Mysterious Song II: Eternal Silence

[OldRover]

I've kept this under wraps for some time now, only revealing it in bits and pieces to chatroom-goers and supplying a small tidbit of info in the MSR release thread. Time to let the cat completely out of the bag.

Mysterious Song II: Eternal Silence - A First Look At The New Epic RPG

I've been working on it on and off for some time now, but only during downtime in Lucretia's development. Lucretia is my priority right now, but since I can't ever sit idle, I started this to fill the time voids. I know I said I'd never do another RPG, but there's just no helping it; RPGs are what I do best, and this project allows me to use my full potential as both a writer and a PCE coder.

[TheClash603]

Looking great!

Copyright 2013 eh...  I assume that date has to change?  lol

The current NPC banter was amusing

[OldRover]

Thanks. Yeah, it will change to 2014 when 2014 comes around.

The main reason I'm releasing this video today is because it's about to be temporarily shelved; work on Jungle Bros is about to resume, and that will have my attention together with Lucretia. I'm doing this game as a time-filler, so I work on it when I have nothing else to work on. But I wanted people to know that there is indeed a sequel to MSR on the way.

[esteban]

You continue to kick ass. This preview is awesome, and I'm not typically a fan of the genre. 

[ParanoiaDragon]

Very interesting.  Seeing how this is a new game, you can totally build it to the PCE's strengths!  Maybe we could do things that got cut out of the original!

[hoobs88]

Digging it so far!

[OldRover]

I don't want to give too much away just yet, but I will say that this game engine, although based on the original MSR code, is much, much more capable than its predecessor. Moving NPCs, sprite masking, map depth, ledges, split-party gameplay, and auto-movement are all new features to the game engine. Environmental hazards, weather effects, stealth missions, switch-puzzles, and other such good stuff also exists. Basically, everything I wanted to include into MSR, but couldn't because it didn't match the original design, is included in MS2.

[T2KFreeker]

This looks cool Rover. I love what you have done thus far and look forward to playing this one for sure. Very cool stuff man.

[whisper2053]

Definitely looking forward to this! The first MS has gotten soooo much playtime from me, and I can only imagine how much better this one will be. And for something that's effectively been a side project? Wow, is all I can say...it looks absolutely amazing.

[touko]

I thought you would never do any RPG !!! ;-)

[Xak]

THIS IS                  GREAT !!! cant wait to play it. Man I love the TG16 support. Too bad the racists belittle my spanish translations on here.

[Tatsujin]

Too bad the racists belittle my spanish translations on here.

what an idiot, literally!!

[NecroPhile]

Woot!  My pants are tight in the crotchal region! 

[JoshTurboTrollX]

wait, wh..wha....WHAT!?!?

Colour me shocked!

!!!  CANNOT FREAK'N WAIT!!!!

Also, if you need work for voice stuff - lemme know!

[NecroPhile]

Too bad the racists belittle my spanish translations on here.

Why are you here and why do you keep coming back?

[Opethian]

Too bad the racists belittle my spanish translations on here.

Why are you here and why do you keep coming back?

[Arjak]

Rover, you sneaky son of a gun! I thought you said you weren't doing a sequel!

Anyway, it looks like you're off to a great start. I seriously cannot wait! Let me know if you need any voice actors!

Until then, maybe I should finally try to play through the first one...

[OldRover]

Voice acting will indeed be needed at some point, but that's a ways off.

Just so people know... I talked about this briefly in chat a bit ago but might as well state it here... Mysterious Song was originally supposed to be a trilogy. The original designer of the series stopped after Chapter I. I don't know why, but it would be a real shame to see the series die as a single story. That's why I decided to make a Chapter II. Of course, since it's meant to be a trilogy, there will also be a Chapter III at some point in the future. Chapter X in MSR is a spinoff of Chapter I and isn't really canon... it just provides an alternate version of Chapter I. Chapter II builds off of the original version of Chapter I.

I'm really glad people are liking what's in store. Thanks for all your words of encouragement.

[OldRover]

Retrocollect picked up the news pretty quickly, it seems:

wayback.retrocollect.com/News/eponasoft-announce-mysterious-song-ii-eternal-silence-homebrew-rpg-sequel-for-pc-engine-cd.html

[Xak]

The in game graphics blow the first one away, not that the first one was bad in any sense. Just a VAST improvement graphically, cant wait to see the battles.

[esteban]

Rover, I was thinking: you were heartbroken when you realized that an "official" sequel to Neutopia might not be feasible, so you poured all of your blood, sweat and love into MSII: ES.

Am I completely wrong?

Or is there a kernel of  truth in it?

Naturally, I'd love a Neu Neutopia, but with all of the refinements exhibited thus far for MSII: ES, I can't complain about a damn thing.

 

[Psycho Punch]

Have they tried to acquire the license for Neutopia??? Please tell me more.

[NecroPhile]

The in game graphics blow the first one away, not that the first one was bad in any sense. Just a VAST improvement graphically, cant wait to see the battles.

Uh..... what?

[ParanoiaDragon]

Voice acting will indeed be needed at some point, but that's a ways off.

We'll be good as long as we can get Bobcat Goldthwait to be Tiger, Roseanne Barr to play Ryanna, Sly Stone to play Spear, & Paul Ruebens to play Grimm!  Rover is currently drawing up the contracts as we speak!

[Arjak]

Voice acting will indeed be needed at some point, but that's a ways off.

We'll be good as long as we can get Bobcat Goldthwait to be Tiger, Roseanne Barr to play Ryanna, Sly Stone to play Spear, & Paul Ruebens to play Grimm!  Rover is currently drawing up the contracts as we speak!

That has got to be the worst list of casting choices that I've ever seen!

Wait, so Spear and Grimm are going to return in some way? Or is that just you jerking us around?

[ParanoiaDragon]

I'm totally messing around, I personally know nothing about the story, I know as much as ya'll about it!

[hizaygizirlz]

Saw this on retrocollect looking forward to picking it up

[lord_cack]

Rover, I was thinking: you were heartbroken when you realized that an "official" sequel to Neutopia might not be feasible, so you poured all of your blood, sweat and love into MSII: ES.

Am I completely wrong?

Or is there a kernel of  truth in it?

Naturally, I'd love a Neu Neutopia, but with all of the refinements exhibited thus far for MSII: ES, I can't complain about a damn thing.

 

Well, I know as far as my end goes, I don't plan on working on Neutopia III. I had done loads of tile work for a planned NIII but I have been working further on those tilesets and they are now in the developmental stage of an entire new project with them. I am not exactly certain the platform this project will come to, if it ever comes to light. But, the tile work is great and I am pretty excited about their potential. Don't take this for anything more than what it sounds like though.... this is NOT an announcement of a PCE title, but it could eventually be one

Also, like to add this is not something I have brought to the attention of Frozen Utopia. This is just my own work, thus far....

[Psycho Punch]

STATUS: I need to buy and play the first one.

[Arjak]

I'm afraid it's a little late for that, Punch. The entire print run has sold out! If you want a copy, you're going to have to bug Rover about another pressing.

[VestCunt]

Or go to the website of everyone's favorite homebrew dealer that still has all six independent TG/PCE releases in stock and buy it for $37.75.

[VestCunt]

Rover, I was thinking: you were heartbroken when you realized that an "official" sequel to Neutopia might not be feasible,

Why is Golden Axe feasible and NIII isn't?

[Tatsujin]

Rover, I was thinking: you were heartbroken when you realized that an "official" sequel to Neutopia might not be feasible,

Why is Golden Axe feasible and NIII isn't?

ssdstudent . net/SMS/wd_1213/wood/ni.gif

[ParanoiaDragon]

Rover, I was thinking: you were heartbroken when you realized that an "official" sequel to Neutopia might not be feasible,

Why is Golden Axe feasible and NIII isn't?

GA is much smaller in scope, no new tiles or sprites to do, the music is already all there, I just spiced it all up(& in a few instances had to rewrite a couple from scratch), plus, GA's engine could easily go to good use for any other brawler's we have planned...namely Dragon Arm.  N3 is a huge project loaded with new tiles & sprites, music, etc.  Plus, we really wanted to put it on a physical disc, instead of a download only, which is probably what GA will be in the end.

[VestCunt]

Makes sense. Thanks

[touko]

I predict a lot of headaches for rover and many years of dev for frozen 

[SuperPlay]

This is great news :-) Count me in for a copy!

[Xak]

I'm up for the voice acting when the time comes. I have samples on youtube to prove my worthiness.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

I just love having the ability to walk behind the sprite/background image of the trees!  Great touch! 

[FraGMarE]

Sweet pixels!    Are Keranu and Paul still doing the art?

[OldRover]

No, all the pixels on this one will be done by Josiah Tobin, except the cutscenes.

[Bernie]

WTH....  how  I miss this?!  I thought you loved meeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!  Why you no tell the Bernie?.   lol..  I love it man, cant wait!!

[FiftyQuid]

Before I watch the video in post #1 are there any spoilers in it?  I haven't played the first game yet or heard any of the story.

[OldRover]

Yeah, there are spoilers in the video, so you may want to give it a miss until you've played the game.

[OldRover]

Since I've been out of commission lately due to both sickness and surgery, I have had some time to work on this some more while the work for Lucretia is finished up. I know that some of you out there like to read about dev progress and techie stuff so I figured I'd jaw about some of the recent progress of MS2 and how things have changed from MSR.

I started work on the battle program for MS2. It was obvious from the time this game was first thought of that the original MSR battle program was inadequate for all that MS2 has in store. MSR's battle program is very simplistic and limited; I needed something with a bit more power. The original program defines each enemy unit as a 64x64 sprite.. even the tiny little slimes are 64x64 internally. With so much free space, we should have made larger sprites, but we didn't. Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, a fixed sprite size makes certain things easier, such as hit response and centering. Only the main mode final boss has a sprite that is larger, and I ended up coding separate functions for its centering and hit response. It was inefficient and I can do better. So, MS2 does things better. First of all, the enemies are much larger now. Some of the weakest enemies in MS2 are larger than some of the most powerful bosses in MSR... to say nothing of the powerful monsters in MSR that are now absolutely massive in MS2 (such as the Dragon and the Mega Wyrm). Because enemy sizes can be variable now, a better system for handling their combined sprite blocks was implemented. It means more data is being manipulated, but this isn't an action game so moving around more data is not an issue. Additionally, enemy units can now make use of more than a single palette at a time. MSR only allowed a single palette per enemy unit. In MS2, "normal" sized enemies are still limited to a single palette, but "large" sized enemies can use 2 and "huge" sized enemies can use 4. No overlaying of colors is allowed, but individual sprite blocks can make use of different palettes, giving some of the bigger enemies more than the usual 15 colors. Up to 4 palettes can be used in total for enemy units. "Normal" enemy units can appear 3 at a time, but "large" enemy units are limited to 2 and "huge" enemy units are limited to 1. The game can use 1 "normal" and 1 "large" enemy unit at once as well. What defines their size is the number of full horizontal sprite blocks they use up... "normal" enemies have a maximum width of 2 (64 pixels), "large" have a maximum width of 3 (96 pixels), and "huge" have a maximum width of 6 (192 pixels). Vertically, enemies can now be as tall as 160 pixels, but the vertical size does not affect their size category since the issue is horizontal pixels... make them too wide and in too high a number and you get buffer overflows and pixels are lost.

Because of the much larger sprites, the interface had to be redesigned as well. I completely did away with the top portion; the game now uses a dynamically-changing bottom part. Much less text is used and battle turns progress on their own, unlike in MSR which was almost entirely text-based and had to be moved along manually. Damage now comes up as "bouncing numbers" a la modern Final Fantasy games rather than text displays. Spell selection is now more streamlined as well, and looks more like something out of a Climax RPG, with spell "levels" that can be selected rather than a verbose list as MSR used.

Another important aspect of battling in MS2 is the experience system. MSR used a fixed chart, like the original MS. However, for MS2, I ditched the chart and used Monolith's algorithmic leveling system instead. It means less data has to be stored and levels are essentially limitless, so you can keep growing more and more powerful with more time spent on grinding... if you want to. It won't be necessary though, as MS2 is a bit more balanced than MSR was, although power players who love to grind are still going to be right at home here.

Also, whereas MSR's story was thin and basic, MS2's story is a lot more detailed. Plot elements are key, and there is a hell of a lot more character development this time around. People just wanting to murder stuff can ignore much of it though. Ryanna is the main character this time around, so most of the story revolves around her, whereas MSR focused almost entirely on Spear.

I did not remove the conveniences that MSR implemented, though... for example, you can still dash around, even on the world map. That's one of the things that made MSR more fun to play. Nothing's more obnoxious than zipping around a town but then having to plod along on the world map. Dialogues and menus are still really fast, and I have implemented the ability to both use and buy multiple items in one go, unlike in MSR where items were bought and used individually. "Camp magic" now also functions this way, so spells don't have to be selected each and every time you want to use one. Also, since MS2 is a hell of a lot bigger than MSR, "save points" have also been introduced... you no longer have to only save at inns.

So yeah... these are some of the things to look forward to in MS2. Obviously I can't spill everything, but I figured I'd talk some tech about the new MS for those interested. It will still be awhile before this game comes out, but when MGC comes around, it will be available for demo play. There *may* be a public demo at one point but that won't be for some time.

[TheClash603]

Wow, the list of improvements is substantial and I think that everyone will agree that there isn't a change that would alter the experience too much to upset original MSR fans.

I am looking forward to all of these homebrews, too bad you guys are slow! 

[Psycho Punch]

I am looking forward to all of these homebrews, too bad you guys are slow! 

I know you're joking but it is amazing what people like Rover and Arkhan are doing, because the games are mostly developed on their scarce free time, but with quality matching Turbografx commercial releases. I really don't mind waiting.

[TurboXray]

Can't wait to see some these new enemy designs and colors

[OldRover]

/eternal-0030.png
Three normal-sized enemies on top of one of MSR's original backgrounds, although it has been re-converted with the newer tools to be more optimal.

/eternal-0031.png
MS2's Mega Wyrm. It is a huge-type enemy, although it only uses a single palette.

None of the enemy sprites are originals, so they may not be final art.

[OldRover]

Okay, here's a different shot. I've been ironing out how the initial interface will look, and I think I've just about got it now. Anyway...

/eternal-0032.png

These three enemies use different size types. The first enemy is 64x64, the second is 48x48, and the third is 48x32. 48x32 is the smallest size the game uses.