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General discussionRelease: 8-Bit Adventures 1: The Forgotten Journey Remastered Edition(51 posts)(51 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted August 09, 2021
Join 3 unlikely heroes on a quest to save their world in a retro-styled JRPG with polish and personality, that focuses less on references and more on telling a story. 8-Bit Adventures 1: The Forgotten Journey Remastered Edition is now available on GOG.COM with a 60% discount that will fade away on 16th August 2021, at 1 PM UTC.

Itching for even more virtual journeys into the unknown? We have good news – 8-Bit Adventures 2 is coming soon to GOG.COM!

Share our love for games? Subscribe to our newsletter for news, releases, and exclusive discounts. Visit the “Privacy & settings” section of your GOG account to join now!
Posted August 11, 2021
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Alexim: Thank you so much for the thorough explanation, I understand the situation and really appreciate the effort to look for a solution!

@ GOG staff: time to update the GOG SDK so you can help this talented developer!
My absolute pleasure - thanks for your understanding! The GOG team is wonderful, so fingers crossed we can make something happen =D But I'm sorry I can't promise anything!

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DarkBattler: It is very nice to see a developper taking the time to answer questions like you do. It is so rare.

I bought the bundle to have the soundtrack alongside the game, and even though I have not played the game yet, I really love the music. I cannot stop listening to it.
Since the albums are composed of very well encoded MP3s, their sound quality is quite good, but would it be possible to have them in a lossless format, like WAV or FLAC?
I'm sorry to hear that more developers don't answer questions and comments. Responding to people does take a lot of time, and I suppose if you have a big release it's difficult to get to everyone. But personally, if someone takes the time to write about my game, I always want to take the time to respond. I'll do it for as long as I can, anyway =D

Thank you so much for purchasing the bundle - I'm so glad that you're enjoying the soundtrack! I know exactly what you mean; I listen to it all the time haha. I've been incredibly fortunate to work with a composer as talented as Sebastian Cruz (he's done a 78 song soundtrack for 8-Bit Adventures 2, so there's a lot more where that came from too!).

That's an excellent question! If I recall correctly, there *was* a specific reason we went with MP3, but I'll write to Sebastian and ask about that. Thanks again!

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Doc0075: I'm not sure if this is really my sort of game but I just bought it anyway to show my appreciation for the Dev coming here to answer our questions.
I wish more Devs would interact with us.
Wow, that's incredibly kind of you Doc0075 - thank you very much! I'm glad I have the opportunity to interact with everyone, and I'm always happy to answer questions/help out where I can =) If you end up playing the game, I really hope you enjoy it, but regardless I sincerely appreciate the gesture!

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dtgreene: It's honestly very interesting to hear about what games influence a given game, so thank you for posting that bit of info.

I've been thinking of making an RPG myself, though the likely influences would be different, with the main ones likely being:
* Final Fantasy 2 and 5
* The SaGa series
* Possibly some Dragon Quest thrown in there

Ideally, I'd want both a job system (like in Final Fantasy 3/5) and SaGa-like stat growth in the RPG I make, but it's proving tricky to reconcile those two mechanics. Of course, I'd want to avoid what I see as the biggest flaws in these games, like how weapon techniques in SaGa games tend to almost all be damaging attacks that just blend together.

(I have not played either Wild Arms or Earthbound Beginnings. I have played Earthbound, though I don't think it's as good as early Dragon Quest; the enemy AI is stupid about its use of healing spells, for example.)
My pleasure - I love talking about RPGs, so it's great to have the opportunity. And I think you have an incredibly unique idea there! Honestly, I don't know if I've seen an indie RPG pull from those specific influences - probably because, as you say, reconciling those mechanics would be a big challenge. Sounds like you're on the right track though; identifying the problem with so many abilities being straight-forward damaging attacks is very important (a lot of games make that mistake - I strayed into that camp with 8-Bit Adventures 1 to some degree).

