Shads and Babes: Episode 1

[AGAFURO]

Alright, at first I was going to finish an actual demo before I posted the project... but since the most important thing that needs to be solved before I can make an accurate demo is a gameplay-related thing which I can't solve myself... I decided to make this thread in order to increase the chances of getting some help with this little piece of script I need. :p

...well, it actually isn't "needed". But it will make a huge difference (for the better, obviously). I'll get to that later though. Now, it's time for an introduction of the actual project:

Oh my gosh, what the heck is this?

This game is a 100% noncommercial fangame. It's not just a "fangame" though. It's the mystery mixed fruit punch of fangames.

Let me clarify what I mean by that:

Imagine you have invited lots of people to some kind of party, and you decided that treating the guests to your very own home-made fruit punch would be a good idea. Now, you really didn't know how to actually make a punch though. So you just added a bunch of random ingredients that really shouldn't ever be put together. It's the most random and nonsencial mix of crap one could possibly imagine adding to a punch. Now, somehow your guests figure out all the crazy kind of stuff you put in there before drinking it. What do you do? Well, you try your best to come up with a semi-logical explaination for why all these random ingredients were put together and why this fruit punch is actually going to be a great and well-tasting experience.

...yeah, it's that kind of fangame. Sailormoon x Bleach would make a thousand times more sense than any of the game/anime-pairings in this game. Yet, I'm somehow trying to make a story out of it all. Don't ask why I choose the characters I've choosen, and/or why I didn't pick titles that would fit better together. Because frankly, I have no sane way of answering that question. =D









Featuring:

-A couple of pretty flashy visual scenes and battle animations
-A whole bunch of unoriginal characters
-Even more unoriginal characters
-Some actually original characters
-Characters from: Fate/Stay Night, Final Fantasy IV, Touhou, Code Geass, Xenosaga and some Visual Novels etc.
-Sexy dreams and battles against alarm clocks.
-Suggestive themes
-Normal and Hard difficulty
-Charlie Fleed's FFX battle-system
-Mea's Multi-Strike
-Hermes Message Script
-Blizzard's STCMS - Hybrid Edition
-Skills that use HP by DerVVulfman
-DerVVulfman's SP damage
-Ability Grid HUD by Gando
-Fanservice
-A weird mix of random humor and somewhat serious storytelling
-A disturbing lack of pizza

Story:

It all starts with our lazy wannabe-playboy main character "Shads" waking up in his bed as usual, oversleeping by a lot as usual and losing his job (as usual). While he does, however, a dangerous mage has managed to escape from the Magic Association's prison... in a whole different dimension. Said mage has a mysterious green haired woman in his company, and now possess a dangerous, unknown power which he uses to infiltrate the Magic Association's treasury and steal a couple of artifacts known as the "Void Keys". As he activates the void keys, the "layer which separates different dimensions, known as the Void" expands for some reason, causing "void holes" to open up in a whole lot of different worlds. By entering such a void hole, it's possible to access the Void itself, and from there access other worlds. Escaping their pursuers by doing just that and then splitting up, our two evil villains both end up in totally different worlds. Shads returns home after buying some mixed berry yogurt at the local supermarket, when a void hole opens up in his home and one of the Magic Association's members comes jumping out right in front of him. Meanwhile, our evil, evil villains seem to be plotting something extraordinarily evil which involves breaking a couple of powerful magical seals spread across a total of 4 different worlds... Oh-Emm-Gee!

Main Characters:

Shads



This guy is the main character. He is way more perverted than he looks. Just deal with it.
Despite being the main character, he seem to lack any kind interesting, legendary power
other than adapting to situations quickly by activating his "okay, sure, whatever" attitude.
He's always oversleeping and it's a wonder he actually still manage to get new jobs at all.
The only thing preventing him from being totally useless in battle is his extreme and
somewhat disturbing fascination with (and collection of) swords... as well as his total lack
of fear and/or shame of swinging them around in the middle of a modern city.

In battle, he's THE jack of all trades but "certainly not a master of any".
Well, not yet anyway. He can do a little bit of everything, but is not
really the best at anything.



Medusa/Rider:



She's a "Servant" - a powerful heroic spirit - participating in the Holy Grail War (a battle royale
between mages and their respective "Servants" that only exists in her own world). During
her battle with another servant, she gets knocked into a void hole that suddenly opens
out of nowhere. The contract with her original master/mage is lost and without being
provided with magical energy, the ability to maintain her physical body begins to fade.
She gets unconscious, but wakes up alive in a forest and with a new master by the name Rydia.

In battle she's the most agile character, topping everyone else in Agility and Evasion.
On top of that, she's pretty much a jack of all trades with a balanced defensive
and offensive moveset, and is able to petrify and/or slow down foes with the
Overdrive "Breaker Gorgon". Is also good at inflicting Break Point damage.



Rydia of Mist:



Rydia is a summoner and mage living in the small medieval village "Mist".
When she notice something strange happening in the forest nearby,
she ends up finding a very strange-looking person going by the name Rider
and claiming to be a heroic spirit of some sort. Shortly after finding Rider,
a strange red symbol appears on Rydia's right hand - apparently called
"the Command Seals". She's quite confused, but tries her best at keeping
up with Rider's strange-sounding explainations.

In battle, Rydia is the mage of the party. Healing, support and elemental
attacks are her forte. Yet, she also do possess some powerful physical
skills as well, if she has to resort to that. As an added bonus, she is
the only character who can summon Eidolons to fight for the party.



Mio Kifune:



One of the members of the Magic Association who are sent to chase down
the prison-break mage and his companion. As she follows the tracks of her
prey, she ends up jumping through a void hole and bumping right into a kinda
confused Shads... resulting in a rather awkward situation. She decides to
simply try her best at explaining the situation and her mission.

In battle, she's all about damage. While she can learn and use a few
defensive skills as well, it's her combination of high Strength, good Agility
and powerful physical skills that really makes her shine. If an enemy can
be defeated by strong physical hits alone, Mio gladly takes on the job.



KOS-MOS



Very little is known about her, other than the fact that she's an android.
Apparently, her memory database has been damaged and all information
not needed for basic functioning was encrypted. She was found drifting
ashore by C.C. who has taken on the role as KOS-MOS' superior, asigning
her to whatever missions she sees fit.

In battle, KOS-MOS tanks better than anyone else. She has theh ighest HP
and a good set of defensive skills. However... she's just as good at throwing
hits right back at the enemy too. Her damage capasity is second only to Mio
and can sometimes be even stronger, though usually at the cost of a longer
cooldown, making her just a little bit slower.




C.C.:



A mysterious woman who seems to know more about the prison-break mage
than anyone else. Apparently, she has met him a long time ago and she also
seem to have some kind of connection to the mage's female companion.
Unlike the other main characters, C.C. never actually participates in battle
but acts more like the "brain" kind of character.

Screenshots:

Map

Battle

THE FIRST DEMO IS NOW AVAILABLE:

So, I finally got around to finishing the demo. Took me long enough. :p



Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?1o1t17ya3d7uocr



There are a few small things that I'm aware of, but haven't fixed yet (there is one very small bug, but I noticed it after I uploaded the demo and can't be bothered to do it all over again just to fix it, so yeah. It's a very small one that won't really cause any actual problems though.) Also, the game doesn't have enough "door slamming" and intelligent random NPC dialouges, but that's something I'll get around to doing way later. It's pretty low on my priority list atm.

...lastly, Rider's battle sprite re-appears a bit too late during her "Hit and Run" move in this demo. Still... other than that, pretty much everything should be fine.





About the Battle System:


While I'm using Charlie Fleed's FFX CBS which should be pretty self-explainationary, there are a few additions that might not be entierly obvious. And since I have yet to make a battle explaination in-game, I'll list the most important details here:


1: The Break system. "SP/MP" doesn't really exist in this game, instead you have a value called BP aka "Break Points". This is value that you won't be using for skills. Instead, it's another value to keep track on during battles and make sure it doesn't reach 0. If a character or enemy's BP is reduced to 0, they will be inflicted with the "Break ststus" which basically cuts all basic stats in half and reduces defense to 0. Early game, the effect won't really be game-breaking or anything, but later on it will play quite a big role during certain battles. BP damage is caused by all offensive skills (1/10 of the normal damage dealt), and there are a few skills that cause BP-damage only. BP can be restored with items, or by defending. As soon as BP is no longer 0, the Break effect will disappear.


2: Skills use HP in this game. Skills are either completely free, or they use HP. Some moves got a "waiting time" before they are used, or got a slow recovery etc to balance them out.

[RosyPosy]

FANFICTO GAME!

Ima giv this concoction a taste.But if you dare betray that trust I will bring on you an octopus
Rage so severe itll turn you into a bat.

[Ace]

Looks interesting! Nice maps and great Battlesytem^^

[AGAFURO]

FANFICTO GAME!

Ima giv this concoction a taste.But if you dare betray that trust I will bring on you an octopus
Rage so severe itll turn you into a bat.

I will try my best not to disappoint you then. =P

If nothing else, I do believe the intro alone is more than worth "experiencing". Though we'll see if the rest of the game actually can live up to it or not. xD


@ Ace: Thanks! =)

[AGAFURO]

My first demo now finally up! =D

Go ahead and play it and tell me your thoughts of stuff so far. =D


The intro sequence might still need a little bit of work, but I think it works for now.

[MetalRenard]

Is the title supposed to be "shades"?

[AGAFURO]

Is the title supposed to be "shades"?

Nope, "Shads" is actually correct.

It's a long story, but... in short "Shads" is the first nickname I used on a forum, and what inspired me to try out RPG Maker was a person who made a game with himself as the main character on said forum. So when I started the project, I decided to use an extreme self-alter ego for my own game too. And I decided to use that old username for the main character. That's basically why the main character's name is "Shads" of all things. :p

[MetalRenard]

From a purely marketing perspective though, "shades" would sound much better. :P
Nice idea though, being surrounded by all those lovely ladies. :3

[Taylor]

And meanwhile... I'm liking those battle mechanics more than a cast of females from different media. |P

But really, I like the idea of BP and casting from HP.

[AGAFURO]

From a purely marketing perspective though, "shades" would sound much better. :P
Nice idea though, being surrounded by all those lovely ladies. :3

Well, I might change it sometime. The main character is even wearing shades at times, so it would fit pretty well yeah. :p

And meanwhile... I'm liking those battle mechanics more than a cast of females from different media. |P

But really, I like the idea of BP and casting from HP.

Glad you like these ideas. The battlesystem and some enemies and skills still need a little bit of work, but I'm actually putting quite a lot of focus on the battles. I want to make the battles as interesting as possible.

Later on (not available in the demo atm), you will be able to unleash so-called "Fatality Finishes" against some bosses after inflicting them with break. It basically creates a short scene with a super-flashy move finishing the boss off. It requires a full Overdrive bar to use too, however.



Seriousness in the game swaps back and forth Disgaea 2-style, being a bit of a parody the majority of the time.


...oh yeah, the demo is a bit big because of the mp3 files I'm using. I'll try to find a way to make them smaller in the future.