WeaponBirth: Ferrum Anima

This time I'm going to post a bit of background information I have so far. I go on often about the engine and workings but I haven't really told you about the story. Don't worry, how can there be spoilers to a story that isn't written yet!?


The game begins in a place labeled "Gray Rock" as the player emerges from a place deep in a crevice. I tend to like disorienting intros like this which match up with the player themselves having no knowledge of anything. It's not a case of amnesia, Tetsumori is about as pristine and innocent as any animal. She doesn't know any languages, but she is the only character the player will get to see the thoughts to. In the beginning it's really mostly just her, but when she meets people you can see what she is thinking when she desperately tries to communicate with people.

Now the name "Gray Rock" isn't actually what the place is called. All locations you find are what Tetsumori knows- that is "Gray Rock" is the label for the place because that's what Tetsumori thinks it looks like. Until you learn the proper name for any place, it will be labeled as whatever Tetsumori thinks it should be called. It's much better than just "???" since I think I would run out of question marks if I did that.

In the beginning she just wanders twords something that sort of just pulls her forward. It's really the only thing that could possibly be in her mind and she's sensitive to magnetic fields (just like some marine life on Earth does as a direction map). Of course it's going to be that over-sized magnet she "carries" around. I'm not sure if you'll see it when walking around, but in battle it floats behind her back until you attack with it.

Ever notice how you just happen to know which way is north in RPG games without having a compass in your inventory? Tetsumori doesn't need a compass or anything like a homing pidgeon, but compass directions aren't important in this game since it's a top-down perspective and the camera never rotates in the pan direction.

Now I've got this whole perception system I'm going to add. Like a chat window of sorts, you'll see notices and stuff appear at the bottom left of the screen. This is for anything you hear, feel, think, etc. and is related to the main character you play as. You have really sharp senses (except vision) so you'll be able to tell things about the maps you're on and use the clues to find any hidden stuff. It will also be where you overhear NPC dialogs.

As a person, Tetsumori is intelligent, durable, and sharp. She gets more HP and Power as well as good accuracy. Lots of attacks she can use on dodgy characters because they never miss (you are never free of the influence of gravity or magnetism as you would have to be infinitely far away from the source to be free). Of course you can just run up and claw at or punch your enemies. Even without the magnet she can still have impact to her hands using power. She isn't really that strong or fast though, she isn't slow either. Electricity just deflects off of her, but other dark type attacks would still do normal damage.

She's not one of those stereotypical pretty lead female protagonist characters you see all the time, she's kind of rugged. She's got only the primal sense of compassion and love that come with naturalistic morals that are present in many different animals- so she's not evil or anything. Think of a not-so-hairy caveperson that is actually pretty intelligent. She can use different methods to get across her ideas without conventional languages, but she eventually learns to speak.