Sophia's Spirit Journey by ryusui
Sophia, a beautiful and powerful spirit channeller, investigates a ruined temple where an ancient malignance was sealed. Alas - the seal has been weakened due to centuries of neglect, and the dark spirit held prisoner there attacks Sophia as soon as she arrives, attempting to possess her! She breaks free of the spirit's hold, but at a terrible cost - and with only the dregs of her vast power remaining as a result, she must venture through the once-hallowed halls and seek aid from the elemental spirits who once maintained the seal.
These ruins were not meant to welcome intruders, though, and with the ancient defenses still active, and vast swathes of the ruin reclaimed by the elements, Sophia will need every ounce of power she can summon from the spirits!
- Sophia - Power of Spirits (summon forth aid from the ether)
- Hiberna - Power of Ice and Water (tame heat-based hazards)
- Caloris - Power of Fire (incinerate foes and obstacles)
- Veridia - Power of Earth and Nature (call forth columns of stone and soil)
- Fulmina - Power of the Heavens (beckon down divine retribution)
There are many branching paths in the ruins, some impossible to navigate without the aid of certain spirits. Spirit beacons will light up on your approach, serving as checkpoints to return to should Sophia fall to darkness on her journey.
At the summit of the ruins lies a confrontation with the dark spirit that seeks to consume Sophia. Beware - it will use its stolen power without remorse or hesitation! When the dust has settled and darkness is thwarted, shall Sophia claim what is rightfully hers, or does her path lead elsewhere?...
Keyboard controls: WASD/arrow keys to move, Space/Z to jump, X/Enter to fire (Caloris and Fulmina only), Q/Comma and E/Period to cycle between spirits.
Gamepad controls: D-pad/left analog stick to move, botom face button (Nintendo B/PlayStation X/Xbox A) to jump, left face button (Nintendo Y/PlayStation Square/Xbox X) to fire (Caloris and Fulmina only), shoulder butttons (Nintendo L/R, PlayStation L1/R1, Xbox LB/RB) to cycle between spirits.
Created in Godot 4.2.1. 3D assets created in Blender 4.1. 2D assets created in Aseprite 1.3.5. Uses Cormorant Garamond, Vujahday Script, Viner Hand ITC, and Birch Std.
UPDATED 4/19/2024: Version 1.01 has been uploaded (updated to Godot 4.2.2). This is a minor bugfix release which fixes the functionality of collapsing floors and corrects the erroneous behavior of the death counter (multiple deaths were being registered when only one should have been counted). Clearing the game also no longer updates the game time or death counter from the last save. As always, please rate based on the original 1.0 release.
UPDATED 4/21/2024: Version 1.1 has been uploaded! This is a more extensive update which adds sound and music to the game, as well as some upgrades to the presentation and polish, and some fixes to platforming bugs.



Ratings
| Overall | 618th | 3.529⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 572th | 3.456⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 905th | 3.015⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1134th | 2.721⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 690th | 3.574⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 776th | 2.688⭐ | 34🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1083th | 2.894⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 37🗳️ | 53🗨️ |
1. Some sort of short stop when switching zones might have been nice, I ran into lava a lot by just sorta running from one room into another and not stopping between.
2. For stage 2 of the boss, it might be cool if you couldn't drop through those platforms, I died a lot more to just... sorta misjumping/tapping wrong then I did to the attacks in that zone.
The level design and overall gameplay was pretty good, but just like you mentioned, the collapsing platforms was a bit off since the character can still stand on them after they fell off. And I think the enemies were moving a little too fast which makes some areas difficult to get pass. And some transition gates were too close to a dead source like lava or spikes, I think lengthen the safe area around those gates a bit would be a thing to consider, because I died quite a number of times just because I didn't have time to react after a "sudden danger" after a zone transition.
But there're some other things I want to point out. First being the lack of some kinds of tutorial to guide the player through the controls and core mechanics of the game, as I find myself struggled on some parts of the level because I couldn't figure out the controls needed, like falling through those blue platforms at the beginning of the game.
As for the second, I think the dead animation was taking a bit too much time, like 3-4 seconds or so. At first, it was no big deal, but it might become annoying on some hard parts of the level because the player might die a lot, which costs their patience and reduces replay-ability.
Anyway, this is a very neat submission nonetheless, I genuinely appreciate the effort you put into this, great job!
Also, speaking of lava pits, I adjusted the design of two rooms: the floor in the lava hallway leading to Caloris no longer leads straight into the lava pool (there's a ledge now), and the entrance in the final climb leading to the end boss has been lowered so you can see the lava when you enter.
Small thing I noticed, the first time I shot a projectile with fire, the game lagged quite hard for a moment, maybe assets were loading or something?

All in all pretty good. The boss was a bit of a horrible experience with no sound cue for shots and them blending so well to the background and platforms. The platforming wasn't really precise enough of what it required, the blue platforms sometimes just letting you fall trough without any rhyme or reason and the brown platforms timer starting weirdly early if you go near them.
The final stretch before boss was kinda annoyingly long too with all the possible sources of chip damage there were. Not hard but just not very fun either to run repeatedly. Pretty much the same as the early phases of the boss after knowing what to do on them.
Other than that it was pretty well balanced. The checkpoints were plenty enough (maybe the beginning section could have used one too) and the dangers were never too much to handle but posed some threat at least.
First time I died after getting the first head I thought it glitched as my head was removed. Could have hinted somewhere (in the game) about the head switching at the point when you get your first one. I tried to do a full refresh at that point to start again but the continue screen with showing me 1/x heads gave me a clue and then I checked the description for anything I was missing. Obviously would have been nicer to have it on game.
The ice head was pretty useless. It served no purpose on the boss level with lava as you needed to switch off it to use the platforms and it required way too much dexterity to pull off with the clunky controls. And just staying on the platforms and hoping that the projectiles don't hit you was the way to go. The green one also was kinda moot and those moving platforms activating were just too damn slow. Waiting around doing nothing is never fun. On the boss it being slow served a purpose but normally it was just waiting for the sake of waiting. It, just like the blue one, served pretty much just as a passive effect. Which mechanically they could have easily been. And the shooty ones could also be just upgrades on top of each other which would have pretty much made the whole head switching unnecessary. And as it was only a hinderance really I don't think that might have been a bad idea. Of course it wouldn't have made sense thematically.
Noticed you made an updated version with sounds and music (and bug fixes) which is nice. Too bad you couldn't squeeze them to the original schedule. They were missed and surely would have added a lot. The art worked but I'm not entirely sold on the purple on the walls (and everywhere else even hiding boss projectiles as I mentioned). It was a bit too attention seekingly bright and could be toned down in brightness and saturation to make it more serve its purpose as a static scenery element.
But yeah, good job! 👍 Very "full" experience already for a jam game and I bet the...
Well, my curiosity got the better of me and took a peek on the updated version. Looks like it shares the same save file and indeed the changes make it so much better. Especially the sounds help a ton. Pulled it off on the first try without any problems and found the "secret ending" too. Very dark soulsy...

Early in development, Hiberna was supposed to give you an Ice Beam-type freeze shot, but I decided making that work (or worthwhile) would introduce too much scope creep. If I revisit this game, both Hiberna and Veridia will probably have their powers reworked somewhat!
Not a fan of the jump / platforming : it seems the ability to jump up "through" platform doesn't play too well with perspective view. I'm sure there's no issue with the physics code here, however, the perspective view makes it look like there is, which is a pity (Blasphemous also has a similar issue)
I also found the switching heads mechanic tricky to do quickly, perhaps using a different button to equip each head instead of scrolling, but I'm not too sure.
Great job!