Wasteland of the Gods

Wasteland of the Gods


High Concept
Wasteland of the Gods is the hit that will rock the foundations of Playstation 3 fans throughout the world. It is the story of a paradise turned disaster zone, holy beasts turned into demons, and the Human Race’s fight for survival that they never even knew was in danger.

This game shows the player that nothing is ever as simple as it seems, not even a walk from your village to the nearby city you make every week, with no danger ever in sight. A man from a village on the outskirts of one of the six cities of the Gods goes to the city as the messenger of that small village, but without the normal bag of messages he carries with him there. He goes to ask why none in the village or any village near them have received any messages for the past week, where many messages were expected. On his way to the city, the man is waylaid by dangerous beasts never before seen in that part of Ordana, the world he inhabits, and his death came quick, and without mercy. But, rather than head back through the cycle, in which all lives are sent and born from, his spirit remains in the area he was felled, with no reason to be.

The Gods of Ordana, the Hormai, have fallen, almost overnight, and without warning, but in their place were the nubile Bantaa, who retained most of the God’s powers, but without their knowledge of how to use them or what to do with them. Meanwhile, the intelligent beasts of the forests, plains, and swamps of Ordana have been turned feral and know only primal instinct except for a select few, who retain their willpower and intelligence, while mourning the loss of their companions. The human society remains unchanged, beyond the loss of all contact with each other and the other races.

In the game, the characters come across the spirits of the dead, who seem to be wandering. The character is given a choice of what to do with the spirits; consume them, send them off to finish their cycle, or keep the spirits with the party for as long as needed. The choice is only given to them after a certain point in the game is reached, before which the player may only keep them with the party. Each choice gives its own benefits and has an effect on the good/evil meter present throughout the game after the same point where they are first given the ability to choose. Consuming the spirits would give a permanent stat bonus to the player’s character, depending on who among the consumed the spirit, Sending the spirits off to finish the cycle would provide either an item or a certain amount of experience divided among all the current characters, while keeping the spirits with the party would allow for special attacks that become more powerful depending on how many spirits are kept at the same time.

This game is for the Playstation 3 specifically so that the blu-ray function and the graphic capabilities of the console would bring about the best the graphics could be in this game. It would also go onto the Playstation 3 because many gamers who have and play Playstation play Role-playing Games almost more than any other game.

In Wasteland, there will be a limited multi-player mode available from the main menu, which continues the story from a save file or creates a new save file, depending on the player’s choice. In the multiplayer mode, the choice of what to do with spirits is taken away and the spirits are always kept, but all the special attacks are taken away. The first player plays as the normal characters, but the second player plays in a support role, using the spirits of the dead with attacks during battle and gathering items outside of battle. This will work in concert with the single-player mode because in single player mode you may choose what to do with the spirits you collected in multi-player mode, and you are able to get items that you would not otherwise have been able to get in single-player mode.

Story

At the beginning of the game, the main character, Ishnar, goes to the closest of the Six Cities of the Gods to ask why no messages have come through his and other’s villages, because he is the message runner for his village. As there has never been any danger on the path he took, and also because the path is protected by the Hormai’s powers, he does not bother bringing any sort of weapon on his trip. Yet, he feels uneasy on his way because the Hormai, the Gods of Ordana, have always kept things running smoothly, precisely, and without much failure, but also because there is not a soul on a road where many people would usually walk.

About halfway between his village and the city, Ishnar is waylaid by savage beasts, evil creatures never before seen on Ordana, and is killed. Yet, the cycle has not taken him to his next home, his spirit remaining in the physical world, unseen by the savage beasts still tearing at his body for what little scraps of his flesh remains. Almost a year passes and Ishnar sees no one else ever go on the road off of which he was killed. Ishnar watches as the land slowly dies, the grass fading to brown, the trees slowly losing their leaves and nothing growing back, and even the earth turning gray before his eyes. Being a spirit, Ishnar knows not what to do about anything he has seen or about the beasts that tore his body apart, until he sees, in the distance, a human woman walking along the road. As she comes closer he sees that her weapons are drawn and she is alert for any possibility of danger, which is so different from how he would have expected to see anyone a year ago.

As she comes closer to his position, he reaches out to speak to her, but realizes that humans probably would not be able to see or hear him, which makes him more melancholy and angry at how this had turned out. But, as she draws closer, he notices that she is looking almost directly at him, as though she can see he is there. He gains hope and moves out onto the road and tries to speak with her, but she startles and leaps at him, weapons first. As she passes through him, her eyes widen and she almost bolts. He talks to her and she calms down, and then he explains who he was and asks what has happened in the past year. She tells him that they have lost all contact with both the Hormai and the Shen, the intelligent creatures of Ordana and they’ve been attacked by what they call the Keinrou, evil beasts that must have been the same types of beasts that killed Ishnar. She also tells him her name is Kirana, and she is on a mission to seek out the old Cities of the Gods and find out what happened to the Hormai.

