Megaman: Revenge of the Fallen Release Thread

Darkflamewolf · 10585

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Offline Darkflamewolf

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on: November 27, 2014, 02:45:48 PM
It have been 6 years in the making (since 2008!) but Jman and I (Yes, THAT Jman) have been working on and off together on a Megaman game. Granted, it doesn't have any new graphics (or very little) and no new music, but that's because at the early stage of production where we could have used spriters and/or musician, nobody was willing to help us. It wasn't until the last few years of production that got offers, but by then, it was already past the point of no return. History of the project aside, this is one of my most ambitious games yet and will feature all these things:

- 20 challenging platforming levels

- 10 devious robot masters (11 if you count the hidden boss)

- 21 tank pieces to find

- 3 Rush upgrades

- 7 chip upgrades

- Brutal Boss Rush mode

- Scoring system (ala Mega Man 1) that rewards you the better you do

- Easy Mode for those who hate challenges

Released Date Nov 27, 2014, download it here: http://rpgmaker.net/games/2406/

Pre-Launch Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzRUGrymhso

Screenshots:












Offline Threxx

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Reply #1 on: November 27, 2014, 05:49:33 PM
So, just streamed this live for about an hour, played all of the stages. Didn't reach a single boss, and I think I have some idea why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqOz429PacI <--The link to said stream

The level design is really unforgiving. Simply playing the game like one would normally play a MM game leads to death. This isn't challenging, it's frustrating, and it takes the player out of their comfort zone in a poor way. While many platform gimmicks are reused, few of them function similarly to their original counterparts, and there is little introduction to their new function, so when one sees them, expecting their original function, they are in for a rude awakening, generally resulting in death.

That brings me to my second point. Spikes and instant-death gimmicks are way too prevalent in this game. Too many times did I find myself falling down a shaft with no idea what was below, onto a tiny platform suspended over spikes or a bottomless pit. This is simply unfair design, as the player has no idea what to expect when they fall down such shafts. There were also cases of spikes which were placed seemingly at random, like so:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

I'm sorry, there's no reason why these should be there.

In summary, the game is frustrating, not fun, and I'm unlikely to pick this up again.

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Offline Darkflamewolf

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Reply #2 on: November 27, 2014, 08:43:51 PM
I agree that this game is probably not for everyone. But trust me, it was a lot worse before testers got their hands on it. They basically castrated the original punishing difficulty it used to have and I think its a lot better for it. So kudos to the testers to playing it over and over until they had no more complaints about it. I even had three separate groups of testers so I could keep getting fresh inputs on the level design and each group continued to whittle it down until it is the form you see today. But I'll admit that the game focuses more heavily on the 'platforming' aspect of the Megaman series than the shooting aspect, but that was my own personal design choice. There will probably be an audience out there for this specific style of Megaman gameplay; I'm sad to hear you aren't one of them, but I respect your opinion.
It seems every new Megaman game (fan game or not) tends to initially come out as unfair. I remember scathing reviews for Mega Man 9 due to its blistering difficulty and sometimes unfair level design. Much like what is being discussed here. Opinions have softened over time, however that still doesn't change the divisive split between hardcore fans of Mega Man 9 and haters of the game. You can't please everyone, even with games of the official franchise. lol
As for the 'random' spikes at the start of Tornado Man's stage, its there for a reason. It forces the player to use an item or upgrade to get past them to get a point ball item off to the left on the ledge behind the cloud. I didn't really want people getting it right away without something first. Glad it struck you as odd, it should, since it was protecting something to the left. Something minor, yes, but something.

EDIT: There is also easy mode for you if you'd like. :) 8)



Offline kuja killer

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Reply #3 on: November 27, 2014, 09:15:52 PM
hrm.. played it once, everything's fine and all, i wondered why there was no Save screen or anything like that after the intro stage..

so i go play the 1st level, knight man --- later get a game over (no problem cause i just began anyway)

Still curious why theres no script on the game over screen to save game, so im confused...i notice there's no "X" button on the top right of the window ...took me a few minutes to realize that I had to press ESC key to stop playing for now.

So i wanna open the game again cause im still pondering the saving issue....and now the game never will open anymore period...

http://postimg.org/image/9u6hmns83/
dont know where we go from here....



Offline Darkflamewolf

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Reply #4 on: November 27, 2014, 09:21:12 PM
Okay, not sure which OS system you are operating on, but it has been tested Windows 7 on downward. We haven't looked into Windows 8 or 10 compatibility yet. So that bug is quite unknown to me in your screenshot. As for the saving function, its done automatically after you exit a stage, either by the exit unit, or beating the boss or simply losing all your lives; the game is saved for you by the system. No need to worry about that.



Offline kuja killer

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Reply #5 on: November 27, 2014, 09:24:53 PM
ohhh, auto save. Okay then. just didn't know.

And im on Windows XP - as i mention, it was perfectly fine on the first run for some reason. i had the box checked in the installer about "run megaman revenge of fallen after installation closes"

so it was all good and fine there, just "2nd time" and beyond...never wants to anymore. :-/ -- i see the huge image of megaman and the robot masters pop up covering the entire monitor screen, but that's it.

edit btw: maybe was cause i run it in "sandboxie" maybe ? I dont ever install programs on the hard drive directly anymore. I only do it through this program called "sandboxie" - dont know if that's the cause



Offline TAoR

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Reply #6 on: November 28, 2014, 03:40:26 AM
Your testers failed you completely TC.



Offline rockmanclassix

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Reply #7 on: November 28, 2014, 04:47:46 AM
What can be said about Revenge of the Fallen? In this game, the fallen gets revenge! Am I dong it right?

Anyway, I haven't gotten around to the game but I will. One thing that concerns me is why this game's engine is a derivative of the one from Mega Man Rocks. Not the worst thing, but kind of a worrying concept. I'd like to see. But then the combination of MMR's engine with MMU's spike jungles sounds like a bicycle ride 100km uphill on frustration boulevard with flat tires and on maximum gear.



Offline Darkflamewolf

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Reply #8 on: November 28, 2014, 06:07:37 PM
well, my post is awaiting approval at cutstuff forums at cutstuff.net, but I'll say here what I said over there. The great thing about fangames is that they are fluid. I can't change the core mechanics of the game, but what I can do are these things quickly:
I can modify/edit placement of platforms and obstacles (including spikes).
I can modify/edit placement of enemies.
I can do limited editing (since I'm not the programmer and after release he's taking a well earned vacation) of enemies and/or bosses to make them easier if I must.
Given those limitations on editing, I put it to you, the actual players who are looking for an awesome fangame. What would you like to see change to make it better/great/tolerable? I'm open to criticism as I've shown here and I'm willing to check out any laundry lists given and make a 1.2 release at some point in the near future with some difficulty nerfs if need be. What say you all? Or should I keep it the same and cater it to hardcore extremist megaman fans?



Offline TAoR

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Reply #9 on: November 29, 2014, 06:55:59 AM
Yes, you should change a bit of it to work better. If you wanna keep it this hard just make it a 2hard4u mode or something.



Offline Darkflamewolf

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Reply #10 on: November 29, 2014, 09:29:52 PM
Ver 1.2 is out! Alongside a nice collection of fixed bugs! I also altered quite a few level design aspects which should appease those players who cried foul on the unfair aspects of certain design decisions! Hopefully this plays a lot smoother! Thanks everyone for the help on fine tuning this beast! It still is difficult and will require practice and skill to beat however!



Offline GoldwaterDLS

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Reply #11 on: December 03, 2014, 12:09:40 PM
My thoughts on the game:

[spoiler]I finally beat it! Goodness gracious. This game was quite the ride of emotions for me, I must admit. However, aside from the few frustrating elements at play, I did find myself enjoying the majority of the experience. So, I guess I'll start with the things I liked.

I really was awed by the game's scope; it is freaking massive. I can tell that a lot of work and thought went into designing these levels, that each branching path (and there were many) presented a unique challenge. Even though most of the features in these levels are returning from previous titles, they're presented in such a way that it feels like a brand new experience. I also like that this stylistic choice is justified by the plot of the game.

My favorite part of the game was when I began my hunt for the secrets (I had a meltdown before this, but I'll get to that later). This is when I could really appreciate just how intricate the level design was in this game. The upgrade modules really were quite useful and inventive, and they should be, considering the punishment one must endure to find them. I have to say that the game became even more enjoyable for me once I had all of the upgrades in my possession. (I'll also elaborate a bit more on that later as well.)

I appreciated that each boss in the game had some brand new attacks and patterns at their disposal. Actually, some of the boss fights scarcely resembled their official counterparts. Again, this really helped make the game feel like a brand new experience.

The story of the game was quite simple and to the point. I'm certainly not faulting the game for that, considering it really helped bring home that classic Mega Man vibe. I'd also say it was a wise choice on your part since fan game plots (especially Mega Man ones, strangely enough) tend to fall under a lot of scrutiny. Though, I'm not sure what to make of the very, very end of the game. [spoiler]It seems to have some very depressing implications. Also, I was a bit disturbed by Wily's suddenly suicidal objective.[/spoiler]
I'm also kinda sad that it is impossible for our games to exist within the same fanonuity, but oh well.

Now for some of things that didn't work well for me. There was, undoubtedly, an abundance of spikes and instant death traps in this game. I feel the otherwise innovative level design was marred by this constant feeling of dread; you could rarely make a single mistake because the consequence was always death. This also hampered my experience with Unlimited, unfortunately. However, once I got that Spike Guard upgrade, I was finally able to appreciate the levels much more, because I could actually start playing the game without tensing up at every spike jump. It was quite liberating.

For the most part, enemy placement was very well done. My biggest gripe though, was that there was often some floating enemy that would appear at the very end of huge stretch of dropping, moving, decaying platforms that would knock me into a pit. It could be that I'm slow on the trigger, but it seemed there was very little time to react to these enemies once they appeared. Stone Man and Tornado Man's stages were often guilty of this. [spoiler]Also, during the Wily Machine 5 chase, the appearance of the instant death drillers seemed a bit unfair. In fact, a lot of the chase seemed pretty trial and error.[/spoiler]

The checkpoints tended to be a bit inconsistent. For instance, I was under the impression that every stage would have two temporary checkpoints between two permanent checkpoints. However, it seems that some stages had no temporary checkpoints at all. This became especially glaring in Stone Man's stage where a floating enemy sabotaged my platforming maneuvers and I started at the beginning of the stage, despite being right next to the permanent checkpoint. When the Mega Man Killers came into the picture, this flaw became much, much worse.

Now, as I said before, I found most bosses to be very fair and challenging. However, whenever a boss had an attack that spiraled outward (Star Man, Punk... a few others), they were impossible to dodge. I try to use "impossible" very carefully, but here there is no denying it. Only by sheer luck was I able to dodge these attacks by sliding through them. Otherwise, it's a guaranteed hit, and considering how much damage these attacks deal, it's extremely frustrating. Tornado Man's tornadoes seem to ascend a bit too quickly to be fairly dodged; I absolutely couldn't defeat him until I had acquired his weakness. Considering also that you can barely dodge his tornadoes a full speed, the inclusion of indestructible clouds that impede your movement was a little too much. Then there was Punk: Aside from the aforementioned undodgeable attack, he also had a tendency to stun lock you and reduce you to half health in one shot. Considering you had to defeat him before getting to a checkpoint... well, colorful words were used.

This is a fairly minor one. While I found it amusing that the game uses the Mega Man Rocks charge shot, it carries the same problem it did in that game; it takes far too long to charge. It does have a considerable damage output, but I'm not sure if that offsets just how long it takes. On a positive note, I'm glad you reduced the volume of the noise it made.

Then finally we have Wily's Fortress. My problem here is quite simple: There is no save. While I am aware that previous Mega Man titles force you to go all in at this point, they did not have the distinction of being nearly as long nor as difficult as the fortress presented in this game. I had nearly beaten the game once before, but circumstances forced me to end my game early. I had hoped that my progress had saved up to that point, because I had no indication otherwise. Well... You can imagine how it went once I found out this was not the case. I was pretty blind with rage at that point, so I'm not sure if I can recall everything I did. I may or may not have placed a curse on your descendants and ate a kitten somewhere in there. I can't be sure. However, I do recall placing the game in the recycle bin and falling into a rage induced coma.

Though... it then called to me from the bin. And I knew... I knew I must finish it. And I did! Thankfully, my second time through the fortress went significantly quicker than before (though, it was also facilitated by the secret items I had gathered). Still, my point stands about the fortress (Not to mention, Let's Players and Perfect Runners are going to hate you for designing it that way).

