Charles Ta
Prof. Motomichi Nakamura
Core Seminar 4D
April 27, 2018
CREATIVE PROPOSAL FOR ANIMATION PROJECT (VIDEO GAME):
TITLE: ERNYTHA— SALAZAR ASCENDING
MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY: JRPG video game, Unity 2D or 3D engine
DIMENSIONS: N/A
DESCRIPTION: Final Fantasy style RPG with Final Fantasy logo version of Salazar: Conqueror of Ernytha. Video games today are an extremely popular form of entertainment for people of all ages, and is becoming accessible in an increasingly visual age of rapid pace. I have taken my animation and have re-imagined it as a video game of sorts, with the final battle between Salazar and the heroes (who have been pursuing him) taking place on top of a mythologized Mount Rushmore near the end of the game. Salazar is the “final boss” of this RPG, with the actual battle against him consisting of three distinct Acts. The goal of this portion of the game is to defeat Salazar in both of his forms so that all of Ernytha may be saved from his conquest for power.
Link to GIF demonstrating concept (also CLICK on the frame/picture to see the GIF):
https://piskel-imgstore-b.appspot.com/img/bccd4640-4b32-11e8-97a4-6d0513216244.gif
Mount Rushmore Battle– Ernytha: Salazar Ascending
Ernytha: Salazar Ascending Logo
HOW IT WORKS:
In the First Act of the Salazar battle, the player controls the heroes (the three each have their own stats, strengths, and weaknesses) and gets them to attack Salazar’s “regular form”, which, although not as powerful as his next form, is extremely formidable. Behind Salazar, the Great Alignment of the Four Worlds is about to occur, giving the player a sense of urgency and necessity to defeat Salazar. The heroes are capable of using both physical and magic attacks in their respective elements, and are helped by the Four Colossi who do additional damage when summoned. Salazar is capable of using all elemental attacks using the Four Artifacts and uses the soul of the Colossus Libertas to do extensive damage.
The Second Act of the Salazar battle begins only after the player with the heroes has done a certain amount of damage to Salazar (getting him below ⅓ health). A brief cutscene will occur in which the Great Alignment will infuse Salazar with tremendous power as he uses the event to transform into his “God-form” merged with the Colossus Libertas. He grows into a giant in size, larger than the Four Colossi the heroes use, which he subsequently destroys alongside the Aetos sent to stop him from high heaven.
The atmosphere becomes extremely tense as the mountain begins to rumble, and stones begin to fly in the air. Columns and trails of fire burn the sides of the mountain and cause embers to fly up into the air. Harsh hurricane-force winds, tornadoes, and gales descend from the cloudy vortex in the sky. Some of them become waterspouts as they touch the chaotic ocean that rises up and causes floods with its tsunami-like tidal waves. Nearby ships from the pirate hero’s navy are washed away and swept away, lost to the ocean. The armies fighting below are forced to evacuate the mountain. The heroes barely hold on at the top of Mount Rushmore. Now the real battle has begun for the fate of the entire world and even the gods.
Just when all hope seems lost (the heroes are unable to do any damage to the seemingly invincible Salazar— using their strongest moves but only doing 0 or 1 HP of damage), more Aetos descend down from the heavens, including their President, who imbues them with all their godly power. The heroes’ stats are powered up drastically as they are now able to slowly chip at the massive health of Salazar in his new form. Since each of the three heroes represent three of the Four Tribes of Ernytha, they are able to use three of the Four Artifacts (water, earth, fire) to their full power. Whereas in the First Act the heroes’ only target was Salazar, now given Salazar’s size and power, the parts of his body possessing the Four Artifacts each have their own separate health bar. The heroes have to destroy each of his body parts in order to not only weaken Salazar, but acquire each of the Four Artifacts so they can be used against him, but with greater power. For example, the fire heroine has to destroy Salazar’s right arm which has been infused with the power of the Torch Sceptre. Once the arm is destroyed, she herself will acquire the power of the Torch, which will boost her stats even more with the combined assistance of the Aetos. As the heroes pummel on the mad wizard Salazar, he begins to get desperate, and at the battle’s climax (when any of his body parts are below a third health), he begins using the ultimate attacks of each of the four elements against the heroes.
His most powerful attacks are as follows (for each element and weapon):
TEMPEST OF HEMOS/ SOLAR CYCLONE: Salazar draws energy from the solar winds of Hemos and unleashes a powerful blood-red vortex of wind over all the heroes, ripping up the ground and carrying them in a massive tornado that then throws them back down onto Mount Rushmore, doing great damage. May cause the status effect of CONFUSION + lower speed. Is associated with the Bloodstar Cloak that Salazar wears like a cape around his neck.