Ishnar offers to go with her, because he thinks he may be able to help her somehow, even given the lack of physical form. Kirana accepts his offer, because she can see no reason as to why he would not be welcome, seeing as he would provide company and possibly scouting ability since the Keinrou apparently don’t notice him. As the two begin their journey to the City, a bright light flares up in the direction of the city and neither knows what just happened. They hurry along the dangerous route towards the city.

As the two reach the city, they find it populated, but by a completely unfamiliar race, though they don’t seem hostile, but don’t seem friendly or like they knew how they got there either. When the two ask about the blast they are sent to the large house on the northern side of the city to ask for a Bantaa, as they call themselves, named Yorn. When they reach the house, they are greeted by a small Bantaa running right into them from inside the house, knocking Kirana down. When the small Bantaa gets up and apologizes, he stares at Ishnar, and starts asking so many questions about him and what he is. He answers them, but also manages to get that the small Bantaa is Yorn and Ishnar and Kirana ask about the flash of light, learning that Yorn has figured out a way to forces the spirits of the dead on through their cycle, but also found a way to get rid of them that increases power through their disappearance into the soul of the one who destroyed it. After learning this, Ishnar backed away from Yorn, and told him that he did not wish to move on or be destroyed, at least until they figured out what had happened to turn the world into the blasted wasteland that it had become in the year since Ishnar had first set out.

Yorn also wished to know what happened at that time, for it was when the Bantaa were first born into this city, empty but for them, and knew nothing about their origins or their powers that they had gained and learned about from that time. After spending some time in the city, they decide to leave to visit the other cities to see if they knew anything about that fateful event and also whether any of the Hormai were anywhere to be found.

Characters

The Races of Ordana
- Humans – The main race on Ordana, populating much of the world and grow in large numbers and advance in technology much faster than any of the other races on Ordana. They use mainly bladed weapons, including swords, daggers, and spears, and ranged weapons, including bows, crossbows, and, in some cases extremely primitive rifles. They are the only race left almost completely unaffected by the catastrophe that struck the world of Ordana.
- Hormai – The Gods of Ordana, the overseers of the world who used their power, called magic by the humans, to keep the world in order and the land fertile throughout the years of the World’s life. They appear to be the most heavily affected by the catastrophe, disappearing from the face of the planet all as far as any know.
- Bantaa – The race of peoples who came to inhabit the Cities of the Gods after the catastrophe. They know not of their origins, but seem to have powers similar to those of the missing Hormai, but lack the power to use them effectively.
- Shen – The race of intelligent beasts that inhabit the wilderness of Ordana. They range from small critters about the size of squirrels to hulking Behemoths, whose heads rise above the treetops of the forests they live in. They suffered greatly from the catastrophe, many of their number becoming feral and losing any sense of who they were.

Main Characters

-Ishnar, the messenger for a small village on the outskirts of one of the Six Cities of the Gods, who was felled only a few days after tragedy had befallen the world of Ordana on his way to speak with the Hormai. He now is but a spirit bound to the plane of Ordana until he knows what has happened and has helped, in some way to fix it.

-Kirana, The warrior diplomat sent to visit the City of the Gods to find out what happened to the Hormai. She meets Ishnar and now travels with him to figure out what has happened to Ordana. She is not sure what to make of Ishnar or Yorn at the beginning, but both slowly grow on her.

-Yorn, a small Bantaa, he is an outcast from the main body of the nubile race of Bantaa for his strange experiments with his powers. He encounters Kirana and Ishnar as they came to ask him about his experiments and he tells them he found out how to deal with the spirits of the dead in a variety of ways, one of them making Ishnar extremely nervous.

-Kairn, a Shen, encounters the strange party of a human, a Bantaa and a spirit moving through the jungle that separates two of the Six Cities of the Gods. Kairn offers to guide them through the jungle and protect them from some of the feral Keinrou, his brothers who did not have the willpower to resist the change that affected them all around the same time the Hormai disappeared and the humans lost all contact with every other race.

Enemies
-The Keinrou – the race of Beasts who were once the intelligent Shen, but went feral from the effects of the great catastrophe. They attack any who come near their territory, or attack any they wish. Though, at times, it seems as though someone may be controlling them.
- The Outlanders – a race of people from beyond what the people of Ordana know. They have only been sighted rarely, and without seemingly evil intentions, though after the catastrophe, they have more of a presence in Ordana than before.

