Author Topic: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [New Version Released 02/23!]  (Read 29694 times)

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
Hello everyone! As stated a week ago, we are one sprite sheet from release.

However, in the past week, most of the graphics have been tracked down, replaced, and/or licensed. Pretty much all of the ZUN graphical leftovers are now gone, as are most of the gore leftovers. The exception is the cutin library, which has already seen pretty much everything replaced besides the font.

The planned release date for the main game (6 Stages + Extra + Overdrives but not Last Words) is currently July 13, 2018 - two days from now. But take that deadline with a grain of salt, since we all know how deadlines work :)

Thank you all for your support.

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released!]
« Reply #31 on: July 14, 2018, 03:56:31 AM »
SeitenTouji 1 - Adamantine Memory Blade
Full Game Release!

After three years, I am proud to announce the completion of SeitenTouji 1 - Adamantine Memory Blade. Those three years were filled with setbacks, other projects, and hiatuses, yet here we are today. Thanks to the support of the Danmakufu community, this project has turned from a Touhou parody to the full fledged game that I present to you all today.

SeitenTouji 1 - Adamantine Memory Blade (or STTJ AMB for short), is a 6 stages + Extra Touhou-style danmaku shmup set in Daiten Daichi - a mirror world of Earth that functions as a sort of afterlife. Teiki Tetsurou wakes up in this world, and so his adventure begins.

Gameplay wise, SeitenTouji AMB is a typical Touhou-style game. 6 stages, 4 difficulties, lives & bombs. Extends are gained Subterranean Animism style, while bombs are gained by collecting certain items called Piezo Shards and by deleting bullets on the screen using existing bombs (essentially a partial refund for your bomb). There are two players - TeikiA (homing, wide shot, balanced) and TeikiB (forward focus, damage over time).

As you play the game, you will learn more about the world of Daiten Daichi, those who live there, and the future of its society.

I would like to extend a large thank you for everyone who made this game possible - the artists (Ck Crash, AchySolrock), the composers (FrenticPony, GhoulMage), and the testers.

Thank you all for your support, and please enjoy the game.

Download the game at Bulletforge!

Last Words will more likely be released sometime in the future.

Note to potential streamers: Normal mode for this game is likely equivalent to Hard-Lunatic on a standard Touhou game due to the type of danmaku employed (bullets from different angles).
« Last Edit: July 15, 2018, 01:01:51 AM by Sparen »

☆ Kana ☆

  • Vanishing Dream
  • Lost Dream
    • lololololo tungle
Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released!]
« Reply #32 on: July 14, 2018, 05:45:02 AM »
Oh whoa, it's finally here performing for you, if you know the words, you can join in too!  :3

Gonna give this a shot right now, hopefully I'll be able to post some feedback soon~ ;3c
Dream a dream so grand...that it becomes a nightmare.

Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released!]
« Reply #33 on: July 14, 2018, 09:49:15 AM »
Whoooa, it's finally out!  (Dang it Kana you almost made me DK-rap my response, too!)

All things considered, I never played the game's demos, so this was all a whole new experience for me.  I've yet to unlock Extra (they -did- say Normal is Hard and Hard is Lunatic), but from what I saw, the game's pretty cute!

Of course, the music and art aren't anything impressive, but I really liked the whole concept of the story, and the Danmaku's pretty creative.  A pretty nice game if you ask me! 

Spoiler:
Also as a gay dude it's super adorable to see the characters half-flirting and being suggestive with each other.  The 4-10 Omake was seriously.  Adorable.  10/10 I'd wanna see a dating sim with these guys!!! ♥

Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released!]
« Reply #34 on: July 14, 2018, 11:20:51 AM »
Gave it a shot to celebrate the year of fangames! I'll start with the lesser good points and work my way up from there. I played on Hard mode, and... used up almost all of my continues. This game is not an easy sightread.

- The music isn't anything to really write home about. The only theme I liked was the Stage 2 theme, the rest were... forgettable. I actually think the art is kind of cute, though. Pet peeve on the sound selection: theres no hit noise for when the boss is low on HP.
- Like I already said, the game is pretty difficult to sightread. Which isn't necessarily an issue, you're meant to play the game a few times anyway (Omakes), but I definitely struggled on my first time through.
+ This, on the plus side, however, is because of the many very creative patterns. I had a feeling with Sparen at the helm we would definitely be in for some cool stuff, and there's definitely some great things in there (Stage 3 Boss concept is cool, the Stage 6 shapes are great, Stage 2 has a plethora of great spells mixed in with a cool nonspell)
- This however also results in the difficulty curve being thrown all around (stage 1 boss is harder than stage 3, not to mention Maryuu right after... that midboss encounter is nightmarish, I don't understand either attack)
- speaking of midbosses, because you use the SA resource system, the player's lives rely on the amount of attacks in the game... and since there's less than SA, that leaves the player a little strapped for resources

+ The most major plus point of the game is probably that the characters have actual substance and there's a story to be told that goes even beyond normal gameplay and it's clear there was effort put into both. Big props for that.

