Long ago, there was naught.
Then, formed from the swirling void, two great beings appeared.
Their powers split the void into two elements, Light and Dark.
Combining their powers, they formed a small planet, which they named Alteria.
They filled the planet with beings made in their image, and named them Alterians.
For many years, Alteria flourished, and there was peace.
But it was not meant to last.
Just as quickly as harmony had formed, dischord followed.
The two great beings turned against each other, and war broke out in the heavens above Alteria.
As the world was torn asunder by the chaos, a hero rose.
A warrior by the name of Sky ascended to the heavens to calm the two great beings.
He was victorious, and the resulting flow of magic created the Star element to balance light and dark.
The great beings, ashamed of what had happened, gave control of these three elements to a pure soul on Alteria.
Afterward, they departed, vanishing among the many planets created during the war.
The people of Alteria recovered from the aftermath of the war with the help of their new guardian, the Creator.
And life went on...

Nostalgia is an puzzle RPG that revolves around 2 young heroes from the shattered world of Alteria. Alteria has been shattered into several dimensions, though only 2 are featured in Nostalgia. These two dimensions are named the Nostalgia dimension and the Shadowed dimension.

The name Nostalgia stems from the fact that it aims to pay homage not only to classic RPGs, such as those of the SNES era, but also to classic calculator RPGs, celebrating both BASIC and ASM RPGs for the TI-83/84 family of calculators.
The Nostalgia dimension appears entirely in ASCII graphics as homage to classic BASIC RPGs, such as the Illusiat and Reign of Legends series.
The Shadowed dimension appears as 8x8 monochrome tiles in homage to classic ASM RPGs, such as Final Fantasy v1.198 and countless others.


Nostalgia revolves mainly around two heroes, each hailing from a different dimension.
Roland Ingnia, a Master Thief, hails from the Nostalgia Dimension.


Aria vi Amertia, a former Knight of the Black Lord Frey's elite military, hails from the Shadowed Dimension.


Their quest pits them against many formidable foes, such as the Black Lord Frey, and General Arc Tenshido, a former friend of Aria's.
Currently, in depth available info for all the major planned characters is available here. I will eventually get the info copied to another location for those who are unable to access Omnimaga.


Nostalgia will also feature an environmental system that can affect the items in your inventory, making managing it an important task. For example, if you don't consume any Beef or Pork in your inventory before a few days pass in game, they will spoil, and thus harm you instead of healing you.

Still planning the environment system out, which leads to the next change in Nostalgia's game mechanics: your items are affected by the evironment!
I got the idea while I was playing Lunar Knights, because your perishables items (meat, fruit) spoils if not used in a certain amount of time.

So I came up with this plan:

Quote

Jerky
Pork
Steak

Pork and Steak spoil after a few days (in game), turning them into Spoiled Meat, which harms you instead of healing you.
However, to prevent this, you can have your Pork and Steak cured in a town to prevent them from spoiling. Jerky won't ever spoil, since it was prepared that way.

Quote

Water
Spring Water
Liquid Ether

In snowy weather, if you stay out long enough, your Water and Spring Water will freeze, halving their effects. Liquid Ether is unaffected by the weather.

Quote

Holy Arcana
Tent

The Holy Arcana revives a fallen ally. However, if you spend too much time in the rain, the Arcana becomes soaked, and will only restore your ally to 1 HP instead of 1/4 their total HP.

Tent provides shelter for you, restoring your HP and MP in the field. But as you wander in the plains, or high in the mountains, you might run into a thunderstorm. If you are struck by lightning, you'll take damage, and there's a chance one of your Tents will be charred, causing it to randomly either heal a small bit of HP, a small bit of MP, or do nothing.

To accommodate for the items being affected by the weather, and therefore possibly changing types on the fly, your inventory will be limited to 64 item slots, each slot holding one item. It's not unlike Illusiat 13's iventory, but it only holds items. Key items and equipment are held elsewhere, as they don't need to change on the fly.

Well, that's the plan, at least. I'm aiming to implement this as much as I can. :wink:



Latest screenshot of the map engine in action, showing off sprinting, chainblading (essentially hookshotting), crate kicking, NPC interaction and the rain animation.


(I accidentally had two instances of Wabbit running, hence the linked screenie.) Latest screenshot of the battle engine in action, showing turn order switching and the basic framework of the whole thing.

I don't have a Youtube account and photobucket is being stupid and won't accept my gifs.

I noticed the attachments thing though, so here's a gif.

Seems interesting. Is it kind of like Link's Awakening (I think) where you can change between the normal world and when you're a bunny?

Oh, ya. That's the game I meant. My bad. Ah ok.

Yeah, older calc games like the Illusiat series and the Reign of Legends series are what really inspired this game and the Nostalgia dimension in particular. Actually, if you noticed, the mapping style is the same as that used in Illusiat 12 and all the Reign of Legends games.

Also, on a more project-related note:
Character Bios:
Roland
Roland is a expert thief who currently resides in the Nostalgia dimension and knows little about his past aside from the fact he was orphaned at an early age. His next heist will be to nab the Shimmering Diamond from the Crystal Manor during the the Peace festival, which is to celebrate a century of peace between all the countries of the Nostalgia dimension.

Aria
Aria is a former solider of the Black Claw, an elite military force that enforces the rule of a tyrannical general, the Black Lord Frey. She abandoned the military after beginning to question Frey's motives and means of enforcing them. She currently resides in the Shadowed dimension.

It is looking really nice. Good luck on this

Did you create the art for your characters or did you just find the pixel art?

This is an interesting concept. I can't wait to see how it develops! =)

You apparently can use Charas for overworld map sprites, facesets and battle sprites, though the latter is a little limited.