- Joined
- Jun 27, 2017
- Messages
- 252
- Reaction score
- 161
- First Language
- English
- Primarily Uses
- RMVXA
The annals of the Divinity Church tell of a tragedy that befell the island nation of Levant long in its past. Wreathed in furious red, the Sanguine Moon dominated the sky, and its onset brought about a plague none could explain. The land itself began to wither, and its inhabitants were transformed into ethereal spirits, trapped in place and unable to do anything to stop their bodies crumbling away. The sacrifices of the Esselin monastery’s shrine maidens were the only thing that could seal away the plague, and the Sanguine Moon set on Levant.
Though the Sanguine Moon has risen in the sky several times since then, the shrine maidens have always kept it at bay through tireless devotion, boundless faith and great sacrifice. Now, as the Moon rises once more, one of the Esselin monastery’s shrine maidens has gone missing. Forbidden by her elders to seek out the heretic, novitiate Rose flees her shrine, aided by her mentor Noire. Her journey to find Inari will shake her faith and reveal truths about Levant she could never have imagined.
Major Inspirations
The Momodora series, Golden Sun, I Am Setsuna, Final Fantasy IX and X
Features
Aiming for 10 – 15 hours of strong gameplay. We all like our RPG’s long, but we don’t always have time to fit them into our schedules, especially those of us with jobs, college courses, etc. A huge portion of the time in RPGs is spent with padding, and I want to try and eliminate as much grinding and unnecessary fluff as possible to provide a memorable experience in as short a time as possible.
Weapon Unleash system inspired by Golden Sun.
Bleak, melancholic, introspective tone. Going for a very different feel to your usual JRPG here. Very few overblown heroics here, just four heroines trying to stop an inexorable, unknowable force of nature.
Main party of female characters. In general, RPGs haven’t historically done the best job of portraying female protagonists, relegating them to fanservice or sidekick roles. Each of the heroines has a stake in the plot and each will have their own narrative arc informed by the game’s plot.
Unique world inspired by a blend of Western and Eastern aesthetics, influenced by religion. Religion can be a controversial topic, but I am going to do my best to treat it fairly and maturely, and explore the value of faith. Obviously this is a thin line to tread, and I’m not religious myself but I hope to portray it in a neutral light, with aspects of good and bad, and the last thing I want to do is offend any person of faith with this project.
New icons. I’m not a fan of the default RMMV icons at all, and while Yanfly’s are a good replacement as placeholders, they still lack variety. I’m painstakingly transferring the icons I used on my RPG Maker VX projects to the new 32x32 format, to give the game the look I want.
Interesting skills and weapons. I plan on implementing a skill synergy system, where being affected by certain buffs or states can empower specific skills, and there will be several skills that you can increase the damage of outside of simple levelling up (similarly to Final Fantasy IX’s Dragon Crest, Thievery and Frog Drop skills).
Rose
(Name subject to change; I’m not one hundred percent happy with it)
Class: Priestess
Weapons: Bows
Magic: Shrine Magic
Our central protagonist, she flees the Esselin shrine against her elder’s orders to find the missing shrine maiden as the Sanguine Moon rises over Levant. As a member of the Esselin faith, she commands their powerful Shrine Magic, able to call on a mixture of offensive elemental magic and restorative magic, paired with her skill as a huntress, sniping targets with the bows used by her novitiate order. Rose is headstrong, determined and optimistic, although the trials she faces on her journey will challenge her optimism and faith to the core.
A balanced character, Rose has strong physical attack as well as both offensive and healing magic. Her magic isn’t as powerful compared to Inari, and her physical attacks aren’t as strong as Fiora’s, but she possesses a lot of speed and has several unique abilities no other character has.
Clair
Class: Apostate
Weapons: Runeblades
Magic: Rune Magic
The followers of the Hirana Monastery are considered an anomaly amongst those of the Divine Faith. They see the Sanguine Moon as an omen sent by the Divine to test the faith of her followers, and worship it as an aspect of her divine pride and retribution. Clair is a member of this order, but has grown disillusioned with their practises. Empathetic and quiet, she has left on a pilgrimage to understand her place in the world and the meaning of her faith. Wielding powerful Rune Magic, she has an arsenal of spells to inflict suffering on her opponents, but her power comes at a price. Her runeblades channel the power of the Sanguine Moon to devastating effect.
With the occult Rune Magic at her disposal, Clair has many magical spells at her disposal. Many of these have unique effects, debuffing enemies and synergising for even more devastating attacks. She can also improve the damage of several spells by killing certain monsters spawned by the Sanguine Moon, and increasing her stacks of Blood Price.
Fiora
Class: Valkyrie
Weapons: Spears
Magic: Aon Magic
The most senior of the party, Fiora is a priestess of the Valkyr Order, who revere the Divine as an aspect of the mythical Aons, and model themselves in the image of those sacred, otherworldly warriors. The most physically-powerful of the party, Fiora utilizes a combination of enhancement magic, attacks with her spears and the astral magic of the Aon for a blistering offense with equally-strong defence. Pious, honest and moralistic, she clings to her faith as a shield against the darkness wracking Levant.
The party’s strongest physical attacker, Fiora also possesses a lot of defence and is the only member who can equip heavy armour. Her magic is focused around buffing herself, along with single-target attacks. Her spears have the most powerful unleashes in the game and her prowess with them has given her the skill to attack multiple enemies in one turn.
Inari
Class: Shrine Maiden
Weapons: Blessed Blades
Magic: Shrine Magic
One of the Esselin shrine’s fabled shrine maidens, she was expected to sacrifice herself for the good of Levant once the Sanguine Moon rose again, but fled the shrine for unknown reasons. What she discovered has shattered her faith, and left her nihilistic and existential, but a glimmer of the person she used to be remains within. As a shrine maiden, Inari is highly powerful, able to command the strongest of the Esselin shrine’s magic, supporting her allies while able to call forth divine retribution on any who stand in her way.
Inari is the party’s most diverse magic user, with a wide array of spells including single-target elemental offense, spells targeting all enemies, the ability to heal all of her teammates and powerful summons based on her faith. She can also use blessed blades, though she has the weakest physical attack in the party, but her weapons are imbued with holy magic and can unleash powerful attacks based off of her magic power.
Noire
Class: Guardian
Weapons: Staves
Magic: Shrine Magic
Noire is a senior priestess of the Esselin Church, in charge of mentoring the novitiates. One of Noire’s main duties is protecting the novitiates as they begin to travel, fighting monsters and healing the populace of Levant until they are skilled enough to do so on their own. Noire is a motherly figure, treating each of her charges as a daughter, indulging in a life she can never have for herself due to her chastity vows. Her magic is a mixture of offensive spells and warding magic, protecting her allies while they dish out the offense.
(Name subject to change; I’m not one hundred percent happy with it)
Class: Priestess
Weapons: Bows
Magic: Shrine Magic
Our central protagonist, she flees the Esselin shrine against her elder’s orders to find the missing shrine maiden as the Sanguine Moon rises over Levant. As a member of the Esselin faith, she commands their powerful Shrine Magic, able to call on a mixture of offensive elemental magic and restorative magic, paired with her skill as a huntress, sniping targets with the bows used by her novitiate order. Rose is headstrong, determined and optimistic, although the trials she faces on her journey will challenge her optimism and faith to the core.
A balanced character, Rose has strong physical attack as well as both offensive and healing magic. Her magic isn’t as powerful compared to Inari, and her physical attacks aren’t as strong as Fiora’s, but she possesses a lot of speed and has several unique abilities no other character has.
Clair
Class: Apostate
Weapons: Runeblades
Magic: Rune Magic
The followers of the Hirana Monastery are considered an anomaly amongst those of the Divine Faith. They see the Sanguine Moon as an omen sent by the Divine to test the faith of her followers, and worship it as an aspect of her divine pride and retribution. Clair is a member of this order, but has grown disillusioned with their practises. Empathetic and quiet, she has left on a pilgrimage to understand her place in the world and the meaning of her faith. Wielding powerful Rune Magic, she has an arsenal of spells to inflict suffering on her opponents, but her power comes at a price. Her runeblades channel the power of the Sanguine Moon to devastating effect.
With the occult Rune Magic at her disposal, Clair has many magical spells at her disposal. Many of these have unique effects, debuffing enemies and synergising for even more devastating attacks. She can also improve the damage of several spells by killing certain monsters spawned by the Sanguine Moon, and increasing her stacks of Blood Price.
Fiora
Class: Valkyrie
Weapons: Spears
Magic: Aon Magic
The most senior of the party, Fiora is a priestess of the Valkyr Order, who revere the Divine as an aspect of the mythical Aons, and model themselves in the image of those sacred, otherworldly warriors. The most physically-powerful of the party, Fiora utilizes a combination of enhancement magic, attacks with her spears and the astral magic of the Aon for a blistering offense with equally-strong defence. Pious, honest and moralistic, she clings to her faith as a shield against the darkness wracking Levant.
The party’s strongest physical attacker, Fiora also possesses a lot of defence and is the only member who can equip heavy armour. Her magic is focused around buffing herself, along with single-target attacks. Her spears have the most powerful unleashes in the game and her prowess with them has given her the skill to attack multiple enemies in one turn.
Inari
Class: Shrine Maiden
Weapons: Blessed Blades
Magic: Shrine Magic
One of the Esselin shrine’s fabled shrine maidens, she was expected to sacrifice herself for the good of Levant once the Sanguine Moon rose again, but fled the shrine for unknown reasons. What she discovered has shattered her faith, and left her nihilistic and existential, but a glimmer of the person she used to be remains within. As a shrine maiden, Inari is highly powerful, able to command the strongest of the Esselin shrine’s magic, supporting her allies while able to call forth divine retribution on any who stand in her way.
Inari is the party’s most diverse magic user, with a wide array of spells including single-target elemental offense, spells targeting all enemies, the ability to heal all of her teammates and powerful summons based on her faith. She can also use blessed blades, though she has the weakest physical attack in the party, but her weapons are imbued with holy magic and can unleash powerful attacks based off of her magic power.
Noire
Class: Guardian
Weapons: Staves
Magic: Shrine Magic
Noire is a senior priestess of the Esselin Church, in charge of mentoring the novitiates. One of Noire’s main duties is protecting the novitiates as they begin to travel, fighting monsters and healing the populace of Levant until they are skilled enough to do so on their own. Noire is a motherly figure, treating each of her charges as a daughter, indulging in a life she can never have for herself due to her chastity vows. Her magic is a mixture of offensive spells and warding magic, protecting her allies while they dish out the offense.
Levant is an island nation situated relatively far away from the main continent, simply referred to as the Mainland. Levant is a nation wreathed in mists, and covered in mountains, with bountiful forests displaying leaves of every hue. It is a theocracy, ruled by the Divine Faith, which has split the territory into various dioceses, each governed by a different sect of the church.
Esselin
Though not the ruling sect, they are no doubt one of the most vital. Their shrine maidens are Levant’s primary defence against the Sanguine Moon, and their warrior-priestesses patrol the lands, scouring them of monsters.
Hirana
The Hirana sect worships the Sanguine Moon and use rune magic powered by the Moon itself. Considered by many to be a dark part of the church, they inhabit one of the smallest territories.
Valkyrja
The territory ruled by the Valkyr sect is a mountainous land which breeds hardy warriors. They have the strongest military by far, and play the role of Levant’s defenders, taking a much more active role in freeing the island of monsters than even the Esselin church.
Estrage
Once a beautiful territory, Estrage never recovered from the touch of the first Sanguine Moon. It lies in perpetual ruin, filled with the spirits of its former people, and the teachings of the Estragian Church are all but forgotten.
Caeda
The Caedan Monastery is the largest in Levant, occupying its capital city of the same name. The priestesses of the Caedan sect take the largest role in providing spiritual affirmation to the people of Levant, but they are beginning to fall out of favour due to their inability to do anything to prevent or protect against the Sanguine Moon.
Leda
Leda is a small nation, but an important one. Ledan priestesses act as dedicated healers, with many small churches in the territories of other sects to provide care to anyone who needs it.
Esselin
Though not the ruling sect, they are no doubt one of the most vital. Their shrine maidens are Levant’s primary defence against the Sanguine Moon, and their warrior-priestesses patrol the lands, scouring them of monsters.
Hirana
The Hirana sect worships the Sanguine Moon and use rune magic powered by the Moon itself. Considered by many to be a dark part of the church, they inhabit one of the smallest territories.
Valkyrja
The territory ruled by the Valkyr sect is a mountainous land which breeds hardy warriors. They have the strongest military by far, and play the role of Levant’s defenders, taking a much more active role in freeing the island of monsters than even the Esselin church.
Estrage
Once a beautiful territory, Estrage never recovered from the touch of the first Sanguine Moon. It lies in perpetual ruin, filled with the spirits of its former people, and the teachings of the Estragian Church are all but forgotten.
Caeda
The Caedan Monastery is the largest in Levant, occupying its capital city of the same name. The priestesses of the Caedan sect take the largest role in providing spiritual affirmation to the people of Levant, but they are beginning to fall out of favour due to their inability to do anything to prevent or protect against the Sanguine Moon.
Leda
Leda is a small nation, but an important one. Ledan priestesses act as dedicated healers, with many small churches in the territories of other sects to provide care to anyone who needs it.
Notes
- Not entirely happy with the pixelated backgrounds. They give the game variety and a different look, but some look slightly off. These are definitely subject to change.
- A lot of the icons are still placeholders at the moment.
- I’m still working on implementing skills, but for the most part I have the mechanics set in stone, along with how each party member plays.
- Yeah, the outline on the logo looks a bit janky, using the Outer Stroke layer option in Photoshop left it like that so...not quite sure what happened there. I'll probably do up a new one at some point, anyway.
Credits
I haven’t been entirely diligent keeping up my credits, which I’ll fix before the topic goes into Project Development, but for now here’s the ones that I can remember off the top of my head:
Yanfly’s Scripts and Tips & Tricks
Schlangen’s Extended Character Generator
R-F’s Character Generator Parts
LexusX/Timmah and Hadecynn’s Animations
Square Enix – Battle Backgrounds
Japan Art Media – Opening Scene Background
Whtdragon’s Tree Recolours
Typodermic Fonts' "Orange Kid" Font
A.G. Barr and Nongshim, for making the Irn Bru and instant noodles that have fuelled this project
The project is still in a very early stage (I'm still in the process of coding the opening scene) but all feedback and questions are appreciated. I have a habit of bouncing between projects (whether it's writing, art or game development) and losing steam very quickly, so I'm trying my best not to fall victim to that here! Hope you folks like what you see so far, and I hope I'll have a playable demo ready to go soon.
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