27 Sep Mechanics Mondays #4
CAMPAIGN UPDATES
Our final Mechanics Monday. You’ve seen core systems, mini-games, customizations… A JRPG fan’s dream. But even though this is our last Monday of the campaign, we have a big, big week planned for you. As we’ve stated throughout the campaign, this is ultimately a big test of whether people still want JRPGs these days. The more this campaign raises, the more content we can create – the better the game. Nothing left on the cutting room floor. To that end, we are introducing a few vanity items as options. These are largely for people who can support us with one last push. As always, we want you to crowdfund responsibly, so only pledge as much as you feel comfortable.
Stretch Goals
We are on the last leg of the campaign so we are previewing an additional stretch goal so you can see further ahead! Some amazing things are coming up, so hopefully our last push will be a strong one!
Stretch Goal #9 – CLEARED!
Collecting Lottery Tickets
This will add a mini-game in which players can use the Psycho Sigil to engage in a lottery for the chance to win rare items. The more you miss, the more new challenges and handicaps you’ll unlock! Additionally, handing over 30 of the pocket tissues you receive as a consolation prize to a certain character in a bathroom will net you an extremely rare item!
“Hey, why not give your luck a try? Oh, and don’t fret if Lady Luck doesn’t happen to be on your side today… Search hard enough, and I’m sure you’ll find someone who really needs all those pocket tissues you get as a consolation prize! Just remember to be generous when you find them, and I’m sure you’ll get the thanks you deserve!”
Stretch Goal #10 – CLEARED!
In Pursuit of Magical Radiance: Jewel Alchemy
This will give players the ability to collect rare jewels in events and dungeons which Emilia will use to power herself up through her jewel alchemy.
“Beautiful, dazzling jewels exist all over the world… Gather them, hone them through the forbidden arts of alchemy, and they will serve as powerful reactors to supply you with energy. The light that radiates from your heart is a very special one, Emilia…for it has the power to instantly snuff out the light of thousands of other lives.”
(102,550,000 yen) Stretch Goal #11 – CLEARED!
Ryōunkaku Citadel Training Grounds (Pit Fights)
This mode will allow players to summon and spar with monsters they’ve fought in the past. By completing special conditions set for each difficulty, players will be able to unlock more powerful monsters to fight and rarer rewards to earn.
“Within the Ryōunkaku Citadel, we study the ecology of the creatures and violent criminals who populate the otherworld. You agents of the BOI seem to be quite powerful, which means you would be perfect candidates to help us extract some more valuable data… Just think of it as a way to further train yourselves. Now then… Ready to summon some creatures?”
105,000,000 yen
Stepping Right into the Danger Zone (Pedometer)
This will add a system to the game in which players receive rewards based on how many steps they take within the game’s dangerous, monster-filled dungeons.
“Matthew, I’m sensing some rather threatening maliferous auras up ahead… Should we go around or try to break through them? Make a decision, please.”
107,500,000 yen
Secret BOI Activity Records
This mode will allow players to view files on various data collected throughout the game, such as number of battles, the number of times and percentages for characters going mad, the number of times characters have collapsed, the number of times a player’s fled a battle, the percentage of successfully completed or perfected Psycho Sigils, the amount of distance traveled, and so forth. Rankings for each score will also be available, awarding players with monster titles based on their progress.
“Alright, Matthew, open those ears of yours and listen up! All of these files here contain quantified evidence of just how much we’ve been changing the world for the better! HIGHLY important data that can tell us all sorts of things if properly analyzed.. .Hey, are you even listening…? Excuse me?! I didn’t cause all that collateral damage because I WANTED to!”
110,000,000 yen
The Golden Age of Jazz
This will add a musical mini-game where Roxanne, the vampiric songstress sings jazz at a luxurious jazz club in NYC. Every time you clear a new song, she’ll acquire a powerful new ability.
“Hey, Matthew, busy tonight? Don’t look at me like that, it’s not about work… You’ve been to the Apricot Club in Harlem, haven’t you? Rumor has it they’ve got one heck of a beautiful singer working there… Some say she’s got a voice that’s out of this world. Well, whaddya say? First drink’s on me!”
