Final Fantasy mix with North Korea elements

https://yobob.itch.io/a-lovers-rpg

I sent you a discord friend request

The Chains That Bound Me

An RPG Game

https://yobob.itch.io/a-lovers-rpg-demo

Aw thank you so much!

Story

The Chains That Bound Me is a story rich game that has the elements of an rpg genre. You'll explore the city of Florie in the lower district, a place where the guards oppresses the working people. Death is common and starving people will ask you for food. You will play as Arridaios, one of the leading members of the rebellion. People look up to you and hope that their revolt will succeed. But Arridaios is reluctant in helping the people. He wants to live in what little peace he has. Things don't go the way as planned. Arridaios discovers that his friend went missing. And along the way in finding him, he sees something he dreads. Something he never wants to see again. Far worse than the oppression of King Leuric.

Download

https://yobob.itch.io/a-lovers-rpg-demo

Hey, thank you for playing the game! Me and Plue are working separately on new games, so unfortunately, this game won't be able to expand. But do follow us both on twitter. We always have new games in development ! (If you managed to get the Easter eggs, the squirrel, at the chase scene, and the pink cat, at the end of the game, it tells us about how we felt as a game developer)

:D

Thank you so much! I do plan to drastically change the game mechanics very much :)

Interesting casual game you have. The humor had me smile. To many pig puns man lol. The clapping when a bad joke came up with perfect. I applaud to you to that. And man, what a twist where the guy becomes a pig. Music was fitting, and I can tell you drew this on purpose for this game. I had some questions about this game and wanted to see where it would go. Some big twist that changes from casual to dark, but that closet thing to that was that clingy shower lol. But over all good job in the game.

Just played the game and the game had no direction in where to go. The story is you have to figure out on your own. I did some exploring and didn't find much besides large open areas which I hated walking around in.  The towns were huge and I also had to figure out the mechanics too.  You should add some guidance to that. 

I also noticed that the green bar didn't go down when the hp went down so...yeah. 

The graphics looks so JRPG and this whole game very much feels like JRPG. Though there isn't much story ahaha.

The game does have a lot of potential but I would like to see some more structure to this game. I was literally given the freedom to do anything like a sandbox game and it didn't appeal to me that well. It's like, you are the hero and you choose what you want to do feeling. So I wasn't too attached to this. 

Some of the animations, at least when walking out of the building or inside, if you kept trying to go, it feels like the character is walking in place. Just a minor detail. It feels off putting to me. 

The music was great, especially the spooky part, but there was no climax D: so it just felt like a stagnant scare, if that makes sense. I would really suggest scaling down your maps as the walking from one map to the next is so painful.

Oh and the main character sprite is too bouncy and a bit unsmooth. But other than that, a very retro game!

Hey, thank you for reviewing my game! I will continue to develop this and polish this game a lot more. There will be a polished demo out maybe sometime next year and art reworks as well. And of course, better dialogue/options for npc and story. I have a dev blog that i update frequently for the game progression. So you can always check how the progress is doing.

Thanks again! And feel better soon guys!

Hey! If you look at the gun when she points it down you can cast fire. Other than that you just stall for time and defend. The mechanics is still in its beta so it'll be better. (Veil Veil reason Fire)

hahaha, Thank you!

Thank you for telling me about this bug! I'm experiencing this myself recently and I'm not too sure why it's happening so I will look into this more. Though it doesn't affect the game too much.

I'm sorry about the lack of direction and the lack of meaningful NPC to talk to. I just generically wrote the NPC to fit the story in some way. I couldn't think about how each npc would react so it was rushed. This is a great feedback for me to work on those points when I polish the demo more. I wanted the players to figure out and explore what to do as the map is relatively small, but you did give me strong points as there were unmarked buildings. I'll be sure to add those visuals for the buildings.  And I'll guide players a bit more but not too much next time.

Hey! thank you for playing! Though most mechanics aren't fully fleshed I just gave an idea what I'd like and what will be in this game. Those small details you mentioned that's abrupt were just the lack of animation being played (Or if you are talking about the sprites blinks that goes from one frame to the next). It's a bit hard to ask better quality with the small time frame for this competition =/ I kinda cheated on the sprites and copy, pasted, and changing the color of those sprites as those images took a large amount of time to make if I were to polish this demo. 

The story dialogue as well as the NPC dialogue is on the nose and I will change it. I just wanted to get the idea across for the story. I think the story dialogue is fine though. I will change it here and there but it might be too text heavy so I will reduce it and add more animation to make it enjoyable to play. I couldn't think of anything for the NPC to say so I gave them generic things to say. 

The combat is a working progress. There's only two fights and they consumed a lot of my time so it's just an idea atm. It will be fleshed out a lot more, but you can imagine how it's going to be once it's polished.

