Divine [GxB, GxG, BxG, BxB] [Fantasy, Intrigue, Romance]

[ChaeoRusse]

"A young soul, too young, far too young to be sentenced to eternal damnation. This body isn't mine anymore, I'm a stