MV - (Moving)Shadows of the Earth: The Vrila'an Legend

Erif · 2023-02-02T13:58:45+0900

~When embers dance in the twilight, a forgotten power awakens~ ===Announcement Trailer=== WARNINGS The game contains lots, lots of battles. It's fiction, a lot of things won't make sense (The guns, and so on) SYNOPSIS/FEATURES Spoiler Shadows of the Earth: The Vrila'an Legend tells the story of a fallen god, looking for revenge against a human who, because of his power, was able to attack his realm, and kill all of his peers. But why did this happen? Travel as Joseph, the God of Courage, in order to find people who can help you fight this powerful foe, and find your siblings who you never got to know while in Efgartha, the realm of the gods to uncover the mystery that unleashed this war. Being a game heavily focused on battles and inspired by the Tales of Series, Shadows of the Earth: The Vrila'an Legend uses a special iteration of the Linear Motion Battle System Completed Evolved Legacy - Linear Motion Battle System Control a character in real time battles against groups of enemies both in ground and air. Unleash amazing attacks with inmense power known as Elents (You can spam them, don't worry). Maximize your combos with Chain Elents: Follow up Elents activated by a single button. Skyrocket your damage with Altered Union Elents: Special Elents that are a force to be reckoned with. When the enemy is too powerful, activate Overflux to gain knockback/stun resistance and no cost for Elents. Ascend into Spirit Force as your last resort to win the battle. Fill your Limit Gauge and unleash one of three Limit Elents: Elents that are the culmination of elemental mastery of the characters. Seamless character switch mid-battle. No Spell-pause: Spells never stop the action from happening! Mobile Casting: Mages can reposition at any time to avoid damage. Skill Cancels: Cancel any elent to begin another, and keep your enemies in the ropes! Target Lock-on. Start the battle ready to cast spells at a single foe, or change your target at any time. Blink Chase: An special ability that allows you to pursue enemies during a combo, no matter how far you launch them. Guard Counters: When you break a boss' shield, it will try to one up you with a special move, block it on its face then combo them into oblivion! Multiplayer: Join forces with up to 3 friends to bring an end to this war. Battle up to 8 foes with in-map encounters on. World map has random encounters. Fight against massive bosses with a single objective: decimating you. Engage human enemies that can also perform combos and Limit Elents: May the strongest win. Not enough of a challenge? Face off against Wandering Bosses: Powerful monsters that roam the entire country of Angorian looking for a showdown. Difficulties: From Training to Chaos, change difficulties to learn the gimmicks of the battle system or empower enemies to challenge yourself. Customizable AI: Choose from AI presets, set up specific targets, a general tactic and the use items to coordinate your allies' movements! Character and Equipment Features With 16 characters to choose from, create formations up to 4 characters in battle. (Plus 12+ Collabs!) Equip up to 16 Elents per character (2 Sets of 4 Ground + 4 Aerial ) to engage. Increase your combo potential with Fluxites to increase your FLUX Capacity. With many accesories and armors, turn your characters into Glass Cannons or Steel Walls. Customize them as deeply as you want! Equip weapons and improve them via Boost Stones! Skins! Characters have access to more skins to customize their aspect slightly! From tuxedos to armor changes! Earn titles by doing specific actions. All characters have access to titles. Upgrade equipment with augments: Special Parts that increase stats, grant bonuses and even allow you to learn new elents!. Craft augments with monster parts, or find them exploring. Spend Potential Energy Shards to activate special effects upon equipping Passive Elents Or even better, trigger C-Skills to help your allies any time in battle! Delve into the world's mysteries and events: Explore Angorian: Many locations await adventurers to find treasure, or to free them from the claws of evil. Join the cast in exploring their lives, and how their fates connect to each other. Cooking! Cook dishes that offer healing, battle perks such as stat increases, resistances, and permanent bonuses! Save the world from a second threat in Echoes of the Rift: An event that reunites many heroes from the RPG Maker Community! Skits! Shadows of the Earth fully supports gamepads now: plug it and enter the fight! CHARACTERS Spoiler Spoiler: Heroes Joseph The last god in Efgartha. Joseph embodies the spirit of courage, and embarks in a journey to find the human that was able to destroy his realm, and get revenge. Joseph uses Fire as his primary element, with swords as his primary weapon. Perla Marshall of West Angorian. Saving Joseph from drowning, she resolves to help him due to political affairs rather than personal ones. Use…

