Chronicles of Ascerth

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Chronicles of Ascerth
Game Information 	Game Information
No art available.	No art available.
Developer 	Stardust Citadel
Publisher 	Stardust Citadel
Platform(s) 	
Genre 	Action RPG
Ratings 	
ESRB: TeenPEGI: CERO: BACB: USK:
Chronicles of Ascerth is an action role-playing game developed and published by Stardust Citadel. The game is the first game in the currently untitled Ghostverse alternate universe, following Stardust Citadel's acquisition of the Ghostrealm's IPs. The game is not a reboot of the existing stories of Ghostverse but rather an alternate take on the series with reinterpretations of existing characters as well new lore and locations. 
Chronicles follows the journey of Kaiden, the youngest member of the mercenary group Star Phantoms, as he gets entangled into a conspiracy by the Krexxon to acquire a powerful weapon hidden within Ascerth. In order to stop the Krexxon's plans, Kaiden needs to learn about the eight different nations of Ascerth in order to find out where each nation hid parts of the key leading to the hideout of said weapon.
The game is part of the Stardust Citadel's 2020 initative to develop more original projects in lieu of licensed projects.
PREMISE
:The space age's greatest conflict took place a long time ago. In the conflict between the different coalitions of forces, several planets were caught in the crossfire and those affected were left without a home. Attemping to flee from the galaxy wide warfare, eight races found a new home in a desolate planet that existed in the outskirts of the battlezones: Ascerth. While many groups fought with hatred against each other, the eight races worked together to create a new home out of nothing, with every refugee finding ways to make the planet more hospitable. Their collaboration would turn the desolate planet into one that would thrive with life, one where different cultures and beliefes could co-exist and live harmoniously through their shared bond over the events that led to the creation of this new civilization.
:Afraid of the possiblity the conflict could reach Ascerth, the eight races poured their knowledge together to create a powerful weapon that would protect them from any possible attack attempted by any side of the conflict. The usage of said weapon would be a last resort and it would only be used if the each leader of the eight races came together in agreement over this, since each of them shared a key to the weapon. This was often mocked as myth, since people of other civilizations thought it was a bluff by the Ascerthians, but the knowledge of the weapon always perplexed the leader of the Krexxon, one of the factions fighting in the galactic conflict, Kallistos. After the defeat of the Krexxon Coalition, heavy sanctions were put on each member by the winning side of the conflict, angering those who were on the side of the Coalition.
:Much time has passed since the conflict. A group known as the Star Phantoms arose from the shadows and becoming one of the galaxy's most infamous groups, the mercenaries who would accept anything for money. One of their members, the young Kaiden Kennard, is recruited to perform a mission that turns out to be a pre-planned ambush by the Krexxon, who seek after the Phantoms due to their interference in their plans. While being transported back to one of their planetary bases, the Krexxon ship with Kaiden is mistaken to be an enemy airship travelling in prohibited theory: the Ascerth territory to be exact. This incident leads to the belief that the Krexxon are breaking the rules of the sanction and creates a turmoil that puts the planet into the center of attention for the many power players of the galactic federations.
:Kaiden survives the crash of the airship and while attempting to communicate with his comrades, learns about the plans of the Krexxon to acquire the weapon hidden in Ascerth. Although initially dismissive of the Krexxon's plans, he reluctantly decides to go against them once he is promised by Elina, a human girl who lives in Ascerth, that she would let Kaiden use her people's technology to communicate with the Phantoms in exchange for foiling the Krexxon's plans. Unbeknownst to Kaiden, the incident was planned from the beginning by Ethros, the current figurehead of the Krexxon and the successor of Kallistos, who plans a complicated web of events in order to finally acquire the weapon and use it to take revenge on the oppositors of the Krexxon Coalition.
:Kaiden and Elina travel Ascerth, learning the cultures of the seven other races and informing them of the situation involving the Krexxon, with Kaiden having to prove himself that he is someone that can be trusted upon with the weapon through different challenges. On his journey, he gains other allies from different places, such as the honorful brute Ukoras and the eccentric bounty hunter Grik.
GAMEPLAY
Chronicles of Ascerth is an action role-playing game, where the players take control of Kaiden, although the player can later take control of different characters as they get recruited to the party. The player can traverse through the overworld and interact with other characters, go to shops, accept and complete quests and traverse to the next story relevant location. Like in Tales of Vesperia and Bravely Default, the players can press a button after certain interactions to trigger a short conversation between the characters about the events that recently happened. These conversations bring no gameplay benefits, but they are extra scenes of interactions of the cast.
While in the areas infested by enemies, the players can find the opponents in the overworld and choose to engage them or not. Unlike other RPGs, the battle doesn't transitions, instead the battle takes place on the overworld in a similar manner to Mass Effect or Xenoblade Chronicles where the gameplay style is changed into a combat mode. While in combat mode, a circle is drawn around the area and going outside this circle means the player is running away from the battle and won't be getting any rewards for the confrontation. In boss battles, the circles serves as a boundary where the players and the enemies can get bounced off from.
In combat mode, the players take control of a singular member of the party as the objective is to defeat all the current enemies in the circle. Combat is more action oriented, similar to Tales of Vesperia, actions are bound to certain inputs: there's an attack button, a shield button and a technique button. Each character has a different type of combos and specials but they all utilize the same inputs. Some characters gain an additional button for their Unique Skill. Each Unique Skill is a special command that provides an additional level of depth to each character's playstyles.
Pressing the shield button at the exact moment the enemy's attack hits the player will parry the attack and make the player no health. If the player miss the timing or shields normally, the attack will deal 25% less damage. Additionally, each character has a different set of techniques. Similar to Tales of Vesperia, each character can equip four different types of techiniques and each techinique has a different condition to be triggered. Some simply require the techinique button to be pressed and others require certain conditions to be met in battle, such as perform a combo of certain hits or parry an enemy attack.
The other characters the player does not control can be either commanded by the computer or by other additional players. If the party members are commanded by the CPU, the player can issue them tactics on how to approach the battle situation:
:Sit back/Heal commands the party to stay away from the confrontation in order to heal up;
:Rush commands the party to pummel on a single target;
:Split up commands the party to split up and focus on different targets;
:Support commands the party to help up the character that is being controlled by the main player.
These are by default set to the directional pad and the player can issue these commands at any point during battle but the player can automatically set certain tactics to happen during certain situations through the Conditions Settings, where the player can set up different situations to automatically switch tactics to. The player can also change individual party member tactics by being able to change the frequency values of each possible action, e.x. setting Elina to do more spells and less melee attacks.
Additionally, each character has an additional unique skill known as Forbidden Knowledge, which is acquired through each character's side quest. This is a mechanic that has more of an involvement in the late game. Forbidden Knowledge are abilities that occupy a different input from Unique Skills and they tend to be one-time, battle only use abilities. Despite that, they are pretty useful and add another layer of depth to each character's playstyle.
During combat, the players can take advantage of weaknesses in the enemy. Enemy weaknesses are only revealed when the player hits them with it, encouraging players to try different abilities on different enemies. When hitting an enemy with their weakness, the attack will deal twice more damage. Additionally, each enemy has a stun limit - the limit of how many hits can they take before they get stunned. Some enemies and bosses don't even have a stun limit but a good majority does. Like enemy weaknesses, the stun limit isn't revealed until it is broken. In order to hit the stun limit, the player has to hit the enemy multiple times. All information about the enemies are kept into a Bestiary, which is available right from the start.
Additionally, at the mid point of the game, the player gains the ability to perform Combination Techniques. Once these abilities are unlocked, a bar is shown below the character's health bar. Performing hits on the enemy increases the bar and when it is full, it won't do anything by itself unless another character has filled their bar. When there is more than one character with a full bar, the player can press an input and select a combination of characters, should there be more than two with a full bar and then choose a type of Combination Techinique: Attack or Support, which are self explanatory on their own. Combination Techniques are meant to be utilized to turn the tide of the battle to the players favor with one flashy attack or one flashy spell.
