Saturday, December 12, 2015

BGM Delay

I haven't had a lot of time to work on my games in the past couple of months - much of my free time has been taken up by my ongoing X-Files marathon (nearing its end now, though), and December is a busy, stressful time for me (bah humbug and all that). But I had a little time this weekend, and ended up figuring out how to record a video of me playing RPG Maker so as to demonstrate one of the enduring problems I have with the new MV program. I'll copy the video and the description I wrote up for it here, so you can see for yourself (I used a blank project just for this video):


BGM Delay - A demonstration of the problem I have in RPG Maker MV with BGMs (Background Music) taking several seconds to load each and every time they're played. MEs (Music Effects) and SEs (Sound Effects) as well as BGS (Background Sounds - not tested here) all play instantly, but not BGMs, which is true during map transfers and also when the game first loads the title screen. That multiple second delay is very annoying and frankly unacceptable in a professional product.

There's a little discussion (although not nearly enough, if you ask me) over on the RPG Maker Web Forums about this problem and potential fixes, but so far I haven't come across a satisfactory solution. Frankly, I'm surprised the program shipped with this little bug, although the fact that it did gives me little hope for a competent fix. I've read some theories that would explain it away as an inevitable symptom of the program having been designed to stream games on the fly in web browsers and/or on mobile devices.

In other words, just another sacrifice of advancing technology (and the trend towards mobile internet). I so wish I could go back to using the superior engine of RPG Maker VX Ace, but I just can't give up the cross-platform support and the side-view battle system. It's a frustrating quandary.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

A New Demo

Alright. I still have mixed feelings about RPG Maker MV, but the excellent community at the RPG Maker Forums have provided an unofficial tool to resize graphic sheets from VX Ace in order to be compatible with MV (while reducing many of the inevitable flaws inherent in enlarging pixel graphics - the results are actually quite satisfactory, in my opinion). So that largely eliminates one of my biggest issues.

As such, I've been working on adapting my game Ascension to RPG Maker MV, building from the ground up - so I can apply all the updates I didn't get around to making on my last, aborted version. I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of RPG Maker MV while working on a smaller and simpler project (Ascension), before I ultimately return to my RPG (Dragonfaith). So expect periodic updates.

To start with, I have finished up my first stage on Ascension, and so this will serve as a test run for deploying my game on a trial basis. I would appreciate anyone reading this and following my games to give it a download and try it out, and let me know how (if) it works. The first stage is very short, so it shouldn't be a huge time commitment. And for those of you who have played my game before, the stage looks a little bit different than the last time you saw it (I will be applying other changes to later stages as well).

Allow me to inform you of some of the most notable changes in the RPG Maker MV program, that you might notice as differing from when you played my game created with VX Ace:

* Graphical resolution - The first thing you'll probably notice is that the game looks bigger - the graphical resolution is 1.5x the size of VX Ace's graphics.

* Cross-platform support - From now on I'll be providing downloads for both Windows and Mac versions of my game. (Mobile versions are also supported, but I haven't played around with them yet, so I'll leave them out for the time being. There are also rumors that you can run games straight from web browsers, but I haven't looked into that yet, either. I'm going to start out with what I know, and go from there. Stay tuned for additional options in the future, maybe.)

* Mouse input - The new version of RPG Maker supports mouse input (and presumably touch input, in the case of mobile devices). I haven't changed my game to account for this (and I don't know that I will). I don't know to what extent it will change how my game is played. I don't intend for the user to use the mouse, as that's not how I've designed my game, but you can certainly try it out and let me know if and how it affects the way my game is played.

* No RTP - There is no RTP in RPG Maker MV, so every download is going to be the full project. This is conceptually simpler - you don't have to pre-download an extra game pack to play my games, but it also means that file sizes might be larger than they have been in the past. That's just the way it's going to be now. (By all means, feel free to delete older versions when you download the newest releases - I intend for you to do as much).

Without further ado, here is my first MV release:

Ascension: Chapter 1 - Limbo
Download (~90 MB): Windows | Mac [see sidebar for latest release]

Saturday, October 24, 2015

RPG Maker MV - A First Look

RPG Maker MV launched yesterday, and I already have it in my possession. I'll need to spend a lot more time with it to get familiar with all its features and learn its differences (and similarities) to RPG Maker VX Ace. But I wanted to report my preliminary impression of the program after just a cursory examination. I was very excited for this update to the RPG Maker program, namely due to some of its advertised improvements - mainly, the addition of of a side-view battle system, and cross-platform compatibility (including the alleged ability to embed games in a web browser). Now that I actually get to look at the program, there's one thing that has me a little concerned, and it's the graphics. They're spiffy enough, but they have a softer, more rounded, kind of a more cartoony look, that I'm not sure I like. This problem is as apparent with the battlers as anywhere. I should be happy with them, because some of the bonus resources include some much needed robot enemies, but they don't fill all the holes I need to be filled, and I'm just not sure I really like the style - even more so than before.

I was excited when I heard that they updated the character generator, but while those graphics look smooth, I have to say I don't like it as much as the old one. For one thing, the outfits don't look nearly as interesting - they're all samey, and tend not to have the distinctness of variation (e.g. heavy armor versus a school uniform versus a business suit versus a dress) that the last program had. And there doesn't appear to be the option to change the color of the characters' underwear (why? now everyone has to wear the same underwear?). The facial options are much more limited (it's possible that this may be expanded in the future, but until it is, there's not much I can do with it). And there are no "half-elf" ears (which were kinda important to my RPG) - it's either go all the way or bust. I was also hoping they'd maybe include a character generator for smaller-framed child characters, but no such luck.

Perhaps the most concerning graphical issue for me is that, in order to use the side-view battle system, you have to have a whole bunch of extra sprites for in-battle animations (fists raised, using a skill, getting hit, etc.). These are provided with the in-game actors, but I'm not sure I like them - in VX Ace, I made a point to use the character generator to create unique characters for my playable heroes, because I didn't want to just use cookie-cutter heroes as the stars in my game. The new character generator creates those battle animations for you, but again, I'm not sure I like the characters that the new character generator creates. It's a problem. I'm already toying with the idea of importing all the old graphics from VX Ace, in order to take advantage of the new engine (which undoubtedly has plenty of good things to be said about it - I just haven't delved that far into the program yet). But if I use the side-view battle system, which was very important to me, I'd have to manually add sprites that would seriously reduce the animations, and I just don't know how well that's going to work.

All in all, it reinforces the primary issue I've had with developing my RPG in RPG Maker from the start - and that is trying to mold the ideas I have in my head to the capabilities of the program presented to me. I don't want to sound ungrateful, because I know that I don't have the ability to program a game from scratch, but I feel like it would be easier to just dive into the RPG Maker program and make a generic RPG with whatever resources I can find within the program (which is undoubtedly its main use), rather than trying to use it as the engine to bring the specific game idea(s) in my head to life. But that's not what I actually want to do. I'll keep you posted. (I think that maybe actually a lot of my problems would go away if I just knew somebody personally who was a talented graphical artist that was willing to design all new graphics for me to use with the program, free of charge - because, honestly, I can't afford to pay somebody else's salary, I can't even afford to pay my own salary).

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Good News and Bad News

The bad news: After receiving some considerable (and long-anticipated) feedback, I've halted progress on polishing up Ascension, to take some time to consider what kind of significant changes I may want to make to it in the future. As such, I'm not going to have another release ready by the end of the summer like I had planned.

The good news: I've just got word that a new version of RPG Maker is due out later this year. Normally, I wouldn't be in a hurry to upgrade from a program I'm already familiar with, but this new version has some tantalizing features. In addition to a larger screen (and corresponding graphical resolution), it's designed to be multiplatform (so you can make games for both PC and Mac, in addition to mobile platforms). But most of all, it supports a sideview battle system, which has been one of the largest sticking points of the current RPG Maker program I've been using. Plus, it retains square character sprites (and not the tall, lanky ones of some previous versions of RPG Maker), which I prefer (because they remind me of the classic RPGs I love so much). So I might just have to switch to this newer program once it's released. Read more about it here: RPG Maker MV.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Summer Update

Lest anyone think I've given up on game developing (I haven't), here is an illuminating post to read (click me). Go ahead, I'll wait. The moral? Game development is long and hard, and RPGs are a pretty complex genre. And did I mention I'm working entirely alone, with a nonexistent budget? But I'm really dedicated to bringing this game to life - it's my baby - so sit tight. Until the game is finished (and I can't say how long that'll take, but I imagine it'll be measured in years), there'll always be something exciting waiting just on the next horizon.

If you've been following my progress at least as far back as last year, then the following account might sound familiar to you. As happened last year, the summer has got me spending more time outdoors away from my computer, so I've been working on my game less. And, like last year, I decided to take a break from the RPG and work on another project. I've returned my focus to Ascension, now available in beta form. There were some bits of it that I'd had it in the back of my mind to polish up after getting some feedback (mainly on the Labyrinth maze), so I'm going to take some time and do that this summer, and try to have it finished up for another release before Halloween. And unless I get some major feedback after that, I might consider that pretty much the final release, at least for the time being, so I can focus on other things (e.g., working on my RPG throughout next summer instead of taking another break from it).

So look forward to that. I also intend to play some more RPGs for inspiration, but I have a busy schedule, and developing ought to take precedence, so I can't say when I'm going to be able to find the time to do that. It's on my list, though.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Review: Final Fantasy

After trudging through that chore of an endgame in Dragon Quest II, I was thinking that I'd need a break before embarking on my next RPG. But then I started thinking about the next game in my queue - Final Fantasy - and I started getting excited by the thought of playing it. Which is a good sign. I've made it clear that my bias is towards the Final Fantasy series, on account of growing up with it, and not Dragon Quest. So it could just be nostalgia talking, but I feel as though Final Fantasy is superior to either of the first two (at least) Dragon Quests.

As a disclaimer, it's easy for me to overlook a lot of the innovations that Final Fantasy brought to the console RPG table, since I'm so familiar with the game - I take it for granted that what Final Fantasy did constitutes, in my mind, the basic foundation for what a console RPG should be.

Though plot-wise and character-wise, the various Final Fantasy games are not narratively interconnected (until they started making sequels, such as Final Fantasy X-2...), there are a number of thematic elements that recur to give the series some cohesion. Not all of the most popular ones (e.g., Chocobos and Moogles) are present in the first game in the series, but there are a few basic ones:

* Elves sell Mithril/Silver weapons and armor.
* A Dwarven blacksmith can forge one of the strongest swords in the game (usually Excalibur), but you have to give him Adamant first (usually found in a high level dungeon).
* The story focuses around crystals (or in this case, orbs) of power.
* There are four elemental-themed bosses (which will also be a crucial element in Final Fantasy IV).
* In addition to delineating the main elemental spells as Fire, Ice, and Lightning, one of the strongest Black Magic spells is Nuke.
* Bahamut is king of the dragons.
* There is an unreasonably strong, optional robot boss.

Getting Started

When you start Final Fantasy, history is made right there on the very first screen. You hear the first iteration of the "crystal theme" that will become iconic to the series playing in the background, while text appears on the screen setting the scene for the game. Plot and dramatic elements are still pretty sparse in these early games, but from this intro I get a sense of fantasy immersion and, well, poetry, that Dragon Quest lacked. You are not the descendant of a great hero tasked with slaying dragons and defeating an evil sorcerer. You are the Light Warriors, carrying mysterious orbs, who have come to fulfill a prophecy in a world shrouded in darkness, whose natural elements are spinning out of control!

Before you even get to start playing, you are given a critical choice, that introduces a high level of customization and replayability that was totally absent in Dragon Quest. You have to assemble your party of warriors, consisting of four characters, chosen from six different possible job classes (an element Final Fantasy will pride itself on experimenting with throughout its series). You won't know this the first time you play, but how you play the game, and how difficult it will be, depends on your choice of warriors.

Dragon Quest II introduced the compartmentalization of combat roles with its fighters and spellcasters. Final Fantasy takes it to the next level with three variations on the fighter, and three different kinds of mages. The eponymous Fighter is your typical RPG warrior, who wields medieval weapons and can wear heavy armor. The Black Belt balances his inability to wear armor with a high natural attack power that doesn't rely on using rare or expensive weapons. The Thief may only be a mediocre fighter, but his speed can help your party escape dangerous encounters.

Whereas in Dragon Quest and its sequel, different types of spells were learned arbitrarily by spellcasters, Final Fantasy actually splits its magic into two main types. Black Mages can wield offensive magic, including elemental spells, while White Mages focus on defense and healing. Red Mages can use a little of both, but cannot master either. The latter's versatility may seem appealing to novices, but his limitations can be crippling.

If there's a lot to say before diving into the actual game itself, it's because we're dealing with such a new and different interface here. It's worth noting that in Final Fantasy, the save function accompanies staying at the inn, which will become a series (if not genre) standard. Additionally, Final Fantasy introduces the "portable inn". Going above and beyond simple heal potions, the portable inn (in the form of Tents, Cabins, and Houses, in order of increasing power) is something you can take with you and use (but only on the world map) to heal a good deal of your health (and sometimes magic power), and give you an option to save outside of the inn. The latter option expands the locations at which you can save your game (provided you have the right item to use), and is a step on the way to free saves anywhere on the world map.

Also noteworthy is the presence of the menu screen. Up to this point in the Dragon Quest series, the menu came in the form of a text box (or series of text boxes) overlaid on the current map screen. In Final Fantasy, the menu has its own immersive screen, with graphic depictions of the characters in your party, and different pages for the different inventory and status screens. There is a collective item inventory for your whole party, and separate weapon and armor inventories that hold up to four pieces of equipment each, for each character.

Setting Out

I may be influenced by my nostalgia here, but my immediate impression is that the music in Final Fantasy is so much better and more memorable than the music in Dragon Quest. The latter game's music may have been catchy, in a videogamey sort of way, but it didn't seem quite so...symphonic...as the music here in Final Fantasy (composed by Nobuo Uematsu).

Once you've picked out your team, the game plops you down into the game world, mercifully close to the first town - Coneria. It would behoove you to visit the town first to get your bearings and outfit yourself with the 400 G you're given to start with before braving the wilderness and the creatures that prowl there. Here the customization plays its first practical role, in that what you decide to buy - be it weapons, armor, spells, or items - is entirely up to you, and what you need will depend on the team you've picked out.

Unique to Final Fantasy is the fact that spells must be bought, rather than learned at particular levels. And rather than MP costs drawn from a character's MP pool, you have a certain number of uses of any of the spells you've learned from each magic level, which increases as your level increases. Moreover, each level sports four black and white magic spells each, but there are only three spots per level per mage. So you have to decide which spells you'd rather learn (or choose a team with duplicate mages, and then teach them different spells). It is already clear that Final Fantasy was not simply trying to be a generic RPG, but that it was trying to do something original - and succeeded. In addition to job classes, magic systems is another element that the Final Fantasy series has experimented with quite a bit from game to game.

In terms of stats and equipment, the game is not yet completely user-friendly. It's not clear which job classes can use which equipment (weapons and armor) until you buy it and try it out, and then in order to determine whether the new equipment is any better than your old equipment, you have to consult the character's status screen before and after equipping it. Also, the magic spells could use descriptions, as their names are rarely a clear indicator of what, exactly, they do (unlike in the first couple of Dragon Quest games). I think I recall the original NES cartridge coming with a fold-out chart with this information (as well as enemy stats), which is in the game's favor (but not so much the player's, if he's lost track of it - although that's one of those things that a strategy guide, and nowadays the internet, is good for). I know space for data was limited in the days of 8-bit systems, but certainly, incorporating that information into the game itself in later sequels with better technology is a decided plus.

In the castle next to, but separate from, the town of Coneria, you acquire your first mission from the king, in what is surely an homage to Dragon Quest. You must save the Princess who was kidnapped and taken to a nearby castle (which, you cannot possibly know yet, will be the location of the final dungeon, much like how Dragon Quest's final dungeon leered at you from across the channel, out of reach but within sight of the first castle).

A note on combat: firstly, I have to say that I really like the side view battle system, as opposed to Dragon Quest's front-facing system. It's great to see your characters up on the screen fighting, and it's also helpful from a visual perspective to see when your characters are weak, or poisoned, or get killed, etc. Also, seeing the different spells and weapons and attack animations (even as primitive as they are here) is really cool. Finally, as much as I love Akira Toriyama (and I do), who illustrated the monsters in Dragon Quest, I like the monsters in Final Fantasy a lot better (illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano). They're much more intimidating, as Toriyama's designs tend to lean toward the whimsical. Case in point, the iconic low-level introductory monster in Dragon Quest games is the Slime, which is a cute blob with a smiley face. The corresponding monster in Final Fantasy games is the Imp (or Goblin), the design for which definitely takes on a more grotesque rather than goofy nature.

[Aside: One revelation I had while playing Final Fantasy is that RPG Maker VX Ace has sophisticated graphics to the level of the SNES RPGS (or better), yet the combat mechanics are primitive in comparison - more on the level of the NES-era RPGs. Without intensive scripting, combat in RPG Maker VX Ace has neither graphic battlers, nor an active time battle system (combat is strictly turn-based). The simplicity is not so much a problem for me, but battles run much smoother and are frankly more fun in those later RPGs.]

Another one of Final Fantasy's innovations is the diversification of elements/monster types. Offensive damage spells in the first Dragon Quest (named Hurt and Hurtmore) were pretty neutral. Some enemies (most notably dragons) could breathe fire, but I don't know that the nature of the fire had any special significance. The spells in Dragon Quest II are mostly fire-based (although one of them may have more of a lightning nature). However, again, I don't think the elements had any special significance, other than descriptory. In Final Fantasy, on the other hand, the very first level of black magic includes two spells - Fire and Lit (i.e., lightning) - that would seem to be pretty similar (as I don't think one is significantly stronger than the other, both of them being at the same level), if not for the fact that some enemies have special weaknesses to specific elements. This ramps up the complexity of the magic and combat system, but in a way that makes it feel more fun, and introduces more strategy (as opposed to tedium) to your battles.

Similarly, there are a number of weapons (and armor) that are more or less effective against certain types of enemies - both due to elemental specialties, as well as monster type (giant, dragon, undead, magic). There was a sword in Dragon Quest II (the Dragonkiller) that would seem to serve this role, but this is an isolated example of limited practical use in that game (there were, ironically, actually very few dragons in Dragon Quest II), and Final Fantasy takes it to a whole different level with its long list of equipment compared to the first two Dragon Quests' relatively generic and streamlined weapon/armor inventory.

