Illusions of Loyalty

Last updated: July 12, 2015
NOTE: This is Version 2.8. This is THE last one, I swear this time! I just figured if I was adding the ability to toggle sprint, I might as well make a few last tweaks!
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The first main game in the "Shackles of Varn" universe.

Illusions of Loyalty is a short RPG game with a dark story about loyalty and the risks of blind trust, combined with a challenging battle system.

General information:
Illusions of loyalty is about 3-6 hours long to play through, depending on the difficulty level you choose and how much trouble the bosses give you. While the difficulty of the game leans on the "hard" side of the spectrum, there are easier difficulty settings for those who are less hardcore.

Story:
War rages on between the Kingdom of Styx and the Gaius Republic. Worse still, Styx is on the brink of civil war due to the actions of a growing rebel movement. When a particularly violent attack implicates the brother of Captain Julius Logan, his loyalties are called into question.

To prove his dedication to Queen and Country, Logan will have to do the impossible. Take three fellow soldiers into the neutral Eutorian Empire, assassinate their Queen, and pin the blame on Gaius in hopes of swaying the neutral Empire into joining their desperate war.

Taking his kingdom's fate in his hands, Logan sets out with his three comrades, unaware of just how dire his situation is about to become...

Gameplay:
The combat in Illusions of loyalty is based around managing Aggression. Do you spend your Aggression on a powerful attack now, or do you hold back in case the boss might prepare to launch a devastating attack next turn?

Do you go full offense and risk being punished severely, or do you put up your defenses and risk missing a window of opportunity? These are the decisions you will be faced with regularly, especially in the boss fights. And yet, for every impossible situation, there is a solution.

Boss fights are designed around identifying the boss's specific patterns and weaknesses, and then using your skills intelligently to turn the tide of battle in your favor. These bosses will test your skills, patience and drive at every turn. Master your skills, and you may just stand a chance.



Features:

No random encounters!
- All normal battles are on-field sprites that can be avoided if you want!

Quick to pick up, deeper than you think!
- Each character has 6 unique skills, each one with their own uses and advantages. What might seem like dead weight at first glance might prove to be a saving grace in the right situation!

Six challenging boss battles!
- Three story bosses, 3 optional, all incredibly devious. Conquer them!

Play smart, grind less!
- Intelligent use of your skills, and proper understanding of the bosses can allow you to beat them at surprising levels. My personal record is finishing the game at level 7 on |Legend|. Can you beat that?
(Note: The current record is held by NeverSilent who beat the game at levels 4-4-5-4, and who skipped all the normal combat encounters. I'm still in shock)

Save as you please!
- Do you want to save at will? You can do that. Would you rather go retro and be at the mercy of Save Points? You can do that too! You decide!

Accessorize!
- Enemies will sometimes drop accessories that let you tweak your characters. From first-turn advantages to regenerating HP over time, there's many to choose from!

3 difficulty modes
|Legend| - AKA, the hardcore mode
- No mercy. Adapt on the fly, or die trying!

|Knight| - AKA, the Standard mode
- Disables or weakens the 3 most "unfair" boss moves.
- Allows the purchase of level-up manuals from shops.
- Hints for dealing with bosses can be found by speaking with the townsfolk or other events.

|Soldier| - AKA, the easy mode
- Not hardcore? No problem! All the benefits from |Knight| mode apply, plus more!
- Start with four headgears that double EXP rate, gold drop rate, item drop rate, and boost attack and defense by an additional 50%.

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Version 2.8 - Updated December 12, 2015

Hopefully the final one ever.

- At last! Sprint is now on a toggle! You only need to hit the shift key once and you're running! If you need precision, then just tap it and it's off! No more finger cramps! Huzzah!

- slightly improved telegraphing of Boss #2's attacks, so now you know more which is doing what! Was going to give all enemies a "casting" animation in line with Heresies of Discord, but that would make knowing what enemies to silence a little too easy.

- Enemy Regular attacks now have an animation! No more awkward "pittypat *DAMAGE*" thing! More clarity! And it looks cooler!

- True Ending made a bit more clear/explicit via a few extra animations, and something integrated into the gameplay. I think that latter bit is done quite clever, actually!

- A few loot drop values changed, and a few of the more "meh" accessories were made a tiny bit more effective.

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Version 2.7 - updated July 12, 2015

This is probably going to be the last one. Unless I become completely insane and want to remove the last few traces of the tricks I had to use to make it work all the way back in the Lite Version. >_>

- Cleaned up a few last bugs.
- Added in a few minor lines of text here and there (mostly relating to Magic), to make it feel a bit more in line with Heresies of Discord.
- Will-O-Wisps now look 10% cooler, with the same sprite they had in Heresies of Discord. :D
- The Luck stat no longer affects status effects, meaning your 100% chance status effect skills (like Silencer) will no longer randomly not happen 0.001% of the time.
- Tweaked the Third Optional Boss to be a bit more fair. You now get more fair warning when he's warming up his gimmick, and you get one more free turn to wail on him.
- A lot of people sent me messages asking me how some things in the True Ending were even possible. Hopefully the implication is a bit more clear now.

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Version 2.6 - updated March 12, 2014
- Since I made a few minor tweaks for the Steam workshop version, I figured I might as well just port that version over to RMN.net. Because why the heck not?
- Most of the music has been replaced with stuff that's not copyrighted. Yay for royalty free music!
- One last typo (that only showed up on Soldier mode) fixed.
- One boss move's description altered because it made you think you could Silence it, when you couldn't.
- Ambush Orders Accessory made more useful.
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Version 2.5 - updated March 9, 2014
- Improved combat UI that looks a lot nicer
- Enemies now sometimes drop accessories that can be used to tweak your characters
- Dialogue cleaned up and improved, and a few more NPCs added
- World map music replaced with something much more fitting.
- some skills tweaked and re-labelled. (Baroque's Counter skill is a bit less broken now)
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Version 2.0:
- No more random encounters. All encounters are on-map sprites that can be avoided.
- 3 more optional bosses, for a total of 6 bosses.
- Wilder's skills rebalanced to be harder to use, but more powerful when used well.
- Expanded towns, and many many more events. Be sure to check out everything! :)
- Difficulty modes expanded on and rebalanced. Boss hints can now be found in the world on everything but the hardest mode.
- New story scenes, improved dialogue, and clarified battle mechanics.