???
HINT: Creeping Horrors
???
HINT: Thompson Reports: Aftermath
120,000,000 yen
Punishment Squad: The Hellhounders
This will add a mode to the game where players can play through a story as the Hellhounders, the international terrorist organization that becomes the nemesis of Matthew and the BOI in the main story.
“There are certain things that only we’re capable of… And we won’t ever let the BOI’s little errand boy stop us, no matter how hard he tries. Something must be done about all the injustice and inequality that fills this sad world…”
COMBO GOALS
It was a great couple of days which allowed us to SMASH the Combo goal and unlock card games with ornate card backs using the same “High Noon, Full Moon” design shown all over the Kickstarter page and used in the key chain. Now let’s talk about the next goal!
Finally some juicy cross-overs! Completing the 300,000,000 yen goal will allow for an Armed Fantasia weapon to be used in Penny Blood and Penny Blood costumes to be used in Armed Fantasia! The amount and how this will work is still to be determined but now we are really mixing these games up!
The hint for our next Combo Goal is “Friends R Us” and it’s one we are particularly excited for. We may not get there but we can certainly dream. It’s set at the 350,000,000 yen mark.
Community Game
We were unable to defeat the monsters last week and lost out on some merchandise upgrades. Still though it was impressive to see the community work together and come so close. This week will be even more challenging. We’ll need to clear all four of the initial attack goals to defeat the monster. Hopefully an influx of last minute backers can help! We’ve slid in a Twitter follower goal for the indie Roadout campaign we did a call-out for last week. You can find their twitter here.
Also, we really need to get that special attack, please retweet out the following Twitter post! Both Retweets to the English and Japanese post count!
Closing Stream and the GOLDEN TICKET backer concert!
This has been a long campaign. Most typical game release cycles allow for the teams to create assets over the span of 1-2 years before announcing a game. But a Kickstarter takes that entire timeline and compacts it down to a few months. It’s a lot of work in a short amount of time. But thanks to all the backers, dreams were fulfilled, stretch goals added, and amazing collaborations have happened. To that end, as a way of saying thanks to our backers who took a chance on us, we are holding a closing stream to celebrate. But that’s not all. We are also holding a backer only concert on the day after the campaign is over. We call this the “Golden Ticket” concert as it’s something we are specially putting on for backers who have helped us along the way.
The closing stream which anyone can view will be on September 30th at 8AM EST/4AM PST. We know, we know. The timing isn’t great for our Western backers but Kickstarter doesn’t allow you to set closing times down to a different hour other than the start point. We started at 12:50PM EST/9:50AM PST so that’s our finish line. The closing stream will have all of the core creators together, some amazing mini-games, Machida memes, and even new music announced by Armed Fantasia’s sound team Elements Garden. It’s also the only time you’ll get a chance to purchase the signed “Composer’s Dream” CD. (See below for details)
The backer-exclusive GOLDEN TICKET concert taking place on October 1st at 3AM EST/6AM PST will feature live performances from Hirota-san, EBP’s Okamiya-san, and Kaida-san as well as a surprise guest Shoji Meguro-san. There will be interviews with a few special guests who will be contributing on the Composer’s Dream CD as well as helping with Penny Blood’s soundtrack. We’ll be announcing them on Wednesday. We’ll even have a few pretty famous developers on other titles come join us and participate in the fun. This golden ticket concert will be gated behind a backer-only update so that only backers can participate. We want to celebrate the people who helped us get here first and foremost.
CONTENT UPDATES
New Fusion Monster
Creidina, the Radiant Knight
Matthew’s light-elemental fusion monster. It represents the compassion and arrogance that lurks deep within his heart.
Shrouded in a beautiful curtain of light, Creidina floats in mid-air and commands the sentient sword of light known as Chloive Solais.
Chloive Solais rampages as it pleases, immolating all it skewers with radiant fire before banishing them to the flames of purgatory.
All the dead who are blinded by Creidina’s radiant light cower and cry out, pleading for darkness.