MYRVEN’S METEOR: Salazar draws energy from the first planet in the Solar System, Myrven (a planet formed out of the collision between Mercury and Venus) and unleashes a barrage of flaming meteors and volcanic ash from the atmosphere to blind the heroes and do great damage to them. May cause the status effect of BURN + lower accuracy. Is associated with the Torch Scepter Salazar holds in his right hand.
MOUTH OF THE EARTH: Salazar draws energy from the deepest depths of Ernytha itself and causes mighty earthquakes to plague the world and Mount Rushmore as the ground begins to crack and structures begin to collapse. Salazar causes gigantic sinkholes to open up around and under the heroes, swallowing them up as mineral crystals of varying sizes strike at them like rain from numerous angles. Each individual crystal does only a few points of damage, but the cumulative damage is lethal. May cause the status effect of POISON + lower defense. Is associated with the Crown of Wisdom Salazar wears on his head.
MOONSTORM: Salazar draws energy from the tides moved by the Moon, and by the water and ice underneath the Moon itself, unleashing upon our heroes and the world titanic floods, tsunamis, rain/hailstorms, and waterspouts. Massive torrents of freezing water straight from the Moon, accompanied by rising waters around Mount Rushmore, completely envelop the heroes and crush them under sharp ice. May cause the status effect of FROZEN + lower attack. It is associated with the Tablet of the Moon Salazar holds in his left hand.
AETHER FALLOUT/ LIBERTY’S WRATH: Salazar’s ultimate, but rarest attack. Salazar will occasionally draw power from all the Four Worlds at once as well as from the manifestation of the Colossus Libertas and combine their raw essence into a singular ball of godly energy rivaling the might of the Aetos. Salazar laughs maniacally as he floats up into the sky and unleashes the massive ball of energy onto the heroes, causing an atomic bomb-like explosion that covers all of Mount Rushmore in a blinding dome of light, and for a massive electrifying shock wave to form and spread all around the world’s skies. This move has a 25% chance to KO at least one of the three heroes, and otherwise does colossal damage. Due to the sheer amount of energy used up by Salazar, he has to rest for one turn after using this move, which leaves the player with the option of either healing a fallen hero, or attacking Salazar more.
After all three heroes have acquired the three of the Four Artifacts representing their element and their home nation (having destroyed Salazar’s right arm, his left arm, and injured his head), Salazar begins to shrink as his health plummets and his stats decrease. This is the beginning of the Third and final Act of the battle. Whereas during the start of the Second Act Salazar did colossal damage to the heroes with his mighty attacks, he is now in a severely weakened state and is able to do little damage given the heroes’ drastically increased stats. In this Act, Salazar retains only the Artifact pertaining to the wind/blood and the soul of the Libertas, which does not give him enough power to do any significant damage to the heroes. Furious, Salazar resorts to blindly attacking his opponents more and more, but eventually is finally defeated when the heroes, and the Aetos combine their strength with their respective Artifacts to defeat the evil wizard. Following Salazar’s fall, the soul of the Colossus Libertas emerges from Salazar’s body, and attempts to retake the Four Artifacts for itself (in a “quasi Fourth Act”), but is then beaten by the Aetos, realizing she has been completely drained of all her power.
The world is saved after the Final Battle, but at a massive cost. Mount Rushmore collapses after the great confrontation as the Four Worlds move out of Alignment. The heroes die, exhausted and having used up the last of their strength in the collapse as their souls are taken by the Aetos and immortalized in a Valhalla-like heaven for the pure hearts and selfless sacrifice. Salazar’s body is destroyed by the Aetos, and his soul is taken to a hellish dimension for eternal punishment. The Artifacts too are destroyed, and the soul of the Libertas is dragged into an eternal void by the Aetos, erased from existence. The Four Colossi, now no longer needed, have their souls reclaimed by the Aetos alongside those of the heroes. Those who survived the epic confrontation witness the spectacle of the aftermath from the sea surrounding Rushmore, and write down their observations that later fade into myth and Homeric legend:
“Below the Great Alignment did Salazar arise,
And incur the wrath of the Aetos for his pride,
And coalesce did he with the soul of Liberty,
To become that beast he always was inside.”
-Verse 13, Chapter 7, Book 18, Part IV of “The Tale of Salazar”
BENEFITS AND OUTCOMES: By turning my animation into an epic Final Fantasy style RPG game, I will be able to access and showcase my creation through a more prevalent and popular medium, and thus reach a far wider audience than if I were to just use an animation. In addition, video games have a certain level of input and interactivity on the part of the player— he/she will feel like the heroes themselves trying to stop Salazar, which will enrich their experience of my work more so than merely viewing it as an observer in animation form.
