KickStarter Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch - turn-based strategy RPG roguelite spinoff

[Nortar]

Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch
A roguelite spinoff - less story-faggotry, more action - with "open developement" in early access mode.
Not sure if it deserves it's own thread, but this time it's place is clearly among the tacticools, not in g-rpg.

Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch
Hello everyone!

It's been a while since our last major Lost Eidolons update, when we added New Game+ mode to the PC edition.

Since the game's release, we've spent a lot of time collecting feedback and having internal discussions about the game's future. As promised, we delivered LE on Xbox and Playstation this month, with the help of our porting partner, PID Games.

Now it's time to decide where the world of Artemesia goes next.
There were a lot of paths available to us in making this decision. Should we do DLC? Big or small? Or should we just jump straight into Lost Eidolons 2?

In the end, we've decided to take a different path, and try something a bit unexpected.

Today I'm happy to share what we've been working on: an exciting new spin-off game, titled "LOST EIDOLONS: VEIL OF THE WITCH"!

We refer to the game as a "spin-off" (rather than a true sequel), as it shares a lot of Lost Eidolons' core identity, and even a few characters. But the gameplay and general presentation is a major departure.
Now let's dive into some questions you may be curious about.

What kind of game is "Veil of the Witch"?
Veil of the Witch is a turn-based tactical RPG with rogue-lite elements. It takes place in the same world as Lost Eidolons, and is set shortly after the events of the first game. But it's an entirely standalone experience you don't need any prior knowledge to play.

Fans of the first game will find Veil of the Witch to be a tighter, more focused game, that offers more of what they love with less friction in between.

New players will find a rich world and characters, a fast and gritty combat system, and an addictive, looping structure that sets the game apart from the rest of the genre.

I'm confident the game will speak for itself.





What's changed since Lost Eidolons?
In one word: speed.
Lost Eidolons was a linear, story-driven RPG that unfolds gradually. Veil of the Witch, on the other hand, is fast, gameplay-driven, and hits the ground running immediately. One of the most immediate changes is that we've done away with sprawling class trees that take 30 hours to get to the cool stuff.

In Veil of the Witch, things are much more stripped-down. Each character has a single class, with fixed weapons and armor, and a very specific playstyle. There's still progression and choices to be made (skills to unlock, gear to be upgraded, and so on) but generally it's all a lot tighter and more focused now.

We've also made a number of changes to the combat system itself, and the game's overall structure is radically different from Lost Eidolons. I'll save the details for another day, but for now I'll simply say that I'm a huge fan of games like Hades and Slay the Spire, and they've had a huge influence on Veil of the Witch.

The result of all this is a leaner, meaner game with more excitement, greater strategic depth, and the freedom to approach battles how you decide.

But this doesn't mean the story experience isn't important to us. Like much of the rest of the game, our approach to narrative this time around is: "Less is more". We've got a great setting, a tight cast of characters people will love, and a new approach to story presentation that (while sparse) we're hoping will be a lot more effective.

Oh, and we've taken the art direction for characters and UI in a completely new direction. I personally love how this game looks, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it soon.

Why make a spin-off instead of Lost Eidolons 2?
While it took a lot of internal discussion to reach this decision, in the end, our reasons are pretty simple.
It won't surprise anyone to say that, while we're proud of Lost Eidolons, there are some elements that didn't quite come together as well as we would have hoped, and many of you felt the same.
When we dove into player feedback for the game, two big points came up over and over again.

First, players said they liked Lost Eidolons' story and characters, but found the actual execution to be sometimes lacking, and often inconsistent.

Second, most players loved the combat system, but felt progression lacked meaningful choices, and encounter design could be rigid and unforgiving.

After weighing this feedback and discussing it internally, we decided to try something new that would let us build on the engine we've created already, but take a big swing in a new direction, with a storytelling approach that was lighter and simpler.

Also: I've just always wanted to make a game that brought rogue-lite stuff into the turn-based tactical genre! So we decided that before jumping into a sequel, we'd try a spin-off, and see what happens.

But I want to be very clear: this isn't some little pilot project or cash-grab pseudo-DLC. We're very serious about making Veil of the Witch an excellent RPG that stands entirely on its own two feet, and offers a ton of depth and replayability.

So when can I play it?
This time around, we're going to be pursuing an Early Access model, and do actual open game development with ongoing community involvement.

One of my biggest regrets about Lost Eidolons was that we didn't do public playtests until after much of the game's design had already been locked-in, and was difficult (or in some cases impossible) to change.

One of the main reasons we did that was because it was a linear, story-driven game, and we consistently got feedback that players didn't want to play an incomplete version of that kind of game. After all, no one wants to read a messy first draft of a novel that spoils the plot.

But as Veil of the Witch is a more gameplay-driven title, I feel a lot more confident sharing early builds, so we can gather and integrate community feedback. If everything goes well, I'd like to launch in Early Access sometime in 2024, but it's likely we'll run some beta tests before then.

Also, as I'm really hoping to release the game on Switch, our team has put a lot of effort into lowering the overall hardware requirements. By the time we hit full release, we're hoping to make the game available on all consoles. (No promises on simultaneous launch, though.)

I'm very excited to finally share our second Lost Eidolons project! We're planning to share more details in regular dev blogs down the line (starting with this one).

I hope you'll join our player community on Discord, where you can chat with us about the game. And don’t forget to wishlist Veil of the Witch on Steam!

See you soon,
Jin Sang Kim
Creative Director, Lost Eidolons

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Character graphics are being designed intentionally anime-esque.

 

[Infinitron]

https://oceandrive.studio/2023/10/20/how-veil-of-the-witch-came-to-be/

How Veil Of The Witch Came To Be​

Hello everyone!

In this dev log, I’d like to discuss the story behind how Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch came to be.

(Please note, this post will contain some spoilers for the first game.)

Fans of Lost Eidolons may recall a mission about halfway through the game. Eden and his friends are nearing the end of their fight against the Empire, and attack the capital city, Leroyaure. But when they arrive, they’re attacked by a strange undead knight, Gustave, under the command of the Prime Minister, Maurin – who later reveals to Eden that the Emperor is deathly ill, and secretly searching for a way to achieve immortality. But we don’t really come back to that in the first game, and there’s a reason why.

Before we began development of the first game, we put together a pretty ambitious history of the entire continent where the story takes place. This included everything from ancient lore, to what’s happening around the time of the game, to what might happen in the future, with lots of little plot-hooks for other games to explore.

One of those stories was about the Emperor’s true fate, and a secret research facility on an island off the coast.

<Gustave from Lost Eidolons, Chapter 15>

While development on Lost Eidolons was going on, we actually had another project set in the same world. Internally, we called it Project UR: a crafting/survival game set on a zombie-infested island, which would pick up where some of these threads in Lost Eidolons left off.

Project UR was ultimately canceled to focus our resources on the main game, but the concept for the setting stuck around, as did a lot of big questions about the world that we knew we wanted to explore in some way. Questions like: What happened to the Emperor? What’s going on with all the zombie stuff? And even more broadly, what exactly are the Eidolons, and how are they shaping the fate of this world?

<Screenshot from the canceled Project UR>

Eventually, these ideas and questions formed into a concept for a new game, which became Veil of the Witch. It’s a dark fantasy story about a new customizable protagonist, Ashe, who journeys to Anareios and becomes caught up in a conspiracy surrounding the remnants of the empire, the Emperor’s search for immortality, and the secrets of the Eidolons (which we get into a bit more directly this time around).

<Male version of Ashe surrounded by zombies>

Like the first game, Veil of the Witch is a strategy RPG, but with even more focus on combat and gameplay. Hades and Slay the Spire were among our inspirations as we outlined the project. Slay the Spire because a few of us played it to hear Clark Aboud’s music, and fell in love with the looping structure and deckbuilding elements. And Hades because we loved the addictive experience of a hack-and-slash roguelite whose story is designed to unfold over time.

Inspired by these games, the core concept of Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch solidified into a strategy RPG with extremely fast battles, streamlined skilltree-style progression, and various elements borrowed from the roguelite/roguelike genre. (I want to be careful throwing that word around too much, as people tend to have a lot of different ideas and expectations when it comes to that genre. But we can get into details about that another time.)

<Same Fireball, just faster>

As we got deeper into planning the game, a lot of other ideas have crept in – some from things we wanted to include in Lost Eidolons, others from different projects we’ve had ideas for. It’s been a lot of fun, and we’re very excited about how the game is shaping up.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this peek behind the scenes! We’ll be back in couple of weeks to talk a little more about the story and the world.



See you soon,

Jin Sang Kim, Creative Director

 

[Infinitron]

https://oceandrive.studio/2023/11/03/bridging-the-stories-of-lost-eidolons-and-veil-of-the-witch/

Bridging The Stories Of Lost Eidolons And Veil Of The Witch​

Howdy friends! I’m Brandon, Lead Narrative Designer at Ocean Drive, and a writer/designer on Veil of the Witch. The Communications team, in their infinite wisdom and mercy, have decided to give Jin Sang a reprieve from writing blog posts so he can focus on actually making the game, which means it’s ya boy’s turn to work a shift in the content mines.

In our last dev log, Jin Sang talked a bit about how the concept for VotW came about, from a studio and business perspective. In this post, I’d like to follow up on that, and talk a bit more about the game’s story — specifically, what relation it has to the previous title, and why we made some of the choices we did when setting out on this project.

Fair warning: if you haven’t finished Lost Eidolons yet, this post will contain major spoilers for that game. So read it at your own peril, cuz I’m writing this on a Friday afternoon, feeling pretty spicy, and I’m sick of being coy.

Here we go!

SPOILER STUFF STARTS HERE, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED​

To talk about the premise of VotW’s story, we should start with a quick recap of the first game, and how this one arises from it.

The first Lost Eidolons is, in my view, structurally a tragedy. It’s a classic tale about a small-town guy with a good heart, who finds himself drawn into a war that sparks a struggle within his own heart.

In the game’s opening hours, the set-up seems pretty straightforward: it’s a righteous struggle for freedom between an underdog (the once-great House Feniche of Benerio) and a brutal imperialist regime (the Ludivictan Empire).

But when the bad guys go down unexpectedly early, the game’s real conflict comes into focus: a chaotic civil war between former allies, with just a whiff of class struggle. And once ancient gods come into the mix, it becomes a battle for one man’s soul that decides the fate of a continent.

I think it’s fair to say that there are a lot of things about Lost Eidolons that the team might do differently today, with the benefit of hindsight. But as a writer who came onto that project a few years into development, this is one of my favorite aspects of the original, and I think one of its most successful elements: it zigs when you expect it to zag, and fully embraces the moral complexities of low fantasy.

So when we decided to embark on Veil of the Witch, one of the first questions we had to settle was: how far after the first game is it set, how connected are the two, and what does the world of Artemesia look like now? Because really, so much of the setting’s future is decided by a single question: Does Eden go on to become a good ruler, or a bad one? Does he break the cycle of morally compromised leaders, and turn Artemesia into a better place? Or does he fall prey to that same cycle, his principles falling by the wayside as he pursues the power to uphold them, in an endless self-destructive spiral?

Tough question! Especially because the original game has multiple endings. It’s no wonder so many RPG series just sidestep the whole issue and time-jump 200 years between games.

I’m a pretty firm believer that every game in a franchise like this needs to be able to stand on its own two legs and tell a satisfying self-contained story, or all that great worldbuilding ceases to be an asset, and instead becomes a weighted blanket that smothers creativity. But you also want to build on previous entries, honoring the experience of existing players, or you run the risk of the world and franchise losing any kind of consistent identity.

This is a bull I expect we’ll have to wrestle for every new game in the series. But for this particular title, we decided to set the story 5 years out from the first: a span of time that lets us play in the same space (and share some characters), while granting enough distance to let us see how the world has changed as a result of Eden and the player’s efforts.

Five years on, Artemesia is a land in the midst of healing and rebuilding. In the capital, Eden and his allies have set up a transitional government with two priorities: getting the continent back on its feet after a devastating war, and establishing safeguards against the kind of corruption that led to that war in the first place. The result is that they’re doing a pretty decent job, but they’re slow to respond to threats, because they’ve got their hands full with a million other things.

So that’s the backdrop we’re playing against.

From there, Veil of the Witch’s story kind of emerges naturally.

There’s a slowly growing antagonistic faction, on the edges of the world. Specifically, a neo-fascist Imperial cult secretly amassing on Anareios, a remote island off the coast, where dire developments can be mistaken for distant rumors. The bad guys are dabbling in dark magic and necromancy. People are going missing. The locals are starting to whisper about shambling figures in the misty countryside, and how dangerous it is to travel certain roads alone.

Our new protagonist (whose name and gender are customizable, but we call Ashe by default) is an unlucky outsider traveling to Anareios on a personal quest. Then their ship hits the rocks, and suddenly they’re stranded on a zombie-infested island where the only way out is through. They’re joined by fellow survivors, some of whom are new faces, and some of whom are returning characters from Lost Eidolons. (And for those who enjoyed the first game, we take some of these characters in wildly new directions that I think you’ll really, really enjoy.)

<Super early look at VotW characters. Can you make out any of them?>

Most of the game’s plot is still shifting ice, but here’s the stuff I can tell you that’s not likely to change.

The hero isn’t quite so earnest this time around. Eden’s sort of a typical fantasy hero; Ashe is more of a cunning antihero, here to do a job, and doing it for their own reasons.

The Eidolons are, let us say, not so lost anymore. As in, you will meet one in the game’s first few hours.

While the setting is still generally low fantasy, we’re playing with the boundaries of that, and infusing a hefty dose of dark fantasy (one of my favorite genres). Lost Eidolons will probably never be the kind of world where heroes teleport between nations or ride dragons into battle. But it might be a world where a traveler willing to venture far enough off the map’s edge can find strange entities in shadowy places to cut fell pacts with. (If you’re a fan of Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, or Ursula Le Guin, I think you’ll feel right at home here.)

It’s a roguelite where you die and restart a lot, and those things aren’t just hand-waved as gameplay contrivances; they’re incorporated directly into the story.

<Another super early look at the defeat screen. It’s not going to look like this when we’re done>

Because of this, the narrative structure borrows from games like Hades, and incorporates a lot of looping elements. Much of the story is told through unlockable flashbacks, random events, and repeating encounters that iteratively offer new dialogue.

We’ve said in a few previous posts that this game won’t be as story-heavy as the first. But I’d like to clarify that point, for bookish dorks like me whose hackles go up when they hear stuff like that.

Veil of the Witch is NOT a story-free zone. It will have plenty of story. Our goal is just to tell that story with a lighter touch, more modern narrative design, and a core loop that’s a little more organically gameplay-driven. Instead of an hour-long battle followed by an hour of cutscenes, now it’s ten minutes of combat followed by a few minutes of talking.

Brisk. Exciting. Dark. Mysterious. Doing more with less.

These are the story and narrative design goals for Veil of the Witch.

At least, if it all works out as planned. But who knows? We’re still pretty early-days on this project, so it could still turn out disastrously! Game development is hard.

 

[Infinitron]

https://oceandrive.studio/2023/11/17/the-fast-paced-combat-in-lost-eidolons-veil-of-the-witch/

The Fast-Paced Combat In Lost Eidolons: Veil Of The Witch​

When we started designing the gameplay experience for Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch, one of the very first things we knew we wanted was a faster pace to combat. If you play Lost Eidolons on harder difficulties or with permadeath on , some battles can take almost an hour. To create a turn-based SRPG with a lot of replayability, while providing a new experience each time, I felt shorter battles must be treated as a core pillar.

Today we’ll be taking a look at several new ways we’re speeding things up in Veil of the Witch, including:

1. Reducing the party size.
2. Shortening the prep time between battles.
3. Shortening combat animations.
4. Scaling down the size of combat maps.

​

Reducing the Party Size​

Lost Eidolons has a massive cast of party members to choose from: you can recruit 25+ characters, and deploy up to 10 of them at a time (or 20, if you include those you set as Aides). That offers its own sort of fun, but comes at a cost: it tends to make battles quite time-consuming.
So for Veil of the Witch, we wanted to try something different. Initially, we set out with the idea of a party size ranging between 3 and 6 characters. Eventually, we settled on 5.

<Current party setup screen where you choose your 5>

To put it another way: 5 was the minimum amount we felt we could get away with, without reducing what makes an SRPG fun.
The biggest challenge with reducing the party-size was how hard it became to utilize the monster weak point system, a battle mechanic in Lost Eidolons that I love. It’s a system that I think encourages the player to fully engage with all of the game’s mechanics, using smart positioning and a variety of weapons and abilities to maximize synergy as efficiently as possible. I felt that if the party size was too small, monster battles would lose that spark (and also just become too hard).
We tried out various options, and eventually found a party size of 5 to be the sweet spot.

<Party of 5 fighting against Hellhoundes>

Reducing the Time Spent Between Battles​

Lost Eidolons has a fairly long preparation phase between battles. You have to manage equipment, classes, skills, and various other little details for at least 10 characters, and sometimes more. For Veil of the Witch, I wanted to cut that down dramatically, so players spend less time staring at menus and more time playing the game.
To reduce the time spent managing characters, we decided each character should have a fixed class, and advance within their own predefined perk tree. We also decided that each class should have a specific set of fixed equipment, to let us design their kit with a more cohesive, intentional feel.
Our goal is to give the player a balanced party of characters with distinct roles that feel unique (rather than basically interchangeable, as they were in Lost Eidolons), while still allowing for some variance in builds and abilities. We then layer additional depth on top of this, with the addition of the new roguelite elements, like unlocking new skills and upgrade cards right there in a middle of a battle.
It’s a direction I’m quite pleased with, as it results in a lot of exciting moments and really interesting synergies between characters. I look forward to sharing more about each individual character and class in future updates.

<Ashe’s skills codex shown as vagabond class>

Shortening Animations​

In addition to reducing the time between battles, we also did our best to reduce unnecessary downtime during battles.
Lost Eidolons featured frequent cinematic finisher animations, where the camera zooms in as a character delivers a particular spell or attack. While fun, these also slow down the pace of the game, and no matter how cool they are, they inevitably lose some charm after the 300th time you see them.
While the first game already provides options for 2x animation speed and skipping enemy turns (both of which will still be available in VotW), those are optional settings, not core changes. We wanted to take things further this time around, and design animations to play out quickly and snappily on the grid map itself.
We still use cinematic shots and effects for specific high-level skills. We’re just doing so more sparingly now – both to speed up the game, and so that when they do show up, they feel all the more exciting.

<A peek of the latest mythic skill’s camera work>

Scaling Down the Maps​

Finally, a major departure from the first game is that the maps in this one are generally a lot smaller.
In Lost Eidolons, the sprawling battlefields were a necessity, because there were so many units running around on both sides, so we needed the ability to space out squads and skirmishes. With this game’s smaller party size, it’s just natural to shrink the levels, so players spend less time on those tedious in-between turns, where all you’re doing is trying to move a parade of party members across a huge empty section of the map.
We’re also reducing enemy numbers and density within each map — opting for shorter, more frequent battles, rather than long multistage ones with a huge number of enemy squads.

<Lost Eidolons map is zoomed out and still takes a bit more to take it in>

I hope fans will approach these new changes with an open mind. Rest assured, we’re not just removing features or reducing complexity for the sake of it. Our goal is to build on what worked in the first game, while streamlining parts where we think we can do better, to create a battle system that feels faster, more dynamic, strategically deeper, and just overall way more fun.
I look forward to sharing more in future updates!

Jin Sang Kim, Creative Director

 

[Infinitron]

https://oceandrive.studio/2023/12/01/localizing-the-world-of-lost-eidolons/

Localizing The World Of Lost Eidolons​

Hello Tacticians,

I’m ODS Roy, Localization Manager at Ocean Drive. Today, I want to talk to you a bit of the Localization Team’s role here at our studio. I’ll give you a brief look into what localization is, how it affects the game, and discuss how our contributions helped to shape Artemesia, the world of Lost Eidolons. Specifically, the names of characters and locations.

What is Localization?

Let’s say you’re on an epic quest to save the world from tyranny. You might not get very far if none of your allies can speak the same language! That’s where localization comes in. Localization is the magic spell that transforms our game from an experience designed for a specific audience, to an experience accessible to players worldwide.

