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I have a question! I am considering TRYING (since is not easy as it seems) to make a sort of "visual novel mode", to experience mostly the story, so hopefully those of you who stayed away from the game because of the too many combats could still enjoy it. I am wondering, did you dislike also the isometric map? not the fights in it, just the map itself? I don't think I can remove that, since especially in act 2 there are many sidequests that require the maps, but I was curious to know your opinion about it as well

I just finished the game on normal and loved it. I plan on playing on hard and eventually nightmare. There are additions to the game that would have been welcomed but all in all it was a good game. I personally would of loved a "respec" feature. Reading a description of a skill/talent is different than using it in combat. Just my .02 USD.

I would appreciate a "story" mode, but it would not be a deal breaker for me playing the game. A suggestion if possible is auto resolve battles like Rome Total War. I know they are not the same thing. But it was the first example I had in my head. Like crunch the numbers of the current heroes versus the current enemies and get a prediction of who would win. Then decide to fight it out or CPU resolve it for time-saving.

I liked the isometric map. It made the game more immersive. I liked having some freedom to pursue my quest completion. I think many people are comparing this game to Loren The Princess of the Amazon. I see that as fair but not accurate. These are two different games with two different scopes and scales of the world of Aravorn. The scope SOTW is magnified and the game is epic for different reasons. The fighting was different than Loren, but it was a small learning curve for any RPG veteran to overcome.

I didn't know there were over 100 battles in the game. I guess people played this game for different reasons. I played it to flesh out the romances and was captivated by the humor. The story was palpable due to the great writing and art. I can see why people can be turned off from this game due to the number of battles.

jack1974 wrote:I have a question! I am considering TRYING (since is not easy as it seems) to make a sort of "visual novel mode", to experience mostly the story, so hopefully those of you who stayed away from the game because of the too many combats could still enjoy it. I am wondering, did you dislike also the isometric map? not the fights in it, just the map itself? I don't think I can remove that, since especially in act 2 there are many sidequests that require the maps, but I was curious to know your opinion about it as well

I had no problem with the maps.

I really liked the map personally, and hope it makes a return in other games (I believe you've mentioned before about FF tactics, hopefully one day you'll be able to make something in that style)

Thanks for the feedback. About this:

AndrewJohnKahn wrote: I would appreciate a "story" mode, but it would not be a deal breaker for me playing the game. A suggestion if possible is auto resolve battles like Rome Total War. I know they are not the same thing. But it was the first example I had in my head. Like crunch the numbers of the current heroes versus the current enemies and get a prediction of who would win. Then decide to fight it out or CPU resolve it for time-saving.

is an interesting idea indeed, it could be done easily for battles that don't have cut-scenes in the middle. With the new framework I think should also be possible to automate the battle (CPU vs CPU) like other games do as well to solve the battles quickly without the need of human intervention

I liked the map and all, but I got lost in it looking for things multiple times...
Not your fault though, I get lost in every game that I can, I once spent an hour in a 15 minute dungeon in Skyrim because I kept getting turned around .

Only thing bad about the map was the orange arrows on Dingerra's orange background. Everything else was great and it helped with the immersion.

OK thanks

jack1974 wrote:I have a question! I am considering TRYING (since is not easy as it seems) to make a sort of "visual novel mode", to experience mostly the story, so hopefully those of you who stayed away from the game because of the too many combats could still enjoy it. I am wondering, did you dislike also the isometric map? not the fights in it, just the map itself? I don't think I can remove that, since especially in act 2 there are many sidequests that require the maps, but I was curious to know your opinion about it as well

I don't think this will work. You really feel the focus of the game is the RPG elements and not the story, compared to something like Loren. I don't think the story is strong enough to stand on its own (I really feel like the ending was rushed and the last Act was a bit of an anti-climax.)

IMO the problem is that while Ren'Py is a decent enough engine to add RPG elements to a Visual Novel type game, I don't think it's really suited to make an RPG focused game. There's too many limitations. That's just my feeling. And because you designed the game to make the RPG characteristics the focus, I don't believe it can be fixed with a VN mode.

Just my opinion.

I understand about "because you designed the game to make the RPG characteristics the focus, I don't believe it can be fixed with a VN mode", but regarding Ren'Py I don't see how it is an issue. The problem might have been only on mobile where the battles are slow (so it's engine-related), but on desktop the issues are only related to game/battles design and by the fact that people didn't like to play too many/too long battles, but not because of the engine itself