's been a great year in videogames - perhaps TOO great, if my own backlog stack is any indication, and I have no doubt that many (most?) of you are in the same boat. But every now and then, we'll get our hands on a game and it sort of effortlessly floats to the front of the queue, like it bought an expensive theme park pass. I'm under no illusion that Zwei will be "that game" for everyone, but for some of you, it might be! Let's look at a couple reasons why Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection might be just the game you've been looking for (but didn't realize it)!

First, it's got a great "medium" length. You won't be rolling the credits in 10 hours, but it's also not an 80+ hour bear where you just look at it and sigh and think, "I know I'll love this, but...when will I find the time to play it?" With Zwei: II's 30-ish hour average playtime, it offers a fulfilling action RPG experience you can sink your teeth into, but you won't need to cancel all your plans for the next month to make time for it.

Second, Zwei represents a heretofore-unknown prong of Falcom's action RPG legacy. Falcom is famous for Ys, an action RPG series that has spanned decades at this point, and other titles in a roughly similar vein, like Brandish and Xanadu - in fact, it's been joked that Falcom's "XYZ" is Xanadu, Ys, and Zwei. But unlike many of their other offerings, nothing from the Zwei series has ever been officially available outside Japan...until now. As Falcom's last/most recent PC-exclusive title (made in 2008), it straddles a fun line between old-school charm and modern conveniences and storytelling. It's the Falcom quality you know, but in a world distinctly different from their other games.

Third, Zwei is made to be easy to pick up and spend some time with without having to invest a ton of time in a sitting. Dungeons are generally broken up into discrete "branches," each of which can be undertaken on its own, with save points in between and the ability to fast-travel between any save point you've been to at least once. If you've got 30 minutes, you can get something done in Zwei. If you've got an hour, you can do even more! The game reflects modern sensibilities regarding variances in player engagement and time commitment, and that makes it really easy to pick up whenever you feel like playing.

If any of that piques your interest, I'd invite you to consider bumping Zwei to the front of your gaming queue.

2) I love Falcom stuff like Ys and Trails, but this one seems...a little bit different. How does it compare? Will I like it?

As a Falcom action RPG, Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection fits into a long legacy of storied games, and ultimately, as fans, we can't help but draw comparisons. But I think overall, these are helpful comparisons to make, because in doing so, you can see where a game like Zwei 2 fits into Falcom's growth as a developer over time.

The original Zwei was released in 2001. It's more of a straight dungeon-crawler than its sequel, The Ilvard Insurrection, is, but it featured the mechanic that would go on to be the series' calling card: two main characters, one specializing in melee attacks and one specializing in magic, who could be swapped between at any time with the tap of a button. However, Japanese fans would have to wait until 2008 to play the second game in the series.

Tom, our resident Falcom historian, slots the Zwei series into a gameplay lineage that also includes Gurumin (made in between the first and second Zwei games) and Nayuta no Kiseki (made after the second Zwei game). That separates it from the gameplay stylings of series like Ys or Xanadu, while still feeling pretty easy to get into for anyone who's played those games before. Visually, Gurumin probably has the most "Zwei DNA" of any of Falcom's other titles, as it features gameplay and even visuals that feel like they could easily have been part of a Zwei game.

The combat in Zwei is not as technical as in the Ys games - it takes more of a "big picture" approach, in the sense that often, your biggest advantages can be gained not in one's mastery of controls or precise techniques, but in when you choose to swap between characters to chain their actions, and how you position yourself within spaces and relative to the enemies. Personally, I feel like this lends a bit more of an "arcade beat-em-up" feel to Zwei's action RPG combat, so if that sounds like your kind of thing, well, get ready to grab your spoon and dig in.

3) I've heard Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection has an unusual leveling system. What can you tell me about macaroni gratin and the power it bestows?

Well, macaroni gratin is delicious, and anyone who says otherwise is a just lookin' to foment some dissent at the lunch tables. BRING IT.

...Er, what I mean to say is, the Zwei series' leveling system is one of its most unique aspects. Instead of getting EXP from killing monsters, you gain EXP from eating food. This same food serves double duty as the main consumable items you use to heal yourself when you take damage, and you'll get plenty of it as you go through the game. It might sound weird, but it works surprisingly well, and sets up some interesting scenarios. If you want to strongarm your way through dungeons, you can be more proactive about eating food to gain EXP and keep on par with or a little above each dungeon's recommended level (as displayed by a metal plate on the floor before every dungeon branch). If you want to give yourself more of a challenge, you can use food only when you need to heal, and treat the EXP you gain as a residual bonus.

You can even just decide to enforce minimal food-usage (or not at all) and see how low of a level you can go through the game with, if you want to give yourself a real challenge. The game doesn't have standard difficulty levels, but the way in which you use food sort of lets you scale the game's difficulty as you see fit.

In addition, the game's foods fit into four different "tiers," and you can trade in ten of any one type of food for one of the "evolution" of that food in the next tier, with the higher-tier food giving 150% more EXP than 10 of the food that came before. It might sound confusing, but it's really not. Here's a quick example. I've got ten plates of Pasta Carbonara. Each one heals 28 HP and gives 2250 EXP when consumed. But, if I take those ten plates of Pasta Carbonara and trade 'em in at the restaurant counter, I'll get one plate of delicious Macaroni Gratin, which heals 38 HP (not a huge upgrade there), but gives a whopping 33,750 EXP when consumed. As you go further in the game, upgrading is more about maximizing your EXP gain versus raw healing amounts. If more raw healing is what you want, though, it may be worth NOT trading food up, because those ten plates of Pasta Carbonara can heal 280 HP - somewhere between two and three full life bars of health at high levels!

4) Got any advice for players? Must see or do stuff?

My best advice for players is to really think about the different types of magic Alwen has and what they're good for. Some magic, like fire, is all about just blasting enemies and puttin' the hurt on them. Other types of magic are, on their face, a bit weaker: ice launches only single shots that have a more limited range, wind whips up a small tornado that sweeps forward - but when you think about all the tools at your disposal, and especially how you can position or lock down enemies (known colloquially as "crowd control"), options that aren't just MAXIMUM DAMAGE BAM RIGHT IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD WITH A FOLDING CHAIR really shine. In fact, if you decide to spelunk through the optional dungeon, you'll need these strategies, because brute forcing your way will only take you so far.

Another piece of advice is to take the time to actually talk to NPCs. I admit, it's a common thing to hear from a localization editor ("Please read this dialogue that I edited!"), but Zwei is a game with a very clear through-line, and if you want to, you can stay on that track, never really go places when it's not necessary to, and finish the game with little trouble. But to do so would be denying yourself the chance to learn more about the amusing people who populate the game's world. Taking a page from the Trails series, Zwei has NPCs who often change up what they say after both major and minor game events, and the NPCs have their own individual stories that develop as the game goes on. It's worth your while to poke around and visit people, because there are many unique conversation snippets in the game that only play when you talk to someone at a particular phase of the game, and often there will even be differences in the dialogue depending on whether Ragna or Alwen is active as your lead character.

5) Since you’re known for your puns, give us your best shot. Which ones are you most proud of?

Surprisingly, Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection isn't particularly full of puns! Zwei: II's style of humor leans much more toward pithy commentary and snarky asides, often made from one partner to the other in the middle of a conversation, or just "thought aloud." Cheekiness seems to be a popular personality trait in the land of Ilvard, as the townsfolk and even the animals (...if you can talk with the animals) get in on the action. Pokkle, one half of the first Zwei game's protagonist duo, is an inveterate punster, and while he does appear in this game in a cameo role, he's not firing off puns left and right here. However...you can choose him as an opponent in the game's battle arena, and if you select Ragna to fight him and win, upon being beaten, Pokkle will moan, "I just got Ragna-rocked!" It's voiced, too, so enjoy that!

Service Penguin says thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the official Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection site at: http://visitilvard.com/!

Zwei on STEAM!

Zwei on GOG!

#ZWEI: THE ILVARD INSURRECTION #XSEED #XSEED GAMES #XSEED BLOG #ZWEI #FALCOM #POST: JESS

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Old School RuneScape and Shenmue • Eurogamer.net

Old School RuneScape

Matt: I have to admit, a good portion of my time allocated to this feature was spent signing up to RuneScape. It was frequently baffling – I somehow had an account already associated with Jagex which needed resetting several times, my usual handle (and my back up, and the back up to that) were already taken, and upon trying to buy membership, it wouldn’t let me type in any credit card details.

Downloading the game from the Old School RuneScape website really sets the tone straight away.

It was similar to the only other time I tried to play an MMO – an evening wasted trying to get my head around Square Enix’s account system to play Final Fantasy 14 in its infancy, forcing me to give up on what I hear is one of the best games in recent years – and a reminder of why I tend to stick to console games. There’s only so many captcha screens I can take!

Lottie: Back when I made my first RuneScape account – like a good fourteenish years ago – I’m pretty sure that it only required an unused username and a password. In fact, I don’t think I even attached my email address to that account until I signed up for membership a year later. I’m also honestly surprised you had such a time paying for your membership – you’d think Jagex would make taking your money an easy process.

Matt: You’d think so, right? However, once I was playing… I was pleasantly surprised! First, I absolutely love the way Old School RuneScape looks. I didn’t get into PC games until Half-Life, but it’s reminiscent of early PlayStation games, an era I’m more familiar with and tirelessly fond of – where everything was made of chunky, brightly coloured polygons, the world gradually clipping into view as you explore, and charming MIDI music blazing as you go.

Old School Runescape eases you into things surprisingly well.

It’s also impressively tutorialized, uncovering its menu options and associated systems one-by-one as you explore the opening island. I’ve already forgotten how to use an anvil, or how to bake some bread, but I misjudged RuneScape as something which drops you in the deep end without explaining how anything works.

I also enjoyed how the first thing you fight is a giant rat in a mine. This is an MMO all right!

Lottie: There’s a part of my brain that’s dedicated to pure RuneScape knowledge. I can write you a guide right now about how to smith a rune scimitar or how to brew a prayer potion.

I’ve always loved how so many of the skills in RuneScape are interconnected; you grow herbs using the farming skill, for example, and, thanks to herblore, use them to create potions, which can provide boosts to your hunting skill or help out in combat. There’s a real advantage to training every skill, which becomes more apparent the deeper you delve into the game.

Now that you’ve escaped Tutorial Island, how are your first real steps in Gielinor going?

True to form, you’ll fight… giant rats.

Matt: Okay, so now I’m actually playing and picking up quests, I’m starting to run up against the antiquity of it all. I’ve discovered it’s quite fiddly to get around, and my character’s stamina depletes very quickly, making exploration feel far more sluggish than I was expecting. Meanwhile, left clicking on things is unpredictable – will you converse? Will you pickpocket? Will you puncture that cow with your bronze sword instead of milking it? (I quickly discovered right clicking on things first is the way to go.)

Also, the combat is frightfully simple – you just click on a goblin (of which there are an alarming number of?) and you’ll automatically exchange blows until it dies, then repeat, occasionally pausing to eat something for health.

I ended up scrolling Twitter as I was chaining through a field of goblins, helping me get through the combat questline a little easier. At first this didn’t feel in the spirit of the game, but then I realised – that’s how MMOs are secretly supposed to work, right? It’s a thing you chip away at while doing / watching / listening to other things?

Goblins. Everywhere!

Lottie: I’ll admit that when I’m training a skill like woodcutting or mining, I usually do it while reading. Doing so has never felt like I’m betraying the game in some way, I’m still playing after all, I just don’t want to watch my adventurer chop trees for an hour. Grinding is an inevitable part of any MMO and, as long as you’re not using a bot, I don’t care how people get through it.

For me, the simplicity of the combat has always been part of the game’s charm. You can make it more complicated by using magic as your primary weapon or by training the slayer skill, which involves hunting down monsters that can only be killed using specific items, but I like how the melee combat is simplified, so that you can focus on buffing your abilities with potion or food.

(There’s also a really good questline that explores what’s happening with the goblins in the Lumbridge area.)

Matt: I’d love to find that, because there really are a lot of goblins. I was actually overjoyed when I saw a giant spider scuttling around, just for something else to fight.

I think where the game clicks for me is the non-combat stuff – I enjoyed the simplicity of milling wheat to help someone bake a cake, and digging up clues for a treasure hunt. It reminds me what I enjoy most about modern games-as-a-service stuff like Fortnite or Destiny – less the combat, but more completing challenges as an excuse to see the vast, beautiful world developers have created.

And, again, I love the look of Old School RuneScape – I might look up some YouTube videos later to see what other areas look like.

Working out Treasure Hunt clues was probably the highlight of the my brief time with Old School RuneScape.

I’m not sure whether I’ll come back to it – there are one too many rough edges with combat and controls for me, I think – but I enjoyed it more than I was expecting, enough so that it’s convinced me to finally start playing an MMO one day. Assuming they’re not all completely overrun by goblins.

Lottie: The graphics for Old School RuneScape have a special place in my heart as it manages to be both endearing and terrifying, sometimes on purpose, all at the same time! There are certainly some beautiful locations in the game, especially when you’re able to visit places like Prifddinas. I also promise that there are a lot of goblin free areas in Gielinor – you might want to avoid north of Falador though.

I do understand why you have mixed feelings about returning; MMOs require a higher time investment compared to other games, Old School RuneScape especially due to its age and, as you mentioned, certain little quirks. I’m glad, however, that you enjoy the non-combat skills, as they have always been my favourite aspect of the game. It’s really cool how, even if you completely ignore the combat system, the game still allows you to have a great time.

Now that you’ve tried Old School RuneScape, I think that it’s only fair you give RuneScape 3 a go too, just for comparison’s sake.

Matt: That’s not a bad idea. Though unless RuneScape 3 has the same incredibly cute ‘quack’ sound effect, I’m not sure it’ll ever live up to the original.

Lottie: Yes, the quack is the same!

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Shenmue

Lottie: Shenmue makes it very clear from the opening cutscene that it wants to tell a martial arts vengeance story; a mysterious stranger arrives to demand an equally mysterious artifact, a father is murdered in front of his son and revenge is sworn.

This was great for me, because I love a good revenge story, especially if it involves punching. When I began playing Shenmue, however, I realised that it doesn’t approach this story in the way you’d typically expect from a video game released in the late nineties. Instead of punching enemies in face, I was gathering clues by talking to Ryo’s neighbours and managing an allowance, which means spending it all on capsule toys.

Vengeance!

The game even used its genre to tease me; I dialled the number for the police, but Ryo refused to call them. He has to avenge his father himself after all.

Matt: First, I’m very pleased you tried to call the police! It’s one of many great Easter Eggs you can easily miss. The game rewards you for experimenting with the world around you in all sorts ways – and by Ryo reacting accordingly (i.e. being stubborn) helps establish his personality beyond a typical cutscene.

He will continue to establish his personality further through punching as you originally assumed, though, so stick with it!

Lottie: I hope so! I do like how, as you explore Ryo’s home, you can uncover little cutscenes that give more insight into his relationship with his father as well. As you said, scenes like those reward experimentation and helped me become invested in the story.

You can uncover a variety of hidden cutscenes by exploring Ryo’s home.

The more I played, the more I came to love how intricate the world of Shenmue is; the shops have different opening times, the streets grow busier throughout the day and each NPC has their routine, which means you have to learn when and where characters will be.

The game is as much about planning your day as it is revenge. Even when I found myself waiting for the local bars to open, the daily cycle continued to heighten the immersion of the game, rather than making me feel like I had hit a roadblock. It makes sense, in the story that Shenmue is telling, that Ryo’s journey begins with him patiently tracking down information and, while he waits, he can always waste some time in the Sega arcade.

You have to wait till 7pm to find this man.

Matt: Yeah – despite the heavy premise, Ryo is still a teenager, right? That’s exactly what he would do to kill time. Again, another way of establishing who Ryo is beyond a cutscene – people you talk to constantly remind he’s still in school, the cash you can spend is from pocket money, etc etc. This is also the point where the game doubles down on the time aspect which can leave many players frustrated – forcing you to wait hours or sometimes a full day in-game for the next event to happen – but it sounds like you’re fully on board?

Lottie: I am – I like games with well developed worlds, be it expressed through environmental storytelling, gradually revealing aspects of the lore or, in this case, applying aspects of reality, like the fact that most shops aren’t open 24 hours a day. What did break my immersion though were the quick time events.

For me, quick time events ruin the flow of the gameplay.

I’ve never liked quick time events, because, to me, their inclusion always feels forced; the flow of a game is brought to a standstill as you’re made to push a certain sequence of buttons, often until you’ve done it correctly.

In Shenmue, there’s always a chance that you might encounter a little side event, from a bike race to children playing football, and, like the daily cycle, these activities make the community feel more realistic. Unfortunately, a number of these hidden activities include quick time events and, of course, if you don’t do it correctly, then you have to do it again. It took me four attempts to correctly complete one such event.

Ten minutes later I discovered that the main storyline also included quick time events.

Matt: Fun fact – Shenmue was the first to feature (or at least popularise) Quick Time Events, so you’re seeing the birth of something which plagued every action adventure game for the next decade.

There are some brilliant chase sequences which use them effectively later in the game, but as you say, means you’re now on alert every time a cutscene plays out. There’s even a couple of arcade cabinets which are QTE simulators, if you need to kill some time and test your reflexes. I’ve played them so much the sound effect is forever seared into my brain.

Oh look – another quick time event…

Lottie: For me, it’s the quick time events that are really preventing me from deciding whether or not I’m going to continue playing Shenmue. The story certainly seems to be picking up pace and I would like to see what other early open world aspects this game has, but the knowledge that there’s even more quick time events to come is really off putting. I’ve had this happen with other games before when there’s an aspect of the gameplay I don’t like, such as the tests of strength in Breath of the Wild. I find myself unable to dislodge the thought of these features from my mind and, rather than simply enjoying the game for its own sake, I spend my time worrying about when I’ll have to deal with this feature once again.

Matt: The last third of the game certainly gets more punchy – and has one of the most infamous mini-games of all time, so if you can make it a little further, I would say your spirits will be… lifted.

Ultimately, I think Shenmue is a game which suffers from playing excessively in short periods, so come back to it and progress through the story whenever the mood takes you. Or not – Shenmue is a game, 20 years on, I still load up from time-to-time just to spend time in, usually waiting for the jazz bars to open by practicing martial arts or trying my hand at the Tomato Convenience Store raffle to pass the time. Either way, take your time and savour it if you do return – there’s no rush, despite how eager Ryo seems to get!

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from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/old-school-runescape-and-shenmue-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=old-school-runescape-and-shenmue-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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Planet’s Ege: Won! (with Summary and Rating)

Executive: “See, the game is called Planet’s Edge, so many the box should have this guy standing on . . . you know . . . the edge of the planet.” Artist: “Aren’t we all by definition standing on the edge of the planet?” Executive: “That’s not what I meant!” Artist: “Okay, okay, I’ll figure it out.”

          Planet’s Edge

United States

New World Computing (developer and publisher)

Released 1991 for DOS, 1993 for FM Towns and PC-98

Date Started: 5 March 2020 Date Finished: 1 May 2020 Total Hours: 55 Difficulty: Hard (4/5) Final Rating: (to come later) Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)      

I did not like Planet’s Edge. I knew by the fifth hour that I didn’t like it, and yet for some reason I forced myself to finish it, blasting through the rest of the scenarios in 20 hours spread over four days. Several times during those 20 hours–usually after my ship had been blown up for the fifth time by the same orbital defense platform–I resolved to quit permanently, but in the end I kept trying again. I have to confess that I used the cluebook more than a few times in the last 10 hours, and I took a lot of shortcuts. If I landed on a planet and some local leader said, “I have a [Piece of the Centauri Device that I needed]! I’ll give it to you if you’ll just–,” I didn’t let him finish the sentence before I decorated the room with his innards and looted the item off his body. Even then, the game took forever.           

The device is almost together.

         I’m going to do my best to summarize the game below, but one of its major weaknesses is that having finished it, I still don’t really know what happened to Earth. The best I can piece together is that the Ominar were doing some kind of experiment and it was interrupted by their enemies, the Ipremi, causing it to go awry. That’s mostly from random NPCs who otherwise weren’t important to the plot. The game is mostly uninterested in its core mystery. Everything that happens is intensely local, and in the end I have no idea how many different races I encountered or really how they inter-relate. Because you never get portraits, only fuzzy icons, for the aliens you meet in the scenarios, I don’t know how to reconcile them with the aliens I kept meeting in space. For instance, I don’t know if the blue aliens who gave me so much trouble, or the orcish aliens, or the aliens whose portrait only shows one eye from behind a visor, ever show up on the various planets.          

Is this species any of the aliens I met on the worlds’ surfaces?

           In broad strokes, the game seems like Starflight or Star Control II, but it fails in not being much like those two titles. There’s no joy in exploration because there’s never anything to find that isn’t part of some interconnected plot. There are no meaningful dialogues with NPCs in which you figure out the character and motivations of the various races. There’s no mining, no trading (not in the sense of the other two games, anyway), no economy. And while it’s nice that there are several different paths through most of the scenarios, there are no ramifications to your choices. Kill the president of the Algieban Sector, you not only never hear about it again in other sectors, you don’t even hear about it in the next room. 

The core gameplay mechanic is to rush around the galaxy looking for various keys, passes, badges, and other artifacts, killing the aliens guarding them, and then using them in the right places on other planets. A ton of backtracking is required. If there’s a door on Rigel Three that requires a key to open, you can be sure that the key won’t helpfully be on Rigel Three but rather Sirius Seven. And it will be behind a door that requires a pass from Rigel Three. This means you have a lot of plot points to keep track of, particularly because it’s never clear where to start the interrelated episodes in each sector.             

Will someone please tell me who these guys were?

         You’ll recall that the game’s central plot involves the mysterious disappearance of the Earth. Since its gravity well doesn’t also disappear, it seems that the Earth hasn’t been so much destroyed as somehow occluded. At the same time, an alien ship crash-lands on the Moon, and scientists on the Moonbase determine that a device on the cash, which they name the “Centauri Device,” was responsible for the vanishing of the planet. They identify eight crucial pieces that they need to get it working and reverse the effects. Studies of the craft allow humanity’s remnants to make enormous technical leaps (including faster-than-light travel), and soon the player and his party of four are commissioned to head off into the galaxy and beg, steal, borrow, or barter for the eight parts, of which there is one in each of eight sectors. They also need to find six sets of ships’ plans and four sets of technical plans to improve their ship and personal items.        As I said, the game is less concerned with the overall plot than the individual troubles of each Sector. Each one has four or five inter-related stories. You largely find them by searching random systems until you find one, and then following clues from that one to the others. (Or, you could be a lunatic and visit every system and every planet and record where they occur before visiting them.) But the game really starts at Alpha Centauri, where you find an observation base set up by the aliens performing the Centauri Device experiment. It was later attacked by another species. A brief summary each sector:               

In Sector Algieba, the saurian President Ishtao has been re-elected and is hosting his second inauguration ceremony. The event has been infiltrated by a group of terrorists called the Geal A’nai who you can either work with or foil. (Or you can just kill everyone.) But to get into the palace, you first have to solve some problems on a couple of Ishtao’s constituency worlds until the leader of one of them passes you an invitation. The Geal A’nai are trying to influence events on those worlds, too. I thought they would ultimately become a presence throughout the game, but they’re only in that sector.

Sector Alhena is in the midst of a civil war between the Scroe and the Evian, while a third race called the Dhoven try to mediate. Most of the episodes take place on war-torn planets in which the party has to fight both Scroe (look like Bossk) and Evian parties while obtaining help from Dhoven NPCs (white, gangly things). However, if you know what you’re doing (because you read the cluebook), you can bypass three of the scenarios, go directly the peace conference on Hyades Prime, and kill everyone to get the needed device part, the Krupp Shields. This option is quite evil because you end up literally massacring a group of envoys sitting around a peace table. One wonders if that ends the peace process or causes the Scroe and Evian to unify in their hatred of Earth.

       “Good luck with that whole peace thing!”

        Sector Alnasl is home to the Ominar, a species that looks like it has a bulbous red head. They reproduce by cloning and the uploading “standardware” into the brains of their clones, but this standardware has lately been sabotaged by a race or faction called the Ipremi Secundus (they look pretty much just like the Ominar), leading to rampant insanity among Ominar citizens. You have to help (or just kill) the Ominar to get the various items needed to invade the Secundus Base (easily the hardest episode in the game) and find the needed Algo Cam.

              Fighting these enemy robot tanks on Secundus Base was the hardest melee part of the game. I must have reloaded 25 times.

             Sector Ankaq has a few species, but the most relevant is the antlike Ethnys, whose queen rules from Ankaq Prime. You have to find four spheres among the other planets and bring them back to Ankaq Prime to, I don’t know, bring the species back into harmony again and make it possible for the queen to continue laying eggs. These spheres are scattered about the other episodes, including one where the entire party dons wetsuits and visits a triton-like species called the Tschi Tai and another where they have to fight through an urban wasteland called Shadowside. The grateful queen gives you the Harmonic Resonator.

              Placing the orbs around the hive.

           Sector Caroli is the one with a plant-based species called the Eldarin. They hibernate for long periods, awaken ravenously hungry, and must eat immediately. But their food distribution system has lately been disrupted, so you’ve got to run around fixing tractors and stuff to save them from their own incompetence. The Ominar have been supplying the Eldarin with parts, and the scenarios end on an Ominar base, where you find the Gravitic Compressor.

Sector Izar is the most confusing. The way I understand it is that the natives are actually human. You visit one planet, Arcturas III, which feels like a fantasy RPG complete with archers, kings, princesses, and a castle. But the sector has been invaded by the Ipremi Secundus whose leader, known as The Concierge, has built a supercomputer called OMEGA to oversee the sector. OMEGA for some reason has ordered the kidnapping of the more primitive aliens from their planets, and one of those races, the Mizarans, are currently rebelling. You have to collect a bunch of Hataphas Gems from various worlds before finding your way through an invisible maze on Izar II to confront the Concierge and get the N.I.C.T.U. device from him.

               Talking with the Concierge. I’m pretty sure he’s just guessing about the “some helpful, some grievously harmful” part.

          Sector Kornephoros is an anarchic part of space with a motley group of settlers, scavengers, and pirates. All the planets are being threatened by a species called the Cin Sae, which look like the aliens from Aliens. The central episode is an auction on Kochab II, where the auctioneer has the Mass Converter. You can run around the entire sector solving issues for various people and accumulate the things the auctioneer wants for the part, or you can just walk up, shoot him, take it, and beam away.

              “Sure, but not in the way that you had in mind.”

         Sector Zaurak is another one that I barely explored. It is inhabited by a humanoid species known as Ranans. The sector has lately been threatened by the appearance of “white hole” (the opposite of a black hole, it spews matter outward instead of sucking it in). On Rana Prime, a leader called the Giate offers you the needed K-Beam if you’ll run around the sector placing “grav buoys” to counter-act the white hole.

          Unfortunately, the Giate made the mistake of telling me he had the K-Beam on his person.

            As far as the main plot goes, the best I can figure is that the Ominar were the ones operating the Centauri Device. It was supposed to give them “transuniversal travel” capabilities, but the Ipremi invaded their outpost on Alpha Centauri, interrupted the experiment, and caused it to go awry. How this ended up affecting the Earth is not technically explained.           

A random NPC imparts more information than anyone else in the game.

          There’s a lot of ground combat across these scenarios, and the annoying thing is that the team never really gets any better because there’s no character development. You can keep re-cloning team members, but even at skill scores of 100 with their respective weapons, characters seem to miss an awful lot. Part of the problem is that you’re always having to swap equipment in and out depending on the enemy. If you’re facing an enemy wearing ceramic armor, you don’t want to be shooting him with laser weapons because ceramic protects against those. So you switch to projectile weapons but have to remember to switch back if you meet someone wearing composite armor. Meanwhile, you’re constantly changing your own armor based on the weapons the enemy is using.

It’s not hard to figure out what armor is the best because it has a hit point value, but it’s not always clear with weapons (until you look at the clue book, that is). And–oh, my god–looking at that table, I just realized that the “tac nuke rifle” is listed as a light weapon not a heavy one. That might explain why I had so much trouble, since I gave those rifles to my heavy weapon characters. Aaargh. Does that sound like a light weapon?! Anyway, the only good news is that weapons of the same type use a common ammo stock so you don’t have to carry 20 different types of ammo around.     Other aspects of melee combat annoyed me. Enemies around corners always seemed to be able to shoot the party even when I couldn’t hit them. They seemed to have a lot more success from farther away, often off-screen, than I did. And I was always getting into combats in the most uncomfortable physical environments, like narrow doorway openings where I had to have my lead characters advance under fire if I wanted my rear characters to be able to participate. I suppose there are other times and other games in which I would have regarded such scenarios as “tactical,” but I’ll tell you what: knowing that I’m not getting any skill or experience from combat really reduces my desire to fight it.            

Occasionally, it works out for you. Here, I can use my grenade launcher (which does damage to a 4 x 4 area) to damage the immobile robots, while they can’t even see me.

           Space combat also remained quite hard for me, particularly in the Alnasl and Izar sectors, where just about every planet had an orbiting defense platform and a few ships. I had to use the cluebook to tell me where to find ship’s plans so I could upgrade as quickly as possible, and even then I had problems. One thing that makes life a little easier is that your ship is fully repaired when you disengage from combat, so you can dive in, destroy one enemy, and escape, then repeat for the next one until all are dead. But even that’s pretty tough. Sometimes, you can’t escape because your enemies destroy your engines. And a lot of other times, two or three enemy ships is enough to destroy yours before you can even get their shields down.          

It’s never fun getting to a planet and seeing this.

          The game offers several weapon types for ships. The success of beam, bolts, and projectile weapons is based on character skill. You can also mount missiles which just home in on targets and don’t depend on skill. Either way, I assumed for a while that the key to success was a variety of weapon types. The last two class of ships allow you to max out your 10 weapons slots, so I’d do a couple of rack guns, a couple of megamissile mounts, a couple of quark lasers, and so forth. There are supposedly also a lot of tactics associated with whether you mount the weapons to face forward, left, right, or on a 360-degree turret, the latter taking four times the space as the former three.    When variety seemed to fail me, I spent a lot of time recloning my lead character to favor different weapons. In the end, I found that nothing served me better than loading up all 10 weapon mounts with quark lasers, putting as many on turrets as possible but facing the rest forward. That simple bit of advice early in the game would have saved me a lot of reloading.          

My final ship configuration.

         When you have all eight pieces of the Centauri Device assembled, the endgame commences. An animated series of screens shows Earth scientists re-activating the device, shooting some kind of electromagnetic wad towards the vanished Earth. It strikes, and the Earth dissolves back into view.          

A bunch of scientist guys prepare to use the device.

There it goes!

This is a very accurate globe.

          A ship heads from Moonbase to Earth, where there’s some kind of big award ceremony. As each crewmember walks up and salutes a man who is presumably the Earth president, a bit of text tells you his or her fate. William Dean ends up marrying Katya Mershova, who later dies on duty. Osai Tsakafuchi becomes the World Health Administrator, and Nelson Ngatadatu simply retires.                

Given that he’s a clone, that’s probably a euphemism.

           After the characters get their honors, key personnel in the development of the game also walk up and salute the president.            

Hyman’s resignation letter. He was at ORIGIN the following year.

             Finally, we get some scrolling text:              

And so the Earth was pulled back into this, its proper universe. The U.N.F.A. team that had wandered the far reaches of a galaxy new to mankind returned home as heroes. Knowledge was gained that will forever alter the course of the Earth’s destiny, and contact was made with a galaxy teeming with life. [“And much of that life was destroyed,” it should have said.] Mankind finally grasped the heavens.

                    But soon afterwards, the “The End” screen develops a question mark, the moon dissolves away, and a message appears on the screen indicating that “the exact time the Earth was released from its dimensional limbo, the Moon slipped through a rift in the time-dimensional barrier.” This is a pretty stupid development, first because if it happened at the “exact time,” the crew, who was still on Moonbase, never would have made it back to Earth. Second, if it’s setting up the sequel, it’s not only derivative but a little lame. Sequels should increase the ante, not lower it. The original game had 8 billion people on the Earth threatened, while the sequel deals with a few thousand on the moon? That’s like Liam Neeson rescuing his daughter only to discover, to his shock, that the kidnappers have now targeted his second cousin, once removed.           

Would the sequel have been called Moon’s Edge?

           A quick GIMLET:

5 points for the game world. The plot is original, and there’s some good world-building to balance out the stupid world-building. The game is definitely more in the vein of pulp sci-fi like Buck Rogers than the more grim, realistic sci-fi we’ve become accustomed to today. Nothing wrong with that; it’s just not my particular brand of vodka. I’d give a higher score if the episodes had a greater since of inter-relation, and the choices you made in one had consequences for others. Alas.

            To see them decay?

         1 point for character creation and development, if by “creation” you count “cloning.” After that, there’s no development and you can’t even choose their names. New World should have known better.

5 points for NPC interaction. There sure are plenty of them, and most of the have at least a half a paragraph of text. NPCs are vital for background information, main quests, and side quests. I just wish you could see them better.

4 points for encounters and foes. Enemies aren’t really any fun, more distinguished by the weapons they wield than anything to do with AI or special attacks and defenses. But the game is relatively strong in other encounters and puzzles, only most of which involved inventory items.

             My characters suss out a puzzle that involves pushing buttons to assemble elements into chemicals.

           4 points for magic and combat. I didn’t like the system for the reasons I gave above. It would have been vastly improved by actions other than simple shooting. But I do recognize some tactics in both ship and ground combat.

3 points for equipment. You sure do get a lot of it, although most of it is for puzzle-solving. Standard RPG fare consists primarily of weapons, armor, and medical kits. There are some interesting exceptions, though, such as a shroud that resurrects slain characters and a pair of boots that let you jump over some obstacles. I like the way that you can replicate any item that you find back at the Moonbase.

         Preparing to don a wetsuit.

          2 points for the economy. It doesn’t really have a monetary economy, but your ability to build ships and items is dependent on finding natural resources. These natural resources are traded by ships and used to pay admittance to some planets and extortion from pirates, so they functionally serve as an economy. It’s still not very good, or complex.

5 points for quests. I can’t complain that the main quest doesn’t provide alternate paths and role-playing options, and there are lots of side-quests that allow you to get better equipment or just information. My failure to follow all of these probably explains why I’m still confused about so many points in the game.

         The “episode” title cards are always fun, but there’s just too many of them.

       3 points for graphics, sound, and interface. This is going to prompt some arguments. It gets most of those points solely from the interface, which is very well done, offering redundant mouse and keyboard commands. However, it loses a point for the pathfinding of the characters on the ground. As for graphics, this is just the sort of 1990s title for which I would prefer black and white iconographic graphics to what we have. There’s simply too much detail for the actual screen resolution, making it hard to tell what the developers were intending to depict on the alien figures, making it nearly impossible to tell objects from furniture, wall tiles from floor tiles, and NPCs from plants (admittedly, my colorblindness may have been a factor). My complaints are only from planetary exploration, though, and the graphics for the Moonbase, animated scenes, and space travel are quite nice. As for the sound, a few good effects are outweighed by an unnecessary piercing beep every time you scroll through a menu. I played with the sound off most of the time.

4 points for gameplay. It gets some credit for quasi-nonlinearity (difficulty enforces a general order) and for some replayability given the different ways that you can approach scenarios. But it was too hard and too long. Five parts would have been better.

             That gives us a final score of 36, technically just above my “recommended” threshold, but I don’t know that I’d recommend it–not as an RPG. It just doesn’t have enough RPG mechanics to keep itself aloft.          

See, the “enjoy” part is where I had trouble.

           Everyone else seems to like it more than I do. Computer Gaming World nominated it for RPG of the year for 1992. (It was up against Eye of the Beholder 2, Might and Magic III, Ultima VII, and Ultima Underworld; Underworld won.) Contemporary reviewers liked the episodic approach as well as the specific content of the episodes. “A solid, charming game with a few lumps in the dough,” proclaimed an oddly anonymous Computer Gaming World writer in July 1992. Scott May, writing in the April 1993 Compute!, called it “a minor masterpiece of size, imagination, and diversity of play.” The June 1992 Dragon gave it four stars but had hardly anything negative to say about it except a few bugs I didn’t experience. No one seemed to be overly bothered by the lack of character development, although a couple of them groused about character creation.            I don’t know if New World really planned for a sequel or if it simply designed every game with a potential sequel in mind depending on sales. Either way, I’ve never seen mention that a sequel was even begun. Outside of publishing several instances of the strategy game Spaceward Ho!, New World stayed away from science-fiction (except for that inherent in Might and Magic) for the rest of its existence. Lead programmer Eric Hyman went to work for the acquired ORIGIN systems but only has credits on the company’s action games before he left for other technology jobs. Neal Hallford still has Betrayal at Krondor (1993), a train derailment (1995), Return to Krondor (1998), and Dungeon Siege (2002) in his future and has never entirely left game development.

It occurs to me that Planet’s Edge has a lot in common with Challenge of the Five Realms, released by MicroProse the same year. Both games are episodic, featuring a bunch of side-quests and multiple paths through them, both with minimal character development and similar approaches to combat. Challenge scored 5 points higher at 41, and I see that I gave it 7 points for the game world compared to Edge‘s 5. I’m prepared to acknowledge that I have a small inherent bias in favor of fantasy games.         Moving on, a random roll of the open 1982-1992 titles produces 1983’s Karkoth’s Keep for DOS, a game that I missed on my first pass but which appeared on MobyGames in 2017. At the far end of the list, I have just added Might and Magic IV (1992), which of course I will play consecutively with Might and Magic V (1993).

        source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/planets-ege-won-with-summary-and-rating/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

[bruddahme]

Red Dead Redemption 2 Gameplay Hands-On: 12 Most Surprising Details And Features (So Far)

As is to be expected from a new project that Rockstar has been working on for years, Red Dead Redemption 2 is an incredibly dense open-world game that’s jam-packed full of details. We recently got to go hands-on with the high-anticipated sequel, and while playing we discovered numerous mechanics and details that go above and beyond those from the original Red Dead Redemption. While the game features improvements to pre-existing mechanics, there are light survival systems this time around. These require you to pay attention to things like your body temperature, gun maintenance, and meat expiration. As fans of the original, all of these new details are surprising and unexpected. But what has us the most enthused about it all is how these mechanics are likely to foster tons of ridiculous shenanigans in the game’s world–especially once Red Dead Online releases.

We got to experience many of the new systems at work–most of which you can read about in our comprehensive feature compiling them all. But there were some fascinating standouts we wanted to highlight that we feel will contribute to some of the game’s most memorable and entertaining moment-to-moment experiences. Included in this feature are nine of the most unexpected mechanics and details in Red Dead Redemption 2.

If you haven’t already seen our Red Dead Redemption 2 preview covering the story missions we saw, make sure to read it for our in-depth impressions on the game. Though, if you want to get caught up with everything there is to know about Red Dead Redemption 2, check out our roundup of everything we’ve learned about RDR2. In the meantime, what details are you most excited to experience in Red Dead Redemption 2? Let us know in the comments below.

Clothes Make The Outlaw

The game’s clothing customization options are comprehensive–each character will have different sets to coincide with hot and cold weather conditions. The type of clothes you wear will affect Arthur’s performance. For example, if you wear a weighty jacket during a hot summer day, your running stamina will take a big hit.

