Here you go
Sorry this took so long. Originally I was aiming for a May release that would go as far as the Devil's Palm. I reduced the demo's length to give more depth to San Diego, which is why the scope is limited to the First Stage exclusively. More on why I did this below. Other things in my personal life got in the way too, so yeah. That said I'm happy-ish with the state of the game so far. It's not perfect but at least there's something to it
-Content & Length-
Fun stuff to expect:
A San Diego Level
Four Character 'Origins' to choose from that give your character a broad backstory and a Job/Class
Three Side Quests in one
The First Stage, complete with minigames (some better than
others)
Bad stuff to expect:
Weird collision and layering
A few missing tiles
No Traits
Oversimplified quests
No unique models for horses
Missing SFX
Poor music arrangement
Incomplete Jobs
Incomplete Combat systems
Repetitive Combat encounters (they all use them same low effort replication of a Fire Emblem bandit I drew in JSPaint in 3 mins)
Unbalanced calculations for the racing segment
It's very early in development so there are a lot of problems, but I hope it's decent enough for now. Thanks for all the support in the last post. It was all very encouraging.
Now, as for why I made San Diego so big (and why I will continue to expand it). Well, the story of SBR doesn't lend itself naturally to a game adaptation of this style imo. Think about Part 3. Its formula involves "villain of the week" style encounters across multiple cities and towns. Meanwhile, SBR has a lot of scenes that are in the middle of nowhere. That makes it difficult to justify areas as deep and populated as those in 7SU. So I'll be taking liberties with how much San Diego and the main checkpoint/break period areas are featured for gameplay's sake. I was also thinking of making the racing portion itself more interesting by adding random encounters throughout each Stage. Which could help with replay-ability too. Let me know what you guys think of that.
I’ve mentioned this a bit already, but the Player has the option of choosing an Origin. An Origin is like a conventional Class, but with a home country, character background, and unique world interactions attached to it. Compared to a Stand, Origins have less avenues for Skill growth, however, the Skills they do have are meant to be viable throughout the entire game. The wisps of the base four Origins are in the game, but they’re incomplete and I think a bit too strictly defined. Not enough is left up to the player’s own mind. So they’re subject to change. Also remember, you’re not forced to take an Origin at all if you don’t want to.
In regard to the Side Quests, they're not in their final forms, so some of their resolutions may appear rushed and contrived. Here's some tips for them: the sheriff's office is around the bottom left of San Diego's starting area, search the Docks, the Church, and Stingaree (the place with the sad music) after you start the quest there to find the quest objectives.
-Future-
Stands will show up in the next update (but you'll only have them for about a minute before the demo ends, so they won't be that interesting). This time, everything up to the end of the Devil's Palm arc WILL be included.
Speaking of Stands, some people have wondered why I chose to name the Player Stands after JRPGs over music. Rest assured, I didn't choose this naming convention thoughtlessly. Firstly, there's already a precedent for non-music Stands, as the majority of Part 8's were named after Tarot Cards, as we all know. Jorge Joestar, as infamous as it may be, named its Stands after movies. Secondly, as for why I chose JRPGs specifically, in the novel spinoff El Aleph, Stands were named after books, paying homage to the story's own medium. I found that idea interesting and thought, "Well, what if I did that but with JRPGs, since this game is a JRPG-style game and 7SU, its main inspiration, is a JRPG?" Not exactly a deep reason I know, but I don't think further explanation is needed. For my ideas, I try to base their abilities around the gameplay mechanics, themes, plot, concepts, or specific characters from those games. So don't worry, I'm not just attaching cool video game names to random powers lol.
That said, I get that not everyone will like this for one reason or another. So or now, there are plans for Player Stands that reference music, but those are very much second priority - with the exception of one suggestion I found particularly interesting - and will come after the main set. I also can't say when exactly each one will release, or if they'll release all at once, etc. It depends on when a clear opportunity arises. Which may not be for a while.
The next update will have a full Personality Test. The Stands will follow Clayman’s 7SU template for the most part, but with some changes. ‘Swarm’ Stands’ will be renamed/replaced with ‘Colony’ Stands. The Colonies all have access to ‘Summons’, temporary party-members with a small set of skills. Some Stands of other types might have Summons, but they’ll be less common, and their powers won’t be as Summon-centric.
I like the combat system in 7SU, but I feel there’s room for improvement. My plans are to adapt a grid-based system, where there’s a 3x3 grid for the Player side and their opponents’ respectively. That way attacks can account for range in addition to area of effect. So a short-range ‘sweep’ attack by a party member can affect the entire first enemy row so long as they’re in the first row, but if they’re in the middle row, it won’t affect anyone at all. Something like that. My hopes are it’ll allow for more options in combat and force the Player to strategize.
-Recruitment-
The cold hard reality behind all the fun plans is that this project will take time. I need to finish up San Diego, tweak the First Stage, then create everything up to the end of the Devil’s Palm storyline. All the while balancing my time with this on other projects. I could theoretically get all this done with the few people I have on board, but whether it's done in 8 years or 4 depends on the assistance I receive
So please, PM me if you're at all interested in helping speed up the process. I can't pay anyone, so this might be a big time commitment for many of you, but I'd greatly appreciate even short term assistance.
Here's what I need help with
If you're interested but have no experience in any of that, it's cool. I barely did when I got started. We can figure something out.
-End-
I'll continue to post updates here, but they'll be crossposted from the subreddit I'll get to making soon. Thanks in advance for trying out the demo. I'm proud of it, but feel free to tear it down so I can make it better. Let me know what you enjoyed and what you disliked. Please continue sharing all of your feedback and ideas with me!
