It's been a long time since I've been on this thread, and I came in just to impart a couple of words before I vanish back to my boring day job and college again.
Well thanks for investing the time to be here then!
First: I'm SO glad you are continuing with game design for both this, and your new original game(is it weird that I'm super hype for the new original game over a telling of Z?)!!!
I'm honestly not sure how far I'll get with either, given how crazy my life is becoming, but I hope to get
something out sometime. And it's not weird at all. We have LOG, we have Kakarot. We have a million Z games. We don't really have anything original.
Second: I'm replaying it since, I believe, the 21st WMAT was first finished. So quite a while ago now. And I just wanted to let you know that the updates I've seen to just the beginning are awesome! Maybe it's just because I haven't replayed it in a hot minute, but it feels so fresh! I especially love the new content in the way of the Horse Quest that you can do before getting Launch (or maybe you can do it after getting her to? I'm writing this comment as I replay the game, so please correct me if I'm wrong). It makes that area have so much more to do.
Horse quest should be available through to the end of King Piccolo (unless I've broken something). Definitely thought it'd be nice to add something to do.
As for this part of my comment, I've finished through all of the Pilaf Saga, and it feels smoother. I will say that the QOL change you've made to allow the person where Baba can be found to sell her quest items feels a bit cheap in terms of grinding for it, but also allows for faster gameplay. You made a tough call allowing that, and for those who want to just quickly complete the quest. It also provides a quick out if the RNG Gods aren't doing you a favor in spawning the necessary enemies, or just giving them the drops. Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I love that you gave a quick way to solve the quest without requiring someone to sink tons of time into waiting for the drops. It's a VAST improvement over how that quest originally played out.
In all honesty... I think I added that there for testing and then completely forgot about it. I might just leave it.
Third: The sprites look different and much improved in comparison to how I've seen them in the past. I've kept up with this thread and never had the time to comment on this, so I just wanted to say your efforts have not gone unnoticed! They're awesome! A comment about Bulma's sprite, I have a file of it that looks a bit more accurate to her portrait/rendition in the Pilaf Saga, if you'd like me to send it your way.
Thank you very much! And yes, please. If you have a 4 directional walking sprite that looks a lot better, I would gladly have it!
Fourth: Back to the 21st WMAT Retelling you've done, I like that the maps are now so much more explorable. You've given a lot to do in the way of collecting items, because before it didn't feel as worth exploring as it does now. I can't tell you how long I spend on each unlocked map just exploring to get everything before I either progress the quests/story or travel further. So well done!
Thanks heaps! I try to make them reasonably open while sort of interesting so it's not just vast emptiness.
(Just a side-bar question: Is Monster Carrot, perhaps, in another location? I know he wasn't as of the 21st WMAT Release, but what about now? I'm excited to look out for him, even if he isn't anywhere else.)
He's always been in Fungus Town, which is just near Pilaf's Castle. His lair is to the top left of the town. Even from the first release, he's always been there as an optional boss. I left it out of the story because it never seemed like it was necessary, even in the manga.
I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but if you climb up the rope to head toward the area where the Horse can be found, you can get down without walking around to get to Launch. It doesn't break the game at all as you can't even interact with her, but you can get right behind her, and just wanted to bring it to your attention. I don't think it was mentioned at all.
Far from intentional, and I just tested and couldn't make it happen. Can you send me a video?
For what it's worth, I think I can find where you may have done it, and I've just blocked that off.
As I have work tomorrow and some assignments due, I can't give a fully detailed analysis or continue complimenting this awesome game until I get a bit further. But I just wanted to let you know that your efforts are NOT unnoticed! I'm enjoying going through this rendition, and excited to see what else it has to offer. I'll be sporadically commenting from henceforth just with updates, what else I see (potential bugs or otherwise) and just to sing praise to the game. Thank you for developing this! It's awesome to go through!
Thanks heaps. Notes, bugs and suggestions are more than welcome, especially as I continue working on 1.0.
Edit: Just a quick edit, and a bug(?) I found it because I was just exploring to explore. When you get to training island, if you explore the forest before talking to Roshi, he just disappears nowhere to be found. Just wanted to raise this to everyone else's attention. Though it should be noted I also went up the mountain prior to talking to Roshi as well.
Hm... neither of those
should be happening. Did you interact with anything in either the jungle or mountain?