The VG Resource

Download & play for free here: https://datesofgelerium.itch.io/pandoras-spirit

Inspired by all the time I've spent clicking around The Spriters Resource, this is a free fangame I've been whittling away at on-and-off in my personal spare time for the past 5+ years, a sort of crossover between Touhou, Disgaea, BlazBlue, and a whole bunch of other things, though the story is completely original with zero references or connection to the stories of the games I took the sprites from, and all the characters are treated as if they were original ("Patch" is technically a separate character from Patchouli Knowledge for instance) so you do not need to be familiar with any of the source material at all to get into it. Programmed entirely in Game Maker 8.0, only works on Windows computers. More information on the itch.io page.

You play as a mute amnesiac girl nicknamed "Pandora" (played by Utsuho Reiuji) who lost all her power and memories after being struck by lightning in a great storm. Shortly after regaining consciousness, she meets the Amitava sisters (played by Seraphina, Artina, and Sage), who were even more badly injured in the same storm, so they agree to help each other, as Pandora finds them Power Gems to get back on their feet and they can direct her to Sentinels of Ability to get her own powers back, over the course of a big Metroidvania/collect-a-thon platforming adventure across the whole continent they all live on. Though that's only the first half of the story, there's an entire equally big second adventure after that one's done which might include some ghost kidnappings, also a number of other optional side ventures and achievement missions as well!

Admittedly if you're looking for a super-intense challenge this probably ain't it, it's pretty straightforward and simplistic for what it is and I primarily designed it to be more on the chill side. Though there is an absolute ton to do, and getting to 100% completion certainly isn't going to be that easy... (completing the game myself typically takes me 3 days)

Contains quite a bit of swearing (mostly from one character in particular), and a few flashing images in some cutscenes.

I really don't have any expectations of this game getting any kind of wider attention, I'm not really sure how or where to advertise a project like this. But hey, I had fun making it and thought it was worth putting out in the world, and I figured the one site to which this game physically never could've happened without would be a good place to post it, so I hope anyone who might come across it by chance ends up enjoying it

Oh yeah, and if you'd rather watch a walkthrough of the game over playing it (or just need help if you ever get stuck), I posted my own full 100% playthrough to YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...Ek8ADW2QK6

Update for anyone interested.

I've just uploaded a new version of the game which should fix a pretty major issue present on the game before. There was a glitch that could softlock the game in some rare poorly-timed instances when Pandora's death animation should've played, sometimes she would disappear altogether, sometimes the controls would stop working, it looked like the game crashed to some even though it technically hadn't. In any case I think I've figured out what the issue was and fixed it up for this new version.

I also added a few new minor tweaks to simplify certain parts of the game that may have been more obtuse or difficult than I intended, most notably streamlining the initial tutorial segment so you don't have to replay entire segments if you die and Divya now providing hints on how to get started looking for Bright Prisms in the second adventure, among a few other things. Nothing major but it'll hopefully make the experience a bit more intuitive.

Assuming this won't apply to most people who decided to click on this thread, but if you did already find this game through here, decided to download it before and still have a save file, you should just be able to replace the .exe file with the new version and you'll be able to continue normally.

Another update for anyone interested.

To mark the 1-year anniversary of me having originally posted this game, I've uploaded another new version that includes a whole bunch of tweaks. Most of this applies to things that happen later in the game (which I have a funny feeling no one's actually bothered to progress that far, I've yet to see any acknowledgement from someone who played the game beyond the first 15 minutes or so), but whatever.

- Included an optional skip for the entire Daiyamondo Temple area in the first adventure. Really just there because of the known issue of excessive frame rate lag in that area if you're running a screen recorder at the same time, but I suppose it's also available for anyone who might get too frustrated or confused by that part as well.

- Improved the RNG for the first fight of the first adventure's final boss run. I noticed that depending on how the RNG turned out in the old version, that fight could either go really quickly or become somewhat tedious as the same attacks would get spammed over and over without leaving openings to actually damage the boss. I've done my best to balance that out.

- Nerfed one of the post-game bosses (specifically for the "Secret of the Station" achievement).

- Both Karuikumo Forest and the sanctuary area for the "Apprentice Adventure" achievement have more obvious signage (and dialogue trees in the latter case) to make it more intuitive to know where to go at certain points.

- There's a new optional boss fight! This doesn't count towards any kind of achievement or completion requirement, but after you've completed the "Apprentice Adventure" achievement you can go back and fight Spirit Maryoku with the option to make that fight even harder than it was before. (Note, for this fight to be available you'll also need to replace the "sprites" folder with the one currently included in the zip, some files in the "fx" and "ba2" subfolders have changed to account for it, though the game should still work the same if you don't replace any of those folders, the harder version of the fight just won't be accessible.)

- For people who DO want to complete any optional boss fights that don't count towards 100% completion such as the one mentioned above, there's now a tiny visual acknowledgement for their completion, for each one completed a small rainbow-colored badge appears over the door in the game-saving room at Patch's inn. There's three such optional fights in total (the other two being a fight with Captain Amethyst after completing the second adventure and a fight with Chimei after completing the Apprentice Adventure achievement).

- Added an acknowledgement in the credits for the only person I've ever seen make a full-on YouTube video attempting to play the game

So there we go, that's about everything in the latest updates! As with before, for the update to take place for anyone who downloaded the game previously, you need only replace the .exe file for the game itself (as well as the "sprites" folder to access that new optional fight). So long as you keep the "save.ini" file you had before, you won't lose any progress.

Anyway, if anyone knows about some kind of other forum or other place where a project like this might be allowed and possibly find people that it appeals to, let me know? I did use to advertise this game on the YoYo Games forum, but it seems they no longer allow you to post about fangames that include any kind of unlicensed content even if they're entirely free & noncommercial like this, so it looks like I can't do that anymore. But hey, if this is the only place I can post about something like this that's fine too, I'm honestly just happy that the number of people who actually tried this game is more than zero like I expected. 

I suspect this will be the last update on the game unless there's other glitches that I or any other people end up running into, so thanks again to anyone who might've bothered to read these posts and/or downloaded the game in the past, I've put so much time and effort into this project and I'm grateful to know that some people might've had fun with what I've done even in the smallest possible ways.