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Over two hundred years ago, the five heroes defeated the god of darkness; Ragnarok, in a climactic struggle for the fate of the world. Banished back to the realm of darkness known as the Abyss, the threat of the evil god had finally been put to rest once and for all...or so they thought.

Umbral Soul follows the story of Ragnarok’s loyal servant, Pandora, who joins her master in a quest to conquer the world and reclaim his lost power. In order to shroud the world in eternal darkness, they will have to find and recruit new allies, build an army of powerful monsters, and raise a force strong enough to crush anyone who dares to oppose them. Heroes, generals and rival overlords all stand against them. Do you have the power to make the world yours?



Pandora
A powerful dark sorceress with the ability to call forth monsters from the Abyss and enslave them to her will. Her burning hatred for the world and its people leads her to follow Ragnarok with unwavering loyalty.

Ragnarok
The god of darkness, who seeks dominion over the human realm. Once an extremely powerful being in the form of a monstrous demon, he has now been reduced to a mere soul. He wishes to plunge the entirety of the human realm into darkness, in part out of spite for his counterpart; the goddess of light, Lumielle.

Lanith
Beautiful, deadly, and self absorbed to a tee, Lanith is a succubus with a never ending hunger for the lifeforce of men. Having served under Pandora since she was only a child, she has a knack for getting under her skin, and does so whenever the opportunity arises.

Damien
A deeply twisted and sadistic young man, Damien loves nothing more than manipulating others and watching them squirm. While he has kept his true nature a secret, Ragnarok’s uprising marks the perfect opportunity for him to cut loose and have some fun...by killing as many enemies as possible.

Azrielle
The lord of all demons, who is fiercely loyal to Ragnarok and possesses an extreme, seething hatred for humanity. After failing to aid his master in conquering the world the first time, he has no intention of repeating the same mistakes again.




•A character driven storyline filled with unlockable side-stories

•Moving battle backgrounds for more organic battles

•Over 100 custom attack animations

•Custom sound effects

•More than 10 recruitable monsters and demons

•Engaging, story-driven sidequests

•Enhance your monsters with Darkness Points, evolving them into new and terrible forms

•Teleport to and from your lair at will

•Cutscenes and character interactions change depending on who is in your party



Celianna
Moghunter
Yanfly
Kagome-kagome
Katakura Hibiki Dark Hero Character Pack
Katakura Hibiki Fantasy Hero Character Pack
Katakura Hibiki Lords of Darkness Pack
Pandamaru
Mack
Chirno-chan
Mazeran
Gyrowolf
Closet
Division Heaven

And many more! Full credits list will be included in the game upon completion.
A big shout out to all the resource creators both free and paid out there. Your hard work inspires us all to get out there and create something special!

The time is now. Forget about saving the world, reach out and conquer it.



Latest Blog

I'm back, baby!

Hey everybody, hope you've been doing well. I'm pleased to say I was just recently discharged from rehab, so at long last after over a month I'm home. They ran a whole lot of tests on me and I had several surgeries, so I am finally no longer in danger of croaking. That means I'm finally free to double down on game development, when I'm not stuck sitting in some doctor's office that is. Thank you all for your well wishes, they went a long way towards improving my mental health through that strenuous time. Welp, that's enough chatter. I've got some game making to do.

Posts

oh dear, i am so sorry to hear that :( i really hope you manage to find at least one. maybe try with the people who liked the game or whose opinion of the game could be summarised with 'akshrurgsjalaiehrvfjskalahdhakah'? you never know, you might get lucky and they might accept! be brave, i believe in you, you can do it! :)
I sure could use a few, but volunteers are so hard to find. I wish I knew someone who was interested.

*now deactivating sarcasm mode
a magic word i can apparently be summoned with is testers xD do you need any? :3
author=Hentaicheg
Any spoilers on when you 'approximate' the release of the final update? I assume that's not the Dark Rebirth one.


Yo! Sorry for the late reply, but this has always been a tricky question for me. For the time being, I expect to release the ultimate edition by the end of the year at the absolute latest, assuming real life doesn't punch me in the gut the way it did last year. How quickly my testers can play through the game and get back to me is another factor, but I doubt that'll take too much time. Thanks for bearing with me!
Any spoilers on when you 'approximate' the release of the final update? I assume that's not the Dark Rebirth one.
The last update was a loooong time ago, so the changes I've been talking about aren't in the current version. I've been making them as I go, but rather than add in a bunch of little patches I'm just going to dump all the new stuff into the ultimate edition. I'll be sure to make a big fat obnoxious blog post about it when I release it, so you'll know when it's available to download. Thanks for sticking with the game, you won't regret it!
author=WheelmanZero
Pfft, nah that's not a dumb question at all. I've made a few updates during the game's rather lengthy lifetime so it's not surprising that you'd ask that. The version that's up now is the latest completed version that I've released, but I am currently working on a final update that fixes a lot of problems, upgrades some graphics and skills, and adds a boatload of additional content. The game's still perfectly playable as is, but once I've released the final update, it'll be the finely polished diamond I've always wanted it to be.

In fact, there's a new set of dlc animations for VX Ace I purchased recently that I'm using to remake some attacks to make them feel more impactful. If anyone thinks they'll be playing the same game when they replay the final version, they're in for a pleasant surprise. Thanks for the awesome compliment xxNjckk, and I hope you'll join me for the final version.


I know that you've updated the game, I'm confused since whenever I go to downloads it still says that 2017 and shows nothing about 2021

So idk if I'm missing something but I've downloaded both versions and neither have the Lanith Soul Stealing Kiss buff or anything else, but I think I'm just dumb and it's not in?

Anyway, yeah I'll be sticking around for when you finish your game and even your next one :D
Pfft, nah that's not a dumb question at all. I've made a few updates during the game's rather lengthy lifetime so it's not surprising that you'd ask that. The version that's up now is the latest completed version that I've released, but I am currently working on a final update that fixes a lot of problems, upgrades some graphics and skills, and adds a boatload of additional content. The game's still perfectly playable as is, but once I've released the final update, it'll be the finely polished diamond I've always wanted it to be.

In fact, there's a new set of dlc animations for VX Ace I purchased recently that I'm using to remake some attacks to make them feel more impactful. If anyone thinks they'll be playing the same game when they replay the final version, they're in for a pleasant surprise. Thanks for the awesome compliment xxNjckk, and I hope you'll join me for the final version.
I have yet to do a complete playthrough of Umbra soul yet, as situations in real life halted me from doing so, but I have to say, this is one of the most hard hitting, down to life games that I have ever played. You play games all the time and you never really connect to the characters, but in Umbra soul,I got personally and emotionally invested into it. WheelchairmanZero, you have truly made a great game and I appreciate the creativity you have brought to the thousands of us who have played your game.

Now I'm going to make myself sound completely dumb with this question. Is the Umbra Souls Dark Rebirth patch rtp included, the most up to date version? I'm sorry for being dumb lmfao I just want to make sure I'm playing the latest version xD
Edit: I'm mainly confused since you stated in a previous reply that you've made some changes and to me it sounded like you've pushed that update to the public and I don't see it when I play- Probably should've mentioned that since I'm confused here.
Haha, you did write a few words indeed! Yes I took the lazy shortcut hoping you'll update me if these have been brought up in the last 64(!) pages :)

Oh how cool, this might be the opposite of a coincidence, but that is exactly what I've been playing with in my head for many years now. To create a game, for myself. Mainly due to nothing fulfilling my exact personal (exorbitant) needs. Already got a notepad with way too many ideas. On a side note, my original dream was to write a book, since reading is my favourite passion (along with trees). But English is not my native language and realised I'll never be able to write on that level, making a game on the other hand could work out really well.

Now when I first read your approach to the movesets, I'll admit it was with a raised brow. For they are not at all along the lines of how I'd approach it. I always preferred tactical variety in games, avoiding easy choice signature moves. But I liked how they worked in the game, so you must know something better :) After some thinking, I realised this is exactly what I talked about in the first post, making the battle system work, that I thought should not. Will analyze things on the new playthrough for sure!
EDIT: Think I figured it out, just had to read with more focus, so I assume the signature moves you referred to were not OP? But useful enough that they never feel useless in a turn, yes you spelled it out for me, shakes my dummy head :)

Talking to myself: Simply wow! He actually made changes even based on other peoples opinion, this guy is a gift that keeps on giving!

Sooo awesome! But I only skimmed through your bastardy change spoilers, luckily I'm blessed with the memory of a goldfish and will be able to play with the mind of a newborn when you release it :D

Will definitely 100% the game again, I'm sure you created something worth playing.
Honestly you are being too nice! Time is the most valuable commodity. Your offer of rpg maker support might be taken one day, but you can be left in peace since I have my own resources, my brother is a very helpful programming wizard I can bug for now :)
author=Regeny
Hello Mr. WheelmanZero!

It has been a few years since I completed your game and I have yet to thank you. I would have replayed it already, but decided to wait for the new finished version. This game stands out even to someone with decades of RPG experience. You managed to make things work, that should not. Starting with the way that the traditional skill system is turned on its head, thinking of the main character, it just works perfectly with the story line of playing the powerful bad guys, all the while keeping the fights challenging and not too repetitive. How?! I ask myself, and others should as well.

But what truly stands out to me is the way you handled the story. There is a fine balance a game creator has to make when making a story heavy game, to keep a game, a game. With all the darker aspect of the story, there could have been so many pitfalls, getting too "edgy" or encumbering a player with too much philosophy and so on. During my playthrough not only did I care about the story and its well written characters, with suspension of disbelief, but I also had a lot of fun.

Now that I glazed this post with enough sugar, we can get to an aspect that disappointed me :). I wonder if you have made changes since. Maybe I'm just wrong, it's been a while since I played the game. So I collected every recruitable monsters and completed their final form, leveled them up. Sadly they just never became viable, they were always inferior to the main characters skill and power. Also, who could live in peace without hearing all the dialogues! I wish there was some other element to them, they could have been more interesting if at parts of the game one or more main party members were missing or if they were an extra companion somehow 4+1. Or to unlock a side quest area with them. Or if they were simply stronger in certain fights compared to the main characters. But having said all this, just completing the recruiting side quests for them was rewarding enough already.

I apologize for rambling on so long, I notice how you take your time to read and reply to every post in a very kind and personal manner, every person could learn from you, I certainly did.

Thank you! :)

Danger: Incoming Wall of Text!


Man oh man, where to even begin with this awesome post? I guess I'll kick things off by thanking you for playing the game and sharing your thoughts. Hearing stuff like this really does make a difference in how I approach things. What's that? I say that every time? So what, I don't know what else to say, alright?! Wait, did I use that joke already? Nevermind, let's just get to it!

I certainly don't claim to be an expert on story writing or game design, but I do know what I like. I basically tailor made this game to suit my own personal tastes, with a battle system I enjoyed and characters that were fun to write. After all, I had originally never planned on releasing this game to the public, and made it only for myself. It turns out a lot of other people share my tastes as well, so things really worked out in the end.

Ah yes, the summons. This is far from the first time I've heard this particular point made, but you might be happy to know I've been working on a solution. While the summons were never really meant to be on par with your overpowered group of dastardly dark mages, they were meant to play specific roles. Draconus for AOE fire attacks, Lanith for debuffing men and healing, the Phoenix for HP regen and revival, ect. I've been tweaking their movesets so that they're far more adept at their individual roles right off the bat, and generally more fun to use.

Before I go any further I'd like to share the approach I usually take when designing characters' movesets. I personally find characters more fun to use when they have a specific skill that is easy to use while being fairly effective in its purpose. A "signature move" if you will. To use an example, Damien's signature move would be Puppet Dance, while Pandora's would be Shadow Bolt. Each character needs a move they can fire off almost constantly without wasting too many turns gathering resources for it. If a character has too many moves that require a charge time without being able to do something useful in the meantime, they end up feeling clunky and not as fluid.

I realized this was a problem with a few summons like Lanith, in that their signature moves either require too much buildup or are simply not that useful. Using Lanith as an example, I've decided to eliminate the cost for Soul Stealing Kiss, so that she can use it without gathering TP first. In fact, it now actually restores TP so that it can be used to fuel her other physical skills. Another player had mentioned that they were disappointed that the Chimera's final form lost its thunder spell, which weakened its combo potential with a certain other character. I happened to agree, so I've given that particular summon a new thunder spell as its signature move, whereas its other moves take a much larger amount of resources to use in exchange for increased damage.

Another issue that was brought to my attention is the fact that gold is relatively hard to come by. I've remedied this by giving monsters drops. Whereas only human enemies and bosses dropped gold before, now most enemies have a good chance of leaving behind something you can trade for gold. This will make it a lot easier to buy demon's draughts in bulk, allowing you to level your summons and obtain their full movesets without having to grind too much.

I guess what I'm trying to say with this long winded term paper of a post is that I've given summons more useful skills in order to make them more enjoyable to use. I had heard that some people were disappointed that certain summons didn't have evolutions, so I've given one to the Hornet Queen and Hydra Ralfessia, while the Phoenix has a new pseudo transformation. I've also taken the liberty of adding a completely new summon that's capable of evolving.

So yeah! Hopefully these new and improved summons will make collecting them again worth the effort. Thanks again for the comment and the kind words. If you decide to go messing around with rpg maker I'll gladly give you my support.


EDIT: I put my massive response in a spoiler tab so it doesn't eat up half the page.
Hello Mr. WheelmanZero!

It has been a few years since I completed your game and I have yet to thank you. I would have replayed it already, but decided to wait for the new finished version. This game stands out even to someone with decades of RPG experience. You managed to make things work, that should not. Starting with the way that the traditional skill system is turned on its head, thinking of the main character, it just works perfectly with the story line of playing the powerful bad guys, all the while keeping the fights challenging and not too repetitive. How?! I ask myself, and others should as well.

But what truly stands out to me is the way you handled the story. There is a fine balance a game creator has to make when making a story heavy game, to keep a game, a game. With all the darker aspect of the story, there could have been so many pitfalls, getting too "edgy" or encumbering a player with too much philosophy and so on. During my playthrough not only did I care about the story and its well written characters, with suspension of disbelief, but I also had a lot of fun.

Now that I glazed this post with enough sugar, we can get to an aspect that disappointed me :). I wonder if you have made changes since. Maybe I'm just wrong, it's been a while since I played the game. So I collected every recruitable monsters and completed their final form, leveled them up. Sadly they just never became viable, they were always inferior to the main characters skill and power. Also, who could live in peace without hearing all the dialogues! I wish there was some other element to them, they could have been more interesting if at parts of the game one or more main party members were missing or if they were an extra companion somehow 4+1. Or to unlock a side quest area with them. Or if they were simply stronger in certain fights compared to the main characters. But having said all this, just completing the recruiting side quests for them was rewarding enough already.

I apologize for rambling on so long, I notice how you take your time to read and reply to every post in a very kind and personal manner, every person could learn from you, I certainly did.

Thank you! :)
author=WheelmanZero
Dude, good to hear from you again! Geez man, you caught the virus twice? You must have some seriously buff antibodies by now. You know what they say; "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger and gives you the opportunity to dedicate the rest of your life to revenge."

Don't worry, I can assure you the "thier" scourge has been thoroughly culled. I've tracked down and exterminated all of them, including their inlaws, stepsiblings and second cousins. It looks like everyone will have to find something else to tease me about. Ha! Then again I've been adding a lot of new dialogue, so it's possible that a new generation of "thier's" might pop up... Bah, it'll be fine! That's what I have testers for.

To think that you'd be willing to replay the game after all this time. I tell ya, it brings a tear of joy to my eye every time I hear something like this. Making this game was totally worth it, and there's only more good stuff to come. I was planning on having the update done by now, but last year was rather...um..."unpleasant" for me. Even so things are going great. I'll shoot you an email in a bit.



Yeah. It wasn't even that bad for me, all things considered. The worst bit was the pain and fatigue. Spending 12-16 hours asleep, and in so much pain I had to use a piss bottle like some disgusting neckbeard. But that was the worst of it. Influenza-B hit me harder in 2018. Nearly killed me then. Glad to hear about all the new content, and I'm more hyped than ever. Since I'm only working 1 day a week, I have plenty of time to update the Wiki when the update does finally drop. I'm looking forward to it.
Looks like I haven't commented since...2017? I think it's time I throw out another one. I'll probably hold off for the update before I do another playthrough, but I have been keeping tabs on this. As someone who did a bunch of testing back then, perhaps I'll be the one to find the next generation of thiers. I doubt there will be too many bugs for me to find at this point, but new updates leave room for unexplored territory.

This game has a way of blowing most other games sidequests out of the water, and then blowing them into space before they can retreat back to the water.

Good luck with finishing the updates!
Dude, good to hear from you again! Geez man, you caught the virus twice? You must have some seriously buff antibodies by now. You know what they say; "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger and gives you the opportunity to dedicate the rest of your life to revenge."

Don't worry, I can assure you the "thier" scourge has been thoroughly culled. I've tracked down and exterminated all of them, including their inlaws, stepsiblings and second cousins. It looks like everyone will have to find something else to tease me about. Ha! Then again I've been adding a lot of new dialogue, so it's possible that a new generation of "thier's" might pop up... Bah, it'll be fine! That's what I have testers for.

To think that you'd be willing to replay the game after all this time. I tell ya, it brings a tear of joy to my eye every time I hear something like this. Making this game was totally worth it, and there's only more good stuff to come. I was planning on having the update done by now, but last year was rather...um..."unpleasant" for me. Even so things are going great. I'll shoot you an email in a bit.
Hey, WheelmanZero, long time, buddy. Just checking in on the game. Life has been.... to call it crazy would be an understatement. Caught the 'Rona twice, had to move states... It's been insane. How's the update for Umbral going, man? Get those damn "thier"s fixed? lmfao I need to replay this, really, I do. It's been too long. Sooo hyped for Luminous Souls!

Also, was literally just talking about Umbral Soul in a KIK group I'm in. Told 'em how much I loved the game.
Ggnoore- Ohoho, an anime huh? Man, it doesn't get much more flattering than that! As amazing as that would be, it's enough that some players decided to upload their playthroughs on youtube. It had been a secret dream of mine, though I'd be lying if I said it wasn't terrifying having my game up for everyone to see. I can feel their eyes...judging me!

The way I see it, anything I could do in a discord group I could do here, except for a real time chat of course. While it would be great to share my progress with everyone as I make it, I'm hoping to keep some things a surprise. That way when I release the full version, people will say to themselves; "Wow, this was totally worth the wait! I definitely don't want to string Wheelman up by his toes anymore!"

It's amazing to me that people would be willing to fund my game, but money has a way of making things...complicated. Truth be told, I don't even think I even it. I have a wealth of resources to use thanks to some very helpful friends of mine, and I don't plan on selling the game so I don't have to make everything myself. I do intend to commission a piece of artwork for the sequel, but I'd be more comfortable footing the bill for that myself. The support I've gotten from all you guys is more than enough.


Knightowl- I'm hoping that all the equipment options will make each player's experience a little different based on what strategy they go with. Equipment is more of a "hero" thing; a crutch for the weak so that they might stand some chance against the overwhelming power of the forces of- Wait, what was I saying? Oh right. Pandora's party still won't use anything other than their standard equipment, so that should help make the two campaigns feel different from one another.

Thanks as always you guys, you're beautiful people! I mean you're beautiful on the inside. I obviously can't tell if you're beautiful on the outside because I can't see y- You know what? I'm going to stop typing now.
author=WheelmanZero
One thing I should note is that while Pandora's group relies primarily on powerful skills, equipment is a much bigger factor for the heroes. You'll have the ability right from the start to wander the land and buy the best equipment to suit your strategies. All in all I think it'll be a much different experience from the base game.

I should mention that while the reverse campaign is meant to provide players with something fresh, I think there have been enough changes made to the original campaign to warrant another playthrough for those who are interested. More sidequests have been added, and I prefer my sidequests to have an interesting story attached to them to draw the player in. Phew! Alright, I think that should just about cover everything.


Can't wait, myself. Interested to see how you do with the equipment options and pumped to give a new fresh go at Umbral Soul again!
author=Ggnoore
Bro do you have a discord server to keep track of progress or anything? Also this is one the best RPG games I have ever played, the plot carries so hard and the variety of mechanics in the game where beasts are like Pokémon but it's not.

Your story on this game is animation worthy to say the least, hell if I had the money i'd make an anime on this game LOL. Nah seriously though who knows how much work you put into this stuff man great game.


Oh and make a patreon man I'm sure people would love to fund you work
Bro do you have a discord server to keep track of progress or anything? Also this is one the best RPG games I have ever played, the plot carries so hard and the variety of mechanics in the game where beasts are like Pokémon but it's not.

Your story on this game is animation worthy to say the least, hell if I had the money i'd make an anime on this game LOL. Nah seriously though who knows how much work you put into this stuff man great game.