It's an RPG, a la the old Dragon Quest games. And you can play it, it should be ready (the beta, of as far as I've gotten in the story) by this weekend.

Yep. The program I use is pretty easy to pick up (it's called RPG Maker VX), but it's really flexible once you get the hang of it. There are sprite and face generators online for custom characters, and a fairly large, productive community that puts out a lot of free resources.

The one Cupcake. Phantom, the lava spider guy, round one. He's easy after that but the first encounter has always been brutal. I nearly killed him the first time around, getting him to one centimeter of life, but after that he seemed to get a lot harder, or I just got really lucky in my first attempt.

I'm stuck on Nelo Angelo round 2 at the moment, since I'm hideously out of pratice with the game and don't have many places to practice. He doesn't seem all that hard, just tedious. I'm more into the run and smash type of boss fight than the run around on tip-toes and smack once and a while type. I get impatient.

@Suzerain, I remember RPGs always being expensive. Aside from that I don't remember much about game prices.

@Quiet, I hardly played Devil May Cry 2 so I don't think I could help, I'm sorry :(

@Cupcake, I'm just hoping I have time to play Suzerain's game :p

Haven't played Devil May Cry 2 either Serra. I was talking about the first one.

There's a transport into hell thing? That's news to me. I just gradually smacked him down, running in circles to avoid the black death skewers that where following me around the room, and climbing on top and smacking his head in when I could. Saw my friend get a lucky hit once. He managed to grab Phantom's side when he jumped, climbed up, and smacked him back down to the floor for big damage. I love non-realistic fighting. :D

Nelo round one was peanuts as long as you had the Stinger ability. Havne't yet figured out how to deal with round two though, apart from not losing patience and doing something dumb.

Oh, well, I DID play all of Devil May Cry 1. When it came out. However many years ago that was >< I just remember the shadow cat things really, and the lava spider of course xD

I know I played that game and fairly far in it, but for the life of me, I cannot remember that first boss you like to recall so fondly, Quiet. You'd he would have stuck out in my memory...

Also, speaking of bosses, they just keep getting harder and harder as I work through my play-test. I finally caved in and made one easier today after wasting two hours trying to kill her.

Suzerain, your bosses sound more Persona inspired all the time ;p Hmm... Lufia inspired story elements as well as tough bosses. xD

When it got to the point that everything went in my favor and I still ended up losing, I decided it was time to tweak some stats downward. Just slightly. :p

Shadow cat thing eviscerated me the first time I fought one. Now I whipe the floor with them. So far no creature I've encountered has required the effort and caused the frustration that Phantom did on round one. Soooo satisfying to smear him across the ground in round four. Ha! By then of course, you have your devil trigger and fancy abilities to go with.

I wouldn't mind playing DMC again. However I think my most enjoyable Dante experience is seeing him in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne :p Of course that's an RPG and more to my liking but DMC was a fun game regardless.

I wonder if you've played Chaos Leigon?

SMT: Nocturne seemed like such an awesome game, but I always felt too weak in it, despite grinding for hours. Not to mention feeling like I was always missing something... never got very far in it. Gave up shortly after killing Thor, I think.

And, I played Chaos Legion very briefly in high school. A friend thought it was amazing and insisted that we all try it, but I never really got into it.

Haven't heard of either game actually. I like DMC but I am a role play fiend too, hence my hours of time put into Baldur's Gate and the Elder Scrolls games. I not typically big on the Japanese not-quite-chibi style of game so that limits the number of RPGs that tend to catch my interest. There was a copy of a Dragon Quest game for DS in the dumb bin at Walmart the other day. Was leery of it though. They guy on the cover looked like he walked straight out of Dragonball Z.