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Golden Sun: The Found Age

Started by kamikazetomato, 09, February, 2015, 09:34:13 PM

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kamikazetomato

Quote from: Fox on 11, February, 2015, 04:31:04 PM
So I guess it's somewhat like an oxymoron? Might be pretty cool, actually... Maybe there should be some lore about that name...
Grimwald it is! Yeah, Grimwad sounds like a sour-tempered...well, a sour-tempered wad. Of something.

I'm having so much fun with this script, folks. For instance, rather than Gabomba simply telling Akafubu to hone his skills, he's told to go on a pilgrimage to Air's Rock. Not only does this connect Air's Rock more to the story (and make it even more ominous, as everyone warns of it and it can't be entered until after Lemuria), but it also is a hint as to how to reach Gabomba's magic, as it requires Reveal.

Also, Piers (Peter in this game, by default, I just don't like the name Piers very much) has a certain connection to Champa. He and Obaba have...well, a bit of a history...

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

Yeah, at first I did think Grimwald was probably better, but it was probably because I was less use to Grimwad, and perhaps it could even be mistakened as a typo... Both are still interesting... Maybe I should call him Grim for short? (Almost like the Grim Reaper. o.o)

QuoteI'm having so much fun with this script, folks. For instance, rather than Gabomba simply telling Akafubu to hone his skills, he's told to go on a pilgrimage to Air's Rock. Not only does this connect Air's Rock more to the story (and make it even more ominous, as everyone warns of it and it can't be entered until after Lemuria), but it also is a hint as to how to reach Gabomba's magic, as it requires Reveal.
That almost makes me want to make a hack, but I realize it is a lengthy process...

Quote from: GooglePiers is an old English Christian name, and has the same origins as Peter.
I see what you did there. I didn't really mind Piers as a name, but okay. (I guess Piers does reference the Lemurian ship quite closely, though... since you dock ships at piers and stuff.)
Golden Sun Docs: Broken Seal - The Lost Age - Dark Dawn | Mario Sports Docs: Mario Golf & Mario Tennis | Misc. Docs
Refer to Yoshi's Lighthouse for any M&L hacking needs...

Sometimes I like to compare apples to oranges. (Figuratively) ... They are both fruits, but which one would you eat more? (If taken literally, I'd probably choose apples.)
Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


The only GS Discord servers with significance are:
Golden Sun Hacking Community
GS Speedrunning
/r/Golden Sun
GS United Nations
Temple of Kraden

Can you believe how small the Golden Sun Community is?

2+2=5 Don't believe me? Those are rounded decimal numbers. Take that, flat earth theorists! :)

kamikazetomato

Just edited a crap ton of dialogue in Yallam to talk about how their blacksmith, Atrius, moved to Prox.

Then using my newfound entrance/exit skills, I replaced the inside of Sunshine's house (now Atrius's house) with one in Prox, and the Proxian refugees have new dialogue as well, making it impossible for a player to not get that the smith is now in Prox.

Then I edited the now-vacant house in Prox to house Atrius, and a woman outside his digs tells us all about it (and how weird it is that the inside looks so weird). Atrius wanted the cold climates to work!

Further dialogue also gives hints to the location of rusty weapons, eight of which can be forged into ultimate weapons! What ultimate weapons? Well, I won't go into the effects (they're all complete but may change), but here's a taste.

The original team has weapons named for the four elements, with unleashes inspired by the text describing each element from Mars Lighthouse:

Mercury's Soul (Mia): Unleashes Cold Courage
Venus's Strength (Isaac): Unleashes Gaia's Wisdom
Mars's Fist (Garet): Unleashes Burning Might
Jupiter's Will (Ivan): Unleashes Wings of Truth


But there are four more characters. And, funnily enough, there are four more planets! One is Earth, which corresponds naturally with, well, Earth. One is Saturn, the Titan of Time, known for his fiery rage. One is Uranus, a sky titan just perfect for Wind. And one is Neptune, God of the Seas, for Water. It's almost too perfect.

Terra's Vengeance (Felix): Unleashes Megiddo
Saturn's Temper (Jenna): Unleashes Titan's Furnace
Uranus's Glory (Sheba): Unleashes Endless Storm
Neptune's Oath (Peter): Unleashes Ancient Tide


Finally, we have one last bit of ultimate equipment. The Blood Knight is a special item class with no Djinn requirements and with extreme stats focused on sheer offense. However, the class item (replacing the Tomegathericon) is cursed and drains your health every turn, and every cursed item does the same. This class is capable of dealing more physical damage than any other class, at the cost of constantly draining health and poor defenses. This Blood Knight is a cursed, banished class of death. Such an offense-oriented class deserves its own ultimate weapon, named after a god of death and a banished planet:

Pluto's Horror (Several): No Unleash, but insane attack power.

Sooooo coooooool

Rolina

Nice Attack on Titan reference.  While end-game stuff is nice, I'm still rather interested in what you're adding/remixing for mid-game.  Also, what armors and accessories are available?

kamikazetomato

Quote from: Rolina on 12, February, 2015, 07:32:13 AM
Nice Attack on Titan reference.  While end-game stuff is nice, I'm still rather interested in what you're adding/remixing for mid-game.  Also, what armors and accessories are available?
The Titans reference is actually incidental, but I do like it.

The midgame is essentially the same, gear-wise, simply with power levels shifted about to compensate for different dungeon order (for instance, Air's Rock's items are gained after Lemuria, so they naturally aren't weaker than Lemurian gear). Variety is especially found in the much-earlier Lemuria (every item in the Lucky Medal Fountain is now good, instead of only generally aiming for the middle target) and the MUCH earlier Slot Machines for rings, boots, and shirts (all of which have been improved, especially rings). Between that, gear found in mid-game dungeons, and Garoh's new shops (which reflect it coming after Lemuria), there's plenty of variety. Finally, in general, I've given Djinn good items to hold (like an extra Full Metal Jacket outside of Madra) to keep your inventory fresh, and given Mimics much better drops.

Frankly I don't see your worry with this, as the only thing missing is mid-game forged items, and again, from personal experience, I literally never used them and was completely entertained (the randomness and resetting was just off-putting to me). But yeah, plenty of variety, as seen in the previous paragraph.

For endgame armors and accessories, we have the usual endgame dungeon gear, but we also have endgame forging. Because the forge is in Prox, every material can now be made into top-grade gear, rather than having a variety of outclassed items. No one metal is better than another, now, but instead it's a matter of what you're looking for. Note that weapons forged from these metals have been replaced with further armors/accessories, as you already have the Ultimate Weapons.

Like before, we have Tear Stones for Mercury gear, Golem Cores for Venus gear, Salamander Tails for Mars gear, and Sylph Feathers for Jupiter gear (again, all of which are of the same general strength, just focused in different places). Dark Matter is still cursed items, and is essentially the ultimate gear for a Blood Knight (each piece grants a further boost in attack, and are defensively top-notch in terms of taking hits, but drain health away; keeps that healer busy!). Mythril Silver now can be forged into a variety of top-level rings, Dragon Skin into top-level shirts, and Star Dust into top-level boots. Orihalcon now forges into Golden gear (the Golden Shirt, Golden Ring, and Golden Boots, which can still be found from linked games); while other rings, boots, and shirts may be preferred on specific characters, Golden Shirts/Boots have the highest raw defense (on top of HP bonuses) and the Golden Ring is just awesome. It's a matter of seeking specific items for specific builds, or generally great items that fit a variety of classes. Don't worry, I'll make a spreadsheet of new gear when the time comes.

---

Just made it to Lemuria in my playthrough/edit-dialogue-and-bosses-as-I-go. Considering the new order, we essentially have a boss rush of Aqua Hydra, Avimander, and Poseidon, despite optional exploration between them. So I wanted to make them all different.

Aqua Hydra, as stated earlier, now has healing buddies. It's rough, but it's fun, and the strategy is clear from the moment you see what the healers do.

Avimander similarly has three turns, and while he has no allies, he heals 200 HP every turn. His HP total makes poison deal a bit more than that after three rounds of actions, but he has Aura to keep even that at bay. Essentially the fight is all about temporarily stopping him with paralysis and sleep (Froth, which causes sleep, is especially helpful as a Water-elemental attack), as when he's active, 3 turns of stat buffing, healing, and wicked attacks will do you in.


(Heavy edits were made to the dialogue in Champa, both with Obaba/Briggs (Obaba now knows he's a pirate, but the tension is both Briggs's foolishness and the fact that he didn't inherit her Ankohl abilities, not to mention their rough history with Lemuria), and with Alex and the gang (Karst is still way more bloodthirsty, and Agatio actively looks down on Alex for perceived weakness). Babi's role in that dialogue is shorted, and it's instead reworked to continue the story of Peter's history with Champa (again, Peter is Piers).

Also, Obaba straight-up tells you to go to Yallam to see her old friend Yepp about how to get to Lemuria. While she doesn't know Yepp has since passed, it still gives new players an actual hint as to getting through the Sea of Time's maze. Also, Obaba mentions her apprentice, the smith Atrius, moved to Yallam, and while Atrius has since moved to Prox, it's another unmissable hint about the smith. Follow that trail, players!)

Poseidon is frankly pretty much the same, albeit with an extra turn. In fact, his moves have been a bit nerfed, no longer having the chance at instant KO or leaving HP at 1. Why? Because right now, without grinding, your party is only around level 20, so the challenge stems from the severe power difference between you. Again, poison and stun/sleep are important; while Poseidon can't cure his own poison, he heals 100 HP every turn and, as he only moves twice per round, he loses less HP than 3-turners when poisoned. Finally, he has certain new moves that cause stun or sleep to single characters, finally giving your party a taste of its own medicine. A real slogfest!

Oh, and the Ankohl Charm (dropped by Avimander and replacing the Trident in function) now deals Fire-elemental damage, and is specifically designed to repel the sea god.


In this game, Poseidon isn't a monster, but the defender of Lemuria (the island itself, not necessarily its people, hence it not letting Peter in). He's responsible for the Sea of Time's tides, and his weakness to the Ankohl Charm is due to the ancient Ankohl and the ancient Lemurians being bitter enemies. In short, there's a reason Obaba knows how to defeat a Sea God.

Time for the big one: editing the dialogue in Lemuria. Essentially all of it. This oughtta be fun.

Rolina

QuoteLike before, we have Tear Stones for Mercury gear, Golem Cores for Venus gear, Salamander Tails for Mars gear, and Sylph Feathers for Jupiter gear (again, all of which are of the same general strength, just focused in different places).

???  No you don't.  You moved Sunshine.  You can't use any crafting items until endgame, and for the mid-rank stuff, that makes it useless.  By the time you get yourself a Sylph Rapier, it's already late enough that it'd be useless to you.  Unless, of course, I'm missing something...

Have you considered moving the rusty items instead of Sunshine?  Perhaps into the Anemos Inner Sanctum, which effectively serves as a post-game area?

kamikazetomato

Quote from: Rolina on 12, February, 2015, 07:03:11 PM
QuoteLike before, we have Tear Stones for Mercury gear, Golem Cores for Venus gear, Salamander Tails for Mars gear, and Sylph Feathers for Jupiter gear (again, all of which are of the same general strength, just focused in different places).

???  No you don't.  You moved Sunshine.  You can't use any crafting items until endgame, and for the mid-rank stuff, that makes it useless.  By the time you get yourself a Sylph Rapier, it's already late enough that it'd be useless to you.  Unless, of course, I'm missing something...

Have you considered moving the rusty items instead of Sunshine?  Perhaps into the Anemos Inner Sanctum, which effectively serves as a post-game area?
You do realize items can be manipulated, right? I can go into the editor and change the Sylph Rapier's name, icon, statistics, even what matter of item it is, with a few clicks. The only thing I can't easily do is change a non-weapon to a weapon, given the sprite that comes with weapons. How else do you think I made the Ultimate Weapons?

So, instead of the Sylph Rapier, I made a new Jupiter-related item that is forged when the Sylph Rapier would have been forged. A better one, meant for the endgame (which is incredibly hard in this hack, including the non-optional final boss). I'm doing the same to all other forged items to make them endgame gear. And, if I want to keep the Sylph Rapier in the midgame, I can change another light blade unavailable in this game (say, the Elven Rapier, which is GS1-only), "turn it into" the Sylph Rapier by adjusting its name, stats, unleash, icon, etc., and make it so a Djinn or a Mimic or a boss or even a regular enemy is holding it. Voila.

I really, really, really don't get why you're so obsessed with keeping the smith where he is. Moving the rusty weapons to Anemos? That would take infinitely more effort than moving the smith, especially considering I've already done the latter. Plus, it's far less satisfying to find the weapons all in one place rather than scouring the world for them, and it makes good plot sense that such an amazing blacksmith would exclusively make top-grade gear.

