itch.io

Hello everybody! Our team of two has finally, after a year in early access, seen our full release today!!!

To keep it brief, Azarine Heart is an RPG that draws from older traditional RPGs like Morrowind, the Might and Magic series, and Fable. We made it a point to make sure that role-playing was a huge aspect of the game, with your character able to be both morally good, and morally evil, which is a lacking quality in modern RPGs lately.

With about 20-30 hours of content in a single playthrough, there is replayability to consider as well, since many factions and questlines will lock after choosing one or another.

Azarine Heart is an open-world experience, with a point of quality over quantity. The size of the world may be fairly small, but around every corner is a new location, dungeon, or town that will draw you in. An active, not turn-based combat system makes up the combat loop, with several weapon and magic types allowing for a large customization of builds.

Searching for your sister in a strange, unfamiliar land, you can enlist the help of several followers (6 main, about a dozen faction-related), 7 main factions, and 6 smaller covenants on your quest to rescue your kidnapped sibling, taken from you by three masked men whose motives are beyond your understanding...for now.

Here's a release trailer down below!

Hello everybody! Our team of two has finally, after a year in early access, seen our full release today!!!

To keep it brief, Azarine Heart is an RPG that draws from older traditional RPGs like Morrowind, the Might and Magic series, and Fable. We made it a point to make sure that role-playing was a huge aspect of the game, with your character able to be both morally good, and morally evil, which is a lacking quality in modern RPGs lately.

With about 20-30 hours of content in a single playthrough, there is replayability to consider as well, since many factions and questlines will lock after choosing one or another.

Azarine Heart is an open-world experience, with a point of quality over quantity. The size of the world may be fairly small, but around every corner is a new location, dungeon, or town that will draw you in. An active, not turn-based combat system makes up the combat loop, with several weapon and magic types allowing for a large customization of builds.

Searching for your sister in a strange, unfamiliar land, you can enlist the help of several followers (6 main, about a dozen faction-related), 7 main factions, and 6 smaller covenants on your quest to rescue your kidnapped sibling, taken from you by three masked men whose motives are beyond your understanding...for now.

I tried my best to make sure I had a close amount of positive to negative critiques.

My first impressions: this game is artful and charmingly put together. The asset work is very well done, if not a little derivative of things like Chrono Trigger or Earthbound. Especially Earthbound. I liked the look of the game, and despite needing some work to make the assets look less amateur (unless a hand-drawn, not incredibly polished look is your intention, then go for it), I think the sprites, facesets, tiles, and the music were all consistent and honestly, pretty great. However, I didn't enjoy the game. I had to put it down after an hour because despite being charming to look at and listen to, it wasn't fun. It ended up more frustrating and confusing.

Some things I think you did great:

• I already mentioned the art direction and the music. I won't beat a dead Esper on that topic.
• The autosaves were helpful, and I think the Zotons were a nice touch. They were in good, convenient areas so deaths wouldn't mean a long runback. They were also unique enough to stand out. I personally don't like having to use a save spot, but that's personal preference and has no impact on the demo review.
• The time aspect of the standard turn based battles added some uniqueness to the encounters, but they did end up just being button mashers of "attack, attack, attack", since none of the powers stood out enough to make the characters unique in playstyle. Flamethrower and Tornado were the only ones worth using.
• The items, like the eggs? Great feedback. I know what I'm picking up, and the animation of each egg being snatched was super cute. Some games don't tell you that you're picking something up; you tell and show it.
• The Esper exposition dump on the bridge was short enough that it didn't make me roll my eyes. Normally, dialogue like that is kind of a big no-no, you want to stay away from narrative diarrhea, but that one was actually alright.

Now, my critiques:

• The game is genuinely confusing. I didn't get engaged with the plot, and in times it felt like art and being silly/edgy mattered more than actual storytelling. I do not care about Ballandra or the kids. I do not care about Sam or Cocoa, because you never made them characterized enough to care about. The dialogue at the beginning where he talks about the cabinet? I don't feel anything toward it, because it never ended up meaning anything, at least during the demo. If it gets expanded on later and becomes a focal point of Bal's character? Then great!
• Like I said before, I'm not really sold on the story.
• Dialogue is both boring and kind of unrealistic. Like above, there were times it came across as intentionally edgy, like with Merrad in the beginning. I wasn't sold on anything being said. Sam and Bal have this sort of dramatic conflict, but family drama is so cliche and nothing special was done to make it different, so it just made me groan and not want to read it. Some of the pauses between dialogue chunks were so unimaginably long that I thought the game was frozen several times. The diamond patterned dialogue box can also make the text hard to read sometimes.
• The menu layout is super generic, for both the battles and the standard menu. I would know immediately this is an MV or MZ game as soon as I hit escape.
• Is Merrad adopted? Why does he look so different from all the other characters? Even Paris at least has that yellow beak. Overall, the sprites all stand out...but as a family, that's not always a good thing. Some internal consistency would be nice.
• The random encounters ruined the game for me. It killed the pacing; as soon as I leave my house, bam. Three random encounters within seconds of each other. And since the battles just aren't fun, it was a slog to get through all of them. Random encounters are not always a good thing, especially in a narrative game like this. Save the RPG elements until the ball gets rolling.

Your game has potential. Like I said, it's got excellent atmosphere and the art is fun and pleasant, if not very Earthbound-esque. It's not fun to play, I put it down because I wasn't sold on the premise, but with a lot more work, I'd probably pick it back up. Some more time with playtesters and maybe a few more weeks/months to sharpen things up would help a lot. So far it feels like your eagerness to get a demo out maybe outweighed giving it time to develop, but it is not the worst I've played, for sure. Nobody could call it an asset flip, if anything.

Good luck with your project!

What to say about Kult Following?

I normally like to make sure that I give a positive for every negative, but I am really sorry to say that I just can't do that with this one.

My first impressions are lackluster. The game just doesn't feel developed beyond the concepting stage. It is hardly playable and it does nothing to hook me at all. If I was the average player, I wouldn't have played longer than a minute.

Here are some good things I think you did well.

- You have a decent lighting effects plugin, script, or event that makes the shadows and moving lights dynamic. It's hard to pull lights off well, so you definitely managed that.

- The mouse controls are concise and responsive. The movement feels responsive, although some events lag the game a lot.

- I believe you do have a story to tell, but I have no idea what that story even is from <em class="italic" <this<="" em=""></em><em class="italic" <this<="" em="">. I gathered that there is a cult and a church. That's about it. No plot, no story, no themes, not even any characters. I put the game down after finding the doll because nothing happened. Absolutely nothing happened after picking it up and running through all the maps again and interacting with >em class="italic">every single doodad</em>.

Now my critiques:

- Like I said above, there's nothing here to hook anybody. I don't know what you're trying to show me. Even if there was something here, I couldn't figure it out from the oddly paced dialogue, the random capitalization and punctuation, and the exposition dump that is notes and letters. The dialogue neither impresses nor hooks me. For example, "where i am i" in the very beginning of the game. Or, "How is progress on the cult going?" Nobody talks like that, much less a cult leader. Also, "placeholder man".

- Even for a demo, this is laughably short. Some events loop when you walk through them, like the dialogue in the "maze" sequence.

- There is no sound and no music. Except for the generic menu sounds, but even then, those only play if you choose to open the menu. The title music isn't very good. I think it might be RTP? It does nothing to set the mood otherwise.

- There is some really strange mapping choices in this demo. The rope in the basement going up to nowhere, the incredibly empty church layout and the fact that you can walk on the ceiling, bad passability settings, and the vast emptiness of all the maps. Outside is the best map because you actually put plants and eye candy down to make it less of a sea of green, but even then, nothing is interactable. The note in the basement is interactable, but only from one side? There's also no feedback when you actually pick up an item like the key or the doll. No message that says "you picked this up!", for example. Even the flames don't have any animation to them, so it all looks so...off putting and uncanny.

- Using the RTP. For your first game, no big deal, but it does immediately turn most people off from even checking it out. It's there, it's a tool to be used, but with everything else above included with this, it's just icing on the cake to why people don't play RPG Maker games.

This demo needed more time in the oven before you put it on itch.io. There's no reason to pick this demo up. You're not giving us anything new or even really that playable. This didn't convince me to play the full game when it releases.

But despite that, don't give up. Make it better, and don't let this discourage you. Good luck.

I enjoyed this game, and I think it has a lot of potential going forward. It is still just a demo, but there is something here for sure.

While the story is not always apparent and "there," it has a strong base, if not a little bit of an isekai. The combat is what you would expect from an RM game, but with the many different relics introduced, it keeps combat a little more fun with its variety of items.

If you decide to play, keep an open mind!

For anyone looking at this game or thinking about checking it out: do it!

It is a very fun and delightful little demo, that definitely has the 90s charm it is going for. There is some polishing left to be done, but it certainly kept me playing and playing.

There is a good concept here!

I haven't played the game through to completion yet, I don't think, but what I have played is a solid mark of what RPG Maker can achieve. It is fun and engaging, with the beginnings of a good story. With some effort, it could be a really great game.

However...

The game in its current state has a lot of bugs, so be warned! Combat is what you would expect from an RM game, with a little more interactivity with item and battle synergy than usual games, so if you're looking for a simple to pick up turn-based system, this may be the demo for you. 

Good day everyone!

I'm Rowen, the solo developer of Azarine Heart, an early access title that I hope to share with you all. It is an open-world, 2d rpg with heavy story and dialogue-driven plot. Following the kidnapping of your sister by a mysterious cult, you travel - unwillingly - to the land of Acadia, a wartorn, diseased isle off the mainland coast, in hopes of finding her, and bringing her home. Little do you know, that there's more at work than meets the eye...

Engage in battles with all manner of hostile creatures; undead, giants, the vicious wildlife of Acadia, and the groups of roaming bandits, marauders, fallen priests, and of course, the mysterious Robanna Dram. Join the seven factions that vie for power in Acadia, and influence the politics of the world. Be the good the world needs, or the evil that your pockets want. Romance is in the air; the heartsing flowers sing true to the one of your affections...or break the trust of friends for profit. And of course, find her.

As the game is currently in early access, there will likely be some bugs and problems throughout your playthrough. Save often, and please don't hesitate to reach out and report them. Thank you.

You can find the game here: https://rowenhorton.itch.io/azarine-heart

Discord here: https://discord.gg/3mZR9wcvkR

Screenshots: