A downloadable game for Windows

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It starts out simply enough. An apprentice at a small-town potion shop is out looking for ingredients when she accidentally falls into a cave. A cave with monsters in it, as it happens. Despite her lacking much combat skill beyond blocking and throwing potions, the apprentice apothecary Brill is thrust into an adventure, with the fate of the entire continent of Ruphand hanging in the balance. It may seem like a story you've heard before. But not everything is quite as it seems...

In Ruphand: an Apothecary's Adventure, the player follows Brill Yance, whose only offensive skill is throwing bottles at things until they go away. By using Sample to scrounge up ingredients off the ground, Brill can mix up a variety of potions, which are also her primary means of defense.

Every move- whether it's one of Brill's potions, or a monster attack- has an associated Windup time and Delay time. By paying attention to how fast it'll take to ready attacks, strategically blocking attacks, and employing the status effects associated with each of the six elements, the player can avoid damage and fight back against powerful foes.

First released in 2017 on RPG Maker Net, Ruphand has returned to active development. The present version of the game provides at least twenty hours of gameplay, and it's still not finished; there's still more story to tell!

Updated 5 days ago
StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(2 total ratings)
AuthorDoctorSpacebar
GenreRole Playing
TagsCrafting, Female Protagonist, JRPG, RPG Maker
Average sessionAbout a half-hour
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard
AccessibilityColor-blind friendly

Download

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

Ruphand 0.3.6.zip 528 MB
Ruphand 0.3.5 P2.zip 525 MB

Development log

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(1 edit) (+1)

Was playing again, seeing if the Moorage used any puns that'd fit in this trope draft of not-mine. Seems like they don't make any R or C puns that I can see in the Quiz at least.

...

Slight issue: Bestiary: Euphrates:

"his Brineward, which weakened anyone who attacked him against Water"

I needed to read that a few times to understand due to not being worded like an if-then statement? Maybe this would be better, even though has an additional character:

"his Brineward, anyone who attacked it would be weakened against Water"

-------

Reloading backup saves is slightly tricky because apparently the Global.rpgsave keeps track of how saves there are, so having only 19 registered saves stopped me from loading my Save20 Moorage Quiz backup until I had a save in slot 20 that showed up to replace it with?

EDIT: Is the girl that spells out Weird below the Arkenvali Academy's dictionaries, supposed to spell it wrong? W-I-E-R-D, she says.

(1 edit) (+1)

Good catch on Euphrates's entry! I'll update the description in the next update.

The misspelling  is intentional. That NPC really is more focused on her Evocation classes than in... English? Can't be English, there's no England in Ruphand. There doesn't seem to be a language barrier, so... Common? Ruphandish? Actually, this gives me some lore ideas.

EDIT: I apologize for the late response to this comment, by the way- two months ago was a busy time.

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Congrats on more lore ideas, and things calming down!

(1 edit) (+1)

Since I could run https://akratichuman.itch.io/haroldmancer in Linux via Steam's Proton Experimental, I decided to try with other games.

And Ruphand works! Although not with basic https://www.winehq.org/ ...

Now that I'm reading the intro again, I'm noticing a theme with Oakenhaven! "Well, they rarely do seem like hero material until after they get some heroics done.", like how Oakenhaven's heroes have to work past their flaws to become great heroes! Or maybe not, if somehow a party actually manages to win without doing that.

Huh. She starts with a Simple Shield. I dunno if that's new or not.

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Ooh, that's interesting. I've been interested in Linux for a while, but haven't been able to justify purchasing a new computer. However, if I got a better-paying job, I'd definitely get myself a Linux machine, then give Proton a look.

The initial Simple Shield's been there from the start; otherwise, Brill would only block 1 point of damage, and that would cause a few problems.

(+1)

If all you want it is for testing Ruphand in Steam, then Dual Booting is an option?

I'm Ubuntu, but this should be about the same? https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-ca/000131253/how-to-install-ubuntu-and-win...

(+1)

Thanks for the link. I'll give that a look when I get some time!

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*nods* Install safely! Make sure not to format your main drive!!!

(1 edit) (+1)

Man, the Bestiary is sooo off from my tactics. :rofl:

Argent Knight... I don't think I blocked, maybe I was wearing Fire Affinity at the time? I forget. Maybe I just Fire'd and Punched it? Or maybe I had enough Attack to take it down in one turn?


For Crystal Golem, I took a Regen II, wore my Healthy Robe, waved my Lantern around and tossed Fire Bane, Tinderspark, and some Fire II. No Blocking or Icebreakers needed! Haaa!

... I hurt Brill so much.

---------------

And trying to look for the Dead Tree in the Brumar area. Fled an enemy, and went back in the tunnel. Hitting Up right at the entrance doesn't return me. I need to go down a tile then back up.

(1 edit) (+1)

I think Argent Knight's entry was written early on, before Burn did a tick of damage on hit; back then, the only way for Burn to inflict anything was waiting a turn.

Always happy to hear about different strategies for the bosses!

EDIT: Whoops, missed the last paragraph. 

A lot of my early move events put Brill on the opposite move event, rather than in front of it, and I should probably make that consistent at some point.

The Dead Tree is on the World Map.

(1 edit) (+1)

Yeah, I added the entrance stuff as an edit. Good to hear you saw it anyways.

Wow, that Dead Tree is far north. I probably wouldn't ever have went that far up the map to have seen it, since the mountains just functionally seem blocking, so going further up would be sorta a waste of time?

Well, got the NeverMeltSnow I came to Brumar for. Time to tackle the chests in Leviit's Landing. I beat the boss my first time even though I was lacking in Ice Formulae due to kiting the grunts and beelining it for the boss.


Got in a Leafshredder Ambush. "Troops" have depth, right? It's intentional that I can't target Leafshredder B before taking out Leafshredder A?

...

EDIT: Harvest sticks around after battle ends! I wish I knew that before!

(+1)

Troops don't have depth- it might just be an issue with the mouse hovering over one. 

That's another issue I've never quite been able to pin down, unfortunately. If that happens, just move the mouse down away from enemies and hit the arrow keys to manually select the enemy you want to hit.

(1 edit) (+1)

The issue isn't due to the mouse. I'm using Arrow Keys all the time.

Edit: Nevermind, it was the mouse.

(2 edits)

Good evening!

I just updated 0.3.5 P2 with an important bugfix. Notably, this fixes the issues mentioned in feedback on the announcement post for 0.3.5 P2.

-The game no longer gets stuck when speaking to Genn and Adorgar after the second trip to the Earth Cave.

-Soften is now hard-coded not to land on anyone with 100% Evasion. (Notably, Brill can still get splashed with enough water to be affected by Soften if she's benefitting from the few effects that give her a not-100% evasion rate, like the Lottery Ticket and Four-Leaf Tea.)

-Challenger Brains felt a little scrambled before and wouldn't stop Blocking. It was some kind of hang-up about "state IDs", but Tower Lord Beatrix talked through it with them and they're feeling a lot more confident now, so they should properly be using their offensive spells again.

-Brill should no longer be able to defy physics in the Torkenwatch Lighthouse and phase onto the roof tiles through the stairs.

-The puzzle room in the Defenders' Rest is more colorblind-friendly, and Brill gets a (relatively minor) hint when examining the false walls.

I'll have to be up early tomorrow morning, so I've got to call it a night, but the fixed version is available for download as normal. I would highly recommend downloading the newly-uploaded version and moving your save folder over. 

Good news, everyone! I finally finished 0.3.5 P2!

https://doctorspacebar.itch.io/ruphand-an-apothecarys-adventure/devlog/499967/03...

(5 edits) (+1)

Finally started playing!

When booting up without any saves available, advise that the default selection is New Game, instead of Load Game.

Ran out of Pepperflasks before the First Boss, so in an exploratory mission, I went without crafting anything new. A.k.a Punching, Blocking, and whatever that Healing Potion is. Given the trade in Damage vs. HP, if I did it perfectly, I could win, but nah, decided to take the wipe and build up my Super PF reserves. Super PF being the only thing I'm making for now because I wanna save all my other resources.

And then I find 6 Moon Dust on the ground while grinding against Slimes for the stuff. Wow. 6. WOO! Moon Dust! 9 Super PF in my bag, first boss, you going down!

Is there any reason to use the elemental attacks before the First Boss?

Ah, and on the battle win screen, put a space before the "Sil", so it's like "7 Sil" instead of 7Sil?

P.S: Why can we Sample in battle? It doesn't seem to do anything?


Beat the Boss, got the Exit, and then wiped myself on the Beach. Probably shouldn't be able to do that then find myself in bed? Never tried to wipe right after beating the Boss, but would I bypass the exit if I did? That'd be a major glitch.


Then again, this is 0.3.5 P1. We'll see what fixes P2 brings. Maybe have the First Boss not drop a Shield I'm already using?

Thanks for giving my game a go!

New Game instead of Load Game when there's no saves sounds like a good idea. And I could probably implement it pretty easily! I'll get right on that.

Looks like I've got to look at early-game balance again- there's supposed to be a lot of materials for Pepperflasks. As far as the elemental Formulas go in the first cave, the bats resist Earth and the Rock Mimics resist Fire, while most bugs are weak to Earth. They're helpful because of the extra effects they come with, but they're not strictly necessary in the Earth Cave, especially since Super Pepperflasks are a thing.

Coming up pretty soon, there's one dungeon that will basically showcase each element that's coming up soon, and you'll also get an easy way to see what elements will be useful in a given situation after some conversations back home in Orvas.

Speaking of which: I should probably set some dialogue that tells the player about the Quest Journal (which wasn't a feature until much later in development) and suggests that Brill goes back home to Orvas. While I didn't leave too many roadblocks in place in case the player wanted to try exploring and fighting things nearby, it is a generally good idea to go back home to Orvas and spend that Sil you got. Don't worry- you'll find a use for that spare Simple Shield pretty soon.

Brill's return point changes after leaving the Earth Cave for the first time, so she shouldn't accidentally warp past the Crystal event.

I'm not sure how  that Sil text got messed up, but it'll be fixed in 0.3.5 P2. Sample in battle was supposed to go with mid-battle crafting, which was an early idea that was scrapped. I never really gave it a second thought, but it doesn't really make much sense, so mid-battle Sample will be disabled in 0.3.5 P2.

(2 edits) (+1)

Whoops, I wasn't clear!

Earth Cave balance is good. If I felt like spending my ingredients, instead of hoarding them like a non-RP gamer, I'd be totally good on regular Pepperflasks.


P.S: Why does Brill have a Life Stone in her room, unused? Are they good alchemy ingredients, or something?

(+1)

You know how sometimes you'll get something, put it somewhere for when you need it... and then time passes and you completely forget it was there in the first place? That's probably what happened there.

Thanks again for the feedback!

(1 edit) (+1)

Tried the game on Android using Joiplay. The game seems really cool, but I couldn't get very far because fights where monsters are duplicated (like spiders on the south coast) are lagging as hell on Joiplay ( no matter Joiplay settings, clearly a problem with how duplicated monsters are called or handled on battlescreens) Doesn't seem to occur when monsters in the fight are differents (like 1 spider and 1 sandcrab). That said, I'll give a real try at the game once I have a ccomputer, because it looks promising and interesting and deserves to be added on m'y watchlist 🙂

But is it pronounced rup-hand or rufand ? 😋

I generally say it like "ru-fand".

Wait, there's a phone emulator that runs this? I'll have to look into this issue after 0.3.5-P1 releases (which should be soon), because now I kinda want to try it. Thanks for letting me know about this!

(+1)

No problem. And yes, Joiplay is getting popular among Android users for its compatibility, options, support of rpgm/HTML, open-sourcing and ease to use. That said, it's also possible Joiplay don't correctly support some Yanfly plugins or my phone not being powerful enough. The lags I have might not be your fault. I would suggest you to focus on completing your game and optimize it for pc, and then, for Android. Wish you the best 👍

(+1)

just started playing, and this is a really interesting game! I like that the unique combat uses a lot more strategy than just pure brute force, and the writing is funny as hell too. can't wait for future developments

(+1)

though there is a bug with the bulletin board next to inspector dill's office, if you try to read it you'll get stuck in it instead

(3 edits)

I just gave that a look- it looks like the passability was somehow set to "above player" on the first page of the event.

No idea why that was a thing, but it'll be patched in the next version. I may potentially release a hotfix, too.

EDIT: Argh! The second bounty board later on had the same issue.

I could release the first half of 0.3.5 early to fix this as it's a very glaring mistake, and I've almost finished with said first half. The update will also have some other minor bug fixes- hopefully Burn won't break under certain niche conditions anymore.

Hate to double-post, but I just wanted to let you know that 0.3.5 P1 is out. That bug should be fixed now, and if your save is still stuck in the bulletin board it'll automatically walk you out of it if you examine it once or twice.