It begins again.

ErikaFuzzbottom · **Posted:** March 13th, 2007, 10:41 am

As some of you know, last November, I started the full revival of my big project, Slayers' Reign, formerly known as Dragon Warriors of Cradonia, formerly known as The Eyes of the Dragon, formerly unknown as Dragonflight. During that time, I had the old 2003 demo taken down from both the Pavilion and the Magazine. That's because I have spent over 60 hours going over the old demo, and editing almost every cutscene. Some are small improvements, simply rewording some of the more off sentences and sequences ("him and two people"). Some cases, I now have characters moving around whilst they talk, to fix the old demo's issue of wordy cutscenes with nothing much happening. One instance, a villain's motives were greatly changed, and thus the cutscene had to be changed to fit the villain's new motives (that "it's time I destroyed the evil within you" line was lame, anyway). And then there's these two instances, where I completely redid the opening pre-title cutscene, and majorly spruced up one of the aforementioned wordy-no-action cutscenes using a pretty nifty effect that involved something like 60 Take Over commands.

Beyond that, I have successfully gone beyond the 2003 demo's length, for the first time since I first started this project way back when I used RM2K. I haven't yet caught up to the RM2K version's length, but I'm still proud of my progress. Now, there is an additional 20 minutes of gameplay/cutscenes to the already lengthy demo. It's not much, but now you can all find out where I really intend to take this story. Oh, and I added a custom menu with which to use items like MP-restoring items and equip throwing stars to one character.

Now for those not in the know, here's a relatively quick description of what Slayers' Reign is. Everyone else, just go ahead and skip to the next paragraph. Slayers' Reign is an RPG I started creating back in 2001 for RPG Maker 2000, before I knew of the reasons behind the tool's illegality, and it has gone through many changes and revisions as I worked on it over the years. Though a lot of the time I wasn't working on it, and it has been restarted from scratch more than once. The story starts off as your basic world in danger story, as the initial protagonist, Mick, stumbles across a plot of invasion made by dragons and their army of ghostly beings known as dragonites. Fast forward six years, and the dragons have partly succeeded, but only in that the dragonites now roam the land. The dragons, on the other hand, have vanished since that initial encounter, thus many people don't believe Mick's stories that dragons are involved, especially since supposedly dragons had been forced into another world centuries ago. But, wouldn't you know it, a dragon suddenly appears to cause trouble, and Mick and his reluctant dragon-slaying partner, Seth, go off to stop it. Some stuff happens, the dragon slayers Mick created become established, and dragons mostly disappear again, except for one that a small town is protecting for some odd reason...

So, anyway, by the time you've read this, I will have uploaded the new 2-hour-plus RPGM1 demo to both the Pavilion and the Magazine. Of course, when I first started reviving this project, I wound up practically begging for people to play the old demo, including in my signatures at both forums. Those of you who have already played it, I do not expect you to replay the demo just to see the redone intro and additional segments, especially being that you can't use the old demo's save progress with the new demo's and most of the gameplay has remained unchanged. Instead, I just want you to watch this video.

(Thanks to TheAsianInvasion and Kittykicker for helping with the video, especially since they only had one memory card to work with a demo that requires two and had to do multiple takes.)

If you haven't played the demo, yet, play it and tell me what you think. I want comments on everything. The story, the battles, the maps, and whether I overdid it with these guys:

Of course, you don't have to leave any comments for me, but they would be nice. Good or bad, I don't care. Especially since, for all I know, I'm not making a game as good as I think, since my experience making this type of game is limited to a couple demoes. Again, it's a lengthy demo, over two hours in length, and on two memory cards, so keep that in mind if you decide to try it.

And now, introducing a new character revealed in the new demo.

This is Draygone. WAIT! Before you perform some act of violence against me, let me assure you that this guy is NOT me. In fact, when I created him, he had an entirely different name. I forget what that name was, but it probably sucked. I can't even remember which came first: me using this name for myself or me giving this name to him. But, when I created the name, I liked it enough to do both. Oddly enough, he does look like me (except I lack the braid), but that's just an accidental coincidence.

Now then, Draygone is a 19-year-old martial artist, specializing in claws. And no, most of the playable cast are not teenagers. And he has both a mother and a father, unlike many teenaged protagonists in video games. They are adoptive parents, but they're parents. He was raised in the town of Benld (pronounced Ben-eld) with his half-sister. Ever since an incident that took place when he was younger, he had been training as a martial artist, so he could protect his friends and family should something like that happen again. Especially since one of his friends happens to be a dragon.

Next, here are a few more brand new screenshots, some from the new part of the demo.

Finally, the following is a preview of the new portion of the demo. I should note that the rest of my post from here on contains a major spoiler (starting in the first sentence, even), so go ahead and skip the rest of this post if you don't want anything ruined for you.

{This transcript directly follows the end of the prologue, as Seth quietly walks away after hearing Mick's speech to the people of Rockford. First, the player is offered a chance to save game progress. The screen is left black as the next cutscene begins. BGM "Town 3" plays, a song that is a "fallen on bad times" type of song.}

And so the Dragon Slayers were created. This was twenty years ago. As the years passed, they grew in size and power, their influence spreading across the Zeron Islands.

{Fade in to the base of a tower, surrounded by a wall with an open gate. Two dragon slayers stand guard. The front door of the tower opens, and two different-ranked dragon slayers leave the tower and head out the front gate.}

Though almost no dragons were found since Seth's betrayal, the Dragon Slayers still had their hands full with the dragonites. And though they were created to protect the people from dragonkind, the slayers soon saw it fitting to upkeep the law to help furthur peace.

{The camera pans up to the top of the tower. An S mirroring itself can be seen on the front of the building.}

The Mirrored S. The symbol of the Dragon Slayers. Mirrored against itself, it resembles the wings of a dove. A sign of peace. Indeed, the Dragon Slayers are loved by the people, and hated by evil.

{The screen fades out, with the mirrored S remaining lit. The mirrored S then fades out as well.}

But what is evil? Are dragons really as terrible as believed? Seth turned against Mick in hopes of someday proving otherwise.

{Fade in to the town of Benld. A man with a bandana comes out of the bar and looks down the road. The screen pans down, and an armored man walks up the street.}

And though many are of the opinion that the only good dragon is a dead dragon...

{The camera pans down a bit more, as two dragon slayers come up behind the armored man. It becomes apparent that the armored man is leadind the dragon slayers.}

There are those, like Seth, who believe that dragons are no more evil than mankind.

{The two dragon slayers take the lead as the camera pans down furthur, revealing a low-ranked slayer watching the other slayers head north. The man in the bandana runs down to talk with him, though their conversation isn't heard.}

Some of whom will not stand for an innocent dragon being unfairly hunted.

{The man with the bandana runs into the shop across the street, while the low-ranked slayer runs into the house he was standing at. The camera fades out, and fades into a small room in the basement of the house, where Draygone is introduced to the story.}

And that's it. Hopefully I'm not overhyping this game too much. :draygone:

_ _

SarahsKnight · **Posted:** March 13th, 2007, 3:32 pm

... Excellent work, Draygone! This RPG truly looks as though it will be every bit worth playing. I'll admit that I hardly knew anything about what you've been working on before seeing this video of the game's intro, but I am now very much looking forward to its release!

ErikaFuzzbottom · **Posted:** March 13th, 2007, 3:56 pm

Yeah, the game's definately more well-known over at the Pavilion than it is here. By the time I started hanging out here, I was already more focused on games like Jester's Hunt.

ErikaFuzzbottom · **Posted:** March 14th, 2007, 12:26 am

Just so nobody else gets confused, the demo hasn't been uploaded to the game vault, yet...

EDIT: Scratch that, it is now in the game vault, along with the older 2003 demo for those curious.

Feros · **Posted:** March 14th, 2007, 12:36 am

Looks absolutely fantastic. I'll be giving this a shot very soon.

ErikaFuzzbottom · **Posted:** March 14th, 2007, 1:33 pm

Just an FYI, Slayers' Reign's RPGMM Wiki article has been updated.

http://www.rpgmmag.com/wiki/index.php?t ... s%27_Reign

Lantis · **Posted:** March 19th, 2007, 10:26 pm

Firstly, I appologize for taking so long to do what I said I was going to do.

Secondly, awesome freakin jorb.

I think you are taking RM cababilities to a respectable level. Each dungeon had its own little gimmick that added extra character to the surroundings. Also, you have wonderful use of visuals such as shadows from cave intrances and such. Also, very good job with the rain and sound effects and such.

Also, for some reason, I spent a wee bit too much time on that piano waiting to see if I could pick up what tune it was I was playing... only to realize I wasn't... but I messed with it even after that. Small things amuse small minds?

The only bane for me was the whole seeing your enemies. And while I know I should be fighting them as I see them, I seem to bypass more fights than I should. And it almost came back to bite me in the arse durring the Trio bit. ^_^

The storyline is pretty solid... though not too extremely deep. But done well enough to make me want to know what happens next.

And finally, the custom menu was wonderful. I commend you for your efforts. It those wonderful added tweaks to games that make them so memorable. Also, good job on the battles. Nice and even... at least for people who are smart enough to know to keep fighting. XD

So yeah, good job... I'm looking forward to its realease next year.

ErikaFuzzbottom · **Posted:** March 19th, 2007, 11:17 pm

Lantis wrote:

Each dungeon had its own little gimmick that added extra character to the surroundings.

The hard part will be coming up with a fresh gimmick for every dungeon. Six down, a lot more than that to go. :@_@

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Also, for some reason, I spent a wee bit too much time on that piano waiting to see if I could pick up what tune it was I was playing... only to realize I wasn't... but I messed with it even after that. Small things amuse small minds?

Heavy on the easter eggs, I am. Most are not as elaborate as the piano (elaborate in that it plays random notes), but one of my favorite parts in RPGs, oddly enough, is searching all the crates, shelves, dressers, whatever in hopes of finding a special item or something amusing. So of course I gotta put an easter egg in about every crate, shelf, dresser, and other stuff for those who like exploring. The memory adds up, but it's worth it. (Hopefully this won't consume too much memory, but it shouldn't.)

Speaking of easter eggs, there's one in Rockford that I'm sure almost everybody will miss. Something one can pretty much only find by accident. It doesn't lead to anything important right now (unless you think having the shopkeeper yell at you is important), but I'll be sure to have it used to access a really good item later on in the game.

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The only bane for me was the whole seeing your enemies. And while I know I should be fighting them as I see them, I seem to bypass more fights than I should. And it almost came back to bite me in the arse durring the Trio bit. ^_^

Hmm, that's two people that wound up skipping a bunch of battles. Them being non-random (as ghosts) is important to the story, so I can't make the battles random, even though that would probably save a huge amount of memory. I tried balancing them to allow for the player to skip a few battles here and there, but of course that doesn't work too well since most people don't know which monsters are best to go after first in battle. Or it could be something else. Really, the battle balance is my biggest worry, as I've never recieved much comment on them.

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The storyline is pretty solid... though not too extremely deep. But done well enough to make me want to know what happens next.

Yes, the most important part of my game (though of course everything else cannot be left average). True it's not too deep right now, as it's pretty clear what's being implied so far. But my intentions aren't really meant to be thought-provoking anyway. It's entertainment, and hopefully, darn good entertainment.

The verdict is in! It's a demo worth playing (if I'm reading this right), so keep these comments coming!