Now, I know my negatives list stretched a bit longer than my praises, but that's only because it's easier to point out the flaws than it is to praise every bit the game does right. It does a lot right, make no mistake. Aside from the few moments the game made me channel Satan, I really enjoyed the experience and felt especially rewarded for having completed it.[/spoiler]

Some bugs (that may contain spoilers):
[spoiler]
-I was able to cheese my way into some paths by using Yamato Spear. Though, I must beg you to not take this away.
-However, cheesing my away into a path in Stone Man's stage resulted in me getting stuck outside the level. I was going backward along the Mini M Tank path; when I went down one of the ladders, I ended up flying off to the side of it and being stuck in the wall.
-Shooting a Ballonboo with Yamato Spear resulted in... a duplicate Mega Man being created. Said Mega Man fell on spikes then killed us both.
-Does Tornado Man's stage have two teleporters? Because the one I encountered (with the character Easter Egg) just took me back to the middle of the stage rather than Knight Man's stage.
-When I was using Rush Marine in the second fortress stage I ended up colliding with a spike. Thankfully I had the guard, but I ended up being completely immune to spikes for the rest of the level.
-Mega Man's color doesn't change if he switches weapons on a ladder.
-If he doesn't move, Mega Man remains unharmed if he rides a cloud into the slide of a spike. It's like if he were to collide with a wall. However, this did allow me to fudge a certain segment in that stage.
-Why are Coltons immune to buster shots? That doesn't seem right. Also, some of them seem placed in such a way that their first bullet is guaranteed to tag you. And they hurt, a lot.
-I had an instance of a Metall Swim turning semitransparent and invulnerable after attacking it with my buster.
-Magnet Missiles sometimes fail to do damage to the Yellow Devil MK-II.
[/spoiler]



Offline Darkflamewolf

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Reply #12 on: December 04, 2014, 05:24:42 AM
Thanks for the review, honest and objective with full of constructive critiques. That's exactly what I'm looking for. We are taking into account some of those tough areas/spots you pointed out and ver 1.3 will smooth out a lot of those areas. We already slowed down the deluge of spears from Yamato Man, so no reason why we can't slow down Tornado Blows from Tornado Man and the spinning of Punk's attacks. Again, thanks for the bug list and we'll see if we can get these fixed for 1.3!

Note: As for the Wily castle, I deliberately chose to have it this way. Reason: because so much of the game design revolves around backtracking and players getting that '100%' item collection, it would be cruel if they mistakenly (or knowingly?) selected the Wily Castle and then later found out they couldn't leave to get some much needed upgrades to make the castle easier because they were stuck at some boss or level. So I chose to have it be done in one fell swoop, as a result, the levels of the wily castle are FAR shorter than the primary robot master levels, and with good reason too! I can typically complete the Wily Fortress within a half hour tops.



Offline Darkflamewolf

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Reply #13 on: December 05, 2014, 02:45:57 AM
Version 1.3 is released! http://rpgmaker.net/games/2406/downloads/6396/
This is the definitive version of the game now. Barring any other bugs that might crop up, for which we'll release minor updates for, there should be no more drastic changes to the game, levels or its difficulty. You either need to adapt or quit, your choice. I tried to smooth out all the rough patches, but I'm holding firm to my overall difficulty setting.

Finally, in this version, I've released all the maps of the game in all their uncompressed glory. So for those who like to scour over the maps to find every detail and/or secret, you can do so here. I've also included all the completed rooms of the scrapped 100 Room Challenge idea. Unless there is enough interest for the feature, I don't think we'll complete it, but at least see what it could have been! Crazy combinations of obstacles and ideas meant to tax your platforming skills to the limit!

Either way, redownload and enjoy the game anew or for the very first time!

-Darkflamewolf



Offline Darkflamewolf

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Reply #14 on: January 28, 2015, 03:57:58 AM
Ver 1.4 is out! Thanks for all the patience and stuff during this time while we fixed a crapton of bugs and offered you D-Pad support. Finally! No more sliding woes for those who were stuck utilizing joysticks! We also addressed the issue of having the Mega Buster not blast through weak enemies as well as increase the speed of Rush Jet slightly to make it more speed runner savvy. There is a bunch more we did but you can check out the dev log for that on the download page (http://rpgmaker.net/games/2406/downloads/)! This 'should' be the final, definitive version of the game file now!
As for the biggest addition: Hard mode! It is truly sadistic with an increased amount of enemies all placed in the wrong spots to completely screw you. Not to mention you take double damage from everything! So upgrades like the Recover Chip, EX Recover and others will suddenly become quite important to you. I know it can be beaten buster only because I've done it. But I don't think it can be beaten without taking a hit. Good luck to anyone who attempts that challenge!
Enjoy the game again everyone and for those who have yet to play it, enjoy it for the first time!