<It may not look it, but loc magic is being whipped up right now>

When most people hear the word localization, if they even know what it means, they tend to just think of translation. And it’s true, that’s a big part of what we do — but it’s also more complicated than that. Localization is about capturing the essence and culture of a game for new audiences, and language is only one piece of that. It’s one thing to translate the content of a joke from Korean to English; it’s another to make that joke actually land effectively and get a laugh.

In many cases, a team developing a game doesn’t fully consider how the choices they make for their own audience will be received by someone who speaks a different language or has a completely different cultural background. Maybe they want a strict character limit on a text box, but haven’t thought about the fact that German tends to be much longer than Japanese. Maybe they haven’t considered how a particular word or name might carry different connotations in their own region than somewhere else, or vice versa.

That’s where localization steps in. We focus on the style and tone of translation, and strive to ensure that the final effect will be the same on a player no matter where they’re from. In an ideal world, when we do our job right, no one can tell the game the game was translated at all. That’s our goal: avoid becoming somebody else’s meme.

<Though this meme speaks the truth, it could’ve been said better>

How Localization Shaped Artemesia

By the time our team first got involved with the original Lost Eidolons, the game had already been in development for over a year. As a result, most of the early high-level concept work was done by Korean developers, with characters and places named based on a Korean team’s judgment of what a fantasy name should sound like in English. As a result, there were a few rough edges. The story was rich and the world had amazing potential, but we felt some aspects of the presentation might detract from the intended tone and experience.

Early on, we had endless questions. Why was this character named this way? Why were these cities named like that? And behind them all, the biggest question: As a player, would this approach make self-evident sense to me? We had characters named things like Ethan, Rancis, Teo, Gary, and even Boromir. We had locations with names like Brendale, Centel, and Loftale. None of these were horrifyingly bad on their own, but we felt that to properly immerse our players into the game’s world, it needed a stronger sense of cohesion. The developers had provided a framework and foundation, and now it was our job to build on it.

One of the first things we looked at was the naming conventions of the world map itself.

<Before Artemisia got a fancy map, there was this MS Paint version in Korean>

We knew fairly early on that we wanted all the voiceovers to use a pretty neutral American English accent across the board, diverging only if it felt right for an individual character. So we knew we wanted to avoid rooting any of Artemesia’s provinces in a 1:1 approximation of real-world cultures (or even worse, stereotypes).

But when it comes to place-names, you sort of can’t avoid linguistics creeping in. A reader’s brain looks for patterns of spelling they recognize. If they don’t find them, or if you mix them too much, everything just sounds slightly off and fake, even if the audience can’t articulate why.

So we went to work.

<And of course an English MS Paint version before we designed the fancy map>

A lot of our efforts focused on nailing down the feel of each region, choosing a linguistic reference base that matched, and then selecting names from that base that had the right feel for the region’s role in the setting.

“Brendale”, the homeland of our hero, inspired by the Italian countryside, became “Benerio”.

“Centel”, the walled capital of the empire, became the more French-sounding “Floriant”.

The Germanic grassland “Grasbia” became “Lamprecht”.

The mediterranean coastal region “Kallion” became “Corsarinda”. And so on.

<The actual fancy map you see in-game>

Building of the World

With the geography itself nailed down, we now had a solid footing to approach the rest of the world.

Like Westeros, Artemesia is a land full of noble houses, each with their own rich history and character. The developers already had a few ideas for these (banners, animal heraldry, etc), so it was up to the Localization Team to combine that info with our new naming conventions and find a happy medium.

For the noble family of Benerio, whose standard was a phoenix and whose role in the story was a fiery rebellion, their original name was House Fenix. We felt that was a little on-the-nose, and also a little too close to Gears of War’s Marcus Fenix. So we opted for “House Feniche” (from the Italian for phoenix, “fenice”, but with a slight spelling tweak to fantasy it up).

For the noble family of Lamprecht, represented by a wolf, we nixed “House Adolph” (a bit weak, and has some unfortunate connotations) and opted for the more regal-sounding “House Sigewulf” (a contracted version of the German for “victorious wolf”).

And so on, and so forth.

Once the family names were in place, we were better positioned to start revisiting character names, ensuring the sound lined up with the developers’ intended impact.

“Ethan” became the more heroic and less anachronistic “Eden”.

“Michelle” became “Marchelle”, to match the French feel of her homeland, Floriant.

“Karen” became “Karin” (because what kind of fantasy world has somebody named Karen running around)?

“Boromir” became “Balastar”, because we thought it sounded cooler, and so we wouldn’t get a letter from the Tolkien estate. (And, funnily enough, led to some problems down the road, because it turns out the hangul for “Balastar” and “ballista” are really similar.)

I could go on for a while.

<Though this line is arguably a very Karen sentiment>

We have many, many tables and lists of these. While it might sound tedious to some, these kinds of finicky, granular considerations about spelling and language are what localization is all about.
Some of our changes were pretty minor, while others were fairly significant and required a lot of discussion. But in the end, we were able to align on a world we felt was cohesive and made sense.

That gave us a good starting point when it came time for the thousand other decisions that go into localizing dialogue. Is this character an educated noble or a hardscrabble commoner? Outgoing or shy? Respectful or cocky? And once those decisions were made for the English translation, we were better equipped to aid localization partners working on the game’s other languages, to ensure that no matter where a player was from, their experience of the game was the same.

