Hi, guys. I don't have news today, but I'd like to comment my first impressions of a game I began playing, one that you are probably familiar with, Hyper Dimension Girl Quest. For those who don't, it seems to be fan game from the MGQ universe, following the events from the VN.
We took some fairly different approaches really, but I will say it right off the bat, this guy is a lot better than me in making maps. A lot better than a lot of devs whose games I know. I'm ashamed, really. He even made Harpy Village into a village made over a single/few giant trees, which is ridiculous, the thing would need to be a World Tree for that, but unique, I'll give him that.
I can't tell much about the story since I'm just beginning, though I'd not show Black Alice at the beginning like he did, I think she could just be mentioned, the mystery would be better. It seems we are both taking a similar approach as to her actions, she seems to be going around recruiting people and Luka is following her trails, I'm doing the same, except that Luka isn't following her trails, someone else is. I do prefer stories that don't center everything over the main character, it makes the world feel alive, so I included this plot to be happening in the background, and you just find bits of it here and there.
Overall, I have to say it's normal. And that's not a bad thing, very few beginnings can be great like Fullmetal Alchemist, and recently I've seen a lot of crappy beginnings (those YouTube videos with manga recaps, so much crap, and just a few gems among them). I also recently began to play Star Knightess Aura, great concept, but such a crappy beginning. I know why the dev did it, but shoving what should be 4-5 hours campaign into 1 hour of introduction was crappy and it lacked all the impact. I know it would be asking too much to ask the player to stick around 4-5 hours to only then begin the game (I'm looking at you Kingdom Hearts 2, which did exactly that), but I'd just show the final battle, so the player would know the results, as they are important, and then I would hide things and reveal them into well spaced playable flashbacks, so the things have impact when they happen. But I digress. My point is normal is good, and even all mighty Trails series has normal beginnings (and they are still the best RPGs ever made)
As for gameplay, that's where we diverge the most. He seems to take the approach of the VN, with single battles into a full linear story, while I went for a more traditional JRPG. He did include a lot of gameplay, and even a party, though I believe that doing just that is wasting the resources of RPG Maker. Remember that it doesn't have lots of the features a VN does, so you have to make the most of what it provides to make up for it. Though I must say that after playing it, I'm really thinking in unlocking the scenes of the all monster after you defeat them. It's really bad to ask the players to lose to each monster.
Overall, I like it. And I recommend it. And even better, it has a lot of assets I could use to fill a few gaps in the monster girls I still had (specially at the angels department).
