Ghost Knight Victis - Prototype Demo 01

Ghost Knight Victis is a single-player action RPG inspired by the henshin hero genre (Karas, Kamen Rider, Garo). You play as a guy whose terminal disease awakens dormant magical powers, letting him transform into magical armors and fight monsters.

The catch is that his health deteriorates every time he uses his powers. As the player, you need to ensure the main character stays alive until the end of the year, when he faces the final boss, and save the girl he loves before he dies.

You'll also need to maintain your secret identity to prevent endangering your friends. But standing with you are individuals who are in the same predicament.

This is just a pet project of mine. Part of this is trying to explain what it felt like having high-blood pressure. Part of it is a reflection on my own life.

Please give feedback

Right now I'm releasing prototypes. This is to help me get second opinions when designing the game.

Each prototype I release will have something in particular to be tested.

Please note that the enemies don't fight back yet.

Current Prototype Release

Prototype Demo 01 - Don't Expect Too Much Edition

(Scroll downwards to find download link)

Right now, I'm tweaking camera controls and I'm deciding between two styles:

1. Dark Souls style: Camera stays behind player once you target an enemy.
2. Top-view style: Camera zooms out and stays above once you target an enemy.

I implemented both to see how they play out (press d-pad left to switch between the two camera styles).

Points that were raised to me so far:

1. The Dark Souls style camera suggests a play style that is more visceral, more on duels, fighting one enemy at a time. The zoomed in camera more easily allows the player to study the enemy's animations so they can tell if the enemy's about to attack (so they could evade), or if they are open to attack (so the player can safely attack). This will work better if there are fewer enemies, but more challenging AI.
2. The top-view camera style suggests a more tactical kind of game, where you focus more on crowd control. It suggests a game where it's natural to shift between different enemies while in the middle of a combo. This will work better if there more enemies, but each would be taken down in perhaps just 1 to 3 hits.
3. Dashing rapidly in the Dark Souls style camera is disorienting, since the camera tries its best to chase the fast-moving player. I tried addressing that by slowing down camera movement while in dash, and only go back to default speed once the dash finishes. Furthermore, the more you dash one after another in quick succession, the effect increases. Please do try it out and see if it's better now.
4. Someone suggested I use the top-view camera when the player is fighting normal enemies, and use the Dark Souls style camera when fighting boss encounters.

So far I am leaning towards using the Dark Souls style camera, but I'm still open to ideas.

Follow latest updates on my dev blog: http://hypertensiongamedev.tumblr.com/