The Spirit Meter
Today I want to talk about a new feature in Swords and Sandals Immortals, the Spirit Meter.
This is an iteration of the old 'Battle Rage' meter from earlier Swords and Sandals except now the meter can go up or down during battle. This is a subtle counter, meaning it won't always be super obvious as to why it is going up or down, but things like parrying attacks, landing critical hits and so on will move the spirit meter up and show an 'inspired!' popup.
Conversely, when your character misses with attacks, takes damage or loses limbs etc, they will see a 'stressed' popup and the meter will go down. When it reaches the top of the bar or bottom of the bar, the screen will go light or dark and you'll see a full screen image of your gladiator.
Here you'll see them either become inspired or stressed out , and for the remainder of the battle ( this cannot be broken ) they will either gain a special perk or negative effect.
For example, they may gain BATTLE RAGE which makes all hits critical, or GALVANIZED which means they take half damage from attacks.
If they become fully stressed out, they may become ANGUISHED which means all their hits do half damage, or WRETCHED meaning they cannot regain any health for the fight.
Until next time,
Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios