Stick Fantasy Preview - A JMAP Zelda fangame (Article) by Zeypher
-- Download the Stick Fantasy RPG -- Stick Fantasy RPG Teaser Trailer -- Stick Fantasy Video Series -- Warriors of Hyrule Video Series --
Run by Anthony and Jordan Perkic, JMAP Productions (aka Zelda Valley) has been well known for their Zelda video parodies. These are consistently 10-minute long videos, with multiple videos in a series. Currently there are three different series' created by JMAP: Stick Fantasy, Twin Links, and Phantom Mascot. Since they're parody videos of sorts, there are a lot of jokes based off of the Zelda franchise, as well as a ton of easter eggs thrown throughout the episodes. Some other Nintendo worlds collide, as Mario is often the villain in some of the videos!
But this isn't about their stellar video parodies; it's about their newest and possibly greatest project: the Stick Fantasy RPG, which I had the exclusive preview on.
The RPG is based off the first few videos of their Stick Fantasy series (and even named after it). Mario is wreaking havok upon Hyrule once again, and it's up to Link to save the day! If you're looking for an epic RPG story you won't find that here, but that's perfectly OK because JMAP have provided an extremely entertaining and humorous story; keeping the player hooked from start to finish (approxomately 6-8 hours, depending if you partake in the side quests and mini games. Yes, side quests and mini games in a fan made project).
"How long exactly have you guys been working on the RPG?
Anthony: We started working on it in April 2008, so it took us about 13-14 months to complete it. In the beginning, It could've been shorter, but almost every time we hit a point where we thought it was finished (like a critical story part), something like an extra dungeon, a new boss, more battler sprites, more scripts, etc. had to be added.
When we first worked on the sprites, we kept having to figure out what worked for us to be able to make the custom sprites and not the default stuff that came with the game maker package. It's much harder than you think with photoshop because everything has to have a hard outline that doesn't blend and colors that do not match the white background, otherwise you get sprites with white borders and boxes all over them. Stick Link himself went through maybe 3-4 tries before we got him to look just right.
Essentially, Jordan was in charge of eventing, programming, and putting in the many scripts we found, while I was put in charge of graphics and maps. Originally we used the default battle script, which was like "I attack, You attack, I attack etc." until Jordan found all these awesome scripts around the net, which gave us the Chrono Trigger like battle script, 8 directional movement, and a bunch of other things that you can't just get by downloading RPG Maker. With the right kind of script, you could make the game as close to a Zelda-like game as possible."
Anthony: We started working on it in April 2008, so it took us about 13-14 months to complete it. In the beginning, It could've been shorter, but almost every time we hit a point where we thought it was finished (like a critical story part), something like an extra dungeon, a new boss, more battler sprites, more scripts, etc. had to be added.
When we first worked on the sprites, we kept having to figure out what worked for us to be able to make the custom sprites and not the default stuff that came with the game maker package. It's much harder than you think with photoshop because everything has to have a hard outline that doesn't blend and colors that do not match the white background, otherwise you get sprites with white borders and boxes all over them. Stick Link himself went through maybe 3-4 tries before we got him to look just right.
Essentially, Jordan was in charge of eventing, programming, and putting in the many scripts we found, while I was put in charge of graphics and maps. Originally we used the default battle script, which was like "I attack, You attack, I attack etc." until Jordan found all these awesome scripts around the net, which gave us the Chrono Trigger like battle script, 8 directional movement, and a bunch of other things that you can't just get by downloading RPG Maker. With the right kind of script, you could make the game as close to a Zelda-like game as possible."
The adventure takes players throughout a Hyrule filled with locations from several Zelda games in the series, and some that were made up by Anthony and Jordan, like the "Casual Nintendo Ruins". All the areas in the game; the village, dungeons, mountains, and swamps are all large in size and truly feel alive. The biggest example of this is the village west of Hyrule Castle. In size, it's more like a city, and there's a ton of stuff to do in it (mini games everywhere, and a nice little item collecting side quest). Like in their videos easter eggs are everywhere, and the Stick Fantasy RPG is no exception. A huge easter egg in the game is the Metallica concert that takes place in the west most section of the village, where different songs play depending on where the player is in the game, and all the songs are 8-bit.
"Why all the easter eggs?
Anthony: On our Twin Links video, I received one comment that said, "WTF, I like Legend of Zelda but I don't like it when people screw it up!" When I saw that I just thought, "dude, I SCREWED IT UP?! It's just a fan-made parody! What, I'm supposed to follow the Zelda storylines to the letter?"
Having numerous easter eggs in our projects is just our style. We like to reference things that we love, such as other video game franchises like Metal Gear Solid, our favorite bands like Metallica, and even certain people on the internet that have shown support for what we like to do. I personally think that video game parodies and fan made projects SHOULD have easter eggs, and take as many liberties as possible as long as it makes general sense and entertains."
"What made you decide to break off and work on a fan game, instead of continuing doing just videos?
Anthony: Making a game is something Jordan had always wanted to do, and one day he emailed me and said, "hey, I got this RPG maker program, I wanna see how much I can do before the free trial is over." So it went through a bunch of testing phases before we thought, "hey, we can make a game based on the Stick Fantasy episodes!" And yes, we did pay the full 60 bucks for it!
As it grew and grew, we ultimately decided to just base it on the first two episodes. First off, because it was getting too big; secondly, because we figure that the first two episodes are the most well recieved; and third, we figured we could add a ton more to the game itself without having to just use the videos as reference. So even though storyline wise it's based on the first two Stick Fantasy episodes, there are many twists and turns that you won't expect."
Anthony: Making a game is something Jordan had always wanted to do, and one day he emailed me and said, "hey, I got this RPG maker program, I wanna see how much I can do before the free trial is over." So it went through a bunch of testing phases before we thought, "hey, we can make a game based on the Stick Fantasy episodes!" And yes, we did pay the full 60 bucks for it!
As it grew and grew, we ultimately decided to just base it on the first two episodes. First off, because it was getting too big; secondly, because we figure that the first two episodes are the most well recieved; and third, we figured we could add a ton more to the game itself without having to just use the videos as reference. So even though storyline wise it's based on the first two Stick Fantasy episodes, there are many twists and turns that you won't expect."
At first you may be thinking "Since it's running on the RPG Maker engine, what could be so good about the combat or events?" Those were my initial thoughts as well, but playing through the game prompts you to think differently. The combat is basic; up to four characters present in a player's party at a single time. Throughout the game different characters are lost and new one's are gained, until eventually the final party is assembled (for the sake of spoilers, I won't mention who these characters are, but a guess could be made based off of the opening screen...). Fighting isn't completely turn based; there's a Chrono Trigger-esq ATS system that makes the combat more strategic. During some parts of the game random encounters don't start battles and all enemies can be seem roaming around on screen, giving the player the choice of whether he wants to fight them or try to avoid them. Most of the enemies in the game are from the RPG Maker pack, which is kind of dissapointing. The experience could have been a lot more Zelda-like if enemies from the Zelda games were present more often. There are big enemies like Iron Knuckles in the game, but the smallers ones like Octoroks and Keese could have replaced the generic RPG Maker ones.
"Can we expect to see RPG's based off of other video series', such as the Twin Links or Phantom Mascot?
Anthony: Absolutely! We had so much fun making this game despite the many months of hard work we spent on it that we were already deciding to make another game.
When we do make the sequel to the greatest game JMAP Productions has ever made, it'll be loosely based on Phantom Mascot, the last three Stick Fantasy episodes, AND Twin Links/ Warriors of Hyrule. So we got ourselves a big mash up of stories that we'll have to figure out how to make it all flow as best as possible without any plot holes and inconsistencies. We might even have to do it like MGS4, where there are 4-5 Acts.
We have decided that the next game will have a much deeper storyline with more characters, more bad guys, and there will be more scripts used that we didn't get to use in the first game. We don't want the file size to be too big due to the music files we put in, BUT we don't want to use just midi files because to us, that tells people "oh they don't care enough to not use the stupid midis". Plus, the graphics won't be stick anymore.
As usual, Jordan will be in charge of all the eventing and programming, while I'll have a ton more maps I'll need to design, plus make custom sprites that will actually work!
So yeah, we'll definitely do another game, but first we'll need to finish Warriors of Hyrule, and I promised I wouldn't start on it again until the first game was finished."
"Jordan and yourself also appear as characters in the game. Why did you place yourselves in the game?
Anthony: Well, for one thing, it's been done before in one of the videos (Jordan being the person with the hat and Anthony being the taller person with the long hair in Episode 4), but we thought that we could give the player special abilities and items if they unlock certain things. In fact, the names of major characters that aren't from any Zelda {or any video game} franchise for that matter are in reality close friends of Jordan, and in one case, just some lucky fan got to be a character in the game."
Anthony: Well, for one thing, it's been done before in one of the videos (Jordan being the person with the hat and Anthony being the taller person with the long hair in Episode 4), but we thought that we could give the player special abilities and items if they unlock certain things. In fact, the names of major characters that aren't from any Zelda {or any video game} franchise for that matter are in reality close friends of Jordan, and in one case, just some lucky fan got to be a character in the game."
Anthony and Jordan have successfully crafted a fine Zelda fangame, one that can't be missed by Zelda fans or fans of their videos. It certainly isn't a dull experience, as it's filled with humor, sidequests, and a story that will keep players coming back for more, even though it isn't as epic as the latest Final Fantasy game.