Newsflash; the "JA4" is getting a new engine upgrade. I'm putting it from RPG Maker 2003 to RPG Maker MV. This is something I've been thinking about last night, mainly because I didn't feel like animating every single character in the game, so to cut the work load for me, I decided to switch engines and make it front-view battles only. Oh of course you will be able to see the old sprites somewhere in the game, just in the gallery that is.

Now this isn't a easy import, because of the fact that RPG Maker MV has 48x48 tilesets, this means all sprites has to be redrawn, meaning they're now bigger and so far, the basis for sprites is 72x96, like the original 24x32 sprites for RPG Maker 2003, except NOW I can have an actual alpha channel and have much bigger sprites. But this requires plugins to make the combat of the game be more like the original game. Plus most sprites have to be remade to look good in 720p, while I could rescale them, it would feel out of place visually if some elements of the game are drawn in x1 bits, but others are drawn in x3 bits.

But there are main benefits to this. First, there's now a simplified equipment for actors, so you have to worry about armor and accessories, while outfits are for fun. Second, this allows me to do things that wouldn't be really possible in RPG Maker 2003, like actual loop start and loop end music, because it finally means that I can actually use these data. And third, it can finally have abilites that properly reflect what they're based on. For example, Lightning Rod in the original game made you null to Electric attacks. In Pokemon, this isn't the case, because Lightning Rod drains Electric attacks and exchanges that damage for an attack boost.

I'll see you later.