Demon Lands - Devlog 3

Hey everyone, and welcome to March! I think I will be making these posts once per month, near the beginning, to give you something to look forward to regularly :3

As you may have seen, I am making as much progress as I can with the art for the game in terms of sketches! Once I have the sketch done for every image set, I will be compiling a "Private Testing" build for bug testing purposes, to gather as much feedback as possible while working on colouring the scenes.

While I keep working on the art, I figured I would try and keep you all entertained with some more info on the game! This Dev Log I thought I would detail the combat system a lot more, to give you a sense of what the gameplay will be like outside of the story and lewd scenes!

Turn Order and Energy

Every fight begins with the player's turn first. The player has a fixed amount of "Energy" to spend each turn (visible in the bottom-right of the screen), and can make as many actions as they like during their turn provided they have enough energy to do so.

Different attacks and skills cost different amounts of energy, so the player often has to choose between using a single high-energy attack or multiple low-energy attacks.

Relics and Skills

Rather than unlocking new skills from leveling up as with traditional RPGs, in The Demon Lands, you gain access to new skills through Relics.

Relics are items that can be equipped outside of combat. The amount you can equip depends on how many Relic Points (RP) you have, which increases every time you level. Each Relic costs a specific amount of RP to equip, with more powerful Relics requiring more RP. When you unequip the Relic, the RP cost is refunded, so you can swap out Relics at any time to try different skill load-outs. You can see the amount of RP a Relic requires in its description.

Relics not only unlock new skills and attacks in combat but can also provide passive benefits and abilities. For example, the "Thousand Cuts" Relic automatically counter-attacks any enemy for 1 damage every time you receive damage, which is particularly effective against enemies who attack multiple times. This ability is passive and always active provided you have the Relic equipped.

The real power from Relics comes from the fact that many of them stack. For example, if you equip 5 Thousand Cuts Relics (which would require 5 RP), you'll instead deal 5 damage every time an enemy attacks you. This system allows you to experiment with lots of different load-outs, and find one which is effective against each unique enemy.

Bondage and Statuses

Like most RPGs, several statuses can be applied to the player during combat. Whenever you see an icon for a status, you can hover your mouse over it to see more information about it.

The most common status Lucas will find himself in is bondage. Bondage comes in two increasingly-strong forms: Restrained, and Immobilized. Immobilized is a stronger version of Restrained, and usually requires Lucas to be Restrained before enemies can apply it. Restrained prevents Lucas from using non-attack skills, whereas Immobilized prevents all actions except for struggling.

When Lucas is bound in either of these states, he can spend energy to struggle to break free with a random chance of success. Although slim, this does mean that there's a slight chance you can be unlucky and fail to break free from bondage. Though in the vast majority of cases strategy will prevail, this slight chance makes any fight feel riskier, and makes the scenes with Lucas being defeated a lot more fun!

(WIP Enemy)

Most enemies gain access to stronger attacks when Lucas is bound. This means you have to make a conscious choice whether to attack now or struggle to prevent harsher attacks later on.

Some enemies have access to instant-kill attacks when Lucas is Immobilized. This is often very dangerous, as Immobilized is harder to struggle free from. For enemies like these, it is often best to not let yourself get Immobilized in the first place, as it's very hard to break free!

In addition to bondage, there are plenty of other statuses you will encounter. A lot of enemies win by applying the statuses rather than attacking Lucas directly. A common example is Hypnosis, which some enemies apply through various means and can result in an instant defeat if too many stacks of the status build up.

Intentions

During your turn, you can see what the enemy intends to do on theirs by looking at their "Intention". The floating symbol above their head tells you what type of action they will take, and the number specifies more information about it.

The red attack icon shows that the enemy will attack for the specified amount of damage on their turn.

The orange buff icon shows that the enemy will apply a specified number of buffs to themselves on their turn.

The purple debuff icon shows that the enemy will apply a specified number of debuffs to the player on their turn, often the Restrained or Immobilized statuses.

Intentions can change depending on the actions the player makes during their turn, so it's important to strategize with this in mind! For example, if the player breaks free from the Restrained status, the enemy may change to attacking rather than trying to apply Immobilized.

Enemy Log and Refighting

As mentioned in a previous Dev Log, the enemies in The Demon Lands are unique, meaning you fight them only once. When you defeat an enemy, you unlock their entry in the Demon Log, which you can read for more lewd details about them!

However, should you wish, you can re-fight enemies using a special machine in the Paladin Outpost. Re-fighting enemies will not reward XP, so you will not progress or get stronger, but it will reward gold. This can be a fun way to re-experience the fights you particularly enjoyed or to try out new Relic load-outs, as well as being a renewable source of gold so you can buy things at the shops.

Postface

I hope you enjoyed reading! I will be continuing to draw the sketches for every scene and enemy in the game this month! I am about halfway through, so I am expecting that to take a few more months. Once that's done, I will be shifting focus to colouring them all, and will likely create a Private Testing Build to gather really-early feedback!

That's all for now, I hope y'all enjoy the rest of March and the sketches that will be coming along :3