Battle System Update

Posted on September 19, 2017 9:25 pm

Hello, backers!

We’re still working on getting the Backer Preview to you, but we’re also improving the game in the meantime.

Lately much of our focus has been on improving battle flow.

Here’s an early video demonstrating the updated battles:

Let’s break down the changes, shall we?

(And is that new battle music? Hmm…)

New Battle Indicators

The biggest and most obvious change is the new attack indicators.

All the way back to the Prototype, we’ve been unhappy with the defense phase of Indivisible battles. Mostly that it’s not clear enough when enemies are attacking, and who is being attacked.

The new attack indicator lines show which enemies are attacking which characters, what kind of attack it is, and the lines will help you time your defense as well.

You’ll notice that the attack lines come in three colors: Red, Yellow, and Black.

Red lines indicate standard attacks. These were the only types of attacks in the prototype, and can be blocked.

Yellow lines indicate grab attacks. Grabs can’t be blocked, but if you tap the button at just the right time you can escape them.

Black lines indicate unblockable attacks, which are typically magical in nature. However, while we call them “unblockable,” certain characters may be able to block or evade them.

Battle Changes

In addition to the various presentation changes, we’ll be making some balance changes as well.

Tapping defense at the last second on a blockable attack will now have the following benefits:

Further damage reduction
Increased Iddhi gain
Survive killing blows with 1 HP

Additionally, now all juggled hits will generate double the Iddhi.

Hit Counter

At long last, we have a hit counter!

By the time the Backer Preview is released, we’ll have added a damage total to it, as well.

Battle Start and End

We received a lot of feedback that the start and end of battle were too abrupt, and until they got used to it, it didn’t give people enough time to mentally switch gears between the platforming and RPG gameplay.

We’ve slowed down the start of battle a bit to help with this transition, as well as to show the the rest of the party emerging from within Ajna. There’s also a slight hold at the end of battle to help you prepare for platforming.

We’re very interested in hearing your feedback on these changes once we get the Backer Preview into your hands!

Backer Preview Will Be Localized

We wanted to localize the original prototype, but there wasn’t enough time and our localization tools left much to be desired.

We have a much more robust font system now, and thus we’re releasing the Backer Preview in every language we intend to support: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese and Russian.

Backer Preview Release Update

So, about that Backer Preview…

Obviously, we’re running behind.

The console ports have been more difficult than expected – not only is this Lab Zero’s first Xbox One game, the hugely upgraded renderer meant that we really couldn’t reuse much from the PS4 version of Skullgirls, either.

We’re currently aiming to submit the PS4 and Xbox One builds to Sony and Microsoft certification on October 2nd, and will release them as soon as we can.

We apologize for the delay, but the extra time is why we’ve got great new things for you to test, like the battle changes.

BackerKit / IGG Upgrade Payment

For those of you wondering when we’ll be charging people that purchased through BackerKit or upgraded from an IGG tier without the game, the current thinking is that will happen once the Backer Preview has been submitted to Sony and Microsoft.

While it may change, that means we’re currently aiming to charge on October 2nd, 2017.

If you need help with your Indiegogo or BackerKit orders, we ask that you not leave comments on Indiegogo and instead contact us directly at indiegogo (at) labzerogames (dot) com.