Blackmoon Prophecy No Longer Supported

Blackmoon Prophecy (the original) is no longer being supported in any form going forward. This means no bug fixes, changes or additions, or any other form of meaningful updates. With the game being completed in 2012, eight years ago now, I just feel like it's time to move on. This feels like a decision I should have made ages ago, but Blackmoon Prophecy II and III existing made me feel as if I was obligated to keep doing small updates on the original.

Blackmoon Prophecy III biting the dust is partly responsible for this decision, but not fully. Like I said, I just feel like it's time for me to focus on other things. Blackmoon Prophecy II will still receive the odd minor fix here and there probably for another year or so, but I don't expect to continue supporting that game either beyond 2021. I want to focus on other things that are not fan game related, and this does mean the gradual phasing out of all support for anything Blackmoon Prophecy related (though I will still enjoy reading comments and reviews as well as watching Let's Plays).

Blackmoon Prophecy III Cancellation

 My computer was having a seizure when trying to copy a large file, and I realized the issue wasn't going to correct itself and I would have to forcefully reboot. I was working on Blackmoon Prophecy III at the time, so I closed RPG Maker MV and then forced my computer to reboot itself.

After getting back into Windows, I found that Steam couldn't detect MV, so I had to get it to recognize that it was still installed. When that was done, I tried to open Blackmoon Prophecy III to pick up where I left off. I was greeted with a "cannot read Game.rpgproject" error, so I copied one from another folder. Tried to open the game again, and suddenly I had the same error, but with Skills.json. I checked the Skills file and found it to be completely blank (though still with its original 100ish kb file size). Common events, monsters, items, armors, etc. All of them suddenly blank with the exception of the actors and classes files.

I've lost so much work because of this. My entire database, outside of the very empty actors and classes tabs, are gone. I've lost a colossal amount of work, and I can't even begin to wager how long it would take to rebuild the database. For the time being, I don't have it in me to even try. I just can't bring myself to redo dozens of hours of work. I do not have backups at all, so it looks like there's nothing I can do. I just feel awful about this. Though I do feel like I have a knot in the pit of my stomach right now, I'm not angry or frustrated. If anything, I just feel weirdly empty over losing so much work like this.

Unless I miraculously find a fix for this, I'm afraid that I don't think I will be continuing with this project any longer. I'll poke around for a bit, but it's looking pretty grim.

Current Master Ability Chart

Happy October 1st! 

As I continue to work on Blackmoon Prophecy III, more and more abilities make it into the game. I decided to share my chart that shows what I plan to include as far as abilities go. There are additional abilities not present on this chart that are gained through equipment augments (which I'll talk about in the future). These are only abilities gained via leveling or in Zenon's case, having blue magic spells used on him.

Now, what use would this be if I don't describe what these abilities are? I'll go over what these abilities are all planned to do and will omit series mainstays that don't need explanations (such as the Fire spell, I think we're all familiar with it by now).

Aster's Abilities (Alchemy)

All of Aster's abilities consume 1 of the item type that the ability is named after (her Potion ability consumes a potion) and does roughly the same thing that the item normally does, but targets either all enemies or party members rather than just affecting a single target. Effective is also slightly reduced (potion item heals one for 250 HP, Potion ability heals entire party for 200 HP).

Aysha's Abilities (Blade)

Bushido: Allows Aysha to take twice when using Fight command for a few turns.
Clarity: Heals Aysha. Amount healed for is based on own luck stat. Chance of critical heal.
Climhazzard: Strong attack that deals twice as much damage as a regular attack.
Counterattack: Aysha will counter physical attacks made against her for a few turns.
Cutting Edge: Strong physical attack that makes enemies bleed (lose 1% total HP per turn).
Darkside: Costs 15% of maximum hit points to inflict shadow elemental damage.
Iainuki: Consumes 15% of own max HP to deal massive damage with chance of KO.
Minus Strike: Deals damage equal to Aysha's current HP subtracted from her maximum HP.
Renzokuken: Deal heavy physical damage multiple times.
Wall Break: Destroys shield effects such as protect, reflect, and shell on a single enemy.

Bayu's Abilities (Flair)

Beat Rush: Physical attack that ignores defense and deals 1.5 times normal damage.
Breaking Point: Costs much of user's own HP. Target's hit points are reduced by 75%. Not usable on bosses.
Burning Rave: Heavy fire damage to all enemies.
Chi Block: Prevents target from receiving any healing or positive status conditions for several turns.
Cleanser: Removes all negative status conditions from self.
Death Rush: Reduces target to 1 HP.
Galaxy Thrust: Reduces HP of all enemies by 20% and may inflict slow or stop.
Maelstrom: Heavy water elemental damage to one with chance of inflicting flu or KO.
Mantra: Restores some HP to the party. Amount healed for is based on Bayu's strength.
Soul Spiral: Restores HP and MP to target at expense of user's own life.
Tiger Break: Strong physical attack that damages enemy's physical attack power.
Veteran Fist: Deals damage equal to number of battles fought.

Godot's Abilities (Black/White Magic)

Bane: Shadow elemental damage to one enemy.
Exorcism: Holy damage to all enemies. Will automatically KO undead targets.
Full-Life: Restore life to a fallen party member. They return with maximum hit points.
Panacea: Removes fever, flu, and poison status conditions.

Moguel's Abilities (Gambit)

Bribe: Sacrifice gil to make an enemy flee from the battle.
Gilgame Heart: Use gil to heal party.
Lucky Sevens: Inflicts 777 damage. Costs 7% of Moguel's maximum HP.
Modulator: Randomly inflicts haste, slow, or stop on all targets.
Moogle Rush: Calls forth moogles to trample all enemies. May lower defense.
Random Heart: Heals the entire party. Variance is EXTREMELY high.
Risky Strike: Very strong physical attack that has a high chance of not doing any damage.
Roulette: Randomly targets an enemy and forces the KO status on them. Does not work on bosses.
Seventh Heaven: Deals damage based on Moguel's luck stat multiplied by 7.
Stellar Circle 5: Physical attack that does 250% regular damage.
Stray Strike: Physically damaging attack that has a massive damage variance.
Virus Dart: Deals low damage and very low chance of inflicting any negative status condition.

Ronan's Abilities (Lancer)

Aerial Strike: Strong physical attack. Deals more damage to flying enemies.
Armor Break: Lowers physical defense of one enemy.
Barrage: Physical damage to all targets. Cuts through defense.
Bug Killer: Physical attack that deals more damage to bugs.
Debilitator: Deals low damage and lowers target's elemental resistances.
Destabilizer: Reduces all enemies' chance of critical hit to 0%.
Dragon's Crest: Strong physical attack that grows stronger by defeating dragons.
High Tide: Increases evasion of all party members.
Magic Break: Lowers magic defense of one enemy.
Phalanx: Allows Ronan to protect weak allies for several turns.
Reis's Wind: Grants regen to all party members.
Royal Shock: Heavy damage to all enemies and may inflict stop. Does not damage flying enemies.
Stormfront: Thunder damage to all enemies.
Tempest: Thunder damage to one enemy.
Terragon Surge: Water damage to one enemy. Enhanced slightly by Ronan's speed stat.
Vanguard: Temporarily raises Ronan's maximum HP and increases chance of being attacked by enemies.

Zenon's Abilities (Blue Magic)

1000 Needles: Inflicts 1000 damage.
Angel Snack: Removes all negative status conditions on party and heals minuscule amount of HP.
Aqua Rake: Water damage to all enemies.
Bad Breath: Chance of inflicting any negative status condition on all enemies.
Big Guard: Increases physical defense of the party.
Dragon Force: Increases target's attack power.
Equalizer: Does damage equal to Zenon's current hit points.
Exploder: Sacrifice own life to do fire damage to one target.
Fallen One: Reduces target's HP to 1.
Goblin Punch: Physical damage to one random enemy.
Graviton: Cuts all enemies' HP by 50% and may inflict slow or stop.
Hurricane: Wind damage to all enemies.
Lagomorph: Heals entire party for little HP.
Magic Hammer: Drains MP from the target.
Megaflare: Strong non-elemental magic damage to one target.
Vampire: Drains HP from the target.
White Wind: Restores HP and grants regen to all party members.
Zantetsuken: Attempts to KO all enemies.

Bragg's Folly Markers

 Bragg's Folly is a confusing cave dungeon that is slightly maze-like and is a looping map. To help the player memorize their way around the map, they are given ten map markers that they may place anywhere they want while exploring the cave. Markers are returned to the player's inventory when leaving, so they can be replaced upon entry.

Optional Super Bosses: The Black Waltzes

Since this is the third Blackmoon Prophecy game, I've decided that good things should appear in threes. So, three familiar fellows from Final Fantasy IX will make an appearance in Blackmoon Prophecy III.

