MV - Tale Of Vassya - REMAKE - (DEMO available)

*update*

Game is complete!
Totally free to play Here!


INTRODUCTION:

Tale of Vassya: A New Day is an older game I spent half a decade creating on RPG Maker VX Ace, and completed back in 2021. Since then, the story and characters have always been on my mind, as I have always envisioned them a bit differently. As I became more proficient in RPG Maker MV and Adobe Photoshop, I began thinking about remaking Tale of Vassya with a grander vision.

I ported my RMVX Ace file into RPG Maker MV and began the process! It took a few... hundred... hours more than I imagined, but the game began really shaping up, and now I'm closing in on completing the REMAKE!

I mostly created this remake for myself and my love for these characters. It's very hard to envision a character's true image with 32x32 pixel sprites, so the chance to enhance their battler sprites in RMMV turned this experiment in to an entire game remake. The game will be totally FREE, as I've used assets and music from other Ips. Even though I've probably spent close to $100 on it myself, I just want people to play and enjoy my story.

*Note: Some of the images had to be re-sized smaller because they were too large to fit together with the VX Ace images.

DEMO:
I added a new DEMO for Tales of Vassya REMAKE, use the link below to download it. The demo contains about the first 2 hours of each story, plus some side content (could be around 4-6 hours of gametime total). Let me know what you all think!


CONTENT:

Here are some major upgrades and changes to the original game that really pop when I look at them this way:




Here are some upgraded features and systems that were not as well designed in the original game:

- Charge Battle System:
I utilized the charge battle system to allow for more strategy and interactive battles.


- Weapon Switching system:
During battle, each character may use their turn to switch their current equipment, changing the type of damage they inflict like "slashing" or "piercing" type damage.


Enemies will be weak to certain damage types, allowing the player to take advantage of an enemy's weakness to certain damage types.



- Skill Balancing

I balanced a lot of the skills, gave new/different skills to characters that did not previously have them, and introduced ultimate skills for each weapon type.




- Various other upgrades and features!


SYNOPSIS:

Tale Of Vassya includes 2 separate campaigns, each with their own stories, characters, events and battles. Each of the two stories include around 15 hours of story and gameplay and at least another 5+ hours of optional content if you choose to continue on. There is a ton of content to find in each story line, and much of it works to expand on the story and the world. I was heavily inspired by the Game of Thrones series and the Final Fantasy series for this game, as you will quickly see.




STORY:

The world of Vassya has been at peace for almost a century. All of the diverse city-states live and trade together to maintain a healthy world economy. One fateful night, King Orick Maxwell II, the King of Capitol City, was found murdered in cold blood. The culprit, a man named Dmitry Juleon, is still at large somewhere in Vassya. After the first royal murder in over 100 years, the world of Vassya is very much unsettled, and tensions are beginning to rise between the cities. It is up to our two main characters, Damian and Maxwell, to figure out how to restore Vassya to its peaceful time, and find their purpose along the way.




CHARACTERS:

Damian Marquis:

- Damian is a young man who has lived in Capitol City his entire life, and yearns to see the outside world. As an acting member of The City Guard, he helps watch the city streets and keep crime at bay. His mother tragically died of a mysterious illness when he was young. After his mother, he is one of the last remaining descendants of the Rhegar Lineage. He yearns to leave Capitol City and see all that Vassya has to offer.



Orick Maxwell III:

- Everyone he knows personally calls him "Maxwell". After the night of his Father's murder, Maxwell's life turned dark. Formerly the heir to the throne and captain of The City Guard, Maxwell abandoned his duties and fled Capitol City. Now a loner, Maxwell is searching Vassya for a purpose and answers as to why his family was tragically taken from him.



Pearce Yashra:

- Most known as the Genius of Capitol City. He is a member of the city guard and good friends with Damian and Maxwell. Pearce spent his youth moving around Vassya from city to city, and getting to know some of the world leaders personally. Pearce relies on logic to make his decisions, and specializes in precise weapon types.



Urian Triphe:

- Personal guardian knight of The Royal Capitol Family. Urian is very disciplined, and finds working with young, adventurous-types quite frustrating. Urian is incredibly loyal to the crown even after the King is replaced. He partially blames himself for the King's murder as he left the city on a mission during the night of The Tragedy.



Dmitry Juleon:

- He has been named the murderer of King Orick Maxwell II and many others. He has gone into hiding since the murder, and his motivations are unknown. All questions surrounding the murder of the King lead back to Dmitry.



Kiara Juleon:

- She is a kind, young girl who seems to want to follow Maxwell on his journey. She seems to know something about Dmitry Juleon, but it is uncertain what she knows...



The Red Hooded Man:

- A mysterious hooded man, who seems to know Damian, and appears to have supernatural abilities. His motivations are currently unknown.



CONCLUSION:

I intend to complete the game and have it released for play very soon. I'm in the beta testing phase right now. This version of the game looks a lot closer to my original vision, and I’m quite happy with how it turned out. Here's another link to the DEMO version, which includes the first 2 hours of each story (4-6 hours of playtime total).

DEMO LINK ver 1.01


If you are curious and would like to check out the original game, the image below will direct you to the original game’s page:

RPG Maker VX Ace: Tale of Vassya

Super happy to see you making this remake! I'll definitely play it as soon as it drops!

Thanks! Porting the game to MV was the toughest part. All of the graphics needed to be re-sized, the plugins completely revised, and a lot more. Also, since I increased the resolution, a lot of the maps and scenes needed to be fixed because of the additional viewable area.

I was partially motivated to do this because of your remake of PHM!

I added a new DEMO for the REMAKE, use the link below to download it. The demo contains about the first 2 hours of each story, plus some side content (could be around 4-6 hours of gametime total). Full game should be complete in a month or two.

DEMO LINK

The speed at which you work always amazes me! When I'm back from New Year festivities how about I stream it/record it for YouTube?

For sure! I look forward to it!

I'd like to try the demo but sound-effecting messages is big NO for me. No matter which game I happen upon to have this "feature" it always uses the most annoying sound effect possible; here it sounds like somebody is smashing keys on the keyboard. At the very least there should be an option to disable this.
Also, an option to choose a different would be nice; Courier New is so default RPG Maker font that even Times New Roman looks better. However I wouldn't mind some other font as long as it's aesthetically pleasing and not too cartoony.

A review (sort of). Some of my points will be referenced by mini snip shots, rather than trying to describe who was doing what, where.

I have played the demo up till the point that Damian is heading to West Street.

I might have gone on a bit longer, but I couldn't take any more of the sound effects for the messages. I would strongly recommend that you make this optional, as it would be shame to have people quit before they even start.

I think this game has potential, and I note that it is only in Beta, but I think it might benefit from a rethink on a couple of points.

Perhaps make the initial battle tutorial optional? Most people playing don’t need to be told this. Even if they do, the second tutorial is still telling the player to use items wisely, and that they can fight or escape. Once would, I think, be enough.

I hardly ever had enough TP to use a skill. I only got enough if I attacked often enough or got hit. I have no problem with TP not being carried over, but it is possible to start each battle with more than the rather miserable 5 that they seemed to have. I think a random number between 11-18 works quite well.

I think it is helpful for the player to have some idea of what the percentage chance is for a skill to inflict a status effect. How else can I make an informed decision about whether to risk using it or not? Though perhaps all of them work 100%? Again, it would be good to know that.

Not every player will have English as their first language. Item description for carrot : “May heal blindness or raise defense.” So does “may” mean that it randomly won’t do those things? It says that it is heal blindness OR raise defense. Do I get a choice? Or again, is it random which it does? Same with apple “may” heal poison “or” confusion. My guess is that it will heal whichever status affliction you have, so that it’s dual purpose. But it’s not clear.

Save crystals. So can’t I save anywhere? This element has been discussed on many threads and in general it is thought that players prefer to be able to save anywhere. RL has its demands, and many players might have to leave the game quickly.

I liked the music, but I was a bit disappointed that you seem to be using all the default sound effects. Even if you only changed the cursor sound that would make a big difference as it is used so much in the menus.


Overall, as I said at the beginning, I think this has potential, and I would encourage you to continue. If I were to stress just one thing, it would be to make the message sound optional. Too many players don't like it.

Thanks for trying it. I did not realize that most people do not like the "typewriter" sound feature. I can easily make that an option to turn on/off in the final version of the game, and will do!
I hesitate to try out new fonts as that sometimes affects all the text box sizes throughout the game that have already been written, but I will look into it for sure.

