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A jam submission

Mystery of the Sky TempleView game page

A not-that-serious rpg adventure, inspired by 16bit rpgs!
Submitted by TheAnimationVoice — 6 days, 22 hours before the deadline
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Mystery of the Sky Temple's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Sound/Music#613.5563.556
Controls / UI#903.2223.222
Art / Graphics#1083.4443.444
Overall Fun#1403.0003.000

Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Ai Usage

Human made

If you have competed before, how has your game changed?
New character portraits for Xania and Sky Ninja. New npcs have been added to all towns. Character and enemy stats have been changed. New items and item names have been added. A free mode has been added after beating the demo's final boss so you can explore more of the world. A trading side quest, fishing mechanic, and cooking mechanic have been implemented. Numerous dialogue changes. Audio has been lowered. New special attack animations for Xania. Gave Sky Ninja voiced special attacks.

Genre

RPG

JRPG | CRPG | MMO| RPG

Rating

For 13+

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Comments

Sorry for taking so long to post this review, and thanks again for swinging by chat and hanging out!  I'm very behind in posting these, so I'll keep the text portion short.  I love how deep and intricate the world is.  The game has a very good and polished retro vibe to it.  While not necessarily a bad thing, it does lack in modern day QoL niceties (ie. autosaves, spoiler free quest journals, etc.).  The full screen red pulse for poison also strains the eyes since it covers the whole of the screen.

The VOD for the review is linked below, and will be available for 60 days from the day of broadcast:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2882465599?t=0h21m33s

Submitted(+1)

Hi AnimationVoice. This was a very cool RPG adventure. It has everything an RPG needs - Lore for the world, character interactions and a personal reason for the adventure (memory recovery and unveiling the secrets of the past in this case).

Character and enemy art is really awesome. And even the environment art and ui visuals really compliments the RPG feel.

Now for some "tough love" :

Like the feedback from others, I also feel like world building, interactions and gameplay loop needs a bunch of work. And if your going to go with the parody angle, the humor needs to really hit, even if players don't get the references. I always say, "If you want to make a parody, imagine Jim Carrey in a Scary Movie!"

Since others have covered most of these points, I won't bore with you any details about that. Instead my feedback is about the different elements of the RPG gameplay.

1. I feel the game is taking inspiration from old-school rpgs with turn-based combat and that's great. But I think the ui/ux design should take inspiration from modern style turn based RPGs. Like enemy hp bars showing on their heads and showing how much a move can damage an enemy. Then it's easy for the players to strategize and choose which move and target to choose. Otherwise the first few moves are guess work till you find which one does more damage. I sometimes used the strongest sp attack against a weak enemy who I could've one shoted with a basic attack and then I run out of MP so I had to use basic attack the whole battle against a strong enemy. Old-school games didn't show all that because of the hardware limitations but new games don't have that restriction anymore.

2. Next, all the MP related ui is confusing. Each attack shows the MP cost but I first thought it was the number of times I can use the move. Then when I saw it didn't decrease on using the move I thought it was its damage power but was wrong again. Finally figured it was MP cost when I saw the value on the MP remaining panel decrease. At first, the MP remaining panel was also confusing because again I thought this was the actual remaining move count value but same count kept appearing for each move so later realised I was wrong again. Icons for the specific stat would be nice like damage, defence, MP so player knows which value pertains to which stat. Also, MP recovery items are fine but MP should also regen over time. Takes the fun out if I have to return all the way to the shop just to regen MP to full when I just needed maybe 10 or 20 more for the next battle.

3. Regarding the battle, they are really fun and some are really challenging. But I don't get the reason for the timer meter. Maybe it's to wait to for an entire attack sequence to end so that next sequence doesn't overlap. But there are easy ways to do that internally. One way to do it is :
-> When a battle starts store the sum of the count of the player's party and the monster's party
-> Then start another count internally that increases by 1 after each party member's move completes
-> When the increased count is equal to or greater than the member count sequence is completed
-> Then give a 1s delay and then allow the player to choose the moves for the next sequence.
-> If a player party member or enemy party member is KO'd or revived, deduct or add to the member count accordingly.
Sometimes in a battle I have to wait around 3s AFTER all members have completed their moves to select my next move.

4. Also for the battles, along with the hp bar, you should also display details for Character/Enemy Level, Damage, Defense, etc. You can also show, their core elemental type (e.g. snake is poison), elemental resistances (e.g. Fire Resistance), elemental weaknesses (e.g. ice type enemy weak against fire), status effects (e.g. when an enemy is burned). If enemy or player party member gets hit with a move they are weak against, it does double damage and if they get hit by move they are resistant against then it does half damage. That way player can strategize better which move would do the most damage and which would do the least damage. Also, I feel like minimum damage should be atleast 1 otherwise it's like you wait for the attack animation for no reason.

