A Berserk Action RPG Fangame

Hey guys, I hope this is the correct place to put this thread >.> But yeah, I posted this on the Berserk subreddit, and funnily enough, it was my first actual post on Reddit. And it's my first post on here, too ^^ I want to get as many opinions on this as I can, and once I feel like I have a good 20 min of gameplay or so I'll post an actual demo here.

So yeah (and I'll just be copy-pasting what I wrote on Reddit here if you don't mind), for a while now, I've been toying around with RPG Maker (WAIT wait.... before you laugh this off and close the thread, please hear me out...) and I came across this script for the engine that allows real-time combat called "Falcao Pearl ABS Battle System." While messing around with it, I gave my character a huge ass sword. And then it hit me: BERSERK. A Berserk RPG with real-time combat akin to Zelda or Secret of Mana would be pretty sweet. So I set out to find if anyone else has tried making a Berserk fangame, and what I found was... quite horrendous: http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=10223.0 <--- I don't know how many of you here on SK.net remember this catastrophe, and it would probably be for the best if you didn't. Hahah
It's so bad. Soooo bad and cringe worthy (although I have to admit... the thread is pretty freaking hilarious, read it for a good laugh). I decided I would download the crappy game myself, but, fortunately, the links were dead. Darn.
So then I thought... How about I take up this job? I'll improve my skills with RPG Maker and this battle system script, and make a game that would be a nice little tribute to the greatest manga ever made.
And that's why I come to you guys: would you be interested in some sort of Berserk Action RPG? Do you have any ideas of how the gameplay could be like? Or do you have any ideas on a story? I want to know what other fans would want out of a fangame like this.
OBVIOUSLY, this is going to be a completely non-commercial, just-for-fun project. Just a disclaimer.
But yeah, should this fangame project be a sidestory or should it follow a part of the manga? What are your guys' thoughts on the matter?

And while we're at it, I made a really quick spritesheet for Guts: http://i.imgur.com/vPm5Crb.png

EDIT: I added in Guts' nose scar and removed that terrible scar from his eye! http://i.imgur.com/MBMinOj.png
 

Grail

Feel the funk blast
Hi there HikariJake! Welcome to the forum!

This certainly sounds like an ambitious project to start, and one (as you mentioned) that has been attempted before. I use the word "attempted" loosely. Oh, Tito, fond memories. :griffnotevil:

Anyway, I really like the idea of an action RPG like you're describing! I too have tried to get the hang of RPG Maker but never quite had the willpower to sort through all the menus. :ganishka: So good on you for fighting the good fight!

I think it's smart to gauge interest in a particular type of game before diving in head-first. I personally always liked the idea of fan-written Black Swordsman side-story, or something with Guts and his current band of pals. I would say doing something simple and then expanding on it will make the most sense. I'm sure you could follow a section of the manga too if you'd find that easier, since you'll be getting the hang of putting together the game first.

Let me conclude with some questions for you: if you explore the idea further and decide that you really want to commit to creating this game, where are areas that you'd like some help from the community? I'm sure there are folks (including myself) who would be happy to help you to create something fun and memorable. :guts: Just promise not to call it "Berserk Gaiden." :troll:
 
Grail said:
Hi there HikariJake! Welcome to the forum!

This certainly sounds like an ambitious project to start, and one (as you mentioned) that has been attempted before. I use the word "attempted" loosely. Oh, Tito, fond memories. :griffnotevil:

Anyway, I really like the idea of an action RPG like you're describing! I too have tried to get the hang of RPG Maker but never quite had the willpower to sort through all the menus. :ganishka: So good on you for fighting the good fight!

I think it's smart to gauge interest in a particular type of game before diving in head-first. I personally always liked the idea of fan-written Black Swordsman side-story, or something with Guts and his current band of pals. I would say doing something simple and then expanding on it will make the most sense. I'm sure you could follow a section of the manga too if you'd find that easier, since you'll be getting the hang of putting together the game first.

Let me conclude with some questions for you: if you explore the idea further and decide that you really want to commit to creating this game, where are areas that you'd like some help from the community? I'm sure there are folks (including myself) who would be happy to help you to create something fun and memorable. :guts: Just promise not to call it "Berserk Gaiden." :troll:

Thank you for the warm welcome and for taking interest in this project! :serpico:

I would love to have the community help with this game! Especially when it comes to things like graphics and art design. Pixel art is most certainly not my strong point (that Guts sprite that I created was made using pre-designed assets from a program called Game Character Hub; hence the scar on his eye and the clearly not-accurate armor). Any story ideas are also very welcome!
What would you be interested in doing for the game in case you would like to help? ^_^

Also, I'm sure "Berserk: Gaiden" would be more fitting for this game than for that abomination. Hahah But yeah it's a pretty terrible title.
 

Grail

Feel the funk blast
HikariJake said:
Thank you for the warm welcome and for taking interest in this project! :serpico:

No sweat man. It just looks like you did your homework and are coming at it from a humble angle. Respect. :puck:

HikariJake said:
I would love to have the community help with this game! Especially when it comes to things like graphics and art design. Pixel art is most certainly not my strong point (that Guts sprite that I created was made using pre-designed assets from a program called Game Character Hub; hence the scar on his eye and the clearly not-accurate armor). Any story ideas are also very welcome!

Sure! I'd definitely be volunteering my art skills in this case, but if you have some story ideas that you'd like to bounce around, you can always shoot me a PM.

If I were in your shoes, the main thing I'd want to do is get a broad sense of what you'll be creating before getting too far with specific/time consuming stuff like the art assets. Gameplay and story will probably be your focus to start, and until you get the main stuff hashed out, maybe you can use placeholders for the artwork? It may save time in the long run.

HikariJake said:
Also, I'm sure "Berserk: Gaiden" would be more fitting for this game than for that abomination. Hahah But yeah it's a pretty terrible title.

You're right! I was just being cheeky. :badbone:
 
Hi, welcome! I don't know if I can really help you, I'm not a very creative person, but I'm looking forward to see what you will show us, good luck!
 
Grail said:
No sweat man. It just looks like you did your homework and are coming at it from a humble angle. Respect. :puck:

Sure! I'd definitely be volunteering my art skills in this case, but if you have some story ideas that you'd like to bounce around, you can always shoot me a PM.

If I were in your shoes, the main thing I'd want to do is get a broad sense of what you'll be creating before getting too far with specific/time consuming stuff like the art assets. Gameplay and story will probably be your focus to start, and until you get the main stuff hashed out, maybe you can use placeholders for the artwork? It may save time in the long run.

You're right! I was just being cheeky. :badbone:

You're right. Right now the gameplay is rather repetitive, the combat is pretty much a hack 'n slash where you just swing the Dragonslayer like crazy and shoot arrows/cannons rapidly. So perhaps I should work on more depth. Maybe add some sword combos or something.
Right now I am using some placeholder graphics I found online, and for now it does the job but if I want to make this project great then artists are definitely needed to make some tilesets.
I would love to have your help! One thing you could do besides tilesets would be designing apostles for the boss fights. I wanna make them terrifying like they are in the manga and any help with that would be fantastic. If you want to help out I'll shoot you a PM regarding the specifications of the spritesheets needed to make the apostles and stuff.

foolpuck said:
Hi, welcome! I don't know if I can really help you, I'm not a very creative person, but I'm looking forward to see what you will show us, good luck!

Thank you! That's completely fine, and I hope that this game will be fun to play.
 

Grail

Feel the funk blast
HikariJake said:
You're right. Right now the gameplay is rather repetitive, the combat is pretty much a hack 'n slash where you just swing the Dragonslayer like crazy and shoot arrows/cannons rapidly. So perhaps I should work on more depth. Maybe add some sword combos or something.

Yeah, that would be cool! It's also a good idea to see what other successful RPG Maker games are doing, if they're similar to what you're envisioning.

HikariJake said:
Right now I am using some placeholder graphics I found online, and for now it does the job but if I want to make this project great then artists are definitely needed to make some tilesets.
I would love to have your help! One thing you could do besides tilesets would be designing apostles for the boss fights. I wanna make them terrifying like they are in the manga and any help with that would be fantastic. If you want to help out I'll shoot you a PM regarding the specifications of the spritesheets needed to make the apostles and stuff.

Sure, PM me and we can talk more about it. :serpico:
 
Hey guys, not really much of an update as I haven't gotten too far with the game tbh, but I have a crucial question and I wanna know your guys' opinions:
So I want this game to be a side story obviously, but I am stuck at where it should take place in the canon. There's a few spots that I can think of where it could take place:
-Before the Black Swordsman arc, after Guts gets the Dragonslayer but before he gets his reputation as the Black Swordsman
-After the Black Swordsman arc but before the Lost Children arc (I think that there is a decent time gap between these arcs? Correct me if I'm wrong)
-After the Conviction arc when Guts is traveling with Casca (I was thinking about doing this but I don't want to write off Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage as never happening because Miura himself wrote the scenario... do you think I could set it after the events of Guts' Rage without overlapping the main story?)
-After Guts and co leave Flora and Guts obtains the Berserker armor, but before they reach Vrittanis (I'd like to do this actually since I think it would be cool to have Guts' New Party in the game, but I don't know if it could work as Guts is in terrible condition and Schierke's spell prevents demons from being swarmed to the brand... :farnese:)

That's all I've got. Which one do you think would work best, and/or do you guys have any ideas on a time period in the manga that's open-ended enough to fit a side story? Thanks :serpico:
 
Personally, I'd like to see something from before Black Swordsman


The slug guy (I think he was either the Baron or the Count, but I can't for the life me remember) mentions that Guts killed more than a few Apostles by the time he got there. It'd be neat to see a few examples.

Something before Lost Children would be cool too.
 
I'd really like to include Puck in the game from the beginning, so having it set after BS arc but before LC would be ideal. Does anyone know how much time is set between these two arcs?
The Berserk wiki says three days but I don't know how reliable that is. 3 days probably isn't enough for a whole game...
Then again, games like Batman: Arkham City take place in a single night iirc
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
HikariJake said:
I'd really like to include Puck in the game from the beginning, so having it set after BS arc but before LC would be ideal. Does anyone know how much time is set between these two arcs?
The Berserk wiki says three days but I don't know how reliable that is. 3 days probably isn't enough for a whole game...

The duration between the end of the Black Swordsman Arc and the beginning of Lost Children is never specified. Three days is hogwash. For convenience sake, I've always regarded Black Swordsman to take place a year after the Golden Age, and Lost Children officially begins 2 years after. Here's a little timeline I made for the Encyclopedia a long time ago.

To answer your earlier question, if you're going to do a side story, I think the period between Black Swordsman and Lost Children would be good, because with Puck's inclusion, it'd be easier to crib a new story and stay close to the source material.
 
Walter said:
The duration between the end of the Black Swordsman Arc and the beginning of Lost Children is never specified. Three days is hogwash. For convenience sake, I've always regarded Black Swordsman to take place a year after the Golden Age, and Lost Children officially begins 2 years after. Here's a little timeline I made for the Encyclopedia a long time ago.

To answer your earlier question, if you're going to do a side story, I think the period between Black Swordsman and Lost Children would be good, because with Puck's inclusion, it'd be easier to crib a new story and stay close to the source material.

That is great to know. Three days would not be a lot to work with.
And not that I don't believe you, since you know a LOT about Berserk from your posts that I have seen, but how do you know that Lost Children officially takes place 2 years after Golden Age? Does it say that directly in the manga?
And that timeline should be incredibly helpful!!

I'm going to go with before LC but after BS then. It does seem like the best idea.
Thanks! :guts:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
HikariJake said:
how do you know that Lost Children officially takes place 2 years after Golden Age? Does it say that directly in the manga?

Yes, it says so directly in the manga, right as the chapter starts.
 
Aazealh said:
Yes, it says so directly in the manga, right as the chapter starts.

Nice, I don't remember that.
I should probably reread BS and LC before I start the story for this game if I want to be as accurate as possible.

EDIT: Yup, just looked over episode 110 and it does indeed say "2 years later". Awesome :serpico:
 
Walter said:
The duration between the end of the Black Swordsman Arc and the beginning of Lost Children is never specified. Three days is hogwash. For convenience sake, I've always regarded Black Swordsman to take place a year after the Golden Age, and Lost Children officially begins 2 years after. Here's a little timeline I made for the Encyclopedia a long time ago.

To answer your earlier question, if you're going to do a side story, I think the period between Black Swordsman and Lost Children would be good, because with Puck's inclusion, it'd be easier to crib a new story and stay close to the source material.

That's a fantastic idea, Walter. A lot of apostles took part in the Sacrifice ceremony. Of all those apostles who killed and eaten his friends, Guts was shown killing only the following ones during his revenge quest - Pig Apostle (Golden Age), Female Apostle, the Snake Baron of Koka and the Snail Count (Black Swordsman arc). Plus, there's Rosine (Lost Children). That makes five apostles with on-screen deaths at the hands of Guts. So how about other apostles who weren't shown in the manga again and remain unaccounted for? The side-story RPG game could be about Guts tracking down and killing those other apostles from the Sacrifice ceremony who were never seen again in the manga. For example, that phallic-shaped apostle who strung up Casca with his tentacles and was about to kill her with his horn. Or how about those several bulbous hippopotamus looking apostles from the episode "Twilight of the Right Eye" who held Guts down while Casca was being raped by Femto, and one of whom gouged out Guts' right eye with its talons? Why not have Guts kill them? HikariJake can even give those apostles names and provide them with their own back stories. If I was making this RPG game, I would have it end with Guts confronting Volkov (the apostle who chewed off his left arm). Guts would fight Volkov to a bitter stalemate, and just as Guts was about to deliver the finishing blow, Volkov manages to escape. Which means Volkov gets to live to serve in Griffith's neo-Band of Hawk, allowing the game not to mess with the original manga continuity. Exhausted and heavily injured, Guts would then be healed by Puck, who urges him to call off his chase after Volkov for now, and get himself some sleep and allow his body rest. Lest his wounds reopen, you know. Guts listens to Puck's advice and finds himself a shelter under the oak tree that just happens to be the very same cursed tree where human sacrifices once took places. That in turn nicely sets the story up for Guts' encounter with Jill and the bandits who held her captive, allowing the RPG smoothly segue into the events in Lost Children arc from episode 95 and beyond. What do you think? :guts:
 
Johnny Apples said:
What do you think? :guts:

I think that those are AMAZING ideas! Wow! :ubik: I love how nicely it ties into the manga and ends at the beginning of LC. Thank you so much~ I will definitely use these ideas, if you don't mind :guts:
 

Aulë

Studying Electrical engineering.
It would be very helpful from an RPG perspective if it were in Guts teens. (11-15 years old. between the time he killed Gambino and Bazuzo.)

1) The story would start right after Guts escape from bandits when he killed Gambino. Guts would be lvl 1 and naked (with no gear)

2) through various quests and mercenary jobs, Guts gains gold exp so he can buy more gear and food.

3) Ends 4 years later with Bazuzo as last boss.

It you were to put guts in any other point in time his gear aspect of the game would be pointless. Also the money thing also pointless. You would be only left with exp

Also in an RPG it's always awesome if you have to make choices that change the game. ( For example "show mercy? Yes No If no Guts kills the man and loots his corpse if yes man is grateful and gives Guts some valuable info and some money )
 
Aulë said:
It would be very helpful from an RPG perspective if it were in Guts teens. (11-15 years old. between the time he killed Gambino and Bazuzo.)

1) The story would start right after Guts escape from bandits when he killed Gambino. Guts would be lvl 1 and naked (with no gear)

2) through various quests and mercenary jobs, Guts gains gold exp so he can buy more gear and food.

3) Ends 4 years later with Bazuzo as last boss.

It you were to put guts in any other point in time his gear aspect of the game would be pointless. Also the money thing also pointless. You would be only left with exp

Also in an RPG it's always awesome if you have to make choices that change the game. ( For example "show mercy? Yes No If no Guts kills the man and loots his corpse if yes man is grateful and gives Guts some valuable info and some money )

I can't really say I agree. I guess I use the words "Action RPG" loosely; it'll be more like a hack n slash with Zelda-style exploration and some simple puzzles.
There are games like FF7 where the player starts out with his signature weapon. Sure, you can upgrade it; but who's to say you can't "upgrade" the Dragonslayer? I don't mean change its look, but upgrade its stats and such. I'm not too sure how it would work but I think it could.
I'd argue that in games like Zelda, while upgrading your sword a few times can be charming, the real fun is with exploring the world and the dungeons, fighting enemies and epic bosses, and watching the story pan out (however simplistic most Zelda stories may be).

The PS2 Millennium Falcon game did this rather well, although my game will obviously be top-down and sprite based with further emphasis on exploration. The main point of this game will be the sidestory and beating the crap out of monsters :iva:

Plus, Black Swordsman Guts fighting demons and apostles with the Dragonslayer, a cannon, arrows, and bombs, not to mention having Puck as a healer > Young Guts doing mercenary tasks to get food with the 'biggest' enemy being Bazuzo. That's kind of boring tbh. If anything Bazuzo should be the first boss.

Thanks for your input, though.
 
If you want some help on what Apostles to make elegible for the hunt between BS and LC, here are the reoccuring ones after the Eclipse, so obviously, none of them should die. The rest are up for grabs.

http://imgur.com/a/ZAp8p
 
HikariJake said:
There are games like FF7 where the player starts out with his signature weapon. Sure, you can upgrade it; but who's to say you can't "upgrade" the Dragonslayer?

Well, you could always have the attack strength/efficacy of the Dragonslayer level up as you kill Apostles. The Dragonslayer never really changes its look, but it does become more powerful and effective as the manga progresses. That whole thing about existing on two planes/blood of demons you know.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Eneshi said:
Well, you could always have the attack strength/efficacy of the Dragonslayer level up as you kill Apostles. The Dragonslayer never really changes its look, but it does become more powerful and effective as the manga progresses. That whole thing about existing on two planes/blood of demons you know.

That's not really how it works.

Also guys, "Dragon Slayer" isn't a single word. Same for Black Swordsman or God Hand.
 
Could I get a better explanation then please? I don't know that this is the thread for it really, but I seem to have misinterpreted the whole thing in that case. I guess it doesn't really become more "powerful" but more effective/useful against beings of the astral plane right? Right? I just started here, I don't know...
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Eneshi said:
I guess it doesn't really become more "powerful" but more effective/useful against beings of the astral plane right? Right?

Yeah, that's more like it. Basically a sword would normally be useless against an ethereal being because it's purely corporeal. But the enormous amount of evil creatures Guts has killed with the Dragon Slayer has imbued it with their essence over time. That's why it was effective at all against Slan and Ganishka while other attacks were futile.
 
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