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Zeboyd Games announces Cosmic Star Heroine (Suikoden/PhantasyStar-inspired Unity RPG)

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D

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Well my favorite game series of all time is the original Phantasy Star series, and I've been a fan of Zeboyd's games dating back to Breath of Death VII on XBLIG, so needless to say I'm extremely hyped!

I'd love to see Skies of Arcadia-esque battles, but with spaceships, in the game. And I'm curious to hear the music, I'm hoping with the sci-fi setting there will be some good electronic music in there! And some extremely diverse settings and strange alien worlds to explore...

As to why the games you mentioned inspired you (Suikoden 2, Chrono Trigger, and PS4) are games that are also some of my favorites of all time... that's a really good question. Lin has touched upon lots of great points with the games - some of the things I appreciate are the variety in scenarios, the cohesive aesthetics, and of course the fantastic music.
 
D

Dominic_Shade

Member
Story-wise, I'm really interested in the premise of a spy whose identity is exposed to the public. Gameplay-wise, the Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star inspirations are mighty awesome to hear. Definitely keeping my eye out for the Kickstarter.
 
S

sibarraz

Banned
I'm curious about the ''renegade'' aspect of the game

For example, in ps2, after you were accused of damaging the planet and mother brain, you were hunted by the government, yet you never had any kind of problem while you lurked in the city.

I'm actually fine with that considering that this was a game from the end of the eighties, and going to the town was a relief after the hard battles that you had to fought on the field but still, it will be cool if even when you are in the town, you had to be careful if you don't want to be captured.

Now I know that this idea is still a problem since like I said, in this kind rpg, the towns are oasis where you can relax and heal your wounds, but well, is something that I had been curious to see someday (Even in FF XIII, I was fine with the idea that you can't visit any town considering that nobody wanted to see you there)
 
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Robert at Zeboyd Games

Banned
sibarraz said:
I'm curious about the ''renegade'' aspect of the game

For example, in ps2, after you were accused of damaging the planet and mother brain, you were hunted by the government, yet you never had any kind of problem while you lurked in the city.

I'm actually fine with that considering that this was a game from the end of the eighties, and going to the town was a relief after the hard battles that you had to fought on the field but still, it will be cool if even when you are in the town, you had to be careful if you don't want to be captured.

Now I know that this idea is still a problem since like I said, in this kind rpg, the towns are oasis where you can relax and heal your wounds, but well, is something that I had been curious to see someday (Even in FF XIII, I was fine with the idea that you can't visit any town considering that nobody wanted to see you there)
Click to expand...

These are things we're definitely considering. :)
 
S

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
That all reminds me of how surprised I was to enter Zozo in FFVI; A TOWN with battles? Pickpockets that actually try to steal from you?!? The streets were ACTUALLY dangerous!
 
F

Famassu

Member
Robert at Zeboyd Games said:
What kinds of kickstarter rewards would you like to see? What (if any) stretch goals would you like?
Click to expand...
Physical OST CD, but at a reasonable pledge level (I hate the ones that put it behind, like, a 150$ paywall). I could see myself pledging around 60-70$ if I got a physical OST (maybe a bit more if there's something else as well, but no more than 80-90$), not just a digital one.


EDIT: And please, no battles in cities/towns. I want to have some safe heavens from endless battles. If you want to have some story justification for it, just give some disguise to the main protagonist(s) and that's that.
 
D

Dantis

Member
The character design is neat. It's great to see how far the artist has improved since their first game.

Hope the Kickstarter goes well.
 
S

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
Been great reading through those last blog post (wohoo to potential singing contest!) :) I actually had an idea, regarding the want to offer SOME grinding, while still keeping your anti-grind policies...

Why not offer NPCs for the base, that turn on grind-friendly battle mutations? Like special battles in RSPOD3, just player-controllable. To keep them fun, they could even possibly offer gameplay modifications. Examples:

Gym Trainer: He shouts out commands to you team while in mid-battle. Forcing you to perform Super Mario RPG-like button challenges, in order to get more EXP from enemies.

OBVIOUSLY STILL BAD BADGUY: He joins your party, but it's obvious to Alyssa (and the player) that he's still quite evil. If you choose to have him accompany you, he helps the enemies each round, by buffing their stats / enemy class, while making little snide remarks ("I didn't know they had evolved so FAR in this sector..." "They usually travel alone... but it seems you've found a whole pack of them!")

Obsessed Mega-Fan: As a fangirl who sells everything related to Alyssa on sciBay, she's developed a knack for spotting the most miniscule of items. Basically, rare item drops UP! Every time an enemy dies, she'd run in, search the corpse, and run off screen, all while getting surprised and confused looks from the player party (or even enemies...)​

Famassu said:
EDIT: And please, no battles in cities/towns. I want to have some safe heavens from endless battles. If you want to have some story justification for it, just give some disguise to the main protagonist(s) and that's that.
Click to expand...

Really, over the course of an entire RPG, a town or 2 that break the normal "field is dangerous, town is safe" ideal wouldn't interfere with anything, if done properly.

Imagine a once-prosperous town, that had all it's inhabitants pushed out by the local gangs. Since the gangs have a place to go and stay, the surrounding field area has no encounters at all, and actually has all the towns stores set up at porta-shops, and selling out of their space cars. But the town itself is a death-trap.

Still get your Risky / Safety breakdown, just flip-flopped around, for the sake of gameplay and narrative interest.
 
P

prodystopian

Member
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chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
prodystopian said:
I really love the idea about 'par'. I've actually thought about this before and think it is a great idea to reward players that want to explore the combat system without being too punishing for players who don't.
Click to expand...

FFXIII had a system like that, but I don't think it actually rewarded you with anything other than a rating, don't remember. Pretty sure other games have done it too, but they're all slipping my mind.

I think it's a good idea as long as it's balanced, unlike Valkyria Chronicles scout rushing, for example.
 
S

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
Lin Siniang said:
You and me, dude. YOU AND ME.
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shirt_spritersresource_brofist.jpg


Robert at Zeboyd Games said:
Wrote up an article about some of our ideas when it comes to MP, combo abilities, items, and resource management in Cosmic Star Heroine:

http://zeboyd.com/2013/07/08/cosmic...y-systems-mp-combo-abilities-and-item-system/
Click to expand...

It said "MP", and I thought you meant MultiPlayer... (o_O)

Anywho, I like the MP idea; one thing I feel kinda iffy about in RPOD 3 is the fact that the samey MP you start rounds with limits that "But I just want to NUKE THEM ALL!" ability in some ways. I like the option of being able to pull out the big guns instantly, if I so desire.

I was actually hoping you'd mention the backpack auto-regenerating over time (with the cost attributed to buying the generator in the first place), but this works out, too.

I DO think the biggest problems I have with items, is that there's nothing... special about using a fire bottle, VS using a fire spell. I think I'd actually desire to see a better class breakdown as to why using, say, a potion, and a cure spell, should be considered. Something as simple as "spells are wide range, potions are single target" would go a long way to helping them both feel meaningful, to me.

Team attacks... I like the idea of a specific meter, but I think the way to gain the meter should tie into play / paring. Such as having character attack one-after-the-other earning co-op points, or having certain characters gain a use of their co-op by par'n in their own way (so, Bruiser gets Co-Op option available because he used 3 melee attacks in a row; magic user gets co-op attack because she chain-nuked enemies in the last battle, etc.)

It'd produce a nice little hint of strategy, since you'd directly influence what kind of bonus you'd want to start the next battle with, by how you chose to fight the last one.
 
O

Omegasquash

Member
$35 for two? Shit I'd just gift it to my bro and be done with it. Was really cool that one of their team chatted with me for a few minutes at PAX while I asked a bunch of questions about indie game development...typically the marketing folks just want to get talkers out of there, but they actually took time and didn't even seem inconvenienced that a peon like myself wanted to interact with them.

I'm in as soon as I can.
 
V

VariantX

Member
chaosblade said:
FFXIII had a system like that, but I don't think it actually rewarded you with anything other than a rating, don't remember. Pretty sure other games have done it too, but they're all slipping my mind.

I think it's a good idea as long as it's balanced, unlike Valkyria Chronicles scout rushing, for example.
Click to expand...

I think the higher the rating, the more likely you'd get rare drops from battles.
 
P

prodystopian

Member
Maybe I should finally get around to playing more than an hour of FFXIII...

I agree about balance concerns and items being differentiated from spells. Or, if items are the same as spells, they could be useful for non magic characters. I find that too often in games where items are the same as spells, I'm not in a situation where I don't have someone to cast the spell version.
 
pancakesandsex

pancakesandsex

Member
When it said "Phantasy Star inspired" I was hoping it would be in terms of battle systems and ancillary systems. Since I am not particularly well versed in PS, it would be fresher to me, however, that doesn't seem to be the case. Sounds like they are just talking visually / setting wise. Disappointing.
 
R

robotzombie

Member
Robert at Zeboyd Games said:
Wrote up an article about some of our ideas when it comes to MP, combo abilities, items, and resource management in Cosmic Star Heroine:

http://zeboyd.com/2013/07/08/cosmic...y-systems-mp-combo-abilities-and-item-system/
Click to expand...

Hi Robert! Love your games.

Just read this article and had two suggestions. First is the par system. It sounds pretty cool, but the thing that makes me nervous is if it turns into unique rewards given during boss battles. The problem I see is turning a boss battle into a chore because instead of having fun and getting to go all out, you are now nervous because you have to do things very specific in order to win in X turns so you can get some piece of armor that can't be found anywhere else. It's kind of like the problem I have with stealing in games like FFIX. The boss battle becomes more about delaying to make sure Zidane steals as opposed to enjoying the battle.

My other suggestion has to do with the item system, which I think sounds great. To expand on it, what if the backpack was like a rectangle that you can "fit" items into. Better/more powerful items would take up more space or be odd tetris shapes, so you have to make the best fit of what you need. Something like a full elixer could take up all or most of the backpack and only have like 5 uses before needing to be refreshed. You can also make the backpack "upgrade" or expand in size throughout the game so you can fit more puzzle pieces in.
 
R

Robert at Zeboyd Games

Banned
pancakesandsex said:
When it said "Phantasy Star inspired" I was hoping it would be in terms of battle systems and ancillary systems. Since I am not particularly well versed in PS, it would be fresher to me, however, that doesn't seem to be the case. Sounds like they are just talking visually / setting wise. Disappointing.
Click to expand...

There's not exactly a lot to take from Phantasy Star when it comes to gameplay systems.

Phantasy Star 1 & 2 were really good games at the time but the time was the very dawn of JRPGs. Just having more characters than you could fit in your party at once was considered new & exciting back then.

Phantasy Star 3's big innovation was the generation system where at the end of each major segment of the game, you'd choose which character to marry & that would determine who your next main character would be and would change the scenario somewhat. Cool setup, but doesn't work with what we're doing here.

Phantasy Star 4 is the game in the series that holds up the best today but even still, it wasn't horribly innovative as far as gameplay goes. You could drive a vehicle around at times and fight with the vehicle. You could use multi-character abilities although the execution was clunkier than Chrono Trigger. Different abilities required difference resources. There was a guild where you could pick up optional quests. You could create your own auto-battle macros. We might use some of these ideas in CSH (definitely having multi-character abilities for example).

All in all, the Phantasy Star series is more known for being an early pioneer in the JRPG genre (PS1 actually came out a year before Dragon Warrior 1 in the US and is a much better game) and for having great stories, characters, and settings.
 
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slash000

Zeboyd Games
Lin Siniang said:
That sprite is perfect Rob.

Keep up the great work, guys.

My favorite thing about the sprite is how the hair moves with her walk.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I spent some extra time on the hair since it's such a prominent feature in the sprite, and that I now have 6 frames to work with.
 
E

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
Nice walking animation! I can only wish that they'll be as robust and detailed as Chrono Trigger
 
S

slash000

Zeboyd Games
Lin Siniang said:
Really reminds me of Chrono Trigger as all the characters' hair bounce as they walk. It's a detail few rpgs with sprites have. So far the amount of detail you've put into the sprite alone gives me hope of the final game. I can't imagine how much of a task it must be carry over that much detail into the full game, and by yourselves too?

How big your team?
Click to expand...

Our team is me and Robert, so two. :)

We've contracted for music and sound in the past and will do so again for this game, hoping to work with HyperDuck again (Dust: An Elysian Tail, Rainslick4)

edit: I'm pretty excited about making the sprites for this game. It's more work but there's a pretty good bang for the buck in going up a few pixels and adding two frames. Plus I want to do various expressions and poses for different emotions (surprise, shock, dismay, etc.) but I'll be doing that later on.
 
P

Psxphile

Member
Robert at Zeboyd Games said:
Wrote up an article about some of our ideas when it comes to MP, combo abilities, items, and resource management in Cosmic Star Heroine:

http://zeboyd.com/2013/07/08/cosmic...y-systems-mp-combo-abilities-and-item-system/
Click to expand...

The MP system you have in mind sounds to me like Wild Arms 3's Force Points system: characters start with a negligible amount of FP (I think it was equal to their level?) at the start of every battle that rises every turn. And FP fuels all in-battle magic. Fortunately, leveling up raises the min. amount of FP you start with, eventually allowing you to spam magic right from the get go. It was a nice system that eventually helped cut down the time spent fighting the tougher monsters. The main con of this setup is that you can't use FP outside of battle, so you're left with using items (which were very limited: you couldn't buy them from shops, you had to grow your own!), sleeping at an inn or getting into a fight in order to use healing spells.

I recall Skies of Arcadia had a similar system, but with special attacks as opposed to moon magic. Lambda Burst!



Robert at Zeboyd Games said:
First look at Alyssa's in-game sprite:

http://zeboyd.com/2013/07/10/zeboyd-weekly-art-71013-character-sprites-and-csh/
Click to expand...

FGfR1zC.jpg


Nice article. I always found Chrono Trigger, Black Sigil and similar-looking games to be the sweet spot when it comes to 16-bit animated sprites: just enough depth and freedom to allow for very charming and personable character traits to come out through their sprites.
 
S

slash000

Zeboyd Games
Lin Siniang said:
That's what I thought.

But I'm just shocked as to how you guys do manage to do it.

How did the two of you meet?
Click to expand...

We knew each other from the penny arcade web forums basically. We'd each made and released a game of our own, and then decided to work together to make a bigger game for release on XBLIG. Just been working to make things bigger and better since!
 
A

Aytrial

Member
I'm interested, but none of Zeboyd's titles have made it to Aussie shores as far as I'm aware. If it's available for the PS3 (or PS4) that supports easy account switching, I might back it.
 
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