Now let's get into the meat of the game

Sailing to Adventure

Even once you get the ship, early in the game, the whole world doesn't open up to you just yet. Final Fantasy is a very carefully gated game, and yet at the same time there is considerable wiggle room for adventurous explorers. The ship starts out in the inland sea, and only after blowing open a canal can you sail the high seas, and even then, the entire northern hemisphere (for the most part) is still off limits until you get the airship, as there are no ports for the ship to dock at.

Between Pravoka and Elfland - which aren't even separated by a dungeon - the game throws quite a lot of equipment (and spells!) at you that you can't possibly have the money to keep up with. I don't know if this is a bad thing, as it gives a purpose to whatever grinding you choose or feel you need to do, but it is a little frustrating coming across all this stuff and thinking it will be forever before you can afford to buy everything you want/need!

I don't think I've ever really thought of it this way, but besides the Temple of Fiends - which is very small and quick to complete - there are three major towns (Coneria, Pravoka, and Elfland) before you get to the game's first real dungeon - and that's after getting the ship!

Speaking of that dungeon - the dreaded Marsh Cave - even after all these years I find myself a bit trepidatious about embarking upon that journey. Not only do you have to march a good ways from the closest safe haven (the village of Elfland) just to get to the cave, but it is a meandering, mazelike dungeon, filled with slime-type enemies that are frustratingly resilient to physical attacks (a world of difference from Dragon Quest's Slimes). [Aside: I haven't taken the time to actually verify this, but I think the Muck/Scum/Slime family of enemies are like later installments that are each vulnerable to specific elements. Here, though, they're much more menacing, and not like the "Puddings" and other desserts of later Final Fantasys]. And even when you do finally reach your goal - one of several identical treasure rooms on the deepest level - you have to fight a challenging (frustratingly difficult!) boss that puts Garland and even the Pirates you've fought up to this point to shame.

Generally, the customizable options in this game are a plus, but I have to admit that I hate having to choose only three of four possible spells at every level of magic. On the other hand, I feel like a lot of the spells are of limited applicability - particularly the status-affecting spells (though that may just be the way I tend to play). But it's still hard to choose sometimes, and I hate the feeling of completely locking out a spell for the rest of the game - what if I change my mind?

I've definitely been spoiled by Dragon Quest's Return spell. With it (in addition to the Outside spell if I'm exploring dungeons) I can head out and fight until I'm weak, then warp back to town to heal up, and reap the benefits of my earned gold and experience. In Final Fantasy (at least in the first half of the game), you have to preserve enough strength for the return journey, because if you get killed by a few wolves a couple miles from town after you've been wearied from a long and arduous journey, you're shit out of luck. It's a little annoying, and adds a lot of anxiety into the game, but at the same time, it's realistic, and it contributes to the more grown up atmosphere of this game, compared to Dragon Quest's more whimsical presentation. (In hindsight, though, I should have made more use of the portable inns - I tend to be very conservative about my item use).

Final Fantasy takes status ailments to the next level. In addition to poison, and being able to put enemies to sleep, there's also the very annoying paralysis, and the devastating stone/petrification that can only be cured by specialized items or spells (not by the clinic or using an inn).

This game really teaches you to choose your battles. When I was younger, I tended to run away from battles a lot, whether it was because I was more timid, or just lazy. But more recently, I've gotten into the habit of fighting as much as possible, because it almost feels like cheating if you run away; and anyway, if you don't get enough experience, you won't level your characters up and you'll be too weak against the bosses, and then you'll need to do boring grinding to earn the experience you could have earned gradually through the process of playing the game if you hadn't run away from all those fights (at least in games that are well-balanced).

Anyway, when you come up against a horde of Geists, who not infrequently paralyze your party members when they attack, there's really no tactical advantage in sticking around to fight (and risking your life!). Also, when you're grinding for gold, looking for Ogres (for example) to fight, it's a waste of time to kill a pack of weak wolves. And when faced with a group of Arachnids - though you might gain decent gold from them, they have a nasty habit of poisoning your party members, and those Pure potions are 75 gold a pop, so you might just end up paying for the privilege of exterminating them (thankless work, I say), when you could just run instead, and come out on top.

Final Fantasy's random encounter formula is vastly superior to Dragon Quest's. You never run into a subsequent encounter in no more than a few steps than your last one here. And while random encounters are always disruptive and jarring, so far I have not once felt that they were so frequent as to be annoying, and yet I don't feel like I can go forever without getting an encounter either. I wonder what the formula actually is here, because getting the perfect frequency of encounters is a really tricky thing to figure out. [Aside: Playing around with save states a little bit leads me to conclude that there is somewhat less randomness involved with the enemy encounters, their frequencies, and sometimes even how the enemies behave, than I would have thought.]

One thing Final Fantasy seems to be fond of are "guardian encounters", where a forced encounter will occur when you step on a particular tile (like the Axe Knight in Dragon Quest), frequently used in front of treasure chests. Final Fantasy makes you work for your treasure! But the treasure here is (generally speaking) much more valuable than it was in Dragon Quest or its sequel. I think I like these encounters - they impose a certain gravitas, like saying, "this room/treasure is something special!" In later games, they'll evolve into monsters-in-a-box (treasure chests that monsters pop out of, that you must defeat before you can claim the prize) and, in endgame dungeons, optional bosses whose vanquishing rewards you with uniquely powerful equipment.

The Rotting Earth

I haven't made it to the first major boss yet (Lich) - so take that into account - but I'm finding that after powering yourself up to survive in these harrowing dungeons, the bosses are actually not that challenging. (The Wizards are an exception largely because you face many of them at a time). Once you bring out your big guns (which mainly means all those spells you've been saving up), the bosses tend to go down without too much struggle. I remember this being the case with the final boss when I first played the game, too. After all the effort put into making it to the final boss, actually beating him wasn't too difficult. I mean, why make the final boss in the game use Fire 2/Lit 2/Ice 2 when he could be using Fire 3/Lit 3/Ice 3, let alone Nuke!?

I have to say, especially coming off the heels of Dragon Quest and its sequel, this game is exceptionally well-balanced. When I rolled into Melmond and spied the price tag for the Steel Armor - a good order of magnitude larger than anything else so far (in comparison, the Level 5 magic spells in Melmond cost 8000 G a piece, which is twice the cost of the Level 4 spells, and pretty steep, but the Steel Armor costs a whopping 45000 G!) - my knees buckled. But the armor's really strong, so it's worth the high price, and it's not like you need it immediately, either. But I restricted myself to just buying the spells I thought I needed right away (instead of filling up my slots as soon as possible), and with the bigger rewards gained from defeating the tougher enemies lurking in the Earth Cave, I found that at a point after defeating the Vampire mid-boss, but not quite having reached Lich yet, I had already managed to collect enough money for that armor!

One thing I've noticed - and this was true to a certain extent in Dragon Quest II as well, is that the continents and places of interest are aligned in a generally ordered fashion as far as seafaring goes. You might not notice it right away, when you get your ship, and start sailing around everywhere looking for places to explore. But a goal-oriented navigator will appreciate things like Elfland and Coneria being only slightly skewed from a direct north-south voyage across the inland sea, or the canal being pretty much due west of Coneria, or the landmass west of the canal nudging you gently towards Melmond (before you get lost wandering the open sea), or the fact that if you sail south from Melmond, then travel due west after rounding the tip of the Earth Cave peninsula, it will put you in sight of the port you need to drop anchor at to reach Crescent Lake (silly me, when I was a kid, I insisted on sailing the long voyage 'round the southern tip of the continent, stopping off at the southern port at Elfland for a breather...). It ensures that the player is more than likely to accidentally wind up where he's supposed to be anyway (without precluding optional exploration), which is good game design. [Misdirection is more welcome on land and in dungeons, where the space is more closed in, but since the sea is so wide and open, a little push in the right direction can prevent much frustration].

A Trial of Ice and Fire

The Earth Cave was challenging - an order of magnitude larger than the Marsh Cave - but you had to take it in two parts. The Gurgu Volcano takes things to the next level. You have to navigate winding rivers teeming with strong enemies just to get to the volcano, which is then filled with meandering, maze-like passages, and liberally (and I do mean liberally) covered with damaging lava floors.

I have to express agitation at the fact that the Warp spell is not usable until the class change. I could understand this being the case for the Exit spell, which is even better. But since you have to wait until the class change anyway, having the Warp spell (which only returns you one floor) is not so novel when you have Exit (which takes you outside the dungeon completely) available to you. The Warp spell (the usage of which does not come without cost) would be immensely valuable in the Gurgu Volcano, which is vast, and has tons of floors, and takes a lot out of you just to get to some of the lower levels of treasure chests... This may be a slight exaggeration (then again, it may not), but it almost seems like it would be easier to trudge forward and just beat Kary and use the warp to get back up to the top than have to climb all the way back up retracing your steps...

Gurgu Volcano was a chore just on account of how long it is. The Ice Cave is shorter, but if anything, it's even more of an ordeal. It's filled with tricks and traps - holes that send you to different floors - and a lot of the enemies rely on instant kills and debilitating status ailments. Sleep and paralysis are rampant, but of even more concern is the Cockatrices who can turn you to stone. Stone can only be cured by an expensive Soft potion, or the equivalent white magic spell - which is also expensive, and requires a relatively high level to be able to even use it. Then you have Sorcerers (the successor to the Wizards) who can kill with a single touch, and Mages (who look like Astos), who love to use Rub to instantly wipe out one of your characters. On top of all that, you have your straightforward enemies - the Frost Giants, Frost Wolves, and Frost Dragons, the latter with their devastating Blizzard technique... The Ice Cave is such a challenge, but ultimately, getting the airship is such a momentous occasion that I feel it's probably worth it.

Once you've learned how to raise the airship with the Floater (namely, where to use it), it's easy to take that knowledge for granted. I was curious because the sages of Crescent Lake (who don't give you new information as you advance through the game as much as I was expecting) don't mention anything about where to use the Floater - you have to figure it out from some random elf in Elfland. Having to hunt down clues like that isn't terrible (and it helps that in this case the clue actually tells you what to do instead of being so cryptic and vague as to be useless), although since this is before you get the airship, it seems like it would be a bit of a pain in the ass going around looking for clues, not knowing what the hell you're supposed to do after you've scored this mysterious Floater stone. (Still, this is a minor issue compared to how much Dragon Quest II left you hanging).

I really like the design of the airship in this game (and also in Final Fantasy IV). The blimp-style airship of Final Fantasy VI might be more realistic, but the pirate-ship-with-propellers-in-place-of-sails looks a whole lot more badass.

Above the Ocean and Under the Sea

Once you acquire the airship, the game actually encourages exploration. The Cardia Islands and the Castle of Ordeals are an optional quest that you can complete immediately or leave until later. The Mirage Tower blocks you out at first, and though you can reach Lefein, you won't be able to understand anyone there yet. You'll find the next big dungeon - the Sea Shrine - attached to Onrac, but to get there you'll have to go through the Caravan, and then the remote mountain village of Gaia. Plus, in Onrac, there are hints pointing you both to the Cardia Islands and the Waterfall, the latter of which you don't actually need to explore until after the Sea Shrine.

Coming on the tail of the Ice Cave (if you complete this optional quest right away), the Castle of Ordeals is really not too bad of an ordeal. The boss is an encounter with one or more Zombie Dragons, which are suitably intimidating, but, as undead creatures, they have two glaring weaknesses - Fire and Harm magic - which means that both White and Black Mages have a powerful weapon against them, in addition to any strong fighters you have. But even if it's not super challenging, it makes a fun little quest to break up the game between the first and last two big dungeons (not including the final dungeon), and there are some neat treasures to be found (including a couple of pieces of equipment that can be used as items to cast particular magic spells free of cost!).

The game features one money-related choke point (not involving saving up for an expensive but optional weapon, spell, or piece of armor) in the form of a Bottle you have to buy at an Oasis for the hefty price of 50000 G, before you can access the Sea Shrine. But at this point in the game, you have the airship, and access to many enemies in many areas to farm for gold if necessary. Plus, if you've been diligent about collecting treasure, and haven't gone all out spending your money on shiny new toys in all these towns that have opened up to you once you got the airship, then you should have more than enough gold from pillaging the Gurgu Volcano, Ice Cave, and Cardia Islands already.

While it's true that I may be biased by nostalgia, it's worth noting that, unlike either of the first two Dragon Quests, there has been no part in Final Fantasy where I've found myself dragging my feet (except maybe just a little bit before the Marsh Cave). Instead of being reluctant to continue (often on account of too unfair, luck-based game mechanics, or in need of too much boring, repetitive grinding), I've been eager to come back and continue advancing each day. Of course, this is at least partly due to having a good, balanced party - which is up to the player - but the option of making the game more difficult and potentially frustrating (which, being a free choice, is itself a positive) doesn't change the fact that this game is so competently balanced, and its plot and narrative environment so engrossing (relative to other games of its time).

The Sea Shrine is a bit of a unique dungeon. Every dungeon up to this point has been cave-like (except the Temple of Fiends and the Castle of Ordeals, which are castle-like), but this one is all bright and watery. From the entrance, you can actually go either up or down. The boss is on the bottom floor, but the top floor - which is a haven for mermaids, and features no enemy encounters - contains important treasure. For not even being the next to last major dungeon in the game (not even including the Waterfall, and counting the Mirage Tower as part of the Sky Castle), the Sea Shrine has lots of really good equipment lying around in those treasure chests. I also like how the Sea Shrine gets darker as you go deeper.

Although the Sea Shrine is sprawling and maze-like, with lots of empty rooms and blind alleys, it still feels like a bit of a breather between the dungeons that precede it and the dungeons that follow it. The fact that it's split in half also makes it easier to navigate - the Earth Cave was also split in half, but it was linear, and you had to traverse the first half to reach the second half. Plus, if you got the class change (and have a Black or White Wizard in your party), you can now use the Warp and/or Exit spells to easily escape the dungeon in a pinch. Still, despite all of this, the Sea Shrine has a distinctive character that makes it as memorable as all the other dungeons in this game.

Castle in the Sky

A lot of black magic spells seem to be of limited use. The elemental spells are solid, but the status-afflicting and instant death spells are always a gamble, since they're frequently ineffective. Not having the monster chart that I seem to remember coming with the game makes finding many of the enemies' strengths and weaknesses a chore. With the elemental spells, it's not too hard to figure out which enemies (or types of enemies) are generally weak against which elements (there are only three of them after all). But how to know which enemies spells like Stop or Slow or Stun are effective against? It's pretty cool having all these badass-sounding spells to choose from that are different variations of instant death - Bane, Rub, Break, Quake, XXXX, Zap! - but not knowing what the difference is between many of them - how they work, how effective they are, what enemies they're effective against - makes them all fairly same-y, and their not-always-reliable effectiveness makes you not want to use them when doing so would mean one less casting of a more reliable spell, like Fire 3, Lit 3, Ice 3, or Nuke.

The high level white magic spells, on the other hand, are very useful. In addition to Cure 4 and Harm 4, you get the powerful Life 2, plus Wall (which isn't quite like Reflect in later games, but is still a powerful magic defense booster), and Fade, which you could be forgiven for glossing over and not realizing the utility of - it's basically a holy-elemental version of Nuke, like later games' Ultima, and a rare high-powered offensive spell for the White Wizard, the efficacy of which isn't strictly limited to undead enemies like all the Harm spells are!

It's worth noting that there is a frustrating imbalance between the weapons and armor inventory (which are separate, and are both separate from your general item inventory). Each character has four weapon slots and four armor slots, but is able to equip only one weapon but up to four pieces of armor (body, shield, head, arms). Towards the end of the game, when you have your characters mostly outfitted (the mages can go through most of the game with minimal armor), it becomes difficult to juggle new equipment you pick up in the chests with the old ones you already have - and before you grab the new ones, how do you know which old ones you can spare to lose? It makes looting the Sky Castle a real chore (especially because you have to traverse the desert and then climb the Mirage Tower each time to get there).

So much good equipment is attainable from treasure chests (a lot of it not even available for sale anywhere), that I'm tempted to believe that having to buy magic spells (instead of learning them, free of charge) was implemented in order to make money actually useful in this game (on the other hand, it could have been the other way around - that the buying of magic spells prompted the developers to put lots of good equipment in treasure chests, free for the taking).

The repeating hallway in the Sky Castle makes use of the same annoying trick that was done to death in the Cave to Rhone in Dragon Quest II. The main peril here is not so much getting lost, but the fact that every extra step you take contributes to more enemy encounters - and a chance of encountering the venerable WarMech, which is even stronger than the boss of the dungeon it appears in (which is the last of four major bosses preceding the game's final boss!).

On that note, the sheer strength of WarMech makes defeating it something of an alluring challenge. But the fight is entirely optional - you may not even encounter WarMech in a casual play-through. In this case, you don't win anything but prestige (well, that and a whole bunch of gold and experience) - no super powerful weapon or anything - but nevertheless, this is surely the prototype for optional endgame bosses of Final Fantasys to come.

What makes WarMech so tough? He's got a high defense, which makes it hard to deal damage against him, plus he's got lots of HP (as much as the final boss), so you have to hurt him a lot to beat him. He doesn't have any magical weaknesses that you can exploit, and he's immune to most if not all status ailment inflicting and instant death spells. He's also got a high attack, so he can deal a lot of damage to you with each hit, and uses a technique called Nuclear (probably a variation of Nuke, the strongest black magic spell in the game) that targets your whole party for a lot of damage, leaving you in prime position to be picked off by WarMech's regular attacks.

The best strategy is to keep your White Wizard busy, casting spells to raise your party's defense (Fog) and/or evade (Invisible), as well as protect your party against fire (AFire), all while healing your party members as their HP drops (with any combination of Cure or Heal spells). Your Black Wizard can use Nuke if he has it, or other high level elemental spells (Fire 3, Lit 3, Ice 3), but is probably better off buffing your Knight (if you have one) with spells like Fast and Temper. The Knight's brute strength is probably your best bet in terms of dealing heavy enough damage to take WarMech out before he decimates your whole team. (I can't speak to the Black Belt/Grand Master's efficacy as a fighter, as I've rarely used him, and the Ninja isn't strong enough to penetrate WarMech's tough outer shell, unless you've already collected the Masamune from the final dungeon).

From what I've read, Bahamut and Tiamat are both borrowed from Dungeons & Dragons lore - Bahamut is a good dragon while Tiamat is an evil one. Tiamat would make an appearance or two in later Final Fantasys, but never at the level of prestige he (she?) is at here - one of the four Fiends. Bahamut, on the other hand, will become another iconic recurring character in Final Fantasy, often a summon (in later installments), and not always so friendly.

Back In Time

You might call it cliched or contrived or a third act M. Night Shyamalan-style twist ending, but learning near the end of the game that all the trouble you've been dealing with - the four Fiends destroying the forces of nature - is the result of a time loop - some misguided fool (Garland) bringing these forces from the past, before they were destroyed the last time, to wreak havoc again - is pretty damn awesome. It adds a level of depth to the storyline (which, albeit, is still fairly primitive at this early stage), that I just didn't get from either of the first two Dragon Quests. Sure, you have the idea of the second Dragon Quest featuring the ancestors of the first, but none of it gives the game the kind of lore that the Lefeinish stories of the Sky Warriors and the ancient civilization that was destroyed (whose airship you recover, and whose Sky Castle you must infiltrate), or the seafaring village that has floundered since Kraken came along and trapped the mermaids in the Sea Shrine, do. And this element just gets better and better as you move through the series. Perhaps the later Dragon Quest games get more serious and involved, but at this point, the first two Dragon Quest games feel like just that - children's games - while Final Fantasy is serious business. A Saturday morning cartoon versus a fantasy novel. And I prefer the latter.

The Cave to Rhone in Dragon Quest II was a chore, but the Temple of Fiends: Revisited is a gauntlet. It is a shining example of a final dungeon in an RPG. Everything you've learned is put to the test - with many different floors, filled with different kinds of enemies, and all four of the Fiends you've fought coming back for a second round. And it's not just tough enemies that are thrown at you, it's lots of them. A Gas Dragon is a threat, but four of them together is a red alert! Even enemies like Frost Dragons, which were a challenge back at the Ice Cave, but that you've outgrown, can still be a pain, wearing down your HP and MP over the long haul - and the Temple of Fiends: Revisited is a long haul. Few dungeons in this game I've beaten in a single pass (The Waterfall, the Castle of Ordeals) - mostly because I like to collect all the treasure - but the Temple of Fiends: Revisited demands multiple passes (despite featuring a one way teleporter that you must use magic to outwit), with you getting stronger, and managing to get deeper each time you go in and make it out alive. To be fair, this was also the case in the endgame dungeons in the Dragon Quest games, but here it [somehow] feels more epic and adventure-y, and less boring and grindy.

The Katana is not as strong or as cool as I remember it (why does it look like a dagger!?). But the Masamune is the perfect sword for the Ninja - it's even Japanese! It's what the Katana should be. All throughout the game, my Thief/Ninja has been an inferior fighter compared to my Fighter/Knight, but with the Masamune, he's finally equal to or even better than the Knight. In the past I've usually given the Masamune to the White Wizard to make her a decent fighter (it's awesome that anyone can use the strongest sword in the game; it really improves combat strategy customization), but this time around I'm making better use of the free-cast items than I ever used to (I always treated them as a gimmick and never used them to their full potential before), and my White Wizard is a full time healer, so the Masamune fits in the Ninja's hands like a glove.

It's interesting to note that I found the first half of this game more challenging than the second half. The Marsh Cave, the Earth Cave, The Gurgu Volcano, the Ice Cave - these were harrowing challenges. It's not that the rest of the game was easy, but I think that your lack of abilities and equipment in the first half makes the game scarier. Getting poisoned on your way to the Marsh Cave is debilitating because Pures are expensive, and you don't have the spell yet. Getting petrified in the Ice Cave is similarly devastating. In the second half of the game - particularly after the class change - you're more or less equipped to deal with any challenges that are sent your way (and lots of high level equipment is to be found as early as the Sea Shrine). I'm not sure it's a bad thing, and it's certainly nice to feel empowered by the end of the game (and it's not like the final boss wasn't still a challenge for me at Level 27), but it's an interesting thing to note.

The battle with Chaos was actually more challenging than I was expecting. Even though it's the final boss, I thought he'd be kind of a pushover like most of the other bosses in the game. I remember him using Fire 2, Lit 2, Ice 2 and wondering why he didn't use stronger spells (being the final boss and all...), but this time he used those spells plus Fire 3, Nuke, and a bunch of original spells I don't remember - Crack, Swirl, Inferno... (It's entirely possible that I leveled my characters up too far the first time I beat the game). It's nice having an opportunity to go all out in at least one battle, using all the buff skills to improve your attack and defense and magic defense, and not holding back on any of your magic that you never felt the need to use in any other battle. Things took a turn for the worse after Chaos used Cure 4, and I ended up beating him in a last desperate struggle with only my Ninja left alive in the end (after spending most of the battle stunned, since Chaos can paralyze with a hit). It was pretty awesome. I'm satisfied.

Although the combat in this first game is pretty primitive, that battle with Chaos gave me a sense of all the best battles in later Final Fantasy games where strategy and endurance pay off, and the battle really feels like a challenge - not so much frustrating as exciting. Plus, I love the first occurrence of the boss fade here, which gives the game a certain level of finality. The ending text isn't much of an ending, and it's a little cheesy and tries too hard to explain the convoluted details of the whole time loop subplot, but it at least has more narrative depth than the endings in either of the first two Dragon Quest games ("You get to marry the princess! You get to be king! The End"). I can't wait to play Final Fantasy II! But first, I think I'm going to tackle Dragon Quest III. Just between you and me, I hope the DQ team learned a few things from Final Fantasy!

Friday, April 24, 2015

Review: Dragon Quest II (a.k.a. Dragon Warrior II)

Dragon Quest has its place in history, but I consider its sequel to be a superior game. It is certainly not without flaw (console RPGs were a fledgling genre in the NES era, still very much in the process of hammering out the details of their formula), but it offers many improvements over the first game.

To start with, the game opens with a dramatic "cut scene" (in which the action unfolds on screen without the player's control), involving a monster army invading a castle. Here we see the narrative potential of the RPG genre expanded in a monumental way. Although it is only a short, solitary scene in this game, this dramatic evolution paves the way for some of the best and most memorable scenes in RPGs later on down the line.

The graphics and gameplay do not seem to be significantly improved since the first Dragon Quest - at a glance - but a closer look will reveal some integral improvements to the gameplay formula. Starting with the fundamentals, you no longer have to select a command to climb stairs - you can just walk over them!

You are also given an option within the menu to equip the weapons and armor you carry, instead of just using the last one you bought (and automatically selling the one you had before that). This change is actually necessary on account of the fact that this game introduces multiple party members (the other two of which you meet along your journey). The game also features multiple enemies as well - up to as much as 8 on the screen at one time (depending on how big they are).

The battle command menu more closely resembles the one I'm familiar with from Final Fantasy. Also, the battles take up the whole screen, instead of just a central window. It's less pretty though, as you fight against a plain black background (even Final Fantasy had geographical backdrops along the top of the battle screen).

We're still dealing with a very basic plot here - evil sorcerer threatens the safety of the countryside and must be defeated. No interesting narrative complexities like, for example, the Big Bad is influencing events from the past through four generals who are draining the planet's energy. However, unlike Final Fantasy (for which each game in the series is self-contained), this game is a direct sequel to Dragon Quest, starring the descendants of the first game's hero, and taking place in a larger section of the same world (the first game's landmass is even accessible in the sequel, though it's been shrunken a bit - but not to the extent seen in Zelda II).

The first Dragon Quest was severely centralized to the starting castle, which was the only place you could save your game. I'm happy to discover that Dragon Quest II features multiple locations where you can save your game, but there's still not one in every town, and you can't save on the world map either. It's a decided improvement, but there's still room to grow.

The dungeons have improved immensely. The need for a light source (torch, magic spell, etc.) has been eliminated, for better or worse (it was a neat gameplay element, but also kind of a pain in the ass). The dungeons are still pretty basic, but much more immersive. Instead of the "dark cellar" look, they now come in two varieties: cave, and tower. The sea cave (which is actually volcanic) introduces some environmental specialization, which is an improvement over the last game, but it's still not to the level of Final Fantasy (whose Earth Cave felt different than its Ice Cave, which felt different than its Volcano, etc.).

Note the introduction of the ubiquitous poison status ailment, that slowly drains health! With multiple party members comes the need to occasionally revive fallen comrades (and the inn doesn't cover this service yet), so the curse remover from the first game has been upgraded, and now not only removes curses, but also poison, and brings fallen party members back from the dead (like the clinic from the first Final Fantasy). At a steep cost, though.

I am very pleased that the keys in this game (there are three of them, not including a certain one-time use special occasion key) are reusable master items and not disposable items that you have to keep wasting money on buying in mass quantities! There's also a spell you learn (at a rather high level) that ultimately makes the keys useless (which is good, because it frees up some inventory space).

On the subject of inventory, this game does not yet have a separate inventory for "key items". Also, your equipment takes up precious space in your item inventory. There are separate inventories for each of your three characters, though, which helps mitigate the need to carry more items for more people. The process by which you can trade items between characters is a bit tedious, though.

As a con, I'm sorry to say that Dragon Quest II has the same problem with encounter rates as the first game. You could walk two steps between encounters, or forty (and two seems to be far more frequent). Plus, with multiple enemies per encounter (and the overall high level of difficulty in this game), combat can become tedious and frustrating very quickly.

With multiple party members we get a glimpse into the compartmentalization of roles in RPGs. In the first Dragon Quest, your character took care of everything - namely, fighting and magic. Here, you have one character who specializes in fighting, another who specializes in magic, and a third who is kind of a jack of both trades. This would seem to be an early version of the class system which Final Fantasy would experiment with a whole lot.

