(15+) Cycle of the Heavens (SRPG Studio, 8 of ? Chapters)

Projects
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This game makes use of character portraits and backgrounds generated with AI. If that doesn’t jive with you, it is recommended that you click out of this thread now.

Hello once again, FEU. Adarya and I are excited to show off in earnest our first collaborative project. Originally debuted as part of the MARTH contest, it is now well on its way to becoming a full-fledged game.

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Featuring a (human-written, don’t worry!) story of a runaway queen grappling with the might of two warring empires to make the continent of Avra safe for her children again, this game’s presentation is further enhanced with expanded battle animations, numerous unique backgrounds, beautiful custom tilesets, and a visual style reminiscent of Radiant Dawn, and even some limited voice acting to create one of the most appealing SRPG Studio experiences yet.

Notable gameplay features:

  • Choice of playing with either single or double-RNG
  • The Weapon Triangle (Swords, Lances, Axes), which grants Accuracy ±15
  • The Trinity of Magic (Light, Anima, Dark) and (Fire, Thunder, Wind), which grants Attack ±3 and Accuracy ±15
  • Fixed weapon ranks like in Genealogy of the Holy War and Engage
  • Enemy targeting lines like in Engage
  • AS = Spd - Wt (you need 5 more AS than your opponent for follow-up attacks)
  • A Fates-like Skill system in which each character has a unique personal Skill and can learn more dependent on his/her class

Dropbox link (8 playable chapters)

Discord server

Spreadsheets:

Known Issues:

  • There is no notification when learning a new Skill outside of battle, i.e. by getting a Level Up from Staff usage.
  • Remaining Mov display when selecting where to move a unit doesn’t account for screen scrolling. This feature is turned off by default.
  • There is a tiling error in the Prologue that allows Stella and Sirius to walk through the upper wall and out of the training area. This should be a minor issue since there’s nothing important outside and this is a Rout map in which none of the enemies move.
Credits

Story and character concepts by Adarya and Von

Character portraits generated with KlokGen AI using training data from Intelligent Systems

Custom Tilesets:
Nekura Fantasy Map Chip Material Collection

Custom Class Graphics:
EightWinds
Fuwafuwa
gameandfun
JAPANWeb
Kashikoma
Maiser
Von Ithipathachai

Custom Weapon & Item Graphics:
Briver
Claris
Dankboi
JAPANWeb
miyabirakuda
senaka
Von Ithipathachai

Custom Spell Animations:
Chiryo no Tsue
Fuwafuwa
Pipoya
Sfilna
Skeleton

Custom Backgrounds:
Intelligent Systems
SapphireSoft

Additional backgrounds generated with Stable Diffusion

Custom Plugins:
Anarch16sync
Aren
Balberith
Claris
Cube
Goinza
MarkyJoe
McMagister
namae_kakkokari
Nantoka
PCMath
Repeat
robinco

Custom Music:
“Toberu mono” (instrumental) by Nobuo Uematsu used for the title screen

All other music from Intelligent Systems
(Arrangements of “Going My Way” and “Loptous” by Dragston Dev)

Custom SFX:
Intelligent Systems
Metzik

Custom Voices:
Intelligent Systems

Fonts:
Monster Of Fantasy Modern Serif Font by Storytype
Studio
Constantine by Dukom Design

Screenshots

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15 Likes
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Man, I really like the tileset you’re using, I’ll be sure to give it a try during the weekend to see the cool maps you have made it with it.

3 Likes
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Truly one of the best SRPG studio games I had the pleasure of playing. The maps were fun, the characters were a joy to see, the story was a pleasure to experience, the animations were fun to look at; Bottom line is: Cycle of the Heavens has just left me feeling giddy with glee and anticipation for the future, and I’m glad it did. I’m keeping a close eye on it, cause I wanna be there to see it finished and reach its full potential; Though at the rate it’s going, I’m confident it will. :slight_smile:

1 Like
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A bugfix for Demo 1 of Cycle of the Heavens has just been released! It fixes some bugs that weren’t caught in initial playtesting and adds some new QoL features.

Changelog:

  • The red arrows used to mark escape points are now animated to make them easier to see
  • You can now save at the start of maps that don’t have Bases
  • Units’ inventories are now automatically returned to the Convoy when they die
  • Raw values for Hit, Avo, etc. and bonuses are now displayed separately on the Unit Menu
  • Booster items for weapon types are no longer usable by units who can’t use that weapon type
  • The tiling error in the Prologue that allowed Stella and Sirius to leave the training area has been fixed
  • The Prologue has also received a new defeat condition in which a Game Over is triggered if Stella and Sirius run out of tome uses, i.e. by discarding them
  • An error in Frances & James’s Base conversation in Chapter 4 that caused the conversation to increment James’s Support with Odette instead of Frances has been fixed
  • An error in Chapter 4’s eventing that prevented George and Ada from dying on Classic Mode has been fixed
  • The post-battle cutscene for Chapter 4 has been adjusted so that the game doesn’t wait for the crowd murmur SFX to finish all the way before proceeding
  • The left and right sets of Armored Knight enemies in Chapter 5 now start moving on Turn 6 regardless of whether their partners are still alive
  • An error in Ibrahim’s AI in Chapter 5 that inhibited his ability to actively approach your units after moving from his starting position has been fixed
2 Likes
5

I REALLY enjoyed the game, it was so much fun.
I also loved the story.

The maps look absolutely amazing, One of my favorite scenes was one with a town square during a very important story event, so beautiful.

The characters look exceptional, none looked out of place or weird.

The gameplay was solid. Maybe some balancing tweaks needed here and there but this is just the demo and balancing takes a lot time.

Overall, Cycle of the Heavens is shaping up to be a very good game!

2 Likes
6

I died in the tutorial LOL, I mention it because it was very funny to me that daddy suddenly moved to the center and one shot his son xD.

7

I could’ve sworn I fixed that with a turn check, but I guess not.

Sorry you got blindsided there. We’ll have to think of some other way to fix that for the next release.

8

I should’ve known this would be an interesting day when a black cat of all things walked in front of me on my morning walk.

So, in case you haven’t been keeping up, our FEE3 trailer just dropped. We got a lot of …apprehension. But we also got a good deal of support based on our Itch analytics and the new arrivals into our Discord server.

I would like to take this time to thank everyone who has turned out for us, from the very genesis of this project up to now. All of your feedback, positive and negative, has influenced CotH for the better.

But most of all, I want to thank @Adarya, the other half of this partnership we have dubbed MADMANMOON. She’s been an astounding creative partner to work with, and our combined talents have enabled us to achieve more with SRPG Studio than we could ever have dreamed of on our own. We look forward to bringing you all amazing fangame experiences, now and in the future.

7 Likes
9

Omg when I saw the trailer and saw the Radiant Dawn like graphics I screamed!!! That is soooo awesome. Beautiful people. Will it have wrtten supports and paired endings?

2 Likes
10

There will be paired endings. Support conversations are functionally supplanted by Base conversations in a manner not unlike The Morrow’s Golden Country, which may also give out other rewards such as items.

1 Like
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AHHHHH yes and Morrow’s Golden is one of my favorite hacks…more reason I’m all into this

1 Like
12

I really enjoyed how it looks. The characters look great. More radiant dawn is always good. Dont let the people drag you down. Keep it going^^

4 Likes
13

Yeah I men I know the gameplay looks very different but I don’t see the big complaint

14

I’m unsure if you ever read the top of this thread or literally any of the comments on the FEE3 trailer before they got disabled, but this game does use AI-generated portraits and backgrounds to replicate the look of Radiant Dawn. This is where most of the backlash towards the game has come from so far, moreso than any gameplay elements.

3 Likes
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Yeah by the time I got there the comments were disabled.

16

despite all the negativity I still want this game to be finish. We could use more game like Radiant Dawn,
So I am going to ask are you going to finish the game despite the negative reaction towards the FEE3’s Trailer?

17

We do plan to continue :slightly_smiling_face:

We’re currently working on Demo 2, which will go up to chapter 12 (And will include optional chapters too).

3 Likes
18

Graphics look great and are a great use of AI. Looking forward to more!

1 Like