Other customizations will allow layering and minor adjustments, like the option to roll up your sleeves or tuck your pants into your boots. Whatever you end up choosing, you’re free to craft Arthur into the high plains drifter you want him to be.

You Can Fire Warning Shots And Whistle For Fun

By having your gun unholstered and holding Up on the d-pad, you can fire warning shots into the air. This is handy for intimidating people, scaring off animals, or generally being a rowdy buffoon while you’re riding around.

Speaking of possible buffoonery, you can even whistle at people to get their attention or call your horse. And if you keep holding down the button, you can keep whistling until Arthur runs out of breath. Imagine combining both warning shots and whistling; you’ll become the countryside menace you’ve always dreamed of being.

Your Guns Can Degrade And Jam

You need to take care of your weapons in Red Dead Redemption 2. You have the option to clean them, which is incredibly important to do regularly because guns can jam mid-fire due to disrepair and environmental conditions. You don’t want to be caught with a rusted gun–lest you seek to dig yourself an early grave.

Hunted Materials Can Rot And Be Damaged

The components you acquire from hunting all have an expiration date. If you’re not careful, time will eventually take its toll and both the fresh pelt and carcass you’ve acquired will start to rot and attract vermin, reducing its value and making you generally unpleasant to be around. Not only that, but if you use a firearm to kill an animal as opposed to an arrow or knife, its pelt will be damaged and will sell for less at local stores.

Cleaning, Grooming, And Feeding Yourself

Speaking of unpleasantness, NPCs will react not just to the stink of your rotting deer corpse, but also if you haven’t taken a bath in a while. Arthur needs to get clean and change his clothes every once in a while, since townsfolk may refuse to talk or serve him based on his appearance–having blood on your jacket doesn’t attract the best reactions.

Time also has an effect on Arthur’s hair, which actually grow longer. Customizing Arthur’s haircut and facial hair styling is also dependent on length since you’re allowed to cut things shorter, but won’t have access to options that require more hair–a more realistic take on customization compared to GTA V. Of course, you’re welcome to not pay attention to grooming. In fact, you can totally rock the mountain man look by just letting Arthur’s hair and facial hair grow to its max.

Arthur will need to eat to keep his health and stamina meters up, but will also lose and gain weight depending on his food intake. He’ll have to stay active in order to keep in top shape.

You Will Get A Camera

We started a side quest during our time with Red Dead Redemption 2, and the mission giver handed Arthur a camera. This camera could be used at any time via your inventory, and yes, the first thing we did was take a selfie.

These aren’t arm-out handheld selfies, though. The mode is titled “self-portrait” and will frame Arthur’s whole body as if the camera were set up on a tripod. You’ll be able to adjust expressions and poses, too–expect to see a whole bunch of self-portraits depicting Arthur squatting in front of various things on Twitter once the game releases.

You Can Lose Your Hat

If you’re not careful, you can easily lose your hat in the midst of a shootout. If you drop your hat, you need to physically pick it back up to get back to looking like a proper outlaw. Though, if you ride away from your hat, it’ll appear as an icon on the map. However, it will reappear back on your horse if you go too far away. Alternatively, Arthur can swap his hat for any other one that just happens to fall off someone else’s head. Sometimes you just have to adjust your style on the go.

There’s A Killcam That Changes Depending On Your Honor

When you take out the final opponent during a gunfight, a killcam will frame that final blow a la Max Payne 3. This will change depending on Arthur’s moral standing: If you’ve been a naughty cowboy, these kill cams will be gorier. If you’ve been upstanding and honorable, they’ll be framed in a more heroic fashion like those from the classic film Westerns of old.

You Can Break Enemy’s Weapons

Speaking of heroic behavior: if you want to go the more non-lethal route, it’s possible to shoot weapons out of enemy hands. Not only that, but you can even shoot at their weapons and break them. This seems like a handy technique if you’re looking to be an outlaw with a heart of gold as opposed to a straight-up cold-blooded killer.

Catch A Stage Show

Assuming he isn’t too stinky to make it past the ushers, Arthur can kick back and catch a show at the local theater. We’re curious the sorts of genre of theater you’ll be able to see or what Arthur like watching.

You Can Dance (If You Want To!)

If you find yourself at camp and the mood strikes you, you can break a leg and dance with your gang. The simple moves in the trailer seems fairly traditional, but we’ll put good money on there being sillier options whenever Red Dead Online launches.

Horse Dressage And Drifting Techniques

Horses are an important part of Red Dead Redemption 2, but it seems like they’re far more capable creatures than they’ve ever been in previous games. During our hands-on, we were able to rear our horse on its hind legs, perform drifts to change direction quickly (apologies to equestrian enthusiasts), and move our horse precisely by performing dressage techniques.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/red-dead-redemption-2-gameplay-hands-on-12-most-su/1100-6461900/

https://bruddah.me/red-dead-redemption-2-gameplay-hands-on-12-most-surprising-details-and-features-so-far/

#video games #onlinegames #gaming #gamer #videogames #pc games #pc gaming #game

[kickstarter-promotion]

Another Amazing Kickstarter (Organism8 by Derek Duong —Kickstarter) has been published on http://crowdmonsters.com/new-kickstarters/organism8-by-derek-duong-kickstarter/

A NEW KICKSTARTER IS LAUNCHED:

Yulana Carter, Protagonist of Organism8

Take control of galactic PMC corporal Yulanna Carter on a mission to investigate a solar system that has halted in space time

  Genre – Metroidvania – Action – High Difficulty  

Number of Players – Single Player  

Platforms – Windows  

Game Engine – Unity 

    Each biome has 2 layers, a surface level and its depths.

  Each biome comes with its own unique wildlife. Wildlife do not just wonder aimlessly, they are driven by a set of numerical values such as a hunger, thirst, and current temperature value that will then determine what it should do such as eat its food source, drink from a pond, or warm up if its cold. 

 Weather and outside temperatures also vary between areas. Be prepared to use the fire augment to raise suit temperature in cold areas or to prevent Carter from being caught in spider silk and vice versa. 

Take advantage of the laws of thermodynamics as you brave the environments. Utilize the fire upgrade in cold environments to melt ice, utilize it as a flamethrower in the steady beam fire-mode, or use it in the form of a thermal shield to prevent temperature loss in extreme cold.

Temperature plays a key role in both combat flow and AI behavior. Creatures who don’t like fire will flail around if ignited, creatures who are too cold will try to warm up. 

    Each option can be used with Carter’s different elements allowing the player to combo different projectile types. Use an explosives deployable that can transform into a grenade and mine, or a rocket launcher that can transform into a remote drone that can bomb targets from above with each of the 4 beam types. Options are used in the left hand, allowing Carter to fire her arm cannon while utilizing any option simultaneously. 

Combine fire element with the rocket launcher, firing a devastating magma missile that will instantly ignite targets, utilize singularity with the grenade option to pull enemies into a tight ball and finish them off with a mining laser, or set a freezing mine to prevent an invincible swarm of robot insects from devouring carter with numbers.

Upgradeable jetpack can be used to traverse long gaps. Orb shield used to block various projectiles.

Enemy behavior awareness is key to survival as many of the more complex organisms are equipped with sight and sound sensory. Many of the more complex enemies can do many of the things that Carter can do and then some, attempting to strong arm everything will not be a good idea. 

High-Mobile Reaver Drones equipped with reflecting energy shields that can be launched at Carter for a devastating explosion. Hack the robot boss of the area instead of killing it to have them fight for you later.

Carter does not get stronger with each upgrade, only more diverse. This keeps even earlier parts of the game relevant and prevents the player from strong arming content. This means that when a player defeats a boss, it is because he/she mastered the content rather than overpowered it. 

Nemesis style bosses that will chase Carter through key parts of the campaign. Bosses can sometimes change or grow depending on different choices made throughout the campaign. Outcomes from various boss battles can influence previous or the next environments and forthcoming battles. 

Concept art of Damsel, a music based boss that will change hazards and tracks based on current temperature.

Bosses will not be pushovers, be prepared to face enrage mechanics for failing to disrupt animations or for taking too long to punish the enemy for using high risk abilities. Enrage timers are also prevalent in the game.

