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[Gors]

Story

People always sought the protection from Gods and Goddesses. Walking a tortuous path of uncertainity and fear, humans have always reached for Divine Help, sent from the Heavens as beams of sparkling light. All kinds of problems, easy or hard, simple or complex, were trusted to the Gods. The believers' Destinies, traced with golden ink, would protect them from any harm and ensure a happy life. In turn, the deities would absorb power from their faith, forming a collaborative circle: the people's prayers would convert to Divine Light, which is the Gods and Goddesses's source of power.

However, many centuries have passed, and a sea of brown leaves covered what was a peaceful and happy lifestyle. The advent of technology, allied to knowledge, made people steer away from deities. The humans, oblivious, weak and dependant before, learned to be autosustainable, creating the solutions to their problems by themselves. This broke the perfect balance between the Gods and humankind, draining all the Divine Power out from the world.

***

The year is 2014, vacation season. The tired people in TSROPOLIS seeks a relaxing week at the city's popular vacation spot: a visit to the imponent stone obelisk, the Mount Oni. Believed to be the land of the yokais in the ancient world, now the place attracts tourists from the city, who come to see the ancient Kitsune Goddess's shrine and climb the mountain. Unfortunately, reports of people being attacked by yokai have popped up frequently, putting many lives at risk...

***

Enjoying yet another calm day reading manga and eating senbei, Tsukiko and Yoko, the two otaku Kitsune Goddesses that live in the shrine, are surprised with a scream. Outside, a weird, green bullet man is lying on the ground. "What could this be?"

Their adventure is just starting...

What is Ascension?

Ascension is a RPG game project made by Gors (me) and Kami. Play as two Kitsune Goddesses, Tsukiko (aka Kami) and Yoko to save the people from the mean Oni.

Combining classic RPG elements with a mountain climbing theme and a cosplay system, it seeks to give the genre a new interesting spin.

Cast

> TSUKIKO (aka Kami)

A clumsy, lazy and quiet Kitsune Goddess. She used to be
really important back then, but as time passed, people
stopped being dependant on her Divine Powers and nowa-
days, she spends her time reading manga and cosplaying
instead of helping people.
This is about to change, as the noisy and annoying de-
mons promt her to climb Mount Oni to defeat the Demon
Lord.

> YOKO

Tsukiko's older sister, who lacks some height compaired
to her younger sister, which she makes up for with her
with her firey attitude and passion. She seems to have an
overendearing affection for Tsukiko, and will usually
eventually agree with Tsukiko and follow her younger
sister with whatever she's doing. Being the solar Kitsune
deity, she always got more attention than Tsukiko and
retains more followers. Thus, she initially feels she has
no need to go help her sister with the Oni problem. She
shares Tsukiko's hobbies of cosplaying and being a round-
about otaku.

Note: The Oni dislike her not because she is the solar
deity but because she has a flat chest.

Gameplay

Three elements alien to most RPGs that figure in this game are:

1- Height meter. Since this game has a focus on mountain climbing, each meter you walk upwards is a meter less to reach the enemy. Don't think it'll be an easy task, however! Many threats await you, especially in higher altitudes.

2- Cosplays. Different than your usual RPG equipment, the cosplays are Divine clothing sets that give the Goddesses different power. On top of adding stats, such as Attack and Defense, it will also give them two Divine Abilities for combat, as well as an extra action that can be performed while exploring! Beware: using these actions will cost you Divine Power.

3- Gameover. Or in this game, the lack of it! If you die, it's not game over - you can continue playing it! But be prepared: an enemy blow will certainly make you fall a couple meters below, as well as scattering Pixels everywhere. Will you have the willpower to climb it and save TSROPOLIS?

For more info on gameplay, click here. Updates made periodically.

Graphics and Artwork

<To be added soon>

Music

Access the WHOLE soundtrack here!

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Thread Updates

#0 - It lives! Ascension's topic is made...

[Sketchasaurus]

Oh man, I could just let this soundtrack loop for hours; probably what I'm gonna end up doing.

[psychospacecow]

I like it. The concept reminds me of Final Fantasy X-2's combat system.

[Sevenstitch]

If this ends up playing as nicely as the soundtrack sounds, then this will really be a treat

Looking forward to updates as they come

[Kitsu]

Sounds fun! Looking forward to it!

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

The soundtrack's great, but unfortunately the mock-up doesn't do it justice. Here's a quick sketch of mine:

I changed the resolution to suit the idea of climbing, plus tried to make it more mountain-y, so more rocks and a rock trail. I recommend looking up the Alps, alpine ecology and plants to have a better idea of what I was thinking of.
The tiles feel a bit too rigid/stuck to a grid. I think if you do loads of path tiles, it'd allow for you to make some interesting winding paths during the ascension!

Can't wait to see more!

[Gors]

I don't want to make a shitton of tiles though; it's hard to keep track of them later. I am the sole spriter in this project and it takes a huge toll on me, but I'll try a more detailed landscape without being too difficult to make. About the vertical aspect ratio, the resolution doesn't work for battle scenes, which I imagine being like Mario & Luigi (sideways).But I think I can increase the vertical size to fit the game better.

[[robo9]]

Looks great Gors, I have high hopes for it!

[Gors]

Updated the ground tiles! Prior to this, the grounds used to be quite square-ish:



The tiles can be mixed and used to create more irregular patterns now As for the vegetations, I guess it will work the best if made as separate sprites: that way, I don't need to care about tilings. Just put it anywhere!

[Codestar]

This looks great and the soundtrack is awesome. Defiantly keeping an eye on this. Good job!

[Koh]

Updated the ground tiles! Prior to this, the grounds used to be quite square-ish:



The tiles can be mixed and used to create more irregular patterns now As for the vegetations, I guess it will work the best if made as separate sprites: that way, I don't need to care about tilings. Just put it anywhere!

The rock and cliffs still need some shadows cast though; it seriously looks like they're floating over the ground. Everything else looks okay though. Even if you just used the second or third shades of the grass, or maybe both, to show where the lightsource is coming from to ground these objects, it'd look a lot better.

[Gors]

Roger that sir, I will make grass tiles from scratch with these aspects in mind!

[Gors]

Test mockup with the new tiles!

I am thinking on making alpha transparent shadow tiles in order to avoid making more different tiles. But we'll see...

[puggsoy]

Sounds and looks awesome! Looking forward to seeing how it plays

[Shade]

I can't wait to see where this goes, I'm looking forward to it.