MV - The Silent Kingdom - Dark Otome RPG (demo)

Hello, everyone! Long time lurker here, being able to finally show the project I've been working on for almost a year. 'The Silent Kingdom' is a story-driven, otome RPG where player's choices and interactions with other characters set the narrative.

So far I have the full demo released on both Steam and Itch.io for free, and a Kickstarter campaign is currently running. Please give the demo a try if you have the time! ^^








Thank you for taking a look!

Wow, this was some next level stuff :D A title music with vocals, nice! This has the best presentation of any of the games I've seen here. The mapping is obviously great and I really like how the small animations make the character "busts" more lively during the dialogues. The writing seems done by someone with a good grasp of English language. Also really liked some of the 2D art. And nice job with the terrors! Some suggestions/thoughts below:

-The princess walking looks a bit funny, maybe she could swing her arms less or something?
-And also when Seneca joined for a brief while in the woods as a party member, it looked a bit funny when their arms swung in perfect synchrony - looked a bit like a marching band or something, maybe make their arms swing a little less in sync?
-The castle music track stops somehow abruptly I think - maybe there could be some kind of smoother transition to the repeat?
-I noticed some small clipping in the castle or whatever you call it in English - like the character sprite appeared a bit on top the side of the chest in the castle and I think there was some other object also
-Not having a different animation when going up ladders looked a bit funny
-When I had to find a weapon, maybe you could hint about checking that one room - I ran around for quite some time (thought I had to get a knife from the kitchen or something) before realizing there was a weapon rack in the storage room
-When the princess is presented what she must do with the dagger, maybe there could be some more reaction/inner monologue before you pick her reaction from the choices
-The only battle skill the princess had felt kind of meh
-I would use some kind of plugin to remove the asking of fight/escape in the beginning of every turn

Yep, I think that's most of the small comments I had in mind. A really great game, and I could definitely play the full version.

I just played this game and I loved it, had a good old time. Definitely a lot of questions at the start which got answered but now only leaves me with more questions. The sprites were definitely a nice, different look also which I havent seen before at least.

I gave this another go thanks to the feedback festival event, since I remember I was impressed by the demo 3 years ago and I heard this had a successful Kickstarter and that the demo has been updated.

Like I said earlier, the graphical presentation is really impressive, the overall quality is maybe the best that I've seen in RPGMaker games. I like everything from the mapping to the sprites and the CGs are really impressive. There's a couple of small points I'll comment. The braziers in the castle entrance hallway look to me like they could use some edits to make them fit better with the tileset. And I'm not the biggest fan of the "backside" limbs of the princess walking sprite appearing completely black when walking sideways.

The music is good and builds atmosphere nicely, but I think the dashing clop clop SE cycles too fast though, and I'm not the biggest fan of the cling menu/cursor select SE.

I think the story is interesting and the dialogue is a lot better than your average RPG Maker game.

The battles had some challenge (at least against the multiple guards) which was nice and you added some skills from the time of the original demo. However, there's a huge framedrop (at least for me) when the battle transition starts from the map and also I was suffering from frame drops when fighting the multiple enemies (guards) at once. Also the blood effect seems to play even if an attack misses. I'd put a conditional branch in the action sequence to check if it hit or missed (same with the block mechanic). I'd also make a change to the single/multi-selection. I think it's better if you'd have to press a button to shift to the multi-select or at least make it so that if there's only one enemy remaining, then it wouldn't ask about the selection.

Some random comments:
-with the level of presentation of the game, I'd still take the extra step of making a climbing sprite when going up the ladder
-kid Chrono sprite doesn't turn toward you when you talk to him in the training yard
-the Rex Impera skill causes a blood effect in the training match (when your other attacks don't)
-I was playing the STEAM demo and when I quit the game from the title screen, the game freezes and doesn't close.
-When I offered the silver coins to the statue, nothing happened (perhaps there could be an explanation...)
-Old silver coin description says "Perhaps it has any collector's value."
-Maid who brings message from librarian "I applaud you not..." (shouldn't there be a 'for'?)
-Near the end the Oracles says "I know you don't have bad heart princess"

Aaah, thank you very, very much for all the feedback!! You gave me very useful points. I'd like to address them:

-First of all, and unfortunately, there are things that I can't change because I don't know coding. For example, what you mention about single/multi-selection. That feature is done by a plugin and I wouldn't know how to change it on my own. However, about that matter in particular I must say that it worked for me, since single and multi targets require different amounts of MP, so the single-multi menu helps you see how much MP is required for each. You won't always have enough MP for area attacks.