The three Black Waltzes that pursued Zidane and friends throughout the first few hours of Final Fantasy IX will serve as three ancient black mages from Lindblum in Blackmoon Prophecy III. As mentioned in the first Blackmoon Prophecy, Lindblum's black mages used to be quite corrupt long ago. By the time of Blackmoon Prophecy, the black mages are more distrusted than anything, and these three mages will be from a different era. No, there's no time travelling, they have just used their powerful magic to have extremely long lifespans.

So, what's the deal with these three and what are my plans for them? Simply put, they're going to throw as much debuffing and damaging spells at the player that they can handle. Maybe even more than they can handle. We'll see.

In order to make these bosses legitimately frightening, they are going to exist in a dungeon where their magic power is so profoundly strong that it saps magic from any other magicians in the area. What does this mean? As soon as the player enters this dungeon, a non-removable silence-like debuff will be placed on all characters that will persist throughout the entire dungeon. You'll have to rely on attacking, non-magical abilities, and items to get you through the dungeon. The final test will be facing these three bad boys at the very end. Defeat them to rid Gaia of the corrupted black mages once and for all. Oh, and get some awesome treasure too. Can't forget that part.

Town of Nideen WIP

Currently hard at work on the town of Nideen.

Nideen is the southernmost town in all of Lenadia, and it rains almost constantly in town and the surrounding region. This town is where players will be able to meet (probably, depending on their route through Lenadia) their first recruitable party member, Aster the chemist.

Chocobo Time!

Kweh! Or wark, if that's more to your liking!

Took a bit of editing the default script files and finding a suitable Yanfly plugin, but I have chocobos up and running. Plan to make chocobo forests feel more dynamic by making a random number of chocobos appear. There will also be a very rare chance of a black chocobo appearing, which will let players run across mountains. Yes, black chocobos can be found as soon as you stumble upon your first chocobo forest. Since Lenadia is largely non-linear, being able to freely run across the entire continent is pretty A-OK from the get-go!

As for the black chocobo, I don't have it in the game yet, but here's how it will look:

A Trip Around Cornelia

Here's a little trip around Cornelia. The town's layout is, of course, going to be familiar to players of the last two games.

BGM is a nice rendition of Kids Run Through the City by Rebecca Tripp. You can download it here for free, along with other great tracks she has composed.

Level "Zones" & Planning Progression

I decided to sit down and chart which areas will be best suited for what level ranges in Blackmoon Prophecy III. Lenadia, being a little more open, can be tackled in a slightly less linear way than the Esper World. The player does most of the early game work in Lenadia (except for a brief pre-level 10 mini quest in the Esper World) which is, as I stated, mostly non-linear since it's just the player going around the kingdom to recruit new party members in whatever order they wish.

Outside of the area around Ikaros, the Esper World is level 20+. This is where the linear story progression occurs, and it's where the player will have better ways of traversing the world (ie. airship). There's more jumping around, and the areas aren't as interconnected as they are in Lenadia.

There are a few areas on both maps that are optional (level 50-56 area in Lenadia, 65-70 island in the Esper World). These are the only areas which optional overworld encounters. There will still be optional locations scattered across both world maps.

Melodi

After 2-3 hours of play, Melodi tags along as a camp NPC. Some NPCs that tag along will offer wares and various goods. Melodi does this, but eliminates the pesky need of having to pay for them since she is, after all, Ronan's girlfriend. She's not going to make her boyfriend and his sister pay for things, is she?

After Melodi shows up at camp, she proclaims that she has some items for you that you can take off of her at your leisure. These items are completely random, so you never know what you're going to receive from her. Initially, Melodi has three items to give you. As you progress, her "stock" will gradually increase. The number of items Melodi has to give away is simply controlled by a variable, and various things the player does throughout the game will increase that variable by 1. Do a side quest in a town? Melodi has an additional item to give away. Clear a dungeon? Melodi's got more goods. As a result, she will be a steady source of free items throughout the entire game.

Items that Melodi can give to the player includes:

Alarm Clock
Antidote
Arctic Wind
Bacchus's Wine
Boiled Egg
Coeurl Whisker
Darnecles Bhatoora
Echo Screen
Ether
Eyedrops
Green Apple
Grenade
Gysahl Toast
Hi Potion
Hillsdale Sausage
Holy Water
Hourglass
Ivalician Waffle
Megaphone
Miasma Pudding
Pep Pill
Phoenix Down
Phoenix Pinion
Potion
Power Coating
Shrrom Stew
Sleepng Bag
Time Stone
Tranquilizer
Vaccine

Testing Beginning Soon

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything on RMN about Blackmoon Prophecy III. I’ve quietly been working on the game off and on, having bursts of motivation here and there as well as 2-3 week long lulls from busy work weeks as well as me just being distracted by new, shiny games that steal my attention away from working on my own projects. I feel like I’ve made some decent progress lately, so I just want to give a few updates on the game’s progress.