CAST
PLAYABLE
Star Phantom 	The youngest of the Star Phantoms, Kaiden abides by the mission statement of the mercenary group: get the mission done however the means. A pragmatist to the core, Kaiden can be seen as rather detached from the people he's working with, fighting against or in general anyone else outside of the Star Phantoms. As a signifier that he is part of the group, Kaiden possesses a large tattoo that covers the entirety of his right arm, which he proclaims is actually a limb from the Protector God of the Star Phantoms, with each of the other members possessing a tattoo of their own in a different limb.
Kaiden is a physical fighter, with his main weapons being dual blades. As such, he tends to have the normal standards of a warrior, one that is capable of dishing out and be able to take melee damage but one that is weaker against spells. Kaiden's dual blades lead are capable of performing multiple strikes on an opponent once and although an individual blade isn't capable of dealing a lot of damage, their combined strength alongside Kaiden's fast striking speed makes them deadly weapons.
He possesses a hidden ace in combat in the form of his Unique Skill, Weaponforge. Said to be taught to him by his father, Kaiden has the ability to forge his twinblades into a singular one for a temporary amount of time, and not only fuse them together but also with other things, which can give Kaiden's Fused Blade an additional element or ability, such as electrifying the blade or make the blade be able to way to cast spells. This temporary ability gives Kaiden's combat an additional depth, allowing him to fullfill any role that is currently missing in the current party, should the player have the necessary tools to do as such.
Kaiden's Forbidden Knowledge is called Arm of the Protector God and can be acquired at ???. When used, Kaiden raises his right arm upwards and unleashes a powerful wave of energy that breaks through his armor and reveals the tattoo, now glowing. While using the Arm of the Protector God, Kaiden's Blades become a pair of floating blades, which he can manipulate with his arm to move to where he wants. This can be utilized to hit enemies at a distance or hit shielded foes. This is a temporary ability and when its over, Kaiden will be put into a stunned state, requiring a cooldown until Kaiden can be used again.	
Kaiden is a physical fighter, with his main weapons being dual blades. As such, he tends to have the normal standards of a warrior, one that is capable of dishing out and be able to take melee damage but one that is weaker against spells. Kaiden's dual blades lead are capable of performing multiple strikes on an opponent once and although an individual blade isn't capable of dealing a lot of damage, their combined strength alongside Kaiden's fast striking speed makes them deadly weapons.
He possesses a hidden ace in combat in the form of his Unique Skill, Weaponforge. Said to be taught to him by his father, Kaiden has the ability to forge his twinblades into a singular one for a temporary amount of time, and not only fuse them together but also with other things, which can give Kaiden's Fused Blade an additional element or ability, such as electrifying the blade or make the blade be able to way to cast spells. This temporary ability gives Kaiden's combat an additional depth, allowing him to fullfill any role that is currently missing in the current party, should the player have the necessary tools to do as such.
Kaiden's Forbidden Knowledge is called Arm of the Protector God and can be acquired at ???. When used, Kaiden raises his right arm upwards and unleashes a powerful wave of energy that breaks through his armor and reveals the tattoo, now glowing. While using the Arm of the Protector God, Kaiden's Blades become a pair of floating blades, which he can manipulate with his arm to move to where he wants. This can be utilized to hit enemies at a distance or hit shielded foes. This is a temporary ability and when its over, Kaiden will be put into a stunned state, requiring a cooldown until Kaiden can be used again.
Visionary Apprentice 	Elina hails from a human settlement that escaped their planetary colony during the conflict and found a new home in Ascerth. Elina is the child of a human woman and a male Alkuaine, a race of elf-like creatures with exceptional magical abilities. She seeks to be the first human to be an Elemental Mage in order to protect her kind against possible threats that appear in Ascerth. Elina is a kind and compassionate person but somewhat short-tempered and self-consciental about her mistakes, tending to be critical of herself and doubting her ability to be humanity's protector in Ascerth.
 	
Monster Hunter 	Ukoras is the dedicated hunter of the Rul'kor, a tribe of orc-like creatures with an utilatarian approach to social structure, where individuals are assigned to certain tasks, each intended to benefit the entire tribe. Carefree, humorous and jovial, Ukoras's large stature and appearance may give the wrong ide at first but he's quick to show his true self to anyone. He claims to have downed over 100 different types of beasts and there is no beast too big or too strong that he can't take down.
 	
Hollow Man 	A tree-like being that comes from a society that values tradition over anything else. Jogot is said to be the next reincarnation of Yggdrasil, the major religious figurehead of Jogot's village. While the current Yggdrasil remains alive, Jogot is trained day and night to follow in the steps but the young sapling wants to break away from his destiny in order to find his true calling, one decided by himself and not others. Jogot's personality is one that is forged by his religious upbringing, adopting a disciplinary lifestyle despite wanting to be something more unique, which leads to him breaking away from his mask to reveal Jogot's more wild personality.
 	
Sky Watcher 	A bird-like being who was abandoned at a young age, Grik earned a living by utilizing of his flight abilities to help out in criminal schemes by others who sought to take advantage of his situation. When he grew up, Grik was outcasted from his race due to his reputation as a petty collaborator which led to Grik joining further into the underground of crime, becoming a bounty hunter who makes ends meets by selling stolen valuable treasure. A snarky womanizer, Grik hides an insecure interior through a tough guy persona, which gradually breaks away as he becomes more comfortable with his newfound party.
 	
Beast Tamer 	An androgynous humanoid who walks with a cane, Uzoma is one of the party members that wasn't in the original game. Uzoma hails from a culture without definitions of gender, as such they are referred with gender neutral pronouns. They hail from Nádúr, a nation where the people live alongside nature. Uzoma stands out as a kind, caring and wise person, one who avoids conflict until it becomes the last resort. Despite of their best intentions, Uzoma is prone to be quick to judge and their advice can be ill-fitting when approaching someone of different worldviews.
Uzoma's has a high amount of HP and has great defenses against magical skills, although they are weaker against physical abilities and lacks on offensive skills. As such, letting Uzoma directly into combat is generally a bad choice, either have them be outside of the conflict or have a beast to protect them. Uzoma's equipment are canes and robes, the former of which lets them tame higher level beasts easier and the latter provides better defenses against magical attacks. Uzoma has very little outside of generic equipment to counterbalance their main weaknesses.
Uzoma's Forbidden Knowledge is called One With Nature and can be acquired at ???. With this skill, Uzoma can fuse with a tamed creature and transform into Beast Uzoma. In this form, Uzoma's strengths and weaknesses are reversed, as they gain increased strength and physical defenses at the cost of lowering protection against magical attacks. Beast Uzoma gains the skills of the beast they fused with for the remainder of battle or until Uzoma is knocked out and in the latter case, should they be knocked out while fused, Uzoma's tamed beast will be immediately defeated. Uzoma and their tamed creature will revert back to normal at the end of the battle.	
Uzoma's has a high amount of HP and has great defenses against magical skills, although they are weaker against physical abilities and lacks on offensive skills. As such, letting Uzoma directly into combat is generally a bad choice, either have them be outside of the conflict or have a beast to protect them. Uzoma's equipment are canes and robes, the former of which lets them tame higher level beasts easier and the latter provides better defenses against magical attacks. Uzoma has very little outside of generic equipment to counterbalance their main weaknesses.
Uzoma's Forbidden Knowledge is called One With Nature and can be acquired at ???. With this skill, Uzoma can fuse with a tamed creature and transform into Beast Uzoma. In this form, Uzoma's strengths and weaknesses are reversed, as they gain increased strength and physical defenses at the cost of lowering protection against magical attacks. Beast Uzoma gains the skills of the beast they fused with for the remainder of battle or until Uzoma is knocked out and in the latter case, should they be knocked out while fused, Uzoma's tamed beast will be immediately defeated. Uzoma and their tamed creature will revert back to normal at the end of the battle.
 	