How Players Can Help the Localization

There are lots of things to consider when localizing a game, and many different approaches to take. Our team’s philosophy prioritizes inclusivity as the #1 goal. We believe everyone deserves to experience the joys of this hobby, and we strive to make our games available, cohesive, and immersive for anyone who wants to play them.

But at the end of the day, we’re only human, and we depend on player feedback, both to gauge interest and to do our work better in the future.

Want one of our games in a language not yet supported? Speak up!

See an issue with a translation? Shoot us a message on Discord!

Our studio welcomes players into the development process with open arms, and the Localization Team is no exception to that.

On behalf of everyone on the Localization team,
ODS_Roy

 

[Infinitron]

https://oceandrive.studio/2023/12/08/weapons-classes-and-skills-for-depth-of-combat/

Weapons, Classes, And Skills For Depth Of Combat​

In the world of Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch, there are 9 playable characters, each with a unique class. As the game progresses, players can promote their characters twice into more powerful roles.

The 9 character-specific starting classes are Hermit, Initiate, Librarian, Mercenary, Wanderer, Swordsman, Outcast, and Oracle. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at one character, Evie, and explore how the weapon system, classes, and skills have evolved in Veil of the Witch.

Evie’s Party Role​

Evie starts as an Initiate, capable of fulfilling the roles of a healer and combat support, with some supplementary offensive options. She wields a Tome as her main weapon (our new name for light magic spellbooks), and primarily serves as a healer, using spells to restore allies’ health or dispel harmful status effects.

However, she is not limited to healing alone. Evie can also enhance attacks using Light Magic or utilize her secondary set of arms, a sword and shield, to help in combat. As her passive skills progress, she gains new ways to damage enemies and heal allies simultaneously. Upon obtaining the required materials in combat and promoting her at the party’s base camp, she can advance from Initiate to Priestess, and eventually to Lightbringer. Each promotion unlocks three new skills, granting additional options in battle.

Though skills are acquired on a run-by-run basis, classes are persistent. One you unlock a new class, it stays unlocked, and the skills that go with it join the rotation of skills you can choose from any time you level up.

Acquiring Class Skills​

Our current plan is for each character to have a total of around 20 class skills. At the start of the game, each character has two basic skills. As players undertake battles, characters gain experience with every action, and level up right in the middle of battle, whereupon the player will be offered a randomized selection of upgrades. This includes 12 additional skills, as well as higher-tier versions of skills the player has already gained via class promotion.

At various specific levels, players will also be given the option to choose from a randomized selection of stat boost cards. As with many roguelites, if you don’t like the skills offered, you can spend a resource to reroll. This process allows the player to shape the character’s growth and build within a defined spectrum, for each new run.

In Evie’s case, for example, players can choose whether to build her as a highly powerful and specialized healer, or more of a generalized support that can also mix it up with enemies.

Class Skills​

Here’s a look at the skills a character like Evie will be using over the course of the game, and upgrades that can be unlocked for those skills.

Healing Magic:

• Healing Touch:
  Uses the power of Light to heal an ally.
• Hymn of Healing:
  Encompasses one ally in an aura of Light, greatly healing them.
• Binding Healing:
  Heals an ally with the power of light, while also restoring the caster for 70% of the total.
  ○ Can be upgraded to 100%.
• Healing Surge:
  At the start of the turn, if there is at least one ally adjacent, this unit regains up to 20% of max Health (caps at +20).
  ○ Can be upgraded to 30% with a healing cap of +30 HP.

Offensive Magic:

• Radiant Arrow:
  Fires a holy arrow, inflicting Light damage on a single target.
• Holy Ward:
  Calls down the heavens, inflicting Light damage on a single foe. If the target is defeated by this ability, target tile and adjacent tiles become Sanctified ground for 2 turns. All allies standing within a Sanctuary regain +20 Health at the start of the turn.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a 3×3 area.
• Wrath Divine:
  Unleashes a burst of radiant power, inflicting Light damage on an enemy. If the target is a Fallen unit, it has a 50% chance of being destroyed instantly (excluding bosses and monsters).
  ○ Can be upgraded to a 75% chance.

Support Skills:

• Purification:
  Channels the power of Light to cleanse all status effects on an ally, granting +15 Health for each effect removed.
  ○ Can be upgraded to +20.
• Tree of Life:
  Summons the Tree of Life for 2 turns. At the end of the Allied Turn, the Tree inflicts 10 damage on enemies in a 3×3 area. If an ally interacts with the tree, they recover 40 Health, and are cleansed of all harmful status effects.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a version with a 3-turn duration, 15 damage, a 5×5 area, and a +60 heal.
• Sacred Prayer:
  Channels the power of light to cleanse all status effects on the target and allies in a 1 tile radius, granting +15 Health for each effect removed.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a 2-tile radius and a +20 heal.
• Heaven’s Call:
  Teleports a distant ally to an adjacent tile, and gives them +1 Movement for 1 turn.
  ○ Can be upgraded to +2 Movement.
• Divine Protection:
  Surrounds an ally with light, granting Divine Protection for 2 turns. When an incoming attack would reduce a unit with Divine Protection to 0 Health, the damage is negated, and they instead regain 30% of max Health. Effect only triggers once.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a 3-turn duration and a 50% heal.