First off, game length. After working on this current incarnation of the game since late 2019, I believe that the game is probably 120-180 hours in length at the time of this writing. With the game starting to have a bit of substance to it, I’ll probably be looking for anyone interested in giving the game some test runs soon. I would ideally like testers to be familiar with at least one of the previous Blackmoon Prophecy games so that they understand the world a little better and have more of a grasp on the actual setting than someone who would be wandering in without any understanding of what the Blackmoon Prophecy universe is like. I’ll likely look for at least one tester this month just so that I can get feedback/opinions from someone other than myself, so feel free to leave a comment if you’re interested in that.

The game is still lacking a complete intro, which is because I do not yet have a solid idea of what a specific location will even look like that will be featured in the intro. The complete intro will have panning shots with text similar to the intro in Final Fantasy VI. The location I do not have a graphical style for yet is basically the equivalent of Vector in Blackmoon Prophecy III, so potential testers should be advised that the intro is not complete yet.

Anyone interested in further updates, feel free to check out the dev log on Blogger. I also post lots of screenshots and small info blurbs on Discord!

Blackmoon Prophecy III SNES Box Art

Not a progress update, just something I decided to do for fun.

Blackmoon Prophecy III - Mapping/Progress Stream (July 26, 2020)

Bits of random mapping and test battles, but more or less playing through all of what is completed so far (sadly, it's probably not as much as some people expect).

Burn them all! BURN THEM ALL!

A wild Ifrit appears.

Aysha now has access to Baraqiel, Granaldo, and Ifrit as summons. Next up will be Shiva (well, soon, once she appears in-game).

July 16, 2020 Battles

Just doing some battle testing in a certain area to see how the fights feel.

Weapons, Weapons, Weapons

Just a small thing I felt like mentioning.

All weapons will have their own unique appearances in battle. For instance, when Aysha swings the Regal Cutlass sword, it will not have the same appearance as the Longsword. No two weapons will look alike. Here's the complete list of weapons planned for Blackmoon Prophecy III to give you an idea of how many unique weapon appearances there will be in the game. Note that consistency is very much a thing and some of the original weapons I added to Blackmoon Prophecy and Blackmoon Prophecy II are coming back (ie. the Waltzing Tonberry knife).

Axes/Blunts
Balestarius
Behemoth Bone
Blackjack
Chocobo Nail
Crystal Hammer
Flail
Francisca
Free Spirit
Gigas Hammer
Hadesgigas
Mallet
Maul
Mjolnir
Moogle Mallet
Morningstar
Mythril Mace
Nova Hammer
Ogrekiller
Royal Flush
Rune Hammer
Warhammer

Claws/Gloves
Cactus Needle
Cat Claw
Demon Fang
Dragon Claw
Fire Knuckle
Genji Glove
Godhand
Maverick
Metal Knuckle
Mythril Claw
Platinum Knuckle
Polar Claw
Powersoul
Razor Fist
Scissor Fang
Slipstream
Spiked Glove
Stilva Fang
Tiger Claw
Titan Knuckle
Typhoon Claw
Work Glove

Knives
Air Lancet
Backstabber
Baselard
Desert Rose
Dirk
Esper Lancet
Exploda
Gladius
Mage Masher
Main Gauche
Man-Eater
Misericorde
Mutsunokami
Mythril Knife
Orihalchum
Shark Fang
Striker
Waltzing Tonberry
Zorlin Shape
Zwill Crossblade


Rods/Staves
Abraxas
Adept Rod
Blizzard Rod
Bug Killer
Crystal Staff
Cure Rod
Eclipse Staff
Faerie Rod
Fire Rod
Golden Staff
Kaleidoscope
Life Prism
Mage Staff
Magus Rod
Mistilteinn
Moon Rod
Mythril Rod
Poison Rod
Punisher
Rune Staff
Stardust Rod
Thunder Rod

Spears
Alpenstock
Bird Killer
Dragon Tail
Dragonheart
Dragoon Spear
Enforcer
Glaive
Gungnir
Holy Lance
Longinus
Lore Strike
Obelisk
Ozrich
Pike
Royal Templar
Sarissa Spear
Scorpion Tail
Skystrider
Slash Lance
Spear
Temporal Lance
Trident
Viper Halberd

Swords
Ancient Sword
Braveheart
Comet Blade
Crystal Sword
Defender
Dream Blade
Epee
Fire Sabre
Golden Sword
Gravestone
Guardian
Heaven's Cloud
Ice Brand
Katana
Lenadian Edge
Longsword
Mythril Sword
Organics
Rapier
Regal Cutlass
Scimitar
Spirit Sword
Storm Blade

There are also orbs (equipped by Godot), but they're not visible during battles, so I'm free from making them. Still, lots to do! Expect all items to have their own appearances. There may be a few recolours here and there, but no two weapons will look the same.

Vulgate Sewers WIP

Currently working on the Vulgate Sewers dungeon. Here's what is completed so far.

Two things to note:
1. There's still no Phoenix Down animation yet.
2. I noticed Detonator could be used outside of battle for some reason and corrected it mid-recording.

Blue Magic

Blue magic is now working just the way I wanted! When Zenon (the blue mage) is targeted by a blue magic ability, he will learn it immediately. Huzzah!

Here is Zenon learning Detonator from a grenade and then using it to deal major damage to a sewer rat.

Esper World & Gaia Camp Scenes

Made sure that the tent scene changes based on what world you're in. I feel like I really need to focus on that kind of attention to detail since the Esper World looks so different. Fun little ambient changes, the BGS on Gaia camp screen is crickets chirping while the BGS on the Esper World camp screen is howling wind.

Esper World Minimap

Minimap for the Esper World is now complete. I have to add location dots to it, but things are looking good. This should definitely help players avoid feeling lost in this strange new world.

Battle Transition Effect

Decided this morning that MV's default battle transition effect just would do, so I started poking my head around looking for transitions that would work. At first I attempted to use Mog Hunter's, but they don't seem to work with my project for some reason (a million errors appear whenever a battle is encountered), so I kept looking until I found this:

This the Dynamic Encounter Effect plugin by tale. It emulates the Final Fantasy X battle transition pretty well, but doesn't offer the ability to play additional sound effects for the glass breaking and such, so I had to make my own sound effect for this. Overall, kind of happy with how it turned out.

When Worlds Collide: The Linearity and Non-Linearity of Blackmoon Prophecy III

I don't have any pictures to show off today, or any progress to talk about, since yesterday was a day off for me from game work. Instead of showing off progress, I'll talk about the structure of the game and how Blackmoon Prophecy III is both linear and non-linear. At the same time.

Blackmoon Prophecy III is all about giving the player a story to follow, but being able to make as many choices as possible in how to progress it.

The first 1-2 hours of Blackmoon Prophecy III introduce the player to Aysha and Ronan, Kindred siblings from the Lenadian town of Daguero, and their rather mundane life that sees them protecting the town from monsters (mostly pesky goblins) that live on the nearby Great Plain. The first choice players will make when being introduced to these two characters is which one will take point in the party, or lead the party. Aysha and Ronan share the role of main character, but the game asks the player almost immediately, "Okay, they're both important, but who do you want to be the main character?"

When you decide who will lead the party between Aysha and Ronan, your chosen character will do most of the talking when it comes to cutscenes and events. Since Blackmoon Prophecy III by default shows your followers when you're in town/dungeons, the sibling that you did not pick as the lead character will pipe up occasionally during dialogue sequences to offer their input. How dialogue unfolds with some NPCs will depend on which of the two characters is the leader.

Shortly after going on a little rescue mission to a nearby cave, Aysha and Ronan are spirited away to the Esper World (which, trust me, is not a spoiler since in occurs practically at the beginning of the game when you examine the overall story that I have in mind) where they are tasked with assisting the Espers in trying to repel the evil and exploitative Ravello Corporation from their world. Aysha, Ronan, and the Espers learn that these two Kindred siblings can't do it on all on their own and thrust two Eidolon assistants at them named Godot and Xenon who are tasked with assisting Aysha and Ronan in tracking down allies to assist them in their battle against the Ravello Corporation. The Espers are basically Nick Fury and they want to put together their version of The Avengers. Sort of.

After Aysha and Ronan team up with Godot and Xenon, they are thrust back to Lenadia to find allies. This is where things get interesting. The entire Lenadian continent opens up to the player, and they can go absolutely anywhere they wish. Countless dungeons and towns suddenly beckoning to the player to come check them out. So what is the player expected to do? Journey across Lenadia and find allies! This is where the player is expected to track down Aster Daranouve, Bayu the Bold, Hide Pridewind, and Moguel and recruit them into the party. Where are they all located? All across Lenadia! The main story in the Esper World (which the player can return to at will) is basically put on hold until the player finds their new allies and returns to the Esper World.