Lantis · **Posted:** March 20th, 2007, 9:35 am

Draygone wrote:

Quote:

The only bane for me was the whole seeing your enemies. And while I know I should be fighting them as I see them, I seem to bypass more fights than I should. And it almost came back to bite me in the arse durring the Trio bit. ^_^

Hmm, that's two people that wound up skipping a bunch of battles. Them being non-random (as ghosts) is important to the story, so I can't make the battles random, even though that would probably save a huge amount of memory. I tried balancing them to allow for the player to skip a few battles here and there, but of course that doesn't work too well since most people don't know which monsters are best to go after first in battle. Or it could be something else. Really, the battle balance is my biggest worry, as I've never recieved much comment on them.

Oh, no... I'm not saying it's unbalanced. On the contrary, it's nicely balanced. The ploblems lies with me... I should have started to fight more often as to not make it a little difficult down the road. I wouldn't change it though. If you start forcing too many fights, it'll start looking like Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest.

Also, I did pick up on a few easter eggs... and it's all good. As long as it just takes up scenario data, I say go hog wild. The system data, however I'm trying to keep all on one card.

As you've said... I believe 2008 is going to be a good year at the Mag

ErikaFuzzbottom · **Posted:** March 20th, 2007, 11:18 am

Lantis wrote:

Also, I did pick up on a few easter eggs... and it's all good. As long as it just takes up scenario data, I say go hog wild. The system data, however I'm trying to keep all on one card.

Same here with system data. As nifty as the multiple system data trick is, it's both invonvenient for the player to have to shut off the game to continue it and for any developer who wants the entire game world open by the end of the game. I'm sure we're both about to test the limits of game world size, though.

Lantis · **Posted:** March 20th, 2007, 11:24 am

Very much so... As much as I hate to, I'm using quite a bit of the pre-made areas seeing as they only are 32 bits of data a piece. Where as the the same amount of moving space in a custom can be from 1000 on up.

A trick I've been using is when I decorate the houses and dungeons and whatnot, I use events instead ove the items in the dungeon editor. Eventually, all that will add up and be well worth it... or so I think.

slasherx2 · **Posted:** March 27th, 2007, 3:20 pm

I'ts looking good dude im glad I came back.

ErikaFuzzbottom · **Posted:** April 2nd, 2007, 12:41 pm

Okay, let's see. Still just two downloads of the new demo here. I've only gotten the preview from Lantis and a couple of basic "I liked it"s.

But I don't want to turn this into a plea for people to try my demo. That'll just drive everybody away. Instead, I just want to know why nobody has. Those who don't have RPGM1 in the first place, no problem. Those who don't have a working DexDrive, don't worry, I'm not about to tell you to use ePSXe (that thing's only good for taking screenshots). But for everybody else, why not?

Kittykicker · **Posted:** April 2nd, 2007, 1:17 pm

Draygone wrote:

Quote:

(Thanks to TheAsianInvasion and Kittykicker for helping with the video, especially since they only had one memory card to work with a demo that requires two and had to do multiple takes.)

If you haven't played the demo, yet, play it and tell me what you think. I want comments on everything. The story, the battles, the maps, and whether I overdid it with these guys:

I'm glad that I could help.

insultobot · **Posted:** July 15th, 2007, 3:42 pm

First of all, sorry it took nearly three months for me to get to this. Secondly I regret putting it off until now.

If anyone still hasn't played this demo do so now.
Well as I told you in the chat, it took me nearly five hours to complete. Yes that's too long but I was also stopping to check every barrel and what not, and a few non game related distractions helped too. Anyway here are my thoughts on your demo.
The first thing I noticed was the rain effect. Very nicely done.
The intro says, "In the end, mankind won, the dragons being forced into another world." I am sure you were trying to just get the message across in one text window, but it bothered me that it was a sentence fragment. I really liked how the 'SR' symbol faded into the grass and finally disappeared with a flash of lightning. Another great lightning effect was when in Mick and Seth's HQ, the windows flashed the lightning and after a second or two thunder sounded. All these little things really add to a game and you seem to be full of them.

I would like to see a dialogue window close as a person finished talking and another open for the next. Makes it feel more like they have a voice in my head. Maybe that's just me though.
I wasn't too sure what to make of Mick having an inner monologue and saying "this all started six years ago in Benld." It sounds like he is prepping someone for a long story but since he is thinking to himself, it seemed an odd thing to do. Although I can't readily suggest a different line and it wasn't all that off putting.

I think the flashing border for the exit to the world map from a dungeon is brilliant. While testing my own towns and dungeons, I fond it frustrating when I would walk too close to the edge and exit. I ended up putting too many trees around a town as if it was in the middle of a forest and a fence around another. I just may have to borrow your answer to this annoyance if you don't mind.

The little puzzles in every dungeon was great. None of them were too obvious or too hard. The only one I had trouble with was my own fault for not checking my inventory to see that I already had the key item I was searching for.
The battle screens bugged me at first. But after a few I hardly noticed nor did I care about seeing a screen pop up and fade out in less than a second. I think the feature is well worth keeping.

When Mick says that he may have been tricked or sent to Benld for a scare, it felt out of place. Perhaps mentioning something back at the inn or pub that Mick doesn't understand why they would send him here to map a region if the maps were updated relatively recently or any other reason that Mick would feel he is wasting his time mapping this region.

I liked the dragonites pushing the logs back and forth but I think it would be nice if the player could fight one, have the log roll to where the defeated enemy was, then the other one could be fought as well. Or at least get a message that they are playing and don't pose a threat.

After completing Benshel woods I decided to go back to town and see if there was any new news. After a stay at the inn I wanted to go back through the woods for a bit of levelling and when I got to the end of the woods there were two logs that wouldn't move. I assume that was designed to force the player to continue forward from the other side, but if they use the world map they can indeed go back. So I had to travel backwards through the forest and then go forwards on the map.

In the cave where Mick and Sarah meet the old man, I found it odd that there was absolutely no words from Mick or Sarah until the end of the scene. No hello, no I am Mick and this is Sarah. But the visualisation above his home was a great addition. I probably would have forgotten his tale if it weren't for that.

The explosions that cleared the rocks were a little out of place. Maybe have a sign that says danger keep out Mine property of Mining Co. or whatever. just at any point prior to the cave have mention that this was an old mine/whatever-you-decide that explains the explosives. Or Sarah could mention it upon entry. She is a detective after all. Also after the explosion clears the rocks, it would be nice to see some smaller rocks near the destroyed rock.

I think the sign that gives you the hint on what order to fight the three monsters is too much. I didn't even go to the exit with out solving a puzzle before it was actually given to me. Besides the absolute most anyone could have to battle is a total of seven. You could even have the guard tell you the same hint from the sign if you talk to him a couple times.

After the fight with the amazing trio(before they were amazing) the Dragon surprised me when it blocked my path. But if the player had control and the trigger was a four tile radius, the surprise would be even better.

When the man and woman enter Mick and Seth's HQ, they only walk in so far and Mick and Seth's heads aren't even on screen. It might be nicer if they came in a little closer before starting a conversation. Also their bickering was just the right amount of humor in the right time. I also really liked the strange map in the dresser.

The stream scene was very nice. I never would hav thought of something so simple but so effective.

From here on in I stopped writing because I wanted to see what happened next but I assure you if I had it would all be positive.
Excellent demo. I can't wait for the full release.

ErikaFuzzbottom · **Posted:** July 16th, 2007, 10:40 am

Thank you for the nice response. And now I shall do the requisite response-response.

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I would like to see a dialogue window close as a person finished talking and another open for the next. Makes it feel more like they have a voice in my head. Maybe that's just me though.

Takes a bit more memory to do that, though. Considering how much dialogue there is in Slayers' Reign, it would've really added up, and I needed all the memory I could get.

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I wasn't too sure what to make of Mick having an inner monologue and saying "this all started six years ago in Benld." It sounds like he is prepping someone for a long story but since he is thinking to himself, it seemed an odd thing to do. Although I can't readily suggest a different line and it wasn't all that off putting.