Game progression is far more opaquely gated than last time, with multiple choke points requiring (for example) the acquisition of each of the two additions to your team, in order to advance to new areas. I have no problem with gating itself (though it's fun to try to "sequence break" games after you've mastered them), but I'll admit that having a slightly more logical obstacle (e.g., to use an example from Final Fantasy, having to find some TNT so the dwarves can blow open a canal for your ship to pass through) than a knight or an old man telling you "you can't go further until you do so-and-so" would be optimal.

Battle tactics are much different in a game that is not limited to one-on-one fights. As frustrating as it is to have your only character put to sleep, having an army of Magic Ants casting sleep on your entire party one after another is soul-crushingly annoying (I'm reminded of the paralysis-casting armies of Spectres/Geists/etc. in Final Fantasy). It also sucks that you have a tough fighter at the head of your party, but the enemies will frequently go after your weaker spellcaster. And if they take him out, you can no longer heal yourself. You can't even cast Return to start your trek over from the last village you visited. And it costs a lot of money to revive him. I know the game needs to be challenging, but this setup actually incentivizes me to hit reset rather than tough it out.

I think it's a bit sexist that in your whole group, the female is the only one who can't wear armor. (And it's not just because she's a spellcaster, because your other, male, spellcaster, who isn't much of a fighter anyway, can still wear armor). Maybe I'm just too progressive, though.

Mark this down in your history books, kids: Dragon Quest II features a ship vehicle! It's very slow, though. Your view isn't very wide, and the world is huge. Plus, like in Final Fantasy, you still encounter enemies on the open sea. So, lots of roaming, and again with the encounters becoming tedious.

The world opens up a lot once you get the ship, and it gets a lot less linear, too, as you're sent off looking for a bunch of crests with almost no clues as to where to find them (or what might be the best order in seeking them out). Frankly, I think I enjoyed the game better when it had a concise focus, and I knew what I was supposed to be doing. I love adventure games, but I think maybe the random encounters take away a lot of the fun of exploring and figuring things out on your own, by trial and error.

On the other hand, the larger world (with more places to visit) improves the pace of the game. Rarely have I felt trapped and in need of an excessive amount of grinding to level up before being strong enough to take on the next challenge (at least until Rhone, that is). So I guess it's a mixed blessing, at best.

I have to complain about the treasure chests. Apart from maybe one or two key items, chests mostly contain a paltry amount of gold, or outdated equipment that you don't need and can rarely be sold for a decent price. It seems that dungeons are designed more to trick you into walking down blind alleys than to force you to cover extra ground in order to collect potentially precious treasure.

The seemingly arbitrary scattering of save points and healers (who can bring fallen party members back to life) is inconvenient and annoying at times. Every town has an inn, which is good, but if a party member dies, then you're screwed until you can find a healer. And not every town that has a save point (which are, relatively speaking, rare) also has a healer, which means I'm wandering from one town to the next (and then the next), just trying to get my party member back to life so I can tackle a really difficult dungeon again... (An airship would be super useful here)! I'm not sure what benefit the scattering of healers is (the scattering of save points makes a little bit of sense). It makes the game harder, yeah, but in a frustrating rather than in a challenging way.

Not every town has an item shop, either, which is completely baffling. I can understand different towns having different wares, but you can only sell items (including weapons and armor) at item shops - weapon shops don't give you the option to sell. I have no idea what kind of sense that's supposed to make.

The inclusion of myriad teleporter pods throughout the world in this game would seem to alleviate some of the wandering troubles, but the connections are sometimes arbitrary, and often still require a good bit of walking around to get anywhere useful. Really, the ideal solution here is an airship. But alas, there is none in this game.

The farther I get in this game, the more complaints I'm going to have about the increasingly difficult and frustrating gameplay. For example: I hate the "strange jig" enemy technique. It's a good idea - attacking spellcasters where it hurts: their MP pool - but it's too strong. MP draining techniques have never been this frustrating in the Final Fantasy games I've played. Part of the problem is that the technique saps too much MP, but another part is that there are no items to recover MP - not even expensive ones! Well, there's one, but you can only win it in the lottery, which is a game of chance, and the odds are against you. Poor game design with this decision.

And it's especially frustrating considering that at a certain point in the game, I've come to rely on using a teleport spell to escape dungeons when I get weak, so I don't have to hold back and save my strength for the return journey. But one battle deep in a tough dungeon could have all of my spellcaster's MP sapped and then I'm screwed, having to restart and lose all my progress (read: experience) if I'm not willing to take the hit to my goldpurse. The threat of this happening is perfectly acceptable, but the game should provide an option to the player to avoid it (read: MP restoring items), even if that comes at a cost.

Let me just say that the Cave to Rhone is a real pain in the ass, with all of its unfair sorcery, and tough enemies.

I'm realizing that the enemy encounters are frustrating not because they're hard (although they are frequently challenging), but simply because they're a bore. They're way too frequent, but they also often take too much time to complete. In one floor of a dungeon, I often encounter enemies alone or in pairs, and it doesn't bother me so much. It's true that these encounters are easier, even where the individual enemies are no slouches (three against one or two is still good odds). But it's just that getting into an encounter with five enemies, whittling them down through several turns, then taking two steps and running into another encounter with six more enemies, is annoying.

Maybe the problem is that there is no "kill" spell like Nuke or Ultima or Meteo or what have you, that you can use (even if it requires great cost) to annihilate screens full of enemies (provided they're not super strong). That would go a long way in alleviating my frustration. But of the most powerful spells I've learned up to the second to last dungeon in the game, one of them only targets groups of like enemies (not every enemy on the screen), and the other one, though it does target every enemy on the screen, is not any stronger than the spellcaster's attack (he's a mediocre fighter (which says a lot about the spell), unlike my other spellcaster, but still not a good fighter), so the only advantage there is hitting all the enemies and not doing any more damage to each one, like a good upper level spell should. (Correction: you do learn a stronger spell at a certain point, but that doesn't really help at lower levels).

Interesting note: Attackbot seems like it might be a precursor to Final Fantasy's WarMech (superstrong robot enemy in high level dungeon), although it isn't quite on the same scale of woah.

It may be that I've lost my patience, or else that I'm trying to play through these games too quickly (I want to experience as much of them in as little time as possible, to boost my experience and fuel my inspiration while working on my own RPG). When I first played Final Fantasy (as a child), I considered the fact that playing it through to the end and beating it wasn't a task that took hours or days or weeks (as with most non-RPG games), but more on the scale of months, or even years, as part of what made it such a unique and awesome experience. It definitely seems that old games like Dragon Quest II would benefit from a slower pace, picking it up every now and then and playing for a bit until the difficulty and the grinding get frustrating, then putting it down and taking a rest, then picking it up again later and making some more progress, and slowly, gradually getting stronger and getting farther through the game. Trying to hurry through the process (as I am) leads to much frustration. That doesn't mean the game is broken, necessarily, but it certainly seems to be a different playing philosophy than what's popular nowadays.

On the other hand, some of the things you have to figure out to progress (like, in this game, the location of five hidden crests), are prohibitively difficult for someone without a strategy guide (and at this stage in my life, although I do have some pride in figuring things out for myself, I'm not above seeking aid to speed along the process and alleviate frustration). I'm a fan of games at least giving you some clue so that you can put the pieces together and figure everything out without relying on random, dumb, blind (mute?), luck. There are plenty of clues doled out by NPCs in these RPGs, but so frequently they are overly vague or otherwise inadequate. Whether this is a symptom of poor translation, as I think is often the case, or not, it's really not forgivable.

I like the whole idea of Rhone, as an endgame area (and not just a dungeon). It's hard to get to, and it has really tough enemies - big enemies that look intimidating, and pack a powerful punch. But the game is also merciful in that it gives you a free heal/save location right in the midst of it, which makes building up your levels until you're ready to face that final dungeon relatively easy. It's not only good from a gameplay standpoint, but it also has an effective mood and atmosphere for the player, which is a far cry from the last Dragon Quest, where even the last time you turned on the game before beating the final dungeon, you were still setting out from the same castle you started the game in. It gives that sense of geographical progress that the last game was missing, and that will be expanded upon in RPGs to come (for example, Final Fantasy IV's final dungeon is located on the moon).

Lack of pointers on what all the equipment does would be a lot more frustrating if I didn't have a strategy guide to consult. It would suck spending lots of gold on something that turns out to be not that good, or can't even be equipped by the character you bought it for. And I've heard rumors that the Magic Armor has special defensive properties against fire magic, which makes it more desirable than the hella-expensive (really, ridiculously overpriced - highest priced item in the game, and by far - even if it was worth a damn, which it may not be) Mink Coat, which has an only slightly higher defense rating. How are we supposed to figure these things out?

Rhone is accurately described as a death land. Not only are the enemies tough enough to wipe you out pretty quickly if you're not careful - and you need to grind for several levels after reaching Rhone before you even stand a chance inside the final dungeon - but they also have techniques like Defeat, which can instantly kill your party members, and, even worse, the Gold Batboon's "Sacrifice", which might as well be called Instant Game Over. So far as I've seen, it's 100% effective, and it wipes out your entire party, so if the Gold Batboon chooses to cast it, that's it, game over.

You do, thankfully, learn a Revive spell at higher levels, which helps, but it can only be used by the same character as the Return spell - which can rush you back to safety (where you can heal up and save) - which means that if he's dead, it's not like you can just bring him back to life and then zip outta there. If that one character dies, you're pretty much fucked. And when the monsters have the capability of completely wiping out your chances in a single battle (even when you have high HP and MP), well...let's just say it's hard. Nintendo hard.

The fact that your spells are frequently ineffective is really frustrating. I understand spells like Sleep and Defeat being occasionally (even frequently) ineffective - that's part of their gamble. But when regular damage spells like Firebane and Explodet aren't working against enemies - and not because they're immune to the spell - it kinda sucks. It's a waste of MP (and a waste of a turn, too).

Also, what sense does it make to give the Sacrifice spell to the same person that has both Revive and Return? I can understand that giving different people Sacrifice and Revive kind of reduces the high impact cost of Sacrifice (although you'd still have the added cost in terms of MP, having to bring your character back to life after using it), but Return too? I can see using Sacrifice when you get really desperate, just to survive a battle and then warp back home to save your skin and try again. Except, you can't warp because the person who knows that spell was your sacrifice! So there's really no point in using it, except like one time in the final final battle, if that...

We see here, in Dragon Quest II, what I presume to be the first example of the "boss gauntlet" in the final dungeon of an RPG. It's a great idea, and it really ups the stakes at the end of the game, although the sheer difficulty and reliance on luck rather than skill in order to persevere in this game makes it more frustrating than exciting.

The endgame here is just a real chore. Final dungeons in my favorite Final Fantasy games were also tough, and required multiple passes to clear, but I don't remember them being nearly as frustrating. Take the Crystal Tower in Final Fantasy IV, for example. The dungeon itself was interesting enough, with changing level design as you go deeper and deeper, that held your attention, and enough goodies (not just bosses serving as physical obstacles, but optional challenges that reward you with powerful equipment) to keep you motivated to explore and keep pushing on.

Here, though, after a while of grinding and pushing forward bit by bit, I'm just sick of it and want the game to be over and done with already. And I'm several levels stronger than I was to start with when I reached this area (and we're talking high levels here, like from Level 25 to Level 30), and I can still get pretty much wiped out in a single battle if my luck runs sour. (Plus, those encounters are still too frequent, on average). I don't want to have to rely so much on luck. I'd rather rely on my own power. But even at this high level, sometimes I'll cast an expensive offensive spell, and it won't even hit the enemy...

This game's replay value is essentially zilch, mainly because by the time you've beaten it (if you make it that far), you're so sick of it that you don't even want to play it anymore.

Giving bosses, in particular, the HealAll spell makes them especially challenging. I have yet to see an enemy exhaust its MP supply - but even that, if possible, is bound to require a lot of time. Otherwise, when the boss can just replenish all its HP with a single spell, it generally means the surest way of beating him is having a damage output (within a single turn in most instances, two or more only if you're lucky) that exceeds the boss's max HP, which is a high bar to pass. I think I prefer the approach that just gives bosses tons of HP to draw the battle out and make it more about endurance than the simple binary of whether or not you're a) lucky, and b) super-powered enough to obliterate the boss in a few turns. (Especially when leveling up further at this stage of the game involves zero novelty and extreme tedium). I haven't had any luck effectively casting StopSpell on bosses in this game either.

Functionally, it would seem that the final boss is simply a rehash of the first Dragon Quest's sorcerer transformed into a monstrous dragon (in a classic "this is the real final boss" move), but thematically, it introduces the concept of "Evil's Hand", in which what you think throughout the game will be the final boss is actually a puppet for the stronger, more monstrous evil that you will have to face in the end (Final Fantasy's Garland/Chaos and, better yet, Final Fantasy IV's Golbez/Zemus/Zeromus fit this pattern).

The final battle doesn't feel like a great challenge where you have to put all your strength and tactical knowledge together to defeat a powerful opponent. It feels like you just have to rail against him as much as you can, and hope that, by the power of luck, you happen to beat him (which depends largely on him not using HealAll too frequently). Your best spells don't even affect him. The only reliable damage you can deal is from your fighter. It got to the point where I was willing to break down and manipulate luck via the usage of save states (which is not something I like to do unless the game really makes it necessary), so I could just try fighting the final boss again and again, until I finally managed to beat him - not with any stronger stats, which would require way too much mind-numbing grinding, but with just a better roll of the dice - without making my way to him and beating all the prior bosses each and every time. It was frustrating enough doing it that way, I can't imagine how it would have been to original players without save state technology.

Concluding Remarks:

Dragon Quest II is really two different games. With all due respect to Dragon Quest - its place in history, and the foundation it laid down for a whole generation of video game RPGs - the first half of Dragon Quest II is a much more fun, and much less frustrating game. It feels like more of an adventure, with more exploration, and more characters, and not simply the distilled essence of tabletop RPG cliches. That having been said, it still comes up a little short of the first Final Fantasy in terms of epic scale, engrossing plot, and diversified gameplay mechanics.

Then you have the second half, where the difficulty gets ramped up, and the limitations and imbalance of the game escalate to a high level of frustration. It's worth giving Dragon Quest II a try, and, certainly, if you're looking for geek cred, you can put in the work to finish it. But don't feel bad if you have to drop it before the end, because I honestly can't imagine how the effort required to beat it could possibly be worth the paltry reward you get for seeing it through to the end. (Don't feel guilty about peeking in a strategy guide to see what the final boss looks like). There are better RPGs out there, with much better balance, that are much less frustrating to play, and to complete.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Progress Report

A quick update on some of the progress I've been making since we last spoke. I've been working on the game a ton - it almost feels like a new golden age, which is good, because there's still a lot of work to be done before it even nears completion.

Apart from the major scripting breakthrough I recently experienced, I've also been working on a mountain town this past month, after finishing up the snow town I mentioned last time. I'm really proud of the maps I've been coming up with for this project, so I hope people will like them. I'll tell you one thing, though, I am about sick to death of making mountain/hill maps, because the geological architecture is a real pain in the ass - getting all the levels to line up and look decent. I've gotta start working on some caves for a change, especially considering that I only have one cave dungeon so far in the game (don't worry, there are more coming). But the mountain area attached to this town has a pretty neat atmospheric effect that I'm really excited about (no spoilers!).

The other thing I just had to tell you about is that the other day, I discovered the extent to which you can customize animations (which are mainly used for battle skills, but can also be exploited in other ways). This is one of those "duh" moments, and you're probably going to tell me it was obvious from the start, because I did know there was an animation editor, but the significance of it didn't really dawn on me until I was looking at it recently. Maybe I was avoiding it because I don't feel that animation is my strong suit. But I dug into it a little bit, and, tedious though it is, I'm not totally helpless.

This is great, because it gives me more customization over my skills, which is important, since the magic spells I have planned are a really important aspect of my game, and the default animations that come with the game - while good - had a few holes that needed filling in. So I've been spending obscene amounts of time over the past several days modifying and adjusting animations to my needs. It's kind of mind-numbing at times, but the potential is honestly a bit thrilling. That's one more thing that's going to take a lot of work before my game is finished, but one more aspect that needed to be figured out that is beginning to fall into place!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Variable Graphics

Mention to any group of RPG Maker VX Ace users that you want to learn how to write scripts (which give you unparalleled power over customizing the game above and beyond what limited options the program hands to you), and they'll tell you to learn Ruby - the programming language that RPG Maker VX Ace is coded in. It's not that this isn't good advice, but a little primer on how the RPG Maker program actually works would be a lot more immediately useful - especially to those of us who have some programming experience, but simply don't know this particular language (yet).

Well, after a year of searching in vain (and, yes, I have finally made the decision to learn Ruby properly), I did recently come across a brief introductory tutorial to coding specifically for RPG Maker VX Ace, and, even with its limited scope, it has had an enormous impact on my understanding of at least some of the basics of what's going on in the code, but most importantly, on my confidence in being able to learn how to manipulate code, and the promise of what kind of things I'll have control over once I do. It's been the most useful external RPG Maker resource I've read since that eventing guide that enlightened me to the fact that I was doing "cutscenes" all wrong.

Graphic Equipment

In any programming environment, there is often more than one solution to every problem. Some solutions are simpler and more elegant than others, though those generally require some amount of experience and insight to discover. Sometimes the difference between one or another solution is simply a matter of approach, and your specific requirements will lead you to decide which ones are more or less desirable, and which ones may not be usable at all. For at least the last year or so, I've been looking for a way to implement optional alternate outfits, or, more crucially, equipment-dependent character graphics, in my game. It's one of those superficial features that doesn't impact the gameplay too terribly much, but is the sort of thing that makes the game a little more interactive and, I think, makes it a little bit more fun to play.

I toyed with the idea of using "Equip Events" (a handy script courtesy of Hime Works), which allows you to run versatile Common Events whenever the player equips or un-equips ("dequips") a character with a certain piece of equipment (weapons or armor). The Database in RPG Maker lets you run Common Events when items are used, but not when weapons and armor are equipped - this script fixes that discrepancy. With Equip Events, I can assign a unique Common Event to each piece of equipment, that will change the "actor" (RPG Maker terminology for playable character)'s character and face graphic to whatever I wish.

But, as you might be thinking, this could become rather cumbersome if I have a lot of pieces of equipment associated with custom graphic changes (that would turn out to be a lot of Common Events!). Moreover, this would work fine if each piece of equipment could only be used by one character (and thus is assigned a unique graphic change), but if I want a particular piece of equipment to change different graphics depending on who is equipping it, I'm out of luck, since I have no way (through this script or in the default program, that I know of) to know which character is the one being equipped!

So instead of using Equip Events for this specialized purpose, I found something better - a different script especially designed to change character graphics on equip - Jeneeus Guruman's Graphic Equip Ace. With this script I can simply add a little note in the corner (in the "notetag" area) of each piece of equipment's stats page in the Database, and the script automatically changes the actor graphic without having to do it through a Common Event. Better yet, I can assign different graphic changes to different characters for a single piece of equipment! And I can also assign a default graphic to each character for when they're not equipped with anything! As far as I can tell, this script works just as I need it to.

Variable Graphic Scripts

But there remains a little snag, which results from giving the player control over the actors' graphical appearances. There are two times at which I, as the developer, need to know what image an actor is being represented by: 1) when I display a message window accompanied by the actor's face, and 2) when I create temporary duplicates of actors to manipulate during cutscenes. Theoretically, this would simply be an issue of accessing data (which images are associated with which actors) that I know the program has a hold of. But the default program doesn't give you a command with which to access this data, and so this is an example of one of those situations where scripting can give you a simple solution that is not possible through eventing.

Now, presumably, you could get over this hurdle by assigning values to variables that correspond to actors' graphical appearances, that are updated every time those graphics are changed. And indeed, this is how I thought I was going to have to do it for a long time. But then I'd have to use the more cumbersome Equip Event solution above, rather than the more streamlined Graphic Equip Ace solution, since the latter isn't designed to update variables, but the former utilizes Common Events within which I can update variables. But then we come across the problem of having way too many Common Events, when I know there's a much simpler solution - if I could only access the data I know is hiding in the code somewhere.

(You might recall that I had this same problem with accessing the random encounter values, and it resulted in a similarly elegant solution.)

But first, a very small detour (only because this is the order in which I figured these things out). One thing that I discovered during my work on Ascension, that wasn't immediately apparent to me, was the difference between player and actor graphics. Actor graphics are stored in the program and correspond to specific actors (again, when I say "actor" I'm referring to playable characters). The "player" is the actual sprite you move around on screen, which is usually displayed in the form of the graphic of whichever actor is at the head of your party (and which will change if you change the order of your party). But here's the interesting thing - you can change the player graphic (which is, in a sense, more "temporary" than the actor graphics), without changing the graphic associated with any actor.

(I exploited this in Ascension by creating special graphics that denote which difficulty level you're playing on, that are viewable on the load/save game screen, but that don't affect the look of the character you control in the actual game.)

Character Graphics

Now consider that you're trying to design a cutscene where the player changes appearance (use your imagination - let's say the player is transformed into a toad), but by the end of the cutscene, the player must be returned to its usual appearance. You could change the actor graphic associated with the actor at the head of the player's party (which always changes the player graphic accordingly), and then change it back at the end of the cutscene. But if you let the player change the order of his team around, how will you know which actor graphic to change? Well, you can figure that out using event commands, by storing the numerical ID of the party leader in a variable, but then you'll need to use a conditional branch to determine the value of that variable, or else change everybody's graphic every single time.

If you know precisely which graphic you're going to use during the cutscene (if, say, it doesn't depend on who the character is), you can change the player graphic without mucking about with the actor graphics, but you're still going to need to use a variable and run a conditional branch to figure out which actor to turn the player back into at the end of the cutscene (depending on which actor is at the head of the party). And if there are different possibilities for graphical appearance for each of the actors, then you'll have to run even more conditional branches on the variables you've (hopefully!) been updating every time somebody changes their appearance. Or, you could just run this little script, right there in your event (look for the Script button on the third page of Event Commands), at the beginning of the cutscene:
$game_variables[x] = 
$game_player.character_name
$game_variables[y] = 
$game_player.character_index
to store the graphic associated with the player (whatever it is) in two variables x and y (replace with numbers, and make sure you use variables that aren't being used for something else - you'll probably also want to label them in the event window like you do all your other variables). Note that "character_name" refers to the filename of the image file (not including the extension) and "character_index" refers to the index of the image set within that file (if you've done any work on sprites and graphics in RPG Maker, you've undoubtedly noticed that image files usually contain eight different sprite sets, indexed from 0-7). Then, at the end of the cutscene, run this script:
$game_player.set_graphic(
$game_variables[x], $game_variables[y])
with the same variables from before, and it will automatically restore the player graphic to what it was before the cutscene! It's like you took a snapshot of the player, and then reverted it to the snapshot after changing it in the body of the event!

Alternatively, if you want to set the player graphic to that of a specific actor, but you don't know which graphic that actor is going to be using, and you don't want to keep a running tally every time the actor changes its appearance (resulting in a cascade of conditional branches), then just type this into a script box within your event:
$game_player.set_graphic(
$game_actors[x].character_name, 
$game_actors[x].character_index)
where x is the number of the actor as it appears in the Database. Additionally, if you want to set an event's graphic to that of an actor, rather than the player (useful if you're designing a cutscene where multiple actors in addition to the player are present), run this script:
$game_map.events[x].set_graphic(
$game_actors[y].character_name, 
$game_actors[y].character_index)
This time y is the number of the actor as it appears in the Database, and x refers to the ID of an event on the current map, whether it's the event calling the script, or another one entirely (make sure your ID refers to an event that actually exists on the map, though). Are you getting the hang of it yet? The next script will turn an event into a clone of the player, no matter what the player looks like!
$game_map.events[x].set_graphic(
$game_player.character_name, 
$game_player.character_index)
Go ahead, try it in your project! Note, however, that if you're trying to make an exact copy, you'll have to run a separate command to make the event face whichever direction you want it to face. You can, however, do this simply with a Set Move Route event command (try "Turn toward Player"), without having to use scripts at all.

Face Graphics

The other problem is the one involving the face graphic, which is used in message windows, and is unfortunately a little bit trickier. Now, you can use the same principles with the face graphic that we used above on the character graphic, just replacing every instance of "character" with "face". But remember that neither the player nor events have a face - only the actors do - and that face graphics are only used in message windows (and on the menu screen, but we're not concerned with that here).

Where it gets messy is using the script version of the Show Text event command. The script version gives us a little bit more power, in that we can assign a face graphic using a variable, like so:
$game_message.face_name = 
$game_actors[x].face_name
$game_message.face_index = 
$game_actors[x].face_index
$game_message.background = 0
$game_message.position = 2
$game_message.add("Text")
"Background" and "position" refer to the correlating options in the Show Text event command, each one indexed from 0-2 (Normal, Dim, Transparent; and Top, Middle, Bottom). "Text" is the actual text that will show up in the message window.

Presumably, we could use this solution just fine (on the other hand, there may be further difficulties, I haven't used it very much), but we no longer get the nice GUI accompanying the corresponding event command, which allows us to preview how the text will look (and thus fit it neatly into the text boxes). I'm looking into a more complicated script that digs into the code and adds a bunch of new features to the message windows that can be used right there in the event command - Yanfly's Ace Message System. It seems to do exactly what I want it to do, but as with most of these gourmet scripts, it also includes a whole lot of extra features that I don't really need. I might try to see if I can pare it down a bit to just the essentials that I want. The important thing is that it looks like what I want to do is not only doable, but I'm actually doing it!

Monday, February 2, 2015

Progress Report

Contrary to appearances, I've actually been working on my game a lot, especially in the last month or so. It's been about a year now since I started working on it, off and on. It'll probably take at least another year to complete, depending on how much I work on it. But I've gotten over the hump of where I was stumped before, when I took a break to create Ascension, and have a much better idea of how I want to fill in the details of the game between the major developments now.

I haven't been very vocal about the game, either here or elsewhere, and that's mostly due to the fact that I think people have gotten over the whole "how's the game coming along?" stage, and haven't been asking about it much. (In fact, I'm having trouble getting them to even play the game I finished, which isn't real encouraging...). I myself have gotten over the "I have to show you what I'm working on!" stage which I was totally feeling when I first started working on the game, and was so excited about what I was creating, and just wanted to share it with anyone and everyone.

And it's just as well, I guess. At this point, and since people aren't even really asking about it anymore, I figure I can just hunker down and work on it longterm by myself, with an eye to pushing forward and not wasting time trying to "polish" parts of it for public release (because if there's anything I'm obsessive about, it's image). I re-adapted all the beginning parts that were absent in my latest release, and pared down the playable characters, like I think I mentioned somewhere along the line, and have, excitingly, moved beyond into new and un-previously-charted territories.

I thought about putting out a release of the updated first act of the game, but the one thing that I stumbled on was the combat. Too many decisions about mechanics are still left undecided, and I don't want to start plugging in stats and shit when I don't know yet what the curve of the game is going to be, in terms of character, skill, and equipment growth, from beginning, to middle, to end. Honestly, I feel like I'd rather lay the game out first, and then go through and work out the combat bits. Of course maybe that hesitancy is also a symptom of me not feeling as confident (or enthusiastic) about making the action work as I am about designing maps and telling a story.

Anyway, I'm currently working on a snow town that fits in perfectly with the mood of the wintery weather we've been having lately. I can glance out my window as I'm sitting in front of my computer and see the snow swirling around through the sky. It's a perfect symbiosis. After that, I have a castle town to design, and some more dungeons leading up to your first big encounter with a dragon in the game. After that point, things quickly (but not too quickly) race forward toward the exciting climax to the game. That description undersells the amount of work that has to be done yet, but I like to keep the ultimate goal in mind!