Monster World RPG ver. 1.1 is out now ! ! !

[Monster World RPG]

The solution for the intelligence test in dao’s prison is imply to put the blue and the red stone on he grey title in order for them to “connect” with the violet wall. The other tiles and stone are just there to deceive you.

62 gold in the Pygmy village was pretty lame. Seeing it between the Charmstone and the Heartbox, I expected a ancient coin or something like that.
At least make it a bigger (more noticeable) amount of money.

...

We’ll change it in 100 gp.

The mouseblockpath in the Lavafield ruin's (leading to the 2nd purple key) could be split up in 2 or 3 segments. Let's just say that I was anything but feeling happy when I missed the timing on the very last grey tiles... And then you even switch those grey tiles off again and keep me from a shortcut to the next room! Some german LP'ers has a term for this kind of unnecessary padding by a convoluted and longer than necessary path - "Wegverlängerungsspirale" (roughly translated as spiral path to prolong the (obligatory) route).

...

I agree it was hard as hell. Maybe we will just shorten it, maybe…

Minor criticism: Weights in the air should cast a shadow underneath to present the perspective better. I noticed this especially in the sunken section behind thr right of the 3 doors. (The chains connecting both to the same steel beam wasn't obvious to me at first).

...

Good point.

Putting a lot of dead ends into a section where I can't use the Lion gene (to avoid random battles) seems like an evil intent by the developers.

...

You’re right. I agree they should be cut out form next version.

Wait a minute! The Lion gene grants Max enough strength to lift the key while Bock couldn't. But Bock could lift those weights about which Max mentioned, they were too heavy to move even while I had him using the Lion gene at that time! Well, the key pedestal probably only checks for the Lion gene and not actual strength...

...

Gotcha! You got the meaning of it by yourself. The fact is that Lion Gene don’t give a map ability which have a direct use on the environment, so we came up with the idea of a special seal for the key which is removable only by “lions” unregarding the brute srtenght. In this way we give a little of backgroud story for the ruins via a dialogue between characters.

If you speak again to Long Pygmy, he's called Chinese Pygmy instead.

...

Because originally he was called by that and we forget to change every dialogue. Next version will have it fixed. Long Dragon was called “chinese dragon” (he and the pygmy came in pair).

Party never actually splits up (proven by any cutscene of the main quest), so why force the player to swap the active party around to trigger character-specific side-quests? And why don't get all characters healed, if I rest at an inn or any other recovery point?

...

Because we wanted to force the player to change their active member and try some different battle strategies. THen yoy have to admit that at least for the first time you encounter a minigame NPCs you have to guess which is the correct person to bring to him.
ABout the Inn issue: I dunno, maybe we can change that, I’m not sure about it.

In a similar vein: While I like the idea of using genes to customize Max' abilities, it's cumbersome to swap genes to interacte with certain obstacles (e.g. ?-blocks, Pygmy doors)
(Although that would make the Lava field's ruin pretty straightforward and boring - at least not outstanding)

...

Sadly Rpgmaker had its limitation. Using your words, in a similar vein, if possibe I would have liked to make the player able to switch between genes, party members, gears, spells, ecc, more quicly via soething like L1, R1, L2 and R2 buttons and some over impressed images over the screen (paper mario like). This give more than an explanation.

I wouldn't mind so much if the change of genes was a lot quicker (maybe mapping it to the number keys). But around a dozen clicks per gene change is only annoying.

...

Same reply as above.

And after all, at least to me there is next to no feeling of acomplishment of overcoming those obstacles (and maybe it's not even intended). It's simply "Do you reckognize this kind of block and know its proper gene?" and then crawl through the menu to activate it.

...

I agree with your opinion but just for the latter parts of the game but as I said above, rpgmaker has its limitations andthen you have to consider that we can’t change the rules at middle of the run.

Any feedback on cooking? Amount of actual healing and status boosts are negligible and can on only be bought from the specific chef anyway.
Aside from making those items more effective, they should be more available - for example from the mole merchants. Another option would be to allow Priscilla to cook those items in ANY chef's kitchen (without the minigame, just providing the ingredients).
(On that regard, I'm very happy that ingredients can be bought from mole merchants, so one doesn't have to always go back to Xenobia after learning what they need next.)

...

I believe we won’t change that in anyway. I don’t feel the need of it. If you want some very special item you have at least to walk around a litte or the game will be too easy (it help the players in many way already enough in my opinion). Maybe we can incerase a little the goode effect of thoose recipes to make them more valuable items.

Regarding the mole merchants: Why aren't all merchants updated, once you unlock the next "level" of moles (this would also fit with the moles appearing in more and more spots).