I'm sorry that you love Sunshine in Yallam so much and that he's somewhere else in this game. But it's my game, and that's what I want to do with it. Don't like it? Make your own hack, or even take mine when it's done and edit him back to where he is. My midgame is fine. My endgame is fine. I promise, I'm not an idiot.

Misery

Hey hey, chill it. I doubt she's obsessed with the smith, it's probably more about making it sound like you're taking a lot of content out of the midgame. Now, you did say you're making those items droppable/buyable, so I wouldn't be too concerned about that.

The one thing I think you might want to watch out for is that you're liable to end up with a "forge binge" at the end of the game, with lots and lots of resetting to get the right items, unless you're making all the materials rather easy to obtain. Nobody likes getting stuck at the title screen time and time again just to reroll the RNG, which is why the blacksmith is best saved for gear that is strictly optional, and doesn't drastically affect the power of your party. Except for when that gear is made from rusty weapons rather than materials, obviously.

Quote from: kamikazetomato on 12, February, 2015, 07:38:56 PM
I promise, I'm not an idiot.

You're susceptible to human error, the same goes for everyone. It makes more sense to assume you won't get everything right the first time. I mean, even the original game didn't. So, you don't have to get so defensive.

kamikazetomato

Quote from: Misery on 13, February, 2015, 03:08:11 AM
Hey hey, chill it. I doubt she's obsessed with the smith, it's probably more about making it sound like you're taking a lot of content out of the midgame. Now, you did say you're making those items droppable/buyable, so I wouldn't be too concerned about that.

The one thing I think you might want to watch out for is that you're liable to end up with a "forge binge" at the end of the game, with lots and lots of resetting to get the right items, unless you're making all the materials rather easy to obtain. Nobody likes getting stuck at the title screen time and time again just to reroll the RNG, which is why the blacksmith is best saved for gear that is strictly optional, and doesn't drastically affect the power of your party. Except for when that gear is made from rusty weapons rather than materials, obviously.

Quote from: kamikazetomato on 12, February, 2015, 07:38:56 PM
I promise, I'm not an idiot.

You're susceptible to human error, the same goes for everyone. It makes more sense to assume you won't get everything right the first time. I mean, even the original game didn't. So, you don't have to get so defensive.

Literally every post she's written to me is about the smith, so perhaps you can understand my concern.

Anyway, I'm sorry, but I can't help but get a little snippy when someone repeatedly questions my grasp of something that I've repeatedly shown I have a grasp of. Even after I explain how I'm keeping the midgame active, even after I say I'm adjusting forged gear to be more endgame-appropriate, she talks to me like I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Pointing out possible human error is showing concern about something that someone might have missed. Her initial point about the midgame was certainly that, as even though I had taken it into account, I hadn't said that I'd taken it into account, so there's no way she would've known that I had (unless she's an actual Jupiter Adept and Mind Read works across the internet).

But showing concern about something I've addressed, as if I haven't addressed it, and as if I don't understand the concept despite me displaying what I think is a fairly clear understanding of the concept (such as the way she explained to me that the Sylph Rapier is a mid-level item even though I stated in that post that I was making mid-level forged gear endgame gear and that they're now at even power levels) is both condescending and, frankly, a little insulting. Particularly when, after I clearly went out of my way to move the smith, she acts like I made the decision willy-nilly and suggests a "better" option (putting the rusty weapons in Anemos Sanctum) to solve a problem that I don't have, and have thoroughly explained that I don't have, about a dearth of gear in the midgame.

In terms of your own concern about forge-binging:

-As the smith is in Prox, simply leaving his house registers as leaving "Yallam", so you can just leave his house and go right back in to get your gear instead of leaving the whole town and getting all the way back. The convenience of this streamlining alone is worth price of purchase.

-There are now fewer possible items to gain from each ore, as weapons (and sometimes other items) are being morphed into repeats of other gear in the editor; this means lower probability of getting something you don't want, so fewer resets needed. And, because of this culling, every item is good. Even if you don't get what you're fishing for, at least you aren't losing what you want for something crappy. And don't worry, I'm taking percentages of forging into account to make the whole thing more even (so, for instance, if an ore had a 10% chance of giving a great shield, a 40% chance of giving a weapon, and a 50% chance of giving a great helmet, I wouldn't change the weapon to the helmet to make it 10/90, but to the shield, so it's 50/50. I really, genuinely don't mean to be mean here, but this is also why Rolina's recent posts here bug me; I hate that I feel the need to point out something this obvious, lest it be brought up because she thinks I'm dull enough to miss something this obvious.)

