Hello one and hello all, first off, thank you all for coming to see my thread. Most of you see the thread title and might wondering why it says "Final" up there. Well, it's nothing but good news for those of you who are looking forward to it, and bad news for whichever hack moderator is going to be forced to pick this up and moderate it, because the hack is basically getting close to completion. Does that mean it is ready for release? Not really, there's still about four levels left to make which to me is still a lot of work that has to be done, as well as implementation of various other things, and finally the polishing phase which is where I will iron out any bugs I know of and create new ones in the process, beta testing, all of that good stuff. But anyways, let's get to the meat and potatoes of this post, and that is CoNtEnT!
First, let's get to everybody's favorite thing to see.
These are just four of the many, MANY bosses that are in this hack. The main thing that is of concern is NO MORE NOOB BOSSES! Many people familiar with the Devious Four Chronicles would know of the egregious use of the infamous Noob Boss. While I do my best to make sure that boss encounters were as unique as possible, there is still only so much one can do with the Ultimate Noob Boss, and still, I am thankful for that sprite having existed.
I spent many a night sacrificing sleep and my sanity to rewrite all the bosses in this hack, save for one in particular, to no longer use the ever familiar Noob Boss, they are now their own independent experiences and I have to say, while some have ended up not as difficult as the original iteration, it makes for a more fun experience as bosses are now much more readable, and in the case a certain two characters, much more expressive. Don't worry, there's plenty of boss fights for boss enthusiasts, so this hack basically has everything: bosses, long levels, secrets, story. Boss fights are, in my opinion, more memorable than ever. The levels are long and extremely detailed, full of intuitive and reimagined level design from the original hack, and each level filled with secrets. Plenty of new levels as well so that those who played the original Crater recently are encouraged to play ReTold when it eventually releases. Some of the secrets lead to entirely brand new areas, so you're incentivized to explore. You never know what you might find, some secrets might help you out with that health bar up there...
Anyways, there's not really much left to show off that I can freely show off that I either:
- A, haven't shown off before
- B, don't want to because spoilers...
Nobody really likes a ton of spoilers, so instead, the only thing I could really think of was the work I did on the introduction level of the hack. Every story needs a compelling introduction, it's what sets the stage, creates the basis of the conflict, introduces you to some important details. You know, the works. So here we go.
You find yourself in control of the character called "Raven", who is a young "Sorceror" in the elite space security force called the AGST, or Advanced Galactic Security Team. Your enemy is the space pirate syndicate known as Hamal.(name shamelessly stolen from a visual novel, no I not share it because I don't want kids looking up the source material.) Your job is to stop them, pretty simple. Hamal's forces have been found in the remote stat system of Watchman, on a planet called Hades, your team is dispatched there to find them.
Your team clears the way forward using their special skills, the green haired Sorcerer, Sumire, being a demolitions specialist. You fight off some nasty mechanical guards no doubt stolen from another source, and also fight some Hamal soldiers who are to be reckoned with.
Having encountered a villainous specialist of their own, you do battle with the demon called Saya. (Those who know, you know.) Having defeated her, she's taken into custody where your captain questions her.
I didn't record the whole conversation, but the gist is that Hamal is here on recon as well; their own Science departments have their eye on Watchman system due to it being a closed system, Planet Hades in particular being a dead planet. They wanted to make a secret base here out of the watchful eyes of the AGST and other organizations, but apparently somebody else beat them to it. On the planet, the building that you're in, is a large machine they believe is a Core Bore, which to be explained simply is a large miner that drills out the cores of planets and extracts that sweet, sweet Core Metal. It wasn't built by Hamal as your team originally suspects, it belongs to somebody else. Not being able to get any more answers, your team decides to rest for the night... until some kind of quake wakes you up.
Retracing your steps, you make your way back to the large machine and inside, you find everything is different. The soldiers and machines you've defeated are gone, the way down is closed and finally, you encounter something that not familiar, not anthro, not... us.
You travel into another room and find the other specialist you encountered before now hiding, she's terrified. You talk to her only to find out that another dropship landed. Hamal expected reinforcements to fight back your squad of elites only to find it was not reinforcements, but a third party not involved with either the Galactic Society or the Space Pirate Syndicate Hamal. The pirate specialist believes these new bug-like aliens to have arrived are the people who built this place, they have free reign over the doors and equipment. They didn't kill her crew or any of the criminals, no, they took them alive, back to wherever they came from. One can guess they don't care much for finding everybody as they're not concerned about the specialist hiding, their goal is different, but that doesn't concern you. The only thing on your mind now is destroying the device now that we are certain it is a Core Bore.
You make your way through the machine going deeper and deeper, and before long, you run into one of the aliens you first saw. He looks tough, but perhaps he won't be that hard to take down...
Quite, this beast was tough as nails and packed plenty of powerful firepower. You're not sure what exactly he wanted given he was in no talking mood. These aliens apparently discriminate heavily against anything that has to eat and breathes oxygen to survive. You move forwards and before long, find the core of the machine. Your team's computers specialist, Elis, installs a virus into the system to send the core into a critical state. The Hamal specialist has also determined that destroying the Core Bore will render the planet unstable, it will go with once the device is destroyed. After the virus is installed, the Core immediately begins to destablize, but before you can run away, you encounter the other alien, the golden one. He is willing to share words with you, he has already figured out what you have done, and decides it is best to stall you, keep you around long enough so the blast can take your team out with the planet. Another tough enemy is ahead.
You defeat the drone, but right then, an alarm sounds, the machine is now going critical, it is time to run. However...
You feel a disturbing presence as you move forward. Something bothers you, but there is no time to worry about that. Your only goal is to get off before everything goes bright. By some miracle, you're able to find a way up, and then you see your ship!
You've made it off of the planet, not only did you stop Hamal's operations, rescue one of their tech specialists who will now be willing to spill some secrets, you also destroyed one of the universe's most illegal machines, a Core Bore. All in a day's work for an AGST Sorceror. As for the aftermath...
From this point on, you take command of the demolitions specialist from earlier, Sumire. Well, it's a pretty nice space station. You just destroyed a very large and probably pretty expensive large piece of machinery built by some aliens that nobody knew existed, also destroyed what might have been their planet. Surely nothing will happen right? Right?
Anybody else looking forward to this as much as I am? I really, truly can't wait to get this in everybody's hands. Just got to make sure I iron out everything I can and do polishing where I want and need to. It's been a long four years working on this hack, but I definitely do not intend on going five. So just wait a little longer, I'm hoping to have this out and completed before the next C3, but as always, we'll have to wait and see what happens. Thanks for stopping by and hope that you all enjoyed it. As a parting gift, I think I'll leave you with a collection of the screenshots from the previous two threads, because why not?
As last time, there is a userbar you all can use if you want to show your support for the project in your signature. It's the exact same as last thread, so no real differences.
Code
https://bin.smwcentral.net/u/1055/UserBarThinner.png
The animated gifs have a very cinematic feel to it and the overall artstyle and approach is quite a thing.
