So I went ahead and completed my playthrough. Thank you very much for a very entertaining game. While I don't especially like the ending(s), I respect your artistic vision and determination. And I really liked all the well hidden treasure chests (behind or covered by trees in particular).
Here's the rest of the minor bugs that I encountered:
- As turns pass, the status condition counters don't decrease (it's a bug that I've already encountered in many RPG Maker MV JRPGs).
- Antalaya: When deciding to help the cheating husband inside the inn, the party is only paid 400 Gold instead of the promised 4000 Gold.
- When returning later to Tri Field (after the final conversation with Venti Sai), the sprites from the previous cutscene can still be seen standing around (and they block the way, thus making it impossible to talk to Venti Sai again).
Hey Euphoniac, thanks to you for taking the time to play my game, I'm very happy you enjoyed it :)
I think I can see why you didn't like the endings. Each one of them builds the entire world history moving forward, with those events (in parallel) being the setting of what comes next for Crackos and the universe I'm creating :)
Glad you liked the many hidden chests, too!
If it's not too much to ask, I would like to know:
How much time did it take you to complete the game 100%?
Which character was your favorite and why? (either conceptually, visually or because it was strong, etc.)
Did you like any Chapter above the others in particular and why? (without saying any spoilers)
Anything else you'd like to share about the game/story I'd love to hear :)
As for the minor bugs, I'll look into them and fix them. (The one with the husband should be the 400 Gold received, so you won't miss any extra gold :P.)
I don't take any issue with downer endings in tv shows or movies, but after having spent so much time playing a game, I prefer that the story ends on a brighter note. Still, the endings are as competently written as the rest of the story and dialogues, and all three of them are the right endings for this kind of story.
Since I spent too much time exploring every inch and grinding, it took me 30 hours to complete my playthrough. My main party was still only around level 55 towards the end. I probably would have grinded even more if I hadn't played at 50% difficulty. Whenever I tried out the 200% difficulty setting, battles were nightmares that took forever. Despite battles yielding thrice as much EXP and Gold at 200%, 50% still features a way better cost-benefit ratio (especially when considering the limited usage and recoverability of skills). Money was a constant issue, too: I would have needed to grind for more money towards the end if I hadn't gotten all weapon drops from the monsters residing in Maoh's Palace (and I still spent over a million on the rest of the best equipment pieces). Still, I like this kind of game design that excels in incentivizing and rewarding hard-working players.
Playstyle-wise, I liked the dual guns wielding thief (Hodaki) the best, while character-wise, Crackos had some really good moments throughout the story (provided you like black humor). Regarding the dungeons, the Tomb is a really interesting and diverse dungeon early on, but I enjoyed Maoh's Palace the most (despite the limited visibility, which I hated), since I really love hunting monsters for their strong loot.
A few random things I didn't like:
- Not being able to dash inside all houses (though it seems the most house owners wishing for peace and quiet can be found in early-game stages).
- Not being able to save during the game's final part.
- Non-active party members not gaining EXP.
- Gems raising the ATK/MAG of weapons by a random number between 1-3 (which in turn means it takes a lot of save/reload to achieve optimal results).
Those were just minor annoyances, though. I had a lot of fun and will gladly recommend this game to fellow JRPG gamers. :)
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer and write such a complete review :)
I'm very happy to know you had a lot of fun playing and exploring the game till its very last corner, and that you felt rewarded for grinding and spending additional time to unlock everything available.
I appreciate the recommendation, too! Thanks for playing!! :)
I've just reached the point of no return, so I would like to check if there are any tasks left that I should complete before venturing on, especially regarding the following points of interest:
- Are there any new side quests available anywhere (I'm not talking about anything that was already available when visiting a location for the first time)?
- I'm unsure if the "Galaxy Comprehension Items" side quest (Tri Field) is an actual side quest or not.
- Can anything be done with the Trading Cards found in Frambelr or are they part of a removed side quest?
- Is there any use for the Runesmith in Nubylu?
- Desert Field 03: Is there any way to reach the treasure chest in the upper left corner (might be a bug)?
- I'm still missing a few bestiary entries. Can the following monsters be encountered before the point of no return (and if so, where)?
