Ascended

A mythological creature collector RPG where living stories become weapons, choices matter, and only one Bookkeeper can ascend beyond recorded knowledge.

What is the story?

A mysterious glowing obelisk brought books to life.

Myths, legends, and forgotten stories awakened, taking physical form as living spirits. Ancient markings upon the obelisk began to glow, foretelling a clash between two overwhelming powers. The victor would rise beyond what even fiction itself had room to imagine.

Bookkeepers across the world rushed to act. They bound the awakened spirits and wielded them as weapons. One by one, they failed or vanished.

You inherit only what remains.

Play as a young Bookkeeper exploring dangerous mythological regions, collecting spirits, battling powerful enemies, solving puzzles, and uncovering what caused the awakening before history itself is rewritten.

Only one shall ascend beyond the limits of recorded knowledge.

Features

Mythology-Inspired Adventure

• Travel through regions inspired by different mythologies and confront spirits pulled from ancient stories.

Strategic Spirit-Based Combat

• Build teams, discover powerful synergies, and adapt your playstyle. Reading abilities and understanding enemy patterns matters.

Difficulty Modifiers

•  The number 1 critique, was the game was too hard or too easy so I added new settings features that are balanced working as intended to make both sides happy.

Different Builds

•  It was important to make many builds not one specific correct one, so I worked tons on what felt good for the playstyles with logically all of them being solid. Try them all!

Multiple Endings

• Your decisions shape the outcome, with different endings to discover.

No Level Cap

•  Progression has no hard limit. Stronger enemies require more preparation, strategy, and grinding.

Save System

•  After many request I decided on making three possible different save slots. Autosave activates when leaving  or entering stages.   

Gameplay Tips

• The game is designed to be fast and responsive spam clicking is supported.
• Click the left or right side of the screen to skip dialogue quickly.
• Avoid clicking the center during dialogue, as it may select choices accidentally.
• Recommended route for first-time players:

Greek → Japanese → Celtic → Norse → Endgame

IMPORTANT NOTICE

• v2.5 is the best quality of life version of the game released in 30 days. A lot of polish added balance and removal of frustrations were implemented as well as bug turned into actual features. 
• I put my heart and soul into this project. I made almost everything myself, except sound effects and ambience. The art and music are the best I could do within the timeframe while focusing heavily on code. The core game and main loop are complete. I will continue updating bug fixes, quality of life updates, and then releasing already completed but unused content.
• A discord server PLEASE JOIN!! This was made to directly report bugs, seek help, or show-off. I know a tiny amount of people will use it. But its easier then dm's every time.

About Me

There is more information on my profile.

This is my first fully solo developed game, and I wanted it to matter. My only formal game development experience comes from three semesters in school. I chose to make this a 2D game because it allowed me to fully meet my scope and focus on systems, design, and completion. I don't have a pc but I always worked on it even without. Which is why there so much text.

During development, I used Aseprite for all art assets, which I have been working with throughout all three semesters. I have two semesters of coding experience(intro-c++ and html/CSS), and I did the best I could while continuing to learn throughout the project. I learned Band Lab for music barely during the 7th day of this game development but many you tube videos and friends with that as their core passion helped me learn the bare minimum I needed. 

I am currently focusing on a meaningful update every other week. This is how the game will be however. My goal is to update a final version eventually that fully implements unused but completed content and remaining assets with polish.

I am not walking away from this project. But I'm not investing years. I intend to see it through with all planned content with polish. Once it is finished, I will step back and let it exist as it is meant to. 

Game Jam

This game was created using the Kraken game engine by Durk.

It was developed as a 30 day class assignment and was completely independent and solo. All code, art, music, dialogue, and design were created by me. Only sound effects/ambience were sourced from free assets, as required. The updates is not any new content its just bug fixing and adding what's not there yet.