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Indivisible: Valkyrie Profile/Metroid, Indiegogo, PC/Mac/Linux/Switch/PS4/XB1 - Update thread

jb1234

jb1234

Very low key
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,224
Ravidrath said:
There will be full "move lists" in addition to the hints we're displaying now in the final game.

Can you be more specific?

It is placeholder and will change, but that is the general tone the writer is going for, so I'm interested in more detail here.
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I was in a bad mood when I first played it so stilted was the wrong word to use. The cute banter (especially between Anja and Razmi) just doesn't land with me but I admit that's a very subjective thing. It might work better with voice acting but I don't remember how much of this game you plan on having voiced. One constructive thing I can say is that I noticed some typos in the opening dialogue, notably a sentence with two words out of order.

(And shit, that new spider boss is a pain in the ass. :p)
 
ItemsGuy

ItemsGuy

Member
Nov 14, 2017
8
jb1234 said:
I was in a bad mood when I first played it so stilted was the wrong word to use. The cute banter (especially between Anja and Razmi) just doesn't land with me but I admit that's a very subjective thing. It might work better with voice acting but I don't remember how much of this game you plan on having voiced. One constructive thing I can say is that I noticed some typos in the opening dialogue, notably a sentence with two words out of order.

(And shit, that new spider boss is a pain in the ass. :p)
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Due to stretch goals, all major characters (ie. playable characters, maybe some important story-based characters?) will have full VO.

I agree with the writing not being...exactly where it needs to be, though. I can appreciate shounen protag-style single-mindedness, and I get that Ajna - at least at the beginning of her story - is the kind of person who likes training a lot more than learning, but it feels like most of the dialog had her at the butt of the joke. "She's kind of a meathead, get it?"

It feels like the overall audience reaction to her even at her least developed should be "Oh Ajna, you have so much to learn" and not "Goddamnit Ajna, please pay attention". It's a fine line, but it feels like the sweet spot here is something along the lines of starting out with all of the short-sightedness you'd expect from a young girl who has never been beyond her small village, who loves to jump head-first into things and doesn't much care for fine print, but at least tries to understand the world around her (even if it's in a way that fits her own limited worldview).

That being said, this was all placeholder and you guys have a writer on board you're confident in enough to pay real money to, so I'm not super worried! From what I've seen of the streams, the worldbuilding is on-point enough to carry the game on its own, but hopefully it'll have the writing and characterization to elevate it to ATLA-tier, and not have to rely entirely on a deeply-developed world, gorgeous art, an amazing soundtrack, impeccable gameplay...Well, you get the picture.
 
Ravidrath

Ravidrath

Verified
Oct 27, 2017
297
Los Angeles, CA
ItemsGuy said:
I agree with the writing not being...exactly where it needs to be, though. I can appreciate shounen protag-style single-mindedness, and I get that Ajna - at least at the beginning of her story - is the kind of person who likes training a lot more than learning, but it feels like most of the dialog had her at the butt of the joke. "She's kind of a meathead, get it?"

It feels like the overall audience reaction to her even at her least developed should be "Oh Ajna, you have so much to learn" and not "Goddamnit Ajna, please pay attention". It's a fine line, but it feels like the sweet spot here is something along the lines of starting out with all of the short-sightedness you'd expect from a young girl who has never been beyond her small village, who loves to jump head-first into things and doesn't much care for fine print, but at least tries to understand the world around her (even if it's in a way that fits her own limited worldview).
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This is pretty good feedback - thanks.

I had similar reaction to some of this at first, but maybe I'm just used to it now, and of course I know where things are going.

This is probably exacerbated by the starting characters, too - Dhar doesn't like her, and Razmi is a constantly sarcastic know-it-all.
 
Ravidrath

Ravidrath

Verified
Oct 27, 2017
297
Los Angeles, CA
I was on Giant Bomb last night with Earl, and figured people may enjoy that.

Here's a direct link to our segment:

https://youtu.be/tFlky6URphA?t=2h17m33s

This was an all 505 segment, and we're on with Warren Spector and Joe Fielder from Underworld Ascendent, and Anna Megill from Control.

