Posted by slyfoxxl 4 years ago Report

Looking forward to getting into this when I get off work!

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Thanks. I hope you enjoy it.

Posted by slyfoxxl 4 years ago Report

I think I found a bug. After owl the game froze.

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Thanks for catching that. I'll try to put out a bug-fix update sorting that soon.

Posted by JingleJangles 4 years ago Report

Just a heads up, the Dropbox link isn't working.

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Ooops, sorry about that. The drop box link seems to randomly go down without explanation at times but always comes back up again a while later. I've added a mediafire link now, which should be more reliable.

Posted by Astronommy 4 years ago Report

Congratulations, and thank you for your hard work!

Definitely made my upcoming weekend, can't wait to enjoy it after work!

Posted by Astronommy 4 years ago Report

Haven't quite exhausted the boundless possibilities of the new update, but it has been absolutely magnificent in scope, artistry and the caliber of writing!

The raptor settlement is a marvel of location design, and the tribal strife matches the topography perfectly! The resource management mechanic with the ropes is one of the many strokes of genius in the new zones!

The crossroads at the foothills of the Fire Mountain are a phenomenal location, completing in the bigger picture the feel of the world map, which has grown quite enormous by this point! And it serves its dramatic purposes excellently by the end of the module! On that climactic confrontation and its respective revelation, can't say I'd figured it out, so it was a powerful thrill to witness it! There may have been some optional foreshadowing during the octopus encounter, or it may have always been there, I can't tell.

Joining the choir singing praises to the number, variety and beauty of the new opponent sprites, both in combat and out of it! Ever single one is great, but I loved the color and the design of the magpies the best, although it might have had something to do with their cool personality! Appreciate the might of the secretaries' kicks, however! New and wonderful mesmerism responses from the enemies, too; the amount of effort poured into all of that is simply staggering.

Thank you for adding a second chance for a certain priestess' predatory debut! The original encounter with the lovely owl character crashes after the fight is finished and the following dialogue choice is made, but if she confronts the party near her tent, the fight and the outcome resolves just fine. Anyway, a splendid character with a complex quest assigned to her!

The new party member is a pure delight, and a welcome distraction from the more gloomy and neurotic preyish companions, with lots of lovely dialogue and plot significance, including the honoring of the past choice!

I highly enjoyed the added detailing of the world's pantheon, and its members' involvement with the affairs of mortals; there's bound to be a lot more coming up on this front!

To be fair to the last location before the update threshold, thank you for going through with the swarmier Hive enemies, which have endearing designs on top of their thematic propriety! The scripts for the flower fields are entertainingly frantic, and the garden of unethical botany I'd almost missed, so it was also a thrilling discovery!

Lots and lots of new magic, items and abilities, and a deluge of experience from the enemies! Feels like a heady power trip after the slower progression of the previous locations, but it is by no means unwelcome!

With this latest update, the lore of the world and the scope of the plot have gained an extra dimension, and there is such a potent sense of adventuring wonder with so many organically connected biomes available for exploration, and the sense of urgency filling the air around the party!

I still need to give the new zones a playthrough with Meeri, and probably one without Martin (can't imagine going through the crossroads without him, can't wait to see how you wrote that exchange), and I'm sure there must have been more sneaky secret places I've missed, like that haute couture cave!

Thank you for your work again! May this update reel in many more new followers and supporters for you!

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Thanks again. I’m glad you enjoyed the new areas and that it felt like part of a larger area. I was worried that this update would have the opposite affect given how sparse the sparrow village is. I am planning to add at least a few more npcs to it in the next update, as well as a few more things that can be done both before and after the change. I realized that I left a building there which didn’t even have a basic “content yet not available” message on it so far and really need to put some things in there. If fact, I think the next update is going to be focused entirely on adding content to areas already in the game. There is some stuff I planned to include in the hive that has also been waiting far to long to be added, as well as the final recruitable character and a few other bits of side content.

Thanks for catching the crash with Gen in her initial scene. I’ll try to get that fixed soon. Glad you enjoyed the rest of the quest to get Ashi’s journal though. Also, it’s easy to miss, but if you finish it by rescuing her instead of letting her be owl food she will then show up in Traders Town.

Yeah. Irci is one of my favorites to write. I was initially planning for him to only show up in fire mountain, but then realized that that would leave him out of far too much of the game, and had to go back and rewrite a few things to add him here. That was part of the reason this update took so long.

The game definitely plays differently without Martin. Then again, he was always designed to be the archetypal rpg hero (poor farmer boy, whose hometown is destroyed by the main villain near the start of the game, who then acquires a legendary weapon that only he can use, and goes on to discover that the main villain is actually related to him), so if you eat him near the start then the whole story takes place without the character who really should be the protagonist.

Posted by Astronommy 4 years ago Report

Moving the Irci recruitment earlier was a good call -- just soon enough after the pertinent otter ball game rescue, and close enough to the character's home turf for the early appearance to make sense, especially given their occupation!

And the sparrow village being sparsely build up and populated may seem to be at odds with the sparrows' numbers, but it makes the climactic resolution to the investigation very pleasantly brief and unambiguous, for my taste; and sparrows being avians, and the region's slant towards nomadic anarchy, I imagine they use the village as a trading post and the pilgrimage site, but don't actually dwell there en masse.

Thank you for your relentless vigilance regarding the older zones even as you're working on the ones further ahead! Looking forward that woodland encounter in particular!

Just finished another playthrough, Sichi-Ti-Meeri, and the absence of Martin was handled well during the crossroads showdown, excellent work! And thank you for explaining his intended archetype, it fits very well indeed, and a great subversion of the common pattern! Oh, and I've caught a lot of foreshadowing of the revelation in this latest chapter from the dryad and the octopus lady, it's a chilling realization that characters had been in on that plan at that time already.

Instead of getting the prospective druid eaten early on, though, I'd left him in Pacha's pantry cell, and was treated to both the sight of the consequences of neglecting him for too long and the hilarious bug that had his remains moving around by the same idle ambling script used for his living sprite!

Loved watching Meeri weigh in on all the Hive-related subjects, and helping the party get around the guarded exterior of the location! Also enjoyed unlocking her many unique abilities, all very appropriately sophisticated for royal scribe!

Ti's assuming the role of Pacha's second in command, taking over from Vir or Martin, and even giving her a harsh pep talk at one point, felt right and proper, seguing from that depressed apathy into a more forceful and determined attitude of a seasoned warrior.

Discovered the all the added fashionable depth to the hat cave if the hats are left unperturbed, complete with individual dialogues for all the potential teammates, same as with the octopus and the fortune teller; there's so much greatness hiding around every corner in this game, just astounding amounts of intelligent work poured into everything in this update!

Found the monster manual's author back in Traders Town, felt really bad for her predicament, and that I couldn't at least tell her to keep the reward money, but it was a nice addition that helps repopulate that community after Pacha's initial friend-or-foe culling of the place.

For a bit of a gripe, reporting to the bee queen, even with Meeri, doesn't seem to produce new dialogue after the crossroads scene, and there's nothing to report to the stoats' Hunt Master, nor do there seem to be any new character reaction from revisiting the rabbit village temple after all the plot-related news, while the bat witch does have new things to say. Naturally, not a pressing issue, and fully understandable coming at the tail of so, so much great content in the newest update.

One more tick for the bug hunt list: the old glitch of catching Sichi after she escapes through the southern exit creates a static Sichi at Traders Town that can be traded with, and ignores the party member Sichi.

Once again, looking forward to the next installment, but there's still a lot of combinations to try out in the new area before then! Thank you for your work, and I once again applaud the stratified design of the raptor village, and the steep vertical climb to the sparrow one, and the dazzling beauty of Gen's fight background, sprites, and the magpie enemy design! I really hope there's a game development studio of your own in your future, there's just so much artistry and dedication on display here!

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Yeah, I’m pleased I finally got to include him. There is still one more character left to include but it should be possible to unlock them a good while earlier once I actually include their area.

Hmmm… I can see the logic to that, but think it would benefit from having at least a little more content. I was considering having a one of the sparrows give Pacha some kind of quest to complete only for it to be rendered moot before it can be finished as a way of both giving the player a reason to return there and to make the loss of the sparrow village feel a little more real, but I’m not sure if an uncompletable quest would just be frustrating.

Sichi-Ti-Meeri sounds like an interesting mix. Probably a bit short on random dialogue though as I have been planning to add some more dialogue between Sichi and Ti but haven’t got to it yet, and Meeri just needs more dialogue in general.

The wandering skeleton is fixed in the new version, but I was extremely tempted to leave that in, just for the weirdness value.

Glad you liked Meeri in the hive. She really needs more places where she has stuff to say though as she is still one of the quietest characters.

Hmmmm, I might add some more stuff with her later as I feel there is still some potential for that character and her carnivorous roommate.

Thanks for catching that. It definitely needed fixing. Speaking to the queen after beating the masked figure a second time should now trigger a proper discussion about the situation. Argal gets a much shorted one, and I’ve added one or two things to the rabbit village.

Okay. I think I’ve finally worked out what was causing that and now it should be impossible to catch Sichi once she’s escaped.

Glad you are still enjoying it and hopefully the next update won’t take as long as this one did.

Posted by Astronommy 4 years ago Report

I can see the dilemma of adding content, especially quests, to the sparrow village; I believe it's best left self-contained the way it is, but on the other hand, it could give the party a reason to step outside the Fire Mountain region in order to come back and trigger the crossroads event, which I stumbled into the first time after changing my mind and backtracking somewhere else.

Would love it to see more conversation from Meeri, and I loved to see her interject at one point during a visit to the Otter Village market tent!

Agreed, the skeleton bit is too perfect to just wipe out and forget; a comedic take is begging to be included at this, something like Pacha exclaiming: "Okay, okay, I get it! It was wrong of me to leave you like this for so long! Now will you drop the passive aggressive act, and *stop haunting my pantry already*!"

I also was pleasantly surprised to see the game recognize the adventuring differential between Martin and the party if he is asked to join out of his captivity following the Tunneler Temple part of the game! And his different attitudes during the final confrontation depending on whether he's had the chance to take up the druid's status in Dreamers Forest were a testament to your game's unbelievable sensitivity to biographical context, too!

Didn't mention Sichi's new abilities, if the requirements for acquiring those are met! Excellent and thematically impeccable spread of divine invocations for the plucky priestess! And Araya's angel was a lovely touch, and a massive incentive to have her in the party!

Thank you for the care and attention of the last update! Thanks for making use of my and everyone else's reports!

I'll give the game another playthrough come the weekends to see all the new inclusions and amendments! May your work on the next update proceed smoothly and never take more effort than it gives back pride and satisfaction!

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Yeah, that makes sense. I might put something in if I come up with a really good potential quest, but otherwise I'll leave it isolated.

Huh, I'd forgotten that I'd put that in.

I'm very tempted to put something like that in. I also love the idea of Pacha being fairly nonchalent about it. Given that their world has the potential for various kinds of undead things to rise up, predator settlements must occasionally have to deal with a past meal that won't accept when they have lost from time to time. Still, Martin's ghost might cause problems if added there. The main reason he gets eaten if you leave him in there too long was because past that point it was getting too difficult to keep track of how much Pacha should know about Arven. Being able to go, if Martin hasn't been added to the party by this point then Pacha never finds out about the connection made things a lot simpler. Having him haunting the pantry might make that more complex.

Glad you enjoyed those aspects of Martin's story. He has been the character with the most different branches that he can go down so far, but Sichi might start to catch up with him by the time Pacha has finished with Araya's section of the game.

Glad you liked Sichi's extra powers too, and yeah, I'm still very much enjoying getting to work on this project.

Posted by Astronommy 4 years ago Report

Understood the rationale keeping you from including that jolly roger bug into the game, sorry for adding on more temptation, and thank you for the explanation!

