Map Revamping: Yukiko Hotsprings

It's been quite sometime since we've updated the devlog over here on the website. The reason our team decided to stop updating was because we felt as though there was not enough material to warrant showing anything off. Two years later and Azur is looking much more complete than before! We've reached a point where we can display significant portions of the game's development and before we reach the final phase of the project, a massive map revamp much take place. Currently, the game will have eight chapters. Each chapter will contain at the very least one town and one dungeon to explore. We've revamped three chapters maps so far and currently are working on Yukiko Hotsprings. The Yukiko Hotsprings is a dungeon that will first be encountered by the player in Chapter three as apart of the Whitmoor and Yukiko storyline. Previously it was an open to public tourist spot in Yukiko Village, if not for the various different factors that had affected it's conditions. With it being off limits, Munefuyu, a well known samurai to the village has been forced to quell the threat within the hotsprings, postponing his goal in finding the true culprit of the situation. Gameplay wise, Yukiko village will serve as the point in the game where several different mechanics previously taught to the player will begin to converge. This will encourage the player to look for other solutions when it comes to problem solving whether in battle, or not. The dungeon itself consists of four different floors, with various optional puzzles and branching paths. Altogether, the dungeon won't be too confusing to navigate. Overall, this dungeon segways into the third and final dungeon of the chapter. Storywise it is a major turning point for the characters so please do stay tuned to find out what happens upon release of the game! If you've gotten this far in the devlog, we seriously thank you for reading! We look forward to your continued support! ~Imprisoned~ -May 18, 2022

We're Back! Massive Overhaul and more! 8/3/2019 Devlog

It has been a while hasn't it? About 5 months later and I finally have time to write something. Ah... forgive me forgive me. To be frank, before there just was not enough material to maintain creating devlogs so it got put on hold for the time being. Only recently have we gotten the time to really move at a pace we've never been capable of moving before and the project has come a very long way. So what has changed about the project? Well the most visible one is the way cutscenes are now presented.

---

---

SCutscenes have become much more dynamic now! Our good friend Nic remade every character sprite (and still is to this day) to fit with this new style. With these new options we've been capable of making scenes give off a 3 dimensional type of presentation all the while keeping the style of a 2 dimensional visual novel. Combined with the blur effect, it has been easier to tell which character is speaking and make the scene look as if there are still multiple people alongside the speaker who are listening. This technique is a useful one and we plan to push it even further in the future with the back of sprites in order to complete the appearance of a 3 dimensional space within this visual novel. Scenes aren't the only thing we've worked on of course. We've also been doing new environments and working on ways to make them much more dynamic as well. With the new resources I spent a good chunk of my time going through every map and adding what needs to be added, as well as adding depth, lighting and layers to certain maps. This made even the simpler maps really pop out like the Dark Elf Ruins and the various forest areas.

---

---

Pretty isn't it? As for music, we don't have much we CAN share now. But just to let you know, character themes are the current topic there. Music is coming slower since we'd like to have a solid game first and foremost. So for now, Kinzarks has been giving suggestions on what we should do and being a much needed editor so maybe I should put that in his job role as well hahaha... Anyhow that's about all we have for now. Expect us to show up more here to blog and make sure to give our twitter a follow, and facebook for news every now and then! Also check out our Patreon or buy us a cawfee! We'd really appreciate it. If none of those are suitable donate to us here on the website! Have a beautiful day from Anchovy! Twitter: https://twitter.com/ImprisonMelody Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ImprisonedMelody/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/azurnoowari Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/imprisonedmelody

Chapter 3 and 4 Progress Report

It's been quite a while hasn't it? How has everyone been doing since Covid struck us? This has been the longest gap between posts but I felt like the speed at which we produced content was just too slow for me to write any updates on it. I wanted to wait until we got into a better spot and while content has still been quite delayed (especially because of Covid), I will try my best to show off things about the game! Worry not, I actually have things I want to show off for this week! As you could probably tell, Chapter 3 consisted of Hidou's party venturing into the Northern regions of Atlapolis, to the town known as Whitmoor. Whitmoor was actually one of the first places in Azur I had thought up of but I did not want it to just be a simple old snow town. I wanted to show off just how diverse Whitmoor was compared to Atlapolis. Where Atlapolis holds it's faith heavily to the Knights of the Round Table, Whitmoor holds it's faith in the guild and travelers, like Munefuyu Yagyu. Not only are is their faith diverse, but their culture has been slightly altered due to Munefuyu's popularity despite this area being under Mordred's protection.

Whitmoor was extremely fun to do and is when I began working on crafting sidequests and creating armor sets for the player. These are concepts I will talk about at a later date, but the battle system and armor have all become much more intricate over the span of this year and I am very excited to show it off! Whitmoor also shares territory with Yukiko village so I will talk briefly on that as well. Yukiko was completely converted into the culture Munefuyu came from, hence it's much different appearance. Why only this village has been changed so much is up for the player to find out, that is if they feel like interacting with the NPCs there...

The Land in the north is a fairly moderate chapter full of small mysteries. The story will present to the player very little answers and a few minor questions, but do not think that they are not important to the story as whole. Look forward to Chapter 3! Chapter 4 on the other hand is quite the short chapter. It will take place in the shortest amount of time as well as in an enclosed area, however that area will be quite unique...

This chapter takes place within Arcadia, a train that travels between all three realms and is Atlapolis' pride and joy. Despite the enclosed space, Arcadia will have the most amount of battles taking place at once, ranging from inside the Neinophis, to the train rooftops.

The chapter will introduce the Jade Knights, a group that I've been hinting at for quite a while as well. They are led by Gawain, a former Knight of the Round Table. With this chapter we'll be showing off the cruelty of the empire and truly cause Shinta and the rest to consider just who is in the right or wrong here. This is a fairly short chapter that will actually be holding up the next chapter, chapter 5. When it is time, I will discuss all that we have to show for it. It will be a fairly long post, indeed. For the time being, I'll leave some of the Cg for this chapter as Nic has gone above and beyond for this chapter! Quality has certainly improved a lot and will only get better from here on out! We appreciate you following Azur no Owari's development!