5. Regarding the XP gained, the core logic is fine, but I think when the player party member's level increase then the xp gain value should decrease. I fought a group and got 200XP and leveled up to Lv 5 (only Xania in the party). Then defeating the same group again gave me same 200XP. If you get stronger, fighting same weak groups should give less XP than before you got stronger. For a party with more than 1 member, you can consider the average value of the levels of the party members to determine how much XP to give on winning a battle. 

5. Lastly, about the NPCs, their walk speed is too fast and the delay for their next step is too short. I have to chase them around just to interact with them and then they say something basic. Ofcourse if it's part of the parody then that's fine but the resulting dialogue should have the right amount of humor to make the chase worthwhile. You can always give some NPCs slow movement with basic dialogues and some with fast speed with funny dialogues. Also, sometimes NPCs stand in the entry/exit point of a structure so I have to wait for them. You can assign an area radius from any entry/exit point which is not allowed for the NPC to move unless that NPC explicitly assigned to move through those points. And, I feel that letting the NPC or player walk behind the bottom wall is cool but unnecessary. Especially if I want to talk to an NPC but it walks behind the wall and then I have spam the interact button till I trigger an interaction. It's a top-down 2D game so no need to add stuff that top-down 3D games have.

FYI, I'm busy with a lot of life stuff so I didn't get a chance complete the entire demo but I'll surely finish it when I get more time and share any additional thoughts if needed.

This is just my advice, you can take what you like and whatever makes the gameplay experience better and ignore the rest. After all it's your game and you can make it however you enjoy making it.
Overall, the gameplay experience is missing a bunch of things that would make it entertaining but it has all the elements it needs to be a fun RPG or parody RPG and with some changes it'll get their soon. Thanks.

Developer

Thanks for playing! A lot of what you suggest simply cannot be done due to engine limitations. It is rpgmaker 2003, afterall. I will do what I can within the engine. I do have more plans to make the game even sillier.

The "timer" is an auto time battle mechanic; when it fills you can make your move. Games like Final Fantasy 6 use such a meter.

I have not messed with a "Scan" mechanic yet, but if I can implement one, I will! 

Static xp for enemy mobs is a standard holdover from older rpgs. For enemy attack damage, I will continue to tweak the enemy stats.

I've heard my npcs move too fast, and will slow them down.

Thank you again for playing the demo!

Submitted (1 edit)

True true...rpg maker has its own limitations. But check out this game - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1377710/Lawmage_Academy/
It was made with rpg maker and has most of what I suggested and more. Maybe it'll help you get some new ideas.

Jam Host(+1)

Hey! With FQ9 ending soon, I wanted to let you know that I won't be able to cover your game until after the event. If you're okay with waiting, just keep the game on the event and I'll be getting around to it over the next couple of months or so. :)

Developer

All good, man!

Submitted

неу!

Submitted(+1)

Before I forget again, what I had to say about the game:
-The game is sometimes very funny (and the other times, I guess I either didn't had the reference or there was a language barrier)
-Being able to heal fully with glasses of water was both incredibly tedious and hilarious.
-There are fairies šŸ§ššŸ§ššŸ§š
-There is a Fortuna shop šŸ§ššŸ§ššŸ§ššŸ§ššŸ§ššŸ§ššŸ§š
-At the start, the game suggested there are hidden objects to find. However, I never found any of them except the one in the starting inn. I didn't even find any interesting interaction with the cupboards or bookshelves. I would suggest to either scrap this mechanic or use shinies to make them easier to get, as randomly hitting action gets old very quickly.
-I think you should not let the player get unwinnable random encounters just from visiting the world map, unless they are warned properly (like with the dragons panel). I got a medusa fight at the very start in a forest, and if I didn't save a bit earlier, I would have been fairy annoyed.
-Regular encounters very quickly become a joke when you have the level and the equipment. 95% of my fights were just spamming the attack button. I feel there is something missing here, if there is one thing I would expect a parodic JRPG to parody, it is that basic gameplay loop.
-The dungeon design is very basic. I don't get what the point of the first "dungeon" is with the low level shadows that didn't deal any damage and the secret area at the end that is just closed. I think a straight path to the boss would make some sense. The cave was also just a straight line with a single intersection for the side quest with tons of encounters against weak enemies. I feel there is some room for parody here too.
-I know it is 2k3 default tile, but it feels very weird to me that the torches are not animated.
-I think it would make more sense narratively for Sky ninja to have a higher starting level, as he is quite stronger than the heroin for quite some time (mine had actually more xp than him).

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Regarding the hidden items, I will be removing the line the cat says. I will be tweaking enemy stats and/or adding signs that warn the player of higher danger areas (such as the dragon spot).

The dungeon designs are basic for now, and are partial hold overs from when I was following tutorials. There will be adjustments in the future.
Thanks again for playing and for all your contributions!

Submitted(+1)




Submitted(+1)

Hey, I know you were in chat so you likely caught most of my feedback, but you can reference the recording here: 

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

AnimationVoice, you robot! 

Submitted(+1)

As someone who has played a fair amount of RPGs, both commercial and indie, for over 20 years,  my sentiments are basically the same as AnonymousRPGDeveloper's. While this title has potential, it has some rough edges. The maps are quite uninspired and are basically thrown together (which is understandable if this was originally made for a game jam), and there's a certain dissonance in using character sets containing characters with wildly differing heights. Also, character development and world building are a little dry, and the humor is quite hit-and-miss. I understand your diverse sources of inspiration, but you need to understand their nuances as a fellow writer. Make sure players are invested in the story and characters, because that's what I think what you're aiming for.

Submitted(+1)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xk13MBq9PjfYjq2Z6mGYmA860nGNDorpbQF7kuYR9Hk/...

I'm jumping the gun a little and testing some of the early entries! The link above is a Google Doc with my real-time thoughts.

So, I have a lot of experience in the genre. I’ve played all kinds of RPGs from the NES all the way to the modern era with recent releases, I’ve played dozens and dozens of different RPGs made with huge budgets, as well as tiny projects made by only one person on an engine like RPG Maker, and I even spent three years in charge of a community dedicated to playtesting RPGs like this one. The reason I bring this up is to make it clear that I am not a ā€œhaterā€ who doesn’t enjoy random encounters or turn based combat.

With that said, this title is very rough. The characters lack personality, the plot moves very slowly and consisted largely of fetchquests by volume, the combat lacks depth and is incredibly unbalanced (Sky Ninja is so substantially stronger than Xania in every way that it began to feel like the latter was most useful as a meat shield), and the world design is poorly planned and occasionally feels arbitrary. While I can see some of the inspirations of this game, it feels like lessons weren’t taken from the great RPGs of the SNES era, neither from their strengths nor expanding upon their weaknesses. The title feels surface level as an RPG, the sort of thing that someone with a very rudimentary understanding of the genre might make in an attempt at illustrating its perceived shortcomings. I did see that the game page lists this as a parody of RPGs, citing a variety of different inspirations, but that inspiration isn’t really shining through here. Even the parody angle, with the Spaceballs influence, doesn’t really seem to show through in this game for me. There were a couple of jokes here and there, unfortunately none of which were especially to my taste, but it never really had the sort of biting wit and satire that you would expect of a self-aware parody. The concept of ā€œSpaceballs for RPGsā€ isn’t exactly unheard of, there has been a lot of energy on the internet directed towards pointing out the funny inconsistencies and quirks of the genre, but I saw very little of that here. Instead, it was mostly just chasing NPCs as they ran around town in random directions, waiting until I found the right one to progress the story, after which point the narrative about traitors would proceed for a couple sentences while taking itself dead serious, and then it’s back to looking around for the right NPC to talk to. It is possible that much of the humour lies in the other NPCs, but I talked to a good few of them out of necessity in order to find the one I’m supposed to talk to, and rarely found any humour in it, nor any insight about the characters or plot beyond basic lip service to the conflict at hand. The game does not have to be funny, of course, but if it’s meant to be a parody then a steady flow of humour is generally expected.

 If humour isn’t the goal, I’m not sure what is. It does not feel like your passions and efforts went into dungeon design, combat encounters, or even the art. Perhaps there is a deep character driven narrative hiding in all of this instead, in which case it’d be ideal if that was given some more focus. As the game is right now, however, it’s hard to see what its goals are, but a decent rule of thumb would be that if it’s in the game right now, it could probably use a second pass. I know this is very harsh, which is unfortunate as I was very excited to play one of the few JRPGs submitted so far, but it is out of a desire to see titles like this reach their potential. I trust that you really do want to create this self-aware love letter to SNES RPGs, but right now that desire isn’t reaching the page.