Δευτέρα 25 Ιουνίου 2012

What I Think About Stuff-Columna Cerului (in collaboration with Voltech)-Part 2

THE SETUP

All right, there’s no easy way to explain this…oh wait, yes there is.  A floating island appears above the planet for the 88th time, with its denizens -- spiritual beings from another realm -- here to partake in a contest.  Children from around the world are summoned by the spirits to compete in said contest.  Competitors are split into two-man teams -- the child, and the spirit that summoned them.  Whichever child/spirit duo wins the contest gets a two-fold prize: the child gets to have their wish granted, while the spirit comes one step closer to ascending to the highest strata of mystic lordship.  So basically, it’s like The Hunger Games meets JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Helpful hint: the odds are never in your favor.


Now I know what you’re thinking.  “You mean I’d get to go to an island full of magic and fight my way to my wildest dreams?  Sign me up!”  And to that I say, “Whoa, buckaroo.”  First of all, just because they’re kids doesn’t mean that they’re always playing fair; children and spirits alike can get really nasty when it comes to winning.  Whether it’s an engraved paradigm of bringing glory and a chance at world domination back to the home country, or betraying old friends and new allies for the sake of power, things could get messy.

Second of all, there’s a non-negotiable price of admission for both parties.  The children have to offer up their most prized possession -- anything from a pair of old sparring gloves to a precious memory of a parent -- and if they’re eliminated from the tournament, they lose that item.  The spirits, meanwhile, put their very lives on the line; if they lose, they run the risk of being absorbed by other spirits.  Worse yet, their death makes their enemies that much stronger.  The stakes are high, but that’s as big a motivation as any -- with so much on the line, the teams HAVE to fight their hardest.

In theory, at least.

Theories won’t save you.  Chew on that…uh…whoever you are!

You play as Ren, who (at story’s outset) is a 12-year-old boy from a small-time fishing village.  While he’s timid and easily disturbed, he’s still a kind and cheerful boy who’d rather spend his days hanging around his big brother, and searching the village for bugs to collect.  Notably, he hates conflict in all of forms…which of course makes him the PERFECT candidate for being recruited to participate in a worldwide tournament with extreme consequences.

Fortunately, he’s not alone; he’s lucked out by having the veteran spirit Quillo recruit him.  Unfortunately, Quillo is a war hawk in every sense of the word -- quite literally, considering he’s a half-man, half-hawk.  Furthermore, Quillo’s what you call a Rakhasa; since he’s a veteran, he’s one of the higher-ranked spirits in the game.  He’s antsy to absorb power from his fallen foes and become a Djinn, one of the spirit world’s lords.  With ultimate glory on the line, why he chose a milquetoast like Ren is a mystery -- one slowly revealed over the course of the tale. 

Both of these characters grow and develop over the course of the contest (and beyond), helped in part by the other teams they meet.  From ballsy bruisers out to prove they’re the best, to big brothers eager to wish all their troubles away; from tweens acting on behalf of “fate” to teens campaigning to bestow glory to their country…meeting these characters and finding out what makes them tick is a part of the fun. 

New eyelash curlers, perhaps?

Of course, the other half of the fun is in either helping the teams come closer to their goal, or breaking their dreams in half like they’re caught in Lex Luger’s Torture Rack.  Speaking of Battle systems...


THE BATTLE SYSTEM
Shit, I guess that IS kind of important.  All right, let’s see what we’ve got here.

JRPGs take a lot of flak for being brain-dead in terms of gameplay.  Either it’s the old sequence of “town-world map-dungeon-boss-town,” or it’s the complaint that all you have to do is mash the confirm button to win 95% of your battles.  
A woodpecker could beat this game.  And they hate video games!

That’s why, before I do anything else, I want to talk about the battle system -- namely, how I’m bringing strategy back. 

While I’ve never had a problem with turn-based combat, the old ways seem to have fallen out of style with kids today -- so I’ll do them a service and have this game use a real-time combat system, a la Kingdom Hearts or Xenoblade Chronicles, for both systems. 

