While I would not consider Scarred By Heaven to be a particularly 'dark' story overall, it does explore many heavy and potentially upsetting subjects as an integral part of the plot, characters, and themes. You can view a full list of current content warnings for the game here.
Scarred By Heaven is an upcoming beat-em-up about an otherworldly murder mystery, aiming to combine fast-paced 2D brawling with a character-focused narrative. It features some light action-RPG elements, as well as a sandbox of side content to explore.
The game is planned to be released for free when finished, and is currently being solo-developed as a passion project by me. :)
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For the past year, the coastal city of Jadewater has been plagued by a string of grisly murders, with the bodies of five unrelated victims left lying lifeless in the city streets, completely drained of blood.
Sakiko, a young delinquent recently forced to leave her childhood home following her eighteenth birthday, arrives in town one night by pure happenstance. However, she soon finds herself at the center of the city's paranormal mystery.
After a seemingly ordinary street fight takes a bizarre twist, Saki awakens to a strange supernatural power that's connected to a new, discolored scar over her eye. It isn't long after this that she also discovers an alternate dimension containing a fog-covered, hollow replica of the town, and realizes that the cause of the murders may not be entirely of this world.
However, Saki also soon realizes that she's not the only person to have obtained one of these 'marks', and that many others, both friend and foe, have their own unique powers, as well as their own agendas...
The story follows Saki's journey as she fights her way to the truth, all while struggling to come to terms with the newfound independence granted to her by adulthood.
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Scarred By Heaven aims to feature a unique 2D beat-em-up combat system, focused on aggressive, fast-paced brawling and combos--combining inspirations from beat-em-ups like 'Yakuza' and fighting games like 'Guilty Gear'.
Use an ever-growing moveset of light attacks, heavy attacks, and grabs to unleash powerful combos on your enemies. Beat down on airborne enemies freely by 'juggling' them, and deal extra damage by launching them into objects, or even other enemies!
Perfect Blocks are your primary form of defense. Performed by guarding right before an enemy attack hits, Saki's power allows her to rob enemy attacks of all their momentum and repel blades and blows with only her hands! By timing your blocks correctly, you can get through any attack unscathed and stay on the offense at all times.
By attacking your foes and perfect blocking their attacks, you also build up Spirit (SP) which you can spend to unleash powerful attacks and perform special abilities, such as an evasive dodge that can preemptively cancel your attacks. Not spending it is also an option, as a full bar of SP will allow your attacks to 'leech' HP from your opponents to restore your own!
Scarred By Heaven aims to provide a wide variety of enemies, pitching Saki against gangs of local thugs in the real city, and monstrous 'phantoms' in the Otherworld. The game also features several unique 1-on-1 boss battles with others who've been granted powers, each having their own attacks, strategies and tricks. Memorizing their moves and getting a feel for how they fight is the key to coming out on top!
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Combat aims to provide a lot of potential depth, but still be enjoyable at all skill levels. The game will feature a robust set of difficulty modifiers, allowing you to pick from a selection of setting presets, as well as customize and fine tune details about the game like enemy damage, enemy health, the leniency of parry timing, and more.
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The strongest warriors know what they're fighting to protect.
Outside of combat, Saki can explore the city of Jadewater--a small but content rich sandbox. Go shopping, help the locals out in unique side-stories, go fishing at the beach, practice fighting games at the arcade, catch a movie with a friend, and more--there's no shortage of distractions.
You'll earn small amounts of XP from exploring (as you also do from combat) that you can use to upgrade your combat abilities. There's also various other small rewards to discover that can help you become a better fighter, and further enrich Saki's life outside of combat.
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More on the game: