Volatile Guardian Lucia

Volatile Guardian Lucia is a game that I’m currently working on in RPG Maker MV. It’s the sequel to Vamoe Hunter Lumen, which very few people even know about, much less read.

Unlike most other RPGs, the system relies not on leveling up the heroes to overpower them, but by creating and taking advantage of vulnerabilities. A majority of the enemies in the game will be entirely too strong for a band of kids to defeat through normal means. You won’t be able to steamroll your way through opponents by blindly attacking them. In order to succeed, you’ll need to use every type advantage you can muster.

The Story

The great Holy Warrior Lumen ventured into the Demon Realm and overthrew the Demon King Viers. With the Demon King’s death, a great curse that plagued the Human Realm was lifted. With both Viers and his sons dead, the successor became the oldest of his daughters, Princess Rose. Under Rose’s rule, there was unprecedented peace between the Human and Demon realms. However, a little over 15 years later, the Demon Army is once again on the rise to shatter the peace brought by the legendary warrior.

Caught in the first wave of the Demon Army’s attack is a girl named Lucia. She gets separated from her aunt in the attack and flees to Sapphire City, which is also under siege. During the battle, she and a young demon slayer named Keith get caught in an attack and find themselves in a cave far from the battle. The duo decide to work together to make it back home, but along the way…

The Characters

Heroes and Allies

Lucia B. Menné
Lucia lives in the forest with her father, a Holy Warrior, and her mother, a skilled Mage. She practices both the Holy Arts and the Elemental Arts at the same time, though as a result, her progress has been slow in both areas. Although she doesn’t live in a town, she does have experience with other people, thanks to her auntie Sera. Rarely, Sera will visit and bring Lucia along to help with one of her deliveries.

(Auntie) Sera
Sera lives in Sapphire City by herself, and runs a delivery service. She claims to be two years younger than Lucia and looks even younger… but she’s much, MUCH tougher than she looks. Sera is a mage of advanced skill, but how can someone her age….?

Keith
Keith lives in Sapphire City and is a Demon Slayer in training. He lives with his single mother (a teacher) and never knew his father, who he believes was a Demon Slayer of some skill. He carries his father’s blade with him at all times. His only friends are his trainer, Captain Clark, and his two partners, Vera and Charlotte.

Captain Clark
Clark is captain of the Demon Slayers’ Guild. Though he’s strict and incredibly strong, he also cares for the members of his guild, especially those still in training. He was raised in an age where demons were still an everyday threat, but he hasn’t lost his edge during the fifteen years of peace. With the resurgence of the demon army, he once again shows his skill.

Vera Crimson
Vera is a Demon Slayer in training. She’s at the top of her class in the Guild, but she still has a long way to go. She and Charlotte are childhood friends. Both of Vera’s parents have passed away, so she lives in the guild barracks with Charlotte.

Charlotte Fairchild
Charlotte is a mage in training and part of the Demon Slayers’ Guild. Although her magic is fairly powerful and she’s learned a good number of spells, her aim is terrible. Since she’s older, Charlotte is protective of both Keith and Vera, although she’s admittedly much weaker than them.

Sue
Keith’s mother. She founded the Emerald Village school of magic, but moved to Sapphire City so her son could pursue training as a Demon Slayer.

Sharon
Sharon is a half-demon born of a human father and a harpy mother. She was raised by the people of Copper Town, unaware that it was those same villagers who killed her mother. Sharon was unaware of her heritage until shortly after her 16th birthday, when she grew pink wings out of her back.

Yard
A half-demon born of a Drow father and human mother. He was raised in the sacred Alexandrite Forest, protected by the Dryads and Drows living there. His unique biology allows him access to Dryad support magic even though he has the outward appearance of the offensive-focused Drows.

Lumen (Kyle Menne)
Lucia’s father. A former Holy Warrior, he went on an adventure to cure the human realm of a vampire curse. He’s retired now, but he still takes on some special requests.

Umbra (Elise Brahme Menne)
Lucia’s mother. A former orphan briefly raised by the legendary mage Slade Gray, Umbra continues her studies and teaches what she can to her precocious daughter. Her mastery of the Elemental Artes is unmatched – she is one of the few humans in history to master Dark Magic.

Villains

Annetta
A demon general. She leads the attack on Sapphire City, which is what starts Lucia’s quest and triggers her encounter with Keith.

Severn
A demon general. He operates in the shadows, capturing supplies and citizens alike to bolster his army. A renowned slave trader in the Demon World, his area of expertise doesn’t exactly lie in military strategy.

Xusa
A demon general. Her army appears without warning and strikes vulnerable targets. Surprisingly, she also specializes in siege warfare – she relishes in the extended agony of a cornered enemy.

Dio Xh
A high-ranking demon general from one of the most powerful and deadly clans in existence. It’s said that he descends from the creator of Dark Magic.

Queen Rose Soren
The queen of the Demon Realm. Under her rule, there was a 15-year period of peace between the humans and the demons, but it seems that peace was never meant to last.

Gallery

Demo

V-Force 5 Scenario Exhibition

Current Status

March 13, 2017

Maps redone for several areas. Prologue chapter expanded significantly.

November 12, 2015

Project has been renamed Volatile Guardian Lucia.

October 24, 2015

Currently working on RPG Maker MV conversion. V-Force 5 Demo is up.

July 28, 2015

Currently in the middle of a redone Onyx scenario. Face art and sprites have been completely redone. Lumen now has red hair, as originally envisioned.

January 31, 2014

Redone in VX Ace. Currently done with Lapis scenario. So much more left to do, though.

June 30, 2009

Turns out that monsters using Reflect crashing the game is a problem in RPGM2003, and totally not my fault. I’ll have to get rid of that skill. In better news, I spent a ****load of time working on the Fishing events. I finished a template common event, so all I have to do is copy & paste, and add the capture data for each fishing area, which shouldn’t take long now that the infrastructure is in. Whee! Also, lots of work done on Emerald Port & Village. I finished the school and inn at Emerald.

June 27, 2009 (pt. 2)

Fixed battle priorities, now working on fixing crashing bug. Also, Copper Town map is 100% finished. After a short break I’ll work on Emerald.

June 27, 2009

Implemented Umbra’s Discharge Cast ability and Lumen’s Teamwork skill in the Saiel battle. Also, I have a somewhat messy fix so Sierra loses HP from being healed. It doesn’t work perfectly, but it is annoying enough to get notice. Speaking of the Saiel battle, the additions made the battle too easy, so I fixed it so she’s harder and heals more HP more often. Ha ha ha. Also changed Arron Crimson battle so he has two extra attacks: Bombs Away!, which targets the entire party, and Barrel Roll, which deflects skills. However, even though theoretically all three attacks have the same priority, he seems to be using Bombs Away!, his most lethal skill (when spammed) much more than the other two skills. It’s more like BA! is used 80% of the time, Bullet is used 20% of the time and Barrel Roll used 0% of the time. Weird. And annoying.

June 26, 2009

In the process of enabling Catalysts for Charlotte, Umbra, and Sue. The problem is that, after battle, resetting their MP properly results in them losing their equipment. Luckily, most of them have locked equipment, which should result in, well, much more simplified events.

BTW, learned that I *didn’t* enable Sue’s Qing Long spell with the last build. Ugh…

June 25, 2009

Nearly finished with Copper Town’s layout. Pretty close with Castle Soren, too. That one dungeon I’ve been worrying about for weeks now has finally been planned and even implemented. Yay for me. Let’s see, what else…? Oh yeah, I fixed some bugs with the Flower system. Worked a bit on the story as well. I’ve got it planned for 4 acts. Act 1 is the demo in its entirety. Act 2 is mostly less action, more of a dating sim style of game until the end of the act, where you travel the act’s single dungeon, past the newly-created Dead Plains. I’ve had Act 2 in my head for months, but I finally have it fully planned and written out, so it’s gonna move smoothly once I get started on it. Act 3 is, what else? The raid on the Demon Realm. The 4th act is shrouded in secrecy, but obviously it’ll have something to do with the bonus battles. Look forward to it, I guess.

June 22, 2009

Testing out boat travel. I figured out a way to make sure the boat doesn’t allow you to leave except ONLY at ports. The nightmare right now? Testing every single shore tile one by one to make sure I can’t get off there. It’ll be a while.

June 20, 2009

Finished layout of Topaz Temple. Working on sprites for its inhabitants.

June 18, 2009

Finished general layout of the Slayer Guild

June 16, 2009

Started work on Silveria, Silveria Castle, and Castle Soren. Continued working on Sapphire City Residential District. Much progress has been made. Also, the interior of Lumen’s cabin has been completely redone.

June 12, 2009

Uploaded the demo yesterday. Currently working on some fixes. Upgraded the flower system. Started work on Topaz Town and Copper Town. Pyrite will need to wait.

June 11, 2009

Currently doing the runthrough of the game; at Lapis Village now.

June 8, 2009

Books, books books… It’s easy to read a book, not so much writing them. The library in the Opal mansion is now 60% readable. I have to work on the remaining 40%. So much writing… *sigh*

By the way, managed to fix dashing. You need to equip Lucia with the Running Boots, then press Shift to toggle it on and off. I fixed it so that I can disable dashing during cutscenes, so all I have to do is remember to add the code to every event and all should be just fiiiiiiiine.

Lastly, thanks to the amazing power of generators, I have new faces & sprites. Some might not look as clean, but at least they’re closer to what I had in mind.

Current ETA for the demo is around Wednesday or Thursday. I’m hoping to extend the ending of the demo to the end of Onyx Forest. If I work fast enough, maybe I can even put in the Sharon sidequest. And who knows, maybe a new boss battle will appear in the hidden room?

June 6, 2009

Did major work on Crimson Cove. Most events haven’t been started, but I have a good idea of what I’m going to do with the dungeon. Crimson Cove is the HUGEST dungeon I’ve worked on so far. It’ll be brutal compared to Alexandrite Forest, but there’s no way that’ll stay for long. There’s basically two entrances through Alexandrite Forest: the short, easy yet tricky way that you can currently go through via the secret in the demo, and the straightforward, ridiculously difficult and long way that I haven’t started yet. Back to Crimson Cove, you’ll need to have a certain character in your party to even go further into it.

BTW, still working on Sapphire City. Sapphire City is the largest town in the world, so I suppose it’s appropriate. And while you’re exploring Sapphire City, make sure to visit Sera’s Delivery and pick up the Warp Ring. Take it out for a spin!

Also, I added villagers to Opal Town. So you have that to look forward to in the next demo. I also added a few options that probably won’t make it to the final game.

Lastly, I currently have a working dash option. You can toggle dashing by pressing the Shift button. Unfortunately, pressing Shift during cutscenes can interrupt them and mess things the **** up. I’ll leave it in for now, but I’m looking for a fix. If I can’t find a fix, I’ll just have to disable it.

June 5, 2009 (again)

Woot! Finished the basic layout of Sapphire City. It’s roughly 70% finished at this point!

June 5, 2009

I’ve gotten the hang of forests. The map for Onyx Forest is pretty much complete, and I’m working on additions to Alexandrite Forest. I’ve also started prelim work on the lands of Silveria. Currently struggling with plot progression in Onyx Forest though. Once I’m over that hurdle, it’s back to prettying up Sapphire City.