MV - World of Ruin

Created for the one map game challenge, World of Ruin attempts to provide a complete adventure while adhering to those limitations.

Long ago, a legendary figure failed to stop the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord sends monsters across the world, destroying civilizations and severing the trade paths of the last surviving cities. The player starts as a Hero, but is given a choice to recruit three other party members from six different classes with their own unique abilities. Create your own team, and explore the world. Fight monsters in 'dungeons' and find the five keystones required to fight the final boss.

Classes:
Hero - Trick of all trades.
Knight - Protects the party by raising defenses and drawing attacks.
Warrior - Dishes out damage by breaking the enemy's defenses.
Sorcerer - Fights with spells and curses.
Dancer - Supports the party with buffs and healing.
Engineer - Provides elemental attacks and healing physically using machines.
Theif - Steals gold and can be really useful... when lucky.

Screenshots:

Download Here

Credits:

Alright because this was all on one map I presumed it'd be quite short so I decided to bump it up to the top of my list of games to try and gave it a go.

I started playing this yesterday and finished it today.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. In my opinion you mostly used the mechanics you choice very well and it's quite amazing what you were able to do with so little.

I choice Knight, Sorcerer and Dancer on my play-through. I really really like how you planned out the classs here in the description, though it would've been good to describe them in the game too before picking them if that were possible.

Mapping was very nice, I felt everything was about the right distance and visually appealing, very enjoyable map to roam through. Music was also good, it felt mostly cheerful and so did the facesets and sprites you were using, so they both combined well together.

I felt you balanced the whole game really well. You couldn't easily with battles for the dungeon your underleveled, and at the right levels the game provide a bit of a challenge.

The only two parts I got stuck on was the Earth Spirit and the Dark Lord final boss, I talk in a little more depth about the final boss near the end of these comments.

I really liked that you upgraded to better equipment once you got to the dwarf area, and then in that last area you can buy some rings. That made gold more useful throughout the game.

I also thought the Dancer class was quite creative. I liked how you mixed it up instead of having a Healer class.

When choosing the characters though, after entering names for them I had to click enter on my keyboard twice per character to move to the next screen. Not sure if that's a bug or something wrong on my end though. An exit game option on the title screen would've been nice too.

Flash on the Hero also dealt very little damage so I never used it. I think even when those certain events that changes the Hero happen it still dealt hardly any damage. Also the final weapon, I think, was less powerful than other weapons. It may have been better to give it slightly more than equal stats to the dwarf sword?

I also felt the defence skills the Knight had were mostly not that useful against most of the game enemies, but it was still useful to use them with Shield Bash and that was good though.

You also have one bugged skill on the Hero, Revive didn't work on other party members, it just healed the Hero some more HP.

I also didn't like the Hero starting a level 1 again at the point Hero changes, but I quickly accepted it when I realize the character had much stronger stats.

I thought that plot twist was good, it added to the game experience and took me by surprise.

Nice having the feature to talk to the NPC's as well. I also liked how you unlocked the boat for the dwarf place and the airship.

For a one map game challenge it's pretty impressive all that you were able to do and accomplish.

It took me a LOT longer though to defeat the Dark Lord, I felt it was quite difficult in comparison to nearly everything else in the game.

Overall my game time says 3:14:36, but because I ended with a blank screen it didn't count the final boss, and I reloaded save filed each time I decide in battle so it's probably another 30-40 minutes. I don't think the game crashed, but it just left me with a blanks screen after some extra dialogue? Is that right? I think it would've been better to exit it back to the title screen.

My last point was on the codec, was it meant to do anything? It always get it couldn't connect to the internet, I don't know if there was some internet feature in the game then, but my internet connection was on.

I also don't know if there was a secret ending I missed or not?

But that all sums up my thoughts and comment on the game, good job overall it shows you've put much thought and effort into this and it the end game was fun to play too! :)

Other than a few bugs and tweaks, which is expected with any game, I don't see much that could improve this as a one map game, so congratulations on that too.

Good luck with your future games! :) I do still plan to try out your other finished game sometime in the near future.

I was also wondering, could you let me know where you got the custom graphics from for the facesets and sprites? I quite like them!

Thank you for the feedback!
They should be. When on the class selection screen there's a description for the classes on the top of the screen.

I'll also see about the bugs. The ending was kind of intentional because
However, I'll see about having the playtime and percent completion is shown after defeating the final boss.

As for the Dark Lord, that does sound overly tedious, so I'll see about rebalancing his stats.

Edit:
Updated the game with a few things:
-Final Boss stats changed, less hp but slightly higher defenses. Should be a shorter fight.
-Revive fixed.
-Flash as a skill does more damage.
-Stats of Legendary Sword has the attack of a Dwarven Sword and the magic of a Dwarven Staff.
-Knight's Barrier skill adds 25% Max HP.
-The game shows completion % and playtime in minutes after defeating the final boss.

As for the codec, the merchant in the north gives you a few hints. Try using it in the 'access points'.

Just downloaded the game. I like the character sprites. Did you make them or did you commission them or did you find them from somewhere?

I wish I could make sprites like that.
They're from this site: https://blog.goo.ne.jp/akarise

This is a fun game. I played with a group entirely comprised of warriors and the hero. Then bought Dwarf axes and pounded on everything. It kills enemies quickly.

That's great. XD
I'm not going to balance anything regarding that because it reminds me of my playthrough of Final Fantasy 1 with my team of just fighters. The focus of the game was building an efficient team more than deep combat anyways.

Yeah, just wish I could make the main hero a warrior too. Or a dancer, then I'd buff everyone else.

Just played it. For a one map challenge, it's pretty fun. Basic, well-known concept and formula, but it works. Would make a pretty good mobile game, actually.

Just at the , thoughts so far:

Artstyle wraps up pretty nicely! The colour effects bring all the assets together. I was expecting the setting to feel a little empty when I heard it was only one map, but the dialogue managed to get a small sense of scope and feeling, even in a world of... well, ruin.

It might've been neat to have a look at my cast members and their abilities before jumping in; but I guess that surprise is part of the fun, isn't it? The Engineer class is a unique idea, I had the most fun with the way she combined high-damage and healing abilities. My party's Engineer/Warrior/Knight.

Encounters are well-paced and challenging! They feel designed in a way that makes you strategize, and the one-two combinations keep you on your toes. It encourages you to conserve MP, while still not going so far that casting spells feel like a waste. I think it's a testament to your skills that you're able to make all these classes relevant in battles.


I found the exploration a little odd. It's nice having the castle nearby in the north, as a constant reminder of your eventual end goal; but the levels to explore on the "main" continent partly threw me off. Seeing Level 4/5/6 dungeons around made me wonder if I had to grind on my island before even heading out there; it took me a while to discover the tree was actually a dungeon. Same with Snowy Woods on the southern continent. At the same time, the warnings beforehand are a good method of making the player aware of what they're getting into, so I applaud that. I did like the sense of moving around to discover things, in that it felt more like real locations than a set of linear levels. I just think some extra dialogue might've pointed me in the right path.

The Lizardmen were my first death, and my second! Told me I was getting careless with my patterns and had to mix my tactics up. (Specifically: I was being too defensive with my Knight and getting her to shoulder the damage even at low health, when more offensive skills could work. Taking those risks is fun.)

I didn't find myself using items much until around level 8; like atoms mentioned, the Earth Spirit got me. Realized I was playing too OFFENSIVELY, there, and that I wasn't making use of guard. Felt about right.

Only bugs I've seen so far:
-Small graphical thing on Lizardmen
-It seems like the Engineer's flamethrower only has a scope of 1 enemy, when the description gives it a wider range? Still found it useful!

But yeah, looking forward to playing through more when I get a chance!

I played through this game one more time on the updated version, and started a second time trying @MMMm suggestion to see what it was like.

I choice Warrior, Sorcerer and Dancer this time so pretty similar setup but slightly more damage output. I can say for certain Revive worked this time, so that was great. Still had to do a little grinding on the Earth Spirit, but only a level or two.

Dark Lord battle was much more fun while still being challenging and yes beatable this time.

I think the Dwarven Sword attack power was still stronger than the Legendary Sword though? I ended up putting it on the Dancer I think instead.

As for seeing a description of each class when selecting the list, sorry, not sure how I missed that the first time.

This time my time spent was 77 minutes, overall much shorter but still, I had more fun this time around and it's still an hour, which is a good amount of time for the type of game it is! :)

Like @2098-Face said, I found the overworld map slightly odd as I wondered if I had to grind on the same island and was a bit surprised to see a dungeon at the right level on the snow continent after that, but I enjoyed exploring and wondering off and then coming back later so to me it added to the game experience, but I can believe for some players they may miss that or find it slightly frustrating.

Then with @MMMm three Warrior setup, that was funny. I had to stock up on items of course because of no healer, but otherwise battles went very quick. I just got up to the Earth Spirit to see what that'd be like and it was a breeze.

Interestingly though, since some enemies can take 0 to little damage from both Fire and Ice magic attacks having 3 Sorcerers would not have resulted in the same type of experience, as on those enemies game would be much harder to beat.

Otherwise my comments are still the same as before, good game though.

Last question. I also notice your other game was on RMN, are you planning to put this one on there too?

Yes, but the Dwarven Sword doesn't have any magic. Purpose of the Legendary Sword is that it raises both physical and magical attack.

Might need to redo the Magic Defense stats for the enemies then.

After the next patch, maybe. (Need to fix Flamethrower and the previously mentioned MDF stats) Didn't see any other One-map challenge submissions there, which is why I avoid doing so. But if you all think this is decent as it's own game, I'll probably do that.

I might splurge a bit and make it a free download on Google Play as well.

Also, since I have a base. I could make a sequel with a better world map and structure.

That would be pretty neat. You could even have 3 separate sprites for each class, in case someone makes a party of all one class or takes multiples.

The game doesn't use much mapping so it would be great to have side quests and "missions" around the world. It would make use of all those travel methods you hand out.

This is a pretty good game and it would be nice to see it expanded upon.

The Dwarven Sword and Legendary Sword makes sense.

It's up to you, but if you want the player to be able to beat the game picking 3 Sorcerer's then yeah the Magic Defense will have to be reduced on a few enemies. I think though, players except to have to purposely choose at least 2 different classes when team building in RPGs, but having one where you can pick 3 Sorcerer's and beat it is an intresting idea, and as long as it doesn't unbalance the game in other ways I see no reason to not allow it.

Yeah it's good to fix all the remaining bugs first, but if you could get it on Google Play that'll probably open it up to new audiences and since a few people here have said it's a fun game I don't see any reason to not do it if you have the knowledge on how to upload games there.

If your up for making a sequel I'm sure it'll turn out good, seeing as this one went.

Good luck though with everything you are doing.

I think the magic should deal status effects often or cause a damage over time effect so it can compete with physical attacks. What makes the magic special otherwise?

I never used the hero's light magic, but would have if it rendered enemies blind or stunned them.

I don't like using RNG for states though. That's why every status effect in the game, from the player or enemy, has a 100% success rate.

Damage alongside status effects could streamline the skill list though.

Would be pretty sweet. The Engineer would have a lot more use if the flame thrower actually set everyone on fire or the ice chilled them and weakened them.

Picked up this game a couple days ago; finally got around to playing and beating it. In real time I started it yesterday and finished it today; in in-game time my playthrough took around four hours. I've only done one playthrough with Knight, Sorcerer, and Dancer; not sure if I'm going to do a second or not.

In any event, I enjoyed it a lot. Combat was interesting without being mindlessly easy or frustratingly difficult, the general atmosphere was good, and the story was surprisingly gripping for being so minimalist.


The "dungeons" might have just been strings of battles, but I enjoyed how they were implemented here anyway. I also liked how each of the Spirit bosses had their own unique negative state associated with them that mixed up their battles a little bit compared to the rest of the game.

Kudos for the ability to pick a male or female hero. As someone who greatly prefers female protagonists, that option's always appreciated.

My biggest niggle with it is that it does feel a little grindy; money's rather scarce otherwise, and there's a bit of a level gap between the Dark Lord's castle and the other dungeons.


I also don't think guarding was all that useful either (which made the Light Spirit's negative state a bit of a non-issue), though I do like how shields affected what guarding did rather than just being another stat-boosting piece of equipment.

Some commentary on the party members I used:

• Don't have a whole lot to say about the Hero. I never used Revive and only rarely used Heal due to lack of need; Dancer covered my healing much better and the one time I had a character die, it was during the aftermath of the aforementioned spoiler. Flash was my primary attacking move by endgame; I used Flash All a couple times, but never found the AoE to be really necessary and found that the focused damage of Flash was more useful in the long run.
• About the only two Knight skills I got any use out of by endgame were Party Protection and Barrier. Her initial defense-raising skill only affected her and felt really redundant, the Taunt skills didn't last long enough to be worthwhile and were outclassed by the Taunt Guard Shield anyway, and Shield Bash was outdamaged by her normal attack. I'm also not sure if the defense buff really helped; a lot of the time, it didn't feel like it did anything to reduce incoming damage. She was the least useful of the party members.
• Sorcerer was my primary damage dealer by endgame. About the only time I found him not that useful was during the Earth Spirit fight, whose gimmick made magic absolutely worthless. Past that, Freeze and Burn were useful debuffs for the most part, Unchant was a useful buff, and Void did good damage (even to things that I thought would resist it).
• Dancer was always helpful. Recover and Recover All were both equally useful depending on the circumstances, Morale Dance helped a lot with damage output, and Repeat Dance made Sorcerer an even greater damage dealer than he already was. I got some use out of Misty Step by pairing it with Knight's Taunt during the early game, but I stopped using it during the endgame since it only affected one target and wasn't completely reliable anyway. Cure felt completely useless for the most part; the status effects I'd most want cured (the Spirits') couldn't be cured anyway, and the status effects that could be removed were uncommon and rather negligible in the long run (poison is only inflicted by zombies, who only show up in one dungeon if I remember right, and burn didn't increase Fire damage to the point where curing it was high priority. The fact it only targeted one party member at a time didn't do it any favors either.

And some bugs and oddities I noticed:

• The Light Spirit's status lasts until sleeping at an inn when none of the other Spirits' last past the end of the battle.
• There was a typo during the aforementioned spoiler; I don't remember exactly where, but it was noticeable. The "cannon" in Laser Cannon is also spelled wrong.
• Spoiler

  During the Creator Crater's Spirit boss rush, the last boss is the Light Spirit, when judging by the music it should had been the Spirit from the Shrine of Sacrifice. Considering the Light Spirit was also part of the first part of the dungeon, fighting it again feels rather redundant.

@D.L. Yomegami I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Especially the parts regarding combat, since that's the focus and all. The boss-specific states is an idea I borrowed from another game I'm working on and thought the concept was good enough to use in other games. I think it adds good situational depth, a design concept I borrowed from platformers like Mario, but I don't see much in RPGs.

I'm working out ideas for a sequel, and I do understand why the Hero and Knight class needs a bit of work. The Hero is supposed to be an all-around type, but balancing that can be hard and forcing that class on the player limit their options, and it seems a Tank class can be fairly situational. Maybe I should give a more focus role to the Hero class and increase the utilities of the Knight. I probably should have had more enemies use states to make Cure a more useful spell, but it would be too big of a balancing feat to add that now. Maybe enemies can use a single-target version of the boss specific spells? Would give a taste of what's to come.

But going back to this game, I'll fix those bugs later today. I didn't mean for the light spirit's status effect to carry on after the battle. As for the spoiler fix, I'll consider changing the enemies around for that part of the game.

I have a few basic suggestions.

I think a Tank class could be more useful with a better taunt/target rate system. So it's more likely to take physical damage in place of allies and against certain enemies and bosses that could be more useful. I know you did a 1 turn magic taunt, but didn't help much.

With the Hero, maybe the element attack of Flash deals a state as well? Like Blinds an enemy?

I'm sure you'll be able to come up with good ideas on what to do with them though.