I probably won't dive back in soon, but I did enjoy it overall! I think with some polish this could be really good.

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released!]
« Reply #35 on: July 14, 2018, 01:01:50 PM »
Spoiler:
Also as a gay dude it's super adorable to see the characters half-flirting and being suggestive with each other.  The 4-10 Omake was seriously.  Adorable.  10/10 I'd wanna see a dating sim with these guys!!! ♥
Earlier on in development some people noted that I should push a little further on that end and market the game using that, but I decided to not go *too* far with it. Either way, I'm glad you enjoyed that aspect of it. :)

- The music isn't anything to really write home about. The only theme I liked was the Stage 2 theme, the rest were... forgettable. I actually think the art is kind of cute, though. Pet peeve on the sound selection: theres no hit noise for when the boss is low on HP.
- This however also results in the difficulty curve being thrown all around (stage 1 boss is harder than stage 3, not to mention Maryuu right after... that midboss encounter is nightmarish, I don't understand either attack)
- speaking of midbosses, because you use the SA resource system, the player's lives rely on the amount of attacks in the game... and since there's less than SA, that leaves the player a little strapped for resources

I was wondering about the low HP sound effect, actually. I personally chose to not implement it, but it's something I may consider in the future.

In regards to Stage 1 boss vs Stage 3, are you referring to the stage portion of Stage 3? Because Taiga is the most nerfed boss in the entire series.

