Lost Eidolons News

Hello, Tacticians. My name is Minyoung Lee, AKA Mocha. I'm a developer from Korea who’s been a part of the Lost Eidolons development team from the very beginning. I'm happy to introduce myself to all of you today before I write the next Dev Log, coming later this week!

What do I do?

I conceptualize and create content for the world outside of battles, known as the "metagame," in Lost Eidolons and Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch. This includes quests, training, shops, “rapport”, UI, and more. Additionally, I’ve handled a variety of important tasks such as putting spears in soldiers’ hands, putting horses into the stables, and pasting wanted posters all over the camp. It’s fair to say I’ve have had my hands on pretty much everything players experience outside of battle at least once.



When did I start making games?

I joined the development team in 2018, but before that, I had already created indie games on my own. Starting in 2016, I released several games such as "Charlotte's Corridor" and "Mistry Fantasia" on the Google Play Store, and some of them garnered a considerable number of downloads. Though they might not have the greatest art, UX, or writing, those projects taught me that with enough creativity and perseverance, someone will appreciate your work – a valuable lesson for any young creative person.

As I grew more experienced, I wanted to create more ambitious, high-quality games. So I used the work I’d done as a portfolio and joined a larger studio, where I was tasked with conceptualizing how to present our game world.



What games do I enjoy as a player?

Glancing through my Steam data, it seems I spend most of my time on strategy and simulation games. I was particularly devoted to RimWorld, spending close to 1,000 hours constructing settlements and experiencing both joy and frustration. I've also cleared all achievements in Slay the Spire, achieving Ascension 20, and I'm a huge fan of titles like Sid Meier's Civilization and the Danganronpa series.

Outside of PC, I'm also a fan of anime-style games. At the moment, I’m playing a lot of Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail (and spending a little too much money to unlock characters), to add some spice to my life.



Thoughts on Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch

The Lost Eidolons series is very important to my story as a game developer. They’re the first games I've been involved with from inception to release as part of a larger team, and to say I’ve learned a lot would be an understatement. My goal moving forward is to improve my skills in everything I work on, including metagame content, UI/UX, character art, and more. With Veil of the Witch, I believe we can streamline what made the first game fun, eliminate things players found tedious, and in so doing, create a game that connects with players more deeply .

What games do I dream of making?

To me, an enjoyable game is one with an immersive world. I appreciate games where the characters aren’t simply there, but are integral parts of the setting. Players' imaginations are often richer than developers', and I love settings that leave room to imagine what might live in the margins.

To create worlds like that, you don’t necessarily need massive amounts of text or complex systems like Baldur's Gate 3 or Disco Elysium. Games like VA-11 HALL-A and Papers, Please are great examples, and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim plays in a similar space, while taking it further with amazing presentation and art. I’d like to create a world that captures the imagination that way. Beyond that, questions like genre or IP don’t concern me as much; it could be a sequel to Lost Eidolons or something entirely new.



Parting thoughts

Now that we’ve gotten to know one another a little better, I hope you'll come back and read by dev blog, where I’ll share more about the metagame and overall flow in Veil of the Witch. Specifically, I’ll be talking about how the camp system in Lost Eidolons came to be, and how we’re changing things up this time around.

Stay tuned!
Minyoung/Mocha

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/2530490/Lost_Eidolons_Veil_of_the_Witch/

Hello Tacticians,

This is Jin Sang Kim, Creative Director of Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch. Today I’d like to answer some common questions about the game, specifically relating to character customization, game structure, and language support.

[h3]Character Customization[/h3]
One unfortunate drawback of how the first Lost Eidolons approached its story was the inability to customize the protagonist, Eden.

While Veil of the Witch won’t offer full character customization, I can confirm players will be able to choose between male and female character models, as well as lighter or darker skin-tones.



Looking ahead to the franchise’s future, I can say that full character customization is a major wish-list item for us, on future projects in the series.

[h3]Game Structure[/h3]
In Lost Eidolons, chapters followed a simple pattern: pre-battle cutscenes, battle, post-battle cutscenes, camp section, repeat. Veil of the Witch makes significant changes to that basic play-loop, bringing in elements of the roguelite genre.

In Veil of the Witch, the player embarks on expeditions from their Base Camp, and undertakes heavily randomized battles and events, punctuated by repeatable story-driven bossfights.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

When they’re defeated in battle, the player is returned to their Base Camp, where they can undertake a variety of activities, including promoting characters’ classes, engaging in dialogue between party members, exploring unlockable story content, and unlocking new upgrades at the Altar of Fire.

In terms of character growth, players can expect a mix of temporary and persistent elements. During expeditions, players will come across various items, skills, etc that improve their party’s abilities and stats. When they die, these single-run upgrades are lost. However, they’ll also be gathering various currencies they can spend in camp to unlock persistent upgrades, steadily improving their party’s strength over time.

We look forward to players getting to try out these systems for themselves during Early Access.

[h3]Language Support[/h3]
In terms of language support, we’ve seen various questions and requests for specific languages, so I’d like to clarify where our plans stand at the moment.

During Early Access, we plan to focus on English and Korean. Other languages will be added once the game is a little closer to release, as we believe that’s more efficient and leads to higher-quality localization.

With regards to which specific languages we plan to support, that question is unfortunately still up in the air. Players can expect more information on that at some point down the road, during Early Access.

Jin Sang Kim, Creative Director

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2530490/Lost_Eidolons_Veil_of_the_Witch/

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Tacticians,

Can you believe it? Lost Eidolons has been out a full year since our launch in October 2022.
Our studio spent the bulk of 2023 launching Blackout Protocol into Early Access, but we also spent the year working to deliver on our promise to Lost Eidolons’ original Kickstarter backers–rolling out on consoles and shipping the physical Collector’s Edition. Happily, we were able to make good on our commitments before celebrating our first anniversary!

If you’ve been following us lately, you are undoubtedly aware that we also announced Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch this year, a spinoff that hones in on what you all said was the best part of Lost Eidolons–the combat. We are marching to put this game in your hands in 2024 as we plan out the year with betas and demos. When you finally get to play, we hope you will again see that we deliver on our core promise of taking feedback as we took the feedback from the original game to heart and applied the learnings in Veil of the Witch.

We hope to bring a playable game to you soon. But until then, please WISHLIST and FOLLOW Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch to keep up to date with our dev logs.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays!
Now, onward to 2024!

-ODS Team

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/2530490/Lost_Eidolons_Veil_of_the_Witch/

Tacticians,

Season's greetings from Artemesia. And 'tis the season of gifting as well.
If you know a fellow turn-based tactical RPG fan in your life, why not gift them Lost Eidolons, now on 40% sale?

And if you have the game but have not yet picked up the DLCs, gift yourself the music and art of Lost Eidolons at the same 40% discount.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580520/Lost_Eidolons/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162250/Lost_Eidolons__Artbook__World_Map/?curator_clanid=40281027

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162240/Lost_Eidolons__Original_Soundtrack/?curator_clanid=40281027

- ODS Team

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In the world of Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch, there are 9 playable characters, each with a unique class. As the game progresses, players can promote their characters twice into more powerful roles.

The 9 character-specific starting classes are Hermit, Initiate, Librarian, Mercenary, Wanderer, Swordsman, Outcast, and Oracle. In this post, we'll take a closer look at one character, Evie, and explore how the weapon system, classes, and skills have evolved in Veil of the Witch.

[h3]Evie’s Party Role[/h3]


Evie starts as an Initiate, capable of fulfilling the roles of a healer and combat support, with some supplementary offensive options. She wields a Tome as her main weapon (our new name for light magic spellbooks), and primarily serves as a healer, using spells to restore allies’ health or dispel harmful status effects.

However, she is not limited to healing alone. Evie can also enhance attacks using Light Magic or utilize her secondary set of arms, a sword and shield, to help in combat. As her passive skills progress, she gains new ways to damage enemies and heal allies simultaneously. Upon obtaining the required materials in combat and promoting her at the party’s base camp, she can advance from Initiate to Priestess, and eventually to Lightbringer. Each promotion unlocks three new skills, granting additional options in battle.

Though skills are acquired on a run-by-run basis, classes are persistent. One you unlock a new class, it stays unlocked, and the skills that go with it join the rotation of skills you can choose from any time you level up.

[h3]Acquiring Class Skills[/h3]


Our current plan is for each character to have a total of around 20 class skills. At the start of the game, each character has two basic skills. As players undertake battles, characters gain experience with every action, and level up right in the middle of battle, whereupon the player will be offered a randomized selection of upgrades. This includes 12 additional skills, as well as higher-tier versions of skills the player has already gained via class promotion.

At various specific levels, players will also be given the option to choose from a randomized selection of stat boost cards. As with many roguelites, if you don’t like the skills offered, you can spend a resource to reroll. This process allows the player to shape the character’s growth and build within a defined spectrum, for each new run.

In Evie’s case, for example, players can choose whether to build her as a highly powerful and specialized healer, or more of a generalized support that can also mix it up with enemies.

[h3]Class Skills[/h3]

Here’s a look at the skills a character like Evie will be using over the course of the game, and upgrades that can be unlocked for those skills.

Healing Magic:

• Healing Touch: Uses the power of Light to heal an ally.
  
• Hymn of Healing: Encompasses one ally in an aura of Light, greatly healing them.
  
• Binding Healing: Heals an ally with the power of light, while also restoring the caster for 70% of the total.
  ○ Can be upgraded to 100%.
  
• Healing Surge: At the start of the turn, if there is at least one ally adjacent, this unit regains up to 20% of max Health (caps at +20).
  ○ Can be upgraded to 30% with a healing cap of +30 HP.
  

Offensive Magic:

• Radiant Arrow: Fires a holy arrow, inflicting Light damage on a single target.
  
• Holy Ward: Calls down the heavens, inflicting Light damage on a single foe. If the target is defeated by this ability, target tile and adjacent tiles become Sanctified ground for 2 turns. All allies standing within a Sanctuary regain +20 Health at the start of the turn.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a 3x3 area.
  
• Wrath Divine: Unleashes a burst of radiant power, inflicting Light damage on an enemy. If the target is a Fallen unit, it has a 50% chance of being destroyed instantly (excluding bosses and monsters).
  ○ Can be upgraded to a 75% chance.
  

Support Skills:

• Purification: Channels the power of Light to cleanse all status effects on an ally, granting +15 Health for each effect removed.
  ○ Can be upgraded to +20.
  
• Tree of Life: Summons the Tree of Life for 2 turns. At the end of the Allied Turn, the Tree inflicts 10 damage on enemies in a 3x3 area. If an ally interacts with the tree, they recover 40 Health, and are cleansed of all harmful status effects.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a version with a 3-turn duration, 15 damage, a 5x5 area, and a +60 heal.
  
• Sacred Prayer: Channels the power of light to cleanse all status effects on the target and allies in a 1 tile radius, granting +15 Health for each effect removed.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a 2-tile radius and a +20 heal.
  
• Heaven's Call: Teleports a distant ally to an adjacent tile, and gives them +1 Movement for 1 turn.
  ○ Can be upgraded to +2 Movement.
  
• Divine Protection: Surrounds an ally with light, granting Divine Protection for 2 turns. When an incoming attack would reduce a unit with Divine Protection to 0 Health, the damage is negated, and they instead regain 30% of max Health. Effect only triggers once.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a 3-turn duration and a 50% heal.
  

Other Passive Skills:

• Healing Aura: At the start of the turn, if there is at least one ally adjacent, this unit regains up to 20% of max Health (caps at +20).
  ○ Can be upgraded to +30% Health with a cap of +30 HP.
  
• Tranquility: When receiving a critical hit, reduces the final damage taken by 20% and doubles the healing amount of 'Healing Touch,' 'Hymn of Healing,' 'Bonded Healing,' and 'Wind of Healing' on the next use.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a 30% damage reduction.
  
• Radiance: When the amount recovered from a healing spell exceeds this unit's max Health, 50% of the surplus is converted to a Shield as temp HP.
  ○ Can be upgraded to 75%.
  
• Lightfooted: Decreases likelihood of being targeted by the enemy.
  
• Radiant Rage: Holy spells restore 50% of damage inflicted as Health.
  ○ Can be upgraded to 75%.
  ○ As a fun side note, this ability also triggers in response to Tree of Life’s damage-over-time effect, producing a very strong synergy.
  
• Divine Weapon: Imbues an equipped weapon with holy light, increasing physical attack Power by +5. If the target is a Fallen unit, Critical Hit is increased by +20.
  ○ Can be upgraded to a +8 boost and +30 Critical Hit.
  
• Second Wind: Dealing Physical Damage restores 50% of the total to all allies as Health.
  ○ Can be upgraded to 75%.
  
• Decisive Strike: Whenever this unit lands a Critical Hit on an enemy, their next Combat Skill or Spell does not trigger a cooldown.
  

Anyone who played Lost Eidolons will probably notice immediately that these skills are a lot stronger than they were in the first game, and the upgraded versions are pretty substantial, offering huge boosts in range, utility, and power. This is in line with our general goal in VotW, to make combat faster, more fun, and more dynamic.

Oh, and one more thing to mention: in addition to upgrades mid-combat, skills can also be upgraded by training at campsites throughout the journey. Unlike the first game, which had some dry spots in the character progression, here a substantial stat boost or skill upgrade is always just around the corner.



[h3]Enhancement of Equipment and Acquisition of Powerful Equipment Skills[/h3]

In Veil of the Witch, characters equip main weapons, secondary weapons, and armor.

As mentioned, Evie uses a tome as her main weapon, a sword and shield as secondary weapons, and wears cloth armor. These items can be upgraded to better versions in the course of gameplay.

During battle, defeating enemies yields special items, including Enhancing Stones of various grades. After the battle, players can attach up to three Enhancing Stones to a specific piece of equipment for party characters, boosting their stats and sometimes unlocking unique skills. Combining these enhancements with class skills allows players to gain a significant advantage over enemies in battles.



Today we discussed two sources of character progression – skills and upgrades. However, there are other progression systems we haven’t even shared yet, including Relics and the Altar of Fire. Our hope is that with all of these richly interlocking systems, players can look forward to a game that’s sleek and streamlined, while still maintaining a high degree of customization and strategic depth.

Jin Sang Kim, Creative Director

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2530490/Lost_Eidolons_Veil_of_the_Witch/