Dog Races
As Penny Blood takes place in the 1920s, I naturally wanted to incorporate customs and culture from the era into the game, such as how the underground worked during Prohibition America, which gangsters were popular among the people, speakeasies, illegal gambling halls filled with roused-up gamblers… The ideas never stop coming, and the concept of a dog race mini-game was one of them.
Dog races were also called greyhound races. The competition was born in the UK in 1876, then spread to places like America and Macau. By 1923, America had become the center for dog racing, so I really wanted to include them in this game. The idea also goes perfectly with one member of the cast, so I thought it’d be a great way to give him a chance to really shine on his own.
In dog races, dogs chase a mechanical bunny around a 400 meter track while spectators bet on which order the dogs will come in. Some forms of betting include simply betting on who will come in first, betting on who will come in first and second, and betting on who will come in first, second, and third.
In the dog racing mini-game, players will be able to bet on their favorite racers to win some extra cash. Additionally, there will be the rare occasion when a young little wolf decides to enter the competition himself, and players will be able to control him on his race to the finish. I hope you’re all excited to take a peek at the pulse-pounding world of dog racing in the 1920s!
New Location
Golgotha Asylum Underpass
At the behest of Director Burns from the BOI, Matthew rushes over to Golgotha Asylum. The asylum building itself is an old monastery built out of stone, with an underpass that was built decades ago…
Within it lies a rundown underground facility that was once used to secretly execute communists and political prisoners that had been admitted into the hospital and dump them outside.
Deep within this stage of bloodstained evil lurks the Motofuji core, which Matthew sets out to destroy all on his own.
Thompson Report #04: Jewel Alchemy
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Miss Thompson. You may remove your blindfold now.”
“Thank you kindly.”
“Welcome to the headquarters of the BOI’s special task force. I’m Emilia Dawson.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Agent Dawson. Your thoroughness in your confidentiality says a great deal about how professional you must be. My shoulders are a tad stiff, given how tight the handcuffs were… Oh, but I’ll be fine, don’t you worry. One ought to be tough if they’re to work in journalism, I find.”
“This location must be kept secret, you understand. Truth be told, I should have declined your request for an interview right from the start.”
“Well, let me start by thanking you for the opportunity. My, this is quite the unsettling room. If I didn’t know better, I’d say we were in the lab of a mad scientist, or perhaps a hideout for cultists researching black magic rituals. Quite the peculiar mixture of the scientific and the magical.”
“Unsettling? This is my laboratory. I perform my jewel alchemy here.”
“Jewel alchemy?”
“Bijou Alchimie – a special alchemic process used to create a type of stone known as lapis de haeresis… Right, I see you’re struggling to follow. I’ll do my best to explain in layman’s terms. Simply put, my power is supplied to me from this mage reactor that has been inserted into my neck here.”
“That pretty pendant is a reactor?”
“Yes, and the stone that serves as its core is a lapis de haeresis, or a hereticore, as they’re also known. These stones have the power to create enough energy to supply several power stations.”
“Several of them, you say?”
“The energy output differs per the quality of the hereticore. In other words, the rarer the gems used as the ingredients in the alchemical process, the more powerful the hereticore will be.”
“It has long been said that beautiful jewelry can enhance a woman’s charm exponentially, but it seems these gems truly do boost your power in every sense of the word.”
“Indeed. As you can see, my left arm and both legs are mechanical, meaning I require energy from these hereticores to power my body.”
“Interesting… So the rumors were true.”
“What rumors?”
“I have heard about how an ally of Mr. Farrell’s fights evil…not with magic or science, but a special sort of supertechnology.”
“Impressive. No wonder you’re one of the world’s top journalists.”
“This is all very intriguing. Would you mind telling me more? Is the alchemical process difficult to complete?”
“It is not easy, that much is certain. But I need to create the most powerful hereticores I can if I am to become stronger…to defeat the fiends who threaten us.”
“Well, you have my support in your endeavors, Agent Dawson. The world has changed a great deal since women finally earned the right to vote. From this point on, it is our time–our chance to change society. And I know you will be right there on the front lines, leading the charge.”
Penny Blood Side Stories #4
Today’s side story is “Malice and Madness” by Ari Lee.