I'm incredibly sorry I missed the blog last month! See, I was kinda nervous about how this announcement would go over with you all, so I wanted to take the time to make this introduction as best as I could. No point in wasting time over explanations, so let's get to the good stuff.

I'm happy to announce the new direction for Prayer of the Faithless: Now, the Revenant in our story is going to be Mia!



As I was writing the story of the original game, I couldn't help but wonder how the events of the prologue would play out if Mia stayed and fought the Hellspawn at the end of the prologue instead of running away with the rest of the villagers. Would she have been able to beat it like Aeyr could? What if Mia was the one who was given the offer to become a Revenant and save Honelleth? Once I started asking these questions, I couldn't get the possibilities out of my mind. Mia's timid and pacifist demeanor would make for a GREAT contrast with the savage nature of a Revenant, and would make for some EXCELLENT character development!

Not wanting to waste any time, I immediately deleted my current ACE project and started anew from the ground up. That's correct: the old game is gone. Just to make sure I don't chicken out and go back on my work, I went into my external hard drives and deleted all the game files from them as well. There's no going back now!

Thankfully, those who have already played the prologue will find that this is more than just a story rewrite! Mia brings her own unique twist to the Revenant's power of Soulfire Drain. Let's take a look at the climactic battle in Honelleth:



Gone is Mia's Bladelord skill set, but you'll be happy to know that the mechanics of stance switching has been integrated into her fighting style. Instead of Saboteur and Rush, however, she switches between Reaper and Devil stances, each with their own approach to handling Soulfire. Mia starts off every battle in Reaper Stance. From there, she can directly drain Soulfire using Soulfire Draw, set herself up to counter the next physical attack with a Soulfire drain using Primal Instinct, among other techniques.

Unlike Aeyr, Mia cannot form multiple weapons using drained Soulfire. Instead, when draining Soulfire, she will activate her own unique katana granted to her upon transformation: Akuma.



I'll detail the specifics of Akuma in a later blog, but for now, just know that it's a katana that increases with power the more you use Mia's Soulfire powers. Mia can no longer equip different katanas, so it's only appropriate that Akuma grows along with her. Draining Soulfire and activating Akuma will change Mia into Devil Stance, where she uses her newly awaken weapon to perform various high damaging techniques.

Anyway, you may have noticed the new ailment infliction to Soulfire Draw's description. This is another new addition that I'm incredibly proud of. Branding a foe reduces ALL of an opponent's elemental resistances, meaning that they'll take more damage from all sources. As Mia is not as independent as Aeyr, her powers needed to encourage players to work with the party more than they did before. After branding a foe, other allies can move in with their own elemental attacks to absolutely devastate foes.

But the fun doesn't stop there, dear reader! When you're ready to switch back to Reaper Stance, you can use various methods:



Final Howl, as the description states, is a move that severely damages all branded foes (you can brand more enemies by using Mia's Dark Brand Drive) as you sheathe Akuma.

I know what you're thinking: If Mia is the Revenant now, what about Aeyr? Oh don't worry, I have huge plans for him, too. Since Mia defeats the Hellspawn after becoming a Revenant, Aeyr remains as a Knight in Asala. I'll talk more about his situation in the next blog, so don't worry!

I know you're as excited about this new development as I am. I can't wait to hear your thoughts!