Eye of Uzola

JosephSeraph should be banned for being too good, haha. The concept art by Sooz is also great!

Those walls are very unsettling, to say the least. Really impressive work on the tilesets there!

I do have two questions, though. Firstly, what's the reasoning behind the semi-isometric looking character sprites? Specifically, why did you choose to make them look like Ceaira faces towards the screen even when walking to the left or right?

And secondly, if Ceaira is such a shy, withdrawn and kind person, why is her combat role to be an offsensive mage? Unless there's a specific connection with her backstory and/or otherworldy powers, that doesn't seem to fit at all.

Just some thoughts I wanted to share.

I see. Thanks for the explanations! I'm excited to see how this all plays out in the actual game.

It was more the combination of shy, withdrawn and kind that gave me pause. I never meant to imply that I underestimate the power of eldritch blasts of shyness.

author=Sooz
I could say the same thing about kindness, unless you believe that the armed forces are made up solely of callous individuals.

Well, I do believe that being part of an armed force is a horrible way of leading your life, but that's beside the point. Anyway, since you seem to be much more serious about this topic than I originally thought, I'll give you a more in-depth answer.
I never asked unity to change Ceaira's personality or combat abilities. I just pointed out something I found strange and hoped for an explanation that would make what seems like a contradiction on the surface turn out to be intentional and believable on a deeper level. Possibilities like the "cornered animal" had also crossed my own mind, as in when a normally shy and reserved person/being can turn into a raging monster when brought into a dangerous or traumatic situation. I can also absolutely see it work for a person who is infused with powers they have no complete control over, or someone who has a very naive or detached perspective on combat and isn't fully aware of what they're doing. And so on and so forth. All that is perfectly reasonable to me. It's just that in the little blurb of information about Ceaira we got so far, none or very little of the reasons that bridge the gap between those two sides of the character were pointed out yet.

The point I'm trying to make isn't that a shy and kind person can't have destructive abilites. I myself am theoretically capable of picking up a knife and stabbing someone to death. But even though I could, I don't want to, so I don't use that ability. I don't actually think that kindness and potential for violence are mutually exclusive. But I do think that the combination of a kind personality and the willingness to actively use that destructive potential requires some sort of additional information or explanation to be believable as a character concept. That is what I asked unity about, and that is what I received from her.

Ceaira reminds me, at least at this basic level, of FFX's Yuna; that dichotomy of shy and kind, with massive offensive capabilities.

I love exploring those sorts of contrasts in characters too, so Eye of Uzola sounds more interesting the more that's revealed about it.

I know a kind, quiet person who, when angered (which takes a lot, to be fair) is someone you would NOT want to mess with. He's also very protective of his friends and family, so much so that I once saw him knock another man out who was much bigger and buffer than him, because he wouldn't leave his little sister alone. The big, silent, kind but deadly type exists in cinema for a reason - there are people like that out there.

In fact, I think a fair amount of those who have the power to destroy with a blink of the eye would likely be quite kind and shy, because they'd understand that if they weren't they might do a lot of damage to people who didn't deserve it and probably be embarrassed about having such power, especially if they initially couldn't control it and did hurt someone they loved due to it. They'd understand their own strength and would want to tame it so that it was working only towards the goals that they want - to protect, mainly.