22nd February 2019 is launch day for The Prometheus Secret Noohra, I am not sure if I am currently nervous or excited, but a proud moment nevertheless for Ahavah Studio. The game is fun to play but mimics life's struggle with darkness, the more you are consumed by darkness the more difficult the game becomes. The game therefore requires perseverance and over time gets more rewarding as you progress, the sad thing is many throw in the towel too soon, there will be some who will persevere however and share their secrets of wielding the light of the Noohra to defeat darkness.
Steam Store: Store.steampowered.com
Noohra, an Aramaic word to describe the light of God is used within the game by learning to wield a orb of fire and light. The fire orb used in the 2D side of the game will lose light when you are defeated and darkness will begin to overshadow the stage. This slide towards darkness is indicated to the player by a gauge called the 'Path of Deeper Truths', the player starts out as righteous and slides down 7 levels, softly becoming egotistical all the way down to immoral where the orb is void of light. The challenge arrives when you need to conquer these physics stages to collect additional magic cards to be competitive against bosses who are fought through a card system. The more you die here the greater chance you have of gaining a dark trait, depression as example that will buff your next boss. Gaining enough resources during physics stages to buff yourself with spirit scrolls and de-buff your enemy will be crucial in eventually defeating the many minions the darkness mockingly sends against you.
Path of Deeper Truths (your soul status)
7 - Righteous: Acting in an honest and morally exemplary way. (full light)
6 - Egotistic: Opinionated, vain and boastful.
5 - Self-centred: Concerned solely about one’s own interests and welfare.
4 - Pessimistic: Tendency to expect only bad outcomes, gloomy, joyless and unhopeful.
3 - Odious: Deserving or causing hatred, hateful and detestable.
2 - Belligerent: Warlike and given to waging war.
1 - Destructive: Tending to destroy and causing destruction or much damage.
0 - Immoral: Bad, wicked and depraved. (no light)
I think the more complicated a game becomes the greater the challenge for the developer to help the player unlock it's rich value before losing interest. In the end here I stand at the brink of a launch, 3.5 years of detailed crafting, love, dedication and hidden secrets locked up in a single game that only I have knowledge of. My hopes that some will eventually persevere, take up the challenge and unlock it's treasures, teaching others to do the same.
Not only is this game a unique duel genre challenge but additionally contains a few mini game elements, the 'Wheels of Fortune' can be accessed once a required number of corresponding tokens are acquired, the player then tries to get the orb across a set of turning windmills to reach the furthest chest, the prize of coins for that chest will be multiplied by the players level.
'Spirit Scrolls' will buff the player during card battles, these are gained by guessing the correct scroll out of a total of twelve scrolls, the higher the category of scroll you are playing, namely copper, silver, gold and amethyst, the lower your odds. The player can place and use up to 4 scrolls at one time for card battles, the danger is the moment you lose one round against a boss you lose the placed scrolls.
The game begins in the Mayan temple of Herros, to move to the next world after completing all the stages and defeating the final boss you will need a 7 digit token code. These tokens can be spotted during the various 2D stages, the challenge lies with how much Noohra your orb contains, the darker your world the less chance you have of spotting them.
Darkness remains infinitely deceitful and stops at nothing on its quest to destroy all that is good. Throughout the game, the player is intimidated and manipulated by darkness and it is discouraging when it seems that darkness may yet again have an unfair advantage, as each defeat will have multiple consequences. One of those consequences is XP leak whereby the player loses XP every 10 seconds equal to the amount of Noorah lost.
The player relies only on gravity to maneuver the orb but can also wield 4 orb abilities to help reach the fire portal to clear the stage, the route this is done is up to the players imagination. During Pax South in January I saw some very creative minds maneuver the orb uniquely round obstacles to the finish line and create new leaderboard scores.
Fire Orb Abilities
• Orb Weight: You can change the weight of the orb only before you release it, you will need to experiment with different weights to see what effect it has on items and the orb.
• Force Push: Performing a Force Push will allow the orb to push off objects multiplied by its weight and momentum. You therefore cannot perform a Force Push while the orb is rolling but only by bouncing or hitting against an object. Collecting green force disks within the stage will fill your force meter to perform a push. The higher the upgrade the more powerful the Force Push and you additionally receive more force per disk collected. You can upgrade this ability to level 3. Every push earns you an additional 500 points.
• Shield: Collecting shield orbs will fill your shield meter, activating the shield will use up your shield energy very quickly so use only when you are about to strike an enemy or trap. The higher the shield upgrade the more shield energy you collect, you can upgrade this ability to level 5.
• Shockwave: Allows the orb to push objects away from itself using a powerful shockwave. The shockwave meter fills up automatically over time and depletes with every shockwave used. The higher the shockwave upgrade the more powerful the shockwave becomes. You can upgrade this ability to level 5, this ability can be useful to push wooden blocks to collect coins and keys that are out of the reach of the orb.
Can you unlock the secret and become a light bearer that can save humanity by shining the light of truth on the deception of darkness.
Boss fight challenges are achieved through fast paced magic card battles. 60 cards per deck and only 5 cards maximum allowed in your hand. Short on manna then no problem, sacrifice playing cards in the pool of Bethesda for manna. The risk however you may end up with no cards to play when you truly need them. Below are examples of a few cards players need to collect or unlock to remain competitive against the bosses.
The Manna card in the game is the spiritual supernatural sustenance the Noohra provides, this gives you the ability to power and play your spell cards. A unique feature to the game is if you are not dealt a manna card within your hand you may choose to sacrifice a playing card for manna. The tradeoff, will you have enough cards to attack or defend versus falling behind your opponent with regards to manna.
Tyr is a tough Viking rare card you want in your deck, awesome inflated lane attack and solid defense value.
The Dragon Lady, what an awesome card to play, with a reasonably good defense and a mean inflated total attack value of 10. Requires 9 manna to play but a card that could blast out your enemies defense in a lane and turn the tables on darkness. Your opponent answering with a "kill spell" card will reduce the inflated attack value to 6, additionally reducing the smile on your face.
Probably the most controversial card in the Mythic Deck, when it's yours it's a super card, when your opponent plays it just before they were defeated then its super controversial. Life is never fair at times.
