NIRAVASI Devlog (05/04/2022): Triple Closure

Hey everyone,

Welcome back to another NIRAVASI Devlog. Last time, I spoke about some pretty exciting news regarding the project's release and other additional goodies. I should also mention that I made a little bit of a mistake with the release date announcement for the game, in that it would be released on July 9th 2022. This was a mistake, and I meant to say July 6th 2022. But don't worry, I'll make a more official announcement for that when the time comes, so with that said, let's get straight into today's topic.

An End To Things

As of this moment, I am happy to announce that the majority of the seventh level is finally complete. Players are now able to fully explore the Palace of Nira Ishan, as well as face the horrors of AEON's work in the form of the Imagos. But as you might expect, simply finishing the palace itself is not enough to conclude the story I have been working on for almost two years. Instead, I believe it's time to start talking about what the final areas of the game will be like.

After lighting one (or all, if you're eager for a more complete ending) of the beacons within the Palace of Nira Ishan, AEON will welcome you into the very final room of the game. Taking a trip by elevator, Mura and AEON make their way to the darkest depths of the mountain the city was built on top on, eventually reaching a great chamber hidden from all. There, they'll find the Heart of Niravasi, the city's greatest treasure and the object that is responsible for keeping the malevolent AI tethered to the city. It's also this treasure that Willow Eugenics originally hired the teams that Mura and Clovis worked to find. I don't want to spoil any details specifically, but know that it'll be unlike anything you'll have seen before in-game (with the exception being a certain relic found at the end of the Stepwell level).

It is at this point where the player holds one final conversation with AEON, which ultimately will decide the fate of the player going forward. These will be given to the player in the form of three endings.

Normal Ending: Escape

True Ending: Acceptance

Secret Ending: Reincarnation

Normal Ending

This is the default ending for NIRAVASI, and the one you'll get if you simply play the game from start-to-finish. Here, AEON will continue his plan of showing Mura the Heart of Niravasi, before a great disaster strikes. In the ensuing chaos, Mura finds himself in contact again with Clovis and Lynx, who warn the Antherian that things within the city are going crazy. In the chaos, all of AEON's machines begin to shut down and the Harvester itself becomes prone to glitches.

Wasting no time at all, Mura grabs the treasure and makes a mad dash towards the elevator. This in turn will result in a final escape sequence, where Mura must escape the Harvester one last time before making it to Clovis and Lynx's ship safely. In the final confrontation, Mura and his friends escape the city of Niravasi, resulting in AEON being trapped once more within the lost city.

Sounds like an ideal situation, right? Well, that's because it is. One of the main design philosophies I wanted for the endings of NIRAVASI was to not punish the player in how they chose to play the game. I've seen a lot of other RPG Maker Games that penalise the player at the climax, just because they didn't go out of their way to pick up some additional details/items. NIRAVASI's goal has always been simple and I wanted to reinforce that with this ending; find your friends and escape the city of Niravasi. Now if you're more of a completionist, you'll be instead focusing on the True Ending of the game.

True Ending

Following the same path as the Normal Ending, Mura will have a final confrontation with AEON. But instead of going through with the AI's plans, Mura instead will have the option to ask a very simple question of the great machine.

Scattered throughout each of NIRAVASI's levels are a specific set of areas that I call the Tragedy Rooms. Each of these rooms contain a rather sad story involving the tragic end of a former citizen living in Niravasi. For example, the first level contained a sad fate regarding a group of survivors trying to escape the chaos of a dying city. These rooms play a pivotal role in the ending of the game, as they highlight the key concept behind the game's narrative that there is no such thing as a Good Human or a Bad Antherian. There are good and bad people in the world, and the Antherians themselves are no different from the humans they co-exist with. Mura will come to this understanding only by experiencing all of the tragedies within these rooms, before posing a very important question towards AEON.

The results of this conversation surprisingly will lead to a fairly peaceful resolution between Mura and the machine, resulting in a end of all hostile encounters within the game. After which, the player is free to collect the treasure of the city unopposed, resulting in a very similar ending to that of the Normal one. However, if you truly are a masochistic individual, you may perhaps be interested in the game's Secret Ending instead.

Secret Ending

Now I should warn you beforehand that this ending in particular will be vastly different than the other two. I don't really want to give away too much about it, so instead I'll just throw a few little teaser points here and there.

During previous demo releases, some of you may have noticed some very ominous looking doors in each of the game's levels. While seemingly unimportant at the time, these doors play an important role into how the Secret Ending of the game will work, resulting in some very bad stuff happening. My hope for this ending is that it'll completely break any semblance of realism or solid footing in terms of the narrative, resulting in an experience that'll be truly out of place.

That's it for this Devlog for NIRAVASI. I know it wasn't as significant as the last one's was, but a big part of the work that's gone into the game now has been with wrapping things up before its release on July 6th 2022. I'll have to admit that I'm getting quite nervous about this on my end, but I'm certain that as long as I keep my head in the game, NIRAVASI's launch will be a great success. With that said, thank you all so very much for reading and I'll speak to you again next time.

Kind regards,
Angus (Sangos)