*yaaaaawn* Hello there...I've been a bit worn out recently, but I wasn't lazy! I changed a lot of things for DS here and there. Best news: I finished the cutscene "engine". Take a look for yourself.

(Click to enlarge, weebly is a bit picky about image sizes) Anyways, the scenes will be like in a visual novel, characters talking to each other in front of a backdrop. This one was amde by Etoiler, a very talented artist. The only thing I need (and what I will do myself) is some decent character art with lots of different emotions.
I'm also tightening production, ie. reducing content due to my limited time. It's nothing you'll miss anyways. Oh and I threw out the isometric battlefields since they
A) were too hard to create
B) didn't wor properly
C) required isometric sprites which I'm too  lazy for to create
Battles will be in an overhead view. I'm currently debating if I should make the battles turn based (fastest unit first) or phase based (first friendly units, then enemy units). Followers of the blog may think "Wait, wasn't this already decided?" Yes, it was, but due to all the design changes I'm doing it all over.

I've also been working on something small in the background...!

Maybe someday...? That's all for today, enjoy the new week~!
Oh yeah, you might want to take a look at Etoiler's page as well! They've got a lot of cute and well-made ressources for various Makers. (It's in Japanese, so you might need some trial and error. Copy and paste in your browser!)

Hello there you guys~! After like ten days without any motivation I pulled myself together and cancelled the secret project and picked up Disillusioned Strategies again.

I'm working on the balancing and enemies, and not really on the custom graphics. (It shows) My time is pretty limited right now, but my studies will be over (at last) by Christmas, so I can finally reurn to America and start a life. I'll be taking some new screenshots later on, just be a bit patient. See y'all~!

Hello everyone~! Long time no see, eh? Sorry! I was on a short trip to the sea. Anyways, Disillusioned Strategies is on hiatus for now. (Note: Hiatus does not mean it's cancelled. There's just a giant load of school work incoming, and I lack any sort of motivation for DS. Also I've got a nice concept for a new project, but I'm keeping it secret for now. I'm only gonna say one thing about it: It's nothing you've seen before...!
My holidays will be over next week, so I still have some time for gaming. I recently searched my old PSX disc collection and found Marl Kingdom (or Rhapsody for US and EU gamers), It was one of my favourite RPGs as a child, and so I decided to replay it to see if the charm is still there. Saddly it it vanished along with my memories of the game. The presentation itself is avant-garde, the character sprites have a lot of animations, the art looks sweet and detailed and there are even vocal musical scenes.

The battle system is a simple tactic RPG thingy. But the real downfall is that battles rarely take you more than walking up to the enemy and attacking it. Battles are rarely longer than five minutes or so, not counting boss battles. Even if you set the game to Hard it won't last longer than 10 hours (five if you rush it). Also, while the areas look nice in their watercolor style the dungeons are extremely repititve and uninspired. There are a total of three(!!!) dungeon templates, which consist of floorways and dead-ends. There are no puzzles aside from finding the right staircase. Dungeons will really piss you off after a while. The only non-repititve dungeon is the forest (in the video btw) which looks halfway decent, but the game makes you go there like six times for the stupidest reasons.

The story is pretty quirky and (was) unique. You're a peasant girl who can talk to and command an army of puppets (yeah) and want to marry the kingdom's prince. In the game's first half you join a contest to marry him, win, fall in love with him and see how he gets snagged away from you. This all happens during the very first hour of your playthrough. After that the chapters get longer, but not short of repititve. The plot tightens a lot towards the end and a lot of questions get cleared.
Being such a J-RPG it was pretty unlikely to get released oevrseas, but thansk to everyone's favorite publisher

it made it to North America at least. The translation was very well done with a lot of references and sissy jokes. The songs were also dubbed into English, but they also added the option to set the voices to Japanese for all you Otakus. The game got a lukewarm welcome and was panned by critics in America so it didn't come to Europe or Australia and none of the sequels were brought over. Too bad, actually since the sequels are much better and less braindead than the original.
And that was a hella long coverage, see y'all~!