Why didn't you tell me that your Defenders of Light RM2 project had released a demo? Somehow that completely slid under my radar. If you'd like some feedback I'd love to give it to ya, though I can't promise I'd get to it soon since I have my own project to finish up. Is it still in development...actually how long has it been in development? A long time.

Well still, I know you were working on this demo for a long time so congrats on finishing it.

Sorry... Although, I did post a notification here and at Pavilion in February of 2017.

If you'd like to give feedback, that would be nice.

Technically, the demo was in development before RM2 was released in North America.
I had a copy of the Japanese version and tinkered with a few things back then.
When RM2 came out, I started work on Defenders Of Light 2 almost immediately.
Then, there were many years of on and off again work being done. Mostly off.
I haven't done much work on it since I released the demo. Pretty much none.
This is mainly due to constant set backs I kept having.
Not to mention that I found that memory was being used up exponentially.
It's possible that I may have been too ambitious.
That being said, it's entirely possible that I may start up again in the future.

Thank you for your interest!

So I dedicated a bit of time to play the game today. For some background, I only played maybe 30 minutes of the first game before quitting. It was on my list for an Informer review, but the series never went long enough for it to happen. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

-The controller rumble is nice in theory, but it shakes like crazy for every little thing. It shakes HARD too, it hurt to hold my controller. I was like WTF, why is it shaking for pressing X at every little thing? If you can control the sensitivity, you've got it way too strong. It's overkill, so I turned it off right away.

-The visual effects and camerawork are amazing. The logos at the intro (Shawn Forbes and the YM symbol) were really cool. I think it's incredible how much content is here and how well it works. During my playthrough I didn't encounter any bugs, which is really something to celebrate.

-The story is serviceable, if a bit bland. There's nothing wrong with what you've got, but it feels a little...boring. Maybe I'm biased after playing games recently like F-zero GX and Josh's Adventure, but the game seems to not have much character or charm. Like the Defenders of Light trainees, there are six of them and we know nothing about them. Like, what are their motivations for being trainees? How do they solve problems in their lives?

-The game's use of mini games feels weird. Like, it doesn't feel like an extension of the original. The games themselves are all okay, but nothing to write home about.

-You mention the fact the game is an open world, but I didn't get that impression at all. In order to warp off the first island you have to beat all 4 out of 4 minigames to proceed. The advantage of having an open world design is player choice, and right now the game doesn't give any leeway to do so.

-The game is a bit vague about what does what. There are a lot of things to collect, and I was confused about what everything does and how to proceed. I know you have a chart to describe everything, but I'd suggest having an interactive tutorial to help guide the player and make those connections stronger.

-Caterpillar Land is pretty cute. There's a lot of dead space in this one though.



So overall I'm not down on the game. The idea of wandering around and collecting things isn't a fun gameplay mechanic for me anymore, not since the N64 days. Looks great, but isn't fun. Here's some changes I would suggest:

-Give it character! If you've got the skills for it, making it colorful, comical or goofy would go a long way to making it more enjoyable.

-Reward the player. Collecting things to get the chance to collect more things is a slog, but if there were rewards along the way, it would do a lot to keep me playing. In DK64, there were big boss battles and wacky cutscenes to help break up the action and serve as mini rewards to keep playing.

-Cut it down. Six players and more than six worlds means you'll never get this thing done, especially if your demo came out this year. I'd cut the number of playable characters in half (I was going to say have two characters max, but that wouldn't work with the narrative. Three would be good). For me, switching characters and going over levels I've already beaten isn't fun, and since these aren't riveting people to begin with, it would be a great boon for you and your players. Less to track and less to make for you too.


So I'm a not digging the game overall. It's obvious you're a talented guy but the game is too big and unfocused to really work right now. Only you can decide where to go from here, but hopefully this gives you something to consider what to do next.

I appreciate the feedback, thanks!

This demo isn't as open as I would like compared to what the full game would be. Things were tightened up to save on memory, so that's why the characters suffer from lack of backstory and dialogue. In retrospect, I should've made the areas more easily accessible.

I suppose I did go a bit overboard with the rumble, and I think my controller doesn't vibrate accurately or strongly enough, so I probably overcompensated.

I always wanted Mini Games to be part of the original RM1 game, but was tight on memory. Plus, I couldn't find an easy way to incorporate them into the gameplay.

Caterpillarland is a work in progress. The idea is to have islands that look like different kinds of fruit. I suppose I could've shrunk it down for the Demo.

I would say I was focusing more on Mini Games and gameplay rather than the story, since text uses up so much memory. However, I'd probably add more if I started working on the game again.

I was going to add some tutorial elements to guide the player, but didn't get around to including that in the Demo.

At the moment, I am not working on the game anymore and honestly have no plays to return to it. The game was eating up a lot of memory and time, with constant RPG Maker related issues, like crashing. I realized that I'd probably have to redesign things to keep the gameplay moving forward, with less revisits of previous areas. This most likely would have meant making the game more linear.

Overall, I think the concept may have been more than RM2 can handle.

Now, having said all that, it's entirely possible that I could start working on things again. Also, I might begin another project for RM2 if I come up with a good idea.

By the way, I'm not sure how far you got into the Demo, but there are more things to do. For example, there are 6 Mini Games in First World and there's an area called Aqualand (although not much to do there). The main area that shows off what this game would be like is RPGLand. There's enemies, places to visit, Abilities to use, Collectables, and a Boss.

Here's my Let's Play: