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Maniafig219~3Y
Wikipedia tells me that Undertale took 32 months to make, so it's more than 2 years. And its sequel Deltarune will likely take much longer to make. RPGs are really time-consuming to make as it turns out!

The video is somewhat blurry, I guess that must've been an issue with the recording.

I think the bits between Collie and Savitr once he does show up work well! The dialogue there all feels pretty natural and easy to understand.

The transitions between the Preyloot scene, the reading scene and the showdown scene feel the strangest, they seem like they'd work better as three separate scenes that each get their own flashback at several points, as right now it does feel very sudden. I suspect this would be an issue with any intro that contained more than a single scene, usually games make it abundantly clear when a timeskip happens, and it's extra disorienting when it happens twice in a row and so early in the game.

Some of the banter between Collie and Preyloot/The Beast also feels kinda lore dumpish, the characters are talking about things which the audience won't really absorb. Probably with The Beast more so since he plays three different roles in such a short timeframe.

There are a lot of RPGs out there, and a lot of beloved classic RPGs have intros that absolutely would not fly in a modern game these days! An intro that works for a big studio AAA-RPG also just has very different expectations and rules than a one-man indie RPG. People are going to be more patient for a game's intro when they spent $60 on it rather than $10.

I don't think you mentioned Psycodas yet. Those sound interesting! It wouldn't surprise me if those would let you talk to the Magisterium members, since people did speculate back in MARDEK that you'd eventually use those GdM soul stones that Rohoph was making for something, and the idea of being able to talk with the GdM in those stones at some point seemed rather inevitable.

The concept of exploring dreams is one that does come up a lot in games, since it's inherently an interesting idea. Relatable too, since we all know that we dream, even if we can't always remember them.

The whole of Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass took place inside of Jimmy's dream, something the game never bothers to hide at all, and much of its content is basically about exploring this kid's reality through the warped medium of his dream. Even if Jimmy himself is a mute protagonist, in typical Earthbound fashion.

I did like the intro from Taming Dreams, that one worked well aside from the heavy tutorialising. It's also a better representation of the actual game than a cutscene/battle chain, as you pointed out before!

Savitr is giving me some Luso from FFTA2 vibes. Luso from FFTA2 is still the peak of JRPG character design: [LINK] So much so that even Gumball made a joke about the ridiculousness of the design: [LINK]&t=232s

Maybe the book Collie is reading is a choose your own adventure book? Those are kind of a mixture of a book and a game, especially ones that make you roll dice and whatnot.

I think MotA's were a thing even back in Taming Dreams. I keep wondering how much changed and how much stayed the same between Taming and Divine Dreams!
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Tobias 1099~3Y
32 months is longer than I thought, and I'm glad you looked that up and mentioned it because I probably wouldn't have done! Hopefully I'll be done with this in less time than that... but who knows??

I always think of Luso when imagining a generic JRPG protagonist, and his official art is one of the first Google results too. Also I've never actually seen Gumball outside of static screenshots! I wonder how many younger viewers would even be familiar with the tropes the likely-millennial creators were referencing there?!

I'd say that Divine Dreams' overall story is essentially a second draft of Taming Dreams', so there are more similarities than differences... but Atonal Dreams isn't based on any specific plans I had for TD, and who knows whether I'll even get to make DD or whether it'll transform a lot based on AD feedback. Also, all these similar titles aren't confusing at all! Who even came up with them??
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