XP - Charon - Zhetan Chronicles | STEAM DEMO (v0.9.4.1.9) RELEASED

In regards to the balancing problem I've felt throughout the game, I won't be able to specify the exact enemies or moments in which I noticed it, but I think I can illustrate it well enough:
I played the game trying to keep everything well balanced - a good example is the fact that everyone finished the Demo at Level 16; I've also distributed the Seeds and new equipment equally among Sai and Mara. The thing is, even though I understand the concept of weak points, it felt like the system sometimes took it too seriously - imagine a player seeing Sai's attack damage varying from 120 to 15 only because the enemy has resistance, despite all the Leveling up and upgrades... What I'm trying to say is that the game would benefit from a system where resistance, or lack thereof, wouldn't have that big of an influence on the damage calculation. It's nice to have difficult situations once in a while, but resistance won't continue being fun if the player encounters a Pikachu-vs-Onyx situation every two or three battles.

For quite a few battles, Mara became a support character for me, because the high variability on her attacks wouldn't be worth the risk. The problem also can be seen from a different angle: at the beginning of the game, there's an understandable difference between Sai's and Mara's attributes, which influences their damage dealing numbers. But, the more you progress in the game, the bigger the gap between them gets - it feels like Mara's being left behind as the game goes on.

What I would do to change that:
> Reduce the influence of enemies' resistance in the damage calculation;
> Give Mara a bit more offensive power - maybe a poisoning blade, or anything that would compensate her low attack power;
> From a psychological point of view, I'd advise to never make the player question the characters' effectiveness. In other words, you can put enemies with ten times the HP in the next Dungeon, but don't create enemies with a defense so high that will make the characters deal less damage than they were dealing two hours ago;
> Once again, I'd rather have 5 Poison Knives with 90% chance of poisoning the target, than 99 Poison Knives with 60% chance or so. The same goes to all consumable items: less quantity, but a lot more effectiveness;
> And finally, one little trick of mine: I must say I am, too, guilty of creating a resistance system more punishing than it should be (My main project has this rock-paper-scissors thing between human, elf, and beast-type creatures - it's basically Reason loses to Faith that loses to Instinct that loses to Reason, BUT, in order to keep things going on a nice pace, a few tweaks have been made:
<> No ATB Bars. Imagine the player's frustration having to wait for a bar to fill in order to act. Now imagine the same situation, except half the party doesn't have any advantage against the enemy troop. Imagine the player waiting for the bars to fill, knowing they won't be of any use but to wait, defend or maybe use an item for lack of a better choice. For that reason, I gave the player the chance to choose the entire party's moves, and only then, characters' speed will determine who acts first - I know it's still a system worth some criticism, but it helps keeping the flow;
<> AND NOW, one thing that I'm really proud of: reducing the frame number of every single animation related to the Battle System. Seriously, every single one, even the "Preparing to use Skill" ones, even the "Chest opening" one before using a Potion or whatever. With less frames, everything flows faster, and here, even a system that makes the player spend lots of turns to defeat their enemies thanks to the resistance system, won't feel tiring.
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In regards to the color pallet and visual details. Keep in mind that when it comes to art, it's all about personal taste, so feel free to ignore my thoughts completely.
Well, let's begin by the characters' portraits. Even though I kinda like the uniqueness of your style, some choices in tracing and coloring have made them feel like they are made of plastic. Take Sai's armor for example: the colors aren't creating the feel of metal, much less the harmony and weight a piece of armor should have;
All the characters' lighting also lack harmony, the shadows and bright spots are all over the place, thus creating flat, artificial textures: hair doesn't look like hair; fabric doesn't look like fabric, and so on...

When I mentioned the color pallet, I was referring to the contrast between certain maps (like the ruins, the mines, and some others) and the faces / battlers. While the maps have this realistic, medieval, less colorful tone (which I love), the faces and battlers are way more cartoon-looking, full of bright colors. And that difference in style makes me wonder which one are you actually going for, 'cause I'd say at some point you'll have to decide between them and take everything else in that direction.

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Really sorry for taking so long to reply. I'm still working on the last piece of text reviewing the characters themselves =)

Thank you for elaborating on some stuff!
I am excited for your review of the characters. ;D

That being said, your suggestions for the battle system was cause for some discussion, because the current state with the ATB bars always had some annoying shortcomings...
So, I have decided to change it to a CTB system to properly capture the strategic aspect:




(Texts are in german, but I hope you can still tell what's happening)

That way, you can see the next couple turns and plan your current action accordingly one at a time.
Defensive actions raise the chance to get a turn sooner, while offensive action can make you slower for the next turn (mostly heavy attacks though).

This version of the battle system will be included in future releases. °^°

Greetings,
FervorCraft

NOW, let's finally dive deep into my thing: characters. Obviously, I'll be spoiling a lot of things about the characters and certain events in the game, so, fellow reader: you have been warned.

I'll begin by saying the characters managed to create a really good first impression - not only Sai and Mara, but all side characters that have had any involvement with the plot were well fleshed out. Sai reminds me of Steiner from FFIX, a knight who starts to struggle in keeping his loyalty to an organization when it starts to conflict with his own moral inclinations, which makes for an interesting main character to follow. Mara, too, left a mark on her first appearance as a really good fighter - and perhaps that's the reason I've had problems in seeing her as a not-so-strong character during battles - my expectations were too high; I really thought she would be the strongest character in the party, due to the fact she seems to be more of a world-knowing individual, while Sai seems to be limited as a knight who would never play against the rules, even in a life-or-death combat, for example.

There have been quite a few interesting dinamics I noticed as far as characters reaction/interaction goes - there's a lot of ground to cover, so I'll try to keep everything organized:

> Starting with the characters in relation with the world: I love to see that most of the obstacles the characters have to overcome are actually created by humans - not even enemy humans, but higher rank generals, authorities, etc. Overcoming bureaucratic sections, getting authorizations for this or that, are the sort of tasks I love to do in games in order to progress - maybe because of the satisfaction of knowing that we, as main characters, will always advance and save the day - if only it were like that in the real world, without the waiting, without the complications, paperwork wouldn't be so tiring to do - maybe that's the power fantasy for the adult demographic (I think I may end up making a game on this notion, tee hee!)

Anyway, getting back on topic: I like the idea of showing the player all the sides of the conflict; not only the internal backstabbing happening within the bad guys' headquarters in the Underworld, but also the council meetings, with representatives of religion, technology, and so on, struggling to coexist. It's nice to have the opportunity to see what the main characters can't - some might argue that it ruins the feeling of discovering things simultaneously with the main characters, but I think there's always room for the two types of information: the ones you do discover at the same time as the heroes, and the ones you happen to know in advance; for they both serve a purpose within the story.

The Chronicler deserves a special section. This particular character has created sort of a dismissing attitude of my part - in other words, I had a really hard time paying attention to his words, because everytime I spoke to him, I was surrounded by the idea that "he is more than meets the eye;" that he would play a greater role at the end, so, to me, he would never tell me anything worth considering. His presence really intrigues me, and it's one of the many mysterious pieces we have in the game's world, where each one helps enhancing the player's immersion.

==//==

Now, the real deal: Characters' connections, motivations, interactions.

I've really felt at home in certain places, after completing some Quests, after helping clear out the main-plot-related situations; it was nice to have this feeling, especially after going through the dungeons. And I truly believe this didn't happen by accident: creating a village full of friendly NPCs and a nice BGM isn't enough to actually make the player feel at home - there's a lot more work required: cutscenes, deep introspective moments, and most of all: contrast.

Contrast is the key, and I've seen it a lot during the game. We have on-duty moments, clearing areas, doing missions, and so forth; but then, there are the moments during the night, conversations at the INN without armor, personal moments between the characters, and THAT's what makes the player really connect with -not only- the heroes, but also the places they are visiting - it's almost like certain places allow them to open and have human conversations while other don't, and it resonates with me, because as any human being, I too feel more prone to talk about my feelings depending on the place I'm at, and of course, the people I'm with. It seems like a simple aspect of game design, but it's not: when I stop to think about other games -Indie or not, I realize how many times I've seen characters forcefully engaging in conversations only for lack of a better moment for exposition, or to check another of many tropes required for a game to sell - I'm glad it wasn't the case here.

