Soulstorm Legacy
From Ezrian Wiki
Soulstorm Legacy was an amateur JRPG made with the RPG Maker series that Abyssal spent several years intermittently working on. The story was set in the fictional world that would later come to be known as Eirbane. The final story, broadly, followed underdog warrior Choler Bygonne as he battled to prevent Anchein of Belial from restarting an interdimensional war by opening magic Gateways using energy harvested from human souls he collected through acts of mass murder with the help of a Soulstorm Shard. Its cancellation occurred gradually after a hard drive crashed, deleting important resources and storyline information. After the crash Abyssal gradually lost motivation and, noting the lack of substantial progress despite years of effort, realized the whole endeavor was a waste.
Contents |
[edit] Story
Soulstorm Legacy's storyline has changed significantly as the project developed, although it's core has always revolved around underdog hero Choler Bygonne's quest to stop Anchein from achieving apotheosis by wiping out humanity and absorbing the magic energy contained in their souls with the Soulstorm Shards.
[edit] Project History
[edit] Versions
| Version | Description | Title |
|---|---|---|
|
1.0 |
Version 1.0 was the first version of Soulstorm Legacy ever created. The project began while Abyssal was first learning how to use the console version of RPG Maker. It had only the most preliminary narrative for a storyline. The story followed the adventures of likable underdog and aspiring knight Choler Bygone as he undergoes his trial for entry into the knights who guard his hometown, Vistatus. When he returns from his mission, he finds that a crazed lunatic with god-like powers has burned Vistatus to the ground. The arsonist introduces himself as Storma and has apparently killed everyone in the village. He reveals that he intends to do similarly to the entire kingdom of Bathall, before teleporting away. Choler and his allies vow to avenge Vistatus and stop Storma from laying waste to Bathall before setting out on a journey to the capital to warn the king about Storma's plans. Development on this version was canceled due to the accumulation of graphics errors that interfered with gameplay. | |
|
2.0 |
Version 2.0 was started as a corrective revamp of numerous graphics errors made in created the various "dungeons." The storyline became longer, but was still simple.The early game was identical to version 1.0, with Storma massacring and burning Choler's hometown while he was away performing a trial to gain entry to the city's knighthood. Storma says he'll destroy all of Bathall the same way he destroyed Vistatus, and Choler embarks northward to warn the king. The king charges Choler and his companions with killing Storma, who they pursue farther northward across Bathall. Unlike in version 1.0, at the northernmost point in Bathall when they confront Storma he informs them that he will be massacring the inhabitants of the continent to the west and teleports away. Choler and his companions tell the king of Storma's plans to move. The king, though relieved, believes that Storma is still a threat and sends Choler and his companions to pursue Storma and kill him before he can return to do more damage. Choler and the group sail to the Western continent and Pursue Storma north, meeting new allies along the way. At the northern tip of the western continent Storma informs Choler and his allies that he's done massacring and will use the accumulated energy contained in the souls of the people he killed to destroy the world. He says that since Choler and his allies were the only people in the world to give him challenging resistance and he would like to test his powers against a worthy opponent, that Storma would like them to fight him in his fortress on Star Island. If they win, they save the world, if he wins, he'll destroy the world, becoming a god in the process by absorbing the soul of every human being on the planet. | |
|
3.0 |
Version 3.0 was a short-lived generation that never got any bigger than a few maps. It represented the game's transition to the PC with my discovery of the RPG Maker 2000 platform. I thought the move was a clear choice because I knew that if I ever finished the project it would be much easier to distribute through the internet than a console game would be. I also had reason to believe that RPG Maker 2000 had more technical capabilities than its console counterpart, a suspicion later confirmed. This version was abandoned after Abyssal gained enough competence at rm2k to become dissatisfied with previous work. | |
|
4.0 |
Version 4.0 was started to take advantage of resources both custom and obtained online. For the first time it's story began approaching its "modern" form. Production stopped when Abyssal realized his skills were increasing consistently faster than progress was being made. | |
|
5.0 |
Version 5.0 began as Abyssal realized that his skills at making RPG Maker games were increasing faster than he was able to make them. He decided he would dedicate himself to developing those abilities before making substantial progress so that he wouldn't have to go back and redo previous work once he became capable of better results. Many aspects of the setting and story of the game were revamped in this generation. The aesthetics also received major changes as Abyssal began an obsessive quest to obtain better quality graphics and sounds for the game. | |
|
6.0 |
Version 6.0 represented the transition from RPG Maker 2000 to RPG Maker 2003. This generation was short lived because Abyssal was still more interested in building his skills than in making tangible progress on the game. | |
|
7.0 |
Version 7.0 saw the return to active work on "programming" actual gameplay. | |
|
8.0 |
final |
[edit] Cancellation
Main article: Cancellation
Abyssal began flirting with the idea of canceling the project not long after he graduated from high school. However he still really wanted to make the game work and continued trying to make progress. He gradually realized that it was useless to continue working when after more than five years of work he had never even made a demo of significant length. Abyssal went into denial and insisted he could actually succeed if life circumstance would stop impeding him. Not long into the fall semester of his second year in college Abyssal's harddrive headcrashed. Among the lost data were the earliest form of Ezrian Wiki, large amounts of RPG Maker resources, and much progress in "programming." The headcrash undid approximately six months of unusually productive activity. Further exacerbating the hardship was that the headcrash occurred in conjunction with the death of a close female friend in a car accident with a drunk driver, that Abyssal was already in a deep depressive spell, and that Abyssal had been actively planning on backing up the data the weekend of the very week that the crash occurred. The devastating loss of work coming at the worst possible time greatly discouraged Abyssal and although he considered canceling the project, he trudged forward. Several months later he realized that he still hadn't even caught up to where he was before. Realizing the whole endeavor was petering out, Abyssal desperately committed himself to making tangible gameplay progress. Things went moderately smoothly at first, but Abyssal's old urges to edit and perfect everything over and over, and new storyline ideas changing the direction of the story both arose to interfere with progress. This final interruption of progress opened Abyssal's eyes to the true futility of all the effort he had put into the project. He became emotionally able to deal with letting the whole RPG Maker thing go.
[edit] Soulstorm Legacy
A depressive young man leads a small group of allies in a desperate bid to defeat the leader of a shadowy cabal that is hell-bent on opening magic portals in order to restart an apocalyptic interdimensional war.
[edit] ???
Choler Baigonne is weak, cowardly and miserable. The only thing keeping him sane is his life's dream of leaving his hometown and becoming a knight. Despite his weaknesses, when his hometown is invaded Choler somehow manages to find a new inner strength... at least temporarily. He spontaneously learned the great magic spell Hadespyros in battle and became a small-town hero. This ability catches the attenion of some very influential people, and Choler is given a duty of immense importance, thus giving him a shot at his dream. However, will he be able to recollect and control a skill he learned spontaneously? And will this power be enough to save him from the shadowy figure that haunts his nightmares? 1
Choler Baigonne is a weakling and a coward. Everyone in the village of Vistatus looks down upon him. Until an unprovoked invasion forces him to find a new power within himself. Where did this power come from? Why did the Giraunian forces attack? Who is the Broken Man who haunts Choler’s nightmares? What are the strange beings that are intent on killing Choler? In the beginning there are only questions. Answers will be found, but at what cost?
2
The Atelds are loyal to each other and the crown, right? Why then will they have to fight over who continues onward to assassinate Zadok? Who is Theron and what is his connection to Mezdarch? Will the mission succeed?
