Well I made it to the last one, and I have to say, you warned me, the game warned and I still went for it, this game definitely made me lose my marbles for a solid second there! The "rage inducing gameplay" definitely induced some rage in me, I was not strong enough to finish it on Insane difficulty but it was a lot of fun (and frustration) on easy mode.
I would like to apologize for losing my cool during one specific part of the video, I was really into the game and wanted to finish it but I was running out of time and kept dying...
As much as I wanted to throw this game out of the window 4 or 5 times during gameplay I have to say it's one of my favorites, the boss design and gameplay was really cool, all the battles felt unique and fun to play, it was like a buffet of distorted creatures for me to stab, I couldn't get enough even trough the constant instakills! There was not a lot of puzzles in this one but I guess that's OK since it was replaced with a lot of action. Once again I admire your skill for making side-scrolling RPGmaker games.
What really upped the quality in this one was the amazing soundtrack and close ups to the characters for details, very classy and neat.
There was a few game design problems here and there (Missing tiles, lack of clear clues for the player, tight timings, lack of crucial saving spots etc), and one specific puzzle that made me rage but overall it was a nice experience, I liked the plot of the game although I feel it was a little rushed at the end? like loredumping before the final boss.
I really liked the ending, I feel it is really full of hope and is nice for a change, I wonder if we'll get to see this characters again...
Okay, first I want to thank you for going through all my games, it's been an amazing experience watching that journey! I guess there's a lot to explain regarding this game hahahaha
The original Automagoria was released in 2021. I was gifted Rpg Maker 2003 while I was going through chemo, I did many experiments (the typical RTP games) but I didn't really want to make an RPG, I wanted to make an action/sci-fi/horror game with platformer sections, bosses and puzzles. Originally, the story was very different: you were told to kill monsters but it would be revealed that the monsters were actually human and your creator was insane and wanted to kill humanity. Also, the original Automaton looked really different and was pretty creepy. I eventually settled for this plot and these designs and I went with that.
The original Automagoria was pretty much an instakill fest. Those spikes everywhere? They were instakills. And insane mode was even harder (I only managed to complete insane mode once). I had a loooooooooot to learn regarding difficulty and game design. Considering this was the first game I wanted to release, I guess the scope and project themselves were just too ambitious for my own good. Anyway, so I released this thing into the world and while it mostly went under the radar, two youtubers played it and managed to finish it. And I mean the original one with instakills everywhere. The giant robot boss? Those spikes were instakill. You literally had to memorize the pattern. IT WAS ABSOLUTE SUFFERING, AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. Some people even called this one the Dark Souls of Rpg Maker Games. But I reckon this has a looot of artificial difficulty and that's straight down bad game design.
A sequel was in the works. In the sequel, Kate's daugther was a teen, Kate was older and they all lived in a cabin near a town. The gameplay was a mix between a top down rpg and a metroidvania, with many different weapons, stats, crafting system, etc. It was really ambitious and I was really passionate about it...until I lost all interest in the project. Then, I made Oddrietta in 5 days for a jam, and I although I always wanted to make a proper sequel to this one, it never happened.
At one point, there was an Automagoria Remastered and it was avaiable for some time, but I removed it from everywhere. It had improved graphics and you could use a shootgun, but it didn't feel like Automagoria anymore.
2 years later, 2023. I went back to Automagoria and tried to make it playable/less frustrating. This is the result: Automagoria Definitive Edition. It obviously wasn't a complete success, since some of the frustrating mechanics from the original version remained (that second reptile boss you encountered? I actually forgot to remove it hahahah, sorry about that, it's awful game design). Also, I remastered some of the tracks, reworked some sprites and backgrounds and added some secrets (there are actually many secrets pathway that make the game shorter but pretty much no one has ever discovered them. Okay, you actually discovered the sewers one, good job on that one). I also messed up some of the tiles and you can walk on air at some points.
The carnival was supposed to have clown enemies and a clown boss, but it didn't happen. I guess I was too lazy for that.
Also, Megaman was definitely a huge influence, since I'm a huge Megaman fan, but I was also inspired by Bioshock Infinite, Metroid and Resident Evil. However, I was also heavily influenced by Shingeki no Kyojin.
The Automaton is my favorite character created by me, I tend to self insert as the automaton or use it as an avatar, he usually has hidden cameos in my games (he's even in A House for Alesa, one of the posters in Greta's room). And he's coming back, real soon, in a certain third part of a certain trilogy about a social worker.
If I have to be honest, I think I had good ideas for this game but they were implemented poorly in terms of gameplay. However, I'm really happy with the atmosphere, the graphics and the music, so I'm glad you were able to appreciate that aspect. Building this post apocalyptic world a really fun experience. While some bosses and tilesets were modified from public domain resources/RTP; pretty much everything else was made from scratch (I actually made concept sketches and have images of the evolution of the sprites).
Wow, that was a long comment lmao. Anyway
Thank you so much Moriko, this has been an amazing journey and I'm really grateful you took the time to look at my other games. I know some of them were bad or frustrating, but watching your gameplays has actually helped me, since I' ve been taking down notes and I'll surely take them into account for future projects. And this obviously isn't the end, since I have many more games planned for the future hahahhaha
A House for Alesa 3 will be released (hopefully) during the first week of october, and I think it's going to be amazing. Also, it will have boss battles similar to the ones in the Sakabashira game (and why not Automagoria). And then I have to finally finish The Grotesque and Pixelesque 2 hahahhaa
ohhh, that second reptile boss - I almost quitted the game because of that fuckerXDD. Mostly because I had to skip that dialog over and over before each attempt...
I still need to remove that reptile boss, one of the worst choices I've made hahaha (I don't think many people will play this though, let alone reach that boss)
why not? :0 you're getting more followers recently(and deserve 10 times more), so defenetely there will be people who play this game and think like "aww, the game is cool, too bad i have to drop it because of that gwilglwkgreenjdwghdgasssfdgsfbastard" XDDD (btw the final boss fight is hard too... I never finished it TvT)
This is too different from my latest games. Not to mention that, even on easy mode, it's a pretty punishing game. Ad it's also made in Rpg Maker 2003 and it cannot be played on the browser. So yeah, I don't see many people playing this and it's perfectly fine. This was my first finished game, it was a whole different concept and even though I "updated" it, it still has some game design problems that need to be reworked (and I don't have time to go back to this one at the moment). It's probably my favorite game among the ones I've made and it's very special to me because of personal reasons, so I'm not really interested in this one becoming popular or something. Although I'm glad some people were able to finish it and enjoy its atmosphere/presentation/soundtrack
Automagoria, it took me about 4 hours to complete it!
In the beginning of my journey alone in Automaton, I was going through a world that was so depressing to look at that I thought the scientist who created me had hanged himself because he couldn't stand this kind of world!
During the journey I was also thinking a lot about how this world was destroyed.
It was very interesting to see the story develop rapidly from the middle of the book and the various mysteries of this world unraveled.
Last weekend I played your game on stream. Overall, this is definitely not my kind of game as I found the combat to be a bit dull and perhaps an overcorrection on the difficulty of the game, though I will admit that I see the potential in this game for others who might enjoy this type of game.
What caught my attention with this game was the art itself. The art is pretty striking and is very well made.
However, after reading the store page about the game being difficult, the first impression of the game was...that it isn't difficult, so it feels somewhat misleading. I never played the original version of this game, but it makes me wonder if the pendulum has swung too far the opposite direction instead of finding a happy balance in the middle. Of course, that was for the majority of the game until I reached one boss. Suddenly the easy going difficulty curve hit a cliff-face and became frustrating. What exemplified this frustration was constantly being kicked back to the menu, having to reload the save, and then watch the same cutscene (made worse by my poor decision to select the dab mode - really wish a description could have been included as to what that is in the game itself since I didn't see your description of it on the store page until just now coming to write this review). I really, really urge you that if your game rule is that "spikes don't kill you in one hit" that you follow that rule for everything. Make sure your rules are consistent. I noticed in a comment below you said "except for one boss". There really should be no exception for this rule whatsoever.
If you'd like to watch my experience with your game, I've linked the archive below. You can click the timestamps to jump to when I start playing your game.
Hello! Thanks for your feedback! I actually agree with some of the points you made. Making a non turn based combat system with Rpg Maker 2003 was a bit hard, and I reckon it feels pretty plain and clunky. However, at that time it was the only game making engine I had, so I had to go with it. The original version of this game was extremely unfair. There were instances of instadeath everywhere, and there was one particular boss battle that was a really unpleasant, unfair and frustrating experience. This version of the game was an attempt at fixing most of the issues found in the original game and make it more playable, although I still overlooked some. Still, this was my first released game ever, so even though it has a lot of faults, it still has a very special place in my heart.
oh, cool, so it' easier now? I couldnt go far at the first version because I'm the wrost with platformers. I hope now I can play it because the visuals are amazing and the story is intriguing!<3
Yes, it should be easier compared to the classic version. Most of the boss fights have been made more accessible (some of them were pretty unfair and relied too much on memorizing patterns) and some annoying obstacles have been removed. The most important change is that spikes don't instakill anymore (except for one battle, though). Also, some enemies/traps deal less damage. And there are more save points now
My advice would be to stay near the curtains and pay attention during the floor spikes phase, as there are specific safe places where you won't get hit. That boss can be quite annoying haha
Oh wait, I thought you were talking about the boss!
The monsters in your picture have a cycle: they look in a specific direction for some seconds, and then they look in the other direction. You just need to move while they're not looking towards you. They have been designed to be unbeatable. It's more like an stealth section
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I would like to apologize for losing my cool during one specific part of the video, I was really into the game and wanted to finish it but I was running out of time and kept dying...
As much as I wanted to throw this game out of the window 4 or 5 times during gameplay I have to say it's one of my favorites, the boss design and gameplay was really cool, all the battles felt unique and fun to play, it was like a buffet of distorted creatures for me to stab, I couldn't get enough even trough the constant instakills! There was not a lot of puzzles in this one but I guess that's OK since it was replaced with a lot of action. Once again I admire your skill for making side-scrolling RPGmaker games.
What really upped the quality in this one was the amazing soundtrack and close ups to the characters for details, very classy and neat.
There was a few game design problems here and there (Missing tiles, lack of clear clues for the player, tight timings, lack of crucial saving spots etc), and one specific puzzle that made me rage but overall it was a nice experience, I liked the plot of the game although I feel it was a little rushed at the end? like loredumping before the final boss.
I really liked the ending, I feel it is really full of hope and is nice for a change, I wonder if we'll get to see this characters again...
Keep up the good work!
*dab*
original version was even more difficult:)
Okay, first I want to thank you for going through all my games, it's been an amazing experience watching that journey!
I guess there's a lot to explain regarding this game hahahaha
The original Automagoria was released in 2021. I was gifted Rpg Maker 2003 while I was going through chemo, I did many experiments (the typical RTP games) but I didn't really want to make an RPG, I wanted to make an action/sci-fi/horror game with platformer sections, bosses and puzzles. Originally, the story was very different: you were told to kill monsters but it would be revealed that the monsters were actually human and your creator was insane and wanted to kill humanity. Also, the original Automaton looked really different and was pretty creepy. I eventually settled for this plot and these designs and I went with that.
The original Automagoria was pretty much an instakill fest. Those spikes everywhere? They were instakills. And insane mode was even harder (I only managed to complete insane mode once). I had a loooooooooot to learn regarding difficulty and game design. Considering this was the first game I wanted to release, I guess the scope and project themselves were just too ambitious for my own good. Anyway, so I released this thing into the world and while it mostly went under the radar, two youtubers played it and managed to finish it. And I mean the original one with instakills everywhere. The giant robot boss? Those spikes were instakill. You literally had to memorize the pattern. IT WAS ABSOLUTE SUFFERING, AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. Some people even called this one the Dark Souls of Rpg Maker Games. But I reckon this has a looot of artificial difficulty and that's straight down bad game design.
A sequel was in the works. In the sequel, Kate's daugther was a teen, Kate was older and they all lived in a cabin near a town. The gameplay was a mix between a top down rpg and a metroidvania, with many different weapons, stats, crafting system, etc. It was really ambitious and I was really passionate about it...until I lost all interest in the project. Then, I made Oddrietta in 5 days for a jam, and I although I always wanted to make a proper sequel to this one, it never happened.
At one point, there was an Automagoria Remastered and it was avaiable for some time, but I removed it from everywhere. It had improved graphics and you could use a shootgun, but it didn't feel like Automagoria anymore.
2 years later, 2023. I went back to Automagoria and tried to make it playable/less frustrating. This is the result: Automagoria Definitive Edition. It obviously wasn't a complete success, since some of the frustrating mechanics from the original version remained (that second reptile boss you encountered? I actually forgot to remove it hahahah, sorry about that, it's awful game design). Also, I remastered some of the tracks, reworked some sprites and backgrounds and added some secrets (there are actually many secrets pathway that make the game shorter but pretty much no one has ever discovered them. Okay, you actually discovered the sewers one, good job on that one). I also messed up some of the tiles and you can walk on air at some points.
The carnival was supposed to have clown enemies and a clown boss, but it didn't happen. I guess I was too lazy for that.
Also, Megaman was definitely a huge influence, since I'm a huge Megaman fan, but I was also inspired by Bioshock Infinite, Metroid and Resident Evil. However, I was also heavily influenced by Shingeki no Kyojin.
The Automaton is my favorite character created by me, I tend to self insert as the automaton or use it as an avatar, he usually has hidden cameos in my games (he's even in A House for Alesa, one of the posters in Greta's room). And he's coming back, real soon, in a certain third part of a certain trilogy about a social worker.
If I have to be honest, I think I had good ideas for this game but they were implemented poorly in terms of gameplay. However, I'm really happy with the atmosphere, the graphics and the music, so I'm glad you were able to appreciate that aspect. Building this post apocalyptic world a really fun experience. While some bosses and tilesets were modified from public domain resources/RTP; pretty much everything else was made from scratch (I actually made concept sketches and have images of the evolution of the sprites).
Wow, that was a long comment lmao. Anyway
Thank you so much Moriko, this has been an amazing journey and I'm really grateful you took the time to look at my other games. I know some of them were bad or frustrating, but watching your gameplays has actually helped me, since I' ve been taking down notes and I'll surely take them into account for future projects. And this obviously isn't the end, since I have many more games planned for the future hahahhaha
A House for Alesa 3 will be released (hopefully) during the first week of october, and I think it's going to be amazing. Also, it will have boss battles similar to the ones in the Sakabashira game (and why not Automagoria). And then I have to finally finish The Grotesque and Pixelesque 2 hahahhaa
ohhh, that second reptile boss - I almost quitted the game because of that fuckerXDD. Mostly because I had to skip that dialog over and over before each attempt...
I still need to remove that reptile boss, one of the worst choices I've made hahaha (I don't think many people will play this though, let alone reach that boss)
why not? :0 you're getting more followers recently(and deserve 10 times more), so defenetely there will be people who play this game and think like "aww, the game is cool, too bad i have to drop it because of that gwilglwkgreenjdwghdgasssfdgsfbastard" XDDD
(btw the final boss fight is hard too... I never finished it TvT)
This is too different from my latest games. Not to mention that, even on easy mode, it's a pretty punishing game. Ad it's also made in Rpg Maker 2003 and it cannot be played on the browser. So yeah, I don't see many people playing this and it's perfectly fine. This was my first finished game, it was a whole different concept and even though I "updated" it, it still has some game design problems that need to be reworked (and I don't have time to go back to this one at the moment). It's probably my favorite game among the ones I've made and it's very special to me because of personal reasons, so I'm not really interested in this one becoming popular or something. Although I'm glad some people were able to finish it and enjoy its atmosphere/presentation/soundtrack
The automaton will be back though!
Automagoria, it took me about 4 hours to complete it!
In the beginning of my journey alone in Automaton, I was going through a world that was so depressing to look at that I thought the scientist who created me had hanged himself because he couldn't stand this kind of world!
During the journey I was also thinking a lot about how this world was destroyed.
It was very interesting to see the story develop rapidly from the middle of the book and the various mysteries of this world unraveled.
And the ending was very good!
Thank you so much for playing and for your feedback! Great playthrough! I really enjoyed watching the videos!
Thanks again! : )
Hello,
Last weekend I played your game on stream. Overall, this is definitely not my kind of game as I found the combat to be a bit dull and perhaps an overcorrection on the difficulty of the game, though I will admit that I see the potential in this game for others who might enjoy this type of game.
What caught my attention with this game was the art itself. The art is pretty striking and is very well made.
However, after reading the store page about the game being difficult, the first impression of the game was...that it isn't difficult, so it feels somewhat misleading. I never played the original version of this game, but it makes me wonder if the pendulum has swung too far the opposite direction instead of finding a happy balance in the middle. Of course, that was for the majority of the game until I reached one boss. Suddenly the easy going difficulty curve hit a cliff-face and became frustrating. What exemplified this frustration was constantly being kicked back to the menu, having to reload the save, and then watch the same cutscene (made worse by my poor decision to select the dab mode - really wish a description could have been included as to what that is in the game itself since I didn't see your description of it on the store page until just now coming to write this review). I really, really urge you that if your game rule is that "spikes don't kill you in one hit" that you follow that rule for everything. Make sure your rules are consistent. I noticed in a comment below you said "except for one boss". There really should be no exception for this rule whatsoever.
If you'd like to watch my experience with your game, I've linked the archive below. You can click the timestamps to jump to when I start playing your game.
Hello!
Thanks for your feedback!
I actually agree with some of the points you made. Making a non turn based combat system with Rpg Maker 2003 was a bit hard, and I reckon it feels pretty plain and clunky. However, at that time it was the only game making engine I had, so I had to go with it.
The original version of this game was extremely unfair. There were instances of instadeath everywhere, and there was one particular boss battle that was a really unpleasant, unfair and frustrating experience. This version of the game was an attempt at fixing most of the issues found in the original game and make it more playable, although I still overlooked some.
Still, this was my first released game ever, so even though it has a lot of faults, it still has a very special place in my heart.
Thanks for playing!
oh, cool, so it' easier now? I couldnt go far at the first version because I'm the wrost with platformers. I hope now I can play it because the visuals are amazing and the story is intriguing!<3
Yes, it should be easier compared to the classic version. Most of the boss fights have been made more accessible (some of them were pretty unfair and relied too much on memorizing patterns) and some annoying obstacles have been removed. The most important change is that spikes don't instakill anymore (except for one battle, though). Also, some enemies/traps deal less damage. And there are more save points now
really thank you:>
but I still cant beat the green thing at the theatre:(
My advice would be to stay near the curtains and pay attention during the floor spikes phase, as there are specific safe places where you won't get hit. That boss can be quite annoying haha
I don't see spikes it just kills me instantly:(
Oh wait, I thought you were talking about the boss!
The monsters in your picture have a cycle: they look in a specific direction for some seconds, and then they look in the other direction. You just need to move while they're not looking towards you. They have been designed to be unbeatable. It's more like an stealth section