NEW Dreamcast RPG "Elysian Shadows" - Pre-Order Your Physical Copies Now!

[Nz17]

There was an Super Famicom release of RPG Maker as well.

That would explain the graphics.

Of course my post was only pertaining to official releases in our territory. But just to get this out there:

PC-8801, MSX2, PC-9801, Microsoft Windows, Super Famicom, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Game Boy Color, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS

Obviously not all of these platforms would have shared the same code base even if they shared similar designs. But given how text-heavy RPGs tend to be and how arduous text input on consoles without a keyboard is, I think designing anything significant on most consoles would be a nightmare. Thankfully for the ideogram-based and syllabic-based Asian languages, their key input sequences shorten input significantly over semi-phonetic languages like English. Sharing code on the "non-computer" platforms, though, would still be difficult compared to the computer platforms listed above as consoles would need people to use link cables, save carts, and memory cards to swap games which they had made - and forget trying to sell anything commercially as buyers would need a copy of RPG Maker for the target platform and you'd have to sell them memory cards with the "games" on them or trust them to return the hardware after they'd copied the data. Far from impossible, but still far from ideal.

...

Getting back on topic though, what do the rest of you think of this long-in-development Dreamcast RPG "Elysian Shadows?" Anyone else going to pick up a copy even if just a digital-only one? The project has already raised $88,908 of its $150,000 goal with 22 days left to go.

[Gameguy]

*Sigh* I've known about the PlayStation "RPG Maker" release for over a decade by, you know, owning it since it was new back in the day. Played through the little kitty-cat-takes-over-the-world sample RPG included with it too. But just like the PS2 release of "RPG Maker 2," I wasn't considering it as a part of this conversation since, you know, both of these releases are ancient by today's standards, aren't supported by the developer and publisher anymore, are much more difficult to use than their Windows successors....

I guess it makes sense that it's important for everything to still be current and supported by the developers, which is why they chose to design and release their game for the Dreamcast over current consoles<cough>.

As I've said I never kept up with the progress of this release, or any indie/homebrew game. I only went by what the game looked like to me. I do know that programming for older consoles like the SNES and Genesis required more specialized programming, I just assumed that the Dreamcast would be modern enough to still be compatible with modern programming tools.

Also, the Dreamcast can play PS1 games using Bleemcast so using PS1 RPG Maker didn't seem completely impossible.

Getting back on topic though, what do the rest of you think of this long-in-development Dreamcast RPG "Elysian Shadows?" Anyone else going to pick up a copy even if just a digital-only one? The project has already raised $88,908 of its $150,000 goal with 22 days left to go.

I'm going to assume most people won't buy it since there hasn't been any reply in a few days. Hoping this topic will still get more on-topic discussion.

[Edmond Dantes]

I considered pledging since my Dreamcast needs some RPG love, but (besides spending most of my money on something else already) this thing honestly doesn't seem... well, its probably unfair to say it won't be that great, but like others have said I kinda wonder if their heart is in the wrong place.

[Daria]

For the record, aside from the generic town graphics, this game looks nothing like an RPG Maker title. Also the team appears to be made up of professional programmers who wanted to program their own game. Which would also explain why the project is very technically heavy and weak in areas of story and graphics. My biggest turn off from the project is how vague it's been on what the game's actually about. Like I mention in my last post, I don't care about real time shadows unless they serve to further the gameplay. It seems like the developers made a list of "cool" features and built a game around them. Perhaps they didn't, but that's how its being marketed.

I read in an interview where they talked about storyline, and they painted it with similarly vague brushstrokes. They said it had a lot of political intrigue and humor. So in other words they said a lot that told me nothing.

[Nz17]

Now they are at $118,757 of their $150,000 goal. We're seeing good progress with ten days left to go.

And in good news no matter where you stand on the game itself, the devs have announced they are going to release their in-house-developed game engine, ESTk, for other potential eager Dreamcast developers to use. See this post on Kickstarter for details. It appears much easier to use than the Linux, command line, and C programming tools of the Dreamcast indie scene's past, with a modern, sleek interface and powerful development options. So even if "Elysian Shadows" doesn't turn out so hot, it could certainly give rise to someone else making something marvelous for the SEGA Dreamcast.

[Daria]

So I jumped into their Twitch stream last night and directly asked them what the story was about. Patryk (SP) said that he didn't want to give away any spoilers and proceeded to describe the game's setting. Apparently there's ancient magic lying around that scavengers go out and salvage for big monies because it's a dangerous job. The hero[es]? come across something special and story happens.

He also said that the story was "all in his head" and it's "generally cool". All I'm going to say is this game had better have some bitchin' gameplay.

[PreZZ]

The story hasnt been penned yet, the engine is underwhelming, and everything looks amateurish... I truly hope they succeed and surprise me the same way water melon did, but they just look like a bunch of stoners with too much ambition.

[Gameguy]

He also said that the story was "all in his head" and it's "generally cool".

So they're using the George Lucas style of story writing, as in making it up as they go. Interesting to see what happens, especially since RPGs like adventure games are mostly played for the story.