-Out of gratitude for allaying his boredom (and reflecting our own Atrius's mindset in regards to his editor), Atrius the Smith gives you items crafted from ore (not rusty weapons) for free! You're doing this to save the world, it's the least he could do.

-Every piece of forgeable ore is dropped at a 100% by an endgame enemy (with the exception of Orihalcon, which is dropped at a 50% rate by an enemy that's notably tougher than the other droppers, reflecting its rarity). This, when combined with the above three points, lets you fish for top gear far more efficiently, especially compared to the original games method of a worse smith or, god forbid, low-chance enemy drops. Brr.

MaxiPower

You going to put anything in Yallam? Not much else was got there in the first place.

Caledor

#30
Guess I'll throw my 2 cents here.
Why don't you make a simple and compact map/chart/summary that contains all the plot changes you're making so we can easily keep track of them? I'm sure you know what you're doing, it's just that I (like others) are finding difficult to follow you and this way we can't advice you well.
For example, when i read your post the first time, I thought as well that moving the blacksmith to prox might leave a gap mid-game, and make all the items you're going to get from tear stone etc either too weak or (if you pump or tweak those items, like I think you're doing) leave you overloaded with choices late-game. But like I said, I'm having difficulties keeping track with the revised plot so i want to hear your thoughts about this first, since i might have just missed your solution to this problem, if the problem even existed in the first place.

EDIT: forgot to say the most important thing. I've seen you are having issues with text compression. Just download gstlatoolkit and forgot about the whole compression thing. I used it myself for my italian rom (had to tweak the source code a bit to make it compatible though) and never ever gone back. you can find it here

kamikazetomato

Quote from: Caledor on 13, February, 2015, 08:32:11 PM
Guess I'll throw my 2 cents here.
Why don't you make a simple and compact map/chart/summary that contains all the plot changes you're making so we can easily keep track of them? I'm sure you know what you're doing, it's just that I (like others) are finding difficult to follow you and this way we can't advice you well.
For example, when i read your post the first time, I thought as well that moving the blacksmith to prox might leave a gap mid-game, and make all the items you're going to get from tear stone etc either too weak or (if you pump or tweak those items, like I think you're doing) leave you overloaded with choices late-game. But like I said, I'm having difficulties keeping track with the revised plot so i want to hear your thoughts about this first, since i might have just missed your solution to this problem, if the problem even existed in the first place.

EDIT: forgot to say the most important thing. I've seen you are having issues with text compression. Just download gstlatoolkit and forgot about the whole compression thing. I used it myself for my italian rom (had to tweak the source code a bit to make it compatible though) and never ever gone back. you can find it here
I totally plan on making such a chart, but as I said in my first response in this topic, this game isn't done yet. I can't rightly make a chart for something that isn't complete yet, as I'm liable to change things. And, as I said in my first response, that's why I'm not so into discussing such details. I totally get that details might be hard to follow, but that's probably because the details are currently fluid.

But yeah, those spreadsheets I made about new psy and classes? Totally planning on doing the same for item changes in this game, how the smith works, and the general new order of the game (leaving some stuff for y'all to find out; don't worry, the game itself will guide you along nicely). But I'll do it when it's actually done. That's when I'll actually want such advice; it's far easier to adjust things when there's a foundation than constantly adjust the foundation before it's built. At least, it is for me.

As for the toolkit, I gave it a try, but I just prefer the editor for text stuff. Compression's rarely an issue.

Quote from: MaxiPower on 13, February, 2015, 04:59:25 PM
You going to put anything in Yallam? Not much else was got there in the first place.

Obaba tells you that her old friend Yepp knows the route to Lemuria and lives in Yallam (she doesn't know that Yepp has since died). One of the biggest flaws in the original game is that getting trough the Sea of Time is an incredibly vague ordeal, and there's basically no hints that Yallam will help you get there.

That's Yallam's purpose here. Less useful than before? Sure, but it's hardly the only town without much to do.

Rolina

Yeah, accusing me of "loving the smith" like that's going a bit far.  To be honest with you, I'm not overly fond of how blacksmithing is handled in GS - I'd gut it and replace it with a different system entirely myself.  As Mis said, I'm concerned with what's going on in the mid-game.  All of your focus has been on end and post game, which in an RPG is the smallest part of the game.  Sure, it's the climax, but the lion's share of the game has been the effort in getting there, and from what I had read you seemed to be focusing purely on that while taking a lot of things that were meant for mid game and redesigning them as endgame content.  It's a worry about pacing and game balance I'm having here.

kamikazetomato

Quote from: Rolina on 14, February, 2015, 10:13:08 AM
Yeah, accusing me of "loving the smith" like that's going a bit far.  To be honest with you, I'm not overly fond of how blacksmithing is handled in GS - I'd gut it and replace it with a different system entirely myself.  As Mis said, I'm concerned with what's going on in the mid-game.  All of your focus has been on end and post game, which in an RPG is the smallest part of the game.  Sure, it's the climax, but the lion's share of the game has been the effort in getting there, and from what I had read you seemed to be focusing purely on that while taking a lot of things that were meant for mid game and redesigning them as endgame content.  It's a worry about pacing and game balance I'm having here.
And my problem is, you seem to think moving the smith to the end of the game means, welp, no more midgame. Because that's literally all I've said that I'm changing in terms of the endgame (barring things I'm changing that are universal, like harder bosses throughout the game). Seriously, I'm genuinely curious: what other indications have I given, at all, that I'm not focused on the midgame? Please tell me. I would love to know.

Especially after addressing your unfounded concerns by pointing out all the new drops from Djinn (and better drops from Mimics), the upgraded Lemuria Spring that only gives good items and not those that outclass each other, Garoh's new shop given it now comes after Lemuria, and the sheer fact that now Team Isaac is part of that very midgame. I mean, that's really the biggest nail in the coffin to any concern that I'm too focused on the endgame, isn't it? Why I would I change the entire order of the game just to make the late game gameplay swap into a midgame one if I wasn't interested in the midgame?

So please, I'm being utterly serious here, tell me how you even came close to the conclusion that "all of [my] focus has been on end and post game". In exact detail. Because if I'm really giving that impression from what I've written, I'd love to know how so I don't do it anymore.

Luna_blade

I have a little thing to say/ask about some of the lore you're putting in this game.
From what I read (I haven't read the whole topic yet :sad:) Ankhol and Lemuria are enemies and Obaba and Yepp know eachother. I don't know how much dialogue was about it in the game, but there was something about Shaman vs. Anemos.
Are you planning to add more lore to the game? Perhaps about Babi?

Anyway, I'm definitely excited to play this interesting hack once I have the time for it.
With all those usernames in it now, I guess we could almost call it the community hack.
"Hear the sounds and melodies
Of rilets flowing down
They're the verlasting songs
Whispering all the time
As a warning that behind some rocks
There's a rigid grap even
Oreads fear the tread"

kamikazetomato

Quote from: Luna_blade on 14, February, 2015, 05:46:08 PM
I have a little thing to say/ask about some of the lore you're putting in this game.
From what I read (I haven't read the whole topic yet :sad:) Ankhol and Lemuria are enemies and Obaba and Yepp know eachother. I don't know how much dialogue was about it in the game, but there was something about Shaman vs. Anemos.
Are you planning to add more lore to the game? Perhaps about Babi?

More lore? Yes. Just finished rewriting the Lemuria arc, and new lore from that section alone includes:

-What exactly Djinn are, and how they do what they do
-What the Wise One is (this is a very big change in this game)
-Who precisely made the seal on Alchemy
-Hintings at the cultures of the Lost Age (Lemuria, but also Ankohl, Tundaria, Zol, Anemos, and Aleph, precursor to Vale)
-Hintings about Garoh's past (leading to further lore gained by traveling in Garoh, which is mandatory in this game rather than a sidequest)


Buuuuut Babi gets the shaft. Lunpa is now Lish, a seer, who has a very different role: all of Lemuria agrees that the world is shrinking, so the conflict between King Caledor and Lord Mirele (this game's Hydros and Conservato) is how to go about solving the problem. Lish's visions tell of eight heroes that will save the world, and Caledor trusts him. Whereas Mirele thinks Lish is a fraud, and that the stakes are too high to rely on such visions. So... I guess Misery and Lishy are enemies in this game? Sorry, guys! At least all three of you are good guys; Mirele is definitely a better man than Conservato.

