Okay, so I finished up my game for the contest a month ago and wanted some input. The game is called Portal of Doom (for RPGM1), and it is 6 memory cards long, but each card has all the data for each chapter of the game so you really only need 2 memory cards (1 for the current chapter and 1 for your saved games since each chapter uses 15 blocks). The game takes 30 - 35 hours to complete, but I went to great lengths to make sure that it doesn't get boring or tedious or so difficult that it's not worth continuing. Anyways, on to the story...
The two main powers on the continent are the Kingdom of Bordagon and the Ato Empire. The borders of these two nations are coming closer to each other and tensions are rising as the continent prepares for the inevitable war between the two. The main characters of the story are a ragtag group not associated with either side. There is Sarina, a skillfull fighter/mage who robs from the rich and gives to herself; Leon, a sword-for-hire who meets up with Sarina while looking to make a quick buck; and Raedon, a healer whose granddaugther was killed by soldiers of the Ato Empire. As the story progresses, this group finds themselves getting dragged into the conflict between the two nations. Then, when a mysterious portal opens in the sky above an Ato fort, the unknown people that come through threaten the existence of everyone in the world. Both powers then begin to panic as both sides find themselves falling to this strange new group that has appeared...
Does it sound interesting? Once you discover what lies on the other side of the portal, things get even more interseting. If the game sounds like something you want to play, then skip the next part because it is a MAJOR spoiler.
***SPOILER***
The portal is actually a wormhole in time that connects the future to the past. The future world is so overcrowded that people are suffering and starving to death. At this point in time man has not been able to travel outside the solar system, but scientists have managed to open a wormhole which they discovered opened into the past. (The problem of time paradoxes like by going back and killing your great-grandfather you wouldn't exist are not a factor in this game.) The future world is desperate for a fertile world like the past and a faction has risen to power that proposes eliminating the people in the past to claim the world as their own. Resistance to this group has formed and a small group of these rebels gets involved with the warriors of the past in an attempt to save the people of the past from their own future. There's even more going on, but I won't get into that here.
***END OF SPOILER***
The game is pretty linear, and it's pretty easy to find where you need to go and what you need to do next. I tried to keep the game story-based and make the combat as interesting as is possible with RPGM1. Other features of the game include:
- Well-balanced combat system
- Unique minigames
- Clever puzzles (nothing insanely difficult, but tricky enough to make you stop and think for a few minutes)
- Finding green fairys increases all characters' max HP a little. Green fairys can often be found wandering inbetween towns.
- Some spells are learned at level ups, but the best are learned at Magic Shops. These are learned by finding a Spellbook and Talismans which are hidden throughout the world (kinda like pieces of heart in Zelda). Hints are given to their location so you won't be wasting time trying to find them. Each spell requires one Spellbook, but depending on how good the spells at the magic shop are it takes from 1 to 4 Talismans. Needless to say, Talismans are easier to find than Spellbooks.
- If you DO feel like searching for rare items without being given hints as to their locations, these are in the game as well. There are four rare Drakkonite Spellbooks that teach you very powerful spells towards the end of the game. There are five Eye of Leviathan items well hidden in the world, if you can find any two of these AND find the Leviathan's Altar in the later part of the game, you will be granted a cool ability.
- All item names, and important places and people are in CAPITAL LETTERS. Just paying a tribute to FF1.
That's my game, let me know how it sounds, or if you play it let me know what you think.
The two main powers on the continent are the Kingdom of Bordagon and the Ato Empire. The borders of these two nations are coming closer to each other and tensions are rising as the continent prepares for the inevitable war between the two. The main characters of the story are a ragtag group not associated with either side. There is Sarina, a skillfull fighter/mage who robs from the rich and gives to herself; Leon, a sword-for-hire who meets up with Sarina while looking to make a quick buck; and Raedon, a healer whose granddaugther was killed by soldiers of the Ato Empire. As the story progresses, this group finds themselves getting dragged into the conflict between the two nations. Then, when a mysterious portal opens in the sky above an Ato fort, the unknown people that come through threaten the existence of everyone in the world. Both powers then begin to panic as both sides find themselves falling to this strange new group that has appeared...
Does it sound interesting? Once you discover what lies on the other side of the portal, things get even more interseting. If the game sounds like something you want to play, then skip the next part because it is a MAJOR spoiler.
***SPOILER***
The portal is actually a wormhole in time that connects the future to the past. The future world is so overcrowded that people are suffering and starving to death. At this point in time man has not been able to travel outside the solar system, but scientists have managed to open a wormhole which they discovered opened into the past. (The problem of time paradoxes like by going back and killing your great-grandfather you wouldn't exist are not a factor in this game.) The future world is desperate for a fertile world like the past and a faction has risen to power that proposes eliminating the people in the past to claim the world as their own. Resistance to this group has formed and a small group of these rebels gets involved with the warriors of the past in an attempt to save the people of the past from their own future. There's even more going on, but I won't get into that here.
***END OF SPOILER***
The game is pretty linear, and it's pretty easy to find where you need to go and what you need to do next. I tried to keep the game story-based and make the combat as interesting as is possible with RPGM1. Other features of the game include:
- Well-balanced combat system
- Unique minigames
- Clever puzzles (nothing insanely difficult, but tricky enough to make you stop and think for a few minutes)
- Finding green fairys increases all characters' max HP a little. Green fairys can often be found wandering inbetween towns.
- Some spells are learned at level ups, but the best are learned at Magic Shops. These are learned by finding a Spellbook and Talismans which are hidden throughout the world (kinda like pieces of heart in Zelda). Hints are given to their location so you won't be wasting time trying to find them. Each spell requires one Spellbook, but depending on how good the spells at the magic shop are it takes from 1 to 4 Talismans. Needless to say, Talismans are easier to find than Spellbooks.
- If you DO feel like searching for rare items without being given hints as to their locations, these are in the game as well. There are four rare Drakkonite Spellbooks that teach you very powerful spells towards the end of the game. There are five Eye of Leviathan items well hidden in the world, if you can find any two of these AND find the Leviathan's Altar in the later part of the game, you will be granted a cool ability.
- All item names, and important places and people are in CAPITAL LETTERS. Just paying a tribute to FF1.
That's my game, let me know how it sounds, or if you play it let me know what you think.
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