Hey there! My name's Vinh (maybe better known by some of you as _Kilburn ), and I handle most of the programming and game design stuff in Repentance, along with a few artsy bits such as item sprites and visual effects. Today I'd like to talk about one of the upcoming characters in Repentance: Bethany!
Bethany is my attempt at giving Magdalene a more challenging, attack oriented counterpart. At first she was a white mage type character with an entire set of holy themed spells and a mana counter that would fill up with soul hearts, but I quickly realized that was way overcomplicated and she eventually shifted towards a more exorcist-like archetype, catching souls and using their power to defend herself. When playing as her, soul hearts will drop more often, but instead of granting health, they count towards a new "soul charge" counter, adding 1 charge per half soul heart. Active items will then draw from that counter when used on an empty or partial charge. This allows you to use your active items more aggressively while still saving charges for when you need them the most.
She also starts with a neat active item: the Book of Virtues! When used, this book spawns one wisp familiar that orbits you, blocks shots, and fires low damage tears. This might not seem like much but...
...this wisp will also follow you between rooms and stick around until it dies! Which happens whenever it comes in contact with an enemy or gets hit by too many projectiles. This means if you play carefully enough, you can end up with a whole bunch of wisps lighting up the room while protecting you.
If you've already experienced the Antibirth mod you're probably thinking "wait I know this character, she sucks, no one wants to be stuck with the same active item and no devil deals for the whole game!!!". Well you got me, I lied, the Book of Virtues isn't quite an active item. Check this out:
That's right, when you pick up any active item, the book will open up and the item will combine with it, allowing both to be used at the same time! You can still swap active items as normal but the Book of Virtues will always stay in your active slot and attach to whatever's in there. Losing your active item, for example after activating a single use item, will simply result in the book reverting to its closed state. On top of it, many active items will grant a unique effect to the wisps they spawn, which either compliments their original purpose or brings them in a completely different direction. For example here's My Little Unicorn in action:
As a general rule you can expect items with a short cooldown to produce fragile wisps that are easy to lose, and items with a long cooldown to produce sturdy wisps that stick around for longer. As for single use items or items with no cooldown? Who knows? Anything is possible! Okay fine, how about this:
Using How to Jump offensively? Nonsense!!! I'm very happy with how this turned out (thanks for the design input Edmund!) and I hope this will be a good incentive for you to give some of your least favorite active items another chance! Of course, keep in mind things are still subject to change before release. Repentance is coming along well and I really appreciate how understanding the community has been. It will be worth the wait. You guys rock. Until next time!