Other Passive Skills:

• Healing Aura:
  At the start of the turn, if there is at least one ally adjacent, this unit regains up to 20% of max Health (caps at +20).
  ○ Can be upgraded to +30% Health with a cap of +30 HP.
• Tranquility:
  When receiving a critical hit, reduces the final damage taken by 20% and doubles the healing amount of ‘Healing Touch,’ ‘Hymn of Healing,’ ‘Bonded Healing,’ and ‘Wind of Healing’ on the next use.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a 30% damage reduction.
• Radiance:
  When the amount recovered from a healing spell exceeds this unit’s max Health, 50% of the surplus is converted to a Shield as temp HP.
  ○ Can be upgraded to 75%.
• Lightfooted:
  Decreases likelihood of being targeted by the enemy.
• Radiant Rage:
  Holy spells restore 50% of damage inflicted as Health.
  ○ Can be upgraded to 75%.
  ○ As a fun side note, this ability also triggers in response to Tree of Life’s damage-over-time effect, producing a very strong synergy.
• Divine Weapon:
  Imbues an equipped weapon with holy light, increasing physical attack Power by +5. If the target is a Fallen unit, Critical Hit is increased by +20.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a +8 boost and +30 Critical Hit.
• Second Wind:
  Dealing Physical Damage restores 50% of the total to all allies as Health.
  ○ Can be upgraded to 75%.
• Decisive Strike:
  Whenever this unit lands a Critical Hit on an enemy, their next Combat Skill or Spell does not trigger a cooldown.

Anyone who played Lost Eidolons will probably notice immediately that these skills are a lot stronger than they were in the first game, and the upgraded versions are pretty substantial, offering huge boosts in range, utility, and power. This is in line with our general goal in VotW, to make combat faster, more fun, and more dynamic.

Oh, and one more thing to mention: in addition to upgrades mid-combat, skills can also be upgraded by training at campsites throughout the journey. Unlike the first game, which had some dry spots in the character progression, here a substantial stat boost or skill upgrade is always just around the corner.

Enhancement of Equipment and Acquisition of Powerful Equipment Skills​

In Veil of the Witch, characters equip main weapons, secondary weapons, and armor.

As mentioned, Evie uses a tome as her main weapon, a sword and shield as secondary weapons, and wears cloth armor. These items can be upgraded to better versions in the course of gameplay.

During battle, defeating enemies yields special items, including Enhancing Stones of various grades. After the battle, players can attach up to three Enhancing Stones to a specific piece of equipment for party characters, boosting their stats and sometimes unlocking unique skills. Combining these enhancements with class skills allows players to gain a significant advantage over enemies in battles.

Today we discussed two sources of character progression – skills and upgrades. However, there are other progression systems we haven’t even shared yet, including Relics and the Altar of Fire. Our hope is that with all of these richly interlocking systems, players can look forward to a game that’s sleek and streamlined, while still maintaining a high degree of customization and strategic depth.

Jin Sang Kim, Creative Director

 

[Nortar]

Dev Log #6: If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again
Hello Tacticians,

This is Jin Sang Kim, Creative Director of Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch. Today I’d like to answer some common questions about the game, specifically relating to character customization, game structure, and language support.

Character Customization
One unfortunate drawback of how the first Lost Eidolons approached its story was the inability to customize the protagonist, Eden.

While Veil of the Witch won’t offer full character customization, I can confirm players will be able to choose between male and female character models, as well as lighter or darker skin-tones.

Looking ahead to the franchise’s future, I can say that full character customization is a major wish-list item for us, on future projects in the series.

Game Structure
In Lost Eidolons, chapters followed a simple pattern: pre-battle cutscenes, battle, post-battle cutscenes, camp section, repeat. Veil of the Witch makes significant changes to that basic play-loop, bringing in elements of the roguelite genre.

In Veil of the Witch, the player embarks on expeditions from their Base Camp, and undertakes heavily randomized battles and events, punctuated by repeatable story-driven bossfights.




When they’re defeated in battle, the player is returned to their Base Camp, where they can undertake a variety of activities, including promoting characters’ classes, engaging in dialogue between party members, exploring unlockable story content, and unlocking new upgrades at the Altar of Fire.

In terms of character growth, players can expect a mix of temporary and persistent elements. During expeditions, players will come across various items, skills, etc that improve their party’s abilities and stats. When they die, these single-run upgrades are lost. However, they’ll also be gathering various currencies they can spend in camp to unlock persistent upgrades, steadily improving their party’s strength over time.

We look forward to players getting to try out these systems for themselves during Early Access.

Language Support
In terms of language support, we’ve seen various questions and requests for specific languages, so I’d like to clarify where our plans stand at the moment.

During Early Access, we plan to focus on English and Korean. Other languages will be added once the game is a little closer to release, as we believe that’s more efficient and leads to higher-quality localization.

With regards to which specific languages we plan to support, that question is unfortunately still up in the air. Players can expect more information on that at some point down the road, during Early Access.

