The entire game from Alpha to Omega.

Final Fantasy IV Smiles has been released.

Complete type:
http://www.yoyogames.com/games/156675-final-fatasy-iv-smiles


Boss Rush type:

http://www.yoyogames.com/games/156680-final-fantasy-iv-smiles-boss-rush-type


Disclaimer:

I am a huge Cave fan. Love their games. No way do I think this is anywhere near the quality of a Cave or Square/Enix game. This is my first Shmup / Bullet Hell / JAM - GAME (what I have decided to call the genre in honor of Cave, because the genre has so many names). It is very simple and has some nice music.

Quick Note:

The RPG fan will say too hard and the Shmup fan will say too easy. I tried to aim for the middle here.

This game prosecutes Game Maker to the full extent of the jam. Your PC specs may be too low if you get "An unexpected error" right before the game would start.
 Hopefully it works for you without a hitch.

By the numbers:

15 Playable Areas in all

7   Boss Battles

27 Music Tracks   

41+ Different Enemies

1000's of sprites and objects. Way too many to count.

There are 2 Versions or types.

Complete type: The full game. Complete with cutscenes(can still be skipped) and ending. This is my original vision of this game. Max score is possible.

Boss Rush type: Why not?

Which type?

Try the Complete type first. Cutscenes can still be skipped. This is the full game. I have had mixed results getting this to run on older PC's. If you have trouble, try the Boss Rush type. I had good results with that on just about every machine. By knocking down the content, I am able to make it more compatible. If some people are unable to play it, if they ask I could release each level by itself as one game. That would help, but would require a lot of work.

Good Idea!

The best way to play this game is with a gamepad like the Xbox 360 controller. That is what I used to make and play this game. If you have one, get the program xpadder. It will allow you to map the keyboard keys to the Xbox controller. If you have a different PC gamepad other than the Xbox controller then look for a joy to key program.
http://www.xpadder.com/

Controls:

hold Z: shoot left.

hold X: shoot right.

SPACE: summon Odin

ARROWS: move.

ENTER: starts game. skips cutscenes. pauses.

ESC: will exit the game.

On my Xbox 360 game controller.

Z: LB on controller

X: RB on controller

SPACE: A on controller

ARROWS: Left Analog on controller

ENTER: Start on controller

The Rules:

You start with 3 Lives.

Each Life has a life bar.

Each Life has the ability to summon Odin 3 times.

When all 3 lives are lost, the current Level will automatically restart.

Hints:

When you are shooting, Cecil will move more slowly. Stop shooting and he moves faster. This is very important to get a MAX score and to beat some bosses.

Collect Dark Knight power ups to increase your Power Level. When you get hit, you lose a Power Level. The attack pattern maxes out on Level 3, but you may also go higher than level 3. This will enable you to take more hits while keeping the Power Level 3 attack pattern.

When you start a new level, Cecil will go back to 3 lives, full health bar, and 3 summons. However, Cecil will also be back down to Power Level 1. It's ok, the stages are designed for Cecil to be at Power Level 1 when the stage starts.

When all lives are lost, the high score is displayed and the current stage restarts, as well as the score being reset to 0.

Collect Character Medals for bonus points!

Hint: When you kill a group of enemies, stop shooting and run up and collect the medals before the next wave of enemies appear. Go for the high score!

The only way to get a max score is to play the intro and the entire game with out losing all 3 lives in one level. Losing 3 lives in any level will reset your score.

Important!

Some enemies only drop treasure when Cecil is fully powered. Some only drop treasure when Odin is summoned.

Try not to shoot treasure chests. You get more points if you open them and hear the click sound.

More points are available at the end of the level if you make the Bonus sign "Eat your Odin."

MAX Score is around 599,000.

1st rule of Final Fantasy IV.

You never attack the Mist Dragon when it is in Mist form!

How did it happen?
The game was conceived when OCRemix released the Final Fantasy IV album. I burned it to CD and was hooked while I was driving for work all day long. First I would dream about hacking the rom so I could insert the music. That idea gave way to making the game in to a JAM game. The heavy sound track kicked too much ass for a RPG.
This project was officially started on July 21, 2010. Most of the hard work was done in about 2 months. Most of the time since then has been play testing, fine tuning, and adding polish.

Complete type:
http://www.yoyogames.com/games/156675-final-fatasy-iv-smiles

Boss Rush type:
http://www.yoyogames.com/games/156680-final-fantasy-iv-smiles-boss-rush-type

Here we go...

I am going to try and get this out the door by New Years. It was made with Gamemaker, and will be uploaded to the http://www.yoyogames.com/ website.

There is a Cave in Final Fantasy IV

Cecil approached the Cave and looked inside.
He was attacked.
A bee swarm flew out of the Cave.
A quick glance from his darksword smited the bees.
Death Smiled upon Cecil,
and would let him bee today.

What a great day.

Life is good.
To help each other makes it better.