● ARCHIVED · READ-ONLY

Started by Erif Feb 2, 2023, 04:58 AM 150 posts Page 7 of 8 View original ↗

ShadowDragon

#122 Sep 17, 2024, 08:37 AM Source

Erif said:
@ShadowDragon Well, outside of jokes, you REALLY did unlock a part of what it means.

Hint: Involves a certain obscure evil-not-really-evil guy who isn't of my making.
I still need to play the demo I have, but lots of things get in between, and no idea how
you make the text like that, but some of the things are also cut out as it is far bigger
than it shows as well.

but I hope to get more time after a my birthday, hopefully get some time to run
as its a bit chaotic in RL with moving stuff and rebuild.
Erif

#123 Sep 17, 2024, 12:11 PM Source

No worries. I'll soon update the demo and it's really much more enjoyable, and i'll make sure it's less annoying. I take player enjoyment very seriously
Erif

#124 Oct 7, 2024, 04:47 AM Source
After a lot of sweat, tears, and countless hours of "Why the heck this isn't working?" I'm proud to announce that the CEL-LMBS has received it's biggest upgrade. Now, all Characters can have Custom Weapons! Yes. I'm gonna go a bit over how this does come as an upgrade.

Due to how the sprites are handled in the LMBS, weapons had to be included in the battler spritesheets. This, isn't necessary anymore! The new sprite system I worked can take a similarly sized image to the battler, of the weapon sprites and firmly plant it in the front of the battler. So, we came from using a single sprite

To 2 singular sprites.

And here's a video on how you can notice the new Weapon sprites. (Currently my pose sprites don't have their weapon edited out, so it looks like the character has two weapons hahaha)

For the more technical aspects.
I had to create an entirely new LmbsSpriteWeapon() class to handle weapons. Since it's kinda like a child of the original LmbsSpriteBattler() class, it was mostly easy to handle the base poses, however, since skill poses are handled differently as they're not hardcoded, and can be named anything, unlike base poses that must have the [idle], [walk] and the like suffixes, it was that hard.

So yeah, the weapon sprites must be the same dimensions of the battler sprites to be handled correctly! The good thing is that since hitboxes are handled by the actor properties, weapons are purely visual.

This was done to open the way for a bit more of content, so now characters have at least 13 weapons, 10 Base weapons (Can be bought or found), 2 Story Locked Weapons, and One special weapon (Think Catalyst Weapons (TotA), Fell Arms (ToV), Devil's Arms (ToX2, ToS, and ToA) and Shadow Somas (ToH-R). Cameo characters WILL NOT receive more weapons.
This also enables me to implement my so desired costumes, hahahaha. So for costumes, my ideas are something that doesn't look too out of place. Also, Cameo Characters WILL NOT receive alternate costumes.
- Gala
- Legendary
- Alternate Color (Palette Swap)
This has been quite the treat for my characters lol.

Since weapons themselves were a stopping point for upgrades, the Upgrade System will be also rebuilt (won't take long). Some upgrades from the armors, mainly the Wolf and Panther Cores, which increased Attack and Elent Attack will be rebranded to Boost Stones, and each weapon will be able to equip up to three. The Elemental Coatings will also be moved to the weapons, and armors will only be able to work with the Elemental Pendants.

'Til next time! :3
Erif

#125 Oct 9, 2024, 09:03 PM Source

Hello Everyone! I'm sorry to announce that I am CANCELLING the use of Speed Cast while Chain Cast is Active!

