nnescio
Evard's Tentacles of Forced Intrusion
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by Eushully, the makers of the Ikusa Megami (Battle Goddess) series. Some of you probably have heard of them under the Meister series (Himegari, Kamidori).Genre: SRPG
Release Date: Unconfirmed, but preorders start from April 24 (2015).
PV/OP:
Demo:
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So, basically, this is a semi-sequel to Tenbin no La Dea (Goddess of Libra): Battle Goddess Memoria, set in a fortress-shrine in the land of the demihumans/beastmen.
The protagonist is El Ballad Haion, a researcher at the shrine, and he has the coke-bottle glasses to go with his role (not that he wears it in battle, guess he doesn't want to mess up the bishie look). His preferred weapon is a rapier, with the scabbard doubling as a flute (or oboe, can't tell).
His companions, Lavierie Interlude (childhood friend) and Mystoria (a mercenary archer) also carry similar weapons. Lavierie has an a̶x̶e̶g̶u̶i̶t̶a̶r̶ axe which also doubles as a double bass, while Mystoria's multiple bowstrings can be played like a harp's.
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The game mechanics can be summed up in one sentence;
Himegari/Kamidori with a hex grid.
Okay, there are significant differences, as the gameplay is much more refined now, hex-grid aside. The map is no longer confined to rooms and narrow passageways, for one. Hex tiles also have a height value, with characters having a jump stat like Disgaea (no tossing though). Firing downwards give ranged characters additional range, and melee attacks can't reach if the height difference is too tall (likewise, ranged attacks can also be blocked by steep angles).
Terrain modifiers are also present, with some characters (and monsters) having an advantage on certain terrain, and penalties on others.
Since there are no longer definite rooms and corridors, each character now has a zone-of-control (AOC), a region of space around them where enemy units cannot move through (they can move into your ZOC to attack you, but not through it to another hex at the back to flank you or to attack another character). Different characters have different shapes for their ZOCs -- the main character, for example, controls all six hexes adjacent to him. Lavierie controls the three surrounding hexes in front of her, while Mystoria controls the three surrounding hexes behind her. There's a rogue character which controls a line of three hexes directly in front of her.
Characters now also have "facing". The direction they face is important in determining damage. Getting attacked from the front (the hex you are facing and the two to its sides) deals normal damage. More damage is dealt if you're attacked from the sides (the two hexes behind you on the sides). Being attacked from the hex directly behind deals even more damage.
Enemies take similar penalties.
You can control a character's facing before they take a turn by clicking on them. You can lock their facing so they remain facing a particular direction even after moving. In all cases, once they have finished their action you can't change their facing until the next turn.
(So yeah, pay attention to ZOCs and character facings so you won't get backstabbed, while exploiting the same mechanics to hit enemies for extra damage.)
Skills/Passives are equipped on a character somewhat like previous games, but you can no longer freely swap them in the middle of a map. These 'skills' are manifested as in-game items called "divine orbs", and are divided into three types: at-wills, which can be activated on a character's turn; conditionals, which activates when certain conditions are met (charm, for example, activates when an enemy unit of the opposite sex attacks and penalizes his/her damage and accuracy by 10%) and constant effects, which are active at all times. The latter two can be considered passives in a sense.
Skills have point costs, which are required to equip them. Each character have a point pool equivalent to their level -- a Lvl. 5 character, for example, can equip divine orbs with a combined point cost of 5 or below.
The three starting characters can equip up to eight divine orbs. The distribution of types differs, however: the protag can equip 3 at-wills/3 conditionals/2 constants, while Lavierie has a distribution of 4/2/2, and Mystoria, 3/2/3.
Some divine orbs are unique to certain characters, and cannot be equipped on others. These will have the corresponding character portrait on them.
Divine orbs are generally awarded upon completion of a map's primary and secondary objectives. They can also be picked up as treasure, or rarely as drops from defeated enemies.
There doesn't seem to be an in-game currency, so trades are done on a barter basis, with you swapping orbs for other orbs at the store.
Consumable items are treated as orbs. You equip one (as an at-will) and you're able to use them up to a certain number of times (as noted in the description) per map. Uses regenerate between maps.
Generally, to use an at-will, you have to first toggle it for the currently active character from a selection bar under their portrait. This modifies their default action accordingly. With a consumable active, for example, clicking on a character will order them to use the item on himself. Likewise, AoE's will change the default click-to-move to a targetable reticule instead.
Most attack-type at-wills require a certain amount of "Divine Power", or what functions as MP in this game. Notably, the Divine Power pool is shared among all characters (with the total cap increasing for each character you control). Summoning additional characters on-field also requires "divine power", so manage this resource carefully.
You start off with divine power equal to your to the total cap of the initially -fielded characters. You regenerate divine power by controlling "divine magic circles", which function similarly to warp points/magic towers in Kamidori/Himegari. You also summon characters from these magic circles.
There are also divine magic stones on the map, which gives you divine power when picked up. Characters pick them up automatically when passing through, so you don't have to waste your characters' move by ordering them to stop at a specific hex. Enemies can also pick them up, 'though they drop them when killed.
There are also utility at-wills (pulverize/cut/chop) which allow you to clear the appropriate obstacle from the map. Sometimes items are hidden behind such obstacles, which are indicated by a faint sparkle (you may have to rotate the map to see them though).
Armor and weapons for each character are fixed. You can't change them, unlike in Kamidori/Himegari. You can upgrade weapons though, which gives your characters bonuses to HP/Attack Damage/Magic (and possibly other bonuses in the full game).
Tweaking a weapon's stats require a number of upgrade points, which you can freely assign and reassign while in your base. Upgrade points appear to be granted when you advance the story to certain milestones/chapters (at least in the trial).
Levelling up characters is somewhat unique. No exp is awarded in combat whatsoever. Instead, most maps award divine sigils when you first complete them (to each character in your party). You then upgrade each character by slotting in the appropriate sigil in their character upgrade screen (which consist of an array of slots somewhat similiar to the Sphere Grid system from FFX, but not quite).
Red sigils upgrade attack. Blue sigils upgrade magic. Green and yellow upgrade accuracy and evade, respectively.
Evasion also has a somewhat unique mechanic. When there is a significant difference between the attacker's accuracy and the defender's evade, there's a high chance that the defender will evade (this is similar to how evade is handled in most games, where it modifies the attacker's hit rate). What it differs is that a successful evade will reduce your evasion by a number of points equal to the attacker's accuracy, so you'll evade less and less as the fight goes on. So, functionally, the evade stat acts as a secondary health pool of sorts.
Some divine orbs/skills allow characters to regenerate evade (up to their natural maximum).
Completing lines (like bingo) give you additional bonuses. Completing horizontal or vertical lines levels up your character (giving them +5 HP and another point to the divine orb pool). Completing diagonals grants a bonus divine orb (generally a special skill that is unique to that character.)
In the beginning of the game, characters only have access to one page (Curriculum: Rank 1) in their upgrade board. Advancing the storyline will grant access to additional pages.
One last thing, characters can also equip shields (another type of divine orb) in their conditional slots. These reduce incoming damage by a certain amount, and have limited uses. Each reduction costs one use, and shields no longer afford protection (for the current map) when their uses are depleted.
Most shields only protect against attacks from the front. Some 'shields', like carapaces (for monster characters) will protect against attacks from all directions.
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