Alrighty, to continue on with the characters, this time let's talk a bit about Rai, the Thunderswordsman.
This is the second character I had come up with, and he is pretty straightforward actually. He is a very fast-paced damage dealer. However, he has been the hardest for me to design and I'm not entirely sure why, I mean being such a simple character you'd imagine it would be fairly easy to come up with a fun kit for him. But enough of that, the important thing is that we finally landed on a kit that seems complete (for now).
Overload ChargesHis energy system is based on building up energy to be able to use stronger abilities. For his particular scenario, he has a passive decay of the stored energy, so he is forced to be constantly attacking enemies to build up charges.
All in all I think this goes well with the intention of him being this high-risk-fast-paced character that has to be constantly dealing damage to be effective, while also putting himself in danger.
Hack & SlashHis basic attack is really simple, but what's fun about it is how fast it is. And on top of that, I added stages to it, so that if you hit something in quick succession, you get extra hits in, causing a barrage of numbers to appear (which to me is pretty satisfying).
There's not much else to say about this, other than it helps him build Overload Charges. He doesn't gain that many from a single swing, which also encourages the player to try and get as many hits in as possible.
FlashHaving to get up close to enemies constantly puts him in a very dangerous position, so Flash is intended to help him get out of harm's way as fast as possible, and to be able to get back in too if needed.
This ability gives him an insane amount of mobility which should alleviate his squishiness.
Behemoth KillerI know it's a bit hard to tell whats going on because of the amazing placeholder assets, but bear with me: When the button to use the skill is pressed, he becomes stationary in mid air, and lets you aim. When 3 seconds pass during the stage, or the player releases the button, he dashes in the desired direction, leaving a huge trail of thunder that damages everything in its path.
This is pretty much his nuke, it scales depending on how many charges he has (see how each 4 charges form a diamond shape? well, this ability would scale with how many diamonds where available at the time it was used)
So, when used it consumes all available charges and scales travel distance, area of effect width and damage accordingly. The downside? If not aimed carefully it can leave you in a pretty bad spot, since you are completely out of charges to Flash away.
It's a very powerful skill that has to be used carefully since it can pretty much get the player killed.
And that's it for Rai for now. I'm actually pretty happy because seriously, I had been sitting with Hack&Slash and Flash for the longest time, but could never settle on a special skill that was good enough and fit his playstyle. (Hope I don't jinx it).
Anyways, next on will be the even more placeholderish Serafine