You do make a point, though. But I couldn't think of anything better, either.

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The battle screens bugged me at first. But after a few I hardly noticed nor did I care about seeing a screen pop up and fade out in less than a second. I think the feature is well worth keeping.

Unfortunately, it came down to memory restrictions again, and I've since scrapped the feature. Currently, only boss battles are still like that. On the plus side, going in and out of battle is so much faster, now.

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When Mick says that he may have been tricked or sent to Benld for a scare, it felt out of place. Perhaps mentioning something back at the inn or pub that Mick doesn't understand why they would send him here to map a region if the maps were updated relatively recently or any other reason that Mick would feel he is wasting his time mapping this region.

You know, I was having the worst time trying to figure out how to get it to sound right. Maybe that's why. Although honestly Mick doesn't have any reason to doubt his assignment before finding out about the dragonites. At this time the region really hadn't been fully explored, as mankind only returned about 40 years prior. Benld was the youngest town in Zeron at the time.

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I liked the dragonites pushing the logs back and forth but I think it would be nice if the player could fight one, have the log roll to where the defeated enemy was, then the other one could be fought as well. Or at least get a message that they are playing and don't pose a threat.

Too many battles, then. And, I was too lazy to deal with editing the log to stop once they're defeated and become rollable by the player.

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After completing Benshel woods I decided to go back to town and see if there was any new news. After a stay at the inn I wanted to go back through the woods for a bit of levelling and when I got to the end of the woods there were two logs that wouldn't move. I assume that was designed to force the player to continue forward from the other side, but if they use the world map they can indeed go back. So I had to travel backwards through the forest and then go forwards on the map.

That would be a glitch. Darn, I thought I fixed all the log issues.

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In the cave where Mick and Sarah meet the old man, I found it odd that there was absolutely no words from Mick or Sarah until the end of the scene. No hello, no I am Mick and this is Sarah.

I would've found it odd if they did have a friendly hello at the start, considering the important situation.
"Hello, I'm Mick, this is Sarah."
"Hi, I'm Jahova."
"Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise. Nice weather, huh?"
"Yes. Now then. Let's get to business."

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The explosions that cleared the rocks were a little out of place. Maybe have a sign that says danger keep out Mine property of Mining Co. or whatever. just at any point prior to the cave have mention that this was an old mine/whatever-you-decide that explains the explosives. Or Sarah could mention it upon entry. She is a detective after all. Also after the explosion clears the rocks, it would be nice to see some smaller rocks near the destroyed rock.

A sign probably would've been a good idea, yeah. But I couldn't do the smaller rocks. All the rocks and boulders in the cave had to be events since it was a sample cave, and I was way too close to the 120-event limit.

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I think the sign that gives you the hint on what order to fight the three monsters is too much. I didn't even go to the exit with out solving a puzzle before it was actually given to me. Besides the absolute most anyone could have to battle is a total of seven. You could even have the guard tell you the same hint from the sign if you talk to him a couple times.

After the fight with the amazing trio(before they were amazing) the Dragon surprised me when it blocked my path. But if the player had control and the trigger was a four tile radius, the surprise would be even better.

When the man and woman enter Mick and Seth's HQ, they only walk in so far and Mick and Seth's heads aren't even on screen. It might be nicer if they came in a little closer before starting a conversation.

Good ideas. I guess I had them turn back in the event on account there was a cave furthur up that led beyond Mt. Shela and I didn't want the player going there. But I'll definately keep it in mind.

Thanks very much for all the critique. I wish more people would comment like this. You didn't really get to my biggest worries, though. What was your opinion on the Awesome Trio in Green Grove, and everything from the dragon encounter in Death Cave and beyond? And were the battles any good? (Aside from the slayer battle at the end. I know that needs work.)

ErikaFuzzbottom · **Posted:** March 27th, 2008, 11:29 pm

A couple years back, I uploaded this self-made preview for my own game, Slayers' Reign. I eventually took it down in an attempt to not influence the person who previewed my game. I recently found it, and here it is again.