In regards to the SA resource system, I get what you mean - especially since resources are more scarce at the *start* of the game, resulting in a higher chance that the player will be on-edge with one or zero spare lives for most of the game. I didn't know if it would be appropriate to have more life fragments drop outside of that system, but if it's too hard at the start, I'll identify suitable stage enemies/death fairies that I can attach life shard drops too and see if some of the stress on resource management is relieved.

~~~

Thank you all for the feedback :)

Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released!]
« Reply #36 on: July 14, 2018, 02:38:27 PM »
I spent literally 999 tries on the dang Ex Boss' overdrive spellcard.  still couldn't capture it, geez!!  The inner completionist in me is going to have to suffer, because I really don't see myself clearing -that- spellcard. 

That being said I loved the Omakes that are released once you unlock/beat Ex, heh!

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released!]
« Reply #37 on: July 14, 2018, 05:39:36 PM »
I spent literally 999 tries on the dang Ex Boss' overdrive spellcard.  still couldn't capture it, geez!!  The inner completionist in me is going to have to suffer, because I really don't see myself clearing -that- spellcard. 

That being said I loved the Omakes that are released once you unlock/beat Ex, heh!

Oh, it's just a normal distribution with some curvy bullets. :)

Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released!]
« Reply #38 on: July 14, 2018, 06:56:17 PM »
In regards to Stage 1 boss vs Stage 3, are you referring to the stage portion of Stage 3? Because Taiga is the most nerfed boss in the entire series.

I was referring to Taiga, sorry if it wasn't clear! The gimmick overall is very cool (and well foreshadowed - that one remark really makes a difference) and I really like it but once you know how to play around it the boss fight overall isn't that difficult, which makes Stage 1 feel much harder in hindsight.

Also a point that I forgot to bring up in the first post - the forward focus shot feels oddly inferior to the homing one. You get pretty decent damage out of the forward shot in the homing option already... plus a decent option for stages in the homing part of it. Maybe decrease the implied ramp up time on stage enemies? It felt harder to kill stuff with it than the homing one and I didn't really notice much of a boss difference. This could however be completely subjective and I'd ask others about it if anything - I might try another run with the forward focus shot just to see how well it goes.

The comment about the life shards is good to hear! And you don't necessarily have to put in the low hp fx, I just noticed it because I work a lot with it in my own gameplay, haha. On that note, the sound design is fairly well executed. I think there were some sounds in there you don't usually hear for shots, which I kinda liked.

I haven't yet seen extra cuz... duh, but once I do I'll get back to it here. Overall, I think there's definitely a solid foundation here and with some improvements this seems like a good overall package, so a great step in the right direction for the year of fangames. I personally can't wait to have the Omakes unlocked so I can just binge read them, haha.

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released!]
« Reply #39 on: July 14, 2018, 07:31:10 PM »
Also a point that I forgot to bring up in the first post - the forward focus shot feels oddly inferior to the homing one. You get pretty decent damage out of the forward shot in the homing option already... plus a decent option for stages in the homing part of it. Maybe decrease the implied ramp up time on stage enemies? It felt harder to kill stuff with it than the homing one and I didn't really notice much of a boss difference. This could however be completely subjective and I'd ask others about it if anything - I might try another run with the forward focus shot just to see how well it goes.

TeikiB has, for the majority of the dev cycle, not been tested as a primary player. However, after *much* prodding, I continuously buffed TeikiB until the point where against non-moving enemies with high HP and bosses, TeikiB is borderline broken. There are some patterns that can be completely cheesed using TeikiB, especially in Extra's stage portion.

But for the most part, the wide + homing shot in TeikiA should be more balanced.

Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released!]
« Reply #40 on: July 15, 2018, 08:04:09 AM »
TeikiB has, for the majority of the dev cycle, not been tested as a primary player. However, after *much* prodding, I continuously buffed TeikiB until the point where against non-moving enemies with high HP and bosses, TeikiB is borderline broken. There are some patterns that can be completely cheesed using TeikiB, especially in Extra's stage portion.

But for the most part, the wide + homing shot in TeikiA should be more balanced.

Yeah, I gave him an actual shot (on Lunatic this time just to see how I'd fare... it went ugly, lmao) this time and I can safely say that up against bosses he gets pretty nasty real fast, I was definitely able to end some patterns a fair bit faster. Then I guess my initial notice was pretty moot, since not being as great against moving enemies balances it out again. My bad!

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
Version 1.01 is now out and can be downloaded at Bulletforge.

To copy your data over, go to script/SeitenTouji AMB and copy the 'data' and 'replay' folders to the corresponding location in your copy of 1.01.

CHANGES IN 1.01:
- Bugfixes (Omake text issues, Stage 2 Normal issue)
- Midbosses in Stages 1-4 drop either Bomb Extends or Life Extends (124 - Bomb Extends, 3 - Life Extend)
- Continue screen now defaults to Yes and requires confirmation on No
- Extra Stage is grayed out if not unlocked

1.01 unfortunately breaks all replays for the main game. Extra Stage replays should be unaffected.

So uh, might I ask how one unlocks Extra stage?

I beat the game on both types on normal and unlocked every Omake besides the Extra ones, of course. Not sure what I can do! I feel like I'm missing something.

NEVERMIND! I had to re-watch the omakes for some reason. The last page one didn't activate extra for me the first time, its working now. Will try it tonight!
« Last Edit: July 20, 2018, 10:52:06 PM by BlueDigitalDragon »

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
A bug has been discovered where Koro's Overdrive spell was saving spell history incorrectly due to a typo (IE it was actually saving to Dyne's fifth spell on Normal).

Attached is the fixed file.

This file goes in script/SeitenTouji AMB/script.

This issue affects both v1.00 and v1.01 releases.

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
Re: 西天東地第一弾:Adamantine Memory Blade [Game Released! (v1.01)]
« Reply #44 on: September 01, 2018, 09:13:30 PM »
Status Update!

Today the 1.04 release was sent out to testers. Progress on Last Words has been going smoothly so far - only two more left, one of which has already been designed.

In addition, thanks to additional testing, a multitude of strange behavior and minor bugs from the original release have been located and squashed.

Not only this, thanks to RickyRister, some of the music is being replaced. Look forward to this and other improvements in the next public update!

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
Yes! Progress!

With the new Stage 3 boss theme in place, we are gearing up for our next public release of the game, containing last words, balancing changes, bug fixes, and new/revised components, especially for Stages 3 and 6.

This new release is slated for Feb 22, 2019.

Once again, thank you all for supporting the SeitenTouji Project.

Sparen

  • Danmakufu Artist
  • Git ready, git set, PUUSH!
    • AFCDTech
SeitenTouji 1 - Adamantine Memory Blade
Last Words Release!

Today I am proud to present the Last Word update to SeitenTouji 1 - Adamantine Memory Blade. This update features new music courtesy of RickyRister, revamped Stages 3 and 6, and last words for each enemy character.

As before, I would like to extend a large thank you for everyone who made this game possible - the artists (CK Crash, AchySolrock), the composers (FrenticPony, GhoulMage, RickyRister), and the testers.

Thank you all for your support, and please enjoy the game.

Download the game at Bulletforge! Note that most replays from 1.01 will not run in this version due to numerous changes. To transfer save data (unlocks, spell history, etc), copy the script/SeitenTouji AMB/data directory from your existing copy of the game to the corresponding location in the new version of the game.

Note to potential streamers: Normal mode for this game is likely equivalent to Hard-Lunatic on a standard Touhou game due to the type of danmaku employed (bullets from different angles).