  Extremely difficult areas that will reward new quality of life upgrades when completed. Traversing these areas requires exceptional skill as even small creatures can terminate Carter quickly. 

Multiple play-throughs will be encouraged to obtain all unlockables. Skipping the Hornet Queen the second time (Since the Fireshot would have been obtained during the first run) will buy her time to complete metamorphosis which will allow her to dominate a different part of the game with new abilities. Killing her at this point rewards a new firing mode for Carter’s Drone. 

As I learn new techniques and become more efficient, I am always willing to go back and adjust previous work to bring it up to par and am always open to suggestions. 

As time passes I’ll be improving more on the art assets and changing how some of the systems work. 

  Left – Old Hornet Queen Sprite, Right – New Hornet Queen Sprite with Below Post Metamorphosis exclusive to NG+

The method for sight and hearing intake has been completed now with alliance values as some of the NPCs such as the rust drones can now be allied with Carter if the boss is defeated in a specific manner. 

The generic skeleton for Wildlife AI, complete with water source, food source, and temperature preference is complete. This can now be applied in a modular fashion to new wildlife creations. More testing is still needed and pack AI is something currently being written. 

The generic skeleton for enemy AI both air and ground has been completed. Some adjustments are needed for unique behavior such as wall latching. 

Temperature and Damage now follows a standardized format for ease of understanding. Attacks for each of the damage types are now color coded. Fire colors raise temperature, Ice colors lower temperature, Green colors bypass defenses and terrain, all nonconforming colors do straight damage with critical multipliers when in vulnerable condition. 

Art assets for environments:sea caves, marshlands, oceania, and volcano are still being drawn (so the second half of the biome image). Water dynamics, flammable oil, silk, have been instantiated. 

Efficiency for dynamic grass model is being improved for performance(feels like running your thumb through a tooth brush currently, satisfying but not realistic). 

Currently you see generic particle effects using Unity’s particle system for explosions. This is being retired for a new emission model and smoke effects for fire and cold explosions. Smoke as currently written for the new model has visual impairment for NPCs so making sure the explosions and after effects are consistent is important as they have gameplay use.

dynamic grass demo

Full controller support is still being worked on, new radial menu was implemented to help manage all of the equipment Carter has with the controller but can be used with mouse and keyboard. The game is intended for M+KB but controller dynamics is still being worked on to ensure that people who want to play with the controller can do so properly. Room puzzles are still in the design phase. 

I am using a simple key system for event handling. Levels which are intended to have dynamic or reactive events have a level key that pulls values from the player key which will then dictate the status of the room. (Simple, efficient, everyone who has a game with backtracking uses it or something similar). 

A story is planned for the game complete with dialogue. 

No real soundtracks currently except for the trailer music. Still learning the new music software. The trailer music took me a half an hour to write after learning some basics with SONAR. Some melodies have been saved as I play around with the instruments I want to hear in the game but will present more later. I have a background in both music, painting, and writing and I am using this game to help me remember things that I have not used in a very long time.

Risks and challenges

Sound Effects. Sound is important and making custom effects is vital in making the game stand out.

That’s literally the only thing stopping me. Art, Programming, Company responsibilities have all already been taken care of.

All assets seen in the .gifs and trailer are subject to change and improvements.

The money raised from this kickstarter will be used to purchase some new sound equipment that will be used to develop unique sounds for the game. I would also like to work on this game full time to ensure it can be released in a timely manner. Currently I can invest 4 hours a day as I need my full time job currently but would like to invest much more of the day to ensuring that I can release a complete game.

Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

INFORMATION PROVIDED BY Kickstarter.com and Kicktraq.com VISIT PAGE SOURCE

#derek #Duong #Kickstarter #Organism8

[ciathyzareposts]

Game 313: Black Crypt (1992)

            Black Crypt

United States

Raven Software (developer); Electronic Arts (publisher)

Released in 1992 for Amiga

Date Started: 27 December 2018

  Games of the Dungeon Master variety will never be my favorite of the CRPG subgenres. I like my RPGs to have meaningful NPC interactions, economies, more role-playing options, and less nonlinearity. I prefer creative puzzles requiring some lateral thinking to purely mechanical puzzles. I want immersive stories rather than framing stories. If you’ve been with me through Dungeon Master, Chaos Strikes Back, Bloodwych, Captive, and the Eye of the Beholder series, you’ve heard all of my complaints before.

On the other hand, Dungeon Master clones rarely offer a bad experience. They particularly satisfy my need to map. And they do one thing very well–something that fewer of the Wizardry or Bard’s Tale variants do, even into the early 1990s: they actually show enemies in the environment.

It’s weird to think how long it took this feature to appear. You forgive its absence in Wizardry, when CRPGs were new and games had to ship on a single floppy. You got used to just stumbling on enemy parties while exploring featureless corridors. But as the years ago by and the subsequent lineage of games–The Bard’s Tale, Might and Magic, the entire Gold Box series–fails to give you any environmental indication of upcoming combats, it becomes less and less forgivable. I’m not looking for these games to adopt Dungeon Master‘s real-time combat system–just to show me when a party of dragons is 10 feet away. Fortunately, Might and Magic III and Fate: Gates of Dawn finally united the lineages in 1991, and actually being able to see your foes became the norm thereafter.

Black Crypt is a decent game in the Dungeon Master line. It preserves most of the things people like about Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder (it seems to draw primarily from the latter) and introduces a few new innovations besides. I’m curious what a true Dungeon Master fan thinks of it. I could see preferring Dungeon Master‘s action-based leveling systems to Crypt‘s reliance on more traditional experience points, and Crypt‘s spellbook-based magic is less creative than Dungeon Master‘s rune system. I’m enjoying it about as much as I enjoyed Dungeon Master the first time, but I suspect I’d enjoy a replay of Dungeon Master a little more than this.

          A bit of opening narration explains why we find equipment everywhere.

         The framing story, written as an eight-page novelette, hardly breaks any new ground. Estoroth Paingiver, a former student of the Cleric’s Guild, went evil, raised abominations, summoned demons, et cetera, and attacked the land of Astera. (Hypothetical dialogue among the Cleric’s Guild faculty: “Hey, do you suppose that ‘Paingiver’ fellow is going to be bad news?”) Astera’s four guilds united to face the threat and succeeded in banishing Estoroth to another dimension, but the guilds’ four champions died in the process. The Black Crypt was raised to inter their bodies and enchanted weapons. Now, Estoroth seems to be in the process of tearing his way back through the dimensional barrier, so four new champions are needed to enter the Crypt and retrieve the magic weapons.

            Creating the four characters.

           The player creates four characters: a fighter, a cleric, a magician, and a druid. A pool of excess points is allocated among strength, intelligence, wisdom, and constitution. Names and portraits are chosen. Although some of the portraits are bestial or supernatural, they don’t seem to have any impact on gameplay. The process is quick, and the player finds himself on Level 1 of the starting dungeon within a few minutes. Each character begins with a melee weapon suitable to his profession and a little bit of food.

          Starting out. Right away, we find a shield and some food.

       In defiance of any sensible rules of capitalism, the creators included 30 “cluebook” pages in the game manual. Each dungeon level is fully detailed. I’m avoiding these pages, naturally, but I glanced at them long enough to see that the Black Crypt is a whopping 28 levels, the largest occupying coordinates up to 40 x 40. Fortunately, there are a lot of small levels, too. The game adopts the “worm tunnel” approach to mapping (meaning that there’s at least one square of “dead space” between adjacent walls), which also functionally shrinks the maps. Still, it’s a big game.

           Level 1 goes up to 26 x 21 but doesn’t use anywhere near all those tiles.

         The controls are okay. The game’s primary strength is allowing you to map your own movement options. This is the first time I remember such a setting appearing, and I’m grateful for it. When you have to play with one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse, neither arrow keys nor the numberpad make for a comfortable configuration. I re-mapped movement to WASD, which works a lot better. But aside from this customization and the use of F1-F4 to swap between character inventories, there’s no use of the keyboard. There are little annoyances like being able to enter a character’s inventory with F1 but then having to right-click to get back out, or being able to enter the disk menu with ESC but then having to click on the appropriate option to leave. There are still no keyboard options for executing attacks, which is something I’m always hoping for in Dungeon Master games.