And the draught's power running dry, which kills Babi, has greater implications (in this game, it's ambiguous whether he ran out, or if it stopped working). Babi's death is just foreshadowing about a larger crisis, and (like in the original) frees Kraden to show his quest for Lemuria as being of his own volition. In Golden Sun, Babi is a thief who seeks eternal life and power, and kidnaps Sheba to force her village to work for him. Not the best guy around. Considering he's never seen in Golden Sun 2, only mentioned, it was easy to reduce his role, and as I'm more interested in deeper lore, dialogue about him was largely replaced. He still dies, and Piers still doubts Kraden for his association with Babi, and Babi still is treated with disdain by Lemurians, but it's certainly a reduced role. Sorry, Babi fans.

In terms of further lore, with the Shaman Rod and what precisely Sheba's destiny is... yeah, we're definitely getting some concrete answers. Between that, additions to Piers's plot, and additional info about Ivan and even Mia (basically backstory about growing up with Alex), all the non-Vale characters get their due in terms of plot.

But all in all, my focus is to make this game actually live up to the name "The Lost Age", and this game is all about the implications of that age. What the old world was like, how the consequences of its wars ripple in the modern age, and what the consequences will be when the seal is unleashed and we enter "The Found Age" of new Alchemy.

QuoteAnyway, I'm definitely excited to play this interesting hack once I have the time for it.
With all those usernames in it now, I guess we could almost call it the community hack.

Eh, I'm not really comfortable calling it the community hack, just because I'm the one making all the decisions, and I'm not nearly arrogant enough to say that my ideas speak for a community that I'm barely even a part of. I just think it's important to give credit where credit is due!

Caledor

I'm really amazed to see how much potential this 13 years old game still holds. Even more, considering that the only other community solely dedicated on game hacking I know of, is focused on the famous/infamous FF7 no less. Seeing Dark Dawn, it makes me think that Camelot never fully realized this either, and that's a shame.

Luna_blade

#37
Quote from: kamikazetomato on 14, February, 2015, 07:10:50 PM
More lore? Yes. Just finished rewriting the Lemuria arc, and new lore from that section alone includes:

-What exactly Djinn are, and how they do what they do
-What the Wise One is (this is a very big change in this game)
-Who precisely made the seal on Alchemy
-Hintings at the cultures of the Lost Age (Lemuria, but also Ankohl, Tundaria, Zol, Anemos, and Aleph, precursor to Vale)
-Hintings about Garoh's past (leading to further lore gained by traveling in Garoh, which is mandatory in this game rather than a sidequest)

Alright that sounds good.
Quote from: kamikazetomato on 14, February, 2015, 07:10:50 PM
In terms of further lore, with the Shaman Rod and what precisely Sheba's destiny is... yeah, we're definitely getting some concrete answers. Between that, additions to Piers's plot, and additional info about Ivan and even Mia (basically backstory about growing up with Alex), all the non-Vale characters get their due in terms of plot.
But all in all, my focus is to make this game actually live up to the name "The Lost Age", and this game is all about the implications of that age. What the old world was like, how the consequences of its wars ripple in the modern age, and what the consequences will be when the seal is unleashed and we enter "The Found Age" of new Alchemy.
That's actually a pretty good idea.

Quote from: kamikazetomato on 14, February, 2015, 07:10:50 PM
Eh, I'm not really comfortable calling it the community hack, just because I'm the one making all the decisions, and I'm not nearly arrogant enough to say that my ideas speak for a community that I'm barely even a part of. I just think it's important to give credit where credit is due!
I know.
Quote from: Caledor on 14, February, 2015, 10:12:13 PM
I'm really amazed to see how much potential this 13 years old game still holds. Even more, considering that the only other community solely dedicated on game hacking I know of, is focused on the famous/infamous FF7 no less. Seeing Dark Dawn, it makes me think that Camelot never fully realized this either, and that's a shame.
Yeah, GS holds pretty much potential.
"Hear the sounds and melodies
Of rilets flowing down
They're the verlasting songs
Whispering all the time
As a warning that behind some rocks
There's a rigid grap even
Oreads fear the tread"

MaxiPower

I havent played GS TLA in maybe 5 years. I cant wait till you finish this, im eager to jump back in see this