So, Lenadia is literally completely non-linear. It's about as "open world" as a top-down retro RPG can get. It's basically as open as the World of Ruin in Final Fantasy VI, but you're trying to find new friends instead of tracking down your friends. I would say that there's optional content, but pretty much all of Lenadia can technically be considered optional! Maybe you don't even want to go find the other party members right away, maybe you want to go to the castle and meet Queen Teris. Maybe you want to track down a chocobo forest and go trekking around the map. Maybe you want to do an optional dungeon or two. You can literally do whatever you want.

When you have recruited the other four characters and return to the Esper World, the story picks back up and progresses in the normal linear manner you'd expect from a mainline Final Fantasy game. You'll progress from Point A to Point B, Point B to Point C, and so on. Things you do in the Esper World will also influence how "open" the Lenadia map is as well. Some things you do while progressing through the Esper World may allow you to enter areas of Lenadia that were previously inaccessible because, of course, there will be a few gated locations that require keys, or for certain events to occur, before you can enter.

So, when players are in the mood to push the story along, it's off to the Esper World. When they just want to mess around and explore or check out the world, Lenadia is where they'll want to be.

One last thing to mention that is worth bringing up is transportation and how each world handles it. With Lenadia being completely open to the player, they can find a chocobo right after returning from the Esper World and travel across Lenadia with it. I expect to make chocobos function similarly to how they worked in the first Blackmoon Prophecy in that they will be able to traverse across rivers and over rocky shallows (which I have not yet added to the world, but will).

I'm really looking forward to seeing how players tackle being able to shift back and forth between the two worlds, with one being linear and the other non-linear. I probably won't have a grasp on how players will approach it until testing eventually begins. Until then, all I can do is talk about it!

Current Progress Playthrough

Streamed Blackmoon Prophecy III progress last night.

So far, what's completed can be run through in 30-40 minutes by someone who doesn't care about equipment or leveling, and probably 60-75 minutes for those who take their time to buy new equipment and gain a few levels.

Pretty good length for the first town and introductory dungeon. Need to acquire some good mountain tiles next and prepare for more work on the Esper World overworld map, because that will be in use soon. Yessir, it doesn't take long for the party to wind up being spirited away to the land of Espers!

Kupo!

The MogNet GPS-Pad Service is, in my opinion, one of the core aspects of Blackmoon Prophecy's identity. I couldn't make Blackmoon Prophecy III and not include this.

Fun little change, the dialogue you get is randomized and chosen from the following possibilities:

• Kupo! Do you need directions?
• Here to serve, kupo!
• Are you lost, kupo? No problem!
• You'll always know where to go with MogNet!

Something that I introduced in Blackmoon Prophecy also returns. Moogles are back again to escort players out of dungeons that they have cleared. Hurrah!

The first boss fight is finished! So glad to finally have this done since I was working on database stuff instead of gameplay for ages. Feels great to have actual gameplay going on.

Bottomswell, the first boss in the game. I'm probably a level or two higher than I expect players to be when fighting this fellow, so he might provide a good fight!

First dungeon, Moss Cave, has finally been fully mapped out. As is tradition with unusual caves in Blackmoon Prophecy's settings, there are trees growing (reason for this is linked to the explanation given by denizens of the Underworld in the first game).

The dungeon is pretty straight forward and there's a healthy amount of treasure to collect. Battles will be interesting to get feedback on, as I expect them to be difficult for anyone who goes in at level 1 without any items. I'll need to get feedback from testing later on to get an idea of how difficult this place may (or may not) be for fresh level 1 characters.

Bombs Away! Self-Destructing Enemies in RPG Maker MV

Bombs are encountered as early as the first dungeon in Blackmoon Prophecy III, and they do of course blow up in your face if their HP drops below a certain threshold. This was a little tricky to get working in RPG Maker MV. A simple script allowed me to do it in VX Ace, and it was a built-in command in 2000/2003. In MV though, I hadn't the faintest idea what to do. It took a little digging around and combining information from THREE sources to get this to work, since no single method worked for me.

So, here's what I did to get self-destruct working as an ability in MV.

1. Nabbed Yanfly's YEP_BattleEngineCore and YEP_X_ActSeqPack1 scripts and turned them on.

2. Made my self-destruct ability. Set the damage formula, and everything. Only thing I did NOT do was set an animation, because the following took care of that.

3. The following went in the notes for the self-destruct skill:
<Whole Action>
animation X: user
wait for animation
</Whole Action>

<Finish Action>
eval: user.setHp(0)
eval: user.performCollapse();

</Finish Action>

For "animation X", replace the X with the animation of the detonation effect.