Jin Sang Kim, Creative Director

 

[Infinitron]

https://oceandrive.studio/2024/01/31/a-hello-from-the-maker-of-artemesia/

A Hello From The Maker Of Artemesia​

Hello, tacticians. My name is Minyoung Lee, AKA Mocha. I’m a developer from Korea who’s been a part of the Lost Eidolons development team from the very beginning. I’m happy to introduce myself to all of you today.

What do I do?

I conceptualize and create content for the world outside of battles, known as the “metagame,” in Lost Eidolons and Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch. This includes quests, training, shops, “rapport”, UI, and more. Additionally, I’ve handled a variety of important tasks such as putting spears in soldiers’ hands, putting horses into the stables, and pasting wanted posters all over the camp. It’s fair to say I’ve have had my hands on pretty much everything players experience outside of battle at least once.

This was made to sound like they actually walk around in the game doing these tasks, hence the caption for the image below

<The horses in our game were very docile, making them easy to move.>
When did I start making games?
I joined the development team in 2018, but before that, I had already created indie games on my own. Starting in 2016, I released several games such as “Charlotte’s Corridor” and “Mistry Fantasia” on the Google Play Store, and some of them garnered a considerable number of downloads. Though they might not have the greatest art, UX, or writing, those projects taught me that with enough creativity and perseverance, someone who will appreciate your work – a valuable lesson for any young creative person.
As I grew more experienced, I wanted to create more ambitious, high-quality games. So I used the work I’d done as a portfolio and joined a larger studio, where I was tasked with conceptualizing how to present our game world.

<Powerpoint slides of old reference art for Lost Eidolons. As you can see, the finished game wound up with a much different vibe.>
What games do I enjoy as a player?
Glancing through my Steam data, it seems I spend most of my time on strategy and simulation games. I was particularly devoted to RimWorld, spending close to 1,000 hours constructing settlements and experiencing both joy and frustration. I’ve also cleared all achievements in Slay the Spire, achieving Ascension 20, and I’m a huge fan of titles like Sid Meier’s Civilization and the Danganronpa series.
Outside of PC, I’m also a fan of anime-style games. At the moment, I’m playing a lot of Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail (and spending a little too much money to unlock characters), to add some spice to my life.

<It was fun and not all that difficult.>
Thoughts on Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch
The Lost Eidolons series is very important to my story as a game developer. They’re the first games I’ve been involved with from inception to release as part of a larger team, and to say I’ve learned a lot would be an understatement. My goal moving forward is to improve my skills in everything I work on, including metagame content, UI/UX, character art, and more. With Veil of the Witch, I believe we can streamline what made the first game fun, eliminate things players found tedious, and in so doing, create a game that connects with players more deeply .
What games do I dream of making?
To me, an enjoyable game is one with an immersive world. I appreciate games where the characters aren’t simply there, but are integral parts of the setting. Players’ imaginations are often richer than developers’, and I love settings that leave room to imagine what might live in the margins.
To create worlds like that, you don’t necessarily need massive amounts of text or complex systems like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Disco Elysium. Games like VA-11 HALL-A and Papers, Please are great examples, and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim plays in a similar space, while taking it further with amazing presentation and art. I’d like to create a world that captures the imagination that way. Beyond that, questions like genre or IP don’t concern me as much; it could be a sequel to Lost Eidolons or something entirely new.

<A game I love, with an immersive world, compelling storyline, and captivating characters.>
Parting thoughts
Now that we’ve gotten to know one another a little better, I hope you’ll come back and read by dev blog, where I’ll share more about the metagame and overall flow in Veil of the Witch. Specifically, I’ll be talking about how the camp system in Lost Eidolons came to be, and how we’re changing things up this time around.
Stay tuned!
Minyoung/Mocha

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2530490/view/7356139324023741561

Sign Up for Closed Beta

Tacticians,

The battle against the mysterious evil befalling the island of Anareios inches closer.
Sign up now for Closed Beta and be among the first to brave the winding road riddled with the Fallen and the choices you must make to survive.

How to sign up:
1. Go to Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch page
2. Click on the green “Request Access” button.

Closed Beta schedule is coming soon, follow or wishlist on Steam or any of the social sites below to be notified when the announcement is made.

-
ODS Team

 

[notpl]

Character graphics are being designed intentionally anime-esque.

Oh no, anime in a korean clone of a jrpg? Say it ain't so!

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Character graphics are being designed intentionally anime-esque.

Oh no, anime in a korean clone of a jrpg? Say it ain't so!

Lost Eidolons' character art was far more realistic than this game's character art:

Which the developers themselves acknowledge in the article: "Oh, and we've taken the art direction for characters and UI in a completely new direction. I personally love how this game looks, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it soon."

 

[notpl]

Character graphics are being designed intentionally anime-esque.

Oh no, anime in a korean clone of a jrpg? Say it ain't so!

Lost Eidolons' character art was far more realistic than this game's character art:

Which the developers themselves acknowledge in the article: "Oh, and we've taken the art direction for characters and UI in a completely new direction. I personally love how this game looks, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it soon."

Yes, it was quite bland. They've made the art better but judging by that character breakdown posted earlier they've done nothing to change the braindead dull character advancement.

 

[luj1]

This game looks absolutely generic and uses a square grid for combat. Also that try mobile UI. Yawn.