Twice Upon A Hero

[Merlandese]

Ahaha! I loved Thomas the insane gardener! However, I didn't kill more than one flower; the storyline flower. That jerk. How dare he laugh at me!

Errors I found:

When I found Cordelia being attacked by the bug, I must have walked right around the event. I kept talking to the bug and the girl and nothing would happen. Then as I walked away Alistair turned and slapped the hornet with his blade of justice.

In the Sparrowight Academy, on the first floor, in the top right-hand corner with the piano, you can walk through the lower wall. The same in the top leftmost room.

That was pretty interesting, Lunarea! I love the concept of what old heroes.

[Lunarea]

Ah, yes, good ol' Thomas ... I swear, I'm going to have to make an extra long quest chain for him. He seems to be a favorite.

Thank you for the error reports! It's funny how I go to change one thing and it messes up 10 others. I did fix it, and I'm uploading the new version as we speak.

I'm very glad you enjoyed it!

[Malvodion]

The river bridge puzzle doesn't work, you can't walk over the board, you can get easly trapped between the boxes, you can moves the board pushing the boxes even if the latters are agains a wall, and you can move the boards even over land.

[Lunarea]

You can't walk over the boards until the bridge is complete, because there's no point trying to cross if you can't get to the other side.

Can you please take a screenshot of being trapped between the boxes? I'm afraid I can't replicate it.

I will try to fix up the boards on land and the wall movement issue.

I didn't anticipate anyone having that much trouble with the puzzle, though. ?None of my testers caught any of these issues either. But thanks for the report.

[Merlandese]

@ Malvodian: Yeah, probably not the most complicated or best executed puzzle, but at least there is the reset sparkle to fix many of those mistakes. And did you actually get stuck in the boxes? To where you can't move? How did that happen? O.o

@ Lunarea: I thought I might also add that the generic battle for those games are somewhat annoying, and take me out of the immersion more than the immersion destroying hint fairy (I loved that fairy, by the way). I don't think I would suggest taking out conflicts, especially if it becomes super important; and I don't think you would want to spend a million years planning out a more unique battle system. My suggestion would be quick puzzles or mini-games to replace battles--representing them--unless fighting and level grinding is something you absolutely want in that game. Or maybe you can just keep it underplayed, whereas there are only boss/story-related battles that aren't really hard to win, but still show that a conflict is taking place.

Personally, I enjoyed what you created, but I think that battles aren't necessary for a good gaming experience and should be tossed if the player thinks "Damn, now I have to battle?" or "Argh! A boss fight? Why do I have to level grind just to get to the next bit of juicy story?" Even though Thomas warned me not to kill all of the flowers, the only reason I didn't fight any of them was because I didn't like the battle system.

[Lunarea]

@Merlandese:
It was definitely supposed to be a rather simple puzzle and while I can fix all the issues save for getting stuck (since I have no idea how to make that happen), it's going to involve a lot of extra coding that I was hoping to avoid. But, since I don't want to do a half-arsed job, I will sit down and fix it up as soon as I can.

I'm torn on the subject of battles - and that's mainly the reason I've barely touched the battle system. Since so much of it is relying on the traditional RPG conventions, it only makes sense that there are battles. It sounded weird to take them out altogether. But I also much prefer puzzles or mini-games myself.

The few fights you have in there (two flowers, bee, imp in the sewers) are pretty much boss fights and a couple of Savior casts kills them all quickly. I haven't included any other fights, really. Not just because I'm not sure whether there will be battles or not, but also because it's not my forte. Some people love all the balancing of numbers and stats and whatnot. I most definitely don't. 

[Merlandese]

I love the balancing of numbers and complex or intriguing battles systems, which is why I prefer all-or-nothing when it comes to that. I would rather have no battles than poor/generic ones that are thrown in just because there "ought to be" battles. But I may be the minority in your feedback, so don't get too stressed about it. What little fighting you had wasn't distracting. And what's this about a sewer imp? I saw no such thing! :p

[Lunarea]

It will probably come down to whether I can find someone to team up with for that part of the game or whether I can manage to not let all the numbers get me dizzy. I admit, I was a bit of a procrastinator and leaving the battles until later - or rather, until I came up with some cool idea on how to do them.

There was an itsy bitsy side quest given to you by the girl standing in front of the well in Summervale. However, the only time you could get it is when Cordelia is in your party - which is only after you come back from the forest, but before you go to Sparrowight. Easily missed first time around, but you do come back to Summervale later and you can explore at your leisure.

[silversun]

Finally got this downloaded.     
Although I also have an issue with the bridge puzzle...
there's very clearly 4 bridge pieces all lined up fromm riverbank to riverbank...yet the game doesn't allow me to get on them...?



Edit:
Well, I got it...after a bit of rearranging...apparently it's picky abou the order of boxes or something? 
The game's a lot of fun so far. I recognize quite a few of the songs... And the forest is absolutely gorgeous.
I like the absense of treasure chests, people giving you stuff instead...seriously, some people just stand by and watch while you rob them in games!

[Malvodion]

@Lunarea: It's because I always try to find all the bugs so they get fixed quickly. You should make it possible to build the bridge in any order of the boxes, or you could put them numbers.

@Merlandese: You can get stuck if you put all the boxes in the first collumn, or atleast you could get stuck if you wasnt able to move the boxes outside the gray floor.

[silversun]

Eh, the only bug besides the one that's been pointed out I found was that the Guard's Note is a consumable item, and apparently you need it to finish the quest.

I never saw Thomas the gardener...except with the letter...Am I missing something?

[Lunarea]

@ Malvodion:
I really appreciate that you take the time to actively seek out any bugs or issues. But it's ok to just play a game for enjoyment. 

@ silversun:
It's very much a learning experience for me. How a player approaches something might be completely different than how I would approach it as a designer - especially when I know the solution beforehand.

You didn't miss out on Thomas, the gardener. I think everyone is just amused by the board in the eastern forest, as you get to see a bit of his craziness come through.

[Lunarea]

Hopefully, I'm not breaking rules by double-posting, but I've just uploaded a new version with a fixed puzzle and a couple minor mistakes that were caught by all you clever players.

Please let me know if you encounter any other errors!

[Lunarea]

~Chapter 2~

- I've added several new scripts, so your old save will not work. Sorry 'bout that! The good news is that I don't anticipate adding any more scripts, so your saves should be good from this point on. And should I ever go back on my word here, I will most definitely provide save files for your convenience.
- The lengthy introduction is now skip-able.
- The music has been changed. As much as I love the old-school midi sound, all the orchestral custom pieces made the midi sound pretty flat. And since I've already broken the 128mb resource rule, there was no other reason to keep the midi format.
- The size has gone up to 224mb. I wish I could promise that it won't go much higher than that, but it will. Hopefully, I can still keep it a reasonable size ...
- The battle system is not done. I'm currently working on the skills and spells for the characters and monsters. The scripts I will be using, however, are in. So, while the battles are same old n' boring, they should give you an idea of how the battles will flow.
- Because a lot of people missed it, I have put an arrow above the quest giver's head in Summervale. She is only available while you have Cordelia in your party, so you have to do the side quest after getting the nectar, but before turning it in. Or, you can skip it altogether and wait for the next time Alistair is in the area.
- To my knowledge, the chapter is bug-free. If you do encounter a game-breaking bug, do let me know. Same for any passability errors or typos.
- Special thanks to Reives for hosting my project, and also to Zeriab for releasing the encryption tool that allowed me to compress my game data smoothly.

Have fun~!

  Download Chapter 2

[Lunarea]

New version updated this morning. There was an oversight on my behalf, and the new content wasn't exactly accessible >_>