itch.io

There might or might not be story related factors that don't necessarily lean into that idea. But I'm not against the idea itself.

Likely just those 3.

Most likely PC related. I have had issues where the game starts up super slowly randomly but that usually doesn't carry into the gameplay.

That's a lot of bit too specific questions so I'll just state that maybe some will be answered in time, some probably won't, we'll see.

Fair point, but it is meant to stack up as the game goes on. You can get the player character's targeting rate to around 160% using the correct gear + the skill iirc, and other characters can utilize gear that lowers their targeting rate. For example Noel has -20% by default, but the skill could realistically add something like 30-40% instead.

I'd probably try to tune it in a way that on turns where the breath attack is used, it lowers the chance for the tail swipe or something like that. Or maybe I'll add one turn to the cooldown of the breath attack.

Looks like there's something on the table that overrides the table's rule about walking on it. There's been similar issues with cracks etc on walls, but it's a minor issue. I'll fix it at some point.

Since it's optional, the Drake is meant to be way harder than anything the player encounters normally. You need top gear, good party composition and high level to beat it, and I suggest only to try it after finishing the main quest so far.

I have to say that I do not put anything into the game that I haven't beaten myself, so it is perfectly possible. The drake does indeed do a lot of AoE damage, but I partly blame RPG Maker's combat system for this. It really does not provide tools to make hard battles "interestingly challenging", so it often just boils down to "this boss just does a lot of damage".  I guess technically the boss's damage could be toned down and make it do more status effects etc, but it is what it is.

Thank you for showing interest in the game. I'm not against having a chinese patch or a japanese patch, but I have no experience how translating an RPG Maker game works. My japanese skills are pretty basic and I do not know any chinese, so I would have to pay someone to translate this. Currently my priority is to finish the english version.

I don't know. Making a game is so much work that I'd think twice before starting a new project after this one.

Oh, that's a great find. The house has cut content from like 3 years ago that I have since discontinued, and some repurposed switch is allowing access to it. I ninja-patched this out in the v3.1 just now (i.e. I didn't raise the version number for this fix).

Yes. I will have more info about it once I release the Quinn & Rose quest patch in a couple of months.

Thanks for the info~

I did test that part quite a lot, and if it runs after restart that sounds like a random accident. I'll double check the scene tomorrow and see if anyone else has had issues with it.

EDIT: Did you catch when exactly the freeze happened? I have a theory that Catherine entering the scene with her guards might cause a move route freeze if she and the guards somehow "step" on each other causing a blocked path. Never happened to me, but technically possible if your game happens to lag right then.

During February. I haven't decided on a date yet. I'll put out a note about a week before.

I think Itch IO offers some sort or workaround where the keys here can be used on external platforms, or you get a completely new key, but I am not sure.

No problem~

No, at least not anytime soon. I could consider a Steam release if I get the game ported to RPG Maker MZ at some point in the future.

I'd currently put the initial release date in February. Hopefully in the first half, but it might slip to the latter.

As a side note: issues with my pixiv have no effect on this.

Through quests. It would become a nightmare to script otherwise on the engine.

The game has very few side quests at the moment and all are completable at any point. The Canoness' staff quest can be picked up in Flumen pretty early, and doing the mine investigation quest eventually takes you to the area with the cave (the one where you fight the bear).

Erika's scene is at the very beginning of the game after you join the Agency. She says she's off to drink and can be found at the local inn.

The staff cave is in the same area you fight the Warg bear boss. At the very south end.

You start as a male, but can later wear Chelia, Lily and Noel as the game is now. Wearing them is tied to quest progress.

Thank you very much! It's nice to hear good things about my works since I have a very average opinion about everything I do myself :P

There is indeed another cave on the road to Aerzen, and it's on the map where you fight the warg bear. You need the key from the priest to enter the cave fully.

That's a good pickup on the Lily's quest. I've had similar sequence break bugs in the game before, but sometimes they just fly under the radar so to say. Out of sight out of mind kind of thing. :3

And for purchasable cosplay items... I'd have to do it in same way as in Noel's quest where he wears the "religious ritual garb", but on a technical level it's not impossible to start a quest by buying X item in a store. (I might have something already planned regarding Rose and maids)

You will wear different suits across the story, both female and male ones.

Thanks!

I put in my design document an ironclad rule that I would not touch the party members after the player has acquired them. The playable party is (almost) completely independent from the story. I'd be MAYBE willing to break this rule if a character canonically dies or if there was be a branching story path where you completely abandon the Agency or something. I understand the immersion aspect, but I draw this design aspect from more modern games like Star Rail. Players have their favorite characters and team comps, and while RPG Maker allows adding and removing party members at any point, I feel it would be detrimental to the overall gaming experience. Many would find it annoying that you can't suddenly use the character you've put most effort in and given the best gear to just because this bit of the story happens to dictate so.

