Hudokai is a 2D Role Playing Video Game, focusing on Nova and his quest to take down the villainous Cult of Kai across the universe.
Developed by myself and Lee Janes under the developer banner of "Onyxbreakers", Hudokai harks back to traditional RPGs, such as Final Fantasy and the Tales of series to deliver side-on battles against enemies, an engaging story and customisable skills in the form of "Hudokai". Development is on RPG Maker VX Ace.
Nova and Lione team up and run from the Galactic Preservation law enforcement.
Prisoner 30895, aka Nova, awakens at the crash site of a prison space craft. Only a few people have survived, one of which is vice-warden Lione Burgess, quick to blame Nova for the crash. The only problem is... Nova doesn't remember anything. Did he really do this? He has no time to contemplate the details, as warden Cyrril War and the remaining Galactic Preservation law enforcement are quick to charge both Nova and Lione for the devastation. On the run and forced to work together, the pair utilise strange gemstones called hudokai to stave off the GP and head to the centre of this strange new place... a town called "The Nexus".
The cast gear up for a battle against GP soldiers.
- Story -
Trapped in The Nexus, Nova and Lione try to find out how to escape with the help of a man named Roke Zephyr. Roke tells them of the Cult of Kai - a mysterious group of no-gooders that plan to enter the void and use its hudokai in malicious ways for their own end. Hudokai, it turns out, grants its wielders unique abilities; condensed dark matter from the void... and the very Nexus town they're trapped in. They find out a Cult of Kai member has already breached the void, a man named Greg, and with the help of Roke plan to kidnap him for proof of this cult's existence when they finally escape and reach their new destination - the Reality Council.
There are plenty of planets with varied locations... and plenty of action!
Escaping the void, the crew meet other characters with their own stories, joining them in their mission to take down the Cult of Kai. Max Judge is a teenager who was abandoned by his father, looking for a way back home. Aliza Legion has been locked away for having multiplicity, but seeks the malicious manifestation of one of her alters amongst the stars. Kim Silver is a weapon who seeks to become more "human" through companionship. Phoenix Fox plans to fight for freedom from those who oppress him. Together, they may just forge a new future for Nova and prove that he's not the man he once was...
Development
Hudokai isn't handled by a development team as such - it's almost entirely Lee and I spriting visuals, modifying scripts and editing audio. Through blood, sweat and tears, it's taken several years to write, design and develop the game. We started from nothing: no coding knowledge, no idea how everything worked, and no clue what conditional branches or variables were. How times have changed. We learnt on the job and it's taken a while, but through sourcing a dedicated voice cast to play the main roles of the characters, the game has been brought to life and has become a project we work on whenever we have free time.
The game originally started on RPG Maker VX under the title Dark Matter: Hudokai. It used a turn-based battle system much like traditional Final Fantasy games. It was essentially finished before we took a look at it and decided we'd learnt so much over the course of development, that it was worth seeking the battle engine type we'd always wanted and the mechanics we were originally too inexperienced enough to implement. We transferred the entire game to RPG Maker VX Ace in a time - a system not originally available when we started, and spruced up the game to new heights. The end result is that Hudokai, which is the VX Ace build of the game, is so different in mechanics that it's an entirely different game... hence the name change.
That and a game called Dark Matter was released and kind of ruined all that, but hey ho.
Features
Hudokai features a range of gameplay features as you work through its in-depth story.
Hudokai
The hudokai menu, where you equip gem stones to level up and use skills from in-battle.
The first is hudokai, itself. Hudokai are gemstones that can be levelled up with Ability Points (AP) at the end of battles. When enough AP has been gathered, a new ability will be unlocked with the hudokai. Each hudokai has a different amount of AP needed to unlock their next skill, and will only level up when equipped to a character. Think of how Materia works in Final Fantasy VII and you're on the right track. That also means the ability is locked to the hudokai and not any character, so you can unequip the hudokai and equip it to someone else to still use all its unlocked abilities.
Hudokai are broken up into five different types. Elemental hudokai came with their own element. That means the "Combust" hudokai has the fire element attached to it. Joint hudokai only gain an effect if equipped in a double-joint paired weapon or armour slot. For example, if the "Elemental Effect" hudokai is joint with the "Combust" hudokai in a double-joint weapon slot, then all that character's physical attacks will start to do fire elemental damage. Neat, huh? That same applies when you equip the pair in a double-joint armour slot, meaning you reduce fire damage. With further level ups, this will nullify fire damage, then eventually absorb fire damage. Special hudokai will grant the user a special skill of sort. "Loot" hudokai falls under this category, and will mean that the user may be able to steal an item from the enemy when they attack, for instance. Memory hudokai will call upon the memory of someone you've encountered throughout your journey, using a special move at the cost of a vast amount of energy. Aukaneck will place a shield on the whole party, greatly reducing both physical and hudokai based attacks against them. The final hudokai is a unique one, called Ragnarok hudokai. Only one exists, and it calls upon a fearsome attack that may demolish all enemies around its user! Rumours state it was last seen split into four parts on the planet Yarth...
Skills and Abilities
Battle the first boss whilst jumping around and using Hudokai skills.
Abilities are those attached to hudokai. The "Combust" hudokai can teach the "Tobasco Flare" ability, for instance. It's a fire elemental attack that does hudokai damage. Abilities use up Ion.
Skills are unique to each character. They are often physical-based, but characters like Max can use darkness-based skills as part of his own race. Characters will naturally earn skills as they level up, including "overdrive" skills, which are incredibly powerful moves that can turn the tide of a battle. Skills use technical points that build up over time in battle, or TP.
Overdrive skills often use 50 TP and will differ per character. Lione, for instance, starts with Burgess Barrage - multiple fiery slashes from her sword to any enemy that gets in her way during her assault. Every character has a level 2 and level 3 overdrive ability that they will acquire throughout the game, too, and will vary between offensive and defensive skills.
Similarly, everyone has different styles of attacks and different weapons unique to them. Aliza can only use long-ranged crossbows, for example, whilst Kim's great at aerial combat, even if she can't use any physical attacks.
Battles
Engage in tactical style battles whilst out in space.
Roaming around various planets, often away from civilisation, are creatures of havoc. Sometimes they're just people with a grudge, but mostly they're really ticked off monsters. You can plan your way through such areas carefully to avoid their encounters, or you can run right into them to engage in battles. You'll be taken to a battle screen where you can run, jump and slice your way to victory.
Battles are the meat of Hudokai, with every character having a different "class" that grants them different strengths. Lione is better with physical attacks and has diverse skills, whilst Kim's hudokai damage and skill damage are through the roof. Utilising each character's strengths, you can take on batches of enemies, use their skills to maximum effect, and watch the enemies burn. In battle, you can freely move about with keyboard or controller, use items to heal up Ion, and even scan enemies' strengths and weaknesses. Wanting to play as the hovering Kim instead of Nova? No problem, you can switch to any character you want mid-battle and take them for a spin instead, all the while whilst your party supports you in combat.
Space battles differ from standard battles, in that they've more tactically driven. You'll have a grid where often more than one enemy will threaten your ship. It's up to you to place your ship, use the asteroids as barriers, and plan your next move as you make your way to new planets. It's like Jean D'Arc or Tactics Ogre!
Alignment
Throughout the game, you'll encounter plenty of multiple-choice answers during NPC conversation, or just different ways of going about things in general. Virtually every choice will impact your "alignment" in some way. Viewable through the status menu, alignment ranges from divine, noble, good, neutral, bad, scockbag and fluffer. Whilst it's more fun selecting the "bad" options, it will inflict a higher tax rate at shops, meaning everything becomes more expensive. Similarly, having a more positive alignment will equal discounts at shops and will have an impact on how many NPCs will interact with you. Who knows, maybe it will even effect the ending of the game...?
Card Games
The mini-map shows white squares to new areas, red squares for NPCs, and purple squares for enemies. You're represented by a blue square.
Everyone in the three galaxies plays "Outlaws" - a card game much like Final Fantasy VIII's Triple Triad. Each Outlaws card focuses on a creature or monster seen in the three galaxies. A number sits to its left side, right side, top and bottom of the card. Players put down cards on a three-by-three grid. The aim is for each number to outrank another card's number. For example, if someone puts down a Eyecarumba card with 3 on its left edge, then to beat that card you can put down an Arachnivolt card with 5 on its right edge, facing the Eyecarumba card. The card then changes colour to symbolise your victory over it, but then the opponent may still be able to take any card back with a high enough number... There are even card tournaments out there, but are all entirely optional if you don't want to participate with any Outlaws card games. It forms the base mini-game of hudokai (something other than fishing, for once), but one in which does offer extra goodies should you seek them out. You can win cards from challenging other NPCs or just flat out ignore it. The choice is yours!
Heck, even Skylanders: Imaginators got away with a similar sort of game, except with Hudokai you can even collect cards and build your own deck!
Synthesis
You can synthesise components together to make stronger weapons unique to each character. Nova can equip everything, though.
Also known as "crafting" in many other games, "synthesis" is where you acquire ingredients and fuse those items together into a much better item. In Hudokai, it forms the entire basis for building new weapons for characters. That's right, you'll have to earn better weapons rather than just buying them or finding them in treasure chests!
Various towns and cities have forges where someone can help synthesis your weapons. You can check the ingredients needed. Each weapon will typically need a synthesis gem such as a Topazank or Emeraldo, as well as base components, a previous weapon and a bit of money. Through synthesising, you can acquire level 2 weapons for each character, level 3 weapons, and finally their max level weapons!
Items such as Incredidrinks can also be synthesised. These are often really useful items that can be used in-battle, and offer some experience to your synthesis level. You read correctly - you will also need to level up your synthesis level to even have a shot at crafting those higher level weapons! They're very much worth it, however. Simply take all the items to a synthesis forge, watch the bar start to fill up, and press the correct button once the bar turns green. If you press the button when the bar is yellow, you'll often end up with a worse item for your impatience, and will need another shot at synthesising. Be careful!
If you wish to support the game and keep up with updates during development, then there's also our Facebook page!
There's plenty more to come, so why not stick around and view the early trailer, or listen to the game's main theme song, which plays on the title menu?
