I'm putting down a quick Q&A with some questions we've been asked in the last little while. Feel free to ask me just about anything below and I'll try to answer if it's reasonable!

Q: I'm stuck in an area! (Either because of a major Quasi fuckup or because I'm lost).

A: If you're stuck in an area: Join the Discord server for the fastest response times and fixes. I get notifications there, and we have a help channel. Otherwise drop it in the itch and I'll get a notification whenever itch.io decides it doesn't hate me that day.

Q: What are the game's biggest inspirations?

A: Well, my biggest inspirations were probably Project Moon, FromSoftware, and maybe a splash of Arc System Works, Type-Moon (Tsukihime, not Fate), and can't forget my favorite point and click of all time, Sam and Max. Musically, the original tracks are heavily inspired by Mitsukiyo (pre-Blue Archive piano compositions, i.e., Green Letter/Yume Bako), ZUN (early Touhou), M2U (Cytus), and anything vaguely Dark Souls-related.

Q: Are all the areas secretly interconnected?

A: Though most of the map is heavily inspired by Dark Souls. Not everything is a shortcut, though I know. Bummer.

Q: Does this game use AI?

A: Well, yes, but actually, no. We removed the AI from the title screen in version 2.4a, but some vocal tracks use TTS and SynthV. Unfortunately, the LOA dev team is all men, and I can't afford to hire a singer. I sound like Sinatra from Wish. You wouldn't want to hear me sing. 

(EDIT)

Okay, so there's some SynthV which is AI, but Legacy of Aeon as of Version 2.4e features zero AI generated art, assets, or otherwise. With the exception of SynthV.

Q: What are your favorite authors?

A: That's an extremely genre dependent question, but if I had to give three, it'd be Robert Greene, Stephen Crane (For Poetry, not his novels), and William Blake for the same reason.

Q: Okay, but what is this game really?

A: Think of it as a comedic, Souls-lite/Souls-like  JRPG, mainly inspired by my old D&D campaign hijinks, meta horror, sketch comedy and whatever I unintentionally draw inspiration from because I also play a shit load of games. It's not going to give you that Dark Souls gameplay, but hey, the map's complicated as hell, and that's close enough!

Q: What music do you actually listen to casually?

A: J-Pop, Chinese Pop, Cafe Jazz, Piano Instrumentals, 90s alt rock, (My favorite band is I Mother Earth), and some rap or K-Pop depending on my mood.

Q: What do you play usually?

A: Surprisingly, I'm not a fan of most RPGs in my genre. I used to play Fear and Hunger, but I haven't touched Termina yet. I play a lot of Skyrim, Melty Blood Type Lumina, Dark Souls 1/2/3, AI: The Somnium Files, anything Project Moon puts out, and a lot of Gundam Battle Operation 2. I know the game sucks, but the sunk cost fallacy is real, guys.

Q: Why is the writing style the way it is?

A: I can't watch most fantasy movies. I find them kind of dry, so the writing in LOA is more inspired by sketch comedy, such as Key & Peele, CollegeHumor, Ryan Higa, Smosh, and other fast-paced comedy channels. It's also more fun to write when you format it as Setup -> Straight Man -> Payoff, or some variation of that. Whenever I can't think of what a character would do, I contact the original player and ask them. This makes the conversation feel fluid and realistic. The entire game is improv. I don't think before I type. It just kind of comes out.

Thanks as always. Remember that Discord is available if you ever need help or an emergency bug fix. We usually complete them within a day. If I see it immediately, it's usually within an hour or less, but it depends on the bug.

Cheers everyone!

As promised in the latest devlog, we're doing a second round of the Q&A with every question I've been asked recently! We're doing a second round of the Q&A, answering every question I've been asked recently!

Q: What's your biggest pet peeve?

A: Bad drivers. I drive an electric motorcycle, so them stopping suddenly in the middle of the road or parking in the bike lane, which is a mild inconvenience for them, has a pretty high chance of causing me to go ballistic.

Q: Why have the updates been so inconsistent lately?

A: My real job takes priority. I'd rather work myself into the ground than put a paywall on my games.

Q: Has your favorite character changed since the last time you were asked?

A: No, Linne is the best. But I really like the protagonist of our new WIP game too. For now, though, it's Linne.

Q: What is the strongest weapon in the game lore wise?

A: Real answer, Heart of The Garden. Funny one? N*ntendo Cease and Desist.

Q: Who's your least favorite character you've ever made?

A: Either Reito from Adventure Redux or Sylvanna because she's my assistant's favorite and I like messing with him.

Q: How big's the actual production team?

A: It's been a hectic year. We've got me and my assistant left working actively on the games.

Q: How the hell is your resume so full at 23???

A: I did theatre through 4 years of high school, acting was a side gig I did for a buddy, and my home life was a bit unstable as a teen so I took a lot of odd jobs here and there. I met my current boss at the bar and ended up as a vibe hire since I spoke fluent English lmao.

Q: Booze preference?

A: I friggin love myself a MIdori sour but if we're at a restaurant I'll make Somaek.

Q: Favorite food?

A: Grilled cumin lamb skewers and it's not a contest.

Q: Who's the strongest character in Aeon lore?

A: It's Linne, is this even a question? I guess the guy who led the Five Heroes was pretty strong. But I'd still say Linne.

And a more structured, proper Q&A on the game itself. Written by a buddy who I'm 90% sure is using ChatGPT.

Q - "How do your friends react when they see their D&D characters (Kaas, Keito, Leran, etc.) in the game? Have they ever complained about how you portrayed them?"

A - "Actually, most of them are really appreciative. The player for Keito was glad that I showed his long term OC the respect he deserved. And the player for Leran is still my lore guy. The player for Kaas is a goofy goober and the player for Sylvanna doesn't play the game. Kaori's a sub character for Keito so same guy."

Q - "You mentioned you really like the protagonist of your new WIP game. Without spoiling too much, what is their vibe compared to the cast of LoA?"

A - "The cast of LoA is funny because they're functional screwups in a found family dynamic. The cast of our new game, Adventure Redux: From Zero to Zero, is a remake of the original ARx. They're significantly less moral and a bit less lovable than the cast of LoA. They're designed to be the worst in a love-to-hate sense. This is also my first time genuinely trying to write an isekai, so I'm making things a bit less sincere. LoA is, deep down, a very sincere love letter to the JRPG genre. So I'd say this new one's a bit more cynical than the last." It definitely has heart. But it's definitely been given more of a bite.

Q - "As someone heavily inspired by Mitsukiyo and early Touhou music, how do you go about composing or selecting tracks that capture that specific nostalgic, piano-driven, or high-energy feeling?"

A - "I'm going to be very real with you, I usually start off by whistling something offhandedly, when I think it's really good, I run to my computer, try to ape it, fail a bit, and come out with something funny. I then use an auto mastering tool like Bandlab or Soundcloud's to make it sound less robotic and after a day or two it usually comes out acceptable."

Q - "You mentioned a love for Stephen Crane and William Blake's poetry. Does any of that dark, romantic, or realist imagery find its way into the lore of LOA, or do you keep those influences strictly separate from your writing?"

A - "It's a running joke from the D&D campaign. I would use poetry to signal an event that was exceptionally absurd and surreal. And eventually every time I'd start quoting Stephen Crane, our lore guy would tell me to go fuck myself. It's hilarious."

Q - "As an electric motorcycle rider, what model do you ride? Has your daily commute or any close calls with bad drivers ever inspired an encounter or a character's dialogue in the game?"

A - I drive a Yadea, I don't know the model offhandedly but it's all angular and they made me get a yellow plate for it. If I put anything close to what I say to bad drivers on the road we'd be banned for hate speech in an hour.

Q - "Since Linne is both your favorite and the strongest character in the lore, how did her concept come about? Is she a game-original, or did she have roots in your D&D campaign?"

A - "Both I guess? She's a character from D&D for sure, but during the adaptation, we kind of merged her with Est from Adventure Redux. And eventually it became a bit of both. Though it's still  more D&D. I still recall them meeting her, a woman in white dragging a rapier deep in the forest during summer, standing in a snowy field of forget me not flowers surrounding a white leafed tree. Alongside one of the last sessions, where the players fought an illusory copy and survived all of 3 turns before calling Ruby and breaking the illusion because it couldn't handle the processing power of two avatars fighting. It was admittedly extremely creative."

Q - "Was Leran always a dagger user in the original campaign, or did you change their weapon when translating them into the game?"

A - "For the first bit of the campaign? Yeah. He used the sword of sacrifice. But unfortunately he switched to a plain knife and staff in order to maximize casting. I liked the Sword of Sacrifice more though so we just made it a what if in the game that became what we now know as Cut Strings.

Q - "Since you're down to a two-man team (you and your assistant), how do you divide the workload? Who handles what when it comes to art, programming, and music implementation?"

A - "Jolla's still learning but right now he helps find typos and bounce ideas while we start on his own project. I'm confident it's secondary flagship material, might be even better than LoA. Though for now most of the actual LoA game is all me..."