First, there’s the standard “Earth Mode” system.  Here, Ren and Quillo take to the field as a single unit (along with other characters temporarily joining the party as the story progresses), and the pair takes on lesser spirits -- the Rimi and the Lough -- in a bid to increase their power and chances of survival.  For argument’s sake, let’s say you’re playing this game on an Xbox 360 pad; use A to jump, X for Ren’s basic attacks.  Pressing it a few times in succession will give you a basic combo, or you can add a pause between presses to use a different combo.  B is for defensive actions, allowing Ren to move the hell out of the way with a quick dodge roll, or parry certain attacks.  Y, however, is reserved for your partner’s attacks; in Ren’s case, Quillo will step in and use his stronger (but significantly slower) attacks to hamper enemies.  You can hold the right trigger to access your magic menu and press a face button to activate it, and the d-pad to use your items. 

Of course, pressing the right bumper is where the party gets crazy -- you’ll switch from controlling Ren to controlling Quillo.  Gameplay-wise, he’s the inverse of Ren; he’s slow, but hits like a runaway train.  He can’t (or rather, won’t) use magic, so the moves mapped to the right trigger are all offensive techniques.  He trades agility for defensive power; instead of a dodge roll, he just stands his ground and guards -- and instead of parrying, he’ll outright smash your ass with a counterattack.  Quillo’s a close-range fighter, but pressing Y can compensate for that; Ren will pop in and pepper opponents with magic.  But no matter who’s on-point, you can mix and match your attacks.  Get in deep with Ren by evading enemy attacks, then start cutting at their sides with some quick slashes.  Once you’ve got your combo started, tap Y in the middle of it and Quillo will smash ‘em with a heavy hit.  Or hold your ground with Quillo while wearing down your enemy with Ren’s long-range attacks; once they move in range, counter with Quillo, and start a new combo by having Ren hit the enemy off the ground.  Yes, that’s right.  This game’s got Marvel vs. Capcom 3-style OTGs.  


More on that in a minute; for now, let’s talk about “Sky Mode.”  As you’d expect, this is a mode where two teams take to the air and do battle; however, the child and spirit actually fuse together to form one super-powerful being.  What do you get when you cross Ren and Quillo?  Ba-da-boom!  Huge-ass bird of prey!

In this mode (if you can believe it), the gameplay resembles Star Fox 64 in one of the arena-type levels.  You’ll have some breathing room to fly about, but the object of the game is to take down your opponent with every weapon in your arsenal.  As a fused being, Ren and Quillo enjoy the best of both worlds; you can fire beams and explosive rounds and do loop-de-loops thanks to Ren; thanks to Quillo, you have a tackle attack, a close-range combo, and a barrel roll (of course) to repel enemy attacks.  Shoot down the enemy before they get you, and you’ll be able to take their power, leveling up and adding stat bonuses.  Get shot down, and it’s game over.  Sky Mode is designed to have more of an arcade-y feel to it, but make no mistake: if you’re not paying attention, you’re going to lose.

On that note, I’d like to make an important point.  This combat system -- in both modes -- is designed by someone who (while not necessarily good at them) knows fighting games.  There are a lot of principles in them that can be carried over into other genres.  Hell, it’s already been done before; the original Kingdom Hearts, for all its faults, managed to make a simple but surprisingly deep combat system…at least before Kingdom Hearts 2 came around and it just became a means to break your X and Triangle buttons.

Press Triangle to AWESOME.  (Warning: side effects may include sore thumbs and lack of accomplishment.)

What’s the distinction?  What was in KH1, and plenty of fighting games, that made them so satisfying?  Simple: punishment. 

Say two guys are playing Street Fighter -- one who’s got a solid grasp of the game, and one who’s a bit more…er, green.  The biggest difference separating the vet and the greenhorn isn’t exactly how fast they can press buttons; it’s the threat of being punished for their actions.  If the greenhorn jumps at the vet, the vet can punish by hitting them with one of about five different anti-air moves -- and not only will the greenhorn take damage, but his offense and momentum will get shut down.  If the greenhorn continues jumping regardless of the same outcome, time after time, then he’ll continue to be punished.  Or maybe instead of jumping in, he’ll use a move that, while powerful, leaves him wide open if his attack is blocked.  Boom -- more punishment.  You’d think that he would learn eventually…but then again, this is one of the most infamous descriptors of online play in Street Fighter 4: 

What am I getting at here?  It’s obvious -- in order for Columna Cerului to demand strategy and earn a reputation for its difficulty, the player needs to be tested, engaged, and in extreme cases, punished.  If you’re playing intelligently, you’ll be rewarded in battle and in terms of satisfaction.  If you’re just mashing buttons, you deserve to get beaten into a bloody mist.   And make no mistake; the game WILL destroy you if you let it…precisely why you have to destroy it first.

In addition to your standard HP/MP bars, there’s also the Astral Gauge.  It’s a bar that you and your enemies share, in a sort of “tug of war.”  Here’s how it works: the better you fight, the more (and faster) the gauge will shift in your favor.  If you’re doing poorly, the gauge will shift in their favor.  If you can fill it up first, the enemy (or enemies) will enter a state where they’re temporarily more vulnerable to your attacks.  Hitting them with your basic moves will automatically turn every attack into a critical hit, or you can pull the left trigger to unleash an extremely powerful and useful special attack.  Quillo will rush at enemies like a meteor, which is perfect for crowd control.  Ren just hits a single target with a slash…one that, against most enemies, is an instant kill.  Not bad for someone who hates fighting (although a skill like that in the hands of a child is something worth looking into…).  Of course, your opponents can do the same thing you can.  If you’re consistently screwing up, YOU’LL be the one who enters a critical state; you won’t have to worry about instant kills, but be prepared for a savage beatdown if you’re not paying attention.




It all comes down to your ability to perceive your opponents’ patterns and weaknesses.  Let’s go back to Street Fighter for a minute.  Tournament player and Cross Counter star Mike Ross admits that his execution -- his ability to dial in those inputs and bust out huge combos -- is pretty poor, but he’s very good at reading his opponents.  He also admits that he has a habit of jumping a lot during his matches (which, as discussed, isn’t always the best idea).  The same principles apply here.  Enemies have certain attack patterns that you can and should take advantage of, and the placement of your blows can lead to increased (or decreased) damage.  Fighting a big monster with a mean straight?  Roll past him with Ren and start giving him some back surgery.  Fighting an even bigger monster that shrugs off Ren’s attacks?  Switch to Quillo, and break him down until his soft underbelly gets exposed.  Pressure your opponents with a combination of Ren and Quillo’s attacks until their guard breaks.  Keep your guard up until an enemy telegraphs an obvious attack, and punish them.    

It’s a system that rewards thought and perception.  Admittedly, there would be a high difficulty throughout the game, but only as a means to give the player more gratification upon victory.  It’s tough, but fair; if you lose, you only have yourself to blame.  Moreover, winning a fight doesn’t just come down to “oh, I lost, so I just need to grind some more until I’m stronger.”  While going back to level up can help, if you’re fighting intelligently you can pull off a win even if you’re several levels below where you should be. 

How effective you are in battle depends on your developing skills -- and what you do off the battlefield is just as important, if not more, than what you do on it.

THE RPG BITS
A strong combat system is important, but none of that matters if the rest of the game falters.  While we’re still on the subject of battles, let’s talk about customization.

Ren starts off with a piddling amount of fighting prowess; he’s quick on his feet, sure, but outside of basic weapon skills he doesn’t have much going for him.  But once he reaches the floating island, he’ll get plenty of chances to boost his abilities.  Thanks to his bond with Quillo, Ren can also (to some extent) take power from enemies the team defeats, albeit lesser spirits dotting the landscape.  Doing so lets the kid use magic and a few special attacks, while helping him unlock innate skills.  You’ll get to choose which skills and passive abilities to equip, and using them extensively upgrades them into stronger forms -- perfect for making some smokin’ sick combos.