Maybe one day, after the main body of the game is completed, you might wish to add a lavish phasing mechanism to that part of the game, with Martin acting as a debriefing sink for every single plot development with all the branching multiverse possibilities, and then the wandering bones will make their return, but that's neither expedient nor necessary this point.

Forgot to mention the new (although technically -- long-present in the game files) dialogue about using the deliberate devourment ability on Irci! It made me feel the worst trying that out, considering how bright-eyed and nice the character is, but the writing is excellent as always!

And thank you for adding in the cake, more games in general should have this ability to just do something nice for fellow companions!

Can't wait to see Sichi's home, and have all those meaningful prior choices catch up with Pacha and her companions!

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Yeah, that would be some neat bonus content to add.

Glad you like Irci, and yeah, I do feel bad when putting in digestion scenes for him as well, although he’s not necessarily quite as nice as he sometimes appears.

Yeah. I added the cake partly because I noticed that if I speed run through the game for testing and therefor miss most of the side content and character dialogue, the majority of my party tends to be extremely miserable. There are a lot more difficult to avoid places that lower happiness than ones that raise it for most characters, so adding the cake was a good way to balance that and to give a little more direct control over which characters are in a good mood. I’m probably going to add a few more slices hidden around the game in later updates.

Sichi’s home might still be a few updates away as I was planning to add one other stop between the currently available locations and the temple, but yeah, I’m looking forward to getting started on that area as well.

Posted by Astronommy 4 years ago Report

Thanks for explaining the cake rationale! I've only just started paying attention to the happiness mechanic (especially since Ti tends to be the unhappiest, and as a fighter she relies a lot on willpower for special moves), and it's definitely a good way to manage that.

Looking forward to discovering that extra step before the Araya's temple, and Irci's hidden depths!

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Yeah. It's a slightly weird quirk of the game that you can let your casters get as unhappy as you like with very little consequence (except that they give in faster to will draining enemies), but need to keep the physical fighters' happiness high. I tried to balance that a little with summoning moves also draining willpower, but it still remains a slight inbalance.

Posted by MasterGryph 4 years ago Report

Agreeing to play Marra's game while talking to her from below causes a softlock.

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Ooops. I was sure I’d fixed that. I’ll be releasing a bug fix for this and a few other issues, in a couple of days and hopefully that will sort it out.

Posted by Grapefruitvenison 4 years ago Report

Really good work! I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say I really like how much you've added. All those icons must have taken ages to draw.

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Thanks! I’m glad your enjoying it, and actually the avians did not take anywhere near as long as I was expecting. I’m getting a lot better at drawing with the size limitations rpgmaker imposes and adding new battlers and faces takes much less time than it used to.

Posted by Tunknownusert 4 years ago Report

Going to update the game forum as well to reflect this update? Also, if we are on the path which spared the traders, where do we find the nails/wood to repair their wagon? No vendors in town sell any, and I didn't find any in the woods either.

Posted by Tunknownusert 4 years ago Report

Never mind, I found how to get the wood :)

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Ooops. Yes, I should check there. Between Patreon, FA, here, and the forum post, it’s very easy for me to miss a location when updating. I really need to get better at that. Also, well done on finding the planks.

Posted by Kasra 4 years ago Report

And I have conquered the birdlands! The only issues I encountered have already been covered, namely owl quest bugs and the plant maze not seeming to trigger completion.

It is apparent with each release that you are putting more and more effort into this. The quality is definitely jumping with each new section, and the story is genuinely interesting. Really well done! Can't wait to see what Arlaya thinks of this newly-carnivorous mouse priestess.

Posted by BizzareBlue 4 years ago Report

Thanks. Both of those bugs should be fixed now (I think?), and I’m really glad you think the quality is going up. It’s definitely getting easier to add certain kinds of things as I get more familiar with both rpgmaker and ruby so that’s helping.

Posted by elions 4 years ago Report

where can I find the key to the rabbit temple?