Non-Player Characters
- Osiris, The king of all the Hormai, the leader of all the tribes and races of Ordana. Only traces of his power remain visible to any of the races on the planet, though he does seem to be able to communicate to his children through a certain experimental Bantaa.
- Kajenral, a Shen whose life was torn apart by the catastrophe, he fights the Keinrou in an effort to free them from their ferocity, but to little avail. He encounters the main characters many times through the course of the game, at times helping them in what they are doing, or even opposing them depending on their or his disposition

Game Flow Chart

The flow of the game is branching because based upon whether or not the main character’s good/evil meter is leaning towards, and how far it leans, determines how the storyline will progress. Such as, at a pivotal point in the game, if the meter is leaning towards evil, the main characters choose to do things in a way that will adversely affect the way the characters are seen or adversely affect the people around them, while if the meter is leaning the other way, they will do things in such a way that will help how people see them or help the people themselves. It will also provide choices if the meter is not leaning one way or the other, which will show different parts of the story depending on the choice.

Environments

The environment will be a lush planet, full of grassland, jungles, forests, with everything full of life, showing little signs of ever decaying in the beginning of the game. After the tutorial sequence, after playing as non-spirit Ishnar, the environment becomes one of death, decay, and almost barren wasteland. There are cities and villages scattered around the planet, but after the catastrophe, the villages are suspicious of any outsiders, are deserted, or filled with unknown creatures.

Game Mechanics

Each character that participates in battle has equipment of some sort, and stats that are race specific.
•Each race has one attribute in common though, Wisdom, which governs how well the character can handle spirits and how well they can endure magical attacks.

•Human characters have the skill set of Strength, which governs the amount of damage able to be done with melee weapons such as swords, daggers, etc..., Dexterity, how well the characters can handle the use of ranged weapons, bows, crossbows, etc…, Endurance, which governs how much health the character has and how well they can stand up to attacks, and Intuition, which determines how effective they are at using advanced technology, such as rifles.

•Bantaa characters have the attributes Intelligence, which governs how many spells they can use (how much MP they have), Power, which governs how powerful their magic and base attack are, and Sight, which governs how likely they are to evade enemy attacks by seeing how their opponent’s are acting.

•Shen characters have the attributes of Strength, Endurance, and Ferocity, which governs how many strikes they can do in a short period of time, but also how uncontrolled they can be.

To be able to use the special attacks granted by the spirits, each character must have a spirit or spirits equipped in a special slot in the equipment screen in the menu. The power of the special attack is determined by how many spirits the character has equipped. Any character can have as many spirits equipped as they want, including having spirits attached only to one character, but each character may only use one special attack per every time they visit a save point. Each character also has a different special attack, some only hit one enemy, some hit all enemies, or some hit only a portion of the enemies in battle.

To enter Battle, the on-screen character will “attack” an on-screen enemy to initiate the battle. To give an idea, it would be a type of effect such as those used in games like Chrono Trigger© or Magna Carta©. On the Field, You may open a menu where you speak to spirits kept with your party to give you hints on what to do next or on secret areas in the game.


User Interface

Menus

Start-up Menu
- New Game – will start a new game when chosen.
- Load Game – Will give a list of saved games for the player to choose from.
- Multiplayer Game – Will give the first player a choice of continuing a saved game in multiplayer mode, or start a new game in multiplayer mode.
- Options – will let the player manipulate the sound, video, and game options, as well as allow the player to delete saved games.
- Extras – Allows the player to download extra content from the Playstation network.
In-Game Menu
- Equipment – Allows the player to see the equipment on each character, including the attached spirits, and change them if they have the items/spirits to do so.
- Status – Allows the player to view the attributes, known spells, known Techniques, and the current status of each character.
- Spirits – Allows the player to view their current spirits, and also gives them the choice to consume, send off, or keep the spirits they have. In multiplayer mode, this only allows the player to view the spirits they have collected.
- Party – Shows the player who is in their current party, and allows them to change the setup.
- World Map – Allows the player to view what of the world map they know.
- Inventory – Allows the player to see what items they have in their inventory.
- Configuration - Allows the player to manipulate the sound, video, and game options.


Controls
Left Analog Stick – movement, with speed depending on how far the stick is moved in the direction.
Right analog stick – Camera movement while on the field
D-pad – movement (walking)
X Button – accept command, action command
O Button – Cancel Button
Triangle Button – Open In-Game Menu
Square Button – Open Spirit Speaking Menu
R3 Button – Return camera to default position
Start Button – Pause Game
Select Button – Display map centered on current area
R1/L1 Buttons – Used to switch between targets in battle mode.
R2 button – command party to run from battle
L2 Button – lock onto a target during battle