Apocalypse of Dawn is my second game for TFGS and will almost certainly be my first one to actually be finished.
The story revolves around Melody, an acolyte who finds herself embroiled in a conflict with the Angel of Judgment after an attack on her home temple awakens her divine powers. Accompanied by three companions, Melody sets out to receive the blessings of the other three Angels to prepare herself for the final battle with her foe. Amidst all of this, players will be given minor quests they can complete, and there are a grand total of four bonus dungeons to complete/unlock, which can simply provide equipment, or possibly even change the ending of the game itself.
All in all, it is intended as very "traditional" JRPG fair with transformation as mostly a sidenote in the game, with only one main story TF. The rest of the transformations are part of the side content (none of which is yet implemented).
Ver 0.7.1: Made some slight modifications to gameplay, chiefly removing the ability to freely save and adding save points instead. There's some additions to the prologue as well.
All her life, Melody has been one of the Dawnwatchers, members of a church awaiting the rise of the fifth Divine Angel. And throughout her life, more and more people have come to pray for the coming of the Dawn, as one Angel, the Judge Aria, commands a crusade that stifles the peace and hope of those who do not follow her.
But on that day... everything changed. And now Melody, with a few companions at her side, leads a crusade of her own, a quest to end Aria's tyranny and shine forth the Dawn.
The Apocalypse of Dawn has come... and the Fate of Heaven and Earth now rests in Melody's hands.
Melody: The main character, Melody was an acolyte at the Temple of Dawn before Ariettan soldiers attacked the Temple. The incident awoke her divine power, and now Melody has become the very Angel of Dawn she'd grown up to worship. She now leads her own personal crusade against her sister for the attack.
Alinora: A witch from the Burning Sea, Alinora is a bright and well-meaning young woman. Though she starts out with only minimal magic mastered, her potential repertoire of spells is unmatched by any mortal.
Yula: A skilled and proud soldier of Arietta, Yula abandoned his kingdom when their fanatacism became too much for his own sense of justice to bear. He now travels the land protecting others from the crusading soldiers of his former kingdom.
Marissa: A young spirit-kin, Marissa finds herself a target for the crusade of Aria, and so has had to scrape by a living as a thief for years after leaving her home city in the hopes of finding her own place in the world.
Aria: The Angel of Judgment, Aria serves as the main antagonist of the story. Blinded by dedication to her Mantle, Aria seeks to pass judgment on the impure, and so has turned on her sisters and sought to snuff out the Dawn before her younger sister could ever achieve her destiny.
Anima: The Angel of Fate, Anima is the highest Divinity in the story. As fate, she is at once aware of all that shall be and powerless to change it directly, for she of all beings understands the importance of choice. For this reason, she has not put an end to Aria's crusade by force, knowing that her fanatical sister may well have damned herself to an eternity of pain.
Lelita: The Angel of Death, Lelita is the guardian of the afterlife, the guide of departed souls, and the giver of life and hope. Lelita understands that existence is a cycle, and without end that cycle loses its meaning. As such, she always encourages others to treat Death not as an end, but as a reminder to cherish life.
Saria: The Angel of Wisdom, Saria is the matron of the spiritfolk and the steward of nature. Her Wisdom is such that she often understands more of the meaning behind how Fates come to be than even Anima, and it is she who advises Melody of the potential to change her Fate.
Gameplay: Generic(no changes have been made)- you will be fighting countless enemies simply for gold/exp though you can skip them with "escape" but the encounter ratio is quite extreme.
Use of space: horrible. - you are made to run vast distances and will most definitely feel lost, for the amount of content this have.
Writing: the gramatic was not horrible like many other games, that being said there's not much character to the characters or detailed descriptions happening, everything is simple. (there is some japaneze in the game if you cheat)
Choice: None so far but this could easily be implemented, except for her being an angel of "dawn"? i don't see much possibility for Alignment based choices.
Custom Assets: None that i saw or impressed me.
Intro: you start off with no idea were to go or what to do, and everything else in the intro is sudden.
Use of content: pretty bad, the creator made quite the starting area, with some work it could easily be used for half an hour content at least! (without just being repetitive ofc...) just an example.
all in all?
this game for all intends and purposes is an ALPHA, and shall be treated as such, for that purpose its too early to say how good it is, but i hope the creator will take this review to heart and build upon it so that it can be enjoyed greatly.
i see great potential in this, and for what i see the groundwork for a big game have been set, now all we need is tons content to fill out this world you made.
also lastly, make sure to hold the player's hands when it comes to "main quest line" as they should never get stuck...and i suggest removing the "random encounters" thing entirely and manually place monsters that patrol or tries to attack the player, the alternative can easily get frustrating.
Pretty enjoyable so far, but PLEASE lower the encounter rate. There's an enemy every few steps and it makes it a chore to get through, especially with the maze like level designs.