-- The entry in the upper right corner right of "Red Slime"
-- The entry near the upper right corner right of "Hornet"
-- The entry that is below of "Frozen Skull", right of "Blue Slime" and above "Werewolf"
I would appreciate some pointers to alleviate my "fear of missing out". :D
Unfortunately I didn't include any endgame quests, I was working on an extensive line of sub-quests with the story behind every mercenary (like understanding their background and learning new abilities), but decided to release the game with just the main story, as it already had a lot to offer and the system I was designing for them was way too complex for my current skills given that it's my first game (in case you were wondering, it was a trait system with 80+ talents and gathering/crafting system with hundreds of materials and recipes that were spread around the whole world).
I totally forgot to remove the NPC with the Galaxy Comprehension Items, which was part of the abovementioned subquests (for Seyth). The Runesmith was part of these quests too (for Hyo).
The Trading Cards were part of a removed side quest indeed, I kept the items in case I wanted to include it again, which wasn't the case.
As for the Desert Field 03 chest... I misplaced that chest, I will move that to fix it in a new update.
And as for the Monster Codex: All of them can be encountered, the first two you mention are both actually pretty common mobs in the Lost Tomb (30%), they appear together. I'm impressed you didn't encounter them when solving the puzzle!
The last monster has a low spawn rate (5-7%) in 2 of the 4 fields in Antalaya and drops some nice loot :)
I'm very grateful for your thorough gameplay and I appreciate all the pointers on the details I missed, I'll be sure to fix them up :)
Thanks for the explanations and clarifications. I was able to fill the missing bestiary entries thanks to your instructions. Despite having fought dozens of battles, I never encountered Bat + Spider during my first trek through the Tomb, but now they were eager to meet me and appeared in the very first battle. The Rare Wisp took me 20 battles to spawn, so its encounter rate sounds about right. :)
I'm enjoying my playthrough immensely, I didn't expect that the game would feature such intricate world-building and such a heart-wrenching story. And the game is nearly bug-free to boot, though I've run into a problem that prevents me from advancing the plot.
Right now, I'm in the laboratory (where you can open several doors using four-digits codes), and in the central northern room, I'm supposed to enter a password which is composed of two words (in order to use a blue switch). Contrary to my expectations, the northwestern and northeastern rooms don't contain (clues to) the password components (nothing happens when examining the books there, which might or might not be a bug), so I'm pretty stumped and would appreciate pointers on how to proceed.
Furthermore, I've (only) encountered one (other) serious bug so far:
- The game fails to load map048 (game-breaking) when entering the Forbidden Fortress (ice continent) from the world map (entering from the Snow Fields works fine, though).
Hi Euphoniac, thank you again for the nice feedback, I deeply appreciate it :)
I apologize for the broken events (unreadable books and crashing map) I checked and I missed those errors, thanks for pointing them out.
I uploaded a 'Bug fix - Broken events' which contains a 'data' folder you need to replace inside the 'www' folder. (backup the previous data folder in case it doesn't work)
After that, you should be able to interact with the books and proceed with the story. The Forbidden Fortress warp should be working now, too.
Let me know if it's fixed or I can check other options to solve the issue.
After replacing the data folder, the game now doesn't even reach the title screen. There are a lot of loading errors concerning the img/system folder, like Balloon.png, Shadow2.png or Weapons2.png. I can't fix them all by myself, and I don't know why the game even tries to load png.-files when most of the files in the img/system folder have the RPGMVP format.
For now, could you please just tell me the password needed to proceed? Unless it doesn't work without properly inspecting the book-related hints, of course.
Edit: I tested the file replacement and it works by just updating the Map035.json and Map055.json inside the data folder. (I reuploaded the Bug fix with just these two files)
You may need to re-enter the map after updating for it to take change.
Edit 2: Removed the answer to avoid spoilers to other people.
I'm currently playing and enjoying the game, but I really didn't appreciate the "custom game-over" after winning the fight against Mydas in Permabreeze Castle. I thought I was so smart, but ultimately, I only wasted an hour. :P
Oh my goodness, you really went through that? That was not supposed to happen LOL sorry for that! And thanks for the feedback too, hope you like the rest of the game and its plot :)
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So I went ahead and completed my playthrough. Thank you very much for a very entertaining game. While I don't especially like the ending(s), I respect your artistic vision and determination. And I really liked all the well hidden treasure chests (behind or covered by trees in particular).
Here's the rest of the minor bugs that I encountered:
- As turns pass, the status condition counters don't decrease (it's a bug that I've already encountered in many RPG Maker MV JRPGs).
- Antalaya: When deciding to help the cheating husband inside the inn, the party is only paid 400 Gold instead of the promised 4000 Gold.
- When returning later to Tri Field (after the final conversation with Venti Sai), the sprites from the previous cutscene can still be seen standing around (and they block the way, thus making it impossible to talk to Venti Sai again).
Hey Euphoniac, thanks to you for taking the time to play my game, I'm very happy you enjoyed it :)
I think I can see why you didn't like the endings. Each one of them builds the entire world history moving forward, with those events (in parallel) being the setting of what comes next for Crackos and the universe I'm creating :)
Glad you liked the many hidden chests, too!
If it's not too much to ask, I would like to know:
As for the minor bugs, I'll look into them and fix them. (The one with the husband should be the 400 Gold received, so you won't miss any extra gold :P.)
Thanks again for your time and dedication!
I don't take any issue with downer endings in tv shows or movies, but after having spent so much time playing a game, I prefer that the story ends on a brighter note. Still, the endings are as competently written as the rest of the story and dialogues, and all three of them are the right endings for this kind of story.
Since I spent too much time exploring every inch and grinding, it took me 30 hours to complete my playthrough. My main party was still only around level 55 towards the end. I probably would have grinded even more if I hadn't played at 50% difficulty. Whenever I tried out the 200% difficulty setting, battles were nightmares that took forever. Despite battles yielding thrice as much EXP and Gold at 200%, 50% still features a way better cost-benefit ratio (especially when considering the limited usage and recoverability of skills). Money was a constant issue, too: I would have needed to grind for more money towards the end if I hadn't gotten all weapon drops from the monsters residing in Maoh's Palace (and I still spent over a million on the rest of the best equipment pieces). Still, I like this kind of game design that excels in incentivizing and rewarding hard-working players.
Playstyle-wise, I liked the dual guns wielding thief (Hodaki) the best, while character-wise, Crackos had some really good moments throughout the story (provided you like black humor). Regarding the dungeons, the Tomb is a really interesting and diverse dungeon early on, but I enjoyed Maoh's Palace the most (despite the limited visibility, which I hated), since I really love hunting monsters for their strong loot.
A few random things I didn't like:
- Not being able to dash inside all houses (though it seems the most house owners wishing for peace and quiet can be found in early-game stages).
- Not being able to save during the game's final part.
- Non-active party members not gaining EXP.
- Gems raising the ATK/MAG of weapons by a random number between 1-3 (which in turn means it takes a lot of save/reload to achieve optimal results).
Those were just minor annoyances, though. I had a lot of fun and will gladly recommend this game to fellow JRPG gamers. :)
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer and write such a complete review :)
I'm very happy to know you had a lot of fun playing and exploring the game till its very last corner, and that you felt rewarded for grinding and spending additional time to unlock everything available.
I appreciate the recommendation, too! Thanks for playing!! :)
I've just reached the point of no return, so I would like to check if there are any tasks left that I should complete before venturing on, especially regarding the following points of interest:
- Are there any new side quests available anywhere (I'm not talking about anything that was already available when visiting a location for the first time)?
- I'm unsure if the "Galaxy Comprehension Items" side quest (Tri Field) is an actual side quest or not.
- Can anything be done with the Trading Cards found in Frambelr or are they part of a removed side quest?
- Is there any use for the Runesmith in Nubylu?
- Desert Field 03: Is there any way to reach the treasure chest in the upper left corner (might be a bug)?
- I'm still missing a few bestiary entries. Can the following monsters be encountered before the point of no return (and if so, where)?
-- The entry in the upper right corner right of "Red Slime"
-- The entry near the upper right corner right of "Hornet"
-- The entry that is below of "Frozen Skull", right of "Blue Slime" and above "Werewolf"
I would appreciate some pointers to alleviate my "fear of missing out". :D
Hi again!
Unfortunately I didn't include any endgame quests, I was working on an extensive line of sub-quests with the story behind every mercenary (like understanding their background and learning new abilities), but decided to release the game with just the main story, as it already had a lot to offer and the system I was designing for them was way too complex for my current skills given that it's my first game (in case you were wondering, it was a trait system with 80+ talents and gathering/crafting system with hundreds of materials and recipes that were spread around the whole world).
I totally forgot to remove the NPC with the Galaxy Comprehension Items, which was part of the abovementioned subquests (for Seyth). The Runesmith was part of these quests too (for Hyo).
The Trading Cards were part of a removed side quest indeed, I kept the items in case I wanted to include it again, which wasn't the case.
As for the Desert Field 03 chest... I misplaced that chest, I will move that to fix it in a new update.
And as for the Monster Codex: All of them can be encountered, the first two you mention are both actually pretty common mobs in the Lost Tomb (30%), they appear together. I'm impressed you didn't encounter them when solving the puzzle!
The last monster has a low spawn rate (5-7%) in 2 of the 4 fields in Antalaya and drops some nice loot :)
I'm very grateful for your thorough gameplay and I appreciate all the pointers on the details I missed, I'll be sure to fix them up :)
Thanks for the explanations and clarifications. I was able to fill the missing bestiary entries thanks to your instructions. Despite having fought dozens of battles, I never encountered Bat + Spider during my first trek through the Tomb, but now they were eager to meet me and appeared in the very first battle. The Rare Wisp took me 20 battles to spawn, so its encounter rate sounds about right. :)
I'm enjoying my playthrough immensely, I didn't expect that the game would feature such intricate world-building and such a heart-wrenching story. And the game is nearly bug-free to boot, though I've run into a problem that prevents me from advancing the plot.
Right now, I'm in the laboratory (where you can open several doors using four-digits codes), and in the central northern room, I'm supposed to enter a password which is composed of two words (in order to use a blue switch). Contrary to my expectations, the northwestern and northeastern rooms don't contain (clues to) the password components (nothing happens when examining the books there, which might or might not be a bug), so I'm pretty stumped and would appreciate pointers on how to proceed.
Furthermore, I've (only) encountered one (other) serious bug so far:
- The game fails to load map048 (game-breaking) when entering the Forbidden Fortress (ice continent) from the world map (entering from the Snow Fields works fine, though).
Hi Euphoniac, thank you again for the nice feedback, I deeply appreciate it :)
I apologize for the broken events (unreadable books and crashing map) I checked and I missed those errors, thanks for pointing them out.
I uploaded a 'Bug fix - Broken events' which contains a 'data' folder you need to replace inside the 'www' folder. (backup the previous data folder in case it doesn't work)
After that, you should be able to interact with the books and proceed with the story. The Forbidden Fortress warp should be working now, too.
Let me know if it's fixed or I can check other options to solve the issue.
After replacing the data folder, the game now doesn't even reach the title screen. There are a lot of loading errors concerning the img/system folder, like Balloon.png, Shadow2.png or Weapons2.png. I can't fix them all by myself, and I don't know why the game even tries to load png.-files when most of the files in the img/system folder have the RPGMVP format.
For now, could you please just tell me the password needed to proceed? Unless it doesn't work without properly inspecting the book-related hints, of course.
That's weird, I'll look into it... Sorry!
Edit: I tested the file replacement and it works by just updating the Map035.json and Map055.json inside the data folder. (I reuploaded the Bug fix with just these two files)
You may need to re-enter the map after updating for it to take change.
Edit 2: Removed the answer to avoid spoilers to other people.
Thanks, the updated maps did the trick and I was able to advance the story. :)
I'm currently playing and enjoying the game, but I really didn't appreciate the "custom game-over" after winning the fight against Mydas in Permabreeze Castle. I thought I was so smart, but ultimately, I only wasted an hour. :P
Oh my goodness, you really went through that? That was not supposed to happen LOL sorry for that! And thanks for the feedback too, hope you like the rest of the game and its plot :)