...

Because it is not the merchant which get updated but the “holes” from which they came from: no “update”, no mole. Thera are 3 sets of mole holes.

And regarding negligible things: While I very much like that even most bosses can be affected by "Burnt" and "Shocked", these debuffs get less useful as the game goes on because of the entirely fixed amount of damage they do - always 7 HP on every "tick", no more, no less.
With later enemies having more HP, I hopefully don't have to elaborate any more on the resulting problem...

...

I dunno, effects shouldn’t affect too much the hp loss of enemies in my opinion but just help you in injuiring them more easily without getting injuried yourself.

Is Shabo supposed to be the black (or red) wizard of the party? Because after "Drain" he doesn't seem to learn any attack magic for a long time (even after his transformation).

...

Shabo isn’t supposed to be black or red wizard: we simply get inspired by each characters skills from the original games from the original series. Shabo is simply what he is. WHen you will finish the game give me more feedback on him, maybe we will be able to balance better his skills.

And for being so luck-based, his "Pilfer"-move is pretty MP-pricey.

...

I agree. Maybe we will fix this.

After saving Tanya and the princess I visited both of them before seeing the oracle - which told me to go to the princess. Duh!

...

IN-universe explanation: she decided she have to talk to Max only while he was going to talk to the oracle.
OUT-universe explanation: just common lame rpg videogame mechanics.

And after acting so much like a generic villain, it was nice that Drancon had an actual bigger plan to go with. Just as well as being able to use all the other heroes for the fights with the dragons heads.

...

Thanks.

(Side note: Hawk-Man's "Sunflower"-skill says "Water attack + FROST vs all enemies", but only targets a single enemy with an ice gryphon - not very sunflower'y. The item has the same description, but I never used them so far. (EDIT: Ok, sunflowers lure the gryphon, just like those flowers for the coyotes.) And Bock has "Thunder Saber", but can't use it. EDIT The same is true for Alien and Max with Bock's Gene.)

...

We will check the number of targets of sunflower:yu got exactly how it works – it lures he gryphpn. Later in the game you can also find the gryphon nest with lot of sunflower. Hawk man skill description in Alien morph menu give some backstory for them. If you visit Mela she also gie some hints with her garden.
We are already aknowledged of the thunder saber bug, thanks.

The battle with Drancon on the other hand was really lame after this setup. First, informing the player to get everything ready, just to have been stripped of accessories just like every other Drancon battle (mind you, I don't remember if accessories were explicitly mentioned).

...

Something got changed a lot during debugging different version of the game not making us noticing this smaller problem. Drancon didn’t always removed your accessories in previous beta demos. We will check this a little.

And that fight with Drancon was just that - like any other fight before, banning of items and accessories, but still no real challenge. Even with this being not the final battle of the game, that was very disappointing.

...

Drancon fight are always the same as they were in the original WOnder Boy in which he never change strategies even if he changed head shape.
So we kept this.
But you have to consider that your fina battle with him is the whole battle against Hydrancon, so with 8 dragon’s heads and Drancon’s soul and that the special parto of this battle is the fact you can use knights and the complexity of its cutscenes and story.

"Hey, Priscilla, that was the 4th chef you learned recipes from" - " Oh, indeed it was." - "Yeah, Chameleon will welcome you." ... [Chameleon's note] "Sry, will be back some uncertain time in the future. (trololol)"

...

He is a big troll. BUt in the end you will notice that everytinhg wil came in proper place, just for the players sake.

Sry for being sarcastic, but the Ice Castle was a pinnacle of creativity regarding gameplay. Always having to go back and forth between opposite ends of corridors to activate a switch that clears the way on the other end. Very entertaining. [/sarcasm]

...

Probably you are right, but we won’t change it!

Fear the mighty beaver! [/sarcasm] ...floating with bunny ears [/sarcasm]

...

I too feel it was a lame idea for an important boss, buti t was just like that in the original game we got inspired of!!!!
By the way, later there will be for real a character called “the great beaver”. You have oracle powers of a rare kind...

Information from Drancon's background story - greetings from "Final Fantasy IV" *sigh*

...

You won’t believe it: I never played any f the FF installements.
Simpy: fictional characters backstory are always the same and in a more limited number than you can imagine.
I wasn’t even aknowledged, until someone told me, that the beginning of the game (with Max in bed) was reminiscent of Zelda a link to the past!!!
For Drancon I got inspired more by the Asgard arc from Saint Seiya, nothig more. The other part just came up form my fantasy (and not final fantasy!).
To be honst: I played Ergheiz, but I believe it is not the same as playing final fantasy…

1st shooting section between stars: The right edge is a (almost) totally safe spot. It's also the best spot to shot the enemy ships fom because they pause there for a few moments but rarely seem to shot from there. Unexpectedly trivial compared to all the other mini games (although those were just so by requiring so much dexterity). During the 2nd phase, I noticed nothing of regenerating shields! That phase was just as easy but still somewhat infuriating to me, because there was no indicator for confirmed hits on the giant enemy - no blinking after being hit neither an lifebar or something like that. So for a while I thought I had to do something special. This notion was supported by the big missiles fired occasionally, which stood out to me because of their color. I thought, maybe I have to reflect them back at the enemy. But it was in vain, because there was no rythm to the missiles appearance, there was no spot on the grid to actually hit the missile with my laser AND THE MISSILE WAS A ONE-HIT KILL TO ME! So I had to do the whole section again, including the non-skippable cut-scene with the non-skippable explanation about the minigame.

...

After trying to simply shoot the UFO in general and staying out of it's reach (peace of cake since it doens't move itself) I finally noticed what a lame fight that actually was. [/QUOTE]
Nothing to add, you said everything! It was just to vary a little the game, it is not neccessarily lame.
And as always: rpgmaker has its limitation.
DId I had a budget adn a team professionaIs, I would have made MWRPG even greater!!!!

Yeah, Mega Man-style boss rematches! EDIT: And as weak as the original bosses, so maybe inspired by Lavos' shell from Chrono Trigger. EDIT²: Ok, so there IS a twist! EDIT³: But still no real challenge.
(And the enemies here drop potions. POTIONS! What a joke...)

...

We did them exactly like in the original games, except we add he cyborg version which the original lacked (I believed the original did note even implied they were cybernetic replicas). What do you mean by “potions”?

The music during the first Biomeka fight was actually a nice change and then the usual boss theme returned for the 2nd pahse. Where's the first one from?

...

Which one?

(And Biomeka is only worth 12 GP??? What a cheap boss! )

...

Right.

"And that's how Samus Max destroyed yet another planet."

...

This time aain we did the scene exaclty like in the original WOnder Boy in Monster World which is from 1991.

I actually expected the reborn Drancon or maybe his brother to become the final member of the party but a random alien works too, I guess. Especially with the expectation to be able to reuse the Royal Knights! Kinda neat idea, actually. But it feels lazy that there is no skill trivia for all knights.

...

Thanks.
We added the trivia only for skills that were added later for the knight to balance their in a better way and that could have not been imediately recognized by the player as being associated with each knight.

Why do I suddenly have to use SHIFT for the Scanning minigame when ENTER was perfectly fine for the same kind of game to fix the spaceship? I'm using Windows and having to press SHIFT reapetdly will trigger a pop-up asking to enable SHIFT LOCK. And no, I don't want to deactivate that behaviour!
At least the time is lenient so far (4 knights scanned). EDIT: Ok, managed them all with only one retry for the 7th knight.

...

Right, I ask it myself….

The cuty army was worth more than Biomeka.

...

Pirates are famous to have tresaures differenty by alien creatures!!!

Genie summoning: Talk about ear-grating music!

...

That was its music form the original game: blame SEGA.

Pepe powers up - with whiskers.

...

If you look carefully at him his colors got more complex. Some new pixels give him more depth.
And ina dialogue the charactets told you he has even grown a bit.
The problemi s, guess whay, that rpagmaker has its limitations.
IN the original game Pepe third form got whiskers and become bigger, but the characters slot of rpgmaker aren’t big enough.
In the ened even the pther party memebr third evolution are simply a recoloration or a minor variation fo their appareance if compared to their first form.
If you think at it, in Dragon Ball Movie Ressurection of F movie, Freeza long waited next evolution was simply a recoloration of him! And TOEI sure had more money to spend on it than we had for MWRPG!!!

Lost Unicorn woods: Note much of hints there to me, except a confirmation sound AFTER taking a right turn.
Couldn't have told that from ending back the start when taking a wrong turn (or from Max spelling it out).

...

And i twill remain like that forever.

Oh, another mouse-path. At least not as long, but still denying any shortcut on the way back.

...

Maybe the one in kashmir ruin will be shortened to be more like this one.

Side-note: Traps like moving flames should stop while the message boxes of the Lucky Sword or Handbag are displayed. Otherwise one may very well get caught in the trap with no chance to evade.

...

Good point, we will make somthing about that

I already thought a while back that Heart Boxes start to loose in value because the increment only by 10 HP compared to the 400+ HP some of my characters have by now.

...

Heart boxex are in the game to be like that, just a minor upgrade to Max HP. Obiously they were more useful when at lower level, ut we can’t change rules at mid game and we didn’t want to create more powerful heart boxes in order to stay faithful to the original game.

And then in the last(?) chapter you introduce Life Drops which only increase by 1 HP (even if you usually find them in multiples)??? If one drop increased Max-HP for everyone at the same time I might understand, but so..]
On that point, I felt overleveled for quite some time. Max is close under 80 now and Pepe and Priscilla are in the late 60s, early 70s (the rest is around 40 because I use them a lot less because of ther low agility or limited skill pool).
But mind you, since I aquired the Lion gene, I had it active as much as possible to lower the encounter rate. But I did flee only very few encounters I still had.
For quite a while, even bosses didn't pose a real threat, especially for Max often crit'ing for around 1k because of the Ishtar Sword.

...

Life Drops simply came in place of heartboxex even in the original series and we kept it like that, good or not this idea is.
The fact is that maybe you really got over leveled, but I won’t believe it is a problem
I was fearing the opposite: in other words I believe it was too difficult to level up and win battles later in the game. BUt since many people clais battles (especially random ones) are a pain in the butt, I’m hapy they are not always that difficult.

Why did you introduce the player so early to the Debug and Legendary Equipment as well as the Star Shards if they are usable so late in the game? To me, a registered quest creates the expectation that I can progress it fairly soon, not actually several hours into to the game later (having the quest stretch over a big portion is no problem, but there should be visible progress at regular intervals). I would have mentioned the equipments only as rumor from some townsfolk and only created the quest entry, once they are in reach (for the Debug equipment maybe once you get the first piece of the set).

...

Eichiro Oda introduced us to the existence of “ONE PIECE” more than 10 years ago at the beginning of his manga and we still don’t know what it is and won’t know for anothre 10 years. MWRPG just last 50 hours.

Regarding the Star Shards, there was also a lot of unnecessary info right at the start. It would have been enough to tell that these are valuable but mysterious, but it would be still wise to collect them. And of course mention that they are often well hidden. But don't say anything about their connection to a character who joins much, much later. Alien himself explained well enough what to do with the shards.

...

IN earlier demos they were not shards but gems. In earlier demos Alien did not exist because we came up with the idea of him just after sega released “Monster World Complete Collection” which featured as extra content development material about scrapped characters, like the genies and Aline itself.
In the original project, in place of Alien, you should have found around pieces of a robot to create a new party member.

If deactivating the Debug Equipment removes all Equipment, why do I leave the menu entirely when exiting the "Setup"-menu? Rather, send me directly to Max' equipment screen!

...

Rpgmaker limitations. We couldn’t do it better.

Do Oasis Boots also work especially well in the Snow Desert or do they discriminate between regular deserts and the frozen desert?

...

Good question. I will talk about this with the programmer.

I have the feeling that the dungeon design got weaker close and during the 4th chapter. Halls and floors seem to be long for the sake of being long, one has to run back and forth a lot with making only little actual progress through the dungeon (it's like, I want to go up, but for every screen up I have to switch between the ends of 3 screens to the left and right multiple times). It's only dragging, not entertaining.

...

I believe the opposite: later in the game dungeon become more complex tha before.
I agree that the later dungeon in rapadagna look gigantic if compared to the ones from Aqua. THis is a problem which is a consequence of the different artistic style of Monster World IV form the othe installements of the original series.
Let’s consider chapter IV as a chapter for expert players.

Didn't Igor say he intended to upgrade the money saving idols, not only placing more of them. But the (probably) final encounter in Rapadagna only made him place some of them around the area. There was no word about an upgrade (higher interest rate maybe) and they still don't add interest anyway.
And why, oh why, can you only deposit up to 99 gold per action? I have 30k right now and if I wanted to profit from the supposed interest, I would want to deposit at least 1k at once.

...

You ask too much! I wil talk about this with the programmer. IN any case, first he upgraded them then he spread the even in Rapadagane (the real prize for winning his minigame in rapadagna is to have the totem even there in that foreing land).

Bug? If you equip the Handbag to a character but don't have him in the active party, the Handbag still triggers after every battle. The only exception seems to be Alien.

...

I dunno, will ask the programmer.

If movable objects are stuck, there shouldn't be the "grind on the ground"-sound when walking against those objects.

...

That is the sound of Max back aching.

Only Pepe has an animation in the Party-setup.

...

Because if he stop moving his ears he will fall on ground, while the other can stay up simply on their feet. I believe that even Priscilla and Shabo in their first form are animated: I wil check this out.

Only the first and last gear in the menu are colored.

...

Because those colors come directly form the original game “Wonder Boy: Monster’s Lair”.