Wild Arms 1 I highly recommend - its gameplay is a bit archaic, but the music, characters, 2D visuals, and endgame content are fantastic. It also updates its NPC dialogue in almost every town constantly throughout the game, which I found really impressive. The Earthbound games are definitely not remembered for their gameplay, but I love their quirky worlds and approach to story-telling - the writing especially I find very charming =)

Good luck with your own development!
Posted August 11, 2021
That's some unpleasantly mismatched pixel art.

I mean the mixture of resolutions all over the place. As an obvious example, look at that screenshot on the airship. The character sprites and barrels are using one resolution, the tilemap of the ship is much higher resolution for no reason (certainly at odds with the intended aesthetic of this game) and the clouds are for some reason around the same resolution as the characters.

The next screenshot mostly uses the same resolution as the characters for the tilemap, apart from the houses which are seemingly double the resolution and the trees which are weirdly half the resolution of the characters.

EDIT: Oop, I see we have the dev in the thread. I've dialed back the meanness and just left it a bit more informative.

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dtgreene: Have you looked at Action 52?
Different kind of bad. The NES wasn't even really capable of that sort of asset "resolution" mismatching.
Post edited August 11, 2021 by my name is supyreor catte
Posted August 11, 2021
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my name is supyreor catte: That's some unpleasantly mismatched pixel art.

EDIT: Oop, I see we have the dev in the thread. I've dialed back the meanness and just left it a bit more informative.
It's all good! I'm probably more aware of the visual faults of 8-Bit Adventures 1 than anyone haha. As I was drawing a lot of assets myself, and I had absolutely *no* ability to draw, I ran into trouble whenever I had to make anything larger than a couple of tiles. Stupid ol' me thought that the best way to get around this was to draw things small and scale them up - "because then" he thought, despite the obvious resolution mismatch, "at least things were the right scale in the world". But it's definitely one of those things I look back on and just slap my forehead for being so stupid XD That said, ultimately, it got the game/story/characters/world/music out there to players, so the visuals did what they were meant to do - as self-conscious as I do feel about them.

Thankfully all of the visuals in 8-Bit Adventures 2 were produced by a very talented artist (Jerram Fahey, also known as World-of-NoeL) who had oversight over the whole project and stopped me from making any stupid visual mistakes this time haha. Having the budget to hire people who can do the jobs I can't made a world of difference =)
Posted August 11, 2021
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CriticalGames: My pleasure - I love talking about RPGs, so it's great to have the opportunity. And I think you have an incredibly unique idea there! Honestly, I don't know if I've seen an indie RPG pull from those specific influences - probably because, as you say, reconciling those mechanics would be a big challenge. Sounds like you're on the right track though; identifying the problem with so many abilities being straight-forward damaging attacks is very important (a lot of games make that mistake - I strayed into that camp with 8-Bit Adventures 1 to some degree).
I find that it's not that common to see indie RPGs with SaGa influence (even if I've seen Rogue Legacy, a game I don't count as an RPG, independently implementing a generational system like Romancing SaGa 2 does); in fact, the only one I can think of is a little freeware game called Rxcovery. It's a rather interesting game, with an unusual plot (you have 30 minutes to pay your hospital bill, but fortunately, there's New Game + if you run out of time), and with growth mechanics that don't involve levels and experience points. (Rxcovery is an RPG maker game, and there's some ways in which the disconnect between the game's mechanics and the mechanics the engine shows through; for example, the save/load screen shows what would be the character's level (it's always 1), and the menu shows current and max HP for everyone (even though HP recovers automatically after every battle).)

The thing I like most about the SaGa series is its unconventional approach to stat growth; you don't gain experience points and levels, but instead gain stats based off your action during combat. (Well, not always; playing SaGa 2 with an all-robot party, for example, is a different experience, where equipment dictates your stats, but you also can equip multiple items of the same type. SaGa 1 has you buying stat boosts for Humans, in a manner that is somewhat reminiscent of Ultima 3 (have you played that game?), except that you can buy stat boosts right from the start.)
Posted August 11, 2021
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my name is supyreor catte: That's some unpleasantly mismatched pixel art.