One particular issue is going to dog me until late in the game and then probably screw me up for the next Dungeon Master-style game. The creators made it so you click on the character portrait to execute the primary attack rather than the weapon. Since Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, and just about every other game does it the other way, I’m constantly clicking on weapons, which takes them out of the inventory slot so you can drop or trade them.

On the positive side, the inventory screens are well-organized. The lower-right corner has options for various containers: a backpack, a small chest, a large chest, a bag, and a quiver. You populate these spaces as you find the containers, then click on them to view their inventories. For wearable items, there are three screens, toggled by clicking the torso in the upper-right corner. The first has items of clothing, the second wearables like rings and belts, and the third the actual armor.

             I face a locked door as I look at my fighter’s inventory. He has a chest, a backpack, and a bag. I have the chest open, and I’m looking at the armor screen that shows the outer armor.

           There’s a food and water system, and I suspect it’s going to be an annoyance until the cleric gets “Create Food.” The mechanic really doesn’t accomplish anything except impart a sense of urgency. If you want to explore carefully, you have to make a save, do your exploration and mapping, and then reload and cover the level faster, “for real.” But it’s worse than that because there’s only one meter to track both food and water, but the game clearly considers them separately in non-visible statistics. When you find a fountain, you can’t just gorge yourself on free water until the meter returns to its maximum because you need food, too. And if you don’t eat but only drink, the characters will start losing points for hunger even though the meter is nowhere near the bottom.

The first couple of levels were moderately-sized, going into the 20s on both axes. Combats were infrequent–maybe 15 enemies total on the two levels–and there were really only two types of enemies: giant worms, and giant worms capable of casting some kind of “Magic Missile”-like spell. Many of the classic Dungeon Master tricks work here, including attacking and then darting away before the enemy can respond, backpedaling down a corridor as you fire missile weapons, “waltzing,” and so forth. The famous “combat waltz” itself (check the glossary) seems a little harder here, it might just be a matter of getting used to a new game’s timing. Crypt keeps one annoying characteristic of Eye of the Beholder in which once an enemy casts a spell, you’re frozen until the animation completes.

             The animation for the worms has them opening and closing their mouths. I only ever got screenshots when their maws were closed.

          What you can’t do–and this was a serious shock–is smash enemies in doors. That’s such a longstanding trait of Dungeon Master-style games that not including it borders on sacrilegious. I’m not sure if enemies can fall victim to other environmental effects or not. I haven’t encountered any others yet.

Killing enemies rewards you with traditional experience points, and levels increase automatically. I got to Level 4 on the first two levels. Leveling increases hit points and spell power, but otherwise there aren’t any choices. Attributes are increased by occasionally finding items that do so.

           My druid levels up.

          Each spellcaster comes with Level 1 spells for their classes. Further levels must be found in spellbooks; you don’t get them upon leveling up. There are only 5 levels and only 4 spells per level. You can “prepare” up to four spells and then cast them by clicking on them in the slate. I find the system a bit easier than both Dungeon Master, where you had to remember runes in the middle of combat, and Eye of the Beholder, where you had to fiddle around with that little book. You also frequently find scrolls with multiple spells that can be cast in lieu of learning them.

Among the first two levels, I experienced a variety of navigation puzzles and other mechanisms that I’m sure will last throughout the game. These include:

          “Alcoves” with treasure stashed in them. These go back to Dungeon Master. Items can appear on the floor, too.

            I apparently found the Ogreblade here.

          Messages in plaques on the wall. Some can only be read after the druid casts “Read Rune.”

Scrolls that give you hints. But some of them are “false scrolls” and should be ignored. You can reveal these by casting the cleric’s “Reveal Truth,” which causes false scrolls to dissolve. 

          This turned out to be a “false” scroll, but I think I could have figured that out.

          Locked doors that only open with certain keys.

Pressure plates that open walls.

Spinners. There’s an obvious “transition” animation when you step on them, though, so it’s hard to get fooled.

Force fields that require you to cast “Dispel” to pass them. You don’t have this spell at the outset, so you have to rely on found scrolls.

Teleporters. They also have a clear “transition” animation.

Buttons or switches that open secret doors or make pillars disappear.

Buttons or switches that activate teleporters

Buttons or switches that change the destinations of teleporters.

           It’s hard to tell what this will do.

         Holes in the floor. Falling through them takes you to a lower level and causes damage.

One-way walls.

“Glyphs” in the middle of corridors that serve as traps. You have to cast “Remove Trap” on them.

           Dispelling a glyph trap with a scroll.

           Walls that open and close on a cycle.

Doors that won’t open until you pass a copy-protection exercise.

           The “copy protection” riddle breaks the illusion a bit.

          The second level had a two-headed ogre who is impossible to defeat with regular weapons (they don’t even hit him). A message on the first level warns you about him: “The one below is his own twin. Only a magic blade will pierce his skin.” This refers to an “Ogreblade” on the first level, though you have to get there via a teleporter on the second. (A “false” scroll warns you not to pick up the Ogreblade.) Until you find it, exploring the second level is tough because the ogre is constantly chasing you and pounding you to goo every time you pause for a few seconds. Once you have the sword, it doesn’t take long to kill him, and he drops the key necessary for the next level.

          The ogre kills us as we try to crush him in the door. Apparently, you can’t do that in this game.

         Miscellaneous notes:

              The opening theme, which you can hear at the beginning of this video, is catchy. I found myself chair-dancing to it. It’s credited to Ken Schilder, who stayed with Raven and is credited on a couple dozen other titles. But it always surprises me that composers so often went with rock and techno themes for title music, when an older style would better fit the setting. There’s a “special topics” post in here some day.

The fighter has an ability, activated by clicking on his “glyph” in the inventory screen, that tells your current coordinates. The glyphs are otherwise used to activate class-specific objects.

            Checking my position.

          A lot of the game’s messages are delivered as scrolling text at the bottom. It’s annoying and hard to screen-capture.

The manual brags about making use of the Amiga’s “halfbrite” mode that apparently allows for more colors than normal. The Wikipedia page on the mode shows two photographs, and they look exactly the same to me. This is why I don’t talk about graphics that much.

A trait that I wish the game hadn’t adopted from its predecessors: I have no idea the relative damage on different weapons. On the first two levels alone, I’m juggling hammers, warhammers, axes, and swords. Should I keep the Ogreblade–is it effective against non-ogres?–or dump it for a more conventional weapon? No idea. If the cluebook had that information, I wouldn’t be able to help but look at it.

There’s an auto-map, available with the magic user’s “Wizard Sight,” but it shows so little detail that I can’t imagine not making my own maps.

             Level 3 is patrolled by invisible enemies and a (true) scroll on the level warns you not to try to engage them until you’ve found the “Mask of Truesight” on a lower level. (A false scroll on the same level encourages you to attack the unseen enemies after removing all of your weapons and clothing.) Other than a couple of other locked doors, there wasn’t anything to do on the level, so I pressed on to Level 4.

          This message wasn’t kidding.

          Remember the annoying gigglers in Dungeon Master? Well, Level 4 of this game has similar creatures who steal your stuff. Worse, they teleport away after stealing it, so you can’t chase them. I hope they turn up later in the level, or I’m out of shields.

            Level 4 also has these monsters that walk on the ceiling.

           In the end, I suspect I’m going to find that the game is too long and too confining. I mean this not just in terms of physical space but also in character development. To require that the player have four specific classes and offer so few options in both creation and development largely means that every player arrives at the same place with essentially the same party. But for now, it’s fun enough, and with a dungeon crawler, you don’t waste a lot of time puzzling over your next move. It’s always the next unexplored square.

Time so far: 3 hours

***

I skipped Theldrow because I was having some emulation issues. I solved those after I got started with Black Crypt, so we’ll reverse the order and cover Theldrow next.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-313-black-crypt-1992/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost