Intra Mundum

A while ago I mentioned that I was dropping combat from my game. After that I've been working a lot on scenario, map design, puzzle design and general gameplay mechanics. As I started fleshing out my story and how the player will progress through it, I started realizing that if I wanted to have that kind of gameplay, I'd need to keep the game relatively short. The reason is that if the player doesn't experience any progression other than story and puzzle variation, the gameplay quickly becomes stale. But I don't want a short game; I want to tell a grand tale of high fantasy. Doing this without letting the player do something that feels grand, something that gives a sense of growth in abilities of the characters... Well, it can probably be done. But you'll need high production values for that. You'd need visuals that, by themselves, inspire awe. But I'm very much a gameplay and mechanics kind of designer. So again I was met with a dilemma.

To keep it short (too late, I know) I've decided to reintroduce combat. For the past three weeks this has been almost the sole focus of development, because this time I didn't want to announce it and go back on my word. So instead of just announcing this, I'm going to show off some concrete examples of three classes from my game which I have been working on a lot. A gameplay video of combat will follow shortly, but I need to do some more scripting and polishing for it to be presentable to the public eye. I'm using a modified version of Yami's Symphony engine to draw visual battlers and animated enemy sprites, as well as custom visualization of attacks such as a shield bash, pierce attacks and more.

Classes:

Warrior
Somewhere between all out damage dealer and tank, the warrior is a versatile fighter that can equip many different types of weapons. Warriors can – like all classes – learn unique weapon skills from their equipped weapons, but come with their own class-specific skills that fall into two categories.

Shouts
Shouts are a warrior's means to level the playing field and to aid their allies. Shouts are powerful abilities that can turn the tide of battle if used strategically. Shouts use Spirit as a resource. The following are sample Shouts:
Hold the line! – Raises DEF and MDF of all allies for 3 turns.
For great justice! – Raises ATK and MATK of all allies for 3 turns.
I am your opponent! – Provokes enemies into attacking the warrior. Lasts 5 turns.

Stances
Stances are a warrior's means to improve their own abilities in battle. Stances use TP as a resource.

• Block Stance – Available if a shield is equipped. The warrior assumes a blocking stance that greatly reduces physical damage taken. Lasts 3 turns.

• Counter Stance – The warrior assumes a stance to counter enemy physical attacks. Lasts 3 turns.

• Frenzy Stance – The warrior assumes a frenzied stance that greatly boosts physical attack power and agility at the cost of defenses. Lasts 3 turns.

• Evasive Stance – The warrior assumes an evasive stance to dodge enemy attacks. Lasts 3 turns.

Knight
The Knight is a great tank, but also a good support unit. Knights share some Shout abilities with warriors but also have some unique ones of their own. Their other class specific ability is Auras, which grant continual buffs for the whole party until switched with another Aura or if the knight should fall in battle.

Shouts

• I will save you! – Draws most debuffs from allies onto the knight. Also grants HP regen to the knight for 4 turns.

• Revenge! – Has a high chance of reviving each downed ally. This is rerolled per ally, so that the shout can potentially revive every fallen ally. Very expensive, but can be a lifesaver. Literally.

Auras
Once an Aura is activated, it will stay active for all party members until switched out with another aura, or until the knight falls in battle. Only one aura can be active for the whole party at any time.

• Vitality – Grants HP regen to party.

• Mind – Grants increased Spirit regen to party.

• Fury – Grants increased TP regen to party.

Martial Artist
The Martial Artist is a fighter that can fight barehanded or using weapons like claws, spears and swords. This class can learn unique abilities from weapons in addition to standard ones, and when fighting barehanded has access to a unique set skills only available when not equipping weapons. These skills fall under the Taolu category (solo hand and weapon routines/forms). The martial artist also has access to a skillset called Qigong, which focuses on defensive and offensive abilities. Here are a few examples of these skills:

Taolu
The following are the barehanded unique skills that belong to the Taolu category. These all consume TP:

• Open Palm – A mighty open palm thrust that stops just short of hitting the foe. Ignores target defense.

• Closed Fist – A closed fist punch that deals a lot of damage, especially to foes with little armor.

• Monkey Kick – Deliver a lightning fast kick that is almost guaranteed to strike first.

• Tiger's Fury – The user strikes nine times at random enemies at lightning speed.

Qigong
These skills all use Spirit as a resource. Qigong is the use of breathing, movement awareness and meditation in battle. These skills range from defensive to offensive.
Central Pillar – The user takes a deep breath and regains balance. Gain 50% TP and heal a small amount of HP.

• Lion's Roar – Unleashes a mighty roar that strips enemies of their buffs. Has a good chance of also causing paralysis.

• Defensive Qi – The user reinforces their presence using their Qi. Greatly increases all defense for 4 turns.

• Qi Blast – The user unleashes a wave of Ki that deals damage to two random enemies equal to the user's current HP.

Other classes in the works

• Trickster

• Alchemist

• Engineer

• Bushi

• Ranger

• Viking

• Shaman

• Witch

• and more.

Keep in mind that the game world does not feature magic in the traditional sense, so for example the Witch and Shaman are going to be unique twists on the traditional use of such classes. These classes are also in very early planning phase, so they may disappear if I don't like their concepts.

That's it for now. I'll be coming back with gameplay footage of combat as soon as possible, so stay tuned! :)


Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day!

In the last update, I wrote about the new battle system I was working on. But after having the polished prototype done, I realized that the reason I was including a battle system was more due to conditioning than the needs of my game or its story. After all, almost every RPG I've ever played has contained the theme of killing innumerable enemies for the sake of currency and progression; imagining an RPG without combat is like imagining the world without money, it seems: It's nigh impossible.

But after a lot of thought and experimentation, I have come to the conclusion that I can make an engrossing and exciting game without combat as a core gameplay mechanic. Instead I will put exploration and "puzzle" to the forefront. Talking with people, exploring the world and your characters is what the story was always meant to be about. Removing combat as a gameplay mechanic means I can afford to spend much more time on level design and puzzles, and also story elements.

It was a scary choice, because for me it's truly taking a big leap into the unknown. But it feels right. I've remade a big part of the current version, improving it while removing combat, and I've started work on new content too. I'll have a new version available in not too long with new content that lets you see what I have in mind. For now, the download has been updated with a lot of updates to dialogue, timing, events, and a new map replacing an existing one.


Thanks for reading!

It's been a few days since my last update. The reason is that I've been working on some "boring" (boring to you perhaps; exciting to me) elements of the game, mainly a modular HUD script for RPG Maker VX Ace. It's coming along great and I'll release it as a script when it's ready for public usage.

I'll be posting another update with screenshots of the world map development very soon.

The download demo has been replaced with the latest build that updates some visuals and fixes a few minor bugs.