Valdis Story Demo

By: Derek Yu

On: May 28th, 2007

Despite the cheesy JRPG overtones and a wee bit of clunkiness in the controls, Valdis Story kept my interest with the tried and true Metroidvania tactic of steadily throwing advancements at me. It wasn’t long before I was dashing around with a sword, summoning familiars, and generally kicking ass and having a good time. There are some genuinely cool moments in this two-level demo.

No expected release date (the game’s been in production for about a year). Made with Game Maker.

(Source: Timmy)

Gameplay video in the extended.

Posted in Platformers, Previews, Videos, Windows

PoV

Some interesting ideas there, such as the wacky alpha’d rectangular shapes that cover the top and bottom for a “widescreen” ‘esc look. I’m ever so vaguely reminded of Odin Sphere, only because it too is a 2D fighter RPG. The use of combo’s is interesting.
Underwhelmed

Seems pretty cool, but I hate ever getting my hopes up for stuff like this given the ridiculously high rate of abandonment these types of game projects seem prone to.

I like the idea of the combos, and the hero and enemies getting bashed around and into things when attacks land.
DrDerekDoctors

Want. Now.
J.B.

Interesting game, but I spent 3/4 of my time in the “Game Over” screen, so I can’t say I would play the full version.
Underwhelmed

Yeah it is a bitch, using a gamepad makes it a lot more manageable (though there is no native support as best I can tell, I had to map it myself) Also, the game doesn’t even really start until you climb up the tower and get the Sword since unarmed you have no combos or special moves, and you can’t even block.

The game play is pretty nice, though it needs to be tightened up a little. The in game sprites are decent, but the character portraits are pretty lame.
negative zero

looks good. always wanted to make a metroidvania styled game a bit like this, and it’s good to see it can be done. don’t wanna download the demo though. wait it out like a man.
AdamAtomic

Pretty fun so far, the anime-style fights are fun, wher eyou get knocked back while blocking. That boss lady is tough stuff though!

Only thing that’d be nice to see some extra attention paid to is the clash between the AA, photoshoppy type tiles, and the more retro non-AA pixel art tiles. But then, its a free game, so hey :)
Advenith

The crap PC I’m on had tons of slowdown once I hit the second area, so I’m not really getting the full experience. Sprite work and music is great for an indie, though. Oddly, I thought the character sprite was more bland than most of the enemies I faced. With some cleaning up, this could be one of the best indie games this year.
Ryan A

Too lazy to organize ideas in any other format besides a list:

– The sprites themselves are awesome.
– Neat subtle effects. (How there is a delay before you can get up after you jump…neeet)
– Okay music.
– Ugly “Mix” between formats, sprites / photoshop.
– Amazing animation

Looking forward to the full release whenever it comes out.
J.B.

Seriously though, “you fell into a bottomless pit so game over?” I am having flashbacks to 1992.
haowan

You would cry too if it happened to you.
Stwelin

It’s hard to execute a platforming fighter… This one looks pretty, but still lacks majorly in gameplay. I quit after the first few enemies. The fighting just isn’t fluid enough to want to make me play it through.
Derek

Stwelin, I had the same feeling, and it gets better as you go further and get more abilities. Still not perfect, but better.
moi

very nice game.But WAAYYY too much unskippable text.
And yeah, it’s also too much into the emo/anime lifestyle for my tastes.
The art is very nice but also very stereotyped if you are familiar with anime.
But the game is pleasant, many places to explore, hidden bonuses and playability is interesting.
The game seems hard at first but you can find some ways to get rid of most enemies easily by cleverly using your abilities. At least I think that all the bosses can be beaten this way, although I have some difficulties with the white haired guy who the character calls “my brother” who attacks with magicians and little ghosts (just after the rolling ice balls).
Choice of engine is really bad though, gamemaker is responsible for ugly pixelled rotations and backgrounds and choppy parallaxes.
I would buy it if I was someone to buy things online.
negative zero

yeh, i agree, game maker is pretty limited in its features. i stopped using it when i realised that it didn’t support pixel based collisions. i think there’s a workaround to it, but i couldn’t be bothered.

i do, however, like its programming language.
branewalker

I just finished the demo, and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the game. My thoughts:

* I was not as bothered by the “mix” of styles as most. It seemed pretty fluid, because all of the art was of the same style. If it lacked a little consistency in quality (i.e. resolution) I would cut him some slack. I mean, do you *realise* how long asset creation takes? ;)

* Loved the mood of the game. This was much better-done than the typical anime tripe ala Tales of Symphonia (I think that game broke some records for most cliches ever). In any case, the story as was mentioned, is nothing spectacular, but I must admit the *exposition* of said story is very nice. Except for the spelling errors.

* The gameplay worked surprisingly well. I heard the “it’s a little clunky” comment, so I went in with my hopes set a little higher than “Castlevania” (yeah, the original, which is a surprisingly fun game, limited movement aside) and found the limitations to be liberating. The only complaint here (though it actually helped sometimes!) was the spotty collision detection when lots of things were on screen at once. The amount of options becomes lovely with progression.

* Yeah, that joystiq…err, joystick support would be nice, but I was able to pause the game and bring up my mapping software for Saitek each time I learned a new move, and just stick it where convenient. Seriously…if you’re into this kind of game, invest in a decent gamepad.

In short: this game positively amazed me at the capabilities of Game Maker.
Melly

Game Maker may not be the best choice for any kind of game to have a very high quality, but it’s the best choice for people that want to make their own games but don’t want to spend months or years learning a true programming language like C++. There are tons of tricks in order to make things faster/more professional looking in GM, and though it won’t match a well coded piece of C++ gaming, it’s perfect for people that have game creation as a hobby and form of expression instead of a job.

Oh, and the full game is not completed and will be free, as far as I can tell.
Snowcone

to the second guy under me this gamge’s for the computer, you can download it, i thought i was for the DS first time i looked at it.
Stwelin

Negative Zero, Game Maker does support pixel collisions, just make sure the ‘precise’ box is ticked in the sprite’s information box thing. It works, but is extremely slooowww with a lot of instances in the room.
aww

“emo/anime lifestyle”