Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

[Ωbright]

This thread is not a development thread, but rather a feedback, bugfixing thread for Shadow of the Towers. I'm not perfect, and I'm sure there will still be things I missed.

MAPS: These will be placed here, until I compile a proper walkthrough for each part. It will be posted in a seperate thread when it's done.

[Crythania]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

I have played through this game and seen the ending. Here's a quick spoiler-free review.

Obright has created an epic-length masterpiece with some very cool things that happen. The game takes a long time to get where it's going. Sometimes a little too long. Story events are few and far between. There are many transitionary regions that must be traversed to get where you need to go, and a lot of random encounters along the way. Fairly early on, you gain the ability to turn off the encounters. You can use this ability as often as you want to make life easier, but eventually you're gonna have to do some training and gain some levels so that you can keep up with the monsters, who get progressively tougher.

This game's best material is saved for last. All of the coolest things happen near the end. It takes a long time to get there, but is was worth the journey for me.

There is an uber cool thing that happens near the end. I can't say what it is. It's an uber spoiler. But it's totally awesome, and it blew me away. This thing is truly inspired, a work of creative genius. I was beyond impressed.

The game's strengths are its field maps. The author is an artist who provides us with many sweeping vistas to see, usually from atop a mountain or other high vantage point. There are also some very cool special effects that happen.

For me, the game's weakness is its gameplay. Lots of battles. A large percentage of my time was spent fighting monsters and power-leveling so I could stay ahead of the opposition.

Overall, this game is a long, epic-length journey that takes a while to get where it's going. It was worth the effort to get there and see the ultra cool stuff near the end. That uber cool thing that happens is totally awesome!

[Ωbright]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

Hey, Thanks Cryth! Awesome! Thank you! One thing I will say, though...is that you don't have to play it the way you did. Doing it that way is totally fine, it makes the battles easier, and you can afford the best items...even some that you're not 'supposed' to have until later (which also makes things easier), but it means a whole stinking LOT of battles to get there. I believe you even used the 'encounter-up' skill, right? If you wait until you can return to that first shop in the game, you'll already have enough money to get the really expensive things without having to train up for them. This makes the game a wee bit harder, but you have far fewer battles to go through. It's a matter of weighing the pros and cons, and making your game decision based on that. Just about any strategy will have both...you have to compromise a bit.

I know...you started to encounter hard battles even after all of that training...but I think what happened was that the experience curve finally caught up with you...and you caught up to where you were supposed to be in the game. This is very interesting...it means that no matter how you choose to play at the beginning, eventually it all winds up the same.

You know...In the first town, I should REALLY have someone (Aratos) say something about the fact that you'll be able to return later. Only problem is that there's no way for Aratos to know that at that point in the game...hmm. When I play a game (Phantasy Star 3 comes to mind), when there's a town with things that are WAY too expensive to get at the beginning of the game, whether I stay and train long enough to get them depends on whether or not I know that I can come back. If there's any doubt, then I usually roll my eyes and just train long enough to get them. Usually though...when things like that appear in early shops, it means that you'll probably be able to come back eventually. Still, like I said...there needs to be some clue that a return trip might be possible...somehow.

I know that there needs to be more story events, but I ran out of room. :/ It's pretty ironic, too...I LOVE making story events, but I only had room for about 15 total in the game.

THANK YOU again for playing...and BEATING Shadow of the Towers, and if you had fun playing, then all that hard work I went through making it was worth it.

[Crythania]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

The way I play a game like this is: I power-level so I can stay ahead of the opposition. That made the game much longer than it probably should have been. That's my fault, not necessarily the game's fault.

Yeah, I spent extra time gold mining in some areas so I could afford expensive items that I otherwise would've had to pass up. That drew it out even further.

And yes, the experience curve eventually caught up to me. The enemies were not giving out enough experience for it to really be worth my while. It would've taken a LOT of time to power-level and become stronger. As it stands, I was strong enough to finish the game with a party at Level 42. My total play time was almost 40 hours.

[Ωbright]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

As it stands, I was strong enough to finish the game with a party at Level 42. My total play time was almost 40 hours.

I usually finish at about level 45, but I train up in the last area (which is a good place to do that), which is something you didn't do. Oh well...it didn't seem to matter...you prevailed! My data is usually 32-35 hours by the time I reach the final destination, but if I do the optional stuff at the end (like going back to Archaeon to get the Citron Ring ), it almost always goes over 40 hours.

I'm glad you liked that effect at the end of chapter 5 And thanks again for the nice comments...but...did you mean to say that the use of random battles was a weak point...instead of just saying that the gameplay was a weak point?

[Ωbright]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

I have absolutely no idea why this posted twice...please forgive the double post!

[Ωbright]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

As an added incentive to play Shadow of the Towers, I'm working on an add-on to the game. This will be Valhalla...a warrior's paradise. It's basically just the exact same game, but you can load your characters from your playthrough of the main game, and resume. This add-on gives some more insight into the story, and allows players to fight the 12 bosses of the game again...at a higher level. The legendary weapons will return, but will be much easier to get. The main story elements will be gone, which will make room for a LOT of other things. You'll start the bonus realm in Neftis, and have access to all of the ancient machines in your mansion (including the teleport).

I'll probably just send it to anybody who's beaten the game, but I may make it so that people have to get a perfect 'treasure hunter' score to be given the key to the bonus realm. I could make a 'key treasure' which is the result of getting all treasures, and I may make that what you need to have to enter the bonus game. If I do this, I'll have to edit the original game just slightly, which I don't want to do for as long as possible.

I just started working on this, but it's a thought. Any thoughts from anybody else? I probably won't work on this for a while, I need to finish playing some other people's games!

[Ωbright]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

This game has had several downloads recently, so I thought I'd better get off of my ass and post a few helpful hints for beginning players.

- First, when you gain control of your character, you'll see a save point ahead of you, on the other side of the fountain. Use this before you do anything else! You are about to choose 3 possible battle mates out of a possible 7. You can say 'no' to them over and over, but once you say 'yes', you're stuck with having that character in your party until you get to the last town in the game...or unless you reset.

- There are 32 different possible beginning parties...unless my math is wack.

- One of the things people that have started playing have said, is that there is not enough information about the 7 possible battle members at the beginning to make solid strategic decisions about which 3 you pick...some of this is intentional...it promotes replay...but I'll provide some basic info for those who want it *SPOILER ALERT* of course...

I tried to give each character something special that would make you want to pick them, but at the same time have none of them be mandatory in any way (except for Troy).

The character descriptions are now here.

Well that's everybody...hopefully that will be enough info to get things started!

[Ωbright]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

Well...I've had 2 parallel playtests going for a while, and I've found WAY too many things to fix. Some are things I've known about forever and COMPLETELY forgotten about, some were found by other people after I released the full version, some were just found by me recently, and some are things I'm just considering. None of them have much impact on gameplay, they're more polish than anything. As a matter of fact people who were playing could simply update their game saves and continue...but still I won't upload another version for quite a while unless a ton of people say they want it. Anyway, here's what I've found so far. If you find something else while playing, post it here...especially if it's something that interferes with gameplay somehow.

- Detail the first map a bit more.

- Put everyones skills into the proper order on their skill list, so that they show up that way in the battle menu

- I'm considering redoing the ancient ruins dungeon completely

- Finish changing half of the enemy drops to 'Lucky Magic Ring' instead of the default lucky ring

[Perversion]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

Actually, Obright, the more I read your description of the game, the more I want to play it.

[Ωbright]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

I would be honored if you did...seriously. If you do, I hope you enjoy it!!

[irate giraffe]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

I, too, intend to play this once I am finished making my own game. It sounds very cool. I already have my characters picked out from the descriptions you posted above. I just don't have that much free time to allocate.

[Ωbright]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

Ooh...which people? *SPOILER REMOVED*

[simple man]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

excuse me but i dont think its not right without girl characters even though im a man i think the girls wanna be a heroine

[Ωbright]

Re: Ursus Quest: 'Shadow of the Towers'

I don't think it's not right without girl characters either.

Actually, I didn't do that on purpose. I had MANY, MANY NPC's, and even 2 female hidden playable characters...but I ran out of room and had to delete them. Also, I had 'default' shopkeepers as placeholders while I finished the game. The updated version (whenever it comes out) will have many female shopkeepers, although the playable female characters are gone forever.