Still on contrast: I like the way you managed to show Sai's motivation and its fragility - the guy's been having these dreams/flashbacks, and it creates sort of an unsettling feel when you start to consider that he, at his age, shouldn't be so eager to find what he's looking for. Younger characters tend to engage in these kinds of quests, but when you see a more mature character going the same path, it becomes more interesting, because it feels like the answers can literally destroy him inside instead of providing him a learning experience.

But THE BEST thing in the whole story to me was Mara's presence being considered the reason for Sai's visions, and it came as such a surprise, right at the end of the Demo. Since the game focuses so much on world building and quests, I wasn't expecting anything really deep on an emotional or psychological level, but after the Marshall started to question Sai's motivation, thus questioning everything that we, as players, have seen throughout the journey, everything changed. This is literally what I consider to be the most efficient tool any Indie Dev can have: the ability of making the player lower their guard, and then hit them hard with a twist.

I think it should be a lesson to every RPG Maker Dev: your game has the most satisfying exploration system I've ever seen in an RPG Maker Game, along with a lot of interesting mechanics, puzzles, etc, and even so, I'd found myself bored for quite a few moments. Bored, tired, sometimes just impatient - nothing to do with the game, but with the very human condition, y'know? Sometimes we tend to switch off, realizing it's just a game: "Save the world; defeat the great Evil, yeah yeah, whatever," and it's hard to create something to prevent these feelings from getting into the players' head, since it's not something we can predict. But to me, it all comes down to having your beliefs challenged, and when the game hints that everything I've been seeing may not be the actual truth; when the game tells me there are some hidden layers bellow the characters' motivations, I can't help but getting extremely excited - it feels like an actual reason to keep going, because it becomes more than a game, it starts to relate directly to me. Even if I don't relate to the heroes or their reasons, I can relate to characters who are being manipulated; or characters that follow their paths without knowing if they are doing the right thing - which are basically doubts we face throughout our entire lives.

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I could keep talking about the minor details, but I'll shorten things up and mention the one aspect I truly think you could improve on for the future releases: characters' motivations for sticking to the group.

Sai, being kind of the center of the plot, has been well developed in this regard, so my comments will be directed to Mara and *the Technoid guy who I always forget the name, fuuu. I like Mara as a character; I think her views help creating a nice dinamic, but since her entire journey beside Sai involves her having to put up with bureaucracies, hiding her horns/identity, and all the embarassment and struggles that their interactions can cause... can you imagine being Mara, having to completely change your behavior so that others won't be upset? To me, it's kinda asking too much, and in order to reinforce her presence in the main party, I would give her a bit more voice when talking to Sai - the guy's basically dragged her into this "civilized world" but I would like to see a little more of the opposite with Mara teaching Sai about her way of doing things. I'm not saying the game lacks it completely - it just doesn't leave a mark when it happens.

Not only that, another rule I always try to follow: initial motivation is never enough. To me, it doesn't matter if the characters are trying to save the world; they could be doing the same thing with entirely different groups, so, as the player, I want to see their connections changing along the journey, y'know? Getting deeper, and it doesn't have to be the "you saved my life, so I'll follow you" style - I think there's a lot of different ways of making characters get closer to each other - and by "closer" I don't necessarily mean in a positive way, there's always the possibility of making one character dependable, trapped in certain situations or missions for one reason or another.

And finally, the Technoid guy... to me, the weakest character so far. I can kinda see his place in the story - I may be wrong, but I feel his knowledge will be of great value at some point later in the game, like for a plot-decisive moment; but unfortunately, it wasn't enough - his motivations for staying with the group didn't make that much sense to me. He appeared in the middle of a Boss Battle, and for some reason, he created sort of a connection with Mara, which I felt it was forced, only to give him an attachment to the group... So, getting back on the "initial motivation rule," I'd say that in order to keep the guy as an actual member of the main party, I would have given him more screen time, even before meeting Sai and Mara. Give him a solo mission separately, maybe explaining a little bit more of his past, since it wasn't very clear through his conversations with Mara. And finally, since he's a late entry to the party, I'd say his motivations should be extra reinforced - he sould be given a few more reasons for risking his life with the others, and specially, a good reason that would make him more than a helping hand during battles.

And I'm gonna be honest: we all have characters of less impact in our games - suddenly, Quina from FFIX comes to mind, and it's okay to have characters with not-so-deep motivations walking the same path as the main heroes. BUT, the Technoid guy is the third character in the group, which is completely different from being the optional seventh or eighth one, y'know? So, loooong story short: give him more thought, because gameplay-wise, he's really interesting, but for story purposes, it just didn't work for me.

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About the Battle updates: I can't believe how much you've improved it in such a short time. Only by watching the videos, it already feels like a much more satisfying experience. It makes me really happy to see your adaptability in play - it gives me even more reasons to keep an eye on your future releases. Congrats on the great work o/

Hi there!

we got a small announcement for y'all:



The gameplay demo is released!
With updated features, a new area, new bosses and the entire hero party to play around with!

Everything else, you'll find here!

Have fun, everyone!

Greetings,
FervorCraft

Hi there!

We released an update for our Gameplay Demo!

You can check out everything about it here!



Have fun, everyone!

Greetings,
FervorCraft

Hello there!


It's about time for another development update:

We are still very busy with our work on Charon, even if some downtimes in progress while working on another project (with us helping out as level designers), but it's coming along. There are already many plans in motion for the last third of Act I, but also the rest of chapter 2 is making progress! Next, we will fill a larger city with content and story. ;)


A major new feature will be added with the next release: The Talent System!




If you played some oldschool JRPGs, you will probably know the following: passive abilities, which can be leveled up and learned by certain equipment. It's working similar here: Every character has a list of talents which can be set active as you see fit. These talents include resistances against status ailments/elemental attacks, permanent status boosts, increased damage against certain enemy types or just special effects in battle. To obtain a talent, you have to learn it through an accessory. This means, you equip up to 2 accessoires and earn Talent Points (TP) to level up the corresponding talents. As long as you didn't learn the talent yet, you have to equip the accessory to use it.
Overall you will be able to learn over 70 talents, from which each character can activate up to 15 at a time. We're sure that you can build an interesting party that way. ;)


Contrary to other iterations of a feature like this (FF9, Lost Odyssey, Bravely Default, Octopath Traveler), talents in Charon - ZC are focused on passive abilities and are basically optional (it makes a lot of things easier of course). To make grinding of TP less of a hassle, you receive them not only through battles, but also from quests and the discovery of new locations.


Aside from that feature, we got some screenshots of areas we are currently working on:

















And finally, we got some "small" artwork finished by the talented people Seaquential Arts at :





Fantastic, isn't it?


That's it from our side... There will be a report at the end of the year reviewing the development of this year and giving you an overview of what will coming next year.


What do you think? Do you have questions, criticism or feedback? Then let us know! °^°


Greetings,
Team FervorCraft

Is this something that will be sold when the full game is done? Love the level design. Beautiful artwork too.

Thank you!
Yes, the full release will cost a bit of money.

Greetings,
Team FervorCraft

As it should! Looks wonderful!

Hi there!

We got some screenshots from optional areas we are currently working on:







That's it for now!

You got feedback (for the devlog as well) for us or questions?
We are curious, so don't be shy! °^°
Greetings,
Team FervorCraft

Happy New Year!

We've started working on the game again and things are slowly coming together.
Here is a recent screenshot:


While we continue to work on the game, feel free to leave us some feedback! °^°

Streams and/or playthroughs (of the Gameplay Demo for example) are always welcome and help to make the game even better!

Greetings,
FervorCraft

Hi there!

we are still busy working on new content and updating existing one.

Here are some examples from our current progress:

Questlog:






Because the code of the current questlog is old and inefficient, we have to rewrite that and by doing that we will also update the layout and UI of this feature.
Now it will be more in line with the other menus to keep a consistent look.

---
Face Graphics:






The screen resolution of the RPG Maker XP is always a struggle with modern computer screens and quite limited with its space, but we recently took up the challenge and advanced the size of face graphics from 96x96 px to 120x160px! A lot more space for detailed artworks. °^°

---
Battle UI:


And finally, we updated the UI for battle commands to be more easy to read and use.
There will be also a separate command for battle items. So, you don't have to scroll through the entire inventory to reach elemental stones. ;)

That's it for now.
What do you think?

Greetings,
FervorCraft

Oh man, I love RMXP's style and this game does is so well.

playing this on the weekend. Exit Fate rekindled my RM game itch lol

Hi there!

We finally got an update for you all! The progress on Version 0.9 is going very good and its release is pretty close and that's why we decided to release a new Demo before the big release!

This Story Demo may not continue the plot from v0.61a, but it shows you the (nearly) final build of the first areas in the game, including story, graphics and gameplay. You will even be able to use your saved progress for v0.9 and 1.0.

All the changes in detail:

• STORY (complete with v0.9):
  • Reworking of dialogues, scenes and lore texts
  • Prologue, Chapter 1.1 and 1.2
  • 18 Side Quests
  • 13 Mercenary Errands
• AREAS (complete with v0.9):
  • 5 Villages, Towns or Cities
  • 5 Wild Lands
  • 5 Dungeons (obligatory and optional)
  • 5 Optional Locations
• GRAPHICS:
  • Updated artworks with the help of Phineas "Corviday" Klier and AbsoScribbles
  • Updated menu designs and user interfaces
  • Updated pixel art assets
• AUDIO:
  • Updated and added music tracks (e.g. YouFulca)
• GAMEPLAY:
  • Changed the battle system from ATB (Time Bar filling up) to CTB (turn based similar to Final Fantasy X)
  • Updated Balancing
  • Update of status effects in battle: status effects ALWAYS hit their target, as long as it's not entirely immune. This resistance increases with each hit though; so you can probably poison most of the enemies, but only a few times during the same battle
  • Adding a talent system (passive abilities which can be learned from accessories and freely selected)
  • Updated system for questlog
  • Updated system for skills (learning and level up)
• OTHER:
  • NPC, shops and quest target are marked
  • Unified marker for interactions with treasures, puzzles and secret passages
  • Unified special battle mechanics like breaking barriers or weakening enemies
  • Several quality of life changes to make combat more intuitive and dynamic
  • Information about treasures, relics and essences in areas is accessible from the world map

We hope that you're gonna have lots of fun with this demo! We'd appreciate some feedback and we will see us soon in version 0.9!

Team FervorCraft

Hi there!
We're currently in the final beta test phase for the next big release (even though the english translation will still take some more time), so there is much to do, but we can see the goal on the horizon.

In the meantime... Did anybody check out the new story demo yet?

Team FervorCraft

Downloading the demo now! This looks amazing

Following this one :D

Hi there!

We updated the Story Demo, but you can also get full chapter 1 and 2 HERE !

Also, we are currently working on chapter 3 and published a developer's log: Devlog for January 2024

Hope you'll like the new content and check out the finished chapters!
Let us know what you think!

Regards,
Team FervorCraft

Hi there!

There is a new entry for our developer's log: Devlog for February-May 2024

While we continue to work on chapter 3, you can still get chapter 1 and 2 HERE !

We hope you'll check it out and if you do, you can leave us some feedback if you like. °^°

Regards,
Team FervorCraft

SUMMER SALE ON ITCH.IO | 33% OFF | June 27th 2024 - July 13th 2024​

Summer is here! And with that comes a beach episode sale on ITCH.IO:



Seize the opportunity to get a copy of Chapter 1 + 2 if you haven't already. °^°

Regards,
Team FervorCraft