Quillo’s customization works a little differently.  The stat boosts you earn from winning Sky Mode battles (among other things) are a key determinant, along with how Ren fights -- or rather, how YOU fight.  Based on your strategies and attack patterns, Quillo can learn moves that compliment your play style…to the point where he’ll actually evolve into a new form.  Love rushing down your opponent?  Quillo will become more speed and power-oriented.  Prefer long-range attacks and a strong defense?  Quillo gets a slew of counterattack abilities, and attacks that can hammer foes even from afar.  It’s a system not unlike the Style Changes from Mega Man Battle Network 2; you can switch between Quillo’s default style and 2 gained styles any time outside of battle, giving you plenty of tools to play with.

This, for example, is a fine diplomatic tool.

But as I said, what happens outside of battle is more important than what happens within it.  Success in Columna Cerului is a lot easier depending on your actions; see, even though the action takes place on the island, Ren and all the other children can return home with their spirits at virtually any time.  It gives both the characters and the player a chance to cool off for a bit and explore the world -- and more importantly, bring back whatever otherwise-unattainable knickknacks and artifacts from the island to potential buyers.  Artisans, merchants, researchers, collectors…plenty of people are willing to offer something to you for your patronage.  No matter who you give an item to, you’ll receive Praise Points that go toward additional levels and stat boosts (much like Okami).  However, the gifts they give you along with PP vary.  Maybe one will give you a nice weapon.  Maybe another will give you lots of money.  Maybe one will tell you about a secret area on the island she read about.  Even if you don’t give them gifts, you can still interact with people, learning their stories and spending time with them to both earn PP and engage with the world.

Not this world, but you get the idea.

You can even earn PP by bonding with other teams.  Even though it’s Ren and Quillo’s story, there are other children and other spirits with stories to tell.  Meet up with them on the island and work alongside them, and you’ll earn more than just PP or a side story; if you’re struggling in a fight, even if they aren’t in the party they’ll leap in and save you.  AND if you can sway them to your side, the plot will shift toward making them your allies…well, at the risk of alienating other teams.  Who will be your allies?  Who will be your enemies?  What awesome powers will you wield?  How will you fight?

In Columna Cerului, the choices are yours.  So make them count.


THE SALES PITCH

Let’s say you saw this hypothetical game on a store shelf.  You pick up the box and check the front and back covers.  “Huh.  Doesn’t look half-bad,” you say to yourself.  But you’ve never heard anything about it before -- blame it on bad marketing, or daring to be released in the same season as the new Call of Duty.  You’re only going to pick up one game today.  Eager to make a decision, you whip out your phone and start checking online for info.  What do you find?

This blog, telling you exactly what could make Columna Cerului a dream come true. 


Imagine this scenario: after nearly losing his head in an ambush by some nasty Rimi, a despondent Ren returns home late one night to find some solace, with a disappointed Quillo in tow.  While the bird-man decides to spend the night alone outside, Ren heads inside…only to hear his mother and brother having yet another furious argument.  They don’t even hear him come back in -- and Ren ends up spending a full half-hour outside, waiting for the shouting to finish.  When it finally does, the player has a choice: you can spend some time with Ren’s mother or bond a bit with his big brother.  Even beyond bonding and earning PP, who you talk to subtly shifts the plot, and more immediately gives Ren an impetus to learn one of his innate skills -- a status buff from his mom, or a rushing attack from his brother.

Quillo doesn’t even give Ren a chance for a full night’s rest; the hawk-man wakes him up before sunrise to get an early start on exploring the island.  Ren heads to the village market to grab a few supplies; forgetting that his status as a tournament competitor has made him a bit of a celebrity, several villagers rush him and bombard him with questions.  Somehow Ren manages to escape the mess with all his limbs, and in spite of the trouble exchanges a few pleasantries with a shopkeeper (and reminding himself to bring her back something nice for giving him a discount).  With that minor excursion complete, the team warps back to the island. 



With their feet back on solid ground, Ren starts feeling a little queasy, and confesses that he still hasn’t gotten used to warping across the planet.  Quillo promptly ignores him; since it’s early in the tournament, the veteran suggests that they use this time to gain more power -- or more specifically, turn Ren into a hardened warrior.  Ren assumes that they’ll spend the day exploring the land for artifacts, giving him a chance to take in the sights.  Quillo has other plans in mind, but decides to play along if it means moving his partner toward ultimate victory. 

The duo heads to the island’s edges; Quillo’s assumption is that because of the dangerous environment -- towering, fragile cliffs, the biting winds, and of course the long drop to the ground -- that other teams won’t have the courage to explore and thus raid the area for artifacts (with an added bonus of toughening up Ren ASAP).  Ren’s naturally worried, but continues his trek.  To his surprise, the cliffs not only feature precarious rock faces, but chains of floating plateaus -- several of which are loaded with unearthly minerals.  Hoping to bring a small piece of the mineral deposit back to the shopkeeper from earlier, the duo heads toward one of the plateaus. 

As they move about, the duo gets ambushed by a mob of Rimi.  Ren and Quillo are forced to take action, taking into account the instability of the area -- or perhaps use it to their advantage.  Ren uses Quillo to clear out the enemies at close range while the chosen child focuses his long-range attacks on a distant plateau full of Rimi; as the plateau collapses, so too do the enemies, preventing any enemies from jumping on the duo’s makeshift arena.  But despite their efforts, a number of Rimi start crowding them; Ren moves from one plateau to another, with Quillo knocking away pursuers as he leaps about.  With some land back under their feet, and a cliff sitting below them, Quillo goes on-point and uses his strength to blow the plateau to pieces.  He and Ren land safely, but the Rimi are all stunned into submission -- a perfect chance for either of the two to take advantage of a filled Astral Gauge.   


The duo manages to carve out a win.  Quillo’s unsurprised, and overjoyed at the thought of both another glorious fight and a slight boost in power; Ren, meanwhile, can hardly believe what just happened.  In spite of his hyper-tense state, he realizes that he missed his chance to take one of the mineral fragments back; still, since they’re still hanging around the cliffs, he reasons that if they keep looking they’ll find something nearby.  Quillo expresses genuine surprise with a chuckle, amazed that the boy who was nearly about to wet himself is suddenly so gung-ho.  A blushing Ren shakes it off, and the two continue their travels.

The duo continues navigating the cliffs, fighting off Rimi that appear before them.  During their expedition, Ren spots a small crevice that leads deeper into a rock formation.  As they head inside, he finds a hidden cave -- one that’s full of wonders beyond anything he’s seen back home.  Splashing waterfalls, throwing droplets into the air.  Sunlight spilling in from cracks in the ceiling.  Cave walls lined not with rock, but with crystals as bright as the North Star.  Grass blooming underfoot, very nearly springing Ren into the air with each step he takes.  Wildflowers that spread their sweet scent with reckless abandon.  And amidst all that, another team sleeping in the brush.  How do you respond to them?  Do you decide that this is the perfect opportunity for an ambush of your own?  Or do you wake them up and try to befriend them -- or risk having them strike back?



Countless mysteries, discoveries, and opportunities await you in Columna Cerului.  It’s what any given gamer wants deep down.  They want a deep world that’s full of surprises.  They want to feel like their choices matter.  They want to live through a story that takes them places -- an adventure through the eyes of a child, and well beyond.  They want gameplay that challenges yet rewards, and allows individuality.  They want to meet characters that take the story in new directions, from families torn apart by conflict to allies eager to carve their names into the world.  If gamers can have all that and more in a single package, then you’d have more than just an RPG.  More than just a dream come true.  You’d have something real -- real wonder, real emotion, and most of all, real fun.     

And then you’d realize that you’ve been staring at your phone for like ten minutes now, and decide to head on home…with the game in hand, of course.

Should you decide to play on you discover…

THE STORY


Gather round and listen closely, little creatures, as we get to outline the tale of Columna Cerului in its entirety. Spoilers don’t count, because the game is not made yet.

Rean reaches the Sky Nation and begins his great competition in the tournament. Quillo fights along with him and they soon find themselves reaching the semi-finals. It is during these elimination rounds the Ren meets Nauna and the children get to know each other and their past.

Ren becomes enamored with Nauna’s abilities and power. Nauna loves and hates Ren for who he is and his lack of appreciation for his family.

Ath this point, the story switches between the Sky Nation and Argentum, as we get to move through Ren’s little world and see him hailed as a hero by his people. We also see him as he talks to Quillo and their similarities become apparent. Quillo enjoys tormenting the boy and scolds him for his dependence on the wish as his only resort.

Moving through the semifinals, Ren and Nauna meet each other in the final battle. They are both unwilling to fight each other and Nauna comes very close to forfeiting the match for Ren’s sake, but it is Ren who seals his doom by admitting his own selfishness.

Naune defeats him and wishes for Ferrum’s supremacy. The wish is granted. The tournament ends, Quillo returns to the spirit world and Argentum is doomed.

The story skips ahead four years, with Ren a teenager now, his family and country in ruins. Ferrum’s war machine tramples the other nations under its boot and his mother dies in the invasion, while he and his brother get drafted in the army. Ren has grown under the constant shame from his people, who blame him for dooming them, but struggles on and gets to be a harder, more cynical bastard.

He meets his brother on the field of battle, but also Quillo, who has been stranded on the material world after the sorcerer that bound him died. Through their escape from the field of battle, Ren reuinites with his brother and his spirit companion and decide to try and gain their wish, so they can make things right again.

They begin their journey as they cross the ruined nations, seeking for challenges to overcome to allow Quillo (and Ren) to grow in power and prepare themselves for the tournament. It is during this time that Ren meets Nauna and Ogun again, they very nearly kill each other.

When the Sky Nation appears again, Ren and Quillo fight for their right to earn their place as champions and do it with their own might. Ren’s brother is there to support him and very soon the other oppressed nations show them their support. Nauna instead faces the pressure she has faced her entire life and has to possibly kill the only one person who can understand her.

When the tournament begins, they are both adults. They meet each other after years of growing up, Ren into a cynical (yet somehow still romantic) adult, with Quillo on his side as a Rakshasha worthy of his title. Nauna is a tired woman who wishes to be released from the burdens heaped on her and Ogun a bitter bitch who only wants to be freed.

Their final battle is to the death. There are three endings:

-In the first ending, Nauna kills Ren. However this time, she wishes for Ferrum to fall, sick of their ways. Ogun returns to the spirit world, where she is defeated by Quillo, who takes her place.

-In the second ending, Ren kills Nauna. He wishes for Ferrum’s fall as well, says goodbye to Quillo and lives to be an old man, deprived of the love of his life. The world around him prospers and leaves him behind. Quillo also stays behind with him.

-In the third ending, Nauna forfeits and so does Ren, in a selfish display on both their parts. Ogun turns against them then and Quillo defends them, but in the end both spirits get grievously wounded and are forcibly returned to the spirit world. The player here has to make a choice: for the characters to wish the downfall of Ferrum (which will get Nauna Killed) or something else entirely. This choice is for them to return back to the way things were when they were children and start the circle anew.

But then history repeats itself. The Great Padishah does not allow it to alter. The choice needs to be made and one of them must be sacrificed. This is essentially a New Game+ choice, only this time the player knows exactly the outcome and how he cannot change it.

Is this a bittersweet ending? You bet your sweet behind it is! But it deals with the theme of sacrifice, of how the characters must become something bigger and better than themselves and deal with the consequences in order to change the world.



Voltech is the electronic projection of the man called Rhamy Payne, who was used in a secret government experiment concerning digital immortality in the 90's. Having evolved past his flesh-form, he has decided to keep a blog and use his digital superiority to take games and movies apart and post his opinions on the internet. You can find his greater self/dream projection blog at:

Cross-Up

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