This project is still in early development. I came up with the idea while dabbling with RPGMaker VX for the first time as a way of practicing events and such, so there isn't too much here other than story and character information. I only have screenshots from the first version of this game, which is obviously bad given that it was my first experience with RPG Maker. This thread is for a new version which will be better hopefully.
First of all, the title provided is merely a working title. If I come up with anything better, I'll change it. However, this title is appropriate for what I have come up with so far (as you will see later), so it may end up being the title for the first chapter.
The residence of a magician is full of ancient and queer artifacts, and there is one artifact in particular that has caught the attention of certain people. Kaguya is a professional thief who has been hired to sneak into the magician's mansion and steal this magical artifact in return for a hefty sum. However, upon arrival she finds that the mansion is surrounded by a magical barrier and the only way to get through it is to find the magician herself, but where is she? And why is this artifact so important? Kaguya heads to the nearby village to look for clues.
Long, long ago, the Gods created man and all other living creatures. They lived together, as equals and at peace, in the Forest of Origin. The Gods bestowed upon all living creatures the gift of language. This first language, known as the Voice of Gods or the Holy Tongue, held magical properties in each and every word that could grant the speaker great power. This was the origin of magic. This brought great prosperity to the realm of the mortals. However, peace did not last forever.
Conflict broke out, and all the creatures of the Gods decided to live separate from each other. Over time, the Voice of the Gods which was given to the mortals changed drastically and became their own languages. The magic of the Voice no longer rested in the tongue of mortal men. All magic would have been lost if not for a great scholar who recovered as much of the Voice as he could from ancient artifacts. Unfortunately, only bits and pieces of the Voice could be recovered, so it only holds a small fraction of the power of the Voice.
This broken Voice is divided into two different languages: the Voice of the Faithful (white magic) and the Voice of the Heretics (black magic). The Faithful are those who believe that the Gods gave the Voice to mortals in order to carry out good deeds. They use the Voice to heal, protect, and cleanse. The Heretics are prosecuted by the Faithful, and use the Voice to harm, curse, and enslave others. The Faithful believe that the use of black magic pervades the Voice and will weaken its strength. The use of black magic is highly illegal and is punishable by death.
The Kingdom of Celia is home to the Faithful and is ruled over by the Child of the Gods. The Child is the spiritual leader of the people and the king. His right hand is the Supreme General who is in charge of the entire army. Celia has been on a campaign for the past few decades to bring the Church of the Faithful to surrounding nations with great success. Celia is the largest kingdom in the known world. Those of the Faith believe this to be a grand gesture, but many see them only as conquerors.
This game is meant to be a parody of sorts of traditional elements in JRPGs, especially those in old school ones. It was also inspired by the fantasy/comedy anime Slayers, and definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. There is a lot of humor and nonsense throughout the game.
I was planning on releasing this game piece by piece as chapters or episodes rather than completing a whole game and releasing it at once. I did this because there is not a big, over-reaching story or anything like that so far. It's just all the adventures these characters go on. At least, that's how it is at the moment. The first chapter was the only part that I worked on while messing around with my first version of the game, but I do have ideas for other adventures.
When I started making this game, I made the main character the Chrono Trigger-esque silent type, and details about what was happening around the character was provided by outside narration. The player also had many choices that they could make throughout the game. Making the wrong decision could lead you to a game over very easily. Here is one simple example:
*The player walks up to a hole in the ground and examines it.*
Narrator: There is a great hole in the ground, seemingly bottomless. If you were to jump in, you would surely fall to your death.
Narrator: Jump in? Yes/No?
*If yes, the screen goes black.*
Narrator: You jump in the hole and fall to your death. What did you think would happen? Maybe you should listen to the narrator next time.
*Game Over*
*If no, you step away from the hole.*
There are more examples that are less silly and obvious, but you get the idea. It was in this way that the story progressed through the player's interaction with the environment and subsequent choices rather than dungeon crawling and monster fighting. It turned out this way because I'm a noob at RPGMaker and I didn't take the time to make large dungeons. Also, it was a good way to practice making events outside of combat. However, this will change in the new version of the the game and the first chapter will have a couple dungeons.
In the next version of this game, I will give the main character a voice of her own, but I will keep some of the narration in along with the choices.
These characters and their background information are subject to change because I am always coming up with new ideas.
About the sprites: All the ones I have here were made with a sprite creation thingy that you can find here: http://www.geocities.jp/kurororo4/looseleaf/ This sprite creator is for RPGMaker XP sprites. There's one here: http://www.famitsu.com/freegame/tool/chibi/index2.html#hairop for RPGMaker VX sprites. Both of them are in Japanese, but it should be easy enough to figure out.
Kaguya's face set was made with a face maker thingy which can be found here at deviantart: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=facemaker#/dveqez Jean/Jennifer's face set was made with a different face maker thingy. I don't remember where I found it. The other face sets are ones that are modified versions of faces that came with RPGMaker VX.
I've become familiar with how to use VX, but I like the sprites that I can make for XP better than the ones for VX. I'll probably just do the whole thing in VX and just use the sprites from XP.
Akiko Kaguya
Class: Thief/Ninja
Akiko is the last known member of the Kaguya clan of ninjas. The Kaguya clan was wiped out by a rival clan several years ago. She was able to make a living for herself through use of her training in ninjitsu in addition to a certain quirk that she has.
Akiko is a kleptomaniac. In other words, she has an irresistible urge to steal things. However, these things are rarely of any value. At the end of the day, Akiko may find a number of random items in her pockets. I thought of an interesting way to portray this in game.
With her reputation as a thief she began going into the business as a professional. She takes requests from clients to steal certain items and is paid a hefty sum for her services.
She is the heroine of this story.
Marlena
Class: Mage/Magician
Marlena is a magician that lives in a mansion atop a hill outside of the starting village. She is a lover of alcoholic beverages, especially wine, though her love of booze can also be seen as an unhealthy addiction. She is seen regularly in the town's pub, but she has not been seen by anyone for the past few days. The town-folk have been hearing strange sounds coming from her mansion.
Glenn
Class: Swordsman/Knight
Glenn used to be a proud knight of a empire neighboring the Kingdom of Celia. But, after being conquered by the Kingdom of Celia, Glenn was stripped of his status as knight and was left to wonder the lands as a sword-for-hire. He is seen by everyone else as having delusions of grandeur for he wields what he claims to be a legendary sword that no one has ever heard of.
Jean/Jennifer
Class: Priestess/Exorcist
Jean was was raised by the Church ever since she was a little girl and as a result she a devout member of the Faith. She is an exorcist who has been given the task of hunting down those who speak the language of the heretics and practice the dark arts. Her current target is the magician, Marlena.
Jean has a weakness a weakness for pretty women, and is very popular among the young priestesses at the church in the capital.
Altair
Class: Demon Lord
Altair is one of the Banished Ones who were exiled to the Underworld by the Gods centuries ago for instigating the conflict that disrupted the original peace between all living things. He has been seen wrecking havoc in the realm of mortals recently, but who summoned him there?
Supporting Characters
Sybil
A scholar conducting research for the University of Celia. Her current interests lay in a race of people called the Dark Men.
First of all, the title provided is merely a working title. If I come up with anything better, I'll change it. However, this title is appropriate for what I have come up with so far (as you will see later), so it may end up being the title for the first chapter.
First Chapter Summary
The residence of a magician is full of ancient and queer artifacts, and there is one artifact in particular that has caught the attention of certain people. Kaguya is a professional thief who has been hired to sneak into the magician's mansion and steal this magical artifact in return for a hefty sum. However, upon arrival she finds that the mansion is surrounded by a magical barrier and the only way to get through it is to find the magician herself, but where is she? And why is this artifact so important? Kaguya heads to the nearby village to look for clues.
Description of the World
Long, long ago, the Gods created man and all other living creatures. They lived together, as equals and at peace, in the Forest of Origin. The Gods bestowed upon all living creatures the gift of language. This first language, known as the Voice of Gods or the Holy Tongue, held magical properties in each and every word that could grant the speaker great power. This was the origin of magic. This brought great prosperity to the realm of the mortals. However, peace did not last forever.
Conflict broke out, and all the creatures of the Gods decided to live separate from each other. Over time, the Voice of the Gods which was given to the mortals changed drastically and became their own languages. The magic of the Voice no longer rested in the tongue of mortal men. All magic would have been lost if not for a great scholar who recovered as much of the Voice as he could from ancient artifacts. Unfortunately, only bits and pieces of the Voice could be recovered, so it only holds a small fraction of the power of the Voice.
This broken Voice is divided into two different languages: the Voice of the Faithful (white magic) and the Voice of the Heretics (black magic). The Faithful are those who believe that the Gods gave the Voice to mortals in order to carry out good deeds. They use the Voice to heal, protect, and cleanse. The Heretics are prosecuted by the Faithful, and use the Voice to harm, curse, and enslave others. The Faithful believe that the use of black magic pervades the Voice and will weaken its strength. The use of black magic is highly illegal and is punishable by death.
The Kingdom of Celia is home to the Faithful and is ruled over by the Child of the Gods. The Child is the spiritual leader of the people and the king. His right hand is the Supreme General who is in charge of the entire army. Celia has been on a campaign for the past few decades to bring the Church of the Faithful to surrounding nations with great success. Celia is the largest kingdom in the known world. Those of the Faith believe this to be a grand gesture, but many see them only as conquerors.
General Description
This game is meant to be a parody of sorts of traditional elements in JRPGs, especially those in old school ones. It was also inspired by the fantasy/comedy anime Slayers, and definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. There is a lot of humor and nonsense throughout the game.
I was planning on releasing this game piece by piece as chapters or episodes rather than completing a whole game and releasing it at once. I did this because there is not a big, over-reaching story or anything like that so far. It's just all the adventures these characters go on. At least, that's how it is at the moment. The first chapter was the only part that I worked on while messing around with my first version of the game, but I do have ideas for other adventures.
When I started making this game, I made the main character the Chrono Trigger-esque silent type, and details about what was happening around the character was provided by outside narration. The player also had many choices that they could make throughout the game. Making the wrong decision could lead you to a game over very easily. Here is one simple example:
*The player walks up to a hole in the ground and examines it.*
Narrator: There is a great hole in the ground, seemingly bottomless. If you were to jump in, you would surely fall to your death.
Narrator: Jump in? Yes/No?
*If yes, the screen goes black.*
Narrator: You jump in the hole and fall to your death. What did you think would happen? Maybe you should listen to the narrator next time.
*Game Over*
*If no, you step away from the hole.*
There are more examples that are less silly and obvious, but you get the idea. It was in this way that the story progressed through the player's interaction with the environment and subsequent choices rather than dungeon crawling and monster fighting. It turned out this way because I'm a noob at RPGMaker and I didn't take the time to make large dungeons. Also, it was a good way to practice making events outside of combat. However, this will change in the new version of the the game and the first chapter will have a couple dungeons.
In the next version of this game, I will give the main character a voice of her own, but I will keep some of the narration in along with the choices.
Main Characters
These characters and their background information are subject to change because I am always coming up with new ideas.
About the sprites: All the ones I have here were made with a sprite creation thingy that you can find here: http://www.geocities.jp/kurororo4/looseleaf/ This sprite creator is for RPGMaker XP sprites. There's one here: http://www.famitsu.com/freegame/tool/chibi/index2.html#hairop for RPGMaker VX sprites. Both of them are in Japanese, but it should be easy enough to figure out.
Kaguya's face set was made with a face maker thingy which can be found here at deviantart: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=facemaker#/dveqez Jean/Jennifer's face set was made with a different face maker thingy. I don't remember where I found it. The other face sets are ones that are modified versions of faces that came with RPGMaker VX.
I've become familiar with how to use VX, but I like the sprites that I can make for XP better than the ones for VX. I'll probably just do the whole thing in VX and just use the sprites from XP.
Akiko Kaguya
Class: Thief/Ninja
Akiko is the last known member of the Kaguya clan of ninjas. The Kaguya clan was wiped out by a rival clan several years ago. She was able to make a living for herself through use of her training in ninjitsu in addition to a certain quirk that she has.
Akiko is a kleptomaniac. In other words, she has an irresistible urge to steal things. However, these things are rarely of any value. At the end of the day, Akiko may find a number of random items in her pockets. I thought of an interesting way to portray this in game.
With her reputation as a thief she began going into the business as a professional. She takes requests from clients to steal certain items and is paid a hefty sum for her services.
She is the heroine of this story.
Marlena
Class: Mage/Magician
Marlena is a magician that lives in a mansion atop a hill outside of the starting village. She is a lover of alcoholic beverages, especially wine, though her love of booze can also be seen as an unhealthy addiction. She is seen regularly in the town's pub, but she has not been seen by anyone for the past few days. The town-folk have been hearing strange sounds coming from her mansion.
Glenn
Class: Swordsman/Knight
Glenn used to be a proud knight of a empire neighboring the Kingdom of Celia. But, after being conquered by the Kingdom of Celia, Glenn was stripped of his status as knight and was left to wonder the lands as a sword-for-hire. He is seen by everyone else as having delusions of grandeur for he wields what he claims to be a legendary sword that no one has ever heard of.
Jean/Jennifer
Class: Priestess/Exorcist
Jean was was raised by the Church ever since she was a little girl and as a result she a devout member of the Faith. She is an exorcist who has been given the task of hunting down those who speak the language of the heretics and practice the dark arts. Her current target is the magician, Marlena.
Jean has a weakness a weakness for pretty women, and is very popular among the young priestesses at the church in the capital.
Altair
Class: Demon Lord
Altair is one of the Banished Ones who were exiled to the Underworld by the Gods centuries ago for instigating the conflict that disrupted the original peace between all living things. He has been seen wrecking havoc in the realm of mortals recently, but who summoned him there?
Supporting Characters
Sybil
A scholar conducting research for the University of Celia. Her current interests lay in a race of people called the Dark Men.
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