Thanks for the info. I plan to make the text sound optional to turn on/off. I like the sound, but didn't realize people hated it. You didn't make it all that far into the demo, so it must be quite annoying to people.
I definitely understand your confusion around the TP and item descriptions and will revise them to be more descriptive.
This is subjective, but I prefer save points as they prevent people from soft locking the game in points, and force players to be a bit more strategic and plan ahead.
Thanks again for playing!

Heya, I played your game briefly and did an impressions video. You can watch it here if you are brave! There will be some overlap with some of the points made below, but there's value in hearing reactions to things in real time, too.

I apologize for forgetting that I've played one of your games on my channel before, I promise I'm not trying to harp on you.

As you know, I tend to be one of the harsher critics on here so steel yourself for what's to come.

Oh Hey Wootbm thanks! I am subscribed to your youtube, but I didn't notice my game as in one of your vids. I am brave, and I understand where your criticisms come from, so I'll definitely give it a watch.

The story is most important to me, and I'm not sure how far you got into the demo itself, but here is some extra info in case it interests you any more than in your playthrough:

- I wouldn't say the story is for kids at all. I wanted to show how optimistic the characters are during the prologue, and then after the murders and the time skip, the story is much more serious, especially in Maxwell's story.
- The opening is a flashback to Damian's mother and her expedition, which is an important turning point in history before the current day. There's a lot more connections and additional flashbacks to that event in the first few hours of the game.
- It's definitely a slow start to the story, and it picks up quickly after the prologue. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the murder and why it happened the way it did.

Anyway, thanks again for playing! And I'll check out your video for sure!

Played the demo, but my playthrough was cut short by a crash in Damian's story.

Also Damian's sprite was not restored after the second flashback, it was not restored until I got the training sword.

I really like this game, I hope this crash is solved as quickly as possible!:ehappy:

Hi,
I'm looking into how to fix the crash now. Seems to happen sometimes with the Dragonbones plugin. I'll re-upload a fixed demo once fixed and let y'all know.
Also, thanks for the heads up on Damian's sprite getting mixed up. This was an easy fix.
Thanks!

Hello! I have fixed the issues you were experiencing with the demo. I updated the download link in the main post.
Also here's a new link to make it easy:
New DEMO Link ver 1.01

I fixed the game breaking issue. It had to do with the dragonbones plugin. Should work fine now.
I also fixed the sprite mix up for Damian.

A few things I added while I was at it:
- Added an option to turn off the text sound at the beginning.
- Updated a few scenes to help with direction.
- Updated a few sound effects that I have been working on in the full game.

Thanks! And let me know if you run into any other issues.

Wow I can't imagine the difficulty in converting everything for MV!

Amazing job! Unfortunately I am not able to download it, do I need to log in to download?

It took a long time. I replaced all of the graphics for the entire game.
You should not need to log in at all to download. Anyone should be able to.
Just go to the dropbox link, and there should be a download option on the top right of the window.
Let me know if you run into any issues.

a nice remake! You are making a good work!

Oh I didn't notice the download arrow top right, thanks it worked. I'll return with feedback as soon as I played it! :D

Glad you fixed it! I was able to play the entirety of Damian's Story along with Maxwell's.

Both stories was awesome, and I really enjoyed it! (Even though Maxwell's story was much shorter...)

I really like how you used the overworld, instead of using the default overworld map type you made areas of the Outside map type. it gives alot more detail in the world.

Another thing I like was the books/notes you can read, and looking at the world map as well, it really adds much immersive experience.

Overall I really enjoyed it, I hope you complete it!

Hey thanks very much for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

The final game includes about 15 hours for each story, so about 30 hours for both.
I liked writing the notes left behind by past characters. The more notes that you gather, the more they reveal about the past events that shaped the present day happenings. The final game has about 60 notes, spanned between the two main stories.

The game is complete right now. I'm working on testing and balancing everything. I also wanted to add hints and helpful language to assist players in knowing where they should go next. It's a long game with a lot of dialogue, so I can see people missing where they are explained where to go next.

I'm hoping to have the game released soon, though I work full time and have children, so the time I have to work on rpg maker is getting smaller and smaller every day