The latter feature is likely possible, but would require a lot of modding. Especially if it needs to show the current equipment, since I'd need to have graphics for every single armor/weapon/shield I put into the game. Not impossible, but too much work for one guy considering it's a purely visual feature. Canonically most of the characters wear the Agency uniform anyway.

Yes. Every accessory slot item works on every character, even if the name or the ability makes no sense. You can make anyone counterattack, thou I would not advice it with low ATK characters. :3

Absolutely :D

That's a good find. There's a haywire autorun event there which triggers due to the switches that go on in Noel's and Lily's quests. I have patched this issue in v2.5.

Not unfortunately. I can only do fluent english and finnish.
Some people have asked if they can make a fan translation, which I'm open to, but I have no idea if those projects ever came to anything.

Unfortunately it's not since they may require a lot of art. v3.0 will likely have more companion quests and smaller fetch quests.

It doesn't affect anything story-wise. You just need to choose between a nice staff and a pile of money. You CAN sell the staff to a store too, but you won't get as good of a price for it.

Short answer: yes. I will have a bunch of side quests for that. MC will get into some juicy situations as his coworkers.

The image set will be updated along the patch if the patch has new images.

Thanks, but this is a really big project mostly due to how much art goes into it. If I make another game I need to think how to streamline its design in a way that is not so dependent on pictures.

There actually is a book in the Agency building which gives a short rundown of enemy types and their weaknesses.

I admit it could be presented in a better way.

Spoiler territory. Unfortunately I cannot tell. :D

The game is a one-time purchase and a relatively inexpensive one at that, so I'm not that concerned about the game being infnitely playable. Just a nice story you can finish in a weekend or two. Replayability would ofc be a nice bonus, but in the end I'm serving a specific story here that's a concise package and X hours long. 

There may be some end-game content available in the future once we get there. I like the idea of having a branching story for replayability, but that would broaden the developing scope vastly and add months of development time. For now I try to get the core story out and we'll see how the game looks then content-wise.

Thanks! What a bunch of excellent lore related questions. :3

I won't go too much into detail, but I can comment on some aspects of the bigger picture.
"The trench warfare" is not necessary a spitting image of our WW1. It mainly emphasizes how the war has gotten completely stuck (thou trenches are likely involved). This is why the area the game takes place in, the Frontier, is largely neglected by de facto governing power, and running the area has fallen mostly into the hands of local nobles and the church. There's no doubt lethal weapons are used in the war, both rune-based and conventional, and yes, mages and rune weapons fill many conventional military roles. Chemistry and physics have evolved to a point, but much of it has likely evolved hand-in-hand with magic. While flamethrowers exist, we do not know what they shoot out for example. Gas warfare is mentioned, but how they produce chemicals for it is unclear.
The combat in the Frontier is medieval largely due to the area being, well, a frontier and under quarantine. Due to the evident lack of guns in the frontier it's correct to assume that they do not exist in the form that is familiar to us, or they are such a new invention that most people in the Frontier do not even know they exist.
The guards seen in the game are personal hires for whoever is running the area (usually Catherine). Everyone is having very bad time generally, so the quick and easy solution is to just hire a lot of guards until the root issues can be solved. The society is more or less circling the drain, though I admit it could be better indicated in the game.

About the wargs' abilities: they do not replace body parts. While they can plug wounds and can even fortify broken bones to some extend, at some point the host is just done for (warg queens MAY be an exception to this).
If a person with no arms puts on a warg with arms in place, the warg would either morph to match its host on that part, or fill the arms with its goo to make it appear it has arms, but they would not be functional, or they would be very weak. But a complete limb replacement - probably not possible. If the host takes a grievous injury like a dismemberment, the warg may separate from its host willingly and find a new healthier host.
When it comes to eyes and ears it may be different. The wargs *technically* form working eyes and ears on their host, so if the host's brain can interpret sight and hearing signals, they should be able to see or hear at least somewhat even when they normally could not. I mean wargs carry over fully functioning genitals too, so why not eyes?

Hope this clear things. Yea I haven't thought the war aspect much. It's mainly there to justify why the Frontier is so neglected and there's really nobody properly in charge. The empire would likely solve the warg issue immediately if it was in full strength and stable, so war it is.

I can't tell any which way about future quests. Firstly it would be teetering on the edge of spoilers, and secondly everything is subject to change.