RPG RPG Maker [Venezuela] Discord of Xanadu, a story-focused game

[Wolf624]

A RPG Maker VX Ace game by Venezuela. (Mendoza from ULMF)

Creator's Link (HongFire):

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Link to VX Ace RTP:

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Description from the creator:

First, I would like to offer a word of warning: I am an extremely inexperienced fellow when it comes to this RPG Maker business and this may quite possibly reflect on the product I am here to share. Also, my native language is not English which sadly may also show in the game's grammar.

That being said, and I haven't entirely dissuaded you, Hello!

So, after playing games such as Harem, Emmerszail and Elysium, I've fallen absolutely in love with the mechanics and the potential for creativity it can create. Which is why I bought RPG VX Ace and decided to have a go at it myself. The learning curve (for an inept bastard like me) was brutal but I -think- I'm starting to familiarize myself with it fairly well. But enough about that, here's the introduction to the game:

Discord of Xanadu, a story-focused game

Overview: A game that focuses heavily on story, the setting itself is gray and dark and there will not be much in terms of "happy go lucky heroes" or "going on a magical adventure of friendship". This will reflect on both the characters and the h-scenes. The story itself will not have any main protagonist, but the main character is the King of Mehen and he will serve to drive the story along and function as narration. There will be multiple stories to follow and choices to make, neither inertly "good" or "evil" but direct choices with some very direct and lasting consequences. The Kingdom and, indeed, its people will change according to the choices that are made.

Story: Peace have reigned for more than a century in the world of Xanadu. When the twelve kingdoms signed the Harmony's Concord that banned war between the nations it effectively resulted in a time of peace, prosperity and a new age. An age where magic died, an age where war vanished and an age where monsters and creatures of myths were purged.

But in the Kingdom of Mehen, a King laments his fate as he is stuck in his father's shadow - inherited a throne and a Kingdom that can neither prove itself in the annals of history or take by conquest. Yearning for a chance to expand his borders, to prove himself by the ancient tradition of sword and battle - he seeks to gain an edge over all the Kingdoms, an edge that will allow him his glorious destiny. Magic.

Though as his subjects toil and strive to provide with a solution, he quickly learns that such a power will not come without a price.

Problems so far:

3D Customs Girls is going rather well, though it has some glaring limitations in terms of creativity, though one of my big issues right now is the fact that I'm having trouble smoothly making these a part of VX seeing as the resolution difference poses a problem. Compressing the images will be difficult, but not impossible.

Depending on how well Chapter 1's beta is released I'll be working towards Chapter 2. Chapter 2 will have a more "open world" and do more sidequest, character development (in terms of levels, abilities, etc) and much more interactivity. This will obviously change my creative modus a bit, but I'm confident it'll go well!

Current version: V.02 BETA, Chapter in its full story element and nearly full CG elements. There's one scene (the Knight's rape of the girls) which is missing, but the rest is all included. This is a 2.5+ hour installment.

Download Link:

Current version: V.02Å BETA - 194MB

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If there's anything missing or you're getting an error message, please notify me immediately and I'll upload or re-upload whatever's needed.

As always, feedback is truly appreciated! Everything from art, writing, bugs, game play, etc! Except colour scheme. My colours are god-damn perfect.

Enticing, sexy screenshots:

 

[helhansen84]

Re: Discord of Xanadu, a story-focused game

a story-focused game

boo
so you'll have to play the game like 3 times to clear it. it is extremely difficult to make a game good enough to keep the player motivated enough to play through almost 80% content again just to see some different images and storylines. most of the time those games suck really bad, are boring like hell and the developers waste too much time thinking of multiple ways to beat the game so the rest (especially the h-content) suffers to a point where only garbage can exist.
i like those ideas, but i can hardly think of them being put into the game without major fail... the developer has to be very experienced to pull this off and get a good job done.

its not like every game is as good as arms devicer+
harem, emmerszail and elysium aren't good in my opinion. i tried them all... and they were boring. nothing special to say about them, just boring.

3d custom girl is also a problem imho. there are so many games out there with this art style, its just totally overused and (i will say it again) boring.

but i will try this game


oh well... i've tried the game and read a lot of text. it is clearly story focused
i dont have any major complaints yet, its just not my type of h-game. can't play any further right now, i'm too bored. didnt see any h-scenes, but mainly because i'm trying to play as a good guy i think. i kind of like the story, but as a pnp role player i've seen and played way better stories, so maybe i'm just a little spoiled... but you never know how a plot changes, so that's not a real argument.
i like the atmoshpere of this game very much. the authors seem to really care about that... and that is very rare nowadays. so that's a very good part of the game .
maybe this game could become a good game, but i don't see hentai fitting in there. perhaps it would be best to skip all that hentai crap and just focus on storyline, interesting combat and dialogue. as far as i can see, the author of this game has talent in narrating a story, but lacks the pervert instinct to make a good hentai game (which seems to be a trait only available to asian people).
when i played the game i didnt get the feeling of wanting to see sex pictures or anything like that, it just wanted to save those poor women. it really was a mood killer to switch to another storyline while pursuing a relatively exciting kidnapping/rescue plot. i really dont understand why the author would think it is a good idea to cut off the atmosphere like that. i for one lost my motivation to play instantly... you play a character and begin to like him and his goals and you finally want to know what lies ahead on his journey and then suddenly without any reason in the middle of what would seem to be the introduction of this character you get another completely new character and plot that you have to get to know again? by the time you get back to your first character you most certainly have lost all your affection towards him, because the process of getting to know the character was interrupted before it finished ... the author should think about the timing of introducing the other plots that i presume are fusing together at a certain point of the main story.
and thats why it is so damn hard to make a game like that. story focused means, that you have to be very good at narrating and writing plot. multible plots are very very dangerous to the end products quality, because its always up to the feelings of those who read/play those plots. the creator himself might not anticipate what is good wihtout proper feedback cuz in his mind everything makes sense and feels right.

