Veneficus Arcanum, a Try Project (Working Grounds).

[ShadowHunter]

Great but on the second image you misspelled richeousness but I know it can be hard to spell

A bit hypocritical there, don't you think?
MM spelled it correctly. Just pointing that out.

Edit: dualer ninja but you get the point

oh :facepalm:

[Armored Entity]

Well I really need to ask some of you for a favor. This is currently the biggest thing that's holding me back on this try project.

I need your help with.
Backgrounds


The backgrounds I need for this are going to be somewhat abstract-y and surrealistic looking, and each one will be styled to fit the Youkai's theme. Most of the Backgrounds will have a unique style to them, like a cutouts, or paper-mache'ish, or 80's drawing, or something along those lines. It helps give to that magic otherworldly feel, kinda like it does in Kingdom Hearts and Hellsinker in ways. Unfortunately though, I am not too skilled with this sort of BG, and I need some serious help. It won't really give the feel I'm aiming for in this otherwise.
Some of the Backgrounds I might need to use layering (which I know how to code in a BG), so that might be useful too. Like make them 2 or 3 separate images that move across each other.
Oh and another thing. The backgrounds are going to scroll down, so they have to be images that repeat without any visible creases in them.


If anyone here can help me make the backgrounds, let me know.
Here's what I need for each stage.

Stage 1 BG: This one I am intending to be a surrealistic crystal-filled cavern. Alexmdle actually partially helped with it, but its still in progress and unfortunately needs a bit of work. I also planned for the crystals and rocks in it to have sort of a cutouts-style look to them. The BG here might somewhat remind you of the style used in Kirby's Epic Yarn (if that's a good way to describe it). Can't really find a good pic to show and example unfortunately.

Stage 2 BG: Basically, this one consists of a flat regal-ish looking bottom layer, and the second/third layer consists of lots of abstract-ish designs everywhere, many of them being music-related things such as a music staff with notes and stuff on them, random clefts/notes/rests etc, and a few other things.

The background here should look similar to these, except that the random objects seen in them should be various music-related things of that sort such as notes and staffs and music writing. Maybe a few other small non-music objects too though, just to give it detail, but similar look to those BG's I showed, and of course, repeating.

Stage 3 BG: This one will sort of be a surrealistic forest, the bottom layer being this repeating pattern, and the second/third layer having various trees and bushes and flowers.

It should look very much like this, but with much more plant-life decorating it and the plants actually looking healthy and alive, but in a similar art style. Maybe different colors though. The bottom layer should be a repeating pattern like the rest of it though.

Stage 4 BG: This one will have 3 layers to it. First one will be a dark, other-dimension-looking scenery of some sort, but still with that style. Second layer will consist of random objects drawn in an another abstract-ish manner. Third will simply be transparent gray fog clouds that float overtop (the fog clouds I bet I can make though, but not the others). I saw in try coding that you can make part of a BG look transparent, while leaving the rest solid, which I will do for this.

The Background here should kinda look like a combination of these two BG's, but darker. The objects in the second layer should be like the ones in that first pic, except leave out the trees, chains, butterflies, and barbed wire. Things similar to those wierd windows, fences, and stuff should work, though not exactly the same (maybe different looking ones). Also the bottom layer should be some sort of thing like in the second image (that wierd dark dimension thing), but with darker colors. I really suggest doing them in separate pics. If you can do them, I bet I can layer them in the coding and see how it turns out.

Stage 5 BG: Already have this one done.

Stage 6 BG: Already have this one done, thankfully.

True Last Boss's BG: Already have this one done. I'm keeping this one a secret though.


Please help. This is pretty much the biggest obstacle I am having with this, and I doubt I can do this part all on my own.

[Aquamancia]

So I decided to review the player weapons because I am bored and have nothing better to do.

Player Weapon 1 - Naruyaka
This one isn't too bad, except for the size of the rifles. As options, they're a bit too large to even be considered as such. However, having your options stay in one place is good for handing multiple waves of enemies at once. As for the bomb, I have very mixed feelings about it. The actual damage output from the shot is a disappointment because it's supposed to hit hard, but instead does next to nothing. The soll diffusers could be useful in a difficult situation, but once more gets released I might end up making my decision on how useful they really are.

Player Weapon 2 - Kiragi
Two words: Fossil Maiden. (Then again, this is already mentioned in the original post. Just restating it here.)
With that aside, the non-boost weapon provides good coverage and not much else. The boost weapon provides a significant increase in power with the downside of having to get closer to deal damage (which is obvious to those that have played Hellsinker). The bomb here is kind of simple to use: go up to boss, use bomb, and laugh as it gets rendered useless for a few seconds (not that I have anything against that). Not much else I can say here.

Player Weapon 3 - Sayuto
Good coverage for both boosting and not boosting. Same goes for the bomb. This one was more than likely built for a wide range of fire and not much else. That's all I have to say about that.

Player Weapon 4 - Myomi
This one has a decent balance in ranges, especially when the Gradius options are used. I find this one to be really flexible in this regard as you can clump all the options together for good firepower or spread them out to deal with multiple enemies. The orbiting options are nothing special. The bomb isn't too special, but it gets the job done.

Well there's my somewhat poorly thought-out review. Hope it helps.

[Armored Entity]

Glad to see someone reviewed them. Also I didn't find yours to be very poorly done.

Responding to Aqua's review, and asking how I should change them.

Naryuka: Well the rifles are supposed to be like that. Naryuka's more of a magic gunslinger type character, and stuff. I see that they work right. And yes the way they can be put stationary was what I was trying for.
As for his bomb, you said it does too little damage. Well its shot is actually 5 clustered together player bullets that do 400 damage each for a total of 2,000 damage. I put it on 5 different ones as for I found out putting all the damage on one player bullet also increased the size of the player bullet too much, which I don't want. I wanted it to be strong, but not overpowered, and I personally consider it overpowered if it could deplete like 25% or so of a boss's health in one shot. Not even the bombs in Ketsui and Dodonpachi do that much damage
I guess I must've miscalculated though. How much total damage do you think his bomb should inflict to make it good? I want it to be right.


Kiragi: Exactly what I was aiming for with her. Her's is basically fossil maiden, and I thought the aiming shot of Niri would be good for her. I did make the magic spears strong, but close ranged as for that would obviously be more risky since you are more likely to be hit when up close.
However, you said the bomb was not very useful. What was wrong with it? I thought the Sol diffuser was good in it for blocking enemy shots. Also was it not doing enough damage? The blasters inside it do 25 damage each, and there's 12 of them for a combined total of 300 damage, and it lasts to hit multiple times for roughly 3,000 or so damage total after it stops. Also I found that it does more damage when the enemy is closer to the center, but is that a problem?
Do any of you have any better ideas of making this bomb attack cause damage? I want it to actually be useful. Also how much damage do you think it should do per hit, how long it should last, and the total after it ends?

For Reference, I based Kiragi's Bomb attack off the bomb attack used in this game, XII Stag. The video above shows how its supposed to work. It's kinda a more stationary bomb attack that's more defensive, but can do good damage when used right. Am I not doing it correctly, and if I am not, how do you suggest I should fix it?


Sayuto: I see that you think this one is good already. Yes, Sayuto's supposed to be for a larger range of fire and stuff.


Myomi: I am glad you found this one to be more flexible, which I wanted. However, you said that the orbiting option formation is nothing special. Do you have any better ideas on what they should do in that formation instead?
And yes, that's what I intended for her Bomb attack to do.



Also, I've decided to work on making more full-bodied artworks of the characters. These will display in the Character select menu when you roll your mouse over the button to select them, as well as it will display a message about the character's player weapons and stuff. I'll post them once they are done.


EDIT: I have decided that there will be 3 different difficulty levels, and I won't do 4. The Difficulty levels will be called "Apprentice" (easy), "Mage" (Normal), and "Master" (Hard).

And some more I have for this

-A magic circle that I am going to use for the emblem. The runes in the big circles spell out the word POWER when read clockwise starting from the top-left one.

-A font of Runes that Garo designed for me. I plan to implement them into the try at times, followed by them being changed to the english-font shortly afterwards so you can read them.

Also there's something I am going to add to this try project. In a manner similar to Ketsui, when you destroy a Youkai's familiar, it gives you more points if you destroyed the Familiar at close-range, and less points if you destroyed it at long range, to award you for taking risks like this. Concept also told me that I can achieve this by making an event for when the part is destroyed and the player distance is at a certain range limit. This I think I could do, however, I am now going to have to completely redesign all the familiars I have done so far so that they do this.