Yes, I accidentally left the condition to activate Speed Cast while Chain Cast was active. What is Chain Casting you say?

Chain Casting is a mechanic where an actor casts a spell, inmediately reducing the casting time of the next spell, allowing for massive spell combos. In Shadows of the Earth, when Chain Casting is active, Spells will also consume 2 FLUX Units, efectively limiting the amount of spells you can use in a combo, by the amount of FLUX you have available divided by 2, so, having 30 FLUX means you have a Spell Chain limit of 15.

You can have one caster with Chain Casting active and one with normal casting active, or all with Chain or all with Normal! Create your formations to your liking! However, Chain Casting spells have their damage reduced by 25%, and Normal Spells have also a damage reduction when Speed Cast IV is active. This is to offset the insane damage amounts you can reach with Chain casting and Speed Cast IV. Casters are broken, I tell you; Titania can chain cast Absolution and it's terrifying.
MoztheTiger

#126 Oct 10, 2024, 06:57 PM Source

Well it's okay! The gameplay still looks sick!
Erif

#127 Oct 18, 2024, 05:47 PM Source

Update
So, after a few days of working with weapons. A new setback has appeared. Currently, since each character has 13 (Well, 12 since 2 weapons use the same image) weapons, I began to notice that some poses provide almost no wiggling room. In what sense?

Take a look at this. While I was experimenting with positioning and animations, I did the same pose twice. The only difference is that the battler lacks a shield.

Except the pose is literally the same. So this, led me to rethink my battler approach. And while I could take this opportunity to create new battlers. I lack the ability to sprite them from zero. So, I'm gonna re-do the battlers (YES, USING MV'S CHIBIS) with the weapon change in mind. Past battlers had the issue that I thought that changing weapons was never going to be possible, until I went and did the feature myself lol.
This will also let me see which poses are unused, and how many can be reused. In turn this will be a boon to performance too since the battler and weapon images will be massively reduced (For example, Joseph's battler had 44 sheets). Also, some poses could use a cleanup since they were done before I was capable of doing good battler edits and animations haha.

So, yeah. This is to say that I will not be able to post new content for a while, until I get to re-do all 16 Base battlers. Since Cameos don't have the ability to change their current weapon, this reduces the number I will be working with.

Fun Fact: Joseph mysteriously throws his shield to execute some of his Elents. Reminds you of someone? (My boy learned well :3)
Erif

#128 Oct 23, 2024, 04:14 AM Source

Hello Everyone!
So, I was testing some features and I asked @MoztheTiger to help me with said test, and we played together through PARSEC (And very fluently I might add) and this was the result

We didn't play with all the characters because, well, then what are we leaving to the imagination?
We are also looking for a third and fourth player to test more things if you want to join us!

On an actual devlog: This (uncorrectly named DLC, because it's more like an expansion and I'm not either allowed and I DON'T want to charge for it [that would be an idiotic move]) expansion has brought many issues to light, and while they're mostly fixed, I can't play with four characters by myself. This playthrough was an eye opener because it allowed me to check the "online" stability (Which was surprisingly, very stable).
On another note, this update, apart from upgrading the ATM-LMBS to the CEL-LMBS, also has brought upgrades to the cameo characters. Some mechanics (or rather, watered down replicas of said mechanics) such as Nick's Impulse, and Fidel's Elemental Stacking have been added (Allannia's Chain Input was already done through the Chain Elent Mechanic). I'm also retouching the main character sprites (all 16) and patching some Elent issues on the cameo characters. I can't go through all the details because I will leave that for when the update comes out :3

Without bragging too much, I'd say this will be a game changing update. There'll be more of the promised content, and at least, the intro to the Echoes of the Rift expansion.
Until next time!
Erif

#129 Nov 21, 2024, 04:11 AM Source
Hello everyone! First, I'd like to thank the people that check this thread every now and then. Those reactions play a big part on me keeping this game up :3.

Second, I know I said I wasn't going to update the thread for a while, and, while I haven't finished the sprites. I did take a break from this to bring you:
Stage 2
- All players can open their menus, and use items. (Thanks to Moz The Tiger for helping me with these tests)
- Chain Casting is available for all characters!
- Execution of Limit Elents has changed through the addition of the Limit Gauge. Each Limit Elent uses 3 LG when performed. Even if you have enough FLUX, you can't perform Limit Elents until you have at least 3 LG. LG is gained through combos, and by using the new item: Limit Bottle
  
  LG is represented by a yellow bar, along with the number of current LG. All characters can only store a maximum of 9 LG
During tests, Moz and I were able to spam Limit Elents to burst our way out against enemies. And while it's fun, it's not an intended mechanic. Limit Elents must feel rewarding when able to perform them, and not like a cheap spammable tactic
TL;DR: I buffed and nerfed the Limit Elents.
- Aerial Combat has been upgraded! You can now spend a bit more time comboing an enemy in the air thanks to the Aerial Delay (Internal Parameter). This allows you to reposition in the air if one of your hits whiff, so you can execute another elent.
- On the Defensive Side: the Dodge function is now a true Dodge. When an attack is sucessfully dodged, the character will play an animation.
- The Upgrade System has been reworked.
  
  Cores, Plates and Sigils have not changed, but some of the items in these categories have been changed to Boost Stones.
  
  Weapons can equip Boost Stones.
- Gamepad Button Scheme has been changed, it's a bit less cluttery, and a bit less weird.
These are the biggest changes that have happened in the Stage 2 of the CEL-LMBS. I have encountered a roadblock as there is seemingly no other way to upgrade it. Of course, Bugs might still happen.

Thanks for reading this post! :kaoluv:
Erif

#130 Dec 31, 2024, 03:37 AM Source
Ok! Everyone! I know I dissapeared a long time, but it's because I've been chipping away at the CEL-LMBS. My exclusive plugin LMBS_Strategy, is now at least 40% active!

Base Commands (This is still on the works. it will show the Preferred Enemy Target, EP restrictions, if Overflux and Spirit Force Mode can be used, and a couple of things more!

Actor Select Window (When the Setting is only being changed for one actor)

AI Type Selection Window (This one appears in the Type command, after selecting an actor. The choices are preset, and can be changed any time)

Party Tactic Window. (Defend Only causes Allies to not move, but they will perfectly guard against attacks at all times, Go All Out causes Allies to attack aggressively, disregarding defense. Normal returns them to their normal attack and defense routines)

On the other hand, here's some big changes to the LMBS itself.
- Allies can now use Items (Will automatically use Life Gems when an Ally is down. If there are no gems or 1 gem, the use will stop. It will also use Ether Oranges, starting from the highest one) (This is another setting that will be added to the Strategy menu)
- Strategy Menu has been added to the Battle Commands.
Until next time~

(Next time, I will upload a video showcasing mostly the new changes, some fights, and if everything goes well, another demo!)
Erif

#131 Jan 31, 2025, 06:51 PM Source
Great News!
Strategy Menu is Operating at 80%!

Hello Everyone! It's update time!.

I'd like to show you guys how does the strategy menu currently looks like.

A brief description of what each command does:
- Type: You can change each actor's AI Type. By default, all characters use balanced. The AI Type screen has a small description of what each AI Type does.
- Tactic:There's three for now.
  
  Go All Out!: All characters focus on attacking only.
  
  Normal: Resets everything
  
  Defend Only: Characters stop acting, but defend all attacks sucessfully.
- Target Focus: Now, since all enemies have now target types, You can select for each actor what kind of target it will prefer to attack, if said target is not present, the AI will default to attack the closest target.
- EP Restrict (Not yet available): Mostly for Casters, it will determine the EP Threshold at which Casters will disregard Ether Elents and enter Melee mode.
- OVF/SFM (Not yet available): Will allow you to control separately for each AI if they can enter Overflux and Spirit Force Mode.
- Item Use: Sets if the AI can use Items
  
  Current usable Items are Ether Oranges, and Life Gems.
And this is currently everything for the Strategy Menu. The Strategy Menu will be available in the next demo!

