Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch News

Expedition Complete: PAX East 2024

Tacticians,

Our team trekked over to Boston once again to join PAX East and show off more of Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch. This time, we shared with you all a glimpse of what the closed beta would look like.

We were so elated to see so many of you stop by our booth, whether you were Lost Eidolons fans or just attracted by the key art. Some of you were tactician geniuses, while others were trying a turn-based tactics game for the first time. Either way, we are always amazed at the diversity of players PAX brings together.

Our Creative Director, Jinsang, flew in all the way from South Korea to meet you guys in person and talk about his vision for the new spin-off. We were so happy to see old and new faces throughout the four days of PAX.

Of course we brought some sweet swag with us to share with you all: a foam sword for all you battle monsters and a tote bag to hold all your other PAX goodies. We even had some of you look specifically for our booth, because you wanted a foam sword! Oh how word of mouth works wonders.

Not only did we demo off Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch, but also showed off Blackout Protocol and Dropkick Navvy. We even had some of you demo all three games!

PAX is always such an eye-opening experience, getting to meet our players in person and talk to you all face-to-face. We can't wait until the next in-person event. But until then, we'll keep you all updated on what we have planned for Veil of the Witch, so make sure to follow our Steam page, as well as the studio on social media!

Also, make sure to sign up for the beta so that you will be notified when it's available to test out! We would really love to hear your feedback regarding the game.

DISCORD | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | TWITCH |
KICK

ODS Kangaroo

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

Sign Up for Closed Beta

Tacticians,

The battle against the mysterious evil befalling the island of Anareios inches closer.
Sign up now for Closed Beta and be among the first to brave the winding road riddled with the Fallen and the choices you must make to survive.

How to sign up:
1. Go to Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch page
2. Click on the green “Request Access” button.

Sign Up for Closed Beta

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Tacticians,

The battle against the mysterious evil befalling the island of Anareios inches closer.
Sign up now for Closed Beta and be among the first to brave the winding road riddled with the Fallen and the choices you must make to survive.

How to sign up:
1. Go to Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch page
2. Click on the green “Request Access” button.

Calling Tacticians for Anareios

Tacticians,

The team has been working hard to get ready for a closed beta in the near future. Then, we thought, why don’t we bring an exclusive demo to passionate gamers to provide a glimpse of what it would be like?

So here we are! Come to Boston and hop aboard the vessel to Anareios. Lost EIdolons: Veil of the Witch will have an exclusive demo at PAX East 2024, so make sure you stop by booth 18090 to embark on your journey to the mist-covered island, where you will face the living and the undead alike.

Since we know it’s dangerous to go alone, we’ll get you a full party of 5 characters on your ventures, as well as equip you with this nice foam sword at the end of your expedition.

Experience the revamped combat the team has been working hard on, and ask any questions you may have to Jinsang Kim, the creative director!

Dev Log #7: Between Battles

Hello, Tacticians! This is Minyoung Lee AKA Mocha, one of the developers on the Lost Eidolons team. As I mentioned in my last post, today I’d like talk about overall game flow in Veil of the Witch, and what you’ll be doing between battles.

When we first started developing Lost Eidolons, we gave a lot of thought to what kind of space the player might return to between battles. Initially, we envisioned a world akin to Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales or Battle Chasers: Nightwar, where players could explore a vast map, encountering various allies, foes, and events.

However, once our structure solidified into a story-driven game with a linear plot, we realized that integrating that kind of free exploration into the narrative was a lot more challenging than we’d imagined. Even if it were feasible, it would demand an exorbitant amount of time and resources, blowing up our budget and release schedule.

Subsequently, our attention turned to approaches like Monster Hunter: World's Astera or Fire Emblem: Three Houses' Garreg Mach Monastery, where players engage in conversations with companions, progress quests, and embark on battles from a fixed location. This naturally evolved into the camp system that shipped in the final version of Lost Eidolons.

Lost Eidolons, quite a bit into Eden's career as a general.>

Initially modest, the camp gradually expanded, becoming home to more and more characters, and evolving into a fully-fledged battlefield camp with multiple districts, giant banners, and so on. We aimed to evoke the feeling of being part of a grand military force, and indeed, we discovered through community posts that a lot of players really enjoyed that feeling.

However, the camp in Lost Eidolons wasn't without its flaws, and didn’t always offer the best experience. Switching between turn-based RPG combat and real-time maneuvering always felt just a little bit strange, and coupled with the need to repeatedly traverse a large map, wound up taking up a lot of players’ time, even after the inclusion of fast travel.

Additionally, we soon encountered limitations in the variety of stories we could tell, when constrained by the setting of a single camp, and a structure without much breathing room for side-content. (Had the camp been, say, the picturesque Vyugar Mountains, or a bustling city like Leroyaure, we probably could have presented a wider range of stories.)

When we began developing Veil of the Witch, we faced similar dilemmas. As a game oriented towards replayability, we needed to incorporate elements between battles that repeated without feeling monotonous, while also addressing the negative experiences observed in Lost Eidolons.

The first solution that came to mind for our team was a pop-up event system, often seen in deck-building games like Slay the Spire or Monster Train. This method allows for the creation of numerous unique events at minimal cost. However, we felt that this approach didn’t really capture the feeling of exploring a vast and mysterious island in an immersive, engaging way.

Veil of the Witch. Imagine if it's always like this?>

Thus, we opted for a different method. We positioned characters on the field, allowing players to interact with things via a point-and-click interface, like an adventure game. We also drastically reduced the field size to eliminate the need for navigating sprawling maps like the camp in the first game.

The advantages of this method are that it provides players with the sensation of exploration in a way that still feels tactile and frictional, without having to run around manually. Plus, it works easily for a variety of input methods (mouse, keyboard, or controller). As a result, we were able to really cut down on the amount of time players spent dallying on the road between battles.

<Veil of the Witch's version of the shop. We espy a familiar face.>

Once we settled on a point-and-click method, the next critical consideration was determining what players could interact with and how.

When we first started, road encounters consisted of a lot of simple run-ins with bags and treasure chests. Gradually, we progressed to placing wandering soldiers, villagers, and shopkeepers, and built simple narratives where the player can offer help or receive assistance. Players will also encounter grand altars and statues that enhance their abilities, and camps that let them rest overnight to train or recover health.

Aside from just gameplay enhancements like restoring HP or granting gold, we wanted these encounters to showcase characters’ personalities and relationships. When a thief attempts to rob your party, the kind-hearted Elena may opt for a peaceful resolution, whereas the cunning Emile or hardnosed Rosalina may have very different perspectives.

By choosing which characters to include in the party when they undertake an expedition, the player would also need to consider how they might impact the random events they’ll encounter along the journey.

With this toolkit, we’re working hard to build a variety of interesting story events and experiences that punctuate battles and make each expedition feel unique. Beyond just patching up weak points in Lost Eidolons’ design, our hope is to create an experience that invites new players in, while letting existing fans build a deeper relationship with characters they’ve met before and a world they already know.

But we’ve also got some other metagame content and systems that we haven’t really touched on yet, including Cooperation levels between characters, and the various map regions of Anareios. I look forward to delving into these topics some more soon!

Minyoung/Mocha