-Ohh, so the blood effect plays if an attack misses? I actually did use a conditional branch to prevent that (which was quite a feat for my non existent coding skills hahaha). I could swear it worked when I tested it back in the day. But maybe I messed the code in any skill. I'll look into it, thank you for pointing it out!

-It actually makes me very happy that you noticed that the training attacks don't draw blood! I figured out how to change the default attack for each weapon, so I made sure that the training one would be friendly hahaha. However, other skills couldn't be changed. I considered creating an alt version of Rex Impera just for the training, and then make the princess unlearn it and learn the blood version. But in the end I thought that would be too troublesome for something so small. I might change it in the end though, since you've noticed ^^

-The dashing step sounds have been changed to be less fast, though I haven't updated the demo with this change yet.

-About ladder climbing sprite... My problem was how it'd work when your body is half-way out the ladder but not quite out yet. I had the feeling it could look a bit odd. However, I'll add this to the list of nice details I could try to add if I find some extra time. (I'm working on the game non stop).

-Chrono didn't leave his training position when talked to. I programmed it so that he'd simply stop his animation. However, after your feedback, I've gone ahead and changed it. Now he'll stand normally and look at the player when talked to, and return to the training position when dialogue ends ^^

-The freezing that happens when quitting the game seems related to the plugin that adds the quit option. I've noticed it too, but I don't know how to solve it since it's related to coding ;_;

-If you offer the wrong number of coins to the statue, there should be a message saying that your offering has no effect. (The correct number is the one that Argus mentions when he gives you the coins.) I made it so that you have only one attempt, otherwise, it'd be very easy hahaha.

-Aaaaah! I hadn't noticed those typos! Thank you!! I've just corrected them. The changes will appear in the next update. Good catch!

I hope I didn't forget anything. Thank you again for all the feedback ^^
You've played the demo twice. I appreciate it.

Howdy, I played your game for the forum’s Feedback Festival and made a Let’s Play video!


Review Thread

Hello! I played the demo also for the Feedback Festival! And wow! What a gorgeous game! I love the environmental story-telling, there's so much! The lighting, effects, sound effects. They all help to make the game feel so immersive and real! The sprites and artwork are just perfect! The music fit in every scene too! The aesthetics is very inspiring to me! The battle system is fun and fast-paced, how I like 'em, and the battle sprites are just as gorgeous. Now, so much for being in awe with all the graphics/audio. xD

The story is my favorite part. The gorgeous graphics just add so much to it. But it really got me hooked and intrigued! *spoilers* I love the reveal about the princess being trapped in a dream, and it was all executed so nicely! I know some people will say, "Oh, too many cutscenes/story," but I think you did a great job making it engaging. I didn't mind that there were more cutscenes than battles. I love how elegantly the characters speak, and it fits them being royals. The Otome aspects of the game were also fun! I'd probably have Erinys romance Chrono if I could. (The real world of age Chrono of course, not the child version lol) xD

As for feedback, there aren't much I can say since I loved almost everything about it, but I would say there's a lot of backtracking in the game that pads the game a little too much. Like when you wake up in the cycle you have to walk all the way to everything again. Maybe skip the scenes to the main events once she wakes up again? (Make her immediately get to the training session and lessons with the professor after encountering Seneca), and when she woke up in the *spoilers* real world where all the people were turned to stone, she walks super slow (which of course makes sense for the story), but again backtracking when I realize I need to go down via the vines in the balcony instead of the main exit.

Also, there's a bit of inconsistency with the interactables. Sometimes there are no shiny indicators that let the player know they're interactable, and sometimes there are.

But yeah, those are just a few I can share at the top of my head that may help improve the experience. Overall, this is a masterpiece, not just visually/auditorally, but also narratively! Keep it up! Can't wait for the release! ^^

Thank you very much, @Slaughty and @Starmage! So there's a Feedback Festival going on. That's actually a very cool idea hahaha.

This is an old thread and all the screens and info are from the outdated, alpha version. I'm a bit embarrassed ;;;
I should update it as soon as possible with the final version of the game.

In any case, thank you for giving the game a try and for your valuable feedback. I'm taking everything into consideration to improve as much as I can.

A small note about the shiny indicators, I only added them for things I consider important or are a part of the main quest. But for people who like exploring, there are also hidden spots and items. Actually, the chest from the small room was added mainly to make players aware of this, since it needs a key that's initially hidden (albeit easy to find.)