I love Arvale

[StygianPot]

Hi,
I guess I'm another one of those fans who registered on Steam just for Arvale.
It's my favorite game ever (along with The Quest. Soon will be on Steam... YAY!!)
Arvale: JoI is the first RPG I ever played (and that was before I became a gamer), so there's an incredible amount of nostalgic value for me in this title.
Also, the BGM in this game is mesmerizing (ok, nostalgia is at work here too or whatever, but really, check out more Jaybot7's music)
Ocean of Time is just fantastic in my opinion.
I got used to English with those games.

Btw, somebody in Dhierce docks says "and entirely unknown world" When I say sea is just a bunch of water. Err, I'm actually a big fan of sea and it blows my mind but I digress. I found that sentence weird when I read it so I made a note (not a very detailed one, as you can see). Is that sentence okay?

Also, are the monsters supposed to stand still or is something wrong? I actually like it that way.

Huge thanks for releasing Arvale after all those years. I hope there will be more Arvale in the future and it becomes popular.
Best of luck,
Anton

[jaybot7]

Thanks for the feedback!

When checking the crates in Dhierce, I take it? My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I'm thinking this is when Duncan hops on top of the crates and the Narrator starts describing the game's budget. Probably a small typo from "and an entirely unknown world" or just "an entirely unknown world".

Monsters are standing still on purpose. Previous versions of the games had moving monsters, but I found that it was too difficult to dodge/run away from monsters when playing with a mouse. And this works better as more of a casual title. This way you have all the time you need to prepare for a battle.

[StygianPot]

Thank you for the replies!

There's a guy in the East Dock area in Dhierce who looks like Edge from FFIV who says that.

You said music quest in Garga? Who gives that?

I remember myself being able to finish previous Arvale titles in one sitting. This one is clearly the longest.

I think it would be more fun if Duncan could walk a bit faster. Can you increase his walking speed? Not much, about 20% more speed should be enough.

I sent you an email about some typos I found while playing.

Btw, I had a lot of fun playing Short Tales as well. It's very cool and beautiful. Though an ability to violently kill everyone (without even asking the player for permission!) in the fifth tale is a bit too sad for my tastes. I played both portrait and landscape versions of the game. There's a weird and beneficial bug in the landscape version which allows all gold to carry over if you play the tales in particular order(s) while initially heroes don't have vials and gear (except for Koden). I wonder what that continent where things take place is. Ancient Kytar?
I have one question: How do I solve the "Haunting Spirit" quest in Lotus' tale? (From Jacqueline, something about Nivid Elf in Chartreuse Forest) I played it so many times but I never figured it out! It's so mysterious!

Arvale rocks!

[StygianPot]

I finished the game for the second time!!! Deliriously happy.
Cool graphics in the last dungeon.
My favorite monster is the Undertaker with 4 kanji on his equipment.
The last boss is not hard but the configuration is neat and the music is fantastic.

I have questions:
Where's that music quest in Garga? Is there nothing extra in this complete edition? What's that Noko achievement here on Steam (I think I've seen it somewhere but can't find it now)? Are there any other Ultiven things other than the earrings? What happened to the great DM afterwards? How do I solve the Lute Finder quest (a bard in Klumey gives that) in Arvale: Oot? I heard that the strings can be found in Beka Village but I never found any strings. Mystery!
I've seen a table on a Chinese blog with this text: Rune 8 / Blue Harbor (?)
The next night I was dreaming about docking at Blueharbor. There were many barrels.

I edited the story file and explored the data folder thoroughly in every Arvale. But that doesn't make things I haven't solved less mysterious.

Huzzah! Thank you sooooo much for creating Arvale! You did a fantastic job - it's my favorite game series EVER! So incredibly fun!!! (The Quest is also my favorite EVER, and maybe if you you played and liked it enough, you could make Arvale in the editor and release it as an expansion. Check it out if you haven't already.)

*My* laptop is finally fixed and I want to start a new game in AToM. The replay value is phenomenal in Arvale games. Or maybe it's just me and my nostalgia again : )

[jaybot7]

Okay StygianPot (awesome name, btw):

Garga Music quest can be found by visiting the house in the north west in Portophus. The musician inside is looking for a melody. This info will be readily available in the upcoming official walkthrough guide thingy ;)

There are Steam Achievements? I had no idea they were implemented yet.

Duncan's walking speed has been changed so many times throughout the series, and this is the one I've settled on. No plans on changing it again.

Thanks for the email. I'm working on the stuff you sent, it helps a lot.

Short Tales stuff: I'm pretty sure the Gold (but no items) was supposed to carry over for all of the characters in both versions of the game. If not, then the landscape version was correct. Beylord's quest (number 5) *doesn't* kill everyone! The town of Maestyl does end up cursed... to be congruent with Journey of Illusion (yup! Kytar continent, East side, after Blue Harbor. Chartreuse Forest and Beylord Mansion are there too). The whole area around Maestyl is that same area, some time between Arvale OOT and JOI. "Haunting Spirit" in Lotus story is um... I don't remember. What does the Quest Log say?

Ultiven Items in TOM? Should be more than earrings... I'll get back to you.
The great DM... continued on his journey... maybe someday he'll make it back home.

Lute Finder in OOT: lots and lots of patience. Must be in the right place at the right time for all of the pieces (and the quest!). The strings are in one of the villages (Beka? Iko?) on what appears to be a Loom in the middle of a tent iirc. What else was needed? The OOT walkthrough by M. Tadashi might have more info.

Show me this table on the Chinese blog... it sounds like a great mystery to me too!

[StygianPot]

The walking speed is fine while I walk around a continent, but in big locations it's just a little bit too slow in my opinion.

I don't think that the landscape version of AST is correct.
The quest I can't solve is in Lotus' tale: Jacqueline in =Maestyl= mentioned something about a Nivid Elf appearing in the =Chartreuse Forest= late at night.
A bunch of people get killed in Beylord's tale. It's ok, but when I was a kid I was very immersed into games I played. Actually it's a tragedy... :)

I see now that there are no other Ultiven things other than the earrings in ToM and that all equipment there is can be bought from Rufus ;)

I used the OoT walkthrough by M. Tadashi. I also played through the game many times and I've actually managed to finish that quest in one of my most recent iPhone playthroughs! Maybe it was bugged in the PPC version and I just got used to it being unsolvable so I asked...
Here's the Chinese page I was talking about: http://obortt.blog.163.com/blog/static/176364509200910894220968/ The runes are still mysterious ;)

[jaybot7]

The Nivid Elf quest... I'm pretty sure you go to the Chartreuse Forest at night and a flashy sprite thing is hanging out near the campfire, but I could be confusing that with some other quest. I'll look into it later if you wish.

Ah! The Rune Cards (based off of normal Playing/Trump Cards)! You can collect as many as you can by doing super-random side quests throughout the game (I remember the Diver in Soneros being a huge pain [financially and time-wise] to finish completely) and then you can exchange collections of them in the last Mazulen City for some Uber Items. I totally forgot about those.

I'm shocked that this walkthrough actual keeps track of them! That's pretty awesome.

[StygianPot]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I checked every nook and cranny in that forest. I played that tale (as well as every other tale) a lot of times too. It would be awesome if you looked into it (when you have time: I don't need it that much but it would be interesting to solve the only quest I've never solved in an Arvale game :P )

The Rune Cards are found in treasure chests. That Diver's quest yields an Ultiven (uber) Armor. It's a bigger pain to traverse the Stygian Forest over and over again every time you end up on that continent, except in the future. Oddly enough, every part of the game was fun for me, including this one. I really love that engine, more this RPG maker one, but I didn't grow up with anything I could comfortably play such a game on, so... Maybe you'll make Arvale 5 in a beautiful 3D engine someday, like Unity 3D (I heard some good things about it) :)

Without the Rune 8, the Card Fanatic's trading service is mostly disadvantageous. You can trade for an Ultiven Hammer quite early on, and it seems to me that it is the most useful item the system can offer. So the combination of all Rune Cards you can find in the game is not enough to obtain about a half of the items you could otherwise trade those cards for. That's why it's so mysterious: Rune 8 is one of the most important/valuable cards: without it, most of the items you can trade them for are unobtainable without that one!

It's not that you could do something with any of that information... I'm just very happy to disscuss that. You can ignore it if it doesn't interest you very much : )

[elavrA]

Hi StygianPot! Do you still love Arvale? ^^; Because I do. I hope my reply to a 9 year old post isn't too strange...
I would love to chat with another Arvale fan.

The part of your comment:
"I hope there will be more Arvale in the future and it becomes popular."
Really struck me, because that's something I wish for to this day.

Now, wishing is one thing... But doing is another.
I have been making a lot of Arvale fan-art: https://arvale-artist.tumblr.com/
So it won't be forgotten and to introduce people to it.
And would greatly appreciate to have a buddy to talk about these games with, who also has played them and shows genuine interest!