Zone03 Design Talk (Spoilers)

So, in order to complete Tai Ming we had a huge meeting some time before christmas break where we finalized a bunch of design things in the third zone. If you're scared of story spoilers, I would avoid reading the rest of the post, as it involves some of the plot points to come... ;)

So, in the third zone you'll actually get the chance to face off against Zhamla! I'm not gonna detail how that will happen or why, but there it is. Because of this, our discussions have revolved around the cutscenes needed to make this happen, plus what kind of attacks and spells he'll be using. In fact, the last couple of weeks this is what Fred has been busy creating, which is why there hasn't been a lot of animations from him in the weekly recaps lately - don't want people to get spoiled on that account!

We wanted this battle to feel a little like battling another collector, as Zhamla is famed for being just that. So Zhamla will have a bunch of spells similar to those available to the player (though we haven't decided exactly which ones yet). Of course, they'll end up look a little different to make it easier to spot friendly fire from his...

His magical sword will be used to dash to and strike players, in a similar manner to the Echo enemies.

Unlike the player, Zhamla also has a healing ability... Oops! Guess there is healing in Grindea after all, only it's not available to the player! Don't worry though, it'll be explained exactly why he can heal and nobody else ;)

Finally, because we love bullet hells, and ...well, let's just say it makes sense in this fight because of a reason, he will have a bullet hell phase. It won't be the main part of the battle, or even a big one, though. But it'll be there!

So, how do you guys think you'll end up fighting Zhamla? Any cool theories you'd like to share? Feel free to comment with your speculations ;)