OceanSpirit Dennis: Ray of Hope

[tzachs]

Warning: This games contains some adult content (yet very immature at the same time)

Well, since ddq & Ponch decided to raise the bar of OSD games using two rooms of gameplay, I have concluded that the next logical step would be to lower the bar back and use one room, and not only that, but to use an already existing room from ben304's game.

So, without further ado, I'm introducing here:

OceanSpirit Dennis: Ray of Hope
A Square Penix production



Features:
- Poor voice acting
- Poor new art & awesome old art
- Original Music
- A whole new character
- An attempt at a real RPG fight
- More confusion to the OSD universe

Special thanks goes to Ponch, who's been a huge motivator and pushed me to finish this as soon as possible. For this reason you can also blame him for every bug, missing feature, or simply everything about this game that you didn't like and assumed it was my fault (but it's not, it's all because of Ponch).

Download the game here.

Source code is available here, AGS 3.2 is required to open it.

[Scavenger]

The plot thickens into a creamy paste! I enjoyed this installment of Oceanspirit Dennis, it really keeps with the tone of the series as a whole, while adding to the canon seamlessly.

Spoiler

The battle is really, really hard! On average you recover less health than the enemies dish out in the round you use for recovery. But I suppose that's in keeping with OSD as a whole.

And the addition of the new character is priceless.

[close]

[ddq]

Holy poop! Wow! Holy poop!
Spoils!

Spoiler

Who would have known that Ray was secretly a sleeper agent for the one and only Square Penis? Who would have thunk that his determination in the Naked and the Ninja was just a facade of allegiance? Not me, that's for dang sure!

[close]

Unspoils!
I might just be inspired to work on a new game, post N&N, to resolve this new conflict. Congratulations on including all that "classic" content and sprites I'm so ashamed of, and for an actually interesting and challenging RPG battle! Good job on an all-around smashing entry to the Oceanspiritverse.

[Ponch]

Awesomeness! I don't think anyone was expecting you to lower the bar like that! Looks like next time I'll have to make a game that consists of nothing but a menu screen filled with buttons that don't do anything. (Two can play at this game, sir!)

Now I must go make dinner so that I can play this game after dinner!

- Ponch

[Gilbert]

Spoiler

Is this game unwinnable? (Reasonable since it's an OSD game though.)
I've found that clicking your own character regens some of your hp and mp, and attacking without using magic regens a bit of mp, but it's really so hard.

[close]

Nevermind, got it done. Nice game!

Spoiler

For some reasons I played with sound off (don't know if this matters) and I got a crash at the end. Is it intentional?

[close]

[Ponch]

All right. Dinner is done and the dishes are washed. (Kraft mac and cheese with a hot dog sliced up and mixed in, for those of you keeping score at home. I eat like a king when I'm here by myself!)

A few thoughts:

1) Good lord, that game was a lot harder than expected! Well done!
Two) Loved the emotional music and the dramatic reading of the note.
3) Fantastic voice acting. I hope you were alone when you recorded those lines! (Rump dumped my way to victory. Never got tired of it!)
4) "Batman?" Cracked me up.
5) Oh noes, Ray! What have you done!
E) DDQ, get started on that post N&N game forthwith! My own Archipelago Adventures is coming out next spring / summer. These dangling threads need to be resolved. I won't be able to sleep until they are! Poor Dennis!*
%) Well done, Tzachs! I knew you would deliver gaming goodness! I hope you will do another OSD game one day! (Because I still have lots of exclamation points left!)

Truly a worthy entry into the Oceanspirit Dennis canon.

- Ponch
_________
* Not that he didn't sort of have it coming though.

[Icey]

Great battle theme!! That should be the basic battle theme for all OSD rpg's.

[Kaelem Gaen]

Spoiler

NOOOOO!  Don't listen to him RLP! It's a trap!

[close]

At least in my version of events *still needs to get the Golden Dong*

[tzachs]

@Scavenger: Well, I kinda intended for the battle to be just as you described it. I wanted the default intuition of how to play it to be wrong, and make you think of a different strategy to win which is maybe counter intuitive. In fact, it's kind of a puzzle disguised as an RPG battle (though with a bit of luck you can win either way).  However I first realized it was a bit harder than I wanted when I let my girlfriend playtest it, and after a few minutes she started to yell nasty words at the computer and give me some very angry looks...

@ddq: Awesome, I'm really looking forward to see how you're gonna resolve it. It will definitely be interesting...

@Ponch: I indeed recorded the lines alone (and was very ashamed of doing this), but I have a suspicion that maybe some of the neighbors heard me, cause I got some weird looks (but maybe that's just me).

@Gilbet: What? Why do you play without sound? The sound makes all the game. All I've got to say to you is:
* KILL* * KILL * * KILL *
Not really, just kidding, the crash is not intentional, I will look into it (and thanks for the bug report).

@Studio3: Thank you, all of the music can be freely used with any OSD game, especially the battle theme which got a little more work into it than the others.

@TerricMoonborn: The beauty of it, the way I see it, is that the story can make sense no matter which Dong you got (at least make sense in the context of the Oceanspiritverse).

[Ponch]

After an obsessive night spent playing all the OSD games, I have a question for Mr. Tzachs...

At the end of SOTU-DX, Ray goes off to play Snakes of Avalon. And Mighty Pirate shows us that OSD goes off to star in an adventure game to win back Ray's heart.

But in your Ray of Hope, we clearly see Dennis just standing there after Ray says he's off to play Snakes of Avalon. Shouldn't Dennis depart to go star in Mighty Pirate? Also, somehow Dennis has already left Ray a note telling him he's off on his "adventurings" as seen in Pirates on the Poopdeck -- a game that takes place AFTER Mighty Pirate.

And then Ray must fight the purple blob Dennis just defeated.

Spoiler

But this time he is joined by two green blobs! Green, Mr. Tzachs? This seems to me like a crass attempt to sell more OSD Action Figures. As though taking the already existing Purple Blob and just repainting it to be Green Variant makes it an entirely new toy!

[close]

This just makes the whole thing seem like a greedy attempt to con kids (and overweight, middle aged nerds) out of their allowance money.

Also, once Ray has won this battle, why isn't the "Deviant Art Style" curse lifted? Why doesn't Ray return to his pimp-tastic look? Are you saving this for the sequel? Or perhaps the Director's Cut DVD? Another crass grab for cash! I assure you, Mr. Tzachs, I will buy no more than two or three copies of each, such is my distaste at this endeavor.

Lastly,

Spoiler

after Ray confronts Square Penis, he is told that Dennis is frolicking with Jessica, the Mayor's daughter. Is there a time machine involved, sir? (Although Dennis has time traveled before in OSD: The RPG -- no mention of which was made in you story, by the way. Is this some clumsy attempt to retcon Discordance's game out of the OSDverse?).

[close]

What about the events of Mighty Pirate? What about Pirates on the Poopdeck? Are we supposed to believe that these stories now take place in a pocket dimension? And what about those who played Blades of Passion and chose not to frolic with Jessica (as I did. I respect women far too much to ever have sex casually with them. I'm saving myself for Batgirl, thank you very much). Is Ray being lied to?

Clearly, you expect us to ignore these inconsistencies. Or else, Doctor Who and his amazing TARDIS are involved somehow. (Which, it should go without saying, I hope he is. Now there is a crossover I would pay good money for! But only if it stars Chris Eccleston, the ninth Doctor. BEST. DOCTOR. EVAR.)

In closing sir, I must rate your effort a mere 4 1/2 stars out of five. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to Toys R Us and grab as many of limited edition Green Blob toys as I can.

Yours,

An OSD fan

[ddq]

Dennis moves really fast. And it was a long fight. And there's parallel universes.

[ThreeOhFour]

I have played this, beaten the enemy and approve of it very much.

Well done, I say!

[Ponch]

Dennis moves really fast. And it was a long fight. And there's parallel universes.

Ah! So a wizard did it. As a longtime fan of both anime and the Star Wars expanded universe, I am prepared to accept this and retract my earlier criticism. I now give this game the greatest score possible: 4 and 1/2 stars out of five.

Best. OSD. Game. Ever.

[Icey]

Great I can use the battle theme. Can you post it when you get the chance.

[Sslaxx]

Great I can use the battle theme. Can you post it when you get the chance.

Wait for Tzachs to release the source, I'd imagine...

[tzachs]

Dear OSD fan,
We appreciate your concerns and wish to thank you for your feedback.
It is due to fans like yourself that we are making the OSD games for, without your support there would be no oceanspiritverse in this world!
As for the issues you have raised, we want to assure you that all of them were considered beforehand, and can or will be explained in the future (some of them were already mentioned by ddq).
Please continue playing our games and you will be satisfied on all accounts.
The OSD universe has no inconsistencies, this is not "Lost"!

Sincerely yours,
Square Penix

And in other news, the source code has been uploaded (the music is in there, studio icey), and also a new version with the fix that Gilbet has mentioned (playing with no sound).

And also:
@Ben304: I'm very happy and relieved that you approve of this after I butchered your background...  

[Sslaxx]

Source code link is 403ing here, Tzachs.

Also, this might be a little strange, but I enjoy compiling the OSD games from source...

[Ponch]

Butchered? Man, that background was seamless!  8)

As for the OSDverse having no inconsistencies, this is technically correct. The best kind of correct.



UPDATE: I'm also getting the 403 errors. Can't get either the game or the source code.

[Monsieur OUXX]

It was good fun But it's damn hard!

[tzachs]

Arrrggg, the one time I don't test that the upload worked and it didn't...
There seems to be some problem with GameJolt, so I uploaded the source to Shutupload for the meanwhile, should download fine now.