Working on a revamped version of the Mario Chronicles: The Fawful Crusade, which will feature new levels, a new world map, more story elements, and lots of content to enjoy! If you'd like to contribute to the project, join the Discord through this link:
In the mythical realms of Celestia, disaster is about to arise in the wake of a Cultist Civil War over the Mythical Celestial Star, a powerful relic that is foretold to wield unimaginable power, that is guarded by high ranking warriors known as the Specters, the elite unit of the Celestial Empire. By the last moment, it was shattered by Eclamisun to keep it out of the hands of the Solar and Lunar Cults, scattering its pieces onto a nearby planet named Earth. The Celestial Council thus takes matters into their hands to find the pieces, but not without the help of a stranger, who sparks hope for their task to go well. Meanwhile, Bowser and King Ramillard have a feud about an attack on Toadstool Town, resulting in Bowser's banishment from the kingdom and destroying the peace treaty. Bowser believes this has to do with someone plotting to destroy his kingdom and wipe him from the face of existence forever, as this evildoer happens to be looking for the pieces of the Celestial Star. Now, in a race against time and a journey to end an incoming crusade, it's up to four unlikely heroes, Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach, to restore the Celestial Star, stop a mysterious menace from taking over Toadstool Kingdom and Bowser's Kingdom, and restore peace to the nations.
Mario: The Well Rounded Character without any special attributes and is friends with the many denizens of Mushroom Land. Luigi: Brother to Mario and much taller than the red man, can jump high, and isn't always on the brightest side of the sun. Peach: Fair Princess of Mushroom Land, can float in the air to cross large pits, and never backs down when it comes to baking cakes. Toad: A local who can run faster than everyone else and is willing to stand by the princess's side.
THE CELESTIAL COUNCIL
Nebulette: Mistress of the Nebula Legion who has the ability to seek the future and see where important objectives are located via black hole magic. Her armor protects her from most Dark Energy and magic. Solargus: Leader of the Celestial Empire's Solar Legion and trainer of all who join his branch. His knowledge in combat has made him a divine and reliable warrior with armor crafted from solar energy. Eclamisun: Once a high ranking general of the Celestial Empire now in charge of the Celestial Council in the wake of his father's death after a civil war that spanned five centuries. Starlinda: A specialist in Summons and one of great wisdom for al of the Celestial Empire. She is wise, cautious, and resourceful. Vortemix: Represents the Vortex Legion and is highly aggressive in his combat style. He's also a skilled weapons engineer and has the ability to use lightning his armor can discharge when his power level has reached maximum capacity.
OTHER CHARACTERS
King Ramillard: Ruler of Toadstool Kingdom who was attacked by a war mongering army. He believes Bowser is to blame and banishes him from the kingdom for the sake of the safety of his people.
Bowser: King of the Koopas and ruthless ruler of the Koopa Badlands. After making attempts to kidnap the princess and failing at it, he's retired his evil ways for a while. After his kingdom was overtaken by Fawful's forces, Bowser fled the badlands to seek help from his scattered troop.
Abilean: Rosalina's partner and serves as the head of the patrol that keeps the barrier between the Solar System and the Celestial Realms active and is an advisor to the Celestial Council.
Downloads
Last edited by Lunar Chris on Tue Apr 12, 2022 6:48 pm, edited 38 times in total.
I remembered your old episodes "The Mario Chronicles" series. I hope you think about making them again in a better image and nice job on "The Fawful Crusade."
Before I begin, there's something I forgot to mention in my last review: if your custom song fades out and loops, that's a telltale sign that your trailer is too long.
AND NOW, MY REVIEW OF MARIO CHRONICLES 1: THE FAWFUL CRUSADE
So, the first thing I noticed is that you left a save file in the episode (again, it isn't even a complete save!). Will this be a constant theme with your episodes?
Okay, so the episode starts you off in a castle, and the first thing you'll notice is this:
These ? spheres are too high up for small characters to be able to read them on the ground, meaning I have to jump to read them. This is annoying, and making height=64 will fix this.
The next thing I noticed is that the door's effect wasn't recolored to match the door's main graphic. I didn't get a good screenshot of it, but it's still noticeable.
Also, this staircase part is just needlessly tedious. All you're making me do is run back and forth repeatedly. Just replace the stairs with a ladder; transportation both ways will be quicker like that.
Also, that's a Racoon Leaf, not a Tanooki Suit; the Tanooki Suit lets you turn into a statue, but the Racoon Leaf won't (that's how you can tell them apart besides their sprites).
Anyway, I actually really liked how you transitioned from game-play to the opening narration, but I feel like you could have done more than simply text on a black background (maybe you could show the player character leaving the castle and silently interacting with NPCs while the narration scrolls by). Also, the narration's text disappears a bit too quickly; I would be on the semifinal line, then the block of text would disappear and show the next one. You shouldn't have the text proceed automatically; rather, you should put a block (or something) above the player so that jumping will advance the text (meaning the player can read at his/her own pace). If you don't plan on doing that, it would be better to use the default text boxes.
After leaving the castle, you are sent to a world map where you can explore different parts of Toad Town. I actually thought it was clever to have the introductory town sectioned off by different levels, but I felt that they were spaced too far apart. It's annoying to have to walk down really long world map paths when I just want to go from Toad Town West (which is in the east...??)
to Toad Town South so I can search for a large structure that someone told me about. Also, you shouldn't use music if it has sound effects in it; it was annoying in NSMGX, and it's still annoying here.
The way the mushroom signs are overlayed on the Toad Houses looks weird. The lighting on the Toad House is meant to show depth, even if it's a basic form of depth, so it would be better to put the sign directly on the edge of the house, or adjust its graphic accordingly.
Like the staircase before it, this line rider section is boring.
I thought that this was kinda clever, but it also looks awkward having side-view sprites mixed with top-down-view sprites. I don't normally complain about clash, but I think we can all agree that top-down-view sprites shouldn't be mixed with side-view sprites.
This episode also has its fair share of awkward dialogues, like "Just to ensure you however," and I think that the way you structured your episode and implemented the map towers defeats their purpose. By having the map towers hidden, it's easier to find out where to go than it is to find the map towers. It would probably be better if the map towers were visible near the end of their respective areas (like the one in Giganoto Isle) and the warps to new areas were hidden, with hints to their locations being given at the map towers. Also, why don't the map towers have music?
Useless NPC is useless. In fact, it would probably be better if the map icons warped the player to the next area themselves, as opposed making the player go through an empty transition level.
Why are water graphics here if there isn't any water here??
"Break clocks"? I never had to do that. I don't even think I needed to break blocks.
QUIT WITH THE UNNECESSARY INTRO AND LET ME PLAY THE LEVEL ALREADY!!
There's a chance that this gimmick of yours won't work properly:
Like the Thwomp rows in your last episode, this is something you do way too often:
You shouldn't give multiple NPCs the same dialogue because it just comes off as padding (I won't show each instance because I don't want to pad my review). If you only have one thing to say, one NPC is all you need. Also, "exporers."
Well, maybe if you work together, you'll get it done faster!
There's cutoff with your background image here:
Also, this section is just odd. Why do you have two Mouser sprite-swaps here if I can just take the key and run? If they were meant to be a mini-boss of some sort, why isn't the key hidden? If they were meant to be an obstacle, why is the section small enough for me to simply run past them without needing to think about it?
So, what's the point of having this Yoshi town if only one of the NPCs talks, and all it tells me about is a "secret" that I already got?
Also, you should try to refrain from repeating the same boss fights throughout your episode. This is the second and third time I've had to fight just-a-Mouser-sprite-swap, respectively.
Plus, that last Mouser didn't properly set the section, meaning I can backtrack.
1) You misspelled brethren. 2) They claim to be from the east, but are located in the west. Normally, I'd just assume that they were driven westward due to hunting, but you also messed up the cardinal directions for Toad Town West, so that means that this is also a mistake.
Why isn't there any music by boss levels? It just seems lacking without music.
So, the boss can only be triggered by breaking so many eggs, but most of the eggs have enemies in them, and the boss's cut-scene paralyzes the player, so I ended up getting hit by one of the enemies. You should at least remove the enemies from the eggs.
Another thing I don't like about your map towers is the delay between text boxes. Just tell me where to go already! Also, the only way to get to North Star Plains is through Nippy Waffers, which has another tower that says I need to go to Clocked Mines, so either this tower requires a bunch of needless backtracking, or you messed up (either way, this needs to be changed). Plus, it should say "a king holds."
Something I noticed while playing this episode is that almost each level in an area has the same song. You shouldn't overuse songs like that; hearing the same song repeatedly gets old after a while. I was also disappointed that you reused your intro song for the ice area.
On to Nippy Waffers: Why is the warp to this area in the north if, on the map in the map towers, it's in the south? Don't try to argue that the cardinal directions were turned 180 degrees this whole time, because that would mean Toad Town North is in the south, and vice versa. Also:
Having the clouds on moving layers makes it annoying when they're too far away to jump on, or even be onscreen (admittedly, I didn't get a good screenshot of this).
Also, you shouldn't have invisible blocks with enemies in them, especially when there's an enemy on the platform that the player needs to avoid.
Why are there bot generators in the clouds? That just seems weird.
Also, you forgot to swap the egg's effect.
Left
<----
is that way.
Right
---->
is that way.
Also, I don't like the way those houses look. It may be the 1x1 pixels, or their overall lack of detail.
So, when I saw that the ice area was called a desert, I thought that it was a clever nod to the fact that, technically, a desert is simply "a barren area of land," meaning, technically, icy areas like Antarctica are deserts. Then I saw dialogue like this, and realized that, maybe, you didn't realize how clever you were being. Also, remove "anymore."
Really? I counted two.
This line rider section is somewhat pointless since the player can simply stand in the middle to avoid all of the Volcano Lotus's attacks.
Also, when the boss fight is triggered, this wall appears, meaning the player can get stuck here and watch the boss kill itself. What you could do instead is have a layer move left from behind the wall to push the player out of that area, then trigger the boss fight.
First, Goombob doesn't warn me that the enemies can't be jumped on. Second, there's no distinction between which shy guys have cliffturn=1 and which don't. Third, if I can't jump on the radioactive enemies, why isn't this harmful?
Yeah, I figured that out already. Thanks for the useless info. Wait, this cave has Spinies?
You shouldn't use Blaargs with transparent lava because the player can see both sprites, ruining the illusion of it peeking its head out. Also, the moving platforms can cause bugs with the skull rafts.
This Hammer Bro. is placed in an annoying spot. As soon as it appears on screen, it walks left, just enough so there isn't enough room for the player to land safely on the platform, but not enough to fall off of the platform itself. Move it further to the right.
And now, a bunch of areas where the water background is drawn over the reeds (to fix this, use the single-tile water background instead of the 4x4 tile background):
Wait, where's the key? is it somewhere else in the level and I need to bring it back here?
Nope, it was in a non-indicated invisible block the whole time. You shouldn't make players rely on luck to find your secrets; you should at least give hints as to where they are. The hint in Bob-Bomb's Research Lab is pointless because an NPC in the level it's referring to tells me that I need a key to enter that place. A better hint would be for it to tell me where the key is, since it is in a non-indicated invisible block.
This level starts off with no music. You shouldn't do this. Instead, you should use a default song at first to make the switch to the custom song more surprising.
Also, I broke your level!
You already know about my distaste for stacked Super Metroid door-halves, so instead I'll just say that the word you are looking for is "hangar."
So, as I already stated, you shouldn't put required items (like keys) in non-indicated invisible blocks because it's no fun. I think I searched this level for a key for about five minutes before giving up and cheating. You also shouldn't provide the hammer suit as a power-up if it breaks your episode.
Just wanted to point out once again that 1x1 pixels stand out (in a bad way) when everything else around it is made of 2x2 pixels.
Also, why is there a Luigi filter here? There's absolutely no reason to force the player to switch to Luigi for this section.
Anyway, this is the kind of stuff I was referring to earlier about the hammer suit. There was a boss here, but it didn't do anything, so I threw my boomerang at it and killed it. A few seconds after it died, the section expanded, and I began to run to the left...
but it just kept going and going and going and going...was I supposed to fight the boss while moving through this section? Apparently, I was. This has to be the only time poor level design made me type in sonicstooslow.
Your graphic here is...off. You should further separate the tree from the midpoint.
Also, I thought that the rainbow blocks were solid, so I didn't expect the bombs to shoot through the platforms, and I ended up getting hurt because of it. Also, this is the hardest level in the game due to the way the Ninjis and Ninji generators are positioned (in fact, the "three trials" part that comes after this is so easy, it's pathetic). You should either tone down the difficulty or move this level to the end of the episode.
This part is annoying because, although it seems like a line rider section, the line rider moves off-screen by this point, and I ended up getting hit by a saw because I was too close to the top of the screen.
This line rider section is also annoying because I want to leave, but the line rider just left, meaning I have to wait. Just move the door down here and remove the part of the section above here.
This looks weird.
Also, when I defeated Rainbow Bowser, blocks appeared and I got stuck. I had to type in shadowstar to progress.
You shouldn't make pipe mazes; they're more annoying than anything. Also, you used the wrong warp here.
I don't know why the king is so distressed; it's not like he's behind bars or anything.
By the way, immediately after the cut-scene above, the floor disappears and this happens:
It's funny because he really didn't fight me!
Also, it looks weird when the Super Metroid door graphic goes into the ground because some of it still shows:
First, "beavery" isn't a word. Second, it's actually possible to trigger this cut-scene again by talking to Bowser again. Although the events have Bowser disappear, there's apparently another event that causes him to reappear.
THIS SECRET IS BULLCRAP. THERE'S BARELY ANY INDICATION THAT THIS PIT WON'T KILL ME BESIDES ITS WIDTH, AND THAT ISN'T ENOUGH TO RISK DEATH.
Wait, you'll be stuck here until the blizzard? That doesn't make any sense.
This pipe transition is pointless. Just remove the pipe and some of those red circle blocks to streamline this part.
Also, there's no block to remove that ice wall. Am I supposed to swim under it?
Oh, look: more Spark sprite swaps that are stuck.
You shouldn't put the end of the level in a place where the player can fall down and die.
Wow, I just realized that these Bob-omb generators aren't indicated. Like the bot generators before them, this also looks awkward.
Also, I have something against your secret: it's all the way at the end of the level, and it requires you to backtrack after defeating the boss. You have no idea how unintuitive that is. This isn't just me, either; one of the tips that appears occasionally on SMW Central is something like "Don't put secret exits near the end of levels. The player will basically have to go through the same level twice."
Finally, the springboard mini-game is pretty boring. All it is is jumping on springboards, except for the occasional annoying invisible block. You should really try to do more with this level (besides the rising lava; that isn't enough).
IN CONCLUSION:
Although there were some things that improved since your last episode, such as general level design, this still has its flaws, and it's hard to say whether or not it is an overall improvement.
Also, you didn't label your custom songs (I got lucky that there were a few songs with album credits). Music is just as important as graphics, so you should be sure to label where they're from. The songs whose origins I couldn't find are:
battle (has sound effects!)
final battle
giganoto
north star plains
toad town (has sound effects!)
underground
underwater and palace (has sound effects!)
P.S. You should replace the songs that have sound effects.
wow, I just found an episode with a toilet/bathroom/restroom/WC/whatever which doesn't involve you travelling through it. That's a change.
A good one too.
