[Completed] Cyclical Recurrences

[mucka33]

A Yume Nikki-inspired game in the generation 1 Pokemon style.​

Hello everyone, and welcome to Cyclical Recurrences! This game came about after wondering how a Yume Nikki-style game could be done with Pokemon assets. It's made with default RPG Maker XP without Essentials, as it's more of a spinoff game than anything.


Background

You awake in your room, same as any other day. A fog outside makes it hard to see. You walk downstairs, but mom is gone. Probably out shopping. You grab an apple on your way out, but upon opening the front door...the world you know is no longer the same. Instead, a bizarre amalgamation of buildings greets you, signposts waywardly pointing out colour names. Pewter. Fuchsia. Vermilion. These places are familiar, and yet different. Shifting, swirling, blending together and pulling apart. Do you remember? Are you willfully forgetting?​

In Cyclical Recurrences, you take control of your character as you explore a strange new world. Doors lead everywhere, caves sprawl out in impossible spaces, and mountains stand where they didn't before. You may find friendly faces, some of which will give you special effects (abilities) to help you explore farther. Along the way, you may also come across shiny icons. You feel compelled to collect them. Maybe something good will happen when you get all 8.

This game is a surreal exploration-styled game with retro Pokemon graphics. While there is an "end goal" of sorts, the main appeal is exploring new landscapes, relaxing, and making your own meaning in a bizarre arrangement of landscapes.

Features

• A unique "Effects" system that changes your appearance and lets you access areas you couldn't before.
• Several areas with new tilesets styled like gen 1.
• A predominantly open world with no real threats. Explore the game at your own pace and go where you please, when you please.
• A menu option that teleports you back to your starting room, in case you go too far or get stuck.

Download
https://www.mediafire.com/file/uq4g91jqy5vnyfr/Cyclical_Recurrences.zip/file
Current version: 1.0​

Trailer

(If the video doesn't play here, click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5hAtvbv6N4)​

Screenshots

Spoiler:

‎

Credits

Spoiler:

RPG Maker XP:

Enterbrain​

Tilesets, sprites, music and sounds:

Most assets - Game Freak/Nintendo
Overworld sprite rips - Polar Koala
Some trainer sprites - u/BionicleManF
Song rips - Zophar's Music Domain
Some sound effects - u/BellBlitzKing
Custom tilesets/sprites - mucka33
Menu and Lavender Town remixes - mucka33
End animation - mucka33​

Scripts:

Animated Title Screen - Moghunter
Menu Command Manager - MobiusXVI
Bypass Character Skill Selection - DerVVulfman
Modular Passable - Heretic
Collision Optimizer - Heretic
Loop Maps XP - Heretic
Turn in Place - SirBilly (converted to XP by MobiusXVI)
Mirror Movement - Heretic
Swimming - Diagostimo
Zeus Video Player - Zeus81
Credits Script - Emily_Konichi and AvatarMonkeyKirby​

 

[Linkinglinkingking]

amazing idea, looks really good as well

 

[mucka33]

Small update: Finally sucking it up and learning how to use Adobe Animate. I tried out several free animation programs but they all had issues. I pay for the Adobe suite anyhow, may as well get my money's worth |D

The style of the character is going to change, but in the meantime, I get to play with fun camera features! I looove being able to separate foreground material from background material and having the camera adjust accordingly.

And hey, once this lil video is done, the game is very nearly complete! So we're getting there ;)

 

[mucka33]

Important update:

Cyclical Recurrences, releasing on October 5th! Come back in a week and a half to try it out ;D

 

[mucka33]

Version 1.0 is now released and live!
You can download it in the first post.

Let me know if you run into any bugs or glitches. Also let me know if you have any questions or need help with anything.

Thanks everyone, and happy exploring!

 

[gromaniak]

the first problem I ran into was rgss-rtp standard not found, I found the solution online and fix it- I opened the game.ini file and removed standard from in the line with RTP1 but now i have error: Unable to find file Audio/SE/105-Heal01

 

[mucka33]

@gromaniak - Thanks for letting me know! Didn't realize you needed a separate Run-Time Package to properly load XP games, kind of a weird oversight the program doesn't tell you about. Anyways, I fixed the download file for those going forward. Read the README and run the "xp_rtp104e" file first, which downloads the runtime package, then the game should work.

For anyone who has the old download, https://dl.degica.com/rpgmakerweb/run-time-packages/xp_rtp104e.exe here's the direct link to that runtime package file. That will install RPG Maker XP's pre-rendered assets, which allows you to properly run the game.

Gromaniak, try that and let me know if it still gives you problems. You may have to change that notepad file back to what it was before, not sure.

 

[gromaniak]

I runned the runtime package and downloaded the fixed download to be sure but i it seems that now some textures are missing

edit: i noticed that only the font is missing the rest seems to be in place but i only saw the starting room

 

[mucka33]

@gromaniak - Right, yes, sorry about that. Once again fixed the download link but to download the font only, you can use this file: https://www.mediafire.com/file/rpl7tz0somh17b0/pokemon_generation.ttf/file
Thanks for catching that too! So many little things to worry about that don't happen on my end, but would definitely happen to others ^^;

 

[Onism]

Heyo! Been playing this game with a friend, and it's pretty cool so far, but we're wondering if you'd ever consider making some kind of walkthrough or hint list? There's some places where we can't figure out what to do at all, so we keep getting stuck ^^;

 

[mucka33]

Heyo! Been playing this game with a friend, and it's pretty cool so far, but we're wondering if you'd ever consider making some kind of walkthrough or hint list? There's some places where we can't figure out what to do at all, so we keep getting stuck ^^;

Thanks for checking it out! I've had a couple people mention that a walkthrough/guide would be helpful, so I'll work on one and include it in later downloads. In the meantime, if there's somewhere you're super stumped on, feel free to ask about it and I can provide some guidance ^^

EDIT: Guide is now uploaded and live, included in all downloads of the game. I strongly recommend using it only if you're completely stuck, since it defeats the main purpose of the game. I won't tell you how to live your life though.

For anyone who has an earlier version of the download, here's a link to just the walkthrough:

Spoiler:

If you're here by accident, this document contains gameplay spoilers. Download it only if you absolutely need it.

Spoiler:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ytz54v8y64z60xm/Cyclical_Recurrences_-_Official_Guide.pdf/file

 

[gromaniak]

Still having problems with missing font i downloaded the font and even downloaded the game from the fixed link again, later I tried creating "Font" folders in the game folder and in the standart folder to make sure i tried everything but maybe I missed something. I'm really sorry for the inconvienience

 

[mucka33]

Still having problems with missing font i downloaded the font and even downloaded the game from the fixed link again, later I tried creating "Font" folders in the game folder and in the standart folder to make sure i tried everything but maybe I missed something. I'm really sorry for the inconvienience

No worries, it happens! It's supposed to just pull the font from your computer, so you shouldn't need a Fonts folder in the actual game, hmm...

Once you open that .ttf font file, this is what you should see:

Just double-checking, you've clicked "Install" and installed the font to your computer? And it still shows up blank when you open the game?

 

[Onism]

Awesome, thank you so much! This is super helpful ^^

 

[gromaniak]

I didn't know about that before. I misunderstood your instruction. Thank you for your assistance and have a great day

 

[mucka33]

I didn't know about that before. I misunderstood your instruction. Thank you for your assistance and have a great day

Nope that's okay, it's my mistake! I should've been clearer ^^; Thanks so much for helping me get past the first few hiccups!

 

[mucka33]

It has been brought to my attention that one of the endgame scripts breaks in the current release. I just patched it, but for anyone who has the old files, you'll have to re-download the new package, sorry. It doesn't crash the game, but it does end up skipping past a fairly important scene so it's best to grab the new files. Thank you!

EDIT: And for anyone who sees this too late,

Spoiler:

if you download the new files you'll see a new folder in there. That's the part you're missing.