Battle Tests - May 16, 2020

Just doing some battle testing after I replaced several RTP animations with ripped stuff from Final Fantasy VI. There were a few other changes as well. Shaping up pretty well so far.

Exploring Daguero

Just a video update. Daguero is now in a finished state! I can now focus on the overworld encounters near the town as well as the first dungeon.

Bottomswell Boss Fight Test

Testing the first boss fight against Bottomswell, who will be found in the Moss Cave. I wanted Bottomswell to feel like more of a challenge than the first bosses in the other Blackmoon Prophecy games (Archareon in Blackmoon Prophecy, Ixion in Blackmoon Prophecy II), so I made sure Bottomswell could potentially be dangerous by having a poison attack and an ample amount of hit points. Players who charge into this fight and just use the fight attack command will most certainly not win at level 1 or 2, that is for sure.

Bottomswell is originally a boss from Final Fantasy VII. I wanted to use an established boss from one of the main games that was still "kind of" obscure, but could be identified by loyal fans in a heartbeat. in Final Fantasy VII, Bottomswell is fought after rescuing Priscilla in Junon. While the original version of Bottomswell focused primarily on water attacks, my Bottomswell is a deplorable cave-dwelling creature that emerges from the stale waters to try and poison anyone who disturbs it.

Status Conditions

Blackmoon Prophecy III will feature a long list of status conditions.

KO: We know what this is. Reach zero HP and you're out.
Blind: Physical attack hit rate reduced by 90%, cannot inflict critical hits.
Blink: Increases evasion by 25%. I may increase this further.
Berserk: Become uncontrollable and attack enemies at random. Increases attack power by 20%.
Bravery: Increases hit rate by 100% and critical hit rate by 15%.
Confuse: Become uncontrollable and attack enemies and party members alike at random.
Curse: Greatly lowers resistance towards all elements.
Discord: Cuts all stats in half.
Empower: Increase magic power.
Fever: Take increased fire damage and become highly susceptible to poison.
Flu: Take increased blizzard damage and become highly susceptible to poison.
Frail: Lowers maximum HP by 25% and reduces physical defense to 1.
Haste: Increases speed by 25%.
Osmose: Lose 10% of total MP each turn.
Poison: Lose 10% of total HP each turn.
Protect: Increase physical defense by 50%.
Reflect: Redirect all magic abilities at enemy.
Regen: Gain 10% of total HP each turn.
Shell: Increase magic defense by 50%.
Silence: Cannot use special abilities or cast spells.
Sleep: Put to sleep. Cannot act for a few turns or until struck by physical attack.
Slow: Decreases speed by 25%.
Stalwart: Increases maximum HP by 25%.
Stop: Become immobilized and unable to act for several turns.
Zombie: Become highly susceptible to holy damage, HP and all stats are lowered. Cannot be KOed.

All status conditions will have animations that play over the affected targets. I will not use the SV overlays, as I feel they don't fit the aesthetic of the game. Here's blind and poison in action:

When blinded, a dark cloud covers the character's face much like in the 3D Final Fantasy games on the original Playstation. For poison, the character glows green and poison bubbles drift upward from them.

Enemies will also visually show their status ailments more clearly than in the past as well. Here is the first boss of the game, Bottomswell, enjoying being poisoned by Aysha's Granaldo summon.

Looking forward to doing animations for all status conditions (though some will just be glows/tints applied to the characters). I'll post more in the future when I have a good number of them completed.

Tent Item & Camp Scene

I will never forget taking some heat for not allowing tents to be used on the world map in the first Blackmoon Prophecy since I only permitted them to be used at save points. Blackmoon Prophecy II did away with tents entirely, replacing them with sleeping bags that can be used anywhere as long as you're out of combat.

Blackmoon Prophecy III sees the return of the tent item, but with a twist. Anyone who has played Breath of Fire games will know of the camp scenes in those games, and should immediately feel right at home with what's being done in this game.

