Bellum Bestiae

## Plot

Animal spirits have existed since they first originated in Africa. Over time, those spirits searched the world for warriors strong and worthy enough to host them, which would grant them the power to transform at will, be it in or out of combat, into all manner of powerful and mighty beasts. In August 1501, Damoclus, the demon lord of the Hell-like realm of Infernus, plans to plunge the world into chaos and conflict. Who will rise to the challenge and defend the world from his demonic forces or acquire as much of his demonic energy as necessary to doom it and all of mankind?

## Gameplay and Features

Bellum Bestiae (the title is Latin for "War of Beasts") will have a 2.5D gameplay format, same as NetherRealm Studios' Mortal Kombat reboot and Injustice series, with some elements of Soul Calibur and Bloody Roar (except the animal forms aren't anthropomorphic) thrown in for good measure.

The Quest Mode, AKA the Arcade Mode of Bellum Bestiae, ladder will consist of eight CPU battles, a Mirror Battle, reminiscent of *Mortal Kombat One*, which also includes a cutscene where the character you play as is in their home stage and Damoclus shows up to create a copy of said character for you to fight, a Destined Battle, in which your chosen character fights their rival, that takes place inside the ruins of an abandoned cathedral, and two final fights in Infernus against the sub-boss and the final boss, who is, of course, Damoclus! So, that's 12 Quest Mode battles total.

The "super meter" here is called "Essentia Bestia" (Beast Essence), and do you know *exactly* what requires a third of it? Special techniques called "Ars Bestiae" (Beast Techniques), which are just like the Rage Morphs in the lost arcade game, *Primal Rage II*, in which your character quickly changes into their animal form to perform a powerful technique, and then back to human form at the same rate, and are performed using special command motions plus the B (Xbox One) or Circle (PS4) button, depending on which console you are playing it on.

The "fatalities," or "Percute Ultimum" (Final Strikes) as they're called here, are very similar to the Zetsumei Ougi in *Samurai Shodown V Special* in which they require not only that your opponent's health be critically low in your winning round, but also that you trigger an Instant Kill-like state, which can be done by pressing X+Y+A+B (Xbox One) or Square+Triangle+X+Circle (PS4), depending on the console version, requires that all three bars of your Essentia Bestia be full, and lasts until your Essentia Bestia meter runs out, then disappears with no chance of you being able to use it again (which can also happen if you whiff the pre-Percute Ultimum strike or the other guy blocks it). All Percute Ultimum are executed by, while in pre-Percute Ultimum state, performing the quarter-circle-back command and pressing the lower face buttons at the same time and allow you to gruesomely kill your opponent at the end of a fight, Mortal Kombat-style, and shape-shift into your beast form and back while doing it, so use your finishing move with anticipation! Now, I envision from 4:47 to 5:13 of this video to be the music for just about every Percute Ultimum (wouldn't *that* be awesome?).

Also, if your opponent's health is critically low in your winning round (same as with the Percute Ultimum), certain normal attacks or special moves can trigger a small animation of the camera focusing on the opponent, and the opponent *only*, as they are either decapitated, cut in half, horizontally or vertically (with the opponent falling on their knees like they just got on the receiving end of Kung Lao's *MKII* Body Slice Fatality before bisecting during the "vertical" part), have their left, right hand, or both arms chopped off, or bleed out and, regardless of the match win finish animation, drop their weapon in the process in a manner reminiscent of *Samurai Shodown Sen*, before cutting to the winning character's outro sequence. For the "Bisected" match win finish animations, "H" represents "horizontal" and "V" represents "vertical," and for the "Dismembered" ones, "H" represents "hand" and "A" represents "arms."

The game will run in Unreal Engine 4, to give it a *very* realistic look, from the stages to the character models.

With the exception of the game intro, Percute Ultimum sequences, character endings, and credits, which will have half the frame rate, I envision Bellum Bestiae to run at 60fps.

The Training Mode stage is a medieval-style training yard (you can fight in a different stage in Training Mode if you wish!).

The final boss battle vs. Damoclus is a three-round fight. Winning two rounds against Damoclus triggers an *MKX* Corrupted Shinnok transformation-like cutscene in which he will turn into a Tyrannosaurus rex as a beast form. While in his secondary form, Damoclus' moveset will change and the fight will become only one round and more like the Galactus boss fight in *MVC3* and, also, the Ultron Omega boss fight in *MVC Infinite*.

## Rosters

### Playable

* Agnarr Holgersen
* Fergus MacDougal
* Grzegorz Krew
* Hodari Jasiri
* Juan Sánchez
* Karasu
* Masaru Kurozawa
* Micha
* Pierre Beaumont
* Rajesh Karamchand
* Thomas Montague
* Weai'masitoon

### Hidden

* Han Qingmei
* Laurenz von Brandt

### Bosses

* Damoclus (Final Boss)
* Torturex (Sub-Boss)

### DLC

* Anton Vasilyev
* Bubon
* Insaniac
* Yalewa

## Notes

* The game intro and the prologues and endings for all the characters will be narrated by, of all people... Ben Kingsley!
* The song that plays pre-credits roll, where short animations of all the characters, who are depicted in full-body, are shown in their home stages, with the names of their voice actors/actresses and pieces of 16th-century tapestry depicting said characters as their animal forms on their left or right (hidden and DLC will be added if unlocked), and also, during the credits, is "The Devil and the Huntsman," from Guy Ritchie's *King Arthur: Legend of the Sword*.
* All character bios are rated "Strict Mature Content - Violence/Gore," just to make the project accessible only to viewers of at least the required age to play an M-rated game, which Bellum Bestiae is, and are not easily offended by excessive violence, gore, or blood.