Comfort Zone

***Comfort Zone*** is a 2018 role-playing video game released by Checkmate for the Nintendo Switch and The V2. The premise of the story focuses on two unlikely heroes from the newly explored 'Yaeciran' planet in the Bleakverse, Aliss and her ex-boyfriend Aras.

## Premise

The story of *Comfort Zone* focuses on two unlikely heroes - Aliss and Aras - who whilst still struggling with their intense breakup, have to evade destruction by an unknown organisation trying to hunt and destroy them. The Yaeciran planet has been in turmoil since the overpopulation of factories causing pollution to affect the oxygen in the air, creating a cloud of darkness which rules over the current continent, however, more seems to be covered by the shroud of clouds, and that's the answers Aliss and Aras are on the hunt for, and to kill as many people as they can, of course.

## Characters

The main protagonist of the game, Aliss is homeless by choice after her parents left the planet after it became severely polluted by local factories, making the normal air harder to breathe for the citizens of Yaeciran. Despite this, Aliss is fine with the air and the planet, and she enjoys spending time there with her friends from the local orphanage. Aliss tends to only associate herself with people of a similar or lower social class, believing them to be more honest with her than others in higher classes, however she is a very untrustworthy person with everybody despite this, and often retains a guard with everyone close to her due to her upbringing. Due to her rough and tough background, Aliss is vile-mannered and carefree, as well as tending to disrespect anybody she doesn't associate with. The only person able to crack down those walls of trust was Aras, until the couple broke up, sending her into a spiral and building her inner trust walls even higher than before.

The deuteragonist of the game, Aras is a part of one of the middle class families on Yaeciran, which is actually one of the fanciest families on the planet due to the decaying economy. The only reason why Aras' family have retained their wealth is through Aras' father's factory business, which is also the reason behind the immense pollution in the local area. He finds it hard to love anybody, including himself, and often finds himself confused as to how and why him and Aliss were together, making him very paranoid and depressed on many occasions. He is often mistreated by his parents, who don't really care what he does, until in company of other upper class people who the family are trying to impress. They care about Aras' reputation with these associates, but not for himself or his inner feelings, another reason behind his anxiety and isolation.

## Gameplay

*Comfort Zone* has two main combat systems which take place in any given level in the game, which follows the formula used in Kirby titles. You may progress through a level, explore and fight to make your way to the end through defeating enemies and making your way through many environments and doors, to face off against a boss or miniature boss at the end of the level.

### Karmas

Karmas is the collective term given to the different types of stats you can increase with your character in the game. There are several different types of character you can build by increasing specific karmas to make them more suitable for how you intend to use them.

 **Emotion** | Emotion is a measure of a character's mental resistance. It influences their resistance to mind tricks by enemies and makes them immune towards insanity.

### Emotions

During the game, characters will under-go different emotional states which will affect them in battle. This will change periodically depending on what happens to the character in the story, or in the battle. For example, if they are hit with a critical attack they will be tired, and slower when it comes to attacking. Some Emotions have more positive effects, while some are negative effects.

### Abilities

Every character in *Comfort Zone* has unique abilities to aid them in combat, based around their personality and behaviour. Every character unlocks up to six abilities which can be inter-changed by the player at any given time outside of a direct battle. Some abilities will be locked to specific characters, and some will be able to be customized among your party members.

 Bloodlust
 Open Wide!

### Cards of Fate

Another big mechanic in the game is the Cards of Fate. Based off of Tarot Cards, Cards of Fate will offer insight into characters and how they develop over the course of the game, but they also add benefits to the characters' abilities. When you collect a Card of Fate through winning battles, you can apply them to your desired character, which will change their ending scene and their fate, but it will also manipulate their abilities to make them more powerful or more effective for the type of foe you are battling.

### Social Classes

The Social Classes of characters also play a part into the game. Every character has a social class assigned to them which will either increase or decrease the effectiveness of their moves depending on the social class of the opponent.

* 1st Class or Upper Class are more effective on 2nd or Middle Class; but less effective on 3rd or Lower Class.
* 2nd Class or Second Class are more effective on 3rd or Lower Class; but less effective on 1st or Upper Class.
* 3rd Class or Lower Class are more effective on 1st or Upper Class; but less effective on 2nd or Middle Class.

### Controls

The following controls are for the Nintendo Switch version of the game.

## Trivia

* *Comfort Zone* was inspired by the "Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast", as well as the television show "The End of the F\*\*king World".
	+ There are also many features influenced by Nintendo titles like the "Kirby" series, the "Mother/Earthbound" series, and "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild".
* The main theme for the project is "Emotions", and how emotions effect people in different types of situations, relationships, and environments.