Jeff and Joe were my editors at Gamespot, so we (surprisingly) end up taking a bit to discuss some old Gamespot stories.
 
Spiritreaver

Spiritreaver

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,234
Finally got around to playing the new preview (I actually didn't realize it was out until today). It's much better than the last preview, and I definitely felt as if the combat clicked with me much more. Maybe it's due to the additional characters that weren't present before.

Sorry I don't have much input to offer. I think the game itself looks like it's well on track to being just what I want and likely more than that. So I wanted to share my enjoyment of the demo. The gameplay is definitely there, and hopefully the story will be as well.
 
Dreamboum

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
22,847
I played the new backer preview and I like it a lot.

I really enjoy how gorgeous the game looks, Ajna's animations are really nice and I really love the oomph that her slide animation has, and also how goofy it is in a way. I still really enjoy the music, I feel like I can feel its Soukaigi influence now. The boss theme is fun Latigo was fun, especially how you have to remind yourself to have enough bullets in the barrel. The boss stomped me though but I really liked those mechanics, though it felt too punishing. I think battles are much easier to understand now, especially when it comes to blocking and grab. A practice room with an in-game manual would help sooo much though, I didn't follow the development process closely and kinda forgot the new combat updates so I was very lost for a while until I rewatched the video that details what's new.

Here are my feedback of the preview so far, I stopped at the spider boss so I still have much to discover. I think at this point the game is pretty much my dream game as a fan of Valkyrie Profile. Adding Kikuta to the music is what sealed it a long time ago anyway.

- Tutorial prompts stopping the music puts me away from the experience a bit
- I feel the tutorial still needs to be a little bit more hands-on when it comes to button presses. For example, I feel it should highlight exactly when the grab should be teched so there is a good baseline of what to expect in terms of timing instead of just explaining it. Like putting a tutorial prompt exactly when the tech should happen and force the player to press the block button to complete the tutorial. Maybe even run that two or three more times so I can try my hands on what to expect.
- A tutorial for knowing how to trigger the map would be cool, took me too long to realize I should hold up lol. I also am not sure how to parse the map with all the icons.
- giga nitpick but I felt Ratna's lines kinda interrupted the flow of dialogues lol, it was a nice banter but then her lines became busier, I think it'll help if her lines are something like 1 sentence = 1 text box instead of putting two sentences in one text box.

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- Extreme nitpick too but I was a bit disappointed that Ratna would join the inner realm, which is our first exposure with this mechanic, and has nothing to say other than that I don't have enough Ringsels. It's just preview stuff anyway so it doesn't matter
- Are footsteps sounds going to be more diverse in the retail release ?

- I like the timestop but I feel a slow-motion for fights that ends up in level-ups would be cooler. Also I don't think you would need to confirm to go past the results screen, it should just fade away after X time

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- I think red ringsels should be shown in the menu so we know the progression
- Can there be a practice room like Valkyrie Profile ? I'd love to have a place to try out timings and strategies
- The "Configure all controls" shouldn't be the very first option because I keep accepting to do it when I just want to double check what button does what lol
- I wonder if Latigo should have a bullet counter or anything that indicates if your barrel might be empty or not
- I didn't know characters had a charge button that would act as a guard break, you should definitely include it in a tutorial and remind people often because forgetting about it might make the experience much slower and frustrating for players
- I put the game in english and although the text is in english, the character cards when recruiting them were in french.

boss spider:

The boss poison phase felt a bit too long overall and kinda stopped me in my tracks to continue. Was I expected to hit the boss with the axe when it comes down ? The timing is tight with such a short-range weapon. If not I didn't get the solution for now, but I liked that using the bow gave Iddhi meter. I wonder if you can force the boss to come down if you use the bow upwards during the poison phase, I should test that out.

I think my little grievances could have been sold if I rewatched the combat update video because I kinda went in semi-blind and semi-forgetting the new changes. In any case it's very fun and I'm going to come back to beat the boss. Should we expect similar interactions when it comes to recruiting characters or it is going to be more fleshed out in the final release ?
 
