It has been updated ladies and gentlemen. Now you have more in depth story.
I suffered a little accident with this project and over 90% of the project was lost. I had to re-translate the scripts, do some re-editing all over again and lost alot of stuff.
At bright side, i got some new scripts and some new awesome stuff done, like a much deeper story with LOTS of sidequests.




Title: Paradoxal Tales - Rampelstiltskin
Type: Rpg/interactive story
Plataform: Rpg maker vx Ace

Introduction:

“Three nights the Imp came
and a deal he made with the queen,
but when time came to pay,
the queen refused to pay the fee.
A way around she tried to find,
To never pay her greedy debt,
In the end the Imp died,
And the queen lost her head.”

Noone knows how or where this knowledge came from, but there exists yet on the surface a Holy one at the reach of humans. They call him the Paradox, a creature both as kind and peacefull as he is cruel and sadistic, something that has been in the realm of mortal even before the gods. With power so great he could as easily save a world as completely eradicate it from existence.

It is of common knowledge, that if you ever find the Paradox, you can ask him a wish. Anything it is, regardless of how impossible it may seem, he can grant it. From a lover wanting to resurrect his dying wife, to a religious fanatic gathering worshipers, anything you ask, the Paradox can grant. That is, if he feels like it, for, being able to grant any wish, doesn’t mean he’ll do it so willingly.

If the wish is pure of heart he shall grant it without any twist, however if you are filled with greed, the Paradox will ask for something in return. But, if you don’t intend to pay, the Paradox shall hunt you and use the wish he granted to cause your death or to ruin the rest of your life.

And don’t bother lying to him, for he can tell, even when you don’t know, the true reason behind your wish.

One thing is true, the Paradox hates fake altruism and he hates humans quite as much.

Plot:

It has been 10 years of a happy marriage. Anini Galatea, an ex-demon, could not feel any happier for selling her heavy horns for a happy, somewhat normal life beside the man she loves. Some of the people around the town respect her and her beloved “little puppy” would do anything she asked. However not everything is sunshine and roses.

Anini’s husband, Aeron D’Avasty wants desperately to have children. But due to a big mistake Anini did centuries before, even before she became a demon, she cannot give him children. But of course, Aeron doesn’t know that.

The truth is that Anini is quite jealous wife and is always suspicious of everyone around Aeron. It’s not that she doesn’t trust Aeron, she knows that out of honor, Aeron would never leave her, but, mostly due to her past, she fears that her inability to give him what he wants, will cause him to look for someone who can bare a son for him.

One day, her husband apprehends a travelling Bard known as the Wanderer who happened to be studying “Necromancia” in the town. After escaping the jail and hiding in Anini’s home, to gain shelter for the night, the Bard tells Anini of the Paradox who he is looking for. He tells Anini of the Paradox ability and why he is looking for him and asks her to join him.

Suspicious, she refuses the Bard’s offer, who in the same day leaves the town, without (somehow) being caught. Anini dismisses the Bard’s idea and the Legend of the Paradox, but after hearing an insult coming, from non-other than a Burden Carrier school principle who hates her for two very simple reasons, and after her own husband saying:

"Dear goddess! I feel sorry for our kids! You're going to be a iron-fist dictator! That is... if we ever any, not that I doubt you'll grant me that wish."

She decides to take as an oportunity her husbands trip to Sha'Mara to maybe join the bard's quest.

Characters:

~The Protagonist~
Anini Galatea
Species: Ex-Succubus
Class: Priestess
Personality Snapshot: Kind, jealous, somewhat bitchy, selfish and possessive.
About her:
Anini has a long complicated past that she has left back. She used to be a demon, but before that she apparently was a goddess. She never talks about it and Aeron is smart enough not to push the question around. He knows it leaves her uncomfortable and there is a 90% she'll snap and hit him with a frying pan for being noisy.

How she met Aeron is also as complicated as her all demonhood acquisition. She met Aeron she was a kid, she was by the time a Succubus and was hunting his father. After a promise, little Aeron did, she became contract bonded to him and had to stay by his side until he married her.

After he turned 16 and left the house to go study abroad, she sold her horns out to a priest, losing all her demon powers and her immortality in order to be able to age by Aeron’s side.

When Aeron returned they got married and moved out to Isis continent, where they have been living ever since. She became a Demeterian priestess, since she actually served the Goddess Demeter (many Succubus demons chose to serve the Goddess of Love over the Demon God), and only a few years after she became a High Priestess.

Curiosities:
- She’s nicknamed by all the guards in the town as the “spotted hyena”;
- Even though she’s no longer a demon, she still has demonic reactions, such as her aggression and her need to enforce the demon hierarchy she was used to;
- Anini is battle has double potions affect: If she uses a 500hp potion, it’ll give 1000hp instead;
- Anini is the only playable healer, other healers however can be accessed in town Health Centers.
- If Anini gets knocked out in battle, the battle ends and you will be teleported to the nearest health center, even if all the other characters are alright.
Quote: “Stay away from my husband or I’m going to kill/chop/decapitate/skin/beat the heck out/impale you!”
Portrait:





~Party member number 2~
Aeron D’Avasty
Species: Dragonvard (hybrid dragon)
Class: Master Knight.
Personality Snapshot: Virtuous, noble, calm and submissive.
About him:
Aeron was abandoned by his father at the age of 8, shortly after Aeron promised to marry Anini.

Aeron was raised by Anini ever since, though he always saw her more as that babysitter kids always dream of having as their girlfriend. When he reached 16 he left for Guardiana Academy where he gave use to his higher stamina and strength that being a Dragonvard gave him. When he became a knight, at age 20, he returned to marry Anini to find her without horns as no longer a demon.

Even though he no longer had to keep the promise to her, since he did love her anyway, he ended up marrying her a few months after.

Since he had a few friends who were rebuilding Valencia Fort, he ended up moving there, taking Anini with him. They have been successful in rebuilding the town, mostly thanks to the help of Isis’ ruling Emperor. Four years ago Aeron was elected Master Knight and gained rulership over Valencia.

Curiosities:
- He used to have a beard;
- He’s quite used with Anini’s demony side, he actually likes her “spark”, except when he is called because she’s attacking some girl, spanking someone's kid, threatning a seniour citizen or forcing a male guard to bow at her feet;
- Despite being a Dragonvard, Aeron has absolutely no dragon skills, only a larger stamina and Health. He’s the only playable character who doesn’t have any kind of magic;
- Aeron can’t be poisoned, having dragon blood makes him immune to most venons.
Quote: “Why am I not surprised?”
Portrait:


~Party member number 3~
Wander(er)
Species: Humanoid
Class: Warlock
Personality Snapshot: Unstable, probably borderline, probably maniac-depressive, wise and perceptive.
About him:
Wanderer is a dangerous Warlock, who seeks knowledge around the world. They probably knows A LOT more than what he shows.

They have been living in Sha’Mara for 5 years now and the Emperor has been trying ever since to get them to join the army, since for any ruler it is valuable to have a witch or warlock in their ranks. They’re also responsible for killing the most guards in the town, mostly those who try to apprehend them and force them to join the Emperor.

They don’t do anything to the townsfolk and even though people fear them, few have complaints about them. They can be found usually in the Golden Bridge Academy or the L’Fleur Erotic Brothel house. If he can't be found, just talk with the Longlover Twins in the brothel, they ALWAYS know where to find him... them... it.

They seem to work mostly as a Summoner, summoning spirits out of Eyes (Cores of Spirits that no longer can be reborn without proper purification). He... they... it seems to be looking for the Paradox, because the Eye they call Platina is becoming unstable and these Spiritual Cores, if not properly balanced can cause a lot of mishap.

Also, without proper balance, the Eye is useless.

Curiosities:
- Wander seems to have lost perception of his own gender and it’s actually a doubt amongst the other characters if he even has one;
- Wander is always reading a book, more exactly: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Julliete. No one knows where he got it from and only Aeron and Karas seem to know that it’s an Earthlian book;
- Wander gets randomly confused in battle, that usually happens when he’s exhausted, uses spells or gets hit many times, or simply the battle prolongs itself for too many turns;
- You can’t control Wander’s battle, he randomly chooses to fight or not.

Quote: “Vaius Paradox, igorius kine!” Vaiersta for: Dear Paradox, ignorant humans!
Portrait:


~Playable characters number 4~
Karas Stanford
Species: Human
Class: Spellwarrior
Personality Snapshot: Sharp, kind, hero-sindrome.
About him:
Karas used to be a famous hero, but when he became older, he started losing his strength and skills and even his memories. In the past, he was able to stop a powerful Warlock who was trying to make an army of solely spell-casters to destroy the world and was famous and well renown for that. He even married a princess he saved, making him the typical famed hero.

However this all changed when in Mercarter continent he was diagnosed with a degenerative disease similar to Alzheimer’s disease (not Alzheimer’s, because in Demeter they know how to treat it and prevent it). He is ever since convinced, that if he wishes to the Paradox eternal youth, that he’ll be able to stop and vanquish this disease.

He meets the group in Nubia, before they depart to Avina island. Apparently he’s been in Nubia for a couple of months now and for some unknown reason left his homeland and his “queen”. As the group arrives he just goes greet Wander and decides to join them.

Curiosities:
- Karas is the only character (other than Wander) who can use offensive magic;
- Karas sometimes seems to forget what’s going on, that actually causes confusion in battle;
- He’s constantly saying “Marack”, a swear word in Vayersta, he probably says it in Vayersta because barely anyone remembers that language and the few who do, don’t mind swear words;
- He seems to know where Romeo and Julliete came from and what the story is.
Quote: “Maracking, maracker!”
Portrait:

~Special Playable Character number 5~
Special: This character can only be unlocked to play if the right things are done.
Like Anini this character has double potions effect and can use offensive magic almost as powerful as that of Wander.

Other Characters:


Sir John Wynter
Species: Human
Class: Scholar
Description: He is a Scholar that ends up traveling with the group. He is not playable, but he has several side/mainquests you can do that will grant you items. He also knows about every town you stop at, forest and cave and tell you things such as the history of the town, the wild life, etc.
Can be Found: Valencia Demeterian Temple, later on in whatever town the group is.

Onix Seti
Species: Black Seti (holy beasts similar to a fusion between a wolf, a fox and a jackal, black colored seti are quite common)
Class: Herbalogist
Description: He is a very tall man who’s usually in every town the group goes too, collecting mostly rare plants the group finds. You can trade groups of plants for potions.
Can be Found: Lower levels of Valencia, by the Waterfall, later on in whatever town the group is.


~Antagonist~

Captain Alexander Jones
Species: Human
Class: Capain Knight
Description: He is a Burden Carrier knight in Valencia who is Aeron’s right-hand man. He hates Anini since he believes Aeron was forced into marriage with her, he also hates her because she’s a Demon.


The Red Queen – The Original Old Hag
Species: ????
Class: Witch Queen
Description: A strange girl who walks around stalking the party. She’s trying to prevent Anini and the group from finding the Paradox. Usually she summons smaller and weaker old hags, also called banshees to deal with the group. She takes two shapes, that of an old woman in read cloack and that of a little girl.
Objective: Unknown.
Curiosity:
-The Red Queen always appears after or before the "Big" Old Hag, what causes people to believe that she’s the Original Old Hag, she can also spawn other smaller old hags who are called Banshees;
-Little Red-Riding-Hoods alone in the woods are 95% of the times the Old Hag is desguise, hunting for pedophiles or nice lumberjacks that she's going to bruttally murder and skin.



New stuff to be expected:
-Story orientaded - This game is mostly orientated towards the story other than the battle experience. There are several sidequests and puzzles that give both the characters and world more depth;
You can also find in the game several books that tell the story of Demeter and Isis, such as the Gothlyan Myth book and the Rise of Warlocks.
-IRC: First person battle system- Instead of the side view battle system, it’ll be used an animated faces battle system, a similar battle system to the one used in Skyborn;
-Khas Light System – Even though the game doesn’t have a real time development, as you go through some maps there will be a changing in light.
- New Island- I decided to ad a whole new island called Avina. This 100% snow island is higher and farther away from the sea than Isis Island having practically NO beaches, instead just rocky chasms that fall into the sea and requires an airship to get to. It’s constantly covered by snow, it also as several new monsters, side quests and dungeons to be explored.


What was lost or dropped:
-Sideview battle system: It’s overused and really not that good. Using an animated faces battle system will mean more work, but I like the look more than the sideview system.
-Valencia original map: Valencia is a bit of a steam based city so I dropped the medieval quiet small town original design of the city. I thought, what will give this city it’s flourishing economy? It’s in the top of a mountain, all the way up, you can’t exactly plant a lot of stuff in the mountain so for food they need to do commerce, the only usefull place for food is the forest but that is infested with wild life, the fort is carved down the mountain with tons of tunnels and they probably found some rivers of lava down there. So lava plus natural springs equals steam. Steam based technology in a fully miner city. It’s mining city/defensive fort city.
-Chapter based advancement - I removed the chapters, I was giving it a chapter feel, so every time you gave a step forward in the story you’d get a new chapter and I decided to drop that. Instead of the chapters, at key points of the story, the Narrator of the story (The Paradox) will sometimes start talking about it.

Screenshots:


This conversation seems to be having a turn to the odd.



When you decided to be a guard you should have expected to fight Ghouls, and zombies, and probably water monsters with tentacles and probably dragons. But don't worry, they'll give you consacrated sulfuric acid, blessed by Demeter all mighty herself!



And this is how you deal with people who want the complaints book.

Videos:
- Tittle:
Checking if the skip tittle menu scene is working properly.


In work:
- Original portraits and faces for the characters.
- The Being’s sprite.

Requests:
- Tittle Idea for books (Tittle Author);
- NPCs.

Credits:
- Enterbrain for RPG Maker VX/ACE, XP and 2003/2000;
- Khas – light and other scripts;
- Victor Sant – add-on scripts
- Alex Crosslight – battle scripts;
- Yanfly – message script;
- Victor J – menu script and others;
- RPG Maker Brasil – Tutorial, story evaluation and overall support;
- Santuário RPG Maker – Portuguese translation of scripts; Tileset Graphics, character graphics; tuturials.
- Rpg Revolution Forums – Character graphics.
- Rpg Creative – Character graphics.

...Isn't it Rumpelstiltskin?

Other than that, it looks good. I've not played a RPGVxAce game, so I still have to get used to that style.
Anyway, the story looks good so far and the mapping seems decent.

Ooops always thought it was Rampulstiltskin since that's how we say it in portuguese... My bad, thanks for pointing it out. I have fixed it.

Here is the Tittle screen...




Still not fully finished since I'm trying to figure out how to change the options window but i can't do scripts for life T.T

I like the titel screen, it looks great!
(But it still says Rampelstiltskin, while it should be Rumpelstiltskin. )

Hmmm. Story concept's a bit cliche, but hey, a lot of stories have a cliche concept. We'll see how things work out when the time comes

I think some people may have problems with the story being centered on the desire to have babies, but... Yeah. Your Mileage May Vary I've been hanging around crazy feminist blogs recently so that kind of thing seem a bit iffy to me.

I do hope those facesets are placeholder images. The built-in facemaker's art, to be honest, is horrible. Your drawings are way better than that.

On a side note, I didn't know Ace is already out. Did you get the Japanese one?
-------------------------------------------------
@Slimm: So what about the name? This is only loosely based off the fairy tale, so no reason to have to stick super-true to the original names. There's plenty of myth/legend adaptations where the characters' names are spelled in different ways to make it sound cooler. Like, there's a Cinderella adaptation I saw where the name is spelled as "Sinderella". Because, you know, Po0r lIteR@cy i$ kew1.

@d_a: It just irks me to see it wrong and gets me wondering if the game would be full of spelling mistakes. After all, first impressions are important.
If the game will be in Portuguese or take place in Portugal/Brazil, then I think it's ok to call Rumpel by his Portuguese name. However, since it's not (or at least that's what I presume), I don't really think I did anything wrong, by saying the correct English spelling. I wouldn't have repeated myself if NightMelody had said that she wants to keep it the way she had before.
In the end, it's up to the her if she wants to change it or not. I just wanted to point out the correct spelling.

And once again, I really really like your title screen, NightMelody.

I agree. The title screen is nice! What did you make it with? Wonder if it's adaptable to VX (not ace).
---------------------------------------------
@Slimm: I know slimm. I always point out NightMel's typos myself. It's just that I've seen so many adaptations of fairy tales that wreck the characters' names that I came to assume any mis-spelling is done in purpose to make the admittedly lame-sounding traditional names sound cooler

Well, before you get dismotivated by typos, I want to point out that I am not english, and even though I am awesome at english, i am not perfect, so... typos are inevitable. So i'm glad that you nitpick them, i would be thankful.

So I'll be fixing the R"a"mpelstiltskin mistake.

I'm glad you liked the tittle. The tittle is a special area in game that i just printscreened and edited on photshop. I'm still trying to figure out how to make the actual area in the game look that shiny without having to turn to paralaxes.

I thought of turning to images to make the area shiny, but saddly, some shinies go where they are not supposed to since the whole map is huge.

I'm using the japanese version of VX Ace, since it was a birthday present. I have downloaded a patch that translates most of the game commands to english, but A LOT is still in japanese... -.-

About the faces, they're just fill in for now, I inted to draw Portraits for each character and not use faces. The faces are a last resort in case i really can't make time to draw the portraits.

Ooh, I thought you used the super-special map title script that is somehow modified to be Ace-compatible. See if you can find it.

You say you need help with shinies, eh? Yes, pictures is the way to go. The issue would be whether or not the shiny overlays go to where you want it to go or not. I still haven't quite figured out how the shinies work and I have no idea if VX-not-Ace techniques work on Ace.

You mean this awesome script? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQzyae14FEc&feature=player_embedded

I guess? It's good that you found your own script. I don't even know what kind of shinies you want to make so...

That glowy beam in the title doesn't look like it's possible to be made using the script you found, though.

Ye I know. I'll try to use pics for now, and only use that script in case i need extra shinies... Which I'll need for that area.

Anyway, just finished the world map and am currently coloring Anini's portrait.

Not bad. Is this all there is or is there some other islands we can go to?

I suggest placing any updates directly in main post so people don't have to look around the thread.

Also, ever consider putting together customized tilesets? Especially because this is Ace, where you have more freedom with the tilesets.

Anini's new face/bust looks great! Great job

The world map looks great, as well. Though it looks quite small.

@d_a: No there won't be any other islands for you to go, At least for now. Each city is big and filled with areas to explore and you shall visit them all.

@slimmmeiske2: what you mean by small? Should I make it bigger?

No, the size is alright. I just meant to say it looks small for a 'world map'. Not a lot towns and such, that's what I tried to say ^^
Anyway, since you said that there will be enough to explore, you don't really need a bigger map ^^

I've been lurking around this topic for a little while now. It's looking GREAT. You still have some discrepancy within your first post about Rump vs Ramp.

I thought your facesets already looked great but the profile is even better! Looks a bit more difficult to emote, though.

As for the story, there's still not too much for me to comment on that hasn't already been said. For now, I'll leave it at, "I'm intrigued and look forward to more information."

Now for the world map. I think the only reason it looks "small" is that you don't have expanses of ocean separating the islands. It certainly looks underdeveloped but you don't have to show every village or town on a world map so I'm gonna trust that you have plenty of those. If you look at the areas you've listed as meccas or places of world importance, then it makes sense to show only those.

Cheers.

@MarienFrae: Yes, portraits are going to be hard to emote, but i'll try.

I bring to you updates on the first thread, again the faces are just fillers.
I have fixed the mistake in the tittle screen also, but I still haven’t placed the tittle screen… screenshot.
Valencia city has been fully mapped. Now just ad the sidequests.

Here's a tip for making "emotes" (I assume you mean this kind of facial expressions):
1) Make the "base" a BLANK face (no eyes, no mouth, just nose)
2) Put the eyes and mouth on separate layers

Hope that's clear.

Okay, so the game is in hiatus or whatever is spelled because my computer is a god forsaken idiot!

Every single time i start a new project it starts being an arse. Every SINGLE TIME! I think it's the Karma, it can be the only explanation. Desktop with windows xp - gives problems with rpg maker vx
Desktop with windows vista - gives problems with rpg maker vx
laptop with windows 7 - gives probelms with rpg maker vx
Decides to get vx ace for the laptop - STILL giving problems...

At the bright side, this gives me an oportunity to re-write the script, since the story is filled with plot holes and I hate plot holes. So, there will be some changes in the story.

The base of the story still remains however, this is still the story of Anini seeking this overpowerfull prior-to-gods entity to grant her wish of having a son (who's actually a cover up for her real selfish wish).

I'll have to change some of the graphics too, because the rpg maker vx character stiles are way too different from the xp character stiles, and Ill have to resaturate and darken some of the XP tiles I'll be using.
What shuld I do?
Should I use XP and VX characters and use vx characters solely for kids, teens and Dwarfs?
Or should I just stick with the xp characters and try to frankensprite kids even though i lack the patience and the time for that?