Controls (remappable in game, but these are the defaults)
Keyboard:
Select / Search: A
Cancel / Open Status Screen: S
Map / Toggle Battle Speed: D
Options / Pause Battle: Q
Move: Arrow Keys
Controller (Xbox layout):
Select / Search: A
Cancel / Open Status Screen: B
Map / Toggle Battle Speed: RT (R2)
Options / Pause Battle: Start
Move: Joystick or D-pad
You can also perform a quick reset at any time by holding the Select, Cancel, Map, and Option keys for 2 seconds. This returns you to the title page without saving.
Combat
NOT YOUR TYPICAL TURN BASED COMBAT
Destiny Spire features an active time battle system. While battles operate much in the way standard turn based games do, there are no turns. Enemies will continuously attack whenever they are able to (when their speed bar fills up). You can take actions with your party members whenever their speed bar is full, too. Each character can attack with their weapon, special skills, or use items as soon as their speed bar fills up. You can attack with any character at any time as long as their speed bar is full, or you can leave them on standby to take emergency action, like performing a heal, when needed.
WARNING: THE BATTLE WON'T PAUSE SO YOU CAN SELECT AN ACTION!
Be careful! Enemies won’t wait for you and will continue to attack as soon as their speed gauge is full. You’ll need your wits and reflexes to survive! Make sure to make good use of your skills as well!
BATTLE OPTIONS
You can toggle the speed bars to fill more quickly to reduce waiting time. For accessibility, you can also set the global battle speed to half or double speed to suit your play style. You can also set the encounter rate to half or double.
Attacks will never miss by random chance but an attack can miss if you select an empty target or attempt to attack an enemy while they’re attacking. However, if you attack an enemy just before they attack you will deal a critical hit! Be sure to pay attention and not rush!
You’ll also need to be careful managing your items. Each character holds their own items so if they fall during battle you won’t be able to access them. Items can only trade hands outside of combat.
Story
Hailing from the town of Rumalea, city of Destiny, you awake one morning in a cold sweat, having had strange dreams throughout the night of an unknown, alluring voice calling out to you. Perhaps it is prophetic of something? Or perhaps it is just your nerves, after all, you have been called to have audience with King Rasmus of Rumalea this morning.
When you meet the king he tells you that you have been chosen as his envoy to attend peace talks amongst the 4 kingdoms as he is ill, unable to travel, and you are an adventurer of some renown on the subcontinent. After letting you recruit 3 of his warriors to aid you, you set off towards the capital city of Kongkarlsberg.
However, obstacles seem to thwart your every advance towards the capital. Could someone be trying to prevent you from reaching it? Never mind, You mustn't aggrandize such a simple diplomatic mission, you think to yourself. And yet, the seemingly prophetic words from your dream still ring loudly in your mind. Do the gods not speak to mortals in such prophecies?
As you progress on your quest, you'll have to follow clues and dive into mysteries of the past to piece together what’s going on and who's behind it all. One thing's for sure, things go deeper than you could have ever imagined.
Encounters
While exploring the overworld and dungeons you will periodically be ambushed by creatures who materialize out of the ground. If you fail to evade them before they sink back into the ground you will enter combat! Some creatures that appear on the map may be smaller or larger. The combat initiated by touching a smaller creature is more likely to have fewer enemies than a larger creature.
You might also encounter a fairy instead, who will gift you a random bonus. This can be a small item, some extra gold, or an HP or MP restore.
Traits
Every couple of levels, when not learning new skills, your characters will also be able to acquire traits. Traits offer small perks that activate automatically in certain situations. There are nearly 90 traits in total and each class has a specific pool of traits they can acquire. When leveling up you will be presented with a random selection of 4 of these traits to choose from.
Trait abilities can range from getting an attack bonus when using a certain weapon or element type, having a small chance to stun enemies with certain attacks, improving heal spells, special effects when using items, and many more. Traits will help your party members feel more personalized and create different experiences on subsequent play throughs.
Beginning Your Quest
You'll begin your quest by answering a series of questions from the king to determine your class. Before you leave, you'll be allowed to recruit 3 additional party members of any class. Up to 8 characters can be recruited in total but you can only bring 4 with you at a time.
We've tested many combinations of party members to make sure any team is viable, but some teams might pose more challenges than others. We suggest recruiting a well balanced party. You can select from these classes:
Rangers are quick and decent in both physical and magical attributes
Wizards may be weak, but they boast the most powerful of magic attacks
Barbarians make up what they lack in magical attributes with brute strength
Monks stand well against magic attacks and offer healing powers
Archers are quick and decent in attack and defense, though they are somewhat lacking in magical attributes
Mystics' magic is somewhat less powerful than wizards, though they can better hold their own without magic
Paladins are not quite as strong as barbarians but display some magical attributes
Bird Masters are decent in all attributes
Features
About 30 hours of gameplay
Over 200 different enemies to encounter
Over a dozen dungeons to complete on your quest
Explore an open overworld, dungeons, towns, and castles of the world
Retro RPG experience full of secrets to discover
8 character classes to choose from
Nearly 90 different traits your characters can learn as they level up, which you can pick from to create more personalized characters
Accessibility options such as increasing or decreasing the rate of enemy appearance
Current State of Development
UPDATE: The game is completed but we just transferred it into a new engine and need to make sure everything is still working correctly. We also decided to add some new features and content to the game.