Born Theatrical 	A humanoid-esque creature who resembles a short person with a hunchback, Hiltraud's appearance is covered by a dark robe around her and a theater mask covering her mask. Hiltraud is a theater performer who utilizes puppets to tell different kinds of stories, something she's immensely proud of. She dreams one day to perform in the capital of Ascerth in front of all the civilizations but her perfectionist personality leads her to believe she will be booed off stage unless she comes up with the perfect play. Since she's completely covered, Hiltraud interacts with others through her two puppets and sometimes she even makes up conversations between the two.
 	
Tech Wizard 	The leading scientist of a highly advanced nation within Ascerth, her origins are unknown since she has covered up parts of her body with cybernatic implements. A highly dedicated fellow, she is more than often seen only in her laboratory experimenting with new creations and hypothesis. She's assisted with a robotic assistant known as Mars, who tends to be the target of her anger whenever she gets mad at whatever situation upsets her. Juno decides to join Kaiden's party in order to explore Ascerth and find new materials and explore new scientific opportunities.
 	
The Assailant Merchant	An human-like creature with reptilian features, Orthesu is initially an optional boss that can be fought in three different opportunites. She is known as the Assailant Merchant, an assassin who sells off any belongings of her targets. She can target Kaiden but canonically, she is unable to kill him in the three opportunites she gets and in the final encounter, Kaiden's ultimatum leads her to reluctantly join the party. An anti-social, sarcastic and often just times cruel individual, Orthesu is a self-centered rogue who only seeks her own survival and others be damned.
COMBINATION TECHNIQUES
 	 	
+ 	Blade of LifeElina utilizes all her elemental spells onto Kaiden's Fused Blade, creating the Blade of Life. With one big swing of it, Kaiden hits all enemies with all types of elemental effects. 	Blessed RootsElina casts a spell on Kaiden's blades that cover his blade up with seeds. Kaiden then thrusts the blade into the ground, which creates a series of roots that envelop Kaiden's allies and heals them completely.
 	  	 
+ 	The Beast and the TamerUzoma utilizes their knowledge of primal behavior and assists Kaiden into unleashing his brutal side on the enemy, while Uzoma turns away to not witness the bloodshed that ensues.	???TBA.
LOCATIONS
ITEMS
BESTIARY
DOWNLOADBLE CONTENT
Interdimensional Invaders	A scientist from Juno's nation has uncovered that a group of creatures from different dimensions have entered Ascerth through a portal of unknown origin. The scientist requests Juno and her crew to go after these creatures and capture them in order to send them back before they cause some kind of anomaly. This DLC adds 5 additional optional boss fights.
TRIVIA
:The title, Chronicles of Ascerth, is meant to invoke the first title in the Ghostverse series: Champions of Ascerth.
:Ideas for Chronicles first started up back in mid-2019, following the retirement of Ghostrealm's Krexxal and the acquirement of the Ghostverse IP. The creation of the title kept getting postponed due Stardust Citadel's ViVyper being lazy.
:Kaiden's original surname is Damuth but in Chronicles, its replaced by Kennard. This is to separate the two incarnations of the character.
:The game is inspired by BioWare's RPGs such as Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect, as well as Xenoblade Chronicles and Tales of Vesperia.
:Uzoma, Hiltraud and Juno were new characters that were never in the original Ghostverse. The reason for their addition is due to the expanded nature of Ascerth itself and the original cast wouldn't allow the full exploration of the different civilizations added in Champions.
::Uzoma is inspired by V from Devil May Cry 5 and monster catching games such as Dragon Quest Monsters and Shin Megami Tensei. The idea was to explore a more unique character for a roleplaying game as well as to give a more unique element to the enemies.
::Hiltraud is inspired by Kankuro from Naruto and Devo the Cursed from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, both being fighters who utilize puppets for combat.
::Juno is based on an old idea from ViVyper about a scientist who makes a robotic assistant. Her inspirations include Aura Blackquill, Dr. Eggman and Teegan from Iconoclasts. Her role in the world is to add a more futuristic side for the Ghostverse, which was mainly rooted in more traditional WarCraft esque fantasy worlds. 
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