Mechanics Mondays #2
We are a full 2 weeks into the campaign now!
You’ve started clearing more individual stretch goals and might actually make it to the next Combo Stretch goal soon!
As always, the middle 2 weeks of any campaign are the slowest, and your passion and word of mouth support is essential to keeping the momentum moving.
You also hopefully found like-minded fans on the Discord and social media, so go on and talk about the fun you’ve had playing Kaneko-san’s and Machida-san’s previous games!
Campaign Updates
We’ve gotten a ton of useful feedback, so we’re going to address the most important stuff first.
Stretch Goals
Perhaps thanks to the amazing “field test video” released on Friday, we picked up enough pledges over the week to unlock one stretch goal for each game!!
- Costume Change System(CLEARED!)
-
We will include a system where you can change each character’s costumes.
Hopefully being able to do so will help your adventure through the deadly wastelands be that much more fun. - More Whistling(115,000,000 yen)/[Approx. $808,000]
-
We will increase the amount of whistling in the battle music, field music, and story music by an incredible 20 percent.
With this, surely even the most weary adventurer will enjoy their journey through the wilderness just that much more. - More Gadgets(120,000,000 yen)/[Approx. $841,000]
-
The ever-important gadgets characters will increase, giving them an even more diverse set of Actions to choose from.
Not only will this add to the strategy in dungeons and make them more interesting, but it will add more visual style to the game and hopefully increase your affection towards the characters as well. - HINT: Data Mine(????yen)
-
Until we find out what it is, guess what the upgrade will be.
Community Game
The Domovoy counter-attacked on Sunday but you all came together.
Was great to see the different memories everyone had playing the games Machida-san previously worked on.
Another week and more monsters to plague our heroes!
We’ll be honest, this will not be an easy week, so we’ll need you to come together as a strong community.
It’s not about sides… It’s all about survival!
Let’s talk about some of the more “unique” community goals this week:
Let’s try to at least make it a 5 second clip or longer or longer.
Submit to the official discord “# fan-creations” channel.
The discord users have been particularly active in the #pets channel but the ratio of cats to dogs is about 9 to 1, and that makes Luca a sad puppy.
It’s time for a little dog power!
You’ve all seen the launch trailer featuring Machida-san spinning the wheel of life choices, right?
Remember that mosaiced out slice on the wheel?
Build sand castles? Eat more bacon? Play Armed Fantasia? You tell us!
Submit your suggestions to “pr@yukikaze.ltd” or DM the pennyblood Twitter.
Merch Information
Merch Mistakes
As some fine backers have pointed out, the description on the side bar for “Drawn Together” is wrong.
It does include the OST. We are sorry for any confusion this created.
Merch Descriptions
We finally have a detailed description of the coffee table book for you:
The premium “art book” consists of two hardcover coffee table art books in a luxurious slipcase.
The books feature design drawings, concept art, key art, and developer interviews that provide meaningful insight into the development of Penny Blood and Armed Fantasia.
The books are designed and produced by high-end video game book publisher and art gallery Cook and Becker, known for producing some of the most impressive coffee table art books on iconic video games.
These 150 page hand-numbered books will be printed to the highest standard at one of the most premier art book printers in Europe.
Here’s a mock-up of the mug and lighter options that you can choose from the Double Kickstarter Collector’s Choice Set Add-on.
New Add-ons
Wow. This week is going to have a heavy focus on music, but the AF team really put us in a pickle by having a stretch goal that doubled the music tracks from 50 to 100.
The good news is by completing the AF community goals for this week, we can add 1 CD onto the base number – but 2 CDs still won’t be enough to fit every song in.
- Complete Soundworks CD Upgrade:
-
So we’re offering a “Complete Soundworks CD Upgrade” that will include every song in the game! This will be an add-on option for AF or PB.
The upgrade fee of 16 dollars will guarantee that you get every song in that game even if either team later adds more in-game music. (Please AF team, don’t double the number of tracks again!!)
Don’t worry though, standard users with the base 1 or 2 CD set (depending on the community goals this week) will still get a great sampling of the key battle, boss, and field music in the games, so we still have you covered there.
PRICE: 2300 yen - Double Kickstarter Premium Collectors Music Box:
-
Yes, the music for both of these games is amazing… and we still have a few tricks up our sleeve!
Did I mention this Wednesday’s Worldbuilding update is primarily about MUSIC! Well, we know the premium music box is set at a tier that is very expensive but it is such a cool item!
Enough people have asked us for this as an add-on that we talked with our fulfillment partner Red Art and although this isn’t a mass produced item and therefore not cheap, we can offer it as an add-on.
The other good news, it will contain music from BOTH games so if you are a JRPG purist, this one is for you!
PRICE: 55,000 yen
Reissues of Premium Rewards
Tokyo Game Show Interviews
Content Updates
Today, Kaneko-san will help us delve a bit more into the battle systems.
No JRPG is complete without them, and if you’ve seen the amazing announcement video, then you already know about the Cross Order Tactics, Order Chain, and Force Break systems…so this is an exciting update indeed.
Armed Fantasia uses a turn-based battle system, but has many new and special systems within.
We’re hoping these systems will keep the action and tension up and allow for players to enjoy deep, strategic gameplay.
Encounter Judgment System
Normal battles in the game are random encounters.
I’m sure that you thought we’d be using standard random encounters like older games?
But rest assured, we’ve aimed for stress-free encounters by using the Encounter Judgment system.
This way, people who want to concentrate on exploration can do so without battles getting in their way.
Let’s have a look at how that works.
A sign called an “Omen” will appear next to the character you’re controlling about one second before you encounter an enemy, and if you hit the Judgment Button while the sign is displayed, any normal battle can be canceled without any demerits whatsoever.
If you push the Judgment Button twice while the sign is up, you force the battle to start, but with a Battle Bonus.
This means the player gets a random effect like getting a Preemptive Attack, MP Recovery, or two times the normal amount of experience points.
This lets the player start with an advantage, making it easier to win the battle.
If the player doesn’t press anything while the Encounter Sign is up (or isn’t able to), battle starts normally without any Battle Bonuses or any advantages to friends or foes.
Also, if you accidentally let a battle start when you didn’t mean to, you can always run from normal battles with no penalties.
As you can see, the Encounter Judgment system allows the player to control whether or not they’d like to enter battles or not.
On the other hand, story battles, Quest Bosses and other strong enemies will be fought Symbol Encounter style.
This means they might have traps set for you, might fight from advantageous terrain, or have other gimmicks that you’ll need to use your brains to survive.
Cross Order Tactics and Order Chains
In battles, as you’re selecting your commands at the beginning of each turn, you can check where your allies and enemies are in the turn order and see what they’re planning on doing.
Your party’s turn order changes based on what commands you select, so the player can control the order.
That’s Cross Order Tactics, the foundation of the battle system.
You might think that dealing damage to enemies as quickly as you can is the most effective way to do battle. But that’s not the case.
This is where one of the important systems in battle comes in: Order Chains.
When all of your party members attack the same target, a combo attack known as an Order Chain will occur.
Order Chains make your skills stronger, cause more damage than normal attacks, and makes it easier for status effects to take effect on enemies.
For example, if you’re fighting a tough enemy that you can’t seem to damage or an enemy with high HP, using an Order Chain will allow you to get the damage you need to defeat it.
When and how you pull off Order Chains is a basic part of strategy in battles.
However, while Order Chains might be a powerful tool for you, the enemy can pull them off as well.
If the enemy manages to pull off an Order Chain, you’ll take a ton of damage and be in a tight spot.
If you manage to defeat an enemy on your first attack, that’s great. But if they survive, they might get to use an Order Chain on you.
So you’ll have to use a command to interrupt their turn order and stop them from pulling one off. That too is an important part of strategy during battle.
As you can see, taking actions faster or taking them slower can have their own advantages or disadvantages.
If you’re always trying to take the first move, you’ll find yourself having trouble in battles.
And the Battle Bonuses given by the Encounter Judgment system can change battles in a big way.
We’re hoping that the combination of Cross Order Tactics and Order Chains will create a sense of tension in players, making them think carefully about when to go on offense or stay on defense.
Force Breaks
By pulling off Order Chains and using the Encounter Judgment system to gain Battle Bonuses, you’ll also gain Force Points.
Once you have a certain amount, the Force Gauge will light up.
By using up a filled Force Gauge, you can release a powerful special move known as a Force Break.
The most important thing about Force Breaks is you can use them in real time.
They’re an action element to battles that can be used to interrupt the turn order.
Once you’ve filled up a Force Gauge and pull the Force Trigger button, a Force Break will activate whether you’re selecting commands or if actions are being carried out in battle.
You can activate them at any time.
Let’s say your enemy managed to pull off the conditions for an Order Chain.
You can interrupt them and stop their combo from going off.
Or you can use one after your own Order Chain to pull off another powerful attack on your foes.
There are many ways to use Force Breaks, and how you use them is up to you.
Also, while one Force Gauge will pull off a single character Force Break, if you use more than one Force Gauge you can have multiple characters participate in a combo Force Break as well.
Each of these techniques will be beautiful, flashy, and unique to each character or set of characters involved.
We hope you look forward to seeing them in action.
Cross Order Tactics makes you carefully consider the rules of battle.
Then Force Breaks let you break those rules.
We believe the contrast between those two systems will make the battles in Armed Fantasia fascinating.
That ends this Monday but TRUST US, you wanna be here for this Wednesday’s Worldbuilding update!
