Main-Post #2: Game Elements and Plans
Contents
01 - Conflict In Spirta
02 - The Characters
03 - Immersion Elements
04 - Gameplay Elements
05 - Visual Section
06 - Walkthrough & Secrets
07 - Meet The Team
08 - Project Dates
09 - Script Listings
10 - Contact Us
01Conflict In Spirta
Weeks after Shiv's destruction, the first wave of Shiv survivors scrambled unto Eisar territory. As the Val-Numans raided ancient Shiv libraries, the Council of Tiitis claimed war on the young nation of Val-Steadis.
As the Eisar, you are in control of the great demon Mersaeyis. One of the eight Demons summoned to the cause, his quest is one to support the region of Drake and collect the unclaimed Djiin of the world.
As the Val-Numans, you are in control of Myles Ivinson, a young soldier placed in the Seven Lions party. Your adventures take you from the capital of Val-Steadis to the now claimed Shiv. It is here where your party commander was summoned for urgent matters.
02The Characters
There are two seperate story-lines in Moon Child that cross over. Each has their own feel and unique elements, all of which is used to explain the Val-Eisar war in a way that could not be described from a single perspective. When playing as the Eisar, Moon Child is the base character and the story centers around him. When playing as the Val-Numans, Myles Ivinson is the main character, and the story is based around him. The game is *not* split up into two segments, control between these two characters is switched during certain points.
CHAR Mersaeyis - The Moon Child The only Demon of the Drake region, living under the commands of Vahemin. A playful spirit in nature, yet when it comes to battle another side of him shows. Mersaeyis is a very manipulative and sadistic warrior, wielding his two short blades, Luna and Oktave, with grace and power. Although loved by his people [who he very much enjoys the company of], Mersaeyis is more of an adventurous and independent Demon who likes to travel to locations far off from his home region.
[Story Qualities] Humourous, Sadistic, Compassionate, Loved
[Game Qualities] Fighting style, powerful set of Djiin effects, very deadly in battle, supportive of other characters
CHAR Bane A mischeavious little mystery to the elder Eisar, Bane is one-of-a-kind. Even when the most intelligent Council of Tiitis observed him, it was undecided whether this strange being was a Demon or an Eisar deformity. As he grew in time under the Tiitis' watchful eyes, it was quickly found out that Bane had quite the mouth and attitude that would get him into much trouble. Although some find this attitude interesting, the Tiitis found it quite annoying facing the complaints of the people. After an experience in the city, Moon Child stepped up and offered to take Bane under his watch, and they have now become traveling companions. Bane's closest link to the Eisar race is the Ellis [a fairy-like race] due to his small body type and the way that he hovers above ground [basically picture him as a small, red, flying, imp].
[Story Qualities] Comical, mischeavious, stuck-up, selfish, proud
[Game Qualities] Very useful support/enhance effects, very strong skill set, enjoyable to have around
CHAR Vahemin The Tiitis of the Drake region, Vahemin's (Va-he-men) interests lie in success and prosperity, yet his darker sides show in his single Demon, Moon Child. Although not very accomplished as the Third Tiitis, Vahemin hopes that with Moon Child he can turn the tides of the war.
[Story Qualities] Elder of the Eisar race [as the third oldest being], powerful, caring, worried
[Game Qualities] Nice set of core warrior Demons, a few core surprises
CHAR Commander [Brett] Isenharrow, Age: 37 Commander Brett Isenharrow (Eye-zen-hare-oh), leader of the Seven Lions scouting party. Brett Isenharrow spent much of his troubled childhood learning under the harsh expectations of a master swordsman. Although a failure in his master's eyes (due to Brett's many mistakes), Brett managed to muster enough strength to make a good showing to the Val-Numan army and was assigned as a scout commander. Due to his little experience though, Commander Isenharrow was stuck with quite the squad...
[Story Qualities] Nervous, easily angered and surprised, very humorous moments between him and the party, loyal to the cause yet ignorant of the reasons
[Game Qualities] Strong and very well guarded warrior with versatility in both wielding the sword and the Sapphire Essai (Es-ah-ya), nice support and fighting character with 'crushing' damage
CHAR Myles Ivinson, Age: 20 Myles is a young and over-excited man whose dreams lie in the fame and glory of serving for the Crusades. A thrill-seeker, Myles will do anything in pursuit of adventure. Together with his long time childhood friend, Garret, Myles joined as a scout and was sent over to the Seven Lions party. A quick learner in the ways of combat, Myles has developed a very deadly style of using the sword and Essai in combat. He has found that the lighter Emerald Essai is much suited to his range of positions and speed in battle.
[Story Qualities] "I'm my own boss" attitude, easily excitable, thrill-seeker, simple needs, conflicts with Brett's attitude
[Game Qualities] Very versatile in combat, a lot of support abilities in his Essai range, 'sharper' damage
CHAR Garret Allos, Age: 22 Although striving to be an intelligent person, Garret too shares the same problem that Myles has. Garret has always cared little about settling down, and seeks to journey the world and discover its secrets. Not much in support of the war, he saw the Crusades as an excellent opportunity to see the wonders of the world, and joined as a scout. Garret's abilities lie in between that of Myles and Brett, with a very high endurance and a powerful attack strength. As an intelligent warrior, Garret chose the Crimson Essai due to its vast school of knowledge.
[Story Qualities] Supports other characters and story development, ambitious, makes quite a few mistakes in his learning process
[Game Qualities] Powerful and intelligent warrior that can hold his own, very large ability set, his choice of axe as a weapon goes well with his battle skills
03Immersion Elements
Following Main-Post #1 on atmosphere, visuals and audio will play a huge part in the creation of Divinity's Calling. The visual style is still in development but I'm hoping that I can achieve a colorful yet sophisticated style with half-kaisers as the character base. Audio is a mixture of multiple game soundtracks, each full of tracks that set the perfect game atmosphere and style. More details will be announced at a later time.
04Gameplay Elements
Divinity's Calling will be a project that overcomes the basic problems of any other. It's gameplay elements have a simple interface yet are deep and allow for customization. Here are some major highlights planned for the final versions of Divinity's Calling:
Plot-Branch Design & Cultural Design: Divinity's Calling deals with its story in an unique way for RMXP games. Influenced very much by Chrono Cross, the story opens up and allows for different paths that the player can take. This feature will aid in developing characters and showing you multiple sides to the epic tale. Depending on the path you take during the game, the conclusion will differ. Now, in my opinion, culture has its own part in telling the tale. I believe that in creating a unique world, right down to the NPCs or items, you can shape how players view the story. Because of this I will focus plenty of attention into the culture of the land, its history and relations will be vital to the game.
Divine Combat Engine: Divinity's Calling will feature an unique take on the classic ATB combat engine. As the game progresses, I am planning to start work on a battle engine designed primarily with Divinity's Calling's gameplay in mind. The battle engine will be side-view with a new set of battle animations. Along with this, the engine is based around certain additions to the gameplay of Divinity's Calling. Besides major interface changes, the actual amount of characters in combat at a time differs with this system. There are a different set of options for each campaign.
The Val-Numans have these options in combat: Force [Strike/Missile], Guard [Guard/Counter], Skill, Essence, Supply, and Retreat.
The Demons have a different set of options in battle: Attack, Guard, Demon, Djiin, Resource, and Escape.
Skills in Divinity's Calling are gained differently than in the default battle system. Attacking opponents or using skills will increase a character's strength. For example, a character that attacks often will gain strength, using a certain skill a lot will lead to an advance to an upgrade to a higher skill (similar to FF7's system). As a character stays in combat and performs actions, they gain combat points which when gained enough will help the character raise in level (referred to as Rank for Val-Numans, Age for Demons). As the character raises in level they will gain access to newer skills which when used enough will be permanently learned (for visual aid, look at
Chrono Crisis's excellent tech grid system).
Val-Side Combat: The Val-Numans campaign features a very different style of combat than the Demon's. As the adventures focus on the scout party and teamwork is needed to advance throughout the game, there are a set of features to draw on those elements.
*Troops trained in the Val army have gained access to new weapons. Many are trained in melee weapons and in addition to, the Essai. The Essai is a ranged weapon that draws upon the Elemental Essence of the land. Whether melee or Essai is used depends where characters are placed in battle (
Craptacular Layout Sketch). As seen in my horrible flash art, there are up to five characters in battle at time. There is one protected unit at the back who will always use the Essai due to range, there are two units in the middle who have access to either melee weapons or the Essai, and there are two units in the front who have access to melee weapons. Character's that are heavy attackers may want to be put in the front while Essence-based ones should be put in the back. Also shown in this picture is the menu on the left, the enemy position, and the Time Gauge which will appear above every character.
*There are three different types of skills you can invest for Val-Numan characters. The first are battle skills (from weapon to command skills) based on the character, the second are Essai skills (all kinds, elemental attacks, stat boosts) based on both character and their Essai type, and the third is depending on which characters are in your party at the time. The Val-Numans can interact with certain Tactic Skills which are combined skills of multiple characters.
*Val-Numans gain slight stat boosts with increases in Rank but mainly gain boosts by investing in skills.
*The Val-Numan campaign will have around nine characters to experiment with.
Demon-Side Combat: Largely different than the Val-Numan campaign, the Demon campaign is much more focused on individual characters and their identities in battle. As seen in
this, the Demons differ from the Val-Numans in that they only have three characters in combat at a time, two units on the front line and one unit behind.
*Demons have Demon skills (battle and personal) and Djiin skills to learn. Djiin are equipped to a Demon, and they provide the Demon with new skills to learn. As these skills are learned the Djiin grow stronger and provide bonuses to the Demon. Along with this, a Demon can have multiple Djiin for a wide variety of enhancing effects.
*The Demons gain large stat changes when they age and different enhancing effects from investing in their Djiin.
*In the Demon campaign there is a large cast of around 12-15 characters.
The gameplay may be very confusing from what you read, if you have any questions, then please ask.
05
06Walkthrough & Secrets
-No installations yet-
07Meet The Team
LEAD Breeze_Arkayne: Creator, Lead Design & Writing, Database and Map Work
MAIN Chimp of Doom: Writer & Story Design
TEAM Mr Ishbuu: Sketch Artist
-PM or post back if you are interested in joining under the Sketch Artist, Game Arts, or Scripting/Engine Works positions, also check out the recruitment topic-
At this very moment, a logo artist and someone to help me rework the two main posts (in artwork, layout, and writing) are vital to the development of the game.
08Project Dates
Release date is undecided at this point, further important dates are;
Introductory Demo: -?-
09Script Listings
Scripts currently used are:
RATB v 1.14
10Contact Us
Thanks for your time, and please comment and criticize!
~Breeze_Arkayne, head of Breeze Productions developments.
(Before anyone asks, I did have permission from moderators to divide my topic into two major posts (thank you very much for helping me make the topic, psgels))
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