About sprites!

I'm close to getting the available characters in the earlier demo done! The characters and their weapons! Since the new weapon system got a bugfix by Blackmage (a scripter here, one of the best I might add) it's been working amazingly.

Alex rejoicing in the use of his Fiendslayer guns.

Wendy in the midst of a battle using a Halberd

Erif (Yes, it's not a secret) and Perla with an Ignis Brand and Zweihander respectively

Cielo testing her new Diamond Staff.
And here's a couple of the currently available weapons for characters 1 to 6. Two for each one. There's 6 weapons for each character as of now, but I don't want to clog the post with MORE images.

If nothing goes wrong, I'll be deploying a demo once I reach the playable characters resprited and the 6 weapons for each one.
'Til next time!
Erif

#132 Feb 7, 2025, 06:02 AM Source
UPDATE!

The first tower of the Echoes of the Rift expansion is ready: The Tower of the Cosmos!

The prologue and first tower of the expansion will be playable in the new demo.

Here's a sneak peek of one of the challenges of the Tower of the Cosmos!

What's gonna be available in the newest demo? I'm glad you asked!
- At least 1/2 of the First Arc of the main game. Story gets cut at this point, and you're free to access The Arena.
  
  At least Wandering Bosses 1 to 4.
  
  7 Playable Characters (Joseph, Perla, Alex, Wendy, Takeshi, Cielo and Mike)
- Story Prologue and First Tower of the Echoes of the Rift addition. This means, you'll be able to recruit the cameo characters and play with them!
  
  Personal missions of the cameo character no longer exist. Sorry if you were expecting those. I was out of line when doing those so... :)
- Many fixes, specially in the mechanics department
- Improved visuals and mechanics
  
  Some characters are still in the works. Currently, Fia is receiving her visual weapon upgrade, and animation corrections.
- Language Support (Spanish LATAM and English currently)
  
  Also, many corrections in the spelling department.
- Improved controller detection
- Improved multiplayer experience (via indicators, better controller handling and camera focus, main menu controller displays, Semi,Auto and Manual modes)
- Improved AI for combat. You can now, thanks to the Strategy Menu, control to a certain degree how your allies battle.
  
  This includes Item usage.
- Improved Weapons. Instead of having a single weapon for the entirety of the adventure, you can now use many different weapons (each character has a weapon type). And even better, you can upgrade them!
If you have any questions, let me know!

Out of the normal game update loop. I wanted to share that there might be a possible sprite rebuild. How? Well, i've been experimenting with sprites a little. Don't take this as a fully fledged decision, since I'm still very green when it comes to art. So, without any further ado, here's a sample of what could be the visual upgrade of Shadows of the Earth. If anything, this is still pretty impossible to tackle for a while, so the chibis will still be in the receiving end of critics.

What do you guys think? Let me know!
TESTOSTERONE

#133 Feb 7, 2025, 01:36 PM Source

Yeaaaasss! Tall battlers please!
Erif

#134 Feb 23, 2025, 07:05 PM Source
Update!
While I'm still working on sprites, so far mostly all mechanics and setups are finished. Currently I'm swapping between these three tasks.
- English Translation Cleanup
- Bug fixing
- Graphical Updates (Sprites, and Artwork).
The current graphical update is for Prim! She's currently receiving attack animation upgrades, and weapon resprites. Oh, and also, her status bust is receiving some painting fixes and a brand new damaged status image (That's also true for everyone :] )

Oldvs New!

Her kit is also receiving enhancements, such as new Elents, and better Aerial moves. She's currently in the level of Joseph in terms of aerial combat.
Final Look of the Cosmos Tower

-
The Cosmos Tower is the first dungeon available in Echoes of the Rift: A five floor beast of exploration, puzzles, loot, and many battles. Will you be able to defeat the guardian of this tower before bringing it to the ground? There's some story on it, y'know :), so make sure to explore it thoroughly; Who knows, you might unravel some secrets there.
That's everything for today. As for the Tall Sprites matter, I'm studying some options for their look, as it is still a monumental task to take. Hopefully, I find a way to streamline my spriting process and make it easier.
TESTOSTERONE

#135 Feb 23, 2025, 07:22 PM Source

Prim likey
Erif

#136 Mar 20, 2025, 04:10 AM Source

Hello everyone! Here's the prologue for the Echoes of the Rift. This contains the first scene, and then, a first look into combat. There's also the Title screen with all necessary credits. Some faces are still not changed, and are in work. So, well, some faces are odd. I hope you like it!

[English]

[Spanish]

This is also a small showcase of the in-game translations. There's three languages for now (two variations of spanish [latin/castilian] and english)
MoztheTiger

#137 Mar 20, 2025, 09:00 PM Source

This project is amazing! You can really tell the effort behind it, with a combat system completely rebuilt from scratch, proving that RPG Maker can do more than just turn-based combat.

The collaborations are a love letter to RPG Maker developers. I feel so privileged that my character is part of this game, and especially to see them alongside not only the characters from Shadows of the Earth, but also characters from other games like Wind Ryder, Rave Heart, Veiled Skies, The Silent Kingdom, and others.

You know you’ll always have my support, and I’ll be sure to promote this game wherever needed!

Keep it up, bro!
Erif

#138 Apr 29, 2025, 06:00 PM Source

Update Time!
I've been working on refining some of the multiplayer kinks! First of all, Multiplayer indicators in the main menu have been reworked.

Now, Player numbers and controller names are shown when controllers are connected and valid! Most controllers without an exact identifier, like Xbox One and Xbox 360 or PS4 are shown as Generic! I'll try and fill these voids by investigating more controller models!

Player Indicators and Target indicators are active only if the option is enabled in the Options menu. Target Indicators always start at index 0, so the first enemy in the troop is selected as a target. Besides, now Damage Numbers are colored to each player's corresponding color! This was a test feature I made when reworking damage detection, but I've decided to keep it!
Re-Sprites are currently spread between Scarlet, Arryn & Nick! Scarlet's gonna get a bit of a more mobile moveset, including kicks and more aerial movement. Arryn's already set on the skill part, and only requires some better sprites. and Nick is going to get a more faithful spriteset since... he somehow gained MORE spells.

vs
(New) (Old)
vs
(New) (Old)

And Fidel's sprites are finished, here's one of her new sprites (and move: Fishtickle)
'Til next time! HOPEFULLY, with the demo. (Crossing fingers!)
Erif

#139 May 13, 2025, 08:53 PM Source

Hello Everyone!

Here's an extended look at the Echoes of the Rift part of Shadows of the Earth. IT CONTAINS CO-OP! And as you can see, it's working much better! No spell stealing, no character hijacking!
Erif

#140 May 22, 2025, 02:52 AM Source

Hello Everyone! After a long time, I'm just putting a few more touches, details, translations and bugfixing for, well, you know the deal. Here are some screenshots!

Echoes of the Rift Mid-game Title Screen

Two new places to visit: Angorian Army's Headquarters, and the Guardian's Tower

The last bastion of a past war: The Ark, now flies above the skies of Angorian

Mid-Battle against Agmus, the Legendary Dragon Warrior.

And lots, LOTS of enemies waiting for a battle!

What about the date? Well, it's this week (hopefully). Thanks for all your support until now! It took a while but I can't rush things.
Erif

#141 May 23, 2025, 03:44 AM Source

[embedded media]

Shadows of the Earth: The Vrila'an Legend has a new demo!

Here's a GIANT, ENORMOUS changelog if you want to check what got in!

Links are available in the main post!
But just in case

(v0.6.4.2.7 Demo) Shadows of the Earth: The Vrila'an Legend by JoTerra
It might have bugs. If you discover one, don't hesitate to send it to me, and I'll try to solve it as fast as possible!