Mycal
Staff member
Now, I know this is a really old game, but it is a fantastic classic RPG.
:arrow: [Background Information]
If you've never played this game, you should. For the sake of assuming you have never played it, the following paragraph is my description of the game. If you have played it and beat it, you can skip this entire section.
The game's full title is Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. The game came out for the SNES and is the prequel (not to be confused with sequel) to the mediocre RPG Lufia and the Fortress of Doom.
The game revolves around the hero of the story Maxim and his quest to save the world from super natural beings dubbed Sinistrals. Accompanying the hero are a cast of characters outlined below.
Maxim the hero of the story. As the hero, naturally he is extremely powerful and can equip the best items in the game. Maxim can use many spells but not all of them.
Tia, the hero's childhood friend, has a crush on the hero and accompanies the hero for a good portion of the game. She is relatively weak in strength, but is a great addition to the party with her fantastic healing spells and attack spells. However, many have argued about her usefulness in the game and whether she is worth the effort in properly equipping, but I personally believe that she is worth every penny that is spent on her up until a certain point in the game.
Guy, joins the party and stays with the hero through the end of the story with only minor departures from the party to care for his ill sister. Guy has no magical ability what-so-ever and starts weaker or just as strong as Maxim whenever he joins (depending on your level). However, as you progress, he becomes a powerhouse and likely is the strongest character.
Selan the magical warrior, is the most versatile character next to Maxim. She joins after Guy and stays with the party till the end of the game with short departures from the party. Until near the end of the game, she will be your key magic caster and fights all other characters for the first attack in battle as she progresses in levels. Mid-game she has a romantic affair with one of the main characters.
Dekar joins the party and stays for only a small portion of the story. Dekar graces the party with very little brains and dry humor. He cares for his kingdom's prince, who aspires to be as strong as Dekar, but tends only to get in the way. Dekar, like Guy, has no magical abilities, but is damn strong. He is the powerhouse of your team and is the strongest character in the game, granted you equip him right. Some also will argue whether it is worth the money to properly equip him, and in his case, you will find all of the best equipment for him shortly after you gain him, so I would only give him leftovers.
Lexus is arguably the worst character in the game. He has very little strength and fairly useless magic and only stays with the party for an extremely short portion of the game, which somewhat balances him out. He joins late in the game, but plays an important role throughout the rest of the story. I'll leave this for you to discover. Spend no money or effort on this character. You will find a suitable weapon for him and is worthless with even the best weapons equipped on him. Just take him as you get him and dump any leftovers on him.
Artea is the last character to join your party. He has the 2 strongest spells in the game and fights Selan for the first attack in battles throughout the rest of the game and usually wins. He is relatively weak in strength, but makes up for it in magical abilities.
Among all these characters, after Artea joins, your party is as follows: Maxim, Guy, Selan, Artea. The rest leave for reasons that you will have to play the game to discover.
In addition to the many characters above, you also have the ability to gain several support characters known as Capsule monsters. Now, before anyone makes any jokes, this game came way before Pokemon. And no, you do not use balls to catch the capsule monsters...Anyway, you can go the entire game without ever finding or using a capsule monster, but they are very handy and could prove to be your best characters in battles, that is if you are lucky enough to not have them run from battle. Each capsule monster can be leveled up and....*sigh*....each monster can also evolve. Unlike Pokemon, however, (at least as far as I know) you have to feed the monster certain foods in order to have them evolve. The food can be any of your extra items (armor, weapons, potions, etc) as well as certain foods specially made for the monsters.
Ignoring the slight similarity with Pokemon, the game really shines with its dungeons. Unlike most traditional RPGs (ie Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest) Lufia decides to not use random encounters while in a dungeon, and puts the monsters on the map. You can see them, you can fight them, you can ignore them, and you can freeze them. Whatever you decide to do, the game feels more like a puzzle or platformer game while in dungeons and it is done very well. Not to mention, dungeons are set up in a very Zelda like fashion with different puzzle's to solve in every one. Not to mention all the hidden areas in certain dungeons that people completely miss all the time. Not to mention, the hardest puzzle in the game (or any game for that matter), is not only difficult to solve, but is also difficult to even get into. There is a puzzle door blocking the puzzle room and most people cannot figure it out without some outside help. Sound fun? Well it is! Just remember, the extremely difficult puzzles are not entirely necessary to beat the game. They only help by giving some superior items and the feeling that you solved it by yourself (if that's the case). I personally played through the game on my first time back whenever the game came out without even knowing about the difficult puzzle. After learning about it, I played through the game again and solved it in a week.
All the details aside, this game has absolutely the best story in a videogame that I have ever seen. People will argue that with me, but I have yet to see a game that kept me enthralled all the way through to the end, never thinking once that old thought that sometimes hits me while playing some games "Why in the world am I playing this." I loved this game so much that I have beat it more times than I can count. Not to mention that this game was the very FIRST game that I leveled every single character up to the level cap (level 99). In addition, I have a method of leveling that most guide writers STILL do not know about and takes a few hours max to get high enough that you do not have to worry about anything else for the rest of the game, and it's fairly near the beginning of the game. AND it is reusable all throughout the game. The level spot NEVER dries up and will always help you gain levels if you need them. Although I do not recommend it on your first playthrough.
Throughout the game, you will also be collecting eight magical items that will grant you a wish upon collection of them all. The items are Dragon Eggs, which you take to a dragon to grant you your one wish. He then scatters the eggs around the world in random treasure boxes for you to find once again. Any similarities to a certain anime or purely coincidentail I am sure..
Last bit of information. In this game, you level like you do in every other game. However, no special abilities are gained through levels alone. In order for you to use magic, you must purchase spells for each character. You cannot unequip spells or sell them, and the better spells are fairly expensive. However, I personally believe this is a very useful aspect of the game and prefer it to the old "Wow, suddenly I know how to revive a fallen party member simply because I leveled up! Woot!"
:arrow: [The Reason]
Why in the world am I advertising this game you ask? Well I'll tell you. This game deserves a playthrough by every RPG fan, and many are unwilling to try it by buying it, and many more are unwilling to do it the less legal way (ROMs). There are even some that have been unable to find a working ROM or a ROM that plays all the way through. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself of making a full clone of the entire game. I am still in development phases and likely will be for years as this isn't on the highest of priorities. In fact it is probably the lowest of my priorities. However, it is on my todo list and I've laid out plans already. So what I need are some people who are willing to help out with the creation of this project.
:arrow: [Recruitment Details]
What I need, is not artists or programmers. What I need is people who can help create maps. I have the tiles already, at least I think I do, and I know every secret there is to be found in the game with very careful exploration. The tiles are not in a usable format yet because I got them from someone who ripped them for use in another project. So that is another job in itself because it is so many files. I am unsure if they are all in the same format, which means I am unsure if a program can be made to automatically sort them into a better usable format.
I believe I have all of the tiles used in the game. In addition, I have many of the sprites used ingame minus a few here and there. These will need to be converted to a usable format, but otherwise we have them. We do need all of the spell animations that are used ingame and if someone could figure out whether the special effects seen in game are drawn realtime or are graphics (like the energy emitting from their bodies) that would be great. Of course I'm not too worried about those, if push comes to shove I can recreate those fairly easily I believe.
I will provide the mapping tools and all the tiles as soon as they are sorted out. I will also setup a server where all data can be stored in a central location where everyone will be able to access. There is no money involved and as this is a clone, every person has to have extraordinary attention to detail.
While maps are being made, I will also need a few people who are willing to play through the game extremely slowly so that we can get numbers, stats, etc down. And either these people or extra people so that we can get copy down the game's script.
As this is a BS:S project, all the current admin (Steven, Krum, and Myself) have full authority over the project and will closely monitor all progress. Again this project could take awhile so there is no rush and if you only wish to help out for short periods at a time, that's perfectly fine. However, we will CLOSELY monitor all progress to ensure that something is being done and no one goes power crazy and deletes everything. That said, all work created and submitted to us will further belong to Burningstorm Studios. You can request that we no longer use your work and we may oblige, however, we may not as well. You will receive full credit for your work and that we will never touch for as long as we use it.
:arrow: [Positions Available]
Mappers
These people will be going through the game very slowly, whether through the ROM or the actual cartridge, and carefully recreate every single map that is assigned to them. Each person that is recruited will be assigned a certain location in the game and it will be their duty to get to that point in the game and work their way through it slowly. After the location is finished, the person may be assigned a new area. Requests for specific locations is allowable, as long as there is no more than 2 people working on a specific location. I only want 2 people on the same location, preferably one, but 2 is fine. If a second person is assigned, the two people will have to agree to have constant communication with the other and monitor each other's work so that all errors are found. As locations are finished, they will should be run through a specialized tool designed to combine the maps into one, as well as take an overall picture of them all in order for closer examination. The maps will then be submitted to a separate database that Admin will review as they have the opportunities.
Requirements: Must have attention to detail and take criticism well. (We won't yell at you, we promise. We will give hints, and tell what you are doing wrong though.) All tools will be provided.
Examiners
These people will go through the game extremely slowly and work out the calculations for stats, etc. They will carefully measure enemy levels and stats, determine what magics they can use, etc. They will also need to take inventory on game items, and find where they can be found, how much they cost, who drops what, etc. Much of this can be found on other sites, but I want these people to ensure that those calculations, etc are correct. You must be able to work with a team and respond to comments and questions constructively.
Requirements: Patience. Communication skills. Any tools needed will be provided.
Graphic Artists
I do not believe that we will need many of this. However, there are many graphics that we do not have from this game and I we need them all. Any graphics that we don't have, you will either need to make them, or find them. Don't care which, as long as it gets done. Research will also need to be done to find out whether certain sequences are actual movies or are done in real time. And either way, will need to either recreate or acquire the sequence. Inquire for further details.
Requirements: Must have some kind of image editing program and be fairly versatile with it. Any additional tools MAY be provided.
Script Writers
The title is kind of misleading as the script is already written. We just need it retrieved. These people will play through the game very slowly copying the script as they go. Once the job is completed, they should go through the game a second time to ensure accuracy. This will take quite awhile because of the many NPC dialogs in the game. You will especially have to ensure that you go back to certain locations multiple times throughout the game to ensure that NPC dialogs have not changed due to some significant event.
Requirements: Attention to detail.
:!: If you wish to apply for any position, you may post here, or send an e-mail to us via [email protected] :!:
Finally as a final note, none of theses positions pay any money. You will be doing this as a fan of a great game. Anybody who contributes to this project will have proper recognition in the credits. In addition, anyone who contributes to this project will have the special privilege of being the first and only users who will ever get to use BS:S specialized tools designed exclusively for the ORPG that has been in production.
This is a big project and I am sure will take time to both get done and to get some good recruits. However, I am sure if the word is spread far enough to the correct sites, we will begin to see a steady flow of contributers as well as fans flocking to this project. And yes, there is a possibility of further expanding this project upon completion, but that will have to wait for another day.
:arrow: [Background Information]
If you've never played this game, you should. For the sake of assuming you have never played it, the following paragraph is my description of the game. If you have played it and beat it, you can skip this entire section.
The game's full title is Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. The game came out for the SNES and is the prequel (not to be confused with sequel) to the mediocre RPG Lufia and the Fortress of Doom.
The game revolves around the hero of the story Maxim and his quest to save the world from super natural beings dubbed Sinistrals. Accompanying the hero are a cast of characters outlined below.
Maxim the hero of the story. As the hero, naturally he is extremely powerful and can equip the best items in the game. Maxim can use many spells but not all of them.
Tia, the hero's childhood friend, has a crush on the hero and accompanies the hero for a good portion of the game. She is relatively weak in strength, but is a great addition to the party with her fantastic healing spells and attack spells. However, many have argued about her usefulness in the game and whether she is worth the effort in properly equipping, but I personally believe that she is worth every penny that is spent on her up until a certain point in the game.
Guy, joins the party and stays with the hero through the end of the story with only minor departures from the party to care for his ill sister. Guy has no magical ability what-so-ever and starts weaker or just as strong as Maxim whenever he joins (depending on your level). However, as you progress, he becomes a powerhouse and likely is the strongest character.
Selan the magical warrior, is the most versatile character next to Maxim. She joins after Guy and stays with the party till the end of the game with short departures from the party. Until near the end of the game, she will be your key magic caster and fights all other characters for the first attack in battle as she progresses in levels. Mid-game she has a romantic affair with one of the main characters.
Dekar joins the party and stays for only a small portion of the story. Dekar graces the party with very little brains and dry humor. He cares for his kingdom's prince, who aspires to be as strong as Dekar, but tends only to get in the way. Dekar, like Guy, has no magical abilities, but is damn strong. He is the powerhouse of your team and is the strongest character in the game, granted you equip him right. Some also will argue whether it is worth the money to properly equip him, and in his case, you will find all of the best equipment for him shortly after you gain him, so I would only give him leftovers.
Lexus is arguably the worst character in the game. He has very little strength and fairly useless magic and only stays with the party for an extremely short portion of the game, which somewhat balances him out. He joins late in the game, but plays an important role throughout the rest of the story. I'll leave this for you to discover. Spend no money or effort on this character. You will find a suitable weapon for him and is worthless with even the best weapons equipped on him. Just take him as you get him and dump any leftovers on him.
Artea is the last character to join your party. He has the 2 strongest spells in the game and fights Selan for the first attack in battles throughout the rest of the game and usually wins. He is relatively weak in strength, but makes up for it in magical abilities.
Among all these characters, after Artea joins, your party is as follows: Maxim, Guy, Selan, Artea. The rest leave for reasons that you will have to play the game to discover.
In addition to the many characters above, you also have the ability to gain several support characters known as Capsule monsters. Now, before anyone makes any jokes, this game came way before Pokemon. And no, you do not use balls to catch the capsule monsters...Anyway, you can go the entire game without ever finding or using a capsule monster, but they are very handy and could prove to be your best characters in battles, that is if you are lucky enough to not have them run from battle. Each capsule monster can be leveled up and....*sigh*....each monster can also evolve. Unlike Pokemon, however, (at least as far as I know) you have to feed the monster certain foods in order to have them evolve. The food can be any of your extra items (armor, weapons, potions, etc) as well as certain foods specially made for the monsters.
Ignoring the slight similarity with Pokemon, the game really shines with its dungeons. Unlike most traditional RPGs (ie Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest) Lufia decides to not use random encounters while in a dungeon, and puts the monsters on the map. You can see them, you can fight them, you can ignore them, and you can freeze them. Whatever you decide to do, the game feels more like a puzzle or platformer game while in dungeons and it is done very well. Not to mention, dungeons are set up in a very Zelda like fashion with different puzzle's to solve in every one. Not to mention all the hidden areas in certain dungeons that people completely miss all the time. Not to mention, the hardest puzzle in the game (or any game for that matter), is not only difficult to solve, but is also difficult to even get into. There is a puzzle door blocking the puzzle room and most people cannot figure it out without some outside help. Sound fun? Well it is! Just remember, the extremely difficult puzzles are not entirely necessary to beat the game. They only help by giving some superior items and the feeling that you solved it by yourself (if that's the case). I personally played through the game on my first time back whenever the game came out without even knowing about the difficult puzzle. After learning about it, I played through the game again and solved it in a week.
All the details aside, this game has absolutely the best story in a videogame that I have ever seen. People will argue that with me, but I have yet to see a game that kept me enthralled all the way through to the end, never thinking once that old thought that sometimes hits me while playing some games "Why in the world am I playing this." I loved this game so much that I have beat it more times than I can count. Not to mention that this game was the very FIRST game that I leveled every single character up to the level cap (level 99). In addition, I have a method of leveling that most guide writers STILL do not know about and takes a few hours max to get high enough that you do not have to worry about anything else for the rest of the game, and it's fairly near the beginning of the game. AND it is reusable all throughout the game. The level spot NEVER dries up and will always help you gain levels if you need them. Although I do not recommend it on your first playthrough.
Throughout the game, you will also be collecting eight magical items that will grant you a wish upon collection of them all. The items are Dragon Eggs, which you take to a dragon to grant you your one wish. He then scatters the eggs around the world in random treasure boxes for you to find once again. Any similarities to a certain anime or purely coincidentail I am sure..
Last bit of information. In this game, you level like you do in every other game. However, no special abilities are gained through levels alone. In order for you to use magic, you must purchase spells for each character. You cannot unequip spells or sell them, and the better spells are fairly expensive. However, I personally believe this is a very useful aspect of the game and prefer it to the old "Wow, suddenly I know how to revive a fallen party member simply because I leveled up! Woot!"
:arrow: [The Reason]
Why in the world am I advertising this game you ask? Well I'll tell you. This game deserves a playthrough by every RPG fan, and many are unwilling to try it by buying it, and many more are unwilling to do it the less legal way (ROMs). There are even some that have been unable to find a working ROM or a ROM that plays all the way through. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself of making a full clone of the entire game. I am still in development phases and likely will be for years as this isn't on the highest of priorities. In fact it is probably the lowest of my priorities. However, it is on my todo list and I've laid out plans already. So what I need are some people who are willing to help out with the creation of this project.
:arrow: [Recruitment Details]
What I need, is not artists or programmers. What I need is people who can help create maps. I have the tiles already, at least I think I do, and I know every secret there is to be found in the game with very careful exploration. The tiles are not in a usable format yet because I got them from someone who ripped them for use in another project. So that is another job in itself because it is so many files. I am unsure if they are all in the same format, which means I am unsure if a program can be made to automatically sort them into a better usable format.
I believe I have all of the tiles used in the game. In addition, I have many of the sprites used ingame minus a few here and there. These will need to be converted to a usable format, but otherwise we have them. We do need all of the spell animations that are used ingame and if someone could figure out whether the special effects seen in game are drawn realtime or are graphics (like the energy emitting from their bodies) that would be great. Of course I'm not too worried about those, if push comes to shove I can recreate those fairly easily I believe.
I will provide the mapping tools and all the tiles as soon as they are sorted out. I will also setup a server where all data can be stored in a central location where everyone will be able to access. There is no money involved and as this is a clone, every person has to have extraordinary attention to detail.
While maps are being made, I will also need a few people who are willing to play through the game extremely slowly so that we can get numbers, stats, etc down. And either these people or extra people so that we can get copy down the game's script.
As this is a BS:S project, all the current admin (Steven, Krum, and Myself) have full authority over the project and will closely monitor all progress. Again this project could take awhile so there is no rush and if you only wish to help out for short periods at a time, that's perfectly fine. However, we will CLOSELY monitor all progress to ensure that something is being done and no one goes power crazy and deletes everything. That said, all work created and submitted to us will further belong to Burningstorm Studios. You can request that we no longer use your work and we may oblige, however, we may not as well. You will receive full credit for your work and that we will never touch for as long as we use it.
:arrow: [Positions Available]
Mappers
These people will be going through the game very slowly, whether through the ROM or the actual cartridge, and carefully recreate every single map that is assigned to them. Each person that is recruited will be assigned a certain location in the game and it will be their duty to get to that point in the game and work their way through it slowly. After the location is finished, the person may be assigned a new area. Requests for specific locations is allowable, as long as there is no more than 2 people working on a specific location. I only want 2 people on the same location, preferably one, but 2 is fine. If a second person is assigned, the two people will have to agree to have constant communication with the other and monitor each other's work so that all errors are found. As locations are finished, they will should be run through a specialized tool designed to combine the maps into one, as well as take an overall picture of them all in order for closer examination. The maps will then be submitted to a separate database that Admin will review as they have the opportunities.
Requirements: Must have attention to detail and take criticism well. (We won't yell at you, we promise. We will give hints, and tell what you are doing wrong though.) All tools will be provided.
Examiners
These people will go through the game extremely slowly and work out the calculations for stats, etc. They will carefully measure enemy levels and stats, determine what magics they can use, etc. They will also need to take inventory on game items, and find where they can be found, how much they cost, who drops what, etc. Much of this can be found on other sites, but I want these people to ensure that those calculations, etc are correct. You must be able to work with a team and respond to comments and questions constructively.
Requirements: Patience. Communication skills. Any tools needed will be provided.
Graphic Artists
I do not believe that we will need many of this. However, there are many graphics that we do not have from this game and I we need them all. Any graphics that we don't have, you will either need to make them, or find them. Don't care which, as long as it gets done. Research will also need to be done to find out whether certain sequences are actual movies or are done in real time. And either way, will need to either recreate or acquire the sequence. Inquire for further details.
Requirements: Must have some kind of image editing program and be fairly versatile with it. Any additional tools MAY be provided.
Script Writers
The title is kind of misleading as the script is already written. We just need it retrieved. These people will play through the game very slowly copying the script as they go. Once the job is completed, they should go through the game a second time to ensure accuracy. This will take quite awhile because of the many NPC dialogs in the game. You will especially have to ensure that you go back to certain locations multiple times throughout the game to ensure that NPC dialogs have not changed due to some significant event.
Requirements: Attention to detail.
:!: If you wish to apply for any position, you may post here, or send an e-mail to us via [email protected] :!:
Finally as a final note, none of theses positions pay any money. You will be doing this as a fan of a great game. Anybody who contributes to this project will have proper recognition in the credits. In addition, anyone who contributes to this project will have the special privilege of being the first and only users who will ever get to use BS:S specialized tools designed exclusively for the ORPG that has been in production.
This is a big project and I am sure will take time to both get done and to get some good recruits. However, I am sure if the word is spread far enough to the correct sites, we will begin to see a steady flow of contributers as well as fans flocking to this project. And yes, there is a possibility of further expanding this project upon completion, but that will have to wait for another day.