Just a minor update.
I will be adding an item to the game called Vahn's Journal that he will start the game with. A prompt will pop up during the intro to notify the player that they carry it.
Players can access Vahn's Journal from their key items menu at any time to read where they are in the story and what their current objective is.
The Auction Hall, located in the Grandiose Amphitheatre, is where players can go to bid on a variety of items! Just got this up and running, and so far only a few restoratives can be won, but it's a good start.
When starting up Penumbra Crystallis, players will get to pick from one of three game modes: Casual, Normal, and Hardcore. Below are explanations for how each game mode affects the gameplay experience.
Casual
Normal
Hardcore
Finally got around to adding everyone's level 10 abilities. To think that characters will probably only be hitting level 10 after approximately 7-8 hours of play is crazy! Anyway, here's what you can expect from the core cast when they finally reach the double digit levels.
Hans: Dash
A physical attack deals damage using Hans's speed stat rather than his strength. Also inflicts wind elemental damage.
Vahn: X-Strike
A strong physical attack ability that deals damage twice (since, well, an X-Strike has to sword slashes). Uses the standard physical attack damage formula, just gives Vahn about 1.75x more damage and costs little MP.
Vera: Raise
An ability that will become increasingly desirable to players as they enter the double digits and the game's difficulty (which is much higher than Blackmoon Prophecy's) continues to ramp up. Raise does exactly what you'd think, it revives a party member from KO status.
Oalston already has a good arsenal of spells, so his next ability will likely be level 12. Kassandra, who just joined the party, does not learn anything new right away so that players can get used to the abilities she comes with.
Another new playable character is finally in the game though, and it is none other than... General Braak!
Armor Break: Cripples a target's physical defense for approximately five turns.
Etherstrike: A physical attack ability that ignores defense and is counted as a magic ability.
Power Break: Cripples a target's attack power for approximately five turns.
Sentinel: Braak increases his maximum HP for several turns to make him even more tanky.
Additionally, more testing is kicking off this week with Thomas Stout going through the most recent content added since the last batch of testing occurred. This week may be devoted to tidying up things he finds, but I will also be home all weekend long this week. When I'm not playing Age of Empires IV (releases in two days, baby!), I'll be working on the exciting next chapter of the game that brings Vahn, Hans, Vera, Oalston, Kassandra, and Braak together.
Streamed some more game work last night, which includes up to and including the Karen encounter. Comes after Venaitura in the VOD, which you can find by clicking on the chapters button beside the pause button.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1179838167
Pretty excited to (mostly) have the town of East Branch in my rear view mirror. All that's left now is the resolution to the Karen confrontation and Hautley's Tower itself, which is the dungeon that Hans and Oalston have arrived to investigate.
When Hans and Oalston head to East Branch to search for the escaped General Braak, the pair decide to investigate an old landmark known as Hautley's Tower. Unfortunately, a woman stands between them and the tower. This woman's name... is Karen.
Here's a snippet from the dialogue with Karen that I am currently writing.
Vahn Vainstrong is, once again, our main character and protagonist. Hailing from the town of Valla in the kingdom of Branch, Vahn is a recently anointed knight who has been accepted into the Branch Military. Vahn is typically kind, reasonable, and always wants to help those in need or lend a hand if possible. He takes a laid back mentor attitude with his best friend and squire, Hans Meddleford. Vahn's weapon of choice is the sword.
Also hailing from the town of Valla is Hans Middlefeld, son to the local elder and squire of Vahn Vainstrong. Hans aspires to be a knight himself, albeit one who is quick and speedy on his feet. Hans is several years younger than Vahn, making him more excitable and hyperactive than his mentor. Like Vahn, Hans enjoys helping those in need and possesses a positive attitude, but is quick to get defensive if his buttons are pushed. To go along with his desire to be a speedy fighter, Hans prefers to use lightweight knives and daggers in combat.
Vera Farabrandt is a senior paladin from the southeastern kingdom of Artalia which is perhaps Branch's closest ally and strongest trading partner. As a paladin, Vera is a strong fighter capable of using healing magic to aid allies in the heat of battle. Because of her status as a paladin, she is also frequently used as an ambassador and diplomat by her superiors and is sent to other kingdoms to help ratify agreements and treaties. Vera is an intelligent kindhearted woman with a love for Gaia's history. Her preferred weapon is the spear.
Residing in Branch's quaint village of Trei is the experienced wizard known as Oalston Saradin. He is well versed in the arcane and is a highly proficient magic user. Oalston is incredibly astute and knowledgeable of the world, and possesses a calm demeanor. Though his best days are behind him, Oalston still craves adventure and is attracted to any quest that is heavily tied to magic and the elements. As a wizard, Oalston wields a rod.
