Soul Sunder

Overview:​

 ​

Soul Sunder is the story of Zero, a young woman whose life was shattered when she unintentionally sets in motion events in her childhood that left her village destroyed, her brother dead, and her best friend crippled for life. Nine years later, Zero receives a letter from an unknown sender calling her to the depths of Purgatory, a mysterious dungeon that had risen from the ground. Many adventurers enter it's depths, but few return. It is in this place, the letter claimed, she could confront the truth of what happened in her past. Guide Zero as she forges into the nightmarish halls of Purgatory and tries to come to terms with the past she once tried to leave behind. 

Inspired in part by Silent Hill, Soul Sunder is a dungeon crawling RPG with a unique twist: An emphasis on survival rather than grinding. While you can fight enemies to gain experience and level up, the focus of the game is using a combination of items you find in the dungeon and different equipment loadouts to navigate through Purgatory. Health items are limited, enemies are brutal, and there is no one coming to help you. Will you uncover the truth? Or will Purgatory claim you and your companions? 

Features: 

- A powerful, character-driven plot with a backstory pieced together through your own personal interpretation. 

- Around 5-7 hours of gameplay.

- Decide your approach to combat by choosing from an array of skill-granting weapons and items. 
- 2 difficulty modes to suit your playstyle. 
- Very challenging, survival-based gameplay. 
- High replay value to try out different combinations of items and equipment. 
- 2 different endings NOT based on static choices. 
- A simple crafting system. 

 

Characters:

Spoiler

Childhood Arc Characters:




Name: Arya Landale

Age: 9. 

Zero as a young child. Arya Landale is a shy girl who loves to read and sew. There is not much she hasn't read (for her age of course!), and is quite knowledgeable about the local flora and monsters. She is very level headed, unlike her brother, and is the only one capable of convincing him to stop before he does something stupid (Mostly of the time...). If she ever does get fired up about something, it's candy. She has a slightly unnatural addiction to anything sweet, and will even go so far as to hide her candy from Alex so she could have it all to herself.

 

All that time spent indoors means Arya gets exhausted quickly, and is very weak physically. She will have to guard often during battle to catch her breath. But, like a well-knowledge individual, she knows that preparation is key to success, and therefore has sewn extra pockets in her dress so she can hold more items.



Name: Alexander Landale

Age: 11

Brash, mischievous, and quick to anger, Alex is not the type to sit still whenever there is an adventure to be had elsewhere. He fancies himself a hero in training, and is never seen without a long stick he found on the ground, er, actually his DIVINE SWORD OF THE GODS!!! While Alex may not be the most patient child (<-Understatement of the year right there...), he never turns a blind eye to someone in need. He always throws himself into the middle of a fight if he sees a child being bullied. Unfortunately, that causes a lot of misunderstanding with his mother, who believes Alex to be the bully.

 

All those brawls he keeps getting into has shaped Alex into a competent fighter. He can hit enemies pretty hard with that stick of his, and he has the endurance to swing it around for a while. But believing that his DIVINE SWORD OF THE GODS!!! is the only weapon a hero needs, he doesn't have a lot of pockets to store items in.

 



 

Name: Myra Whitewind

Age: 10

Arya's best friend. A tomboy a heart, Myra can usually be found running around the village or climbing trees. When angered, her speech starts to slur and she begins using made-up words. While she may have a tough exterior, she has a soft spot for teddy bears and "girly" things (A fact that she is almost willing to kill to keep secret!).

Adult Arc Characters:





Name: Zero

Age: 18 

Arya Landale all grown up. Zero is a wandering mercenary and veteran explorer. She often takes jobs to eliminate Miasma monsters due to the fact that she possesses a strange immunity to the Miasma's effects. While Zero is a kind girl at heart, nine long years spent alone and on the road has kept her from learning many social graces. This often gives her a rude and dismissive aura which leads to many misunderstandings. The events of her childhood has left a permanent psychological fear of holding any blade. So instead of learning to fight with traditional weapons, Zero has opted to learn martial arts. While she tried her best to distance herself from her childhood, some habits are impossible to break. Even after nine years, she will still go after anything sweet with a strong passion.

 

Nine long years spend braving the elements has given Zero a new level of endurance she lacked when she was a child. Zero can hit hard, take a lot of hits, and has built a reserve of stamina to endure a long brawl. Unfortunately, Zero is a simple girl, and doesn't care much for anything that doesn't deal damage. Therefore, Zero has no drives that inflict status effects and can't carry many items, as she is used to picking up whatever she needs off the trail.



Name: Isaac West

Age: 17

Isaac is an enigma. Casual and cheerful at times, awkward and clumsy at others, this man is as predictable as dice. A thief by trade, Isaac is always on the prowl for a good target. Though he seems to trip and stumble a lot, he always seems to end up with more money than you saw him with... Anyways, Isaac is a man of stories. He will always be glad to tell you a story of his many adventures as a thief, although he does have a habit of telling you something you don't want to hear with every story. But one story he will not tell is the story of how he got that crimson eye and the bloody tattoo on his arm. A far cry from Zero's more serious personality, the two often lock horns and get into arguments about little things that don't matter.

 

Isaac is a fast fighter, meaning he will almost always act first during battle. He's rather weak physically, and can't do much damage, but he was never about damage in the first place. Isaac instead opts for a more roundabout approach, preferring to debilitate the enemy with status effects and stat reductions. However, Isaac possessed a unique ability; By cutting his wrist where his tattoo is, Isaac can activate Blood Magic. A powerful form of magic that takes health along with stamina to achieve great effects. Also, as a thief, Isaac is accustomed to carrying anything he can find, so he has more slots to store items than Zero.



Name: Myra Whitewind

Age: 19

After her best friend fled her hometown just minutes after it was destroyed and her legs rendered useless, Myra had a lot of adjusting to do. She is no longer the rowdy young child she was, for the most part, and now is a more calm, collected individual. However, she harbors a huge frustration for not being able to walk, so she built a wheelchair for herself in order to get around. Having taken her life back into her own hands, she developed more of a no-nonsense attitude and always pushes people around her to do their best in anything they do. Myra had done her best to bury her past in order to move on, but burning questions and frustration still nag at her every day. When she finally meets Zero, the girl who was the cause of all her pain, what will she think?

 

Myra is unable to fight head-to-head, but she compensates by bringing a bow into battle. Also, as Myra doesn't have to worry about carrying as much weight, she can hold the most items of the three. She is also heavily oriented to magic. Her drawbacks are that she is incredibly slow, and cannot dodge any attacks. Plus she is very frail and can't take many hits in combat.






Screenshots: 

Spoiler

When in Purgatory, you can set up camp at certain spots to heal and chat with your party.



Only the items you equip on your characters can be used in battle. 



Myra may be wheelchair bound, but her skills will prove invaluable to you in Purgatory.



Find items in the field by looking for irregularities on the map.



Inflict injuries on your opponents to prevent them from using their skills or spells!

Download: 

http://rpgmaker.net/games/5751/

Credits:



Story Written by Red_Nova

 

Character sprites and certain battlers drawn by Red_Nova.

 

Music by:

 

- Joel Steudler

- Kain Vinosec

- Jacob Bind

- Gyrowolf

- RPG Maker DS Audio

- RMN Music Pack

- D.C. Kairi Sawler

- JDB Artist

- MaestroRage

 

 

Map of Haven designed by Red_Nova, edited by unity

 

Custom tilesets by unity.

 

 

Scripts By*:

 

- Yanfly

- Galv

- Lemony

- Kread-EX

- Yami

- Rafael

- Coelocanth:

 

New title screen drawn by IMMI (Not shown on this gamepage. She has asked me not to display it here for others to take, and I respect her wishes.)

 

Playtesters:

 

- unity

- NeverSilent



Fan Art:

The fact that I have fan art at all is both astounding and heartwarming. I'm so grateful to be lucky enough to have fan art!

Spoiler

Zero as drawn by unity.



All three party members by Urano23

 

Hey Red Nova I'm going to play this LIVE on twitch in about half an hour!

Follow me if you'd like to watch http://www.twitch.tv/huntingswan

 

And of course, I don't see this post until over 15 hours after it's been posted. Sheesh, I need to do more things here.
 
Anyway, how did you like it? ... DID you like it? I hope you liked it.
 
EDIT:
 
Oh, I see you have the stream in the archives. *watches*
 
EDIT again:
 
I finished watching it. So first of all, thank you so much for streaming! It's always awesome to see someone else's playthrough! Here are some notes I took while watching:
 
 

Spoiler

- I have been testing this game for about a year and a half. Not once during that time did I ever encounter that bug you found in the Village Perimeter, with the monsters don't chase you. I can't seem to recreate that issue on my end, either. This is really weird.
 
- Yeah, buying the candy from the merchant is the easiest way. But there is more candy for you to get. I won't just give it away, but I will say this: That book you read in Arya's room does give away a location of a hidden stash.
- Frankly, I'm a bit surprised you got through the Childhood Arc without picking up all the extra stuff. Not upset, mind you. I've just never seen anyone play the way you have. It was very interesting. I'm actually pretty impressed.

 
- Myra wasn't crippled by tripping on the rock. That pillar of light that came from the Forbidden Ruins was responsible. It's covered in more detail in the Adult Arc.

 
Overall, I really enjoyed watching that stream. Well, the PLAYBACK of the stream, anyway, heh. Thanks so much! I can't wait to see the next part of your playthough!

 

I watched huntingswan strema play this, then i watched his playthroughs again on his youtube and I really like it, downloading it and will play it, might upload it to my youtube as soon as i finish another game I look forward to playing this. I like games where u start of as kids and get to know them as characters and have an attachment to characters. This game kidn of reminds me off Tales of Graces F, the way it starts, starting off as kids, falling off the cliff. That sort of thing. Did you get your inspiration from that game? I also like the character artwork its very neat better than what I could have done

 

Thanks for checking it out! Yeah, I did get inspiration from Graces for the childhood arc. I appreciate the comment on the art, as well. After completing the game, I've actually gotten a tablet and am working on improving my artwork for the next project.

I'd love to hear what you think of it!

 

I'm getting a new mic tomorrow so I will start it tomorrow or day after

here the first video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVhiBjM3dlI&feature=youtu.be

more coming, i played about an hr or so i got bad ending so i reloaded a save and then i was able to continue playing phew. I was like whhaaaaat haha

 

Hello Red_Nova! I just played your game AND finished it



Don't know wich ending I got, but in the end Myra was able to remember Arya.





I've been messing around with RPG maker games a while now, this is the first game I ever completed  and I really ejoyed it! 

• I LOVED your writing, you're very good at it. And I liked how the characters were personified.
• The world you created is nice and interesting, I wanted to know a little more
• The music you chose fit well and added a lot of sentiment, you had me in tears at the ending!
• Battle system is okay, quite challenging at the beginning, but as soon as you collect a lot of items it turns a lot easier.
• There were too few skills in my opinion, made the battles a little repetitive.
• Mapping is okay, it served it's porpuses I guess. Nothing really outstanding.

Oh and I noticed this weird bug, nothing game-breaking tough. I think some scripts collided there.



I occasionally had two more uses of some items. The 0 and the -1.

 

Thanks for playing, auron! I'm really glad you liked it! You can tell which ending you got and how you got it by checking out the bonus room.

I tried to shy away from adding too many skills in an effort to encourage more item use. Especially since near the end you find a lot of them. Though I do generally agree that I could have added more than one skill to most of the weapons. Good stuff to think about for the future.

I'm definitely with you on the mapping criticism. Mapping is my weakest aspect of developing by far, and I've been working on it since then.

As for the bug, well... *headdesk* You're right in that there is a clash of scripts going on. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to clear it up. It was stated on the site where I got them from that using them together would cause issues and that there was no solution available at the time. 

Chibi, this just goes to show that I need to spend more time on this site, as I didn't see your edit until just now. I'll take a look at your vids!

 

Hi Red Nova, I played your game the past couple of days. 

First, I really wanted to congratulate you, I really really enjoyed most of it. 

Second, I have not finished it; I am on the magma caves, and I must say I have to put the game down for a while.  I just made a lot of progress and then fought the origin FURY thing, which killed me, there was no save point before it, and it seemed an unbeatable monster; after using all my powerful items I realized I was just meant to run away, the game said 'run' but I didn't know where to run, other monsters started chasing me as well, I ended up trapped in a corner.

I really don't feel like re-going through all the progress I lost only to be faced with a situation that I don't know how to deal with.

What I love:  the writing, the story, the eventing, the use of music, the characters.

What I don't like:  it feels too grindy.  I don't like the monsters respawning all the time; if I make a wrong turn or want to explore, I am forced into fighting through the same enemies I've fought already ,and they're not challenging, they're just basically a resource-sap.  

I would honestly just stop playing the game at this point due to how un-fun the dungeons are for me, but I LOVE the story and dialogue and so, I do want to see how it ends and since I probably only have a few more hours of play left, I'm sure I'll pick it up at some point.

Overall good job, really well-designed project except for a few areas and I learned a lot about things I both should and shouldn't do to make my own projects better.  Definitely look forward to seeing your future projects.

 

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, Origin.FURY seems to be the one that everyone has trouble with. I can definitely see why, though, as it's a sudden change in the game's flow. If you get caught, you'll have to deplete a chunk of its health before automatically running away. As for the boss itself, you'll need to lower its high attack stat. Otherwise, it'll wipe you out pretty quickly. Try keeping a supply of throwing knives handy. If you found the Gauntlet Enchantment Instructions in Haven, try creating a new weapon for Zero. 

Thankfully, once you know where to go, you won't get caught again:

Spoiler

After Fury appears, take the upper left exit and you'll see an ice wall, where a crack has now appeared. Bomb it to open a passageway to safety (and a campsite).

The good news is that that's the hardest part of the game, level design-wise. I'm not saying that the rest of the game is easy, per se, but it shouldn't be anywhere near that level of frustration from then on. Let me know if you get stuck again, though!

About the respawing enemies, Casual mode doesn't have them. If you decide to pick the game back up again later and want to start over again, it's something to consider. 

 

Ah, ok that worked, thanks.

I'm currently camping after dead orias.  Isaac's comment about the choices I made with the victims seemed to imply that my choices are going to affect the ending--I notice you said two different endings that are not affected by static choices--does this mean what ending I get is still not determined?  I was just trying to avoid battles since my resources were low and I realized quickly that saying no led to a fight.

 

Ooh.. that's a tough question to answer without giving away literally everything about the game. Hm...

No, you're not locked into the ending yet. What you did in Dead Orias affects only one out of about five other variables that decide the ending. There is not a singular, defining moment that determines which ending you get. When I said, "static choices," I was mostly referring to the Ending-o-Matic 2000 type of endings you see in a game like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, meaning you get one choice at the end that determines your ending.

After you beat the game, you'll get taken to a bonus room. There, you'll find an NPC that'll tell you exactly which ending you got and how you got it.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you get stuck again.

 

Finished!  Once again, great game.  You really have a talent for making a story come alive, building the characters into protagonists we care about deeply, and leaving just enough mystery to intrigue the player as things unfold.   And the dialogue/script was really superb.  

Again, my biggest critique was the grindy and forced combat.   I'd have liked all the levels to be like the valley level, where monsters just move around and combat is essentially optional as long as you're careful.  I'd make it so that by fighting the enemies, you get stronger (leveling up, getting items, etc.) which helped you in all the boss / mini-boss battles.   As someone who likes to explore and check every room of a dungeon, I felt discouraged from this because if I fought too much, I would run out of resources/items for when it came time to fight the boss.

I also found it kind of annoying to have to keep pressing shift to check elemental and state rates all the time for different enemies...I'd like to have had this information been more intuitive or unnecessary, and/or fewer elements and states so that I'd only have to check like 3 or 4 elements and 3 or 4 states per new enemy (and would be easier to remember specific strengths/weaknesses/immunities of a particular enemy type if there weren't so many types.   Also would've been nice to be able to see enemy hit rate / evade rate / whether or not escape was possible.

Still loved the game, truly fell in love with Arya/Zero and was very eager to take down Origin / discover the truth. 

Spoiler

Had my suspicions for a while that it was corrupted Alex, but still enjoyed seeing everything unfold.  Again, very well done!  

Also, can I say again how FANTASTIC the music (and its use) was.

People who love a well-written game, PLAY this game!

p.s. I got the "good' ending.  what happens in the other ending? It said origin's personality is different?

 

Before I say anything else, I need to ask you to put your suspicions of Origin in a spoiler tag. Because, you know, that's a pretty massive spoiler.

Anyway, I'm so psyched you liked the game, flaws and all! I hear and understand your complaints about the battles, and will work to improve them for future projects.

As for the ending, there actually is no "good" or "bad" ending. I'm gonna delve headfirst into spoiler territory now, so for anyone else, read at your own risk:

Spoiler

The game's story tells how Zero gets over the wounds from the past. How she does so is determined by the player actions. It records how you acted throughout the Adult Arc, and takes a sort of psychological profile. Is Zero more prone to letting go of her past? If you used a lot of items, ignored the final confrontation with Cieran, etc. then she decides that it's best to let go of her past and move on with her life.
Or maybe she wishes to make amends for her mistakes. If you use more abilities than items, reread the various letters you find, and talk to Myra whenever you can, etc. then Zero decides to return to being Arya Landale, and resume her life instead of living the lie she was living for nine years.

As for Origin, he represents the inner demons of Zero. That demon changes depending on which ending you trigger. By the time you confront Origin.TRUTH, you have locked yourself into the ending.

 

Ah whoops! Done!

Thank you for the info.

 

So far I am in love with this game. You have a talent for story telling and exploring purgetory is both challenging and fun.

Your combat system is brutal. Dare I say it's turn based Dark Souls were underestimating your enemy can prove fatal. The weapon based skill combat is exciting too and I wish I had more weapons to choose from but I've only just made can!o for the first time so its early days.

I did notice one glitch with your ability to scroll ahead with 'A' as one time it froze my game entirely no matter how long I waited.

Don't be discouraged by that, I hope my own project is half as interesting to people as yours is so far so thanks for the hard work.

I'll finish it tomorrow but until then thanks, I'm having a blast. I'm not a big fan of JRP games (i like making them more haha) and this one of the special few I can sit and play for more than a few hours.

 

Yeah, this game, is still haunting me.  I am already almost done with my 2nd replay, and the 1st act is just heartbreaking for me.

I found another glitch:  when fighting origin.FURY, my game completely froze because origin.FURY got stuck behind the miasma enemy.  I think the game was waiting for him to take his few steps forward, but he was blocked because of the position of the green miasma enemy event, so everthing just sat there frozen, and I had to reload and lose progress. 

 

Turn-based Dark Souls? I think I can die happy now.

It's funny: I didn't want to emulate the difficulty of Dark Souls, but the idea of Dark Souls. By idea, I mean exactly what you say: Underestimating the enemy is fatal. I wanted to give all options in battle (attacks, skills, guard, etc.) meaning, and players would have to learn which action to use in which situation to win. 

I'm so glad you liked the story! That was my favorite part of the game to work on.

As for the looking ahead glitch, well... *headdesk* I've been trying to fix it forever. I implemented patch after patch after fix after fix but there's still something that mucks it up. I'm really sorry. 

The Origin.Fury glitch is definitely alarming. Thankfully, it should be an easy fix. Thanks for pointing it out, jon!

 

This game is super hot fire.

 

Hello, I am currently playing your game.  It's been very good so far, but I cannot beat Origin.Rejection.  Is there something that I'm missing?  Because, so far, the only thing that lets me hit it are the eyeballs.