Players will receive the tent item just before they leave the starting town of Daguero. This item may be used on any overworld map to travel to the camp scene. Here's what you've got on the camp scene and how you can interact with everything:

• Party Members: Everyone that you have recruited will show up on this map and will just be chilling around the camp. They'll usually pipe up with plot-related bits of dialogue. I'll probably permit some other form of functionality here as well that I haven't yet thought of. Flirting with the idea of being able to rename party members here and change their attire slightly.
• Non-Playable Characters: Some NPCs will come along with you for your adventure. Some of them. like Ronan's girlfriend Melodi, will just be along to offer moral support. Other NPCs will be able to provide goods and services.
• Music Player: Players can change the camp scene's BGM whenever they want by interacting with the record player by the tent. Whenever the player cooses a new BGM for the camp scene, that BGM will play whenever the party uses their tent item.
• Quest Journal: On a table to the right of the tent is the quest journal. This exists to remind players what their current objective in the game is.
• The Tent: The star of the camp scene, obviously! If you enter the tent, you may use one sleeping bag to fully restore all HP/MP to the entire party. This makes sleeping bags valuable items since, outside of the camp scene, they ordinarily only restore 50% of each stat to one party member. Sleeping bags will be useful when deep in a dungeon, but will be supremely powerful when the player is on the world map and able to access the camp scene.

Overworld Minimap

Blackmoon Prophecy III wouldn't be complete without a minimap. Having a miniature map on your screen telling you where to go is, after all, Final Fantasy tradition. I wanted mine to have a little more functionality though.

Before I mention how the minimap is setup, let's look at this:

When players are standing one tile away from a location, the name will appear on screen. If the location is a dungeon, or contains hostile encounters, a suggested minimum level will also appear on the screen (though I may remove this). When the player activates the event that shows the location name, it then interacts with the event that controls the minimap to tell it, "hey, the player has visited this place or at least knows that it exists so please make it show up on the map."

This can be seen in action in the following video:

So, whenever the player brings up the minimap by pressing the "page up" key, they will see all locations that they have discovered. Towns and neutral locations are marked with white dots, while dungeons and hostile areas use red dots (will change the hue so that they stand out more). Pressing the "page down" key will dismiss the minimap.

Though not implemented yet, MogNet GPS pads will also return to help guide players around the world of Gaia.

Equip Screen

The equip screen in Blackmoon Prophecy III looks almost identical to the previous game's since I am, of course, using Yanfly's menu scripts again.

Window skin and renamed stats aside, the equipment list is probably the most curious part of this screenshot. Weapon, shield, head, and body are obvious and don't need any explaining. Relics are exactly what you'd expect, the standard Final Fantasy accessories such as goggles, hyper wrists, and ribbons. The last option may be a little more mysterious at first glance, but the "stone" equipment type is actually very straight forward. They're magic gemstones!

Stone will increase your maximum HP/MP, strength, and magic. Many of them will also have offer 25% resistance to negative status conditions, and a majority of stones also have neat little effects like increasing hit rate, reduces MP costs, or gives a little resistance to certain elements. Stones will not be hard to come by, and there will be no hard to find/rare ones. All stones will be able to be purchased.

There is one further equipment type that will appear at the bottom that will be called "Augment" and will function similarly to the augment system in the first Blackmoon Prophecy only without the pesky adamantium ore requirement to use them. In Blackmoon Prophecy III, all you need to do is find an augment and equip it to gain a special ability from it. All characters will likely have three or four augments in total, and they will usually be rewards for beating specific bosses, clearing optional content, or hidden away in treasure chests.

Complimentary Breakfasts

I've been taking little steps to try and add character to parts of Blackmoon Prophecy III where there normally isn't any. Last night I decided that I'd add a little bit of fun to inns since, after all, they're usually so straight forward and uninteresting. Go in, pay to sleep, wake up, leave.

I decided that players would get a little extra something in the form of a complimentary breakfast. This is by no means a significant feature, or anything worth bragging about, I just thought it would make inns a little bit more fun.

After players pay and rest up, they'll awaken the next morning and receive a complimentary breakfast from the innkeeper. This item is randomly selected from a list of "breakfast goods". The innkeeper in Daguero can give the player the following items:

• Boiled Egg
• Green Apple
• Gysahl Toast
• Hillsdale Sausage
• Ivalician Waffle

I'll shake things up and make innkeepers in other towns offer slightly different items. While these items don't do much in the grand scheme of things, I just thought it would be a fun little feature and can keep the player guessing what item they're going to get each time they stay at an inn.

Portrait Update

I recently touched up some portraits that Avee had made for me for my cancelled project, Shattered Wings, and threw them into Blackmoon Prophecy III. Aysha and Ronan are pictured below.

Slightly older portraits by Avee that went unused are also being franken-edited by me to fit the cast of characters. From left to right: Aster, Bayu, Godot, Hilde, Zenon.

The eighth party member needed a different approach. No portrait made by Avee fits a moogle after all! So, I had to open Paint Shop Pro and have at it. This is what I ended up with:

I'm pretty happy with Moguel's portrait. I don't draw faces, or much of anything, so this was a pretty big success for me.