Hi folks,
Choose-your-own-adventure games are all about giving you the freedom to make choices and seeing those choices change the game. They're packed with stories and parts of the world that you might never see, depending on what you decide to do. It's your adventure, so you're in charge of everything from picking your skills to deciding who, if anyone, you want to romance. Today, we're going to talk about the dating and combat parts of Erannorth Renaissance. Whether you're into the romance or the action, there's something here for you.
Romance
Romance in games can cause a lot of discussions about whether it should be included and what happens when characters get involved romantically. As the person creating the story, I'm not here to force any decisions or make you see things you're not okay with. I give you the choices, and it's up to you to decide what you want to do. More importantly, there are options to turn off these parts entirely or change them to what you're comfortable with.
In Erannorth Renaissance, the decision to incorporate romance and more explicit text scenes into your story is yours alone to make.
You have the freedom to explore relationships with anyone as long as there's mutual attraction. From the start, you can set your preferences for romance and more sensual content. These options will be clearly marked, ensuring you don't accidentally give your friends the wrong idea.
NPCs can set the stage for a romantic scene, but it's your choices that determine the direction of the interaction. Options marked with a pink or red heart signal the potential to shift a friendly exchange into a romantic one. A brighter red heart indicates options for more intimate interactions, giving clear cues for the depth of romance you're engaging with. You will never see scenes or options to romance characters your PC isn't attracted to.
Let's take one of the least subtle scenes for example:
The night wears on, and you both settle into a watchful, uneasy rest. Jocelyn comes in your bedroom covered in a bedsheet, her eyes filled with a blend of vulnerability and determination. She gazes at you for a moment, her lips parting slightly as if she wants to say something, but no words escape her mouth. You can feel the weight of her unspoken thoughts hanging in the air, intertwining with the silence that envelops the room.
This scene occurs because Diana and Jocelyn share a compatible orientation, and Diana has chosen to pursue a romance with Jocelyn while also opting in for more intimate content. Despite these choices, selecting the response "Can't sleep?" stops the scene from progressing further. This choice prevents the disclosure that Jocelyn was only covered by a bedsheet, among other details, effectively halting the advancement into more intimate territory.
We previously discussed how the game blends random NPCs with scripted ones. A question arose about managing the numerous NPCs and understanding their purpose. Your interactions with these NPCs are influenced by your relationship with them and your skills. Friends might offer quests or join your party, enemies could become threats, and with strangers, the possibilities range from pickpocketing to more unique interactions, depending on your character's path, like feeding as a vampire.
Though these encounters are scripted to feel random, they're designed to enrich your experience. You can choose to engage with several NPCs to diversify your journey or focus solely on the main storyline, ignoring sandbox elements. Your character sheet includes a section for tracking all your relationships, their status, and relevant details, making it easy to keep track of your connections and interactions.
This is how this screen looks at the moment.
Clicking on the compass highlights the tile where you can find them, and you can also view their schedule to know when you can expect to find them there.
NPCs' attraction preferences are randomly assigned upon creation and remain consistent. Unlike these NPCs, your companions have fixed orientations, affecting their availability for romance based on your character's attributes.
As with all Erannorth games, customization through mods is encouraged. You can alter NPCs and companions alike, potentially unlocking non-canonical romances and tailoring the story to your liking.
Below is a screenshot of the in-game modding tools.
Combat
While romance in the game is optional, combat plays a crucial role but is designed to be adjustable. You have control over the intensity of your encounters by setting the number of hostile warbands that pursue you in the open world. This allows you to tailor the combat experience to your preference. While combat is often woven into the story, your skills offer pathways to circumvent many conflicts.
However, there will be scenarios where fighting is unavoidable. Fortunately, the game equips you with a broad spectrum of tools, including consumable items like potions and food, to prepare for these encounters.
The game features a variety of effects and conditions that can enhance your character's abilities or weaken your opponents. These elements serve as the foundational building blocks for the actions you can take during combat, providing depth and strategy to engagements.
- Bleed: Bleeding causes a loss of HP at the end of each target's turn for the duration of the effect.
- Defense: Defense reduces incoming damage for the duration of the effect. Lost Defense doesn't recover.
- Dodge: Dodge increases the chance to dodge attacks for the duration of the effect.
- Dominate: Domination grants control over targets' movements during their turns for the duration of the effect.
- Fear: Fear compels targets to flee during their turns for the duration of the effect.
- Fortify: Fortify reduces incoming damage for the duration of the effect.
- Haste: Haste grants additional AP for the duration of the effect.
- Healing: Healing restores HP up to the target's maximum.
- Poison: Poison causes a loss of HP at the end of each target's turn for the duration of the effect.
- Precision: Precision increases critical hit chance for the duration of the effect.
- Regenerate: Regenerate restores HP at the end of each target's turn for the duration of the effect.
- Retaliate: Retaliate causes the target to return half of the damage received to their attacker for the duration of the effect.
- Strengthen: Strengthen increases damage dealt for the duration of the effect.
- Stun: Stun causes targets to lose their turn for the specified number of turns.
- Summon: Summons an ally to fight alongside you for the duration of the effect.
- Vulnerable: Vulnerable causes targets to receive extra damage for the duration of the effect.
- Weaken: Weaken reduces targets' damage for the duration of the effect.
You can easily inspect the Enemies (or allies) to see their tactics and any status effects currently affecting them.
Actions in the game can be made up of multiple effects, all of which affect the action's target whether positive or negative. Targets can be:
- specific to the caster,
- a single entity within range,
- a radial area around a tile,
- or a line of targets.
Strategic placement of your companions and use of special obstacle tiles, such as blocks of wood or piles of rocks, allow you to control the flow of the battlefield and block enemy movement.
An important aspect of the game is that your party members can face permanent death, but this is not a consequence of combat or failed skill rolls. Instead, any characters who fall in battle are revived with 1 HP once the combat concludes, ensuring that the risk of losing characters permanently does not stem from the heat of battle but from your choices.
"Dying": Dying status renders your companions unable to act for the remainder of the combat. However, actors have a chance, equal to their luck, to regain consciousness with 1 HP during their turn and continue fighting. At the end of combat, assuming your party won, they automatically revive with 1 HP.
Enemies die instantly. How unfair!
After combat concludes, you have the opportunity to gather resources from special tiles, like harvesting wood from trunks, and to search fallen enemies for treasures. While there's an option to quickly loot all enemies, taking this shortcut might cause you to overlook hidden items they might have.
That's all for today! If you have any questions or suggestions, please make sure to post them below!