I think you are correct in making this game more engaging! If it was more engaging, the story would be better told. It's just the time I had haha. Thank you for your feedback!

I'm so glad u enjoyed it! I am going to polish this a lot more! Even the art is going to get polished! The dialogue! The battle system is a bit underwhelming but I do plan on adding more content!There's going to be a polished demo and once that's done, the story will continue and it'll be a full release game!

What a very well submission. This very reminds me of cowboy bebop. I really like the environment but sometimes it feels a bit empty. The puzzles were nice and easily enjoyable.  The music was nice too very jazzy. this was recommended on discord so I gave it a try and Its a lot better than most submissions lol. Very nice game! The battle system was a bit interesting and creative too! Your usage of SFX to cut from scene to scene is nice!  I like the starfox spaceship lol Oh and that title scene. Love the art, you really get a strong feeling of cowboy bebop. Especially that hiragan underneath it :D

Thank you so much for your review! The game was heavily focused on the story and I was getting a bit tired of writing the NPC so I kinda...made it generic lol. I didn't have enough time to create the bust of the other characters so unfortunately it's missing a lot of the assets. But I am glad you liked the story! Though my next update will change a lot! More SFX, more stuff to do, more battles and more animations! I'll still be a free demo :) Just right after that super good cliff hanger hahaah

I was wondering if it was ok to update screenshots and the front page of our submitted games without being disqualified? I've seen a few developers do this but I'm afraid to do this on my own. I just want to make sure!

Arridaios is a miner who lives in an unconditional environment, risking his life to serve the people he works for. The conditions are grueling where deaths are a common thing to live by. He keeps his head down, not provoking any sort of action to draw attention to himself, but unfortunately, the world around him changes as people become unrest, whether he likes it or not. His luck gets him by so far, but as the city changes, so does the dangers that comes with it. And the dangers are far more frightening than some silly rebellion.      

This game is an under budget game and a one man army game. I'm already dying inside trying to finish this game, but that's dev's life. You love it, that's why you do it!

I plan to have this game released by 2019.

If you like the demo, rate it and give me feed back on what you like or don't like about it. Be gentle with me as this isn't a triple AAA game. It's under budget using my skill set to make this game.

DOWNLOAD LINK!!!!!!

https://yobob.itch.io/a-lovers-rpg-demo

I've made games since two years ago. My first game never got a good review, no one gave it a chance, but when I played it again, on my own, months later, I enjoyed my game I made. It was hilarious. The story I wrote was genius to me.  Everything I thought about and wanted to show came alive when I played that game again.  Not a single review on that game, but I didn't care. I loved making games. It was my passion. 

Then the second game I made had great reviews! It made me want to be a game developer more!

Then the third came around, which is in this competition and so far, I don't have a lot of reviews. Not a lot of people are giving my game a chance but its ok. I develop games because I love it! And I do it with the purpose of making that one person life change. 

So don't get too discourage. Grab a bucket of popcorn and watch those bad reviews because those are worth gold! They are literally telling you how to improve your game. When you are off in the bigger world, no one will tell you why your game isn't great. Make the mistakes early on now so when you do become big, it won't happen again. :)

Oh, the first game I made was called second chance.

Ok, live feedback here we go.

Fullscreen mode very nice. I like the title intro music. Creepy and sorta childlike. Good good. I like the custom art and like little advertisement thing popping up, like that fading thing, but I don't like it being on the title page. It's a game, not an advertisement but I won't question your marketing lol It's a demo for now. Gatta rack up those followers lol

ooooooo creepy music when playing. Wow love the shadows when she approaches the window and how it fades out a little too. Wow, well done! Though the tutorial thing popping up and remaining there is a bit of a problem, Fade it out over 7 sec? idk or close it when the character moves.

Ohhh the light from the lamps are moving! it feels as if its swinging! I like that A lot!

Wow, I like the mini to use to find the hiding girls/ creative. Love the little notebook to keep tabs too! That's helping me a lot.

Hidden wall!!!!! I love it. Very nice map transition too!

I really like the item received and items lost in the display but you made it in the upper right corner and It's hard to notice what you got if your so engrossed in the game. Do a little receive item thing pop up when you actually get something on the spot. That's always nice.

wow just noticing the custom dialogue box where the players speak out from. That's super cool! 

Ok, I pretty much guessed the ending...the climax wasn't as great i thought it would be.

I like the ending, I had true ending!

Well, here's my review of the game

I'm not too big of a fan on murder mystery but this was well done. Didn't think too much and just followed events haha. Thought I wish this game was more serious like holmes or something. Too much to ask in a demo haha. Very good submission.

Thank you for your feedback! The game is a bit linear but I tend rework the writing and add more options

Thank you for the review! This helps me a lot with my writing. When I made this game, I wrote everything pretty quickly so I didn't care too much what the npc was thinking as I just wanted to say something along the lines with the main story since I played too many retro rpgs, I just skip npc dialogue. As for the story dialogue, I think I over did it with telling lol. It's been a bit of my weak point but I'm working on it. I'm going to cut the dialogue by 60% and take your advice on that - to the point and let people think and make their own choices. And I'll think of something subtle for the npc without telling. I think I read it somewhere on the internet where npcs have "dog barks" everyone tells the same thing but you have to tell it a 1,000 different times in an interesting way.

I literally am spoon feeding people what to think hahaha but you also gave me a very interesting idea of morality in this game. I think I'm going implement it with the npcs. Let the players choose what they believe is right with the option of doing those choices.

You know what's funny? I actually watch the pianist and I loved that movie. I've seen some nazi war movies too and they are always interesting to me. You think you could tell me an example how you would change the dialogue for the npc girl that was shook? That might help me a lot since I'm still learning show and not tell. You were saying you wanted to take a page from the movies you listed.

You're right about the currency. It could be easily replaced by food and other things. I think I might take your advice on that. You gave me another game idea to alter to make survival a bit more realistic.

Wow, I'm actually glad you like the art. I'm no artist but thank you so much! I tried my best haha.

There's only 3 days to this game. If you can manage fighting off the forced dialogue, there are very two major twists and turns in this game and the beginning is just a slow premise which I will need to shorten a lot.

WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKK. The graphics man. SO medieval. And the fucken music!!! God I love it!!!

Ok review time and I'm doing it as I'm playing this.

Your battle system is very balanced. You know how to make a balanced battle. I've seen too many RPG makers that fail at this. Oh and..I like zombie game so you are already on a good start.

So now I'm thinking as a developer...Do you like medieval games? Or like making them? Cause your dialogue is on spot. You have a nack for this.

Fuck I love your music so much...It's very classical. Oh and that auto save...very nice touch. I think I'll steal your idea in my game or at least the next game I make. 

I really like how an icon shows up when you get near a chest, talk, or exit the map. Very very nice touch. Hmm..the chest are so fun to open. *creeeekkk* But as a rpg guy, hide a few :D This isn't a complaint, I'm just a bit jealous lol

So, I have a crappy computer, and my computer can barely handle that 5v5 battle...Graphics is too real...literally lol

Your battles when the monsters get really low on hp transition to a new sprite. Very very very nice touch.

Custom rain too? The details man the details!

Found the key to the gate. I really like how simple the map is. You tell give a little problem and it's solved quickly. Like finding a key on a dead man's body when they were out patrolling or something. God dam, too many people make finding a god dam key like an hour long quest. Giant ass maps that tell nothing  about the story through the art - tooooo many blank maps!!! From just getting the key, I already knew what happened. Guards went out, they got killed. Easy, fast, and you didn't even have to tell it in words. Good.

Alright, my first random encounter...too laggy...I don't blame you...It's my pc.

OHHHHH you fucker...You added spikes to the dungeon. Didn't even notice it...Very very nice touch. Now it's a dungeon!

Boss music is very lovely...But one comment....This feels like a sad love song in one section....I would recommend that song for a fight where you have to kill your own ally or something sad and you just have to do it.

Oh, wtf...that manicore wasn't the boss? Holy shit that took forever to beat. Yeah..You need to adjust that difficulty...

Oh...when that horn guy has his flashback and after its done. Stop the SE cause the river noise is still flowing once his flashbacks r over.

Ohhhh upgrading your abilities and not leveling it up. I like that a lot.

Very very very good warning on that treasure chest. I just wanted to touch it :) i was a fool!

Very very very good at that hidden town map where there was a single treasure chest. That's what I like in a RPG lol

Hmmm dungeon number 2...you should be a little more creative in placing chest. This chest finding feels like ff13 where it's just too linear.

God, i forgot how much i hate random encounters....This laggy battle isn't helping my game experience either...

That boss battle with esther...tat was hard...and with that lag on top of that...nop!

Second time fighting esther...a lot better with 5 people fighting instead of 6...

ok...so that ending...I'm sorta ok with it. I get the story, but it just didn't give me that twist. I was confused the first second. It would've been better if you hinted out the king's peril or something.  Well, medieval games aren't my thing, but you put so much time into this!!!

I was a bit lit down in the end. I wanted some serious twist like esther killing his beloved or something...But the story was well rounded and no complaints too much, just not my cup of tea story.

5/5

Just because you put so much time into this game 0.0

Oh, I spent about 3 hour into this game...I hated the laggy battle...

The art of this game was a bit too bland, but I can understand that as everyone had 1 month to work on this. The character designs were good, but the genre of the game wasn't my cup of tea. The goal of this game was to find her sister, but finding her was the least of my worries. I was just bounce around doing random tasks of each of the human-people and I just felt like the transitions weren't that great. Idk, it's because I'm an action and RPG guy haha. I need combat!

I was so confused on the pipe puzzle as I collected every single one and the correct one that I thought wasn't correct fitted. Idk...But that puzzle was a little confusing and maybe it's because how it's presented. (Maybe the pipes shading?)

The dialogues for this fit the roles of each girl perfectly but the story lacked drive. I felt no sense of purpose except just walking around and doing tasks. To be honest, I could probably speed run this game, pay attention to the beginning dialogue and read the last dialogue of the game and that's the purpose of this game. Finding her sister. I felt no danger, and the game had no "obstacles" that made sense to me to prevent her from finding her sister.

Ok, I'm too harsh on this review, so now we go to the good review.

The one thing I did like was the sprinkler puzzle. That puzzle design reminded me of portal 2. very well done. Then the rat puzzle was well done too. Nice eventing, but the map itself could use work. I didn't like the gray tone. (Maybe the map wasn't finished)

The music was good, and I felt that music fitted the title perfectly. As for the music with the crow guy, it was sorta...catchy? I got weird taste lol

The sprites were well done and the game itself isn't pixelated! Most games are pixel so cutos to do art outside of the box.

I  know plue as we worked on the beast named eliza together so....

5/5 :D 

I SUPPORT HER!!!!!!

Awwww your welcome :)

Those aren't implemented in the game yet. I wanted players to hold onto their junk just when they lost everything :) As for the guard quest, that hasn't been implemented yet either.

Thank you so much for your feedback!!!!! It took me hours of my days to actually finish this demo. Lots over overtime and sleepless nights haha. It is a bit of a shame that people aren't trying this. Maybe it's my page presentation. I gatta work on that haha. I need a better title image and better screen shots. Those are always hooking. I'll probably need to commission someone to do this hahaha.

hiiii

https://yobob.itch.io/a-lovers-rpg-demo

Hiiiii

https://yobob.itch.io/a-lovers-rpg-demo

hiiiiii

https://yobob.itch.io/a-lovers-rpg-demo

Try this game out. I think my front page isn't attractive :( But i think my game is a gem.

https://yobob.itch.io/a-lovers-rpg-demo

I'm so happy that you were able to participate in this gamjam. Developing game takes work and a lot time. Feel free to send me a pm through twitter. I'd be happy to help you out on the future games when another jam arrives or just a dev buddy to talk to. (I need more developer friends lol)

https://twitter.com/Yol3ob

Hey, pm me on my twitter account. https://twitter.com/Yol3ob

We can talk more!

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDD

You sure have some japanese quirks in here.  I found some bugs that the game could fix. When you fight genko and lose you lose a day and you cant participate the last event of apprenticing.  Catching those bugs was a pain. They soooo fast XD

I managed to ask shiori out...And you know what? This is already too much yuri for me hahaha. Though the dialogue when matsuki is happy to actually finally go out with her sounded very genuine 0.0 That was my favorite part. 

After talking to shiori so many times, matsuki is hopelessly romantic lol...but good for her to finally get the girl.

You know putting your name and this yuri game and some japanese theme, i get it now lol....

I like the gnome spasm in the tavern. That was funny. Unless that was a bug? lol

The ending was surprising. The game really picked up after that but it ended sooo soon after the denial factors and such when choosing what happened. That was very hooking for me. 

I didn't even bother touching the forest. That was toooo much for me. I tried to train in that forest...i died too many times lol

When you talk to the golden bird, she tell you about cleaning the church but cant cause of the expansion. I was laughing. You broke the 4th barrier there.

After those positive feedback, imma give you some constructive feedbacks too!

At the beginning of the game, the first time I played it, I couldn't tell who was the main character in the house when the family was all talking to each other. So I wasn't that attached since i had no idea who was the main character until the event ended.

the five days in this village didn't feel like I wanted to explore more. You could quickly skip the days by apprenticing all the folks without talking to everyone. I tried this and I tried talking to everyone to change the ending but it was futile lol I would've like more of a grab while I'm in the village. Maybe some type of drama that's happening in the village. Genko was a good drama inducer as he hates humans. But it would be nice to add more stuff or expand how genko hates humans in those 5 days along with other characters back story? since this'll help with your ending a lot more. Iunno....

Well those are my constructive criticism :D

You know what? Imma reach the ending lol For youuuuu lastyurisamuriiiiii

I'll make your day better and give you another feedback :DDDDD

That's ok. I write very serious and sad stories too. Those r my favorite. You should try my game, the chains that bound me.  The art isn't as great as yours, and your eyes might bleed from staring at a dark screen to much but the game is playable lol...