The Never Ending Cycle by AlucardX60

[raw]
made by AlucardX60 for LD30 (JAM)
All links are Windows only. Source is included in all the links. Just open Game.rvproj2 with RPG Maker VX Ace.

Well here it is. Nowhere near the scope I wanted and there are aspects that don't even work at all but for the most part it works well enough.

Making a game in RPG Maker is pretty interesting I got to work almost solely on gameplay since the graphics and sound were stock or grabbed from the large community for this engine.

If you can't tell by playing this game is pretty much me trying to make Dark Souls in RPG Maker. Humanity, purchasing stats, etc. Unfortunately I realized at the last minute that the blood stain recovery mechanic wasn't working. But I was happy with how the story came out.

If for some reason I made some enemies too difficult you can always go out of your way to kill some extra enemies and purchase some attack boost. You shouldn't need much.

Also the theme is extremely loosely used in this game. Talk to the warrior at the bonfire a few times.

UPDATE
-Trimmed the filesize to 66MB, added the dropbox folder as the default link so I can upload patches faster. The Postmortem version will be in a separate folder.
-Fixed some bugs like enemies not despawning when killed and some message related errors.
-You can no longer die outside of battle. The swamp leaves you with 1 HP and poison is removed after battle. This fixes a crash.
-Added a Readme to explain how some things work, like bonfires.
-Added a link to the postmortem dropbox folder. This will be updated for the coming days. A changelog is included in the Readme of that version.
-Removed the Day 1 patch zip version. Just download the original release if you don't want to judge bug fixes, the Dropbox version if you don't care or want a smaller filesize, and the Post LD has some game changing additions.

Graphics by Enterbrain, and MACK
Music by Hellkite Drake, RoeTaka, Kevin MacLeod

CONTROLS
Arrow Keys to move
Z key for confirm/action
X key to open menu/cancel
Shift key to run
Alt+Enter to go to fullscreen
F1 to open the game options. Default to fullscreen, rebind keys, gamepad bindings, etc.

Ratings

Coolness 53% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.26 360
Audio(Jam) 3.38 236
Fun(Jam) 3.12 330
Graphics(Jam) 3.46 354
Humor(Jam) 2.47 360
Innovation(Jam) 2.15 717
Mood(Jam) 3.46 195
Theme(Jam) 2.42 634

Feedback

LemmingSurvivor
26. Aug 2014 · 14:10 UTC
Holy-- 220MB? Just shaving off all the unnecessary assets and zipping what remains might have been more appealing download-wise.

Mechanics could have used some explaining. Having to /use/ the souls to do... whatever those two options do wasn't really obvious.

On the other hand, you've made pretty good use of the audiovisuals. Gives a good atmosphere overall.

And not sure if it was intended, but that sneaky passage for early magic was pretty neat.
SoulGame
26. Aug 2014 · 15:45 UTC
Wow, solid project. I'm not familiar with RPG maker but I guess it's not that easy and it seems like you put a lot of effort into this. I really wanna play this through but I keep dying on snake in the dungeons and I can't figure how up my stat. It says I need 700 souls, yet I have 2 in my pockets... So it's a bit confusing I guess, but still, nice work.
nerd burglars
26. Aug 2014 · 21:13 UTC
This took forever to load but it was worth the wait. creepy and cute. Nice work!
madk
26. Aug 2014 · 21:18 UTC
Chrome says the download is malicious, ran it anyway and had no problems.
datacr4sh
26. Aug 2014 · 21:46 UTC
huge game, awesome work here. a bunch of missing files crash the game so i couldn't die or kill the king.
🎤 AlucardX60
27. Aug 2014 · 01:44 UTC
@madk I honestly have no idea what would cause that. Maybe the way I zipped it?
@datacr4sh Sorry to hear that. I reuploaded the Day 1 patch with some more bug fixes I made today so it should work but I recommend downloading from the dropbox folder link.
HellBlazer
27. Aug 2014 · 02:18 UTC
Hmm, are there Dark Souls spoilers in this? <_<
Robot Souls Games
27. Aug 2014 · 02:44 UTC
There were multiple instances where the game crashed because it couldn't load graphics.
LemmingSurvivor
27. Aug 2014 · 02:45 UTC
About the Chrome warnings: Pretty sure it's just Google being idiots. Any zip file that's not recognized by their systems seems to get flagged like this.
🎤 AlucardX60
27. Aug 2014 · 04:13 UTC
@HellBlazer: No there isn't.
@Robot Souls Games: it would help a lot if I knew which version you're playing.
slumber
27. Aug 2014 · 04:51 UTC
i played the updated version and received graphics missing crashes as well. definitely got the dark souls vibe. i dont know much about rpg maker but it says graphics by mack? very impressive pixel art either way. great job!
Victory Garden
27. Aug 2014 · 05:14 UTC
Unable to find file: battlebacks cliff on third screen. Was playing the dropbox link.

:<

I really liked this game idea/theme and wanted to play more. You've got me hooked. . . . . . . Also, no battle theme?! you gotta have a battle theme :3

Thanks for the game!
🎤 AlucardX60
27. Aug 2014 · 05:28 UTC
@Victory Garden: Thanks. I removed the Day 1 zipped version (too much hassle to reupload all the time) and fixed the dropbox links.
Also there is a battle theme for boss fights only. To make them more epic. :]
J-d-H
27. Aug 2014 · 10:57 UTC
I found 2 humanity and then, the fire told me I had none :/
🎤 AlucardX60
27. Aug 2014 · 17:08 UTC
@J-d-H: You have to press X to open your menu and use the Humanity item to boost your usable HMN stat. This and other aspect that weren't explained well are in the Readme.txt
You can grab just that file from the first dropbox link if you want to play the original release version.
MunkeeBacon
28. Aug 2014 · 00:41 UTC
It's decent but dang that's was a huge download.
Stepwise
28. Aug 2014 · 02:26 UTC
Dark Souls was an interesting base game to use here. I feel like the pacing needed to be quickened in terms of leveling up as a traditional RPG though - but some interesting and exciting moments of finding equipment on the ground, Dark Souls style. Very great look.
Chaoslab
28. Aug 2014 · 02:52 UTC
That was some fun even if it was a large download. :-)
hundredhundred
28. Aug 2014 · 04:12 UTC
I got two errors which crashed the game, both Unable to find file. One "Audio/SE/Collapse4" for when I beat the king and the other "Graphics/Characters/!Hexagram" whenever I died. I was using the dropbox folder link, I just downloaded the whole folder as a .zip and extracted.

Interesting take on a Souls game. I don't think it's very accessible to players who never played a Souls game before though. Not much innovation here but it was a tried and true fun formula nontheless. Graphics and audio were polished. Good job!
🎤 AlucardX60
28. Aug 2014 · 05:50 UTC
@hundredhundred: Thanks. I uploaded the missing files into the dropbox links.
Crefossus
28. Aug 2014 · 07:12 UTC
The enemies had a good amount of health so that the battles didn't take too long if you chose to engage. I like the exploration aspects that helped you to find upgrades.

The regular battles weren't very interesting but the boss battles or enemies that did greater damage allowed for some interesting choices.
AtomicVikings
28. Aug 2014 · 18:22 UTC
very pretty game! nice artstyle! very polished! :) Great job!
kibertoad
30. Aug 2014 · 12:56 UTC
Great job working magic with rpg-maker limitations, and it is easier to understand with previous dark souls knowledge. Good level design, with enough exploration to keep things interesting. Just not much originality here. Would be cooler if you've made something in your own setting with these skills. Large part of what made DS 1/2 so special was skill-based combat, being forced to compare them through direct references with your game only makes me miss it. Which never works in a favor of rpg-maker projects.
pighead10
30. Aug 2014 · 22:37 UTC
Ambitious for a Jam but you pulled it off nicely. Some ingame hints of the mechanics would have been nice but generally the game was excellent. Thankfully not as hard as the game this seems to be inspired by.
Tex Killer
01. Sep 2014 · 08:59 UTC
Seems to have a lot of content. I've never used RPG Maker nor did I play Dark Souls, so I wouldn't be able to say how much of this is custom and how much is from RPG Maker.