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April 2nd, 2008 Hello Everyone! We hope you enjoyed our, rather elaborate, April Fools foke. We know we did. XD We'll be keeping Drunk Attorney in our thread at the bottom, for anyone who wants to access that 'demo' in the future. A lot of people have been asking if we plan to finish that little mini project, I'd hate to break your hearts, but no. It took a month to get that 20 minute demo out. Balancing that and the real Ethereal Dreams (along with you know, life and work and stuff) just wouldn't work out to well. There's also the fact that some the 'future cases' were influenced by true future events in the game, with some deaths thrown in to murder cases. But hey, if you enjoyed this, you'd get a major kick from the real Phoenix Wright games. And so it's official, Ethereal Dreams WILL NOT be switching to VX and Darin WILL NOT be taking up law. In other news, since this little joke put Racheal in a scripting mood, there might be an interesting new system implemented in the future. I won't give anything away until it's further along. I hope you all had a great Groovy Potato Day! ~Makio-Kuta
40 years ago, a war raged across the island continent, Silvania. The war pitted the magical kin of the land against the Dwarves, outsiders from Enoshia who had no magical power at all. Dragon Riders, from an unknown land, came to assist the magical creatures in the war against the Dwarves. Overpowered and defeated, the Dwarves were banished from Silvania's mountain ranges and forests, back to the land of their ancestors, the Orcs. Now a Dwarf, who grew up in those troubled times, seeks revenge against the magical creatures of Silvania. With a large army, he comes to the shores of Silvania, hoping to spill the blood of those who wronged his people in the past.
Darin, Ryaena, and Phylip live on the Northern part of Silvania, still untouched by the Dwarven army. As events unfold, the trio find themselves in the midst of this struggle and another battle far bigger than the Forests of Silvania.
Characters
When Darin was in his late teens, he and his Dragon, Kane, left their home following a tragedy. Not long after leaving he befriends a misfit centaur, Phylip, and a lost Meenian, Ryaena. The three now reside on Silvania and travel together. Darin is a heavy drinker and a constant flirt. But his best friend and 'daughter' both know that deep down inside he's an honourable man.
Ryaena was found by Darin when she was very small. She's since become like his daughter and travels with he and Phylip. For the most part, Ryaena keeps to herself, but she can be known to be a bit stubborn. She trusts no one more than she trusts Darin.
Phylip travels with Darin and Ryaena acting as a no nonsense older brother at times. He always lectures Darin about his drinking, but means well.
A Dark Elf Darin helps break out of prison. She claims to be of Noble blood and that her imprisonment was because of a betrayal. She manages to convince Darin and the others to take her homeland, Nilis.
Morgan - A woman who seems to not like talking about her past. She says working at the weapon shop is a way to turn her life around. Enjoys a good drink and good company. Celine - Resident dancer for Geja's bar. A nice girl, who has the bad habit of flirting with customers. Horis - The bartender at Geja's bar. Although a bit grouchy, he's a tolerant man. Erick - An armor dealer who's not quite all there. Jade - A fairy that seems out of place in a dark dank prison. Perhaps there is more to him then his cute exterior. Duke A'Rein - A snot nosed Light Elf who thinks he is better then everyone. What he's doing so far from home is anyone's guess. Hok - A cruel and chiseled looking man. His sinister grin and harsh mocking words suggest this man has a dark profession. Kane - Darin's life long pal and companion. It's hard to say why he's tolerated Darin for as long as he has. Ethan - Erick's younger brother who works in the transport business. Clumsy and a little eccentric, but he's just wants to help out his older bro. Marilyn - An elderly Light Elf who lives alone in the woods. She knows a great deal about plants and their uses. Alena - Visiting from the continent of Enoshia, Alena tries to rally the civilians of Nova to fight against the invading force to the south. She appears to be highly religious and noble. Damien - Damien is a Dragon Rider who was born in Nova. Although he has no Dragon or proper training, he likes to pretend he does. Riche - A man who's Caravan doubles as an item store and a home. He lives alone with his son. Melena - A human who's recently moved to Nova from Enoshia to get away from certain religious groups. Ti'el - A close friend of Darin's who lives in Nova. She loves the farm life more than anything else the world has to offer. Gramps - A grouchy old man who criticizes Darin for everything he can think of. He makes the best Pumpkin Seed Beer. Firo - Travels with his father, Riche, in their Caravan. Due to his father's drinking, he's usually the one in charge of inventory and book keeping. Clyde - A fisherman from Geja who left his home town to find new species of fish.
Features
Original Artwork The custom artwork of Ethereal Dreams is one of its biggest pulls. Using the half kaizer sprite template by showkaizer and tana, every sprite is custom made. And with that every tileset. There is also a heavy amount of original artwork interfaced into the game's systems.
Talents Each character is assigned a set of six talents. These talents level up with the character based on the weapon they are holding. As talents raise in level, the characters learn more skills.
Campfires As you progress throughout the game, you have a chance to unlock hidden conversations between characters. These conversations can be viewed on the world map whenever the campfire icon is displayed in the bottom right corner. Although they aren't important to the story line itself, they reveal more about the characters and are sometimes worth a good laugh.
Encounter Orb A colourful orb displayed in the bottom left corner is used to judged how close you are to a battle. The colour ranges from green to red and a battle occurs when it reaches red. Different terrains affect how quickly you find yourself in battle. A noisier terrain like spalshing through water, increases the chance of the enemies finding you. Be careful where you walk!
Tactics Customize up to four different attack patterns to help make battles quicker. From your menu, pick and choose what action you want all four members to take and then in battle select that tactic and simply use auto and unleash your strategy! All four tactics can be named for quick recognition.
Memo From your menu, you can access a memo that's filled with useful and useless information. A bestiary of the monsters you've fought so far, a journal keeping record of your story progress and a section dedicated to tutorials about game play. Journals and the bestiary are written by the characters themselves, adding a touch of humour to what's typically a dull collection of information.
Maps Throughout the game you can collect maps that can be viewed from your key items. These maps not only reveal your surroundings and key locations, but also display your location and goal with easy to understand icons.
Team & Credits
Team Leader/Main Artist/Main Writer/Co-Scripter - Makio-Kuta 2nd in Command/Main Scripter/Colourist/Editor - RachealMoon Co-Writer/Co-Artist/Battle Backdrop Artist - DarkAngel6 Summons Artist/Location Namer/Tester - CharChar05 Monster Artist - Ikara
The Beta Crew Reives J.D. Slasha Arcanum sixtyandaquarter BusterSword777
Misc Credits ShowKaizer and Tana's Half Kaizer Templates AMS by Dubealex ViewRange and PathFinding by Near Fantastica Logos by havana24 Numerous Songs by Fallofthetyrant
This was Ethereal Dream's April Fools joke in 2008. We've left it here for you all to enjoy! Download Demo [Here] (11.8 MB) VX nor the RTP is required, but I recommend reading the Controls image included.
Court Record By pressing the "D button" you can access your Court Record. Here you will find a list of all the evidence you've collected during investigation. By pressing the "D button" again, you'll change the view from evidence to profiles. Here all the people you have met during the case are displayed. (Please note that this demo does not yet have investigation implemented. You do however, have items and people in your Court Record.) Knowing your Court Record is key to playing this game. Check it often whenever you need to stop and think.
Press In the Courtroom, during a witness's testimony, you have the option of pressing them for more information with the "A button." By doing this you can reveal information about what the witness saw in greater detail and perhaps find yourself new hints to help you progress. When you aren't sure what to do, try pressing the witness and see what happens.
Present Presenting evidence to the court is a vital part of this game. At any time during a witness's testimony, you can present evidence. Listen carefully to what the witness is saying, when they say something that seems off, open your Court Record. Look for any evidence or profile that might contradict what the witness has just told you. When you find something contradicting, present the evidence needed to prove it with the "S button." Finding contradictions can help open the case to new possibilities and find you your Not Guilty verdict.
Credits Scripts and System - Racheal Story and Rip Edits - Makio-Kuta Beta Testers - Sixtyandaquarter and Reives **Please note that all the graphics from this joke game are rips or heavily edited rips of actual PW material. This includes the header image to this spoiler.
[QUOTE=saikyo765;167823]the graphics are awesome, i especially love the style of the charsets and chipsets. and the forest looks awesome.
and the concept art is cool
[/QUOTE]
As the game's artist, I say thank you many times ^_^
In fact the only thing I can complain about is the half-kaizers.
They don't look bad or anything, it's just, imo, they seem out of place in comparison to the faces... maybe it's because the faces are so expressive, but the HKs don't even have mouths. Hm.
Oh well, that's just my opinion. Still looks awesome (I'm absolutely loving the artwork!)
EDIT: Oh, forgot to mention it, but I haven't downloaded the demo yet, since I'm a little busy right now with other things, but I'll be sure to try it out later.
:o My Name!!( kind of..My name is Ryanna) XD well 63 years is very young for elfs bc they can live up to 1000 years....G3 would be like 5 years old...But its your game
Just got done playing parts of the demo and I'm pretty impressed with the use of the custom graphics.... I really wanna play a full version, I actually got into the game... and it's real rare for an rmxp game to do that to me! I'll be watchin this one closely!
@Buster Sword: Adding expresions to the spirites (at least for talking scenes) might just have to be something we should look into. Perhaps it will help with that? And it's wonderful to hear the art is loved! We've put many many hours into, so appreciation is always enjoyed. Hope to hear from you again after you get a chance to try the demo ^_^
@Ryanna: It's kinda funny you mention the name thing, because I remember seeing you on CA before and being amused that your name was the same as hers. (Purely coiciedence of course, Ryaena was named long before we ever joined CA or here.) As for the elf thing, in our world, elves live about three times longer then humans. (You'll notice we had the elven equivalent in brackets).
@Lene: Thanks for the comment :) It is defiantly easier to get a team together when you know each other in real life.
@J.D. Slasha: Glad to hear the custom graphics are well received, and am also very glad you got into the game! If you're drawn in with this little bit, I can't wait till we actually truely start the plot rolling. ;)
The AI music is just a temporary thing until we have original music. We just happened to have the OSTs, and it seemed to fit. (Plus, we love the games).
Phylip looks like he's twisted around too far in his battle pose. Or maybe his name is obscuring the direction his chest is facing. And Ryaena is standing a little off due to the center of the image being her arm, this doesn't leave room for a fourth member.
Uh anyway. I like this game, and the zooming in world locations was clever.
The boss felt a little tedious and the boss theme was a little quiet...
... I gotta say something else good...
...
Sleeping while [Drunk] giving a [Hangover]? Cool. XD
What do those Statuses do though?
You're so right about Phylip's battler *smashes head into desk* I'll set about seeing what we can do to fix that. Thanks a ton for pointing that out. As for Ryaena, a new battler has been in the works for her. Since a lot of people said her back looks broken. Also, your point about her being 'off center' is true. n.n'
I'm glad you liked the demo. XD We're still working on getting that boss properly balanced. It's been a losing battle. n.n'
Thanks for the comments and crits! Much appreciated. ;)
At the moment, hangover drops hit all stats to 80%, and hit rate to 60%. Drunk drops hit rate to 10% and ups str to 120% and atk to 130% (these are subject to change however, since we're not quite positive this is what we want) Since what status's do has been a big question lately, we're debating implementing a 'library' in the next town that explains these things in detail.
I just finished playing it, it is definitely one of the few xp games that I actually care about, I felt disappointed though, I though the demo would be longer... There are some things that need change, like the boss battle. I really hope you'll keep working on this project. good luck to you =)
Glad to here you enjoyed it! We do plan on making the next demo considerably longer. Its release is currently roughly slated for Summer. As far as the boss, we unfortuatly tweaked the difficulty too much on the easy side appantely :\ Something to keep playing with until we tweak it perfectly. (or close to)
We've already dedicated many months to this project, and have become attached to our characters and world, so I really don't see it dying ^_^
Makio=amazing. Plus, this game also looks amazing. I can't wait till you get into the storyline and see how you tell your story. Good luck and if you need anything, let me know. :)
lol thanks ama55! *always flattered* I can't wait until we get into the storyline deeper either! I want to see how people react! *zips lips though since she has a bad habit of being a walking spoiler*
Well, before I get into the heavy stuff I'd just like to say, you've renewed my spirits for RMXP games. This game is a definite example of how well the engine can be put to use, if you have time and dedication. Now, a review.
Plot/Story/Dialog/Characters This would probably be the games lacking area. The plot was a bit dry, and doesn't make for a good introduction (take in mind I'm only referring to the demo). It's missing some sprinkles here and there to give it a solid and interesting feel. In this particular demo I felt that it just jump into things a little to fast, although no real "plot" revealed itself. As is, this is just a "Complete a mission" scenario. I'm pretty sure you will expand on the actual plot later in the game.
The dialog, on the other hand, was very well done. It seemed as if you revolved it around the personalities of the characters as oppose to revolving it around the story and time setting. I believe in the case it was for the better. You can feel the essence of the characters come to life through their dialog (be they a drunk or other-wise.) This was the one thing that kept me in the story or lack thereof.
The characters were also a plus for this demo. As stated earlier the dialog helped substantially in defining the characters. You could definitely get the relationships amongst one character to another, and you could understand each individual personality amongst the party. A very nice job in this department.
5.5/10
Graphics It's quite refreshing to see something that's not RTP. You went above and beyond here. The tilesets were astonishing. You were able to design the enviroment well enough to create an atmosphere fitting for the game. You also get points for the creativity factor. I admired the "waving grass," but I did feel that some static grass would've helped out a bit more in the huge patches. The spriting was also very nice. It matched the tilesets (aside from a few perspective errors).
The art work made me extremely jealous! It was very well done, and the style was quite impressive. The artist is very talented. I don't really have much to say in this area, because I couldn't really see much of a problem. Solid job.
8/10
Audio Another great quality of this game. The music selection was excellent. This was another addition to creating that very good atmosphere. The only thing that I wasn't a big fan of, was the battle theme. It wasn't a bad choice. It just wasn't my style a fight music. I was most fond of the forest music; very calming and very refreshing. I enjoyed most of the Music Effects as well. The sound effects were something that I didn't really notice in this demo. If they were present, they didn't stand out.
9/10
Game Play You had the typical RPG aspects here. This is my favorite type of game play. It's was very straight forward. You have the aspect of exploration with the absence of puzzles. I know you'll probably add puzzles in the complete game, but I'm usually not the biggest fan of difficult puzzles.
You added some systems in the game that help make it unique. The talent leveling was a great addition. There were a few things I would have liked to give a try, like the Tactics option.
The battles were surprisingly balanced. I felt that there were times where my entire party was missing far too much, but overall they battles were pretty fun to conquer. Random battles aren't really my favorite of the battle encounter styles, and they occured a bit too much in this demo. You also made me realize that hazardous when you fight under the influence. Don't drink kids.
7/10
Overall All in all, this demo was pretty good. Were it lacks it shows much potential to improve. It gives you the feeling that you would get from a game like Final Fantasy 5 (minus some things, of course). I could see my self playing through this as a complete game and enjoying it very much.
I hope this doesn't get dropped and/or you disappear and we never hear from this project again.
Wow---just *is at a lack for words* Very happy you like our characters. Don't worry, we promise the plot will pick up. A lot actually....a lot....We spent a LONG time fleshing out our characters, world, and story. I'm happy that the character's dialouge is strong.
I always worry so much about those tilesets...But so far they've been so well recieved. It makes me proud. Yeah---perspective...my worst unit in art class. : P And the artwork, ---yay~!
The soundtrack is actually going to change. As soon as our composer finishes the songs up. n.n (But yes...Atelier Iris music is what we used, from both 1 and 2)
Yes, there will be puzzles...hopefully none that are TOO too hard. Tactics will take a while to script. It ties in with the Auto command, letting you set 4 custom setups for each character.
This review made me smile---a lot. thank you very much for taking the time to play and write this. I'm sure---I should say more, but I'm really too flattered to form more words...
My opinion doesn't seem very valid here, but I'm going to state it anyway. I completely disagree with Jstreet. I think that it's much better than he said it was. Not that I'm an authority, (while it seems like he is.) but I think that there's a lot to be said about your characterization. (Not only were the characters really well drawn) but their personalities where really well done too. I can't say that I'm a big fan of some of the tiles in the tileset. But the characters were pretty freaking amazing. I mean, honestly. At first, I didn't think that I would like them. But then I got used to the style and found myself getting attached to them. So... I don't know. Kudos or something. :D
_________________ 'If you weren't a theif, I wouldn't have had to kill you.'
[QUOTE=kyleblakely42;176901]freaking amazing[/QUOTE] thank you thank you. *is the happiest writer alive today* well...maybe not, but I certainly think I am.
Like I said before, making our characters was the bulk of our time spent on this game so far. And to hear people like them this much, this early on--- Well, I can promise all of you that it's only going to get better. ^_^
*brain is floating somewhere on cloud 9 with happiness*
You should keep me updated. I'm new to this whole forum thing. *see lame handle* But I've been lurking around for a while playing some of the games. And I think this (Other than Under) was one of the few that I even chose to comment on. Oh yes. Feel honored. :p I'm really sad that the demo was so short though. You guys better had get to work.
_________________ 'If you weren't a theif, I wouldn't have had to kill you.'
We're going to put a lot of effort in (hopefully) this week. If anything, there will definetly be a longer demo by the summer. But hopefully it will be done sooner than that. n.n
I understand being a forum lurker...I usually am. n.n' thanks again!
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We've put many many hours into, so appreciation is always enjoyed. Hope to hear from you again after you get a chance to try the demo ^_^
