MV - Yggdrasil Chronicles - A Record of Valkadia (Demo, In-Development)

INTRODUCTION

IMAGES/SCREENSHOTS


DOWNLOAD LINK

DEV NOTE

Hi, guys. I'm also open for feedbacks, so if anyone has tried, feel free to leave feedbacks so I can improve the game in the future. Thank you!

Hi guys,
Due to a broken plugin, there was an error after loading the save file and fighting in battle. I have deployed a new build to fix this. Please be aware that this latest build will not be compatible with the old save file, so please start from the scratch again. I'm truly sorry for this inconvenience.

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.

Just as a warning, I tend to be one of the harsher critics on here so steel yourself for what's to come.


You wanted to know about point investment? In my case it's easy. For Morrigan I spent all points on STR. For Lilith I spent all my points on INT. These stats seem more valuable than the others and there's no system (IE increasing cost, level gating) stopping me from continually putting points into them.

When does the demo end? I'm supposed to exit the Cathedral and find my way to the Item Shop, but I can't exit the Cathedral, there's only a dead end.

I have enjoyed the game thus far. I did pick up on a few


I also noticed a

I was a little put off by all dialogue at the beginning of the game. Thankfully that trend didn't continue throughout. Generally I don't mind a lot of text, as how else can you develop the characters and storyline without dialogue, but the beginning just seemed like one wall of text after another. I liked how the plot drew me in and how the plot twisted now and then. A few I expected, but a few caught me off guard.


I did spend quite a bit of time fast traveling from one town to another to craft gems. Some I couldn't craft because the required gems didn't seem to be available either to buy or craft. One that comes to mind is Advanced Assaulting Crystal. Maybe that recipe will be revealed later in the game. Edit- Found some recipe scrolls in my Inventory. Not sure where they came from, but they do fill in the gaps.

I remember playing your first game at least twice several years ago and I do remember enjoying it. Maybe I'll play it again, as I don't recall much of the game or the plot. This sequel looks really promising. I will say I agree with the person above who made the comment of the cussing being out of character a bit, but the language isn't so egregious that I would find it offensive.

All in all, I'm really looking forward to watching this game develop. It is quite an enterprising undertaking on your part and looks to be an excellent game. I'm going to pick up from my last save before entering the Cathedral and play around with spells, equipment and gems to make my players more efficient battlers. In the meantime, I'd really appreciate it if you could confirm that this is the end of the demo or there is a way to exit the Valkadia cathedral and I'm just being obtuse.

Edit-Did you want those txt boss battle files? I could either attach them here or in a personal dm to you, whichever you prefer.

@woootbm Thank you for your detailed feedback. I have taken notes of them to improve. And to be honest, I have also seen some of the problems there but haven't had much time to deal with them yet. Something I might want to share with you and hear from you right now:
- The character arts are actually from Kaduki (I bought them from him in a pack of PNGs), so it is not easy to modify under my will (as I do not have much knowledge about graphics design)
- I put a fake loading screen during save/load process just to put some random tips there in the future.
- I will make changes to the profanity to make them feel a bit more natural and fit with the situation, as well as figure out a way to make the slow-paced part more exciting because the first part of the game just to let people know the daily life of Morrigan and her fellows :D Maybe in the future, I will try to put more side quests from contracts or some exploration there.
- I'm also thinking how to rework the Voodoo Cure to make it less complicated, while reducing the healing abuse. It is also the only damage-dealing skill for Lilith.
- One important thing I want to ask you about the Stat Allocation is: In case you keep focusing on only one stat, how are the battles? Do they make you feel a bit challenging, or still too easy? Because the further you advance, the more important AGI is to get your turns before the enemies'. And how do you make use of the Reinforcement Crystals for other stats?
- If possible, could you please share the .txt files in the "icon" folders with me? I'm curious when you say you only focus on one stat because when designing, I think players need to focus on at least two stats instead of just one, or later the battles will be intensive.


@Lady_JJ Thank you for your review too. Those errors you pointed out are valuable to me, and I have also made a quick fix for them. I'm glad you enjoyed both the first game and this demo sequel. I will keep my work up to improve the game. There is also something I want to share with you and hear from you again:
- I forgot to put events to get out of the Cathedral, so please download the fix below and follow the instructions to fix it, or redownload the build and move your old save files there (I have re-uploaded the new build with the fix in the same link). Truly sorry for this.
- For the mapping issue, it would be good if you have some screenshots for me, so I can see the exact locations. Same for the item description too.
- I know buying Reinforcement Crystals is quite time-consuming, as you must travel between cities to find the correct ones. That's why I have also improved the "Alchemical Scroll" (Sold in the Item Shop). This will allow you to craft (equipment, crystals), or to access the crystal shop in all cities anywhere (but you need to talk with the NPC selling crystals in each city first to unlock). Just use it from your inventory.
- By the way, have you done the "Potential Awakening" quests for each character when they reach level 40? I want to know how you feel about those battles. If you haven't reached the required levels, and are tired of manually leveling, I have a method just for this demo below to get your characters level up faster
- How are the boss battles or normal battles against monsters? Do you feel they are challenging, or easy? And which boss makes you feel frustrated most? Please share your .txt files with me (here or via DM is fine). I would love to see them.

Hi, due to the lack of events to get out of the Cathedral in Valenka City, which makes players stuck there forever. I have made a quick patch to fix this issue. Please refer to the above post for the files and instructions to patch the game, or redownload the new build from the same link and move your save files over there. Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience.

Thank you for the fix. My characters were only mid 30's level so I couldn't access the Potential Awakening battles yet. I reloaded an older save and now have at least 4 battlers to lvl 38. With this new party, I've entered Valenka but not the Cathedral. I'll edit some images to this response in a bit to illustrate the mapping passability issues and the non-wrapping descriptions. The non-wrapping descriptions seem to occur with higher level crafted armor, but I'll do some more detailed scouting.

I'm playing on Normal and I find the battles to be challenging but not frustrating. There were times I played first on the Don't hurt me difficulty just to plan my strategies, but then I was able to reload back to normal and survive. I'm actually enjoying the battles as the battlers have such an assortment of strategies. For regular battlers, I think the Roses and the Chests in the Valenka outskirts have been the worst. It just takes forever to get rid of them. The battles are definitely one of the many highpoints in the game. It does seem like the first time you encounter the regular troops, they are truly difficult to defeat, especially since the battlers seem to level up as the players level up, but when you figure out the required strategies, it becomes really manageable. I wouldn't attempt to play on a more difficult mode than Normal though.

I haven't done much with those Alchemist scrolls. Sounds like I should have.

I'm going to redownload the game rather than just applying the fix so I'm not reporting any issues that have not already been fixed. Expect images and a dm later today.

Edit-

Thank you @Lady_JJ :D I will review the Roses and Chests in Valenka Outskirts again to see what I can do with them. And yes, please try the Alchemical Scrolls more often. You can almost do everything from crafting to buying/selling crystals.

And one more thing: Do you often use the Auto-Battle feature? And what is your thought about it?

I've used it infrequently. Mostly in the earlier areas when I felt comfortable with the battles and just needed to farm some crafting items. I'll try it out in the later areas, Secret Well and Valenka Outskirts, and see how auto-battle plays out.

Edit- I tried the auto-battle. It's a lot more intelligent than most auto-battles which only have the players spam Attack. It was interesting to see the bot's choice of spells. Still, it's not a feature I would use too often if only because it seems to rely solely on offense, didn't even try to revive my mage after dying, let alone try to prevent his death in the first place. That said, it's a lot more interesting than what I usually see.

The non-word-wrapping happens with the latest tier of blue (rare) weapons requiring Lvl2 molds.

Thanks for the info, @Lady_JJ. I will take a look at those truncated descriptions.

And about the message you received when using Alchemical Scroll, try to talk to all the Crystal Sellers in all accessible cities once before using it again. I realized the frustration when buying the crystals to craft, so I decided to come up with that idea, though it would cost a bit.

The auto-battle feature I implemented in there only serves the purpose of farming ingredients, so the characters will mainly focus on attacking, giving some free time to players when they overwhelm the enemies.

And one more thing I want to ask you is about the Ingot exchanges and Equipment Molds to craft equipment:

- Are the number of Soul Essence from battles enough for you to exchange for Ingots comfortably?
- Do you think getting Equipment Molds to craft high-tier equipment is hard or frustrated?
- Are the number of required ingredients for high-tier equipment too high? Especially for Ingots and Molds?

Couple of other observations

Perseverence Crystal description says Recudes instead of Reduces
Item Sign and Blacksmith signs should be swapped
Kyundari's image remains in front of Item Shoppe Door when you return to map. This is after the cutscene where Kyundari runs out of the shoppe and promises to repay Morrigan later.
Entering the Valenka Cathedral requires you to press ENTER. None of the other transport areas require this, you just need to touch and keep walking.

Yes, once I revisited all the Town Gem Makers, I was able to use the alchemist scroll.... Except for Valenka. Even though I'd been there a few times, the scroll still tells me that Crystal Shop hasn't been unlocked.

The only Equipment Molds I got were from the Bandits in the swamp cave. I haven't gotten any other drops. Maybe later? Other than that, I think the required ingredients is fair. Bit pricey, but the battle gold drops are fairly generous. I've always had more than enough Soul Essences to purchase ingots.

The Dark Void was a nightmare. I couldn't even beat it at Piece of Cake level. I had to use Don't Hurt Me, and even in that mode I had to restart due to losing a character. (I don't like my players to die.) Maybe there's a better strategy than what I was using, but when you continually get wiped out in the 3rd round, it's hard to find a strategy.

Thanks for pointing out the issues, @Lady_JJ. I also forgot to put a switch to unlock the Valenka Crystal shop, so it would not work in the Alchemical Scroll. :( I have fixed all the above bugs on my end.

It is good to hear that the Soul Essences are sufficient, meaning I don't need to redesign the drop rate or amount, at least for now. Btw, you can also get the green molds by disassembling the green equipment. And for a better strategy, maybe you should try resetting skills to learn a new set, or resetting the stats and putting more to VIT and AGI for more resistance and more turns to act.

Besides, how do you feel about the Reinforcement Crystals? Are their effects truly effective and help you in battles? Or the combination to make a good set of crystals worth your time and effort?

Here are my battle notes, found in the icon folder.

At the northwestern corner of Chaotic Swamp, you walk in to Sandstorm Oasis, but then you can't backtrack to return to Chaotic Swamp.

Ah... So many things I have missed. Forgot to put a transfer event there. Thanks for reminding me about this. And thank you for the data files from your icon folder. This means so much to me.

By the way, among all the bosses you have fought, which one do you think is the most challenging? And which one requires the least effort to deal with?

Not sure about the least effort boss, but the most challenging thus far has definitely been the Void Knight. Can you explain a bit about Leonardo and his difficulties with MP?

MP 716, first round, Leonardo goes first, casts Magic Amplification at a cost of 51 MP reducing MP to 665, then drops more MP for 658.
MP 658, second round, Leonardo casts Arcane Bolts for 9MP, dropping to 649, but loses more MP with each bolt, and even more as he returns to his battle position, ending with 516 MP, for a total loss of 142 MP. The loss is even more pronounced when either Electric Meteors or Arctic Tsunami is used. Is there something I can do to help Leo conserve his MP? At this rate, he needs a replenishment of at least 1 Cyan potion following each battle, sometimes 2.

Morrigan talked to the king and then everyone went to the inn to sleep. In the morning, everybody is at full health and MP, everyone EXCEPT Leonardo. His MP didn't replenish overnight. Poor Leo. He just can't catch a break!

Thanks for the reply @Lady_JJ . I will explain a bit more about the MP consumtion on Leonardo. His skill "Magic Amplification" boosts his magical damage (20% of current mana as extra damage, maximum of 500) each hit in exchange of his MP (4% of max MP per hit and 1% at the end of his turn), so each time you damage the enemies with his magic, a small portion of MP will be consumed to boost the damage dealt. That's why you can see his MP reduced. You might want to use crystals that regenerates MP, or equipement increasing MP, but this is a very MP-consuming skill, so I recommend to use it with single-target magic. Also, I will analyze this skill a bit more to see if it worths the extra MP cost and make changes accordingly.

Besides, I guess you may want to put more points into DEX, as it raises your AGI. That is a crucial stat if you want to get more turns to act before the enemies take their turns. You can also try some equipment and crystals that boost AGI too, or remove some points that your characters do not need to put into the more crucial stats, like physical damage dealers may not need to raise their MAT and vice versa. Hope this help you fight the battles with ease.

P/s: I will let Leonardo to rest after the confrontation with the King as well. Thanks for letting me know about this :guffaw:

Well, on the plus side, Leonardo has been the easiest thus far to defeat his dark self, and he was only Lvl 40, so he didn't have all the fancy gear. Lucas has been awful. I finally set on the strategy of just poison vs poison and I can get the alter ego down to about 1200 HP, but then he just goes on a rampage and poor 'good' Lucas is a done for. Leonardo, Morrigan and Lilith have easily passed their trials. Blanc is about as woeful as Lucas. I had Aiko going on what started out as a slow but steady victory until her alter ego declined to about 1200 HP and then started healing and looks like turning Aiko's damage points into healing points. Every time I work her down to 1200, she crawls back up to 1500. Been doing this for over 45 minutes and I finally just gave up.

I'm assuming there is no further progression of the demo storyline as I can't find a way to exit the Main Castle Hall to find Amelia's bedroom.

Anyway, it's a challenging but fun game. I'm definitely watching this game develop.

Based on your experience of the potential awakening trials, I think I will take a review to re-balance them again. The demo ends at that step where you are asked to find Amelia's room, and I am still working on it. But I think it will take some time as it will be one of the most important events in the game.

So there are few questions I want to ask as you have just finished the demo, if you don't mind:
- Each time you reach a new town, do you always tend to get the latest gears provided? Or you just stick with the old ones and only get parts of the new gears?
- How are the puzzles in the game? Do you need to spend much time on them before being able to advance further in the story?
- Are the consumable items useful, especially the ones to remove ailment states? Do you think more items should be added there?
- Do the Skill Learning and Stat Allocating systems take much of your time to be familiar with?
- Do you usually view your party's status, as well as enemies' status during the battle to understand the affected states and make a proper strategy?
- How is your general experience with the battles, crafting and reinforcement crystals systems?

I will keep posting new updates of the game here when they are available (including the story). I will try as much as possible to make them compatible with the old save files, but cannot guarantee. Thank you so much for the valuable feedbacks @Lady_JJ

- Each time you reach a new town, do you always tend to get the latest gears provided? Or you just stick with the old ones and only get parts of the new gears?
I always fully upgrade, provided I have the funds.

- How are the puzzles in the game? Do you need to spend much time on them before being able to advance further in the story?
I usually like puzzles, but not so much QTE's. I did become a little anxious when confronted with the picklocking chests. I was able to open though after only a few failed attempts. I think I turned the Always Dash option off, may or may not have given me another second.

- Are the consumable items useful, especially the ones to remove ailment states? Do you think more items should be added there?
Since all the states resolve at the battle's finish, I never felt the need to waste a turn curing ailments. I used a ton of 1000 HP healing potions during the individual trials. Other than that, Lilith was able to take care of the party.

- Do the Skill Learning and Stat Allocating systems take much of your time to be familiar with?
I thought they were pretty straightforward and easy enough to learn.

- Do you usually view your party's status, as well as enemies' status during the battle to understand the affected states and make a proper strategy?
Gotta admit, I didn't use that option much until I read this post. I did view the enemy's status quite a bit for the remaining characters who hadn't yet completed their trials and it helped a lot. Well, helped my understanding, not necessarily my ability to prepare a proper strategy.

- How is your general experience with the battles, crafting and reinforcement crystals systems?
I liked the battles. I thought the enemies had a wide assortment of skills/attacks and I was using different strategies in different regions. I liked the crafting and reinforcement crystals systems. It got a little tedious in the end because I had gone as far as the demo allowed, so I was just blitzing through trying to craft the best crystals possible. I found it easier to just fast travel to the towns where I could take my time and plan rather than using the scrolls.

I'm definitely looking forward to the next update.