The Legendary Zoltan

Whether it be because you're a procrastinator, play too many video games, are just lazy or are unmotivated for some other reason, I think we all have a list of things we'd like to get done in the back of our minds. We're all gamers, but wouldn't it feel much better to play a video game after we've erased an item from that to-do list? I think it would. So let's post those lists and help each other get productive. We can edit our posts to keep them updated and hopefully they'll get smaller and smaller. For my list, I'm just going to list the more important things first and after those get done, I'll start adding some others. Also, when I do my list, I like to break down the big jobs into several smaller ones. Baby steps yo! Try to find the most motivating way to list your tasks and before you know it, you might be checking off that last item. LET'S DO IT! To-do list: -Finish the vocals for Nekofrog's song. -Write some lyrics for that guy who wants to be an anime composer. -Finish that other rap song I started. -Translate the OCR interviews -Translate the OCR sidebar -Do Billy's Boot Camp at least twice a week!!! -Work on the Musician Interview Neta. Today's Goal(2009/04/03):} Already did stuff. Time to slack off by reading about how to use RPG Maker XP well.

I personally think that sword looks freaking cool. I don't care if an engine on a blade is the most impractical thing in the world or not. I like it. I'd like to think that it's an engine designed imbue elemental properties on the blade.

Star Ocean 4 for XBOX 360 of course. Hahaha. I hope you will be able to have it cause I'm sure it's gonna be sweet. Dude. where is Misawa? I live in Niigata Prefecture, which is pretty far from a lot of the most popular places. But hey, if we ever have a chance, we should get together yo. I've still NEVAR met ANY OCR people face to face. Stupid MAGfest always has to be held in freaking America. hahahha.

IT CAME OUT YO! It came out on Thursday here in Japan. OH MY GOD! The display that they had set up for it at Yodobashi Camera is so great. I can be sure that the music is not gonna disappoint me.

All these replies are great. One thing that really seems to be going well in this thread is that almost everyone's ideas agree with each other. Your replies really make me want to see this thing through. After the story gets flesh out, it's gonna become much easier to progress. I'm gonna try and keep all of your ideas in mind while keeping my own creativity intact. I can't wait for the day I can present a demo to all of you. _^_^ While I'm not interested in getting a whole team together (because I'm afraid things might fall apart) I could use help on one aspect at a time and since right now I'm trying to get the story completely ironed out before anything else, I'd love some help with just that. I have some crazy ideas about the atmosphere I'm trying to create, so I'd want any help that got recruited to keep my ideas intact. Anyone who's interested PM me. I mostly agree. But I wanted to see if I can find the answer to why we would play an old school 2D game in an era where something like Xenosaga has already come out.

I don't think that phrase applies to this situation yo. Anyway, I think they sound very realistic and, just like Krow said, with some tweaking they could sound even better. Go for it. Of course, you can also just make a midi of it and then ask a guitar player here to play it. That's another possibility. But I do think they sound convincing enough to get passed by the OCR judges.

The opinions you're all giving me are great. Thanks a lot. I already have a setting, lots of characters and ideas for plot and individual events. I tried my best to make them all unique and interesting. The hardest part for me seems to be actually writing out the whole thing in order as one coherent story. I gotta agree with a lot of what I've read. Some things will be easy to do, like giving each character their own unique abilities. Some things will be hard, like making sure my characters appeal to a large audience throughout the game.

I can't believe how well this thread is going. ROCK! Prophet, can you please remove from the WANTS section: :::PS1::: Alundra (US) [CHIPP Damage] I bought it on Amazon. Thank you!

I ask because I've been thinking about stuff I can do with RPG maker lately. So I'd like to hear what SPECIFICALLY is it about your favorite 2D RPGs that gets you so into it. Is it JUST the story or are there some other things that you strictly evaluate when you play such a game? For me, it all comes down to how much I had to think about stuff. I don't really care for just attacking my way through a dungeon. I'd prefer it to be filled with harsh puzzles and then have a boss fight that takes over an hour. As long as the story is not terrible, and it has puzzles and long battles that are hard, then I can get into it. Some of the Xenogears boss battles were really my cup of tea, as was the endless slew of puzzles in Alundra. How about you?

Assuming they haven't changed the intro at all on the PSP version, a lot of you may have noticed how Trekky the opening of Star Ocean 1 is. He even says "Captain's log..." I love at the end when he says, "People say the universe is a Star Ocean." The thing that makes this more interesting is that the Japanese version of the original SNES game has it all just like that. With the English voice overs and everything. Blew my mind that they can even do that long of a dialogue on the SNES. But anyway, you can tell that the creator must love his Star Trek. I mean they had a holodeck and transporters and everything in that game!

Do you think it has a chance of happening? Here's an article stating that there are such rumors going around. http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/3921.html I personally am hoping for it. Star Ocean 4 is the last major consideration for me in deciding whether to get an XBOX360 or a PS3. PS3's got Metal Gear and XBOX has Star Ocean 4 and Infinite Undiscovery tempting me. What ever is a girl to do?!

Star Ocean 3 OST is my all time favorite album. Back when I played SO2 for the first time I was stunned at the beauty of all the densely lush soundscapes in that game. Arlia Village got me first, and then Rena's Theme. Then, when I got to Guardia Castle and Sakuraba busted out the choir samples on me, all of a sudden I had a new reason to wake up every morning and face the world. The arranged album version of it is even better. After that, you bet your booty that I had high expectations of SO3's music. And sure enough, he got me again. I agree that he has some pretty funny titles. "Pure A Stream" ?! Please ask someone to check this stuff for you man! But I love all the dramatic sounding titles he has, like Epic Poem for a Meaningful Death and The Divine Spirit of Language. Where does he come up with this stuff? Hahaha! Am I really the only person who actually thought the plot twist in SO3 was interesting or neat in the least? The thing that throws me off about it is that...................... Star Ocean 3 SPOILERS...BIG ONES! ... doesn't that mean that everything happened in the first two SO games was also part of that online drama. ... SPOILERS ARE OVER.

Yeah. I haven't played that game but I heard something similar to that from Darkesword I think. I wonder what the dealiyo with that game is. It LOOKS fun. I think I liked the Star Ocean 2 creation system a little bit more than 3's. I don't like the idea of making things with just a random amount of money. There are so many things that are the same price so you can never make what you want without a guide. In Star Ocean 2 you had your creation materials and you could make a number of predetermined things with them. Later on it expands to let you mix two things to create a new one. At least with that system you could chart out the whole thing on a pen and paper. But I didn't enjoy thinking of what 8 different abilities to put on my swords in SO3.

I've always thought that I was the biggest Star Ocean fan ever but actually, I think you got me man. I too played Star Ocean 2 first and I loved it to death. I thought the cheesy elements were kind of funny and added a nice atmosphere to the story. And the insane battle system made me flip out. I too have a lot of Star Ocean soundtracks BUT I don't have all of them. So now I'm trying to hold on to the biggest Sakuraba fan title. I have a lot of his game soundtracks and arranged albums. Really? In my opinion the voice acting is one of the greatest aspects of Star Ocean 3 (Except for Maria, anyway). That cheese aspect that I mentioned about Star Ocean 2 was just multiplied by 100...But it was done so well in my opinion. I honestly can't think of any macho type characters I like more than cliff and I'm sure there'll never be a better evil laugh than the one produced by Albel's voice actor. I think that one of the best parts of Star Ocean 3 is the battle quotes. Especially the post-battle ones when they level up. Freaking Albel's like, "MWAAAHAHAHAHAA!" and Cliff is like. "Wait a minute. I'm not gettin' too strong here now, am I?" My overall opinion of Star Ocean 3 is that it's the ultimate cheesy Sci-fi story produced with the ultimate enthusiasm. I just feel like the director and story-writer of SO3 love what they make, and love it to death.I don't think we have to worry about Square-Enix's laziness because this is Tri-Ace. I've never played a Tri-Ace game that didn't feel complete and didn't have the greatest battle system ever. I have very high hopes for Star Ocean 4.

In Space Quest IV if you lick a certain building (yes, lick a building): "Mmm. Wild Berry." In Star Ocean 2 during a certain Private Action, talk to Ashton" "Barrel barrel barrel barrel barrel barrel barrel barrel barrel barrel barrel barrel."

Really? I feel like PS1-era games could benefit most from a remake though. I'd HAVE to go with Xenogears. It's already 3D but it looks like a booty when compared to stuff these days. On top of that it's not even really complete. Xenosaga, as great as it is, just isn't the same. If I wanted to go all the way back to SNES I'd like to see Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger remade. I know that's what everybody says, so how about one that hasn't been mentioned yet: Pilotwings. I had a lot of fun with that one.

Yeah, chrono. I did check out that song that you sent me and that Japanese rap at the end was pretty freaking sweet actually. And I also listened to Nujabes, but it wasn't rap. Hahaha. I guess it was instrumental hip hop. It was definitely some beautiful sounding stuff. It makes great inspiration for the BGM, none for the rap, though unfortunately.

OK. I hear you loud and clear man. I've got a lot of projects going on simultaneously too. Of course it's my own fault. Heh heh.

Nice to see a healthy discussion about people's experiences with their respective programs. Sorry for not quoting people directly but.... For those of you who were worried about the kind of battle systems one can create in RPG Maker XP, it looks like basically anything is possible. Some people make their original ones and a lot of people copy the scripts for already existing battle systems into their game. For example the FF6 battle system. Check out some videos of different battle systems that I've seen and you'll see what I mean. http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=NsiQO3hO3pc http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=R0NDt_gvJ-E So ever since finding this program, I've been toiling day after day with my perfect RPG story. After I finish it, I'd love to have help getting it going into a game. Might be a while though.

Oh I see what your saying. We don't have to make it so complicated since it's rap. So how about you just make a "complete" song. As in, an instrumental piece that can be rapped over and just send that one off to me. Although we might lose a degree of synchronization to do it this way, it's probably the easiest way and of course, I'm going to try and make my lyrical rhythm and all that blend into the song as well as I can. Of course, if I get an idea, I may ask you if it's possible to change around something. But basically, your beat is going to be the biggest inspiration for the way I rap. How does that sound? I don't know for sure, but that's how I imagined the pros do it. The BGM guy creates a mostly finished piece, the rapper does his thing and then they revise once more at the end to make sure the vocals and music interact in a good way. Then again, I could be totally wrong. Hahaha.

I see. Sorry about that. I always go and come back with large intervals in between. You wanted to know how this works. Basically, you make a beat and let me use it. But not entirely for free. As payment I do a rap over it for you. So if you still want to lend me a beat, I'll still give you a song.

If I had to pick one type of sound that was my favorite, it's definitely slow orchestral beats good for slow heavy raps. Similar to the first song in that video above.

What's up guys? I haven't heard from you in a while, nor have you heard from me. Been busy, but haven't at all left the hip hop game. I got 2, count 'em, TWO beats that are near completion and they both most of the lyrics done for them, too (not recorded, just written). I wanna show them to you right this very moment but for some reason Sitesled, the server where my website is, has been down for over a week. I wonder if they just went out of business or something. So I guess I'd better check out something like tindeck for stuff like this. I'll post links as soon as I get that account. Edit: Tindeck is down right now for the entire month. lol. What are the odds?! Dual Edit: Uploading the two beats as one video to Youtube. There's a 5-second pause between the two songs. Both are wips and don't have vocals recorded but they're starting to sound pretty good to me. I appreciate any comments or beats from those who offer them. At the very end of the video is the rap that my friend wrote for the second song. It sounds pretty cool to me so I tacked it onto the end to share with you guys. I'll post the link as soon as Youtube finishes processing it. Tri-Edit!: Ugh. The sound became worse as a youtube video unfortunately, but here's the link. http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=bCeNcVpdIvo

Yeah, I did notice several videos on youtube about how customizable the system is if you get down into the nitty-grit of it. One guy has an actiony battle system that he made posted and it has tons of comments with people asking him to share his scripts. It's stuff like this that make me wish I didn't have to work and could just stay home all day improving my rpg-creating.

You wanna hear something crazy. I watched that guy perform live ON MY FREAKING HOUSE! He's doing the music for a pop artist named Rain Book and before the apartment building that I live in now opened, they performed on the roof. I watched it, sitting only about 3 meters away. He mentioned that he did game music to the crowd, but they didn't react one bit. Hahaha. I got his autograph but didn't feel like there were any good opportunities to tell him that I liked his game music or anything. That was about 5 months or so ago.