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Dragon Warriors of Cradonia: Slayers' Reign
Previewer(s): Draygone
Developer: Draygone
Genre: RPG
Expected Release: "TBA"
Rating: RP (Rating Pending)
Platform: RPGM1 (Demo Only)

Overview:
As a new Previewer/Interviewer for the Mag, I decided it might be fun if I did an interview with myself regarding my pre-Jester's Hunt demo, Dragon Warriors of Cradonia: Slayers' Reign (now simply titled Slayers' Reign). Playing the demo really brought back memories, and there were some interesting things that I forgot I even did. After decicing on a basic list of questions to ask, I AIMed myself (you can do that, you know) for an unscripted interview. To reduce confusion, I will be Draygone while my interviewed self will be GDG.

_________________________________________________________

Developer Interview: GDG (Great Dragon Gaming)

Draygone: Hello, and thank us for taking part in our interview.
GDG: Heh, and thanks for inviting me.

Draygone: Please tell me about yourself for the readers.
GDG: Well, I'm Draygone, and I'm the only member of my development studio, Great Dragon Gaming.

Draygone: Is there a story behind your studio's name?
GDG: Well, back at the Enix board (before they merged with Square), I was being new to message boards and went through several user names in a short period of time...
Before I settled for "Draygone", one of these names was Great Dragon. Long story short, I decided to use that in the name of my development studio.

Draygone: Okay, moving on to your game. Who are the Dragon Warriors of Cradonia?
GDG: Hmm, not sure if I want to answer that just yet. I will say that "Cradonia" will likely undergo a name change, and the title of the game has been simplified to just "Slayers' Reign".

Draygone: Can you at least tell me which side they're on?
GDG: Good guy/bad guy?

Draygone: Yes.
GDG: Definately good guys.

Draygone: Okay. Next, the title screen indicates that the game is the "Set Battle Version". What exactly does this mean?
GDG: Well, "set battle" was just my way of saying that the battles were not random...
Because of how much scenario data the game was going to take, I decided that I could use both a non-random battle version and a random battle version. The random battle version, since it would take less memory, would mean less instances of having to switch between memory cards, especially considering how large the game is.

Draygone: How long is the game?
GDG: At this point, I'm not sure. It's still in re-planning, because I'm lazy, but I assume it would at least be close to 20 hours in length.

Draygone: Well, the demo did take me 2 hours to finish.
GDG: Heh, yeah, I didn't feel that ending it after Mt. Shela would've left the player interested enough.

Draygone: The demo's end was pretty exciting.
GDG: And that's only the beginning!

Draygone: Speaking of battles, I found it somewhat interesting. Most notably the priority system you had.
GDG: Oh, I forgot I even had that!

Draygone: What was your motivation behind Slayers' Reign and its ideas?
GDG: Um, well, basically, I just wanted to create a game. I had been playing video games for almost my whole life. Also, I am a big dragon fan, and wanted to create a game about dragons, and more than that, about dragons being on the side of good. Which I didn't know was already being done in the Breath of Fire series at the time.

Draygone: Oh, so the dragons are supposed to be good.
The dragons were pretty much evil the entire demo.
GDG: That's just the backstory.
Right after the demo's end, that was when the game would shift viewpoints.

Draygone: So then, are the dragon slayers supposed to be the bad guys?
GDG: One of them, at least. There's another force that I'd rather keep secret. Don't worry though, it won't be the powerful entity intending to destroy the world cliche.
Actually, the world won't be in any danger at all.

Draygone: What's the deal with the bookshelf in Benld (how do you pronounce that) advertising one of Stephen King's novels?
GDG: Heh, Benld is pronounced Ben-eld (it's my real hometown). The Stephen King novel is in there because originally my game was titled The Eyes of the Dragon. Someone pointed out that there was a novel with the same name, which I wound up reading to see if there were any similarities between my story and his.
There weren't.

Draygone: Why do "dragonites" look like ghosts? Are they related to the Pokemon?
GDG: I was wondering if someone would ever notice the name. No, they're completely unrelated.
Dragonites look like ghosts for two reasons.
One, RPGM1 (and RPGM2K, when I was using it before finding out it was illegal) didn't provide a wide enough selection of monster sprites. But of course, I couldn't make them all look the same and be satisfied.
So I came up with an in-game reason for why they would look like ghosts. I think it's a good reason, but I'm not at liberty to reveal the secret right now.

Draygone: Who are the Awesome Trio, and are they going to be a frequent occurrance throughout the game?
GDG: They're comic relief bosses, much like Croco and Belome in Mario RPG, and Ultros in FF6. I'm trying to make it so they're not bosses two times in a row, but they will be encountered one or two more times later in the game.

Draygone: Okay, just a couple more questions. First, it's been a while since the demo's release. Will the game still be on RPGM1, or are you moving it to another?
GDG: It won't be on an RPGM. I'm gonna eventually program it from scratch.

Draygone: I find that interesting, considering your monologue at the end of the demo.
GDG: Um, what did it say?

Draygone: That it would be the last demo, because you are satisfied with the current version and won't be starting from scratch again.
GDG: I really said that? That figures!

Draygone: It was a pretty long speech. In the end, you asked if the speech was too long, except it got cut off. It said something like "Was this speech too".
GDG: Whoops!

Draygone: Anyway, I think this interview's getting a little long. Thank you for taking the time to do this.
GDG: No prob.

_________________________________________________________

Previewer Impressions: Slayers' Reign

According to the game description here at the Mag, this demo was released three years ago. And if that's the case, I can't wait to see what improvements to the story Draygone has made since! The story basically is about a man named Mick and his encounter with dragons and their "dragonite" army, who have come to invade and take over Mick's world. While the idea sounds pretty cliche, there's definately more going on than that. Though the dragons are presented as evil for most of the story, it also tries to throw the idea at a few points that dragons can be good. Most notably, the intro and climactic ending of the demo. I kinda wish the demo went furthur, but it's already a good 2 hours in length, which I believe is pretty long for an RPGM1 demo.

The game is definately intended as a very cinematic RPG (the intro has a slight letterboxing), and I actually found myself getting excited over what was happening (I may just be biased, but it has been a while since I've even seen this game). There are a few scenes where the characters simply sit in place with only the dialogue to keep your interest, and both scenes in Mick's house are devoid of any sound beyond the opening/closing of the door.

Gameplay for the most part was kept interesting. Each dungeon has had at least one puzzle/obstacle to deal with, my personal favorite being lighting up the last dungeon. The challenge of the battles seemed about right to me. There were a few 0s in the first two dungeons, but otherwise the balancing was okay. You definately have to keep an eye on your HP, especially considering how monster-filled the dungeons are, and luckily Draygone provides plenty of treasure chests along the way filled with grocery items such as "Fruit" and "Juice". The item names seem a bit odd (the MP-healing item is called "Veggie"), so I'm not sure if the names are better or not than the typical Potions and Herbs. The battles also contained basic strategy, such as get rid of the healer first. Most notably, when you obtain each party member, you're asked to give them "Status Priorities", which uses RPGM1's Skill system to give certain stats (between HP, Attack, and Defense) higher priority to level up (a No Priority option also exists for leveling stats evenly). The game also had non-random battles, and encountering an enemy would bring you to a separate battle screen, where normally RPGM1 simply holds the FPV battles on the same (but dimmed) screen.

It's a real shame that the game won't appear on any RPGM. A game like this could definately shake up the community. But it'll still be something to look forward to if/when it is finished. Those interested can find the demo both here at RPGM Magazine (as Slayers' Reign) and at the RPG Maker Pavilion (as Dragon Warriors of Cradonia).

Things sure have changed.
<p align="center">:draygone:

	It is currently November 21st, 2024, 8:55 pm
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