Ravidrath

Ravidrath

Verified
Oct 27, 2017
297
Los Angeles, CA
Dreamboum said:
Lots of stuff.
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Thanks for the feedback! I'll be sure to pass it onto the team.

To answer a few of your questions...
  1. There will be a training yard in the Inner Realm to practice with party formations, combos, etc.

  2. In the final game, about half of the characters will come to you via story progression, and about half will come from optional sidequests.

    The way you get Ginseng and Honey is what most of those quests will be like.

  3. A lot of the things you're seeing in this Backer Preview are kind of compressed compared to how they'll be in the real game, since we only have the one level to try and get everything tutorial'ed in. In the final game, battle mechanics and the like will be introduced more gradually.

  4. The difficulty in the Backer Preview is likely higher than that level will be in the final game, as well. Again, we're trying to make something that appeals to backers that have a lot of experience with the game at this point.
 
Dreamboum

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
22,847
Ravidrath said:
Thanks for the feedback! I'll be sure to pass it onto the team.

To answer a few of your questions...
  1. There will be a training yard in the Inner Realm to practice with party formations, combos, etc.

  2. In the final game, about half of the characters will come to you via story progression, and about half will come from optional sidequests.

    The way you get Ginseng and Honey is what most of those quests will be like.

  3. A lot of the things you're seeing in this Backer Preview are kind of compressed compared to how they'll be in the real game, since we only have the one level to try and get everything tutorial'ed in. In the final game, battle mechanics and the like will be introduced more gradually.

  4. The difficulty in the Backer Preview is likely higher than that level will be in the final game, as well. Again, we're trying to make something that appeals to backers that have a lot of experience with the game at this point.
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Thanks for the clarifications, can't wait to defeat the boss soon
 

ZoronMaro

Member
Oct 30, 2017
525
I never commented on the old or new build, but my only comments (training room, move list, spread out the tutorial over a longer period and also make it more robust) I already know are going to be in the final game.

I guess I do want to give my encouragement to the whole team that it looks and feels great so far. I remember during the campaign being down on the backgrounds and wasn't confident the 3D could mesh with the 2D, but damn you guys did it very well. The game feel has been solid since the beginning, but that's also gotten better, and what I've heard of the soundtrack is everything I hoped.

I do have a question, that I think might have been answered a long time ago, but what difficulty are you guys shooting for? Obviously I know the preview is harder than a normal starting area and the full game will give me more time to get used to the combat, but even so I have to wonder how often I'm going to fail and restart in the full game (even after beating the boss once I still have trouble messing up timings and healers seems completely non-optional). As an example, as a casual fighting game fan comboing here seems super hard cause your can't just tech into the next hit you need to carefully time 4 independent characters which reminds me of the months I spent (failing) to play the drums. Is the final boss of this game going to demand I've mastered all the systems with the technical proficiency of Daigo, or will that just be limited to optional super bosses and stuff?
 
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dedacc

User requested ban
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Oct 28, 2017
318
That looks bloody gorgeous... and I won't be getting any. Curse you, non-Star-Trek-Future where I can't beam!
 

Deleted member 6137

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Oct 25, 2017
1,386
Writing Indivisible's Story
Posted on 28th June 2018, Edited 28th June 2018 by admin
Thumbnail_Story.jpg

Hi folks! My name is Brandon Sheffield, and I'm the lead writer on Indivisible!

Since the brand-new backer preview has a few cutscenes now, I figured I'd tell you a bit about myself, the writing process, and how I'm working with the team!

Who's Ajna?
The first and most important thing I had to sort out is Ajna. She's the main character, obviously, so everything more or less revolves around her in one way or another. I had to think about her as the kind of person who can draw together warriors, healers, and malcontents from various walks of life, all across the world of Indivisible.
Indiv_Story2-1024x576.jpg


She also goes through some serious conflicts and transitions throughout her journey, so it's very important that players like her from the start, even if she makes mistakes. Ajna needs to be more than just likable though – she has to react to dozens of Incarnations, NPCs, and enemies without getting boring, so she needs an extra solid base. She also needs to be fluid, so she can react in believable, amusing, or touching ways in any situation.