Kassandra Omaedias is a Lenadian huntress and wilderness explorer who hails from the town of Palumpu. Despite being a huntress who has a deep connection to nature and the world around her, Kassandra is mildly eccentric and has a habit of speaking out about things that have nothing to do with the issue at hand. Despite her odd behavior, her knowledge of the wilds is second to known. Kassandra's weapon of choice is the bow.
The calm, quiet, and stoic ninja known as Nobumasa hails from the Village of Zen, a small ninja village on an island off the coast of Rodenia that operates independently from the four kingdoms. Nobumasa left his village for unknown reasons, but ventures the world looking for progressively stronger creatures to pit himself against. When faced with a dilemma, Nobumasa can be counted on to be the voice of reason. As a ninja, he wields ninja swords.
A quiet and near-mute plague doctor hailing from the southern reaches of Lenadia, Lumen Widowcraft is a mysterious woman. Other than the fact that she is a roaming plague doctor, little is known about her and few, if any, know what she looks like underneath her mask. Lumen is however known to be a highly skilled and talented physician who is not only capable of healing any wound, but also reverse engineering them to do harm to her foes. Lumen prefers to go into battle with blunt weapons.
A no-nonsense bandit and mercenary in the employ of Artalian rebels. Laka Ardell fights for herself and nobody else, and is known to be greedy and selfish. What her stake is in the Artalian rebels fighting against their king is unknown, and Laka doesn't seem interested in discussing it... or much of anything given her serious attitude and approach to life. Laka's weapon of choice is the axe.
Hey, it's Veks! He also has a proper surname now at last. While Veks will not be a permanent party member, I do anticipate that he'll pop up every now and then to help the party out when they're in a bind. Veks currently joins the party twice, first when Vahn and Hans investigate the Branch Sewers and then a second time when Vahn and Vera head to Oaktown. I may give the player the option to have Veks permanently tag along later as an optional character, at which point I may make him controllable as well. We'll see! Veks deserves recognition as a "party member" though even if he isn't a permanent addition simply because players will be seeing a lot of him and he will be a staunch ally.
The resident bad boy general from Blackmoon Prophecy will experience a change of heart throughout the events of Blackmoon Prophecy, but what will trigger him to switch sides? Well, that's for the players to discover themselves since I'm not here to give story details away. What I can say is that Braak's weapon of choice is the greatsword and his main purpose in battle will be shutting down enemies and creating weaknesses.
Wait a second! What game is this again!? You're seeing things correctly, that's Edric Csardim from Blackmoon Prophecy II. Avee redesigned Edric's portrait to make it fit in with the style he has used for the rest of Penumbra Crystallis' portraits. So what is Edric doing here? Well, he's going to be encountered by players just by playing through the game normally and he will still be a military man from Lenadia. That's about where the similarities end. Since Edric will be an optional character, I'll leave what he does a surprise to the players.
Alaia Amon is an Indiran priestess living on the island kingdom of Indira tasked with safeguarding the Crystal of Life. Alaia is relatively non-violent and does not condone the use of weapons, thus does not carry any herself. Instead, she is well-versed in transmutation magic and can transform items and equipment into powerful enchantments to benefit her allies. As a priestess, Alaia is also a capable healer and medic.
FINALLY completed Mount Houzell in another game dev stream last night! Vahn, Vera, Veks, and Kassandra now get to disappear for a while so that Hans and Oalston can hop into the spotlight.
Twitch link for anyone who would like to view the VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1163876294
new portrait who dis?
Avee finished this portrait for me today for a brand new character. Who is it? Well, that's for you guys and gals to find out!
Just finished a four and a half hour stream of me working on Mount Houzell, a mountain dungeon that the party goes to after Oaktown. Check it out at the following link if you're interested!
Doing a battle test with the newest party member, Kassandra. Specific details on how she plays are found in the previous post titled Arrow and Mimicry Commands.
It's time to blab on about Avee's wonderful character portraits again, as well as tell you guys about three characters (two of which I have been completely silent about thus far). Let's start with the first character, who is actually no stranger to those who have been following Penumbra Crystallis' development so far.
Hey, it's Veks! He also has a proper surname now at last. While Veks will not be a permanent party member, I do anticipate that he'll pop up every now and then to help the party out when they're in a bind. Veks currently joins the party twice, first when Vahn and Hans investigate the Branch Sewers and then a second time when Vahn and Vera head to Oaktown. I may give the player the option to have Veks permanently tag along later as an optional character, at which point I may make him controllable as well. We'll see! Veks deserves recognition as a "party member" though even if he isn't a permanent addition simply because players will be seeing a lot of him and he will be a staunch ally.
The resident bad boy general from Blackmoon Prophecy will experience a change of heart throughout the events of Blackmoon Prophecy, but what will trigger him to switch sides? Well, that's for the players to discover themselves since I'm not here to give story details away. What I can say is that Braak's weapon of choice is the greatsword and his main purpose in battle will be shutting down enemies and creating weaknesses.
Wait a second! What game is this again!? You're seeing things correctly, that's Edric Csardim from Blackmoon Prophecy II. Avee redesigned Edric's portrait to make it fit in with the style he has used for the rest of Penumbra Crystallis' portraits. So what is Edric doing here? Well, he's going to be encountered by players just by playing through the game normally and he will still be a military man from Lenadia. That's about where the similarities end. Since Edric will be an optional character, I'll leave what he does a surprise to the players.
There is also one final character, an optional female character (who will be completely new and is not a holdover from Blackmoon Prophecy) that I have not commissioned a portrait for yet, but she will have some interesting gameplay mechanics and will have a unique equip screen that will look like this:
Looking forward to the final character and working out how she'll play, but that's a story for another day!
Kassandra is a bit different from other characters in Penumbra Crystallis so far. Vahn, Hans, Vera, and Oalston all have single unique commands, Kassandra has two - Arrow and Mimicry.
Arrow abilities are learned via leveling up and allow Kassandra to do more interesting things with her arrows such as dip them in potions to allow them to heal or reverse engineer remedies to imbue her arrow shots with status conditions. Arrow abilities mostly consume items in order to use them (predominantly twigs - a special item that Kassandra will need for several arrow abilities and can be purchased from item shops). Here are a few Arrow abilities that Kassandra will start with:
Aim: Allows Kassandra to attack twice per turn for a few rounds. Requires her to focus, consuming 25% of her maximum MP to use.
Magic Arrow: Consumes one mana to inflict magic-based physical damage to one target.
Splintershot: Consumes five twigs to fire numerous weak shots at randomly selected targets.
Stun Arrow: Consumes one twig to stun a target for a single turn.
Triage Arrow: Consumes one potion to heal for an amount roughly on par with potions (100 HP), but could be a little more or a little less. Is also capable of inflicting critical heals.
As previously stated, Kassandra is the replacement for Ami from Blackmoon Prophecy, so she's the resident "blue mage" of sorts even though that term is not used in the game. Kassandra's official class is huntress.
Mimicry abilities are learned in a very simple manner. The party can find monster statues littered throughout the world, and if Kassandra is in the party, she will be able to learn a new mimicry ability by studying the statue and what is written on it. Easy peasy!
While mimicry abilities will become extremely diverse as the game progresses, here are the three basic abilities that Kassandra starts with:
Chopodile: Copies the "All Chop attack that chopodiles use. Attacks all enemies, inflicting non-elemental damage.
Shelldon: Copies the "Gooey Graze" attack that shelldons use. Low non-elemental damage and poisons the enemy.
Skeleton: Copies the "Roll the Bone" attack that skeletons use. Throws a bone at one target for non-elemental damage.
That's about all for the Arrow and Mimicry commands. Kassandra starts with some pretty basic stuff, but she'll be able to learn to do lots of neat things as the player progresses through the game!
Kassandra arrives to save the day! I'm really excited to finally start work on this character, as she has a few little gameplay gimmicks that will make her more interesting to use. She'll use items from your inventory to enhance her arrows, can use a skill that briefly allows her to attack multiple times, and is also the resident blue mage in the game (since she is the replacement for Ami from Blackmoon Prophecy).
As I started in a previous post, she also has some cool story significance as well that I can't wait to see people who played Blackmoon Prophecy react to!
This monster preview is a bit different, as it's not random encounters! Instead we have a boss and a summon. First we have the Darksider boss...
Darksider is a big, mean skeleton capable of attacking the party several times in succession due to having four arms. He is encountered shortly after the end of the Penumbra Crystallis demo. He was a bit of a challenge to balance well because of his multi-attack tendencies, and he gave Thomas a good run for his money when testing, so I think he's right where I want him to be. Remember, I want the bosses in this game to push players far more than bosses in any of my previous games!
And with Bones McGee out of the way, we have the first summon sprite from level2janitor, and it is Chione! Demo players will remember her being acquired at the end of the Water Shrine. Here is her new permanent graphic:
Triple Triad: Tournament of the Elements is now completed! This is probably the largest project that I've ever finished within a one month timespan. This is a love letter to all things Final Fantasy and Triple Triad. Kind in mind that it is a quirky little side project and is not meant to be a "serious" game by any stretch. If you just want to play some Triple Triad, this is the game that lets you do it!
Tournament of the Elements can be download on itch.io or rpgmaker.net.
Penumbra Crystallis' hiatus will soon be ending as my passion/side project, Triple Triad: Tournament of the Elements, is about to be completed and released in the next few days.
While this blog is primarily for Penumbra Crystallis (with the odd mention of Final Fantasy here and there), I feel like sharing this here as well for the exposure.
With just a few days left until this bad boy is completed (in less than a month!), I decided to do one of those fancy "release trailers" that are all the craze these days. While my trailer making abilities aren't fantastic, this is better than nothing!
Triple Triad: Tournament of the Elements will be released in the evening of September 6th unless something unforeseen happens with me offline. The agenda of things left to finish is as follows:
- Final card match against the host of the tournaments, Dionysos the God of Revelry
- Addition of a few additional side quests
- Addition of about 25-35 more cards (they are in the database, just not yet accessible to players)
- Completion of the Market Exchange map (the only map not yet in the game)
- Completion of the Recycling Depot, just need to event about 20 or recyclers
- Cleaning up of various little aspects of the game and additional polish
Honestly, the fact that I started this on August 9th and am going to finish it in less than a month is pretty wild. I thought that it was just going to be a two week project at first, but the scope of the game grew after a few days and I realized I'd need a little bit more time to work on it.Anyway, looking forward to finishing this and releasing it into the wild in a few days! See you then!
Once this monster is out on Monday, expect updates to start coming in for Penumbra Crystallis again starting with blurbs on how the newest party member, Kassandra, will play. Her entire background and role in the game had been completely altered just prior to the game being put on hiatus, so I'll be excited to share some of those details with you guy's soon as well. Here's a hint though... she's related to someone we all know very well!
Penumbra Crystallis is going on a very brief hiatus. Don't worry, I'll be pumping out new blog posts well before the midway point of September!
Why is it going on hiatus? Not for any troubling reasons! I just want to devote time to working on a side project of mine that I started last week. This side project is Triple Triad: Tournament of the Elements. You can follow its progress on my Discord server (link to the right) or on its own separate dev blog: https://tripletriadgame.blogspot.com/
In the meantime, here are a few screenshots.
Time for another monster preview! Today I have two of level2janitor's monsters to show off.
Have a Veks portrait! While not a permanent party member, Veks will be joining temporarily to assist Vahn and Vera on a small mission. He'll still be controlled by AI, but you'll be able to change his equipment if you wish.
Avee also mentioned that he's absolutely free for further commissions. He will be hearing from me again, as I want to have an optional character's portrait redone (hint: it's a character that he made a portrait of for a previous project), and I do have a semi-secret optional character in mind as well.
Kassandra appears! Still working on testing her, but I'll have more on her functionality later. Two things I will say:
1. She'll have an ability that consumes a percentage of MP rather than a flat amount which will reduce her defense briefly, but allow her to make two attacks for a few turns.
2. She's the blue mage of the game! Haven't fully worked out how this is going to be implemented, but I'll have a method determined within a few days.
Bert Cole comes through again!
Bert takes suggestions on Patreon for new compositions to write. I suggested something that might fit a Triple Triad-esque card game, and he seemed really interested in the idea. A few days later, he shared a mini-game track on his Patreon which is what you hear in the video above.
I mentioned this on Discord 2-3 days ago, but wanted to do more of an actual write-up on it so that people know that this feature exists and what to expect.
Approximately 7-8 hours into Penumbra Crystallis, the player acquires a ship known as the Pegasus. The Pegasus immediately allows the player to sail anywhere in the world they desire. This includes visiting some areas of the world map that the player has not yet visited - which is still well over 75% of the total map!
To make sailing around the world more interesting than just looking for docks to park your ship at, I've decided to add ancient temples to the world map that, at this point of the game, require the ship to reach. These ancient temples exist either on islands in the ocean or along parts of kingdom coastlines previously inaccessible to players due to mountains or rivers being in the way.
So, what are these so called ancient temples? I'll let this NPC explain them a bit before I continue.
Hey folks,
I'm interested in having someone around privy to all of the secret goings-on of Penumbra Crystallis who would be willing to advise, pitch ideas, and bounce aspects of game design off of. This would be a person who would ideally be:
1. Good at coming up with environmental challenges and puzzle ideas.
2. Interested in giving feedback on intended dungeon designs, story beats, and so forth.
3. Offering ideas to improve general areas of the game, or pitch ideas for new areas, features, etc.
4. Providing miscellaneous technical advice.
These points are not necessarily everything I'm looking for, and it's totally fine if you don't fit one or two of them. I'm also interested in knowing what you might be able to bring to the table. Ideally, all you REALLY need is to have a love for RPGs and a willingness to help!
Note: I'm not looking for someone to help co-create the game my working directly on it. This would be more of a consultancy role. You'd be someone for me to bounce all of my ideas and plans off of while also offering ideas of your own to assist me in making Penumbra Crystallis even better. I am also willing to take on multiple people for this role, all of whom would be able to view and speak in the game's private #development and #testing-lounge channels on Discord.
You can reach out to me if you're interested on my Retroist RPG Makers Discord server, which is also primary location where I discuss Penumbra Crystallis and share updates with folks on the server.
Retroist RPG Makers Discord Server: https://discord.gg/BAA9NUw9
You can ping me in any public channel to get my attention or send me a direct message at UPRC#1985.
Every now and then, whenever I receive new monster graphics from level2janitor, I've decided that I'll "preview" select monsters here. So, today we're looking at three monsters that level2janitor just created graphics for.
From top to bottom we have the skeleton, bowbold, and drake.
The Skeleton is exactly what you think it is! Weak to fire and holy, these undead baddies haunt ancient ruins and not only swipe at you with their rusty scimitars, but also throw bones at you!
The Bowbold, originally called the "Sniper", received this name today. It's a combination of bow and kobold. Bowbold! Bowbolds live in the desert outside of the town of Arcania and take deadly aim at their enemies. Their "aim" attack is a guaranteed hit with a moderate chance of inflicting critical damage!
Last, the Drake. This fellow inhabits the plains and forests outside of Arcania and can also be found inside of Salar Volcano. Possessing higher hit points than other creatures in its territory, the drake bites and scratches foes. When it's feeling particularly troublesome, it can also belch a fireball at unsuspecting victims!
Sometime today, I expect to have reached a point in Penumbra Crystallis where the player will have full control of their second vehicle after the rapapa - the ship!
My intention with the ship is to give the player the freedom to sail around the entire world map as soon as they receive it, but it can only be docked at ports/wharves on the world map. This will immediately allow the player to go to all sorts of locations (many that I obviously haven't even made yet), though there will be some restrictions in place from the get-go to prevent players from going to important story locations that they shouldn't be able to enter immediately.
Exploration with the ship should be fun since players will still have a sense of discovery that other vehicles such as airships strip away. I also intend on making some islands that the player can sail to which will contain small optional dungeons with miscellaneous treasure and unique items at the end. Think of the shrines in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but without the puzzle solving. Just neat little locations with a few battles and nice treasure. The challenge will be finding them all, and determining if/when you are the right level to enter them!
Anyway, more on all of that later today when I complete the scene where the ship is acquired through gameplay.
Got the ship up and running! The ship will be accessible to the player roughly 7-8 hours into the game and will become their primary means of traveling around the world.
The easiest Beast Master tournament in the arena. I had a lot of fun putting this one together! And, again, a reminder that the Triple Triad theme is just a placeholder.
Slight update to the visual look of cards after my previous update on how I'm changing the gameplay of the card game a bit.
So, the cottontail is a level 1 card. This means that it has an attack of 1, and can only attack left or right because this is where its arrows are pointing. The appearance of a card will also change based on its level:
First off, before I get into things, progress is going pretty well and additional testing should be starting in the next day or two on post-demo content.
Anyway, on to the point of this update. I just want to touch on two things I felt like talking about.
1. The Arena
I've posted about the arena before. Basically, you send one character into the arena for a 1v1 fight against a series of five increasingly difficult battles. You acquire points based on how well you do, and you can exchange these points for items and zil. Originally, this was all that the Arena was going to be, but now it has become just one wing of the Arena called the Battle Wing!
The Arena possesses a second wing called the Tournament Wing where you'll be able to play cards. Now, I mentioned my plans for the card game a while back and it was intended to be a straight Triple Triad game with no additional rules (plus, same, etc.), but this has also changed. The card game will still be played on a 3x3 grid, but it will be merging the rules of both Triple Triad and Tetra Master!
Instead of having four different numbers indicating how strong a card is in each direction, all cards only have one number, which will be displayed on the card as their level. Cards will go up to level 5 in strength. Now, this card level, this indicates how strong a card attacks in all direction. I know what your reaction is to that. "But UPRC, won't the card game suck if the numbers only go up to 5?"
The thing is, these cards are going to have... arrows! All cards can have up to four arrows, one per side. If you have a card that has an arrow pointing left, and you place it beside a card that does not have any arrow on its right side, you automatically flip it. No arrow means that card cannot attack or defend at all on that side. So, there's a bit of Tetra Master in there as well.
Since I am on vacation, I'm going to try and get some form of the card game up and running at last, so fingers crossed that happens.
2. Challenge Mode
This is something that will be a thing much, much, muuuuuch later on. After defeating the final boss and watching the credits, you will receive a prompt asking if you want to return to the world map and activate Challenge Mode.
What is Challenge Mode? Basically, it brings back most of the game's bosses back from the dead and makes all of them extremely high level bosses that will test the player's ability to the limit. The final boss will also be amped up in Challenge Mode, but will be gated off until the rest of the bosses have been defeated. Bosses will appear in the areas where they originally inhabited and will hopefully give some great treasure as well. We'll see!
Anyway, that's all for now.
As mentioned in the last update, Salar Volcano spawns fire elementals from lava holes that hunt you down!
First off, a screenshot! I've mapped more than this, but it's still new for the dev blog.
Salar Volcano is the second crystal dungeon in Penumbra Crystallis, the first being the Water Shrine. Salar Volcano primarily features cave/lava tiles, but it does transition back and forth to shrine tiles similar to those used in the Water Shrine.
Hazards include glowing lava pits that spawn lava elementals. These elementals will chase down the player for a few seconds before dissipating. There will also be magic fire traps on the floor that, when triggered, will burn all party members for 25-30 damage. Once you activate a trap floor tile, that particular trap tile cannot be triggered again and can be walked over freely.
Monsters are, for the most part, fire-based. This means that Oalston's ice magic and the Chione summon will be very powerful here!
More on Salar Volcano later.
A neat little shrine that will feature in an upcoming cave and the following volcano dungeon. The candles will flicker and glow for a nice little lighting effect. You will also be able to interact with these shrines to restore small amounts of HP and MP.
And apologies for not having much more than that at the moment! I spent the last week doing a side project, the Blackmoon Prophecy Randomizer, which you can grab here. I wanted to get it out of the way ASAP, which is why I was able to finish work on it within a week. Now that I've finished working on that, I'll be focusing solely on Penumbra Crystallis again. Expect more updates soon.
Oalston is the final character to receive a codex-specific ability, and that ability is Magic Missile. It's a fun one!
Hey folks. Just have a Google Form and a Straw Poll here for those of you who have played the demo! Each one will take thirty or so seconds to complete, so I'm not asking for much of your time. I put these together to get a quick overview on how people feel about the direction of the game and who they would potentially like to see cross over from Blackmoon Prophecy (without their Final Fantasy baggage attached).
Working on the arena! Here's how it works...
1. Pay 500 zil for your party leader to enter on their own.
2. Party leader engages in a series of five battles that are based on their level. The further they progress, the more arena tokens they receive.
3. Exchange your acquired arena tokens for zil or items!
The party leader will be fully healed in between each fight, which is something that was not incorporated at the time of this recording.
The RPG Maker Audit did a quick play through of the first 20-30 minutes of Penumbra Crystallis and gave their thoughts and overall grade so far (which is a score out of seven). Check it out!
Time for something new! A handy NPC is being added to Penumbra Crystallis named Key Coleman, but he'll just got by Key after his initial introduction. His name is a huge reference to someone in particular, but I will let players figure that one out!
So, what is the purpose of Key? Well, he is going to analyze your treasure hunter rank whenever you talk to him. If he likes what he sees, he'll reward you with a special item. Basically, the more chests you open and items you find hidden away in barrels and pots, the more receptive Key will be towards you and will grant you better items. Think of his presence as a sort of treasure hunting mini game. Open X chests to receive an item from Key. Go back out into the world, open X chests (or find X number of items in general), return to Key, get another reward!
Have fun, treasure hunters!
Lancer just blasted through the entirety of the Penumbra Crystallis demo in a single sitting on Twitch which includes finding some hilarious errors that needed fixing in real time! If you're curious of how it went, here are the links to the broadcast.
Part 1: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1053877353
Part 2: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1054028329
The demo for Penumbra Crystallis now up and available on RMN! The official Penumbra Crystallis demo. This will be the only demo release, and only playable public download, until the game is completed. Let me know what you think here or on Discord!
Download Here: https://rpgmaker.net/games/78/downloads/
More and more enemy sprites are being churned out by level2janitor, and I am absolutely loving all of them! They are helping to give Penumbra Crystallis more and more of its own unique style, and they're meshing wonderfully with the assets I've made myself so far.
So, here's a sample of level2janitor's work so far!
The Penumbra Crystallis demo is tentatively slated to be uploaded on June 10. It may be a few days later than that depending on how testing goes. If I can't put the demo out there then, expect it before Sunday, June 13th.
And just to keep this from being a few lines, here's my current progress on a new tileset!
Select 30 second samples from Penumbra Crystallis' soundtrack. All music in the game is composed by Bert Cole, Brandon Griggs, and Yufuruka.
Featured tracks in video are...
I decided to add rare encounters to the world map. These rare encounters are usually a highly powered up version of a local monster type. In this case, the "hellhare" is a much stronger version of the "cottontail" enemy. Note that, when testing this encounter, I was overleveled and that is why it wasn't too hard. However, if you fight this thing with just Vahn and Hans near the start, you'll be in for a rough time.
Rare encounters have their own battle theme, so players will know when they've run into one. I also toyed with the idea of making them leveled encounters so that they would always match the level of the party, but I decided against this when I realized most players would probably decide to run from rare encounters until towards the end of the game to get more XP and better loot from them.
Did a stream on Twitch yesterday where I test played (most) of what has been completed so far while keeping an eye out for balance issues, bugs, and typos. Here it is:
Here we go! I decided to do a write-up for this game's cast of characters so that they can be out there in the open. If you'd rather discover them as you play and don't wish to read this post, that's cool too!
Note: Eight of the nine main characters are revealed below! The ninth is someone I want to keep a lid on for now. There is also a high chance that there will be a tenth optional/secret character implemented later on down the road.
And with that out of the way...
The third redesigned monster by level2janitor is the chopodile! These big guys can be found predominantly in the Branch Village Sewers, but can also be encountered in the Water Shrine.
Just a quick preview on the marshland tileset.
As promised, here's the previously mentioned synthesist shop in action. Bring two items and 100 zil to create an entirely new item that cannot be purchased from regular shops!
Penumbra Crystallis was conceived with the idea that it would be a commercial game. I knew that I'd be making all character sprites, battle backgrounds, tiles, and battle animations myself. I was able to get my hands on music and sound effects that could be used in commercial projects, but there was one problem holding me back... monsters.
Until now.
Penumbra Crystallis now features monsters that are being commissioned exclusively for the project by the talented level2janitor! With his awesome monster graphics entering the game's database, Penumbra Crystallis has now transitioned to commercial project. This will probably affect the rate at which I work on the game (meaning I'll work on it more often), and since I already have a complete blueprint for the game in the form of Blackmoon Prophecy, I would like to have this game published on itch.io and/or Steam in 2023. I'll also have a demo available in the coming weeks so that people will know what they're getting into with this game.
Inspired by Final Fantasy IX, and sort of an improved successor to Blackmoon Prophecy's blacksmiths who upgrade equipment, Penumbra Crystallis will feature synthesis shops. I'll call them something different so that they don't step on Final Fantasy IX's toes, but it will function mostly the same.
These shops will start appearing once the player reaches Trei, which is the fourth town you can go to and is the first one that you can't walk to uninterrupted when you acquire access to the world map (Valla, Branch Village, and Meksicburg can be travelled to the moment you're done with the introductory events in Valla). All you will need to do is present two items in your inventory to the smith running the shop, and they will combine the items into something new for a small fee.
I'll give the first example right away. Trei is a town built over a lake, so they have a water theme going on (but so does most of Branch given the presence of the Water Crystal). The synthesis shop in Trei will allow you to present two early game pieces of armor, the Cloth Shirt and Cotton Robe, to create a new piece of armor called the Tortoise Shell. Equipping it will grant you slightly more defense than the armor you can buy in shops, provide an additional point of speed and spirit, and it will also increase water elemental resistance of the character wearing it by 25%.
As I have left A LOT of blank spaces in the game's database to add new items, these synthesis shops will be able to create armor, helmets, shields, weapons, and even accessories such as rings and trinkets in some cases.
It will be a good idea to always visit the synthesis shops before you sell old gear to see if the stuff you bought 1-2 towns back can be used to create something new. In some cases, like in Final Fantasy IX, you'll even be able to purchase the required items in the very town you're in.
The first synthesis shop will be added later today, at which point I'll share a picture or two on Discord.
So, I was working on the pub in Meksicburg and having fun spriting beer bottles and a piano, and then a thought hit me. Why not let the player play the piano if they want to!? BEHOLD:
The first summon, while not obtainable in the game just yet (but almost!), has been added to the database. I decided to throw a little demonstration video together.
How Summons Work:
I didn't think that I would need to do this, but I'm putting this request out there.
I've been handling all graphics (minus portraits and monsters) completely on my own so far, and while I've had no issues doing sprites and tiles (I've actually been enjoying it!), battle animations are proving to be a little trickier. Designing nice looking spell and weapon effects is definitely not my area of expertise and I'm issuing a call for anyone who would like to help to lend a hand if willing! Let me clear about what this request entails as well, just to clear up possible confusion:
What I do not want: Someone who is willing to edit rips or offer franken creations (assets made from cutting and pasting parts from various pieces together). I am also not looking for recolours. Penumbra Crystallis features entirely original graphics, no rips. I appreciate any desire to help, I really do, but these are not things that I need nor will they make it into the game.
What I do want: Someone who is able to create, from scratch, assets that are reminiscent of early SNES RPGs. Think Dragon Quest V, Final Fantasy IV, Paladins Quest, etc. Another example of the quality I'd aim for is Shining Force on the Genesis. Again, only talking about battle animations. No monsters, character sprites, etc. Just the bare animation graphics.
If this is something that you're interested in, hit me up by commenting here or contacting me on my Discord server (link is in the sidebar).
Now that I have finished my sewer dungeon, all that stands between me and starting work on the Water Shrine is a short cutscene in Branch Castle, so it seemed like the time to start work on my shrine tiles! Here's what we have so far. Does it look familiar?
The first boss battle in Penumbra Crystallis where the boss music plays! This was the first full test of this battle that I conducted. Went pretty well, I just need to tone Poseidon's damage down a bit.
Fun Tip: Poseidon was the sahagin boss underneath the Village of Trei in the original Blackmoon Prophecy.Just a small update. The overworld map now has Mode 7! I tinkered with the pitch and zoom settings a bit until I was happy with this perspective.
For fun, and to get an idea of how Penumbra Crystallis flows compared to Blackmoon Prophecy, I decided to list the first fifty locations visited in each. Funnily enough, the 50th location in Blackmoon Prophecy is the Wind Shrine where you secure the third crystal from Malacore. The list for Penumbra Crystallis goes to the same point. I figure location names aren't a terrible spoiler, especially if you've played Blackmoon Prophecy and have an idea of where to go. The overall direction and flow throughout the world of Gaia is pretty similar, but some locations have had their names changed because they were from Final Fantasy (ie. Mysidia) and other locations are brand new.
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After looking at the Penumbra Crystallis game page on RMN, I came to the conclusion that the description I wrote didn't really say much more than "this is Blackmoon Prophecy but different!", so I decided to rewrite the whole thing! To save readers a trip to RMN, I'm pasting it directly below. This is also worth sharing here because it does contain information that I haven't written anywhere else as of yet.
Check out the new RMN game page description after the break.
Just a few updates on things that I have planned for later down the road!
Arena
The Arena will be a location where you must visit with a single character in your party. If you meet this simple criteria, you will be able to enter arena fights with the character. You will get a ladder of ten battles to go through. Depending on how far you get, you will receive arena tokens. These can be exchanged for goods at the rewards shop (which will operate like a standard shop).
Party Leader
Unlike in Blackmoon Prophecy, Vahn is not going to be the fixed party leader. You will be able to have any four characters in your party that you choose once you reach a point in the game where you are traveling with five or more characters. Like in Blackmoon Prophecy II with Zephyr, Vahn is still the audience surrogate character and players will follow him through the story.
Summons
I'm mostly taking inspiration from Final Fantasy VI here with my summons. Summons will be equipped in the "Codex" slot on the equip screen, as the summon monsters turn into legendary scrolls before bestowing themselves upon the party. When equipped on a specific character, they will receive level up bonuses from the equipped summon which will usually be in the form of an extra few points of strength, defense, and so forth.
When equipping a summon codex, the "Summon" ability will show up for the character who has it equipped. Here they will be able to find their equipped summon (or summons if the player chooses to only equip summons in the two codex spots). You will be able to use the equipped summon once per battle, so you will need to use it when it counts!
