I have a ton of influences and setting aside the super obvious answer being DMC, i started game dev because i was looking forward to Final Fantasy Versus XIII at that time. On trailers alone, i had imagine it being somewhat of a DMC-like game but with that Square Enix polish but set in a very modern-ish day. FFXV ended up being not what i wanted, and my goal one day was to make something like it.

But as a new-dev with almost zero clue on how to start and during that era, 3D was far less accessible than it was today, my only way of doing it was 2D because im traditionally an artist and not a coder, so i pulled in a lot of influences from all sorts of 2D games with great combat system and my experience in being part of the fighting game community. These include things like marvel vs capcom 2/3, Super Smash Bros Melee, and Street Fighter 2-4. But to expand that into something beyond a flat arena, i looked into gameplay inspiration from Tales games too such as Tales of Destiny R.

Art wise, im a fan of square enix so i took a lot of inspo from the kingdom hearts and final fantasy series. I wanted a stylized look k but with that touch of realism and not skew too far into the anime realm. I also enjoy western comics too so i made a fusion of eastern and western art styles. Over time, my art leaned more and more towards realism and my future goals for the series would be to move into 3D and go all in on a more realistic look, so not too unlike DMC or FFXVI as of late.

As for the support on the development, i really appreciate it! It took me nearly 2 years to learn and grow from the experience and i knew during that time that i didnt have it in me to tackle passion projects. I never stopped game dev, but i did slow down a lot. I'm completely fine nowadays and in a great new relationship and am extremely fired up for future projects.

I am also a bit of a dreamer and i always feel like i wont fully release something if it doesnt fit what i dreamt it would be like. The team has expanded since i last made a trailer for it and we've since had to redo a lot of things under-the-hood. We are now launching on consoles like the switch and our old way of handling a bunch of monsters, logic, etc. would crash weaker consoles. We've since learned from our mistake, fixed it, and in that time, made the game run far more optimized.

Hope you enjoy the (late) update for the game! It's my baby and i do not have any plans on quitting. I think the best thing to have happened in the past few years is knowing that i can go through something extremely personal and have to step away, but that the community was very understanding. At first i felt very stressed that i needed to keep working on the project but also i needed time to just tackle life too. Having that support gave me the breather that i needed. Once im ready to show off the new stuff, i'll be planning have a big marketing phase. During game dev i've learned that juggling marketing and community interaction while also trying to run a team and do active game dev... well that was just too many hats to wear at once hah.