Title
Ursus Quest: Shadow of the Towers
Developer
Obright
Previewer
Draygone
Screens
Click to enlarge
|
|
Ursus Quest: Shadow of the Towers
Previewer: Draygone
Developer: Obright
Genre: Epic Adventure
Expected Release: 2nd Half 2006
Rating: Teen
Platform: RPG Maker 3
|
|
Overview:
My first official assignment as an RPGM Mag previewer was a
long one. It took me 9 hours to get through Obright's
Ursus Quest demo, which is pretty long for any RPGM
demo. It didn't help too much that he had updated the
demo twice since I started. I wound up sticking with
the first update. Obright was unable to gain access
to any IM service for an interview, so I sent him some
questions via Private Messaging.
|
Developer Interview: Obright
Draygone (DR): What is your inspiration/motivation behind
Ursus Quest?
Obright (OB): My inspiration comes from all the RPG's
I've played that I've enjoyed, but never really felt ready
when the credits rolled. I always wanted a game that I could
actually enjoy the world that I've just saved, not just have
to end the game as soon as the responsibility is fulfilled...
where's the reward? I wanted Ursus Quest to be that reward.
Although replayable, it's not the never-ending random-generated
thing I envisioned...but that's mainly due to RM3's
limitations.
DR: How long have you been working on it, and how close
do you think you are to finishing it?
OB: I've been working on the game for about 8 months,
and I think I'm about 4/5 finished.
DR: How hard has it been to create the fields in the
game?
OB: Certain ones were very difficult. Probably the
hardest one was the mountain pass. One mistake could (and
did) ruin quite a lot of work. When I saved that one for
the last time, I think I threw a party. Caldera was a close
second. The terraced slopes on the east side of the island
took me several days, because there's no way (that I know
of) to match the ALT. map with the terrain map without a
lot of trial and error. The Eschelon map was also rather
hard, but that was mostly because it was the first one I
made.
DR: What would you say the best party combination
would be? How about the worst?
OB: I tried to give each character something special
that made it hard to choose between them, but as far as a
worst battle party, I would say it would be Troy, the
Guardian, the Mage, and the Dwarf Gladiator. Aratos is the
strongest mage, and Duggan is the strongest physical
attacker, but there is nobody in that party that can heal,
cure, or resurrect without an item. As far as a best
party...that's tricky. My favorite is Troy, the Dark Scholar,
the Dwarf Cleric, and the Mage. However, having 2 mages is
a great opportunity to add the Red Monk (instead of the
dwarf cleric), because he is the only character that can
restore MP. Another good choice to add would be the
Guardian, because he'll take damage for the mages, and can
protect them. I guess a better way to look at it would be
'easiest' or 'hardest' battle parties, but even that
depends on individual playing styles. All that aside,
I'd say:
Easiest - Troy, the Sage, the Mage, and Duggan (best mage,
best healer,
best ATT.)
Hardest - Troy, the Guardian, the Dwarf Gladiator, the mage
(no healing).
I prefer a little variety, though...so I add a balanced
character or two (Dark Scholar, Red Monk, Dwarf Cleric,
etc).
DR: Is the werewolf from the first town going to
be one of the bonus characters? Or am I not even gonna get
a hint for an answer?
OB: Here's a hint...Yes! :lol (And he's a Kobold ;))
DR: What will happen when I'm able to switch between
party members near the quest's end? Will they all be at L1,
or would they all be about the same level as my current
team at that point?
OB: Yes. The only character that actually builds
somewhat even if they're not in your starting battle party
is Joseph (the Dark Scholar), because he still learns
skills as he travels along with you. When you can recruit
him, he'll have whichever enemy skills you've found...but
he'll still be at level 1. The idea is to level him until
he has enough MP to use his skills. The final game will
have a training dungeon, but also an option to warp back to
the first town and begin the journey again, so lvl 1
characters can train the same way the original ones did. I'm
actually wanting to make it so that you are offered a choice
to continue playing after the final boss. If you choose 'NO',
then you'll get ending #1. If you choose 'YES', you can go
back through the game and beat a harder version of each
boss (twice). Some of the bonus characters and great items
are only available on the second playthrough.
DR: Is there a reason I can access the 9th floor of
the wind tower from the top of Amber Tower?
OB: Yes, there's a good reason for that...because
you didn't update your game data before you got to the top
of the Amber Tower. :lol I know, it's my own fault...I just
never noticed that while I was play-testing until after I
had sent it to you (sorry), and I know you were having data
issues when I mentioned it.
DR: The third tower sits on top of a vast empty cliff.
Is there going to be something like a warp leading to the
tower?
OB: No, you can actually get there via a ramp up the
side of the canyon. I'm thinking of taking that route out
and adding a warp to get there, but that map is still in
the works.
DR: Thank you ahead of time for answering these
questions.
OB: Thank you for asking!
|
Previewer Impressions: Ursus Quest: Shadow of the Towers
I'd almost hate to say this, but I was just about jumping
for joy when I finally finished playing the demo. Do not
take this the wrong way; the demo by no means screams
"this game will suck." The problem is that the demo is
very much unfinished. Most battles in the demo were too
easy, towns were devoid of any life beyond shopkeepers
(and a werewolf/kobold and king), a few shopkeepers sell
nothing, some buildings lack proper names, and all dungeons
starting with the first tower were 90% empty. Plus, a few
of the special features mentioned in the game description
were unfortunately unavailable for previewing. So you
can see why I was a little excited when I realized I
was done. As such, it makes it a little difficult
figuring out how much potential the game really has.
The game starts off by telling you how the hero, Troy,
had his hometown destroyed and wound up joining with a
bunch of random adventurers (I'm paraphrasing) and
destroyed the dark forces that plagued the land. But
enough about that; this takes place 20 years after.
Troy and his friends are having a drink, and one of
his friends is itching for another adventure, so they
all agree to go on the Four Towers Quest. The game
has some humor here and there, including a few fart
jokes, if you're into that sort of thing. There's
hints of some impending evil over the horizon, but
the demo didn't go far enough for me to find out what.
You start off by picking three out of seven allies to
start the adventure with, which guarentees a little
that each playthrough won't be exactly the same without
choosing the same party again. Then, you just go out
and fight monsters. There isn't much to it, though the
towers have a couple puzzles to deal with. Going
around doing nothing but fighting monsters gets a little
boring, but it'll be better once there are some
townspeople to talk to every once in a while and the
battles are balanced out. The most impressive feature
would probably be the field maps. It's quite obvious that
a lot of work had been put into them. The only problem
I've found with them is when you travel across beaches.
At certain points the ground is just low enough that the
game counts it as unwalkable, which is a bit of a pain if
these spots are directly in between you and that tower.
A couple of towns are arranged where the buildings line
up the side instead of jumbled all over, which seems to
be done to reduce slowdown, though I couldn't help but
notice a few instances where the balloon fields are open
and empty.
Overall, I just really didn't like the demo, but
I'm still interested to see how much of an improvement
it will recieve by the time it's released. The demo
does show a little promise. You just have to look a
little to see it.
|
|
|
|
