The New Realm of Dusk (Part 1: Perks) (Patreon)

Hello there:) Honestly I didn't expect so many people to embrace my return to active development so warmly. It's very humbling to see and I want to make up all the lost years to you. I love you all :'). Jump into the Discord if you want to participate in the community, I'll be active there daily going forward!

I decided to do 2-3 breakdown posts per Domina, diving into how the remake affects her and her realm. We're starting with Katrina (obviously) and her perk tree. This is also the first time I am showcasing the new perk system.

As per previous posts and polls, I have decided to move away from the previous skills and classes, primarily because they didn't work correctly on mobile, but also because I felt like the experience could be improved and tied to the rest of the game in a more intuitive manner. Classes no longer exist as a rigid concept. Instead, there is a perk tree for each Domina (incl Llavanya), which represents a unique "build", constructed around the respective Domina, her theme and feel. You are free to invest your perk points in any tree you prefer, but be mindful that unlocking perks from a tree slowly aligns your soul to the tree's Domina more and more, and she will react to it in more than dialogue. Perk points are limited in number, so you should be selective on where you invest them (there wouldn't be "builds" otherwise). You may be a jack-of-all-trades and invest a little bit in most trees, or focus deeper on 2-3 trees alone, or invest fully into a single one, fully devoting yourself to that Domina and leaving very little left for other trees. Obviously, the deeper you branch into a tree the stronger the perks get, but also the more one-sided your build becomes because all trees are designed to be strong at some things and weak at other things. The top, "golden" perks of a tree are the Devotion perks, which can only be unlocked if you are Devoted to the respective Domina (aka enslaved).

With Katrina, I wanted to differentiate her a bit more than the idea of Selena I have in my mind. Selena, being the twin and opposite of Llavanya, is a full darkness-type caster, who focuses exclusively on Abyssal Magic. Thus, I have reduced the "darkness" elements of Katrina a little bit (they're still there, and there's a reason now why they are there lorewise), and exaggerated her "Blood Queen" theme more. The Aspect of Katrina tree now focuses on Whips and Blood Magic, with an emphasis on draining vitality and making your enemies bleed. I would also like to note here that "Bleed" is now the strongest DoT in the game, damage-wise. Other DoTs, like Blight, now focus more on debuffing rather than pure damage.

Katrina's tree starts with the "Cruel Methods" perk, which allows the use of Whips. This will be a recurring theme, as you won't be able to use any weapon you wish from the start anymore, unless you first unlock the respective perk. Most Dominas now have a preferred weapon type, and their trees begin similarly. Katrina's tree then expands upwards, the left side focusing a bit more on physical attacks, the right side on magical attacks, and some minimal perks in the middle for defense (this is a tree focused on aggression). I have also decided to move away from skill bloat; you will still have a fairly wide selection of skills to use, but a lot of the perks empower your already existing skills in unique ways, instead of unlocking fully new ones. Some perks do both.

There are also a few perks on the bottom left and right side that don't belong to the main tree. These exist primarily for players uninterested in investing heavily into Katrina, but still want some of her benefits. These perks generally offer bonuses and powers which aren't strictly tied to Katrina's tools, so they can be used more easily in combination with perks/weapons from other trees. You can still take them if you are a Katrina devotee though and they are still a benefit.

Note that this is still a work in progress and perk effects might yet change before release. Hell, they might even change after release, as balance won't be the easiest to nail down immediately.

That's all for now. In the next part, I am going to reveal the new Realm of Dusk map and the fresh locations I have added. I hope you like the perk tree UI because it took me a bit to design:3 As you can see, we are also embracing the pixel art style a bit more in the remake (including the new font!), but I'll delve deeper into that in the next post. Cheers!