Level 10 Abilities

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!

Temporary monsters until level2janitor makes enemy graphics to replace these ones.

Braak, like Vahn, uses swords. That is where the similarities end though. While Vahn is a purely offensive fighter, Braak is a bit of a tanky bruiser with debuff/utility skills. Braak starts with the following abilities.

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.

Salar Volcano Preview

 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.

Magic Missile

 Oalston is the final character to receive a codex-specific ability, and that ability is Magic Missile. It's a fun one!

Chopodile Monster Design

 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.

Marshland Preview

 Just a quick preview on the marshland tileset.

As usual, I'm doing all tiles myself. The marsh includes murky water, rocks to jump over, lily pads, mushrooms, dead tries, and barrels/chests/pots that are sunken into the soft ground. Also using an animated fog plugin to increase atmosphere and immersion!

Synthesist Shop Example

 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!

Going Commercial!

 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. 

Mode 7 on the Overworld Map

 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.

Cameos!

 Don't worry, no spoilers. Just want to say that, if there ever is a Penumbra Crystallis 2, it will not be a reimagining of Blackmoon Prophecy II. So, I've decided to throw lots of little nods to both Blackmoon Prophecy games. Here are two examples.

Reiner and Zephyr are fellow recruits who join the Branch Military at the same time as Hans and Vahn. The dialogue they spout out changes based on where you are in the story. There will be other winks and nods, but for the sake of keeping them a mystery and to let players have the fun of finding them, this is all I'll be showing for Blackmoon Prophecy II cameos. There will be more though!

Penumbra Crystallis Screenshot Montage

 Just some screenshots of recent progress and various parts of the game that I've completed so far.

Return of the Jackass

In Blackmoon Prophecy, Darius was cartoonishly antagonistic. Now he'll just be antagonistic.

 

Flashback!

Just a bit of what I'm currently working on it the game. Unlike the original Blackmoon Prophecy, which I don't recall having flashbacks, Penumbra Crystallis does. Here we see Vahn training with his master, Zanden, who was the man who knighted him one year prior to the start of the game.

Small Battle HUD Update

 Just a small update.

Current/max HP and MP are now displayed rather than just current. I always thought it was kind of dumb not being able to see your maximum HP, so this is a welcome improvement. HP and MP bars are also completely disabled now, so they won't be clipping through the currently selected character pane in the party window any longer.

Battle Cursor & What's Next

 Battle cursor is in! I started spriting a hand, but I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't look identical to the traditional fat white glove that Final Fantasy uses, since I feel like that would be a little too blatant. So, I used Ogre Battle's hand cursor as an inspiration here with the thumb poking up and the folded fingers being on the front side of the hand rather than the back.

Later today I'll work at trying to change up the battle UI a bit to see if I can settle on something that fits what I'm going for. I'll probably also be modifying the icon set some more since they are one of the very few RTP holdouts remaining.