EDIT: Oop, I see we have the dev in the thread. I've dialed back the meanness and just left it a bit more informative.
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CriticalGames: It's all good!
I just want to say you're a very patience man. This forum can be toxic sometimes but I'm glad you can handle the mean comments well. The thing about gaming forums is that it can eaten away at your soul sometimes if you deal with negativity all the time. I know, I graduated from old Gamefaqs forum, 4chan, and the worst, Escapist forum hahahaha


Edit: They're all still better than the shit hole that is Kotaku.
Post edited August 11, 2021 by RedRagan
Posted August 11, 2021
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dtgreene: I find that it's not that common to see indie RPGs with SaGa influence (even if I've seen Rogue Legacy, a game I don't count as an RPG, independently implementing a generational system like Romancing SaGa 2 does); in fact, the only one I can think of is a little freeware game called Rxcovery. It's a rather interesting game, with an unusual plot (you have 30 minutes to pay your hospital bill, but fortunately, there's New Game + if you run out of time), and with growth mechanics that don't involve levels and experience points. (Rxcovery is an RPG maker game, and there's some ways in which the disconnect between the game's mechanics and the mechanics the engine shows through; for example, the save/load screen shows what would be the character's level (it's always 1), and the menu shows current and max HP for everyone (even though HP recovers automatically after every battle).)

The thing I like most about the SaGa series is its unconventional approach to stat growth; you don't gain experience points and levels, but instead gain stats based off your action during combat. (Well, not always; playing SaGa 2 with an all-robot party, for example, is a different experience, where equipment dictates your stats, but you also can equip multiple items of the same type. SaGa 1 has you buying stat boosts for Humans, in a manner that is somewhat reminiscent of Ultima 3 (have you played that game?), except that you can buy stat boosts right from the start.)
That's really interesting! The SaGa series is one of the few RPG blind-spots I have left (I only have a general knowledge and understanding of their mechanics), but it sounds like they took the core idea of FF2 and really developed it into something special. Buying stat boost is an especially unique idea; I quite like that, actually! Ultima 3 was Exodus, wasn't it? I played a couple of Ultima games when I was a kid, but never made it very far in them; the series is something I've studied from afar as the bedrock of classic RPG mechanics, more than actually played haha (although that's something I should probably rectify!).

And thanks for the info on Rxcovery! That sounds like a fascinating approach to game design. The time limit reminds me of the original Pikmin, actually. Honestly, aside from those kinds of oddities you mentioned (they all have to be coded out), that's one of the best things about RPG Maker - you can prototype game ideas and experiments really quickly. Anyway, I'll have to check that one out, so thank you! =D

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RedRagan: I just want to say you're a very patience man. This forum can be toxic sometimes but I'm glad you can handle the mean comments well. The thing about gaming forums is that it can eaten away at your soul sometimes if you deal with negativity all the time. I know, I graduated from old Gamefaqs forum, 4chan, and the worst, Escapist forum hahahaha

Edit: They're all still better than the shit hole that is Kotaku.
Aw, that's very kind of you to say RedRagan, but I've dealt with far, far worse in my time too XD Most of the time, a creator is well aware of the issues with their game, so I find that if you're upfront and honest with people, it usually defuses any tension and results in a more constructive discussion. You definitely have to be careful though; you're right that negativity can hit you hard. But thanks for the kind words - it's much appreciated! =)
Posted August 11, 2021
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CriticalGames: I'm sorry to hear that more developers don't answer questions and comments. Responding to people does take a lot of time, and I suppose if you have a big release it's difficult to get to everyone. But personally, if someone takes the time to write about my game, I always want to take the time to respond. I'll do it for as long as I can, anyway =D

Thank you so much for purchasing the bundle - I'm so glad that you're enjoying the soundtrack! I know exactly what you mean; I listen to it all the time haha. I've been incredibly fortunate to work with a composer as talented as Sebastian Cruz (he's done a 78 song soundtrack for 8-Bit Adventures 2, so there's a lot more where that came from too!).

That's an excellent question! If I recall correctly, there *was* a specific reason we went with MP3, but I'll write to Sebastian and ask about that. Thanks again!
Well, it is obvious that, because of various reasons, big companies will never answer anything, but I have seen very small games get attacked, in a way, on these forums, and the developpers never came to defend their projects.
You show passion for your work and that is a pleasant thing to witness.

However, one day, your company will probably become bigger, and you will not have the time to answer anything anymore, but it will be all right.

If you release all of the 78 tracks alongside 8-Bit Adventures 2, you can count on me to purchase them and the game as soon as they are available. I know I am way too obsessed with this, but if the soundtrack could be in a lossless format, that would be perfect.

If there was a specific reason for the music of the first game to be encoded in MP3, it is not because of the sound quality of the sample libraries, or anything sound related, I am sure of that.
I looked at the spectrograms of all the files and for MP3s, their sound quality is impressive. There are not a lot of frequencies missing for them to be truly lossless.

I will not bother you with this anymore, I perfectly understand that this is far from being a priority for you, and you have been helpful and patient enough. Thank you very much for your answers.
Posted August 11, 2021
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CriticalGames: That's really interesting! The SaGa series is one of the few RPG blind-spots I have left (I only have a general knowledge and understanding of their mechanics), but it sounds like they took the core idea of FF2 and really developed it into something special. Buying stat boost is an especially unique idea; I quite like that, actually! Ultima 3 was Exodus, wasn't it? I played a couple of Ultima games when I was a kid, but never made it very far in them; the series is something I've studied from afar as the bedrock of classic RPG mechanics, more than actually played haha (although that's something I should probably rectify!).
Yes, Ultima 3 was Exodus.

Ultima 1 might also be looking into for a bit of RPG design history, as it has mechanics you don't generally see. For example, HP is handled differently; you have no max HP stat, and as a result you don't have healing in the conventional sense. Instead, you get HP by leaving a dungeon after killing enemies, and can also trade Gold for HP at the king. It's a rather unusual approach that's definitely different from what you're likely used to. (Also, stat increases come from visiting different locations over and over, not through fighting monsters.)

Speaking of classic RPGs that are not what you'd expect, the original Dragon Quest is not your typical JRPG. You have an open world with area based enemies, so your exploration is limited by your level, and, unlike in more modern RPGs, you are expected to walk around in circles, killing enemies over and over to earn XP. Also, you have consumable keys and dark dungeons where you need a torch to see, which are mechanics that quickly disappeared from the JRPG genre.

Speaking of dark dungeons, Phantasy Star 1 might also be worth looking into. It has dark first-person dungeons (like Ultima 1-5), a female protagonist, three planets to explore, and a non-linear second half. I actually think that game holds up better than either PS2 or PS3.
Posted August 11, 2021
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my name is supyreor catte: That's some unpleasantly mismatched pixel art.

EDIT: Oop, I see we have the dev in the thread. I've dialed back the meanness and just left it a bit more informative.
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CriticalGames: It's all good! I'm probably more aware of the visual faults of 8-Bit Adventures 1 than anyone haha. As I was drawing a lot of assets myself, and I had absolutely *no* ability to draw, I ran into trouble whenever I had to make anything larger than a couple of tiles. Stupid ol' me thought that the best way to get around this was to draw things small and scale them up - "because then" he thought, despite the obvious resolution mismatch, "at least things were the right scale in the world". But it's definitely one of those things I look back on and just slap my forehead for being so stupid XD That said, ultimately, it got the game/story/characters/world/music out there to players, so the visuals did what they were meant to do - as self-conscious as I do feel about them.

Thankfully all of the visuals in 8-Bit Adventures 2 were produced by a very talented artist (Jerram Fahey, also known as World-of-NoeL) who had oversight over the whole project and stopped me from making any stupid visual mistakes this time haha. Having the budget to hire people who can do the jobs I can't made a world of difference =)
Thanks for the informative answer and taking it in stride! Maybe one day you'll be able to do a remaster of the remaster and make this one fit with the second one?
I'm far from a graphics fiend (I play plenty of old and old looking games) but resolution mixtures like this are kind of a visual equivalent to nails on a blackboard for me. I definitely won't play this because of that and it's possible I'm not alone - maybe this is limiting sales potential for the second game?
Posted August 11, 2021
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CriticalGames: It's all good! I'm probably more aware of the visual faults of 8-Bit Adventures 1 than anyone haha. As I was drawing a lot of assets myself, and I had absolutely *no* ability to draw, I ran into trouble whenever I had to make anything larger than a couple of tiles. Stupid ol' me thought that the best way to get around this was to draw things small and scale them up - "because then" he thought, despite the obvious resolution mismatch, "at least things were the right scale in the world". But it's definitely one of those things I look back on and just slap my forehead for being so stupid XD That said, ultimately, it got the game/story/characters/world/music out there to players, so the visuals did what they were meant to do - as self-conscious as I do feel about them.
Respect for honesty, the fact that you're aware and self conscious about how ghetto the first game looks makes me want to roll back my previous comment. I'm glad you learned and evolved as I just took a look at the sequel and yeah, it looks legitimately nice and polished.

I still think the name is a little on the nose though.
Post edited August 11, 2021 by ReynardFox
Posted August 11, 2021
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ReynardFox: snip
Mate, did you quote the wrong person? Should be @CriticalGames instead of @my name is supyreor catte.
Post edited August 11, 2021 by MeowCanuck
Posted August 11, 2021
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ReynardFox: snip
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MeowCanuck: Mate, did you quote the wrong person? Should be @CriticalGames instead of @my name is supyreor catte.
Shit, i'm tired, thanks for that.
Posted August 12, 2021
Another question I thought of:
* Are status ailment spells (like sleep and silence) available to the player?
* If so, are they worth using?

(This is something that many games get wrong.)
Posted August 12, 2021
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dtgreene: snip
I'm like 65% of the game through (currently at Queen's Palace after Blue Mage Tower). Answers to your questions:

1. How is the gameplay:story ratio? Do I actually get to play the game most of the time, or are there annoying cutscenes or other story bits?

You play most of the time. The gameplay:story ratio seems similar to FF2 or FF3. Main story cutscenes aren't more than a couple minutes. The story is pretty simple to understand so far, so even kids could understand it like FF2's story.

2. Is the game strictly turn-based? If not, what parts of the game are not? (In particular, consider things like finding/avoiding encounters and minigames.)

Yes, turn-based battles similar to FF1-FF3 mechanics with a DQ1 battle UI.

3. Are there any interesting systems for character growth or ability learning?

Quite streamlined. When your characters level up, their stats also increase and they gain new abilities. The most interesting thing so far is when you get the orbs near the start, you're asked to pick between 3 different stat boosts.

4. How linear is the game? How difficult is it?

It's fairly linear. You get access to the airship pretty early so you can access parts of the world you shouldn't have access to for battles (e.g., FF1's Power of Peninsula, FF2's Mysidia monsters at the start of the game), but some locations are blocked until you work on the main story.

There's some grinding aspect to it, but I find it manageable. The stat increments are quite significant, though, so there's a soft cap on level requirements to beat bosses. Especially near the beginning when you start with 20 HP at level 1 and enemies do 5 damage, but when you get to level 2 you now have 50+ HP.

A frustrating part of the airship traveling is knowing which islands you can land on or have to be unlocked at a later point, so that limits what field treasures or sidequests you can do at the beginning. Even landing next to landable places is a chore, such as landing outside on the roads of Pheopolis castle. I'm not sure how this issue should've been handled; maybe the tiles should have a darker or duller shade of colour when you ride an airship to indicate you can't land there?

The sidequests provide the best equipment in the game; I finished one of them early and got the warrior's best weapon and the thief's best armour quite easily. It makes sense to do them at endgame instead.

5. How does 8-Bit Adventures 2, which is apparently coming soon here, compare? In particular, how would you answer these questions for 8-Bit Adventures 2?

N/A, haven't played yet.

6. Are status ailment spells (like sleep and silence) available to the player?

Each of your 3 characters have access to status ailments early in the game. Their effects are also temporary just like enemy status spells on your team:
- Warrior can stun, half physical defence, and increase physical attack
- Thief can blind, poison, stun, and haste (increase AGI and DEX)
- Mage can half magic defence and increase physical defence

I always use them for boss fights and they're effective. Your main focus in all battles should be exploiting the rock-paper-scissors colour mechanic (think grass-fire-water from Pokemon).

---

Other notes:

- Only 4 save slots
- There doesn't seem to be a world map, so I have to remember everything relative to Azureus; not sure if intentional
- When you hit [F1] to access your out-game options, the mouse cursor disappears, so you have to hover your mouse over the textboxes or guess where to select
- For some reason, there are 10 mappable buttons, but you only use 2 buttons the entire time
- I have finicky issues with fullscreen settings. Currently have all my save files to be fullscreen. Sometimes the game launches as windowed and when I load my save, it'll go fullscreen. When I game over, I'll go from fullscreen to windowed when I reload my saves. All of it can be alleviated with the shortcut [Alt] + [Enter] or probably by sticking to windowed the entire time, but it can get annoying sometimes. Roughly remembering my junior programming course, I think this sort of option should've been coded at a global level from the title screen with an options menu assigned to a DATA.ini file like other games.

Will update any contradictory info after finishing the game.
Post edited August 12, 2021 by MeowCanuck
Posted August 14, 2021
high rated
Sorry for the slow reply everyone, but thanks for all the new comments and kind words! =)

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Alexim: Thank you so much for the thorough explanation, I understand the situation and really appreciate the effort to look for a solution!

GOG staff: time to update the GOG SDK so you can help this talented developer!
Hi again Alexim, just wanted to share an update. Unfortunately, I've now spoken to a couple of people at GOG support, and I've been told that there's no solution for implementing achievements in my games, as the GOG SDK simply isn't compatible with either of the programming languages used. I'm really sorry about this. I was hoping that at least Javascript would have a solution, given its general flexibility, but...apparently not. If anything changes, I'll let you know, but it doesn't sound promising =/

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DarkBattler: Well, it is obvious that, because of various reasons, big companies will never answer anything, but I have seen very small games get attacked, in a way, on these forums, and the developpers never came to defend their projects.
You show passion for your work and that is a pleasant thing to witness.

However, one day, your company will probably become bigger, and you will not have the time to answer anything anymore, but it will be all right.

If you release all of the 78 tracks alongside 8-Bit Adventures 2, you can count on me to purchase them and the game as soon as they are available. I know I am way too obsessed with this, but if the soundtrack could be in a lossless format, that would be perfect.

If there was a specific reason for the music of the first game to be encoded in MP3, it is not because of the sound quality of the sample libraries, or anything sound related, I am sure of that.
I looked at the spectrograms of all the files and for MP3s, their sound quality is impressive. There are not a lot of frequencies missing for them to be truly lossless.

I will not bother you with this anymore, I perfectly understand that this is far from being a priority for you, and you have been helpful and patient enough. Thank you very much for your answers.
Thank you very much DarkBattler! I'm glad that passion comes through, even in forum posts =)

We will definitely be doing a full release of all 78 tracks from 8-Bit Adventures 2 (plus 7 orchestrated songs), so that's wonderful to hear!

I spoke to Sebastian about this, and while he was more than happy to update the 8-Bit Adventures 1 soundtrack to a lossless format, it would require some time and work, and since he's just landed a new job this past week he's quite busy. So I shared your kind response, and I told him not to worry about it. However, as a result of your interest, we'll make sure to deliver a lossless version of the 8-Bit Adventures 2 soundtrack when that comes out, and possibly revisit the 8-Bit Adventures 1 soundtrack in future. Is that okay?

Oh, and he also said that we probably just went MP3 out of force of habit, so there wasn't any technical reason he could remember. Just in case you were curious - sorry, that's my faulty memory on that one XD

Thanks again for all the kind words and interest DarkBattler! If you want to hear some 8-Bit Adventures 2 samples, you can check out our SoundCloud here: https://soundcloud.com/8bitadventures2

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dtgreene: Yes, Ultima 3 was Exodus.

Ultima 1 might also be looking into for a bit of RPG design history, as it has mechanics you don't generally see. For example, HP is handled differently; you have no max HP stat, and as a result you don't have healing in the conventional sense. Instead, you get HP by leaving a dungeon after killing enemies, and can also trade Gold for HP at the king. It's a rather unusual approach that's definitely different from what you're likely used to. (Also, stat increases come from visiting different locations over and over, not through fighting monsters.)

Speaking of classic RPGs that are not what you'd expect, the original Dragon Quest is not your typical JRPG. You have an open world with area based enemies, so your exploration is limited by your level, and, unlike in more modern RPGs, you are expected to walk around in circles, killing enemies over and over to earn XP. Also, you have consumable keys and dark dungeons where you need a torch to see, which are mechanics that quickly disappeared from the JRPG genre.

Speaking of dark dungeons, Phantasy Star 1 might also be worth looking into. It has dark first-person dungeons (like Ultima 1-5), a female protagonist, three planets to explore, and a non-linear second half. I actually think that game holds up better than either PS2 or PS3.
Ah yes, I've heard of that before. Sounds like a really interesting mechanic from a time before modern RPG rules were established. Honestly, I'd love to see that concept of exploration as the cause of stat increases incorporated in a new game; I remember when I played World of Warcraft back in 2005, I wished that I could level up my characters by exploring new locations and doing activities other than battling.

Yeah, I absolutely *love* the original Dragon Quest (I've only beat the original NES version, though). It was a big reason I started development on the original version of 8-Bit Adventures 1. While I don't like gating off content through grinding, the open world approach was incredibly compelling - and it was genuinely tense to wander too far from home and encounter a deadly foe. But honestly, what surprised me the most was how effective its story set-pieces could be. Little moments like carrying the princess home were surprisingly effective. And the music creates a really powerful atmosphere. Honestly, even the dark dungeons were handled well - despite the limited visibility, I don't think they ever annoyed me.

I've only played a little of PS1, but I really liked it and definitely want to play more (I should probably pick up the release on Switch). I really want to play PS4, as that game looks fantastic, but it's pretty expensive on Mega Drive XD

As for your other questions, I think MeowCanuck answered them better than I could, so hope that gives you a better idea! =D

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my name is supyreor catte: Thanks for the informative answer and taking it in stride! Maybe one day you'll be able to do a remaster of the remaster and make this one fit with the second one?
I'm far from a graphics fiend (I play plenty of old and old looking games) but resolution mixtures like this are kind of a visual equivalent to nails on a blackboard for me. I definitely won't play this because of that and it's possible I'm not alone - maybe this is limiting sales potential for the second game?
My pleasure! Honestly, I'd love to remake 8-Bit Adventures 1 so that the two games compliment each other a little more neatly; just have to find the time haha. But it's a possibility, for sure!

I completely understand; that's absolutely fair enough. In my experience, most people who discover 8-Bit Adventures 2 have never even heard of the first game (although some people have told me they've gone back and played it after seeing the 8-Bit Adventures 2 trailers), so I don't think it's a big concern. People are more likely to see 8-Bit Adventures 2 in the wild first, so at worst, they'll hopefully just look at 8-Bit Adventures 1 as a very rough precursor haha. Happily, though, 8-Bit Adventures 1 has sold much better on GOG than I ever would've guessed, so you never know XD I really appreciate the thought and concern, though! Fingers crossed it'll all be okay.

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ReynardFox: Respect for honesty, the fact that you're aware and self conscious about how ghetto the first game looks makes me want to roll back my previous comment. I'm glad you learned and evolved as I just took a look at the sequel and yeah, it looks legitimately nice and polished.

I still think the name is a little on the nose though.
That's kind of you ReynardFox, thank you! Always glad to make peace with a fellow Aussie, and I sincerely appreciate the kind words about 8-Bit Adventures 2 =)

Haha, yeah, the name isn't one of my best. To be fair, the first game was originally named in 2012 (I was especially bad at names back then haha), and then I was kind've stuck with it for the sequel when 8-Bit Adventures 1 developed a fan following on Steam. It does seem to get the idea across pretty well though, so I'm hoping it might be more than a blessing than a curse in the long run (a lot of people seem to have adopted it, and I get people abbreviating to 8BA2 regularly), but it's definitely on the nose XD
Post edited August 14, 2021 by CriticalGames
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General discussionRelease: 8-Bit Adventures 1: The Forgotten Journey Remastered Edition(51 posts)(51 posts)
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