I really hope you'll like Ajna as I've characterized her, combining input from the rest of the team with my own ideas. She's funny, she's overly-positive, she's a bit naive, tries her best to do the right thing, and is always ready to throw down. Her friends play with this for their own amusement, as you'll see in the Backer Preview.

How's the Story Made?
The rest of the team has been working on the plot of Indivisible for more than two years now. I've only joined recently, so while I'm massaging and affecting the story as I go along, I'm largely writing a script along plot lines set out by the team. Since this is a story that draws heavily from various mythologies from around the world, it was important that the major plot points, names of people and places, and lore were all created by the folks who knew it best.

My job is to bring these outlines to life through dialog, bring up potential plot conflicts with the team, and ultimately sew everything up into a nice package. I have a tendency toward humor and lightheartedness, so you'll get to see all the characters in the game poking fun at each other and playing around when they're not in a serious situation. There are a lot of serious situations in the game, so I enjoy lightening things up when I can, without killing the mood.

The team has been working so closely with this story for so long that it's easy to get mired in old details or story conflicts. There have been loads of revisions to the story over time, and a pair of fresh eyes can really offer a new perspective! So I've been going through with the team and massaging the story where necessary, figuring out what works best for the story and beefing up character motivations while retaining the original vision.

With any luck, you'll find Indivisible to be full of characters you like (and some you don't), and both fun and challenging situations!
Indiv_Story1-1024x576.jpg


About Brandon!
So, introducing myself!
brandon-300x300.png

I've been writing game scripts for about 18 years now, either in a naturalization capacity (for games like Sine Mora), or original writing (for games like Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Edition and Astraeus). I also do comics! Notably No Girlfriend Comics and Hot Comics for Cool People, both with my friend Dami Lee.

I'm also a game director in my own right – I run my own game company called Necrosoft Games, where we make weird games about drifting into deer, volleyball with guns, and demonic classrooms. If you wanna follow me or us on Twitter, please do!

Overall, I'm happy to be on the project, and looking forward to helping the whole team make something you're hopefully all gonna like!

—

If you need to update your BackerKit order, such as changing your game's platform or your shipping address, please contact BackerKit Customer Support.

If you have questions unrelated to updating your order, you can contact us at indiegogo (at) labzerogames (dot) com.

Follow us on Twitter (@IndivisibleRPG), Facebook or Steam for the latest news!

Posted in Indivisible, Update
 
Ultimadrago

Ultimadrago

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,136
Playing the newest demo Ajna and Ramzi was even more amusing than I thought they'd be. And I'm hoping for lots of that in the game too: Character interaction and not just stuff about the quest at hand (like the mistake so many JRPGs make with party banter).

So it seems Brandon worked on Sine Mora. I never played that unfortunately, only heard about it. I'm guessing some of his work was looked over before being brought on board so here's hoping from me!
 
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FPX

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,273
Oh crap, oh crap, is it too late to switch my Indivisible order from PS4 to Switch? I remember hearing the news that it was Switch-bound when it first came out, but since then I forgot and thought it wasn't. Only after rewatching some old stuff did I remember, and I seem to be half a year late.
 
Ultimadrago

Ultimadrago

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,136
Hey Ravi, Is the figure going on sale later or was it a Backer exclusive?

Also is Lanshi plushie still going to be a thing?
 
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SweetSark

SweetSark

Banned
Nov 29, 2017
3,640
So, who else think the whole plot of the story is related with the creation of a perfect "Paradise"?

I strongly believe the inner realm of Ajna will play a major role in the game.
Right now Ajna allow pretty much anyone who are good nature and believe strongly in them to be part of herself.
There is a concept which said that someone can create a Paradise related with the well-being of other people someone had met.
What if the antagonist do the same, but doesn't care about anything at all?
Everyone is allowed to the Paradise the villain want to create.
So in reality the bad guy isn't a villain, but Ajna is, because she select specific persons who believe are good for her.
But the antagonist won't.

