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Abyss Odyssey

Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360
Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: ACE Team
Release Date: July 15, 2014

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'Abyss Odyssey' Shows Off Its Fighting Engine - Screens & Trailer

by Rainier on March 13, 2014 @ 5:34 p.m. PDT

Abyss Odyssey is an action/adventure platformer that borrows several elements from the Roguelike sub-genre, featuring a variety of unique characteristics.

Abyss Odyssey is an action platformer with a heavy emphasis on the combat - to the point where we can refer at the enemies as fighters from a roster of a fighting game. In this video I focused on 'Judith', which is an enemy from within the abyss, and I explore most of her moveset and apply it to create a combo video.

A first thing that can be noticed is that the combat system resembles Smash Bros more than Street Fighter, where you have directional attacks and simple command specials. Though the game does carry similar elements seen in traditional fighters (like cancelling attacks into specials or the SF3 type parry), we opted for a smash type offensive design since it matches much better a game that would be happening in an action / platforming environment. Fans of Smash competitive play will notice immediately the naming convention for attacks such as Fair, Bair, Dair, etc... (Forward Air, Back Air, etc...)


All these combos were created on the fly by me (co-lead designer Carlos Bordeu). My objective was to demonstrate as much as possible the variety of attacks and how they can be linked to produce impressive and entertaining combos and juggles within the training room of the game (the training room allows you to pick any character you have captured and to practice with him, just like in the training rooms of regular fighting games). Some of you might be wondering if the system wouldn't allow me to do infinite combos by just simply repeating the same attack over and over again (Example: Stand below the enemy and use the up attack repeatedly to juggle the enemy infinitely). This cannot be accomplished because of a simple rule of the game's combo system: Every time you repeat a same attack within a combo, the attack carries a decreased upwards momentum. In other words: The more you repeat an attack in your combo, the less it pushes upwards, making it more and more difficult to continue the combo. We feel this was an excellent way of balancing juggles and making a system that forces people to use a diversity of attacks creatively in order to get the most impressive combos.


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