Eremidia: An Empty Tome Windows game

Eremidia: An Empty Tome

richter_h | TBD

Introduction

This is a reboot of Eremidia: Dungeon!, which has been redirected after years of development.

Link to the old version: Richter-h.itch.io

The storyline has drastically changed and the gameplay has been improved, yet I keep some aspects true to its former counterparts.

After months of reworks, the game has reached its first milestone and the alpha version has been available to be tested.

Synopsis

The story revolves around the Scout who's been hired by the Queen of the soon-to-be-ended Kingdom. The mission is quite simple: search and rescue the missing King when he's embarking the expedition towards a mysterious island in the sky. The Scout then embarks the journey into the island with an Airship full of skillful crews and a Farsight Amulet in hand.
Long story short, the Scout finds himself/herself stranded in an euclidean chambers
in the middle of void which connects the inner part of the island and the outer world, called Void Rift. The Scout is not alone; he/she's in there along with the crewmates of former and latter Airships, yet the King was alleged lost in the Rift.

Along with the Guardian Duo--Richter and Theo, who were also part of the Airship crewmates--the Scout has to find the King and save him at all costs. Little they know the Rift has surprises for those brave and foolish enough to explore the seemingly endless masses of land in the middle of void, and even lesser they realize that the island hides such a threat to the Kingdom; it is called Herald of the World's End for reasons...

So, why with the Kingdom?

In this project, Eremidia Kingdom is simply called "Kingdom" intentionally; while it's still having connections with its former project, An Empty Tome is an independent story which is currently handled by me (richter_h). The whole story is all based on my insight and proposed concepts without direct intervention from the dispersed RPGMakerID community. Most of the contents are left intact; some are altered from their original concepts.

Eremidia itself has been neglected for more than a year, and I have no intention to continue it after this project. That's why the story hints the Kingdom will be ended when the story is concluded.

Features

The story is now streamlined into rather linear, simplified story.
Control one of the Scouts with distinctive abilities. Yep, unlike the previous build, now the Scouts are taking part in battle.
Navigate through the Void Rift and find the connected places harbored around the emptiness, including the not-so-great Goldian Great Library
Randomized loot across the maps. Sometimes you might find common items, sometimes you might find artifacts inside a chest.
Event-based encounter. No random encounters, and for those who knows how to run, most of battles can be avoided by simply run away from the mishaps!
Grid Battle System; Fight various enemies along your way in the Rift in chess-like battlefield. In this case, everyone is a queen. Party placements can be set in Formation menu.
Per-action EXP gain; no need to finish the battle to get them EXPs. Characters who deliver the killing blow gains more EXPs!
Various 'recruitable' characters with unique abilities, including those who were NPCs like the chatty town guard Richter, Iris the sly Astral Witch, and even the cunning Theodoric armed with ropes and dagger. They'll be recorded into Companions Book once their recruitment conditions are met.
Separated level up system. Characters won't level up after battles; they have to be manually level up via designated Level Up menu. Their skills are also can be upgraded. The upgrades cost EXP points.
Scout's choices will affect many things. Your deeds also will be measured with hidden Karma parameter which determines many things--from rewards given by quest givers, access to hidden places, to recruitment conditions for the recruitable characters along the story. Side stories and even main story will be affected by the Scout's choices
Scout's battle performance also will affect things like rewards, access to hidden areas, up to some perks that accessible only by reaching some degree of skills.
Collect artifacts across the connected planes in the Rift, which will be recorded in Tome of Artifacts. Those artifacts are beneficial in nature, but some artifacts have their drawbacks to the characters.
Record every enemies encountered across the Rift into Eremidiae Bestiarium. Recorded enemies will tell the Scout everything about fought enemies.
Gacha, the notorious feature of many Japanese mobile games is also present in An Empty Tome. Some artifacts may be appeared by gambling with the RNG.
Planned: A growing headquarter. Sanctuary will be filled with many characters as the story goes on.
Planned: Multilanguage support

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Eremidia: An Empty Tome devlog July

Aug 3 2018 News 1 comment

Have put a few things in the latest sprint, and while the story development is not progressing that fast, there are some interesting cues worth to mention in this month’s devlog. Mad Queen arc storyline is being written at the moment, so it'll take a while to finish--not to mention, some revisions will happen soon or later.

First of all, I’ve made it to make half of the entire cast’s character art. It’s quite something, since this had been started six months ago. Maybe I’ll can make the entire cast in the end of this year. Maybe.

And then, while the story is kinda… well, stuck (not really stuck tho, I still need some time to make it more interesting), a side story emerged based on the newly established setting. The ‘Skyward Temple’ party is about to have a spotlight in this project, and here’s the interesting part: they’re about to have their own game, too. The ‘Skyward Temple’ project is currently being held by TheoAllen—and as part of the collaborative work, I provide some assets as well as establish the character design of the project’s main party.

Left-to-right: Terra Erde, Alfred Soleil, Emille Lunar, and Stella C.

Terra, in the game, being the strongest character in unassuming looks

"Beam'em up, Lunar!"

Visualizing the character concepts is quite something, I'd say. In Mad Queen arc, some villains will have their spotlights and (hopefully) they'll reveal their motives in the story. Here's some character art of them

The Mad Queen herself. Rumors have it, she has some sort of relationships with the Town Guard.

The leader of Pars Mythos cult. Also, rumored to have some relationships with the Town Guard. Why the villains are related with the Town Guard, anyway?

Supposed to be the characters appearing in one of sidequests in Mad Queen arc. One is the good side while another is the opposite. Whose side the Scout will take?

In the UI department, there's a revamp on the character menu. It's meant to give players a bit more info about said character as well as some insights on how well he/she would make it when he/she is in active party.

For sake of convenience in gearing'em up, the equipment UI is also revamped.

Also, some old contents got revised and revamped. The redactions in scenes were... well, some were absurd at best, so I had to work on it once more. Here's one of the reworks I've made for the game, which also may give answer of why and how Iris came out of the book like Richter tends to say.

That's all for July Devlog. Anyway, there's a new demo will be out soon; I'll make an announcement once it's up and ready, so stay tuned!

Anyway, Leila's Tavern is always open, so as you know, but currently the last line will be said by the now-entitled Stealth Explorer, Theodoric Allen. He's so unassuming as a Royal Guard but eh, he's still a legit one.