Just a brainstrom thought I had for the story of the game, because I remember I read something about this belief somewhere.
 

Crocodile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,071
So the Lab Zero Anime Expo panel is starting in about 10 minutes. Is there going to be a stream?
 
dragonlife

dragonlife

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
873
Ravidrath said:
I was on Giant Bomb last night with Earl, and figured people may enjoy that.

Here's a direct link to our segment:

https://youtu.be/tFlky6URphA?t=2h17m33s

This was an all 505 segment, and we're on with Warren Spector and Joe Fielder from Underworld Ascendent, and Anna Megill from Control.

Jeff and Joe were my editors at Gamespot, so we (surprisingly) end up taking a bit to discuss some old Gamespot stories.
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Sorry I don't have any feedback to give you and your team's game except for saying that you and Earl are looking
5mQI.gif


<3

/whore

Still eagerly awaiting release, etc.
 
Fallen92

Fallen92

Member
Oct 26, 2017
215
California
General overview of the panel:
going over the last update where they announced Brandon Sheffield as lead writer

Showed off some more of the final designs for some of the characters as well as some more animations

Showed off some more background art, a bedroom, a rainy city environment, an old dark and musty room, and a mesoamerican style temple with a blue floating orb

Showed off a new sand worm enemy, it's red and has a drill atrack

showed of some in progress gameolay showing off some more character animations as well as the fact that the orbs that denote each characters attack now have their corresponding button on it as well

Lanshi plush!! Looks very cute and is apparently as soft as a chinchillas fur

Hiroki Kikuta talks about how he creates the music for the game

And lastly, they showed off a short teaser
For the opening animation of the game featuring animation from trigger and titmouse with yoh yoshinari (little witch academia) as director. It looked really good.

Sorry for the very short and abridged erosion of this but I'm on mobile.

All in all the game seems to be progressing well specially with the new staff they have and it looks great. Hopefully there will be no more delays and also hope they post the panel up later because from what I can see it looks like it was recorded just not live streamed.

They also talked about new characters being added to skullgirls mobile like squiggly and also a origin story for parasol they also announced skullgirls is coming to Nintendo Switch! Being published by skybound.
 
Ultimadrago

Ultimadrago

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,136
Fallen92 said:
General overview of the panel:
going over the last update where they announced Brandon Sheffield as lead writer

Showed off some more of the final designs for some of the characters as well as some more animations

Showed off some more background art, a bedroom, a rainy city environment, an old dark and musty room, and a mesoamerican style temple with a blue floating orb

Showed off a new sand worm enemy, it's red and has a drill atrack

showed of some in progress gameolay showing off some more character animations as well as the fact that the orbs that denote each characters attack now have their corresponding button on it as well

Lanshi plush!! Looks very cute and is apparently as soft as a chinchillas fur

Hiroki Kikuta talks about how he creates the music for the game

And lastly, they showed off a short teaser
For the opening animation of the game featuring animation from trigger and titmouse with yoh yoshinari (little witch academia) as director. It looked really good.

Sorry for the very short and abridged erosion of this but I'm on mobile.

All in all the game seems to be progressing well specially with the new staff they have and it looks great. Hopefully there will be no more delays and also hope they post the panel up later because from what I can see it looks like it was recorded just not live streamed.

They also talked about new characters being added to skullgirls mobile like squiggly and also a origin story for parasol they also announced skullgirls is coming to Nintendo Switch! Being published by skybound.
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Wow, thanks! Glad to have confirmation on the Lanshi plush question I just made. Haha

I wasn't sure if they'd tease any of the opening either. Sounds cool! Again, I appreciate you sharing.
 
Fallen92

Fallen92

Member
Oct 26, 2017
215
California
Ultimadrago said:
Aw, seems like the image broke, but I saw it. Man, I wish we could have chose between the Roti or it. lol. Ah well, I'll just as likely purchase it, especially with such rumored softness!
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Sorry about that I was in a rush and also on mobile so I'm not surprised the image broke. It should be fixed now.

Also here are some pics I found taken by someone else that was there of the opening animation. I wish I could've recorded it but I was at a bad angle.
 
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