 

[Mendoza]

Re: Discord of Xanadu, a story-focused game

Hi! And thank you for trying out the game! =)

You've been very kind to leave a lot of thoughts and feedback on this game and I feel I ought to answer some of them -- and please, just so we're clear, I'm not rebuking or opposing you one bit. All thoughts and opinions are valid!

its not like every game is as good as arms devicer+
harem, emmerszail and elysium aren't good in my opinion. i tried them all... and they were boring. nothing special to say about them, just boring.

3d custom girl is also a problem imho. there are so many games out there with this art style, its just totally overused and (i will say it again) boring.

Now this is of course opinions, and they differ. Some like a certain type of games, others do not -- for me I think a good story can enhance the quality or at the very least the fact that it HAS a story as opposed to either being played in a language I can't understand or it's summarily glossed over. But of course, this is all opinions - and dem be differin'.

Never tried Arms Devicer+ so I wouldn't know but you're right. It's probably not by far as good or within the quality of that game!

3d custom girl isn't perfect, far from it. I was reluctant to use it as well, but the fact is that I'm not a graphical artist. I can't draw any good and I'd dearly wished I could, but that was never within my skillset. RPGMaker is also a limiting system in many ways and some would argue overused, but I think both 3d custom girl and RPGmaker CAN have the potential to produce something good, if taken care to do it!

i dont have any major complaints yet, its just not my type of h-game. can't play any further right now, i'm too bored. didnt see any h-scenes, but mainly because i'm trying to play as a good guy i think. i kind of like the story, but as a pnp role player i've seen and played way better stories, so maybe i'm just a little spoiled... but you never know how a plot changes, so that's not a real argument.

Well that's an honest thing, if it's not to your cup of tea - that's of course just what it isn't and I'm sorry to hear that you find it boring. I had hoped to make it at least compelling regardless of the choices you make. Been a PnP roleplayer myself in my younger days, so I'm acutely aware that it isn't any groundbreaking work I'm dealing with here

i like the atmoshpere of this game very much. the authors seem to really care about that... and that is very rare nowadays. so that's a very good part of the game .
maybe this game could become a good game, but i don't see hentai fitting in there. perhaps it would be best to skip all that hentai crap and just focus on storyline, interesting combat and dialogue. as far as i can see, the author of this game has talent in narrating a story, but lacks the pervert instinct to make a good hentai game (which seems to be a trait only available to asian people).

Thanks for the praise! I'm glad that was brought up, I -have- been trying to make it very atmospheric which helps (for me at least) to make it easier to immerse into.

As for the "Should it be hentai?" then that's an interesting thought, I've had that thought for myself a couple of time - seeing as what raison d'être do I have for this game to call it hentai or pornographic? Well, it is pornographic, it will be fairly obvious but it's a gradual process and I often fear people think I'm just throwing in cheap CG art and for the sake of it. I'm not going to throw in a long list to "defend myself" or anything, but from day one I wanted to make the whole notion a gradual adjustment from a 'fairly ordinary world' to a 'sexualized world', it's a pet peeve when everything is about sex as if some natural state of society from scratch. I'd like it develop. Pretentious much? Probably. . .

Though I cautiously add that Chapter 2 (or Chapter 1, really, this is a prologue. . .) might make the would "why is this a h-game?" more obvious...

it really was a mood killer to switch to another storyline while pursuing a relatively exciting kidnapping/rescue plot. i really dont understand why the author would think it is a good idea to cut off the atmosphere like that. i for one lost my motivation to play instantly...

I think you mean the cutscene with the Jarl, right? Because implementing these "interlude" have been something I'm not sure if I've done right. Seeing as you stopped right away, and I'm sorry to hear that it was that bad, I can tell it's only a 5-minute interlude that foreshadow the future of the plot. Everything I present is interconnected, or I try to be, and you'd be right back to Jonathan & Jack after that little scene. But I obviously will have to rethink the way of conveying that if it's that jarringly bad!

and thats why it is so damn hard to make a game like that. story focused means, that you have to be very good at narrating and writing plot. multible plots are very very dangerous to the end products quality, because its always up to the feelings of those who read/play those plots. the creator himself might not anticipate what is good wihtout proper feedback cuz in his mind everything makes sense and feels right.

No question, it's very difficult and I'm not a master in any way. I am constantly reminded that I might be convoluting the natural flow of the storyline and making it excessively difficult or non-coherent.

While I understand that as an author I can be perilously close to see it as making sense and feeling right, but my problem is that after writing, rewriting, playing, replaying - you eventually just become unsure if you're actually on to anything or not. So that's EXACTLY why I like feedback like this!

This might have all been unnecessarily long answer to all of this. But I do genuinely appreciate your feedback and thank you for playing the game!

 

[MrMe]

Re: Discord of Xanadu, a story-focused game

Why does that map remind me of Ultima Online?

 

[rxworld]

Re: Discord of Xanadu, a story-focused game

thanx for developing a new eng rpg game.

 

[Master Spark]

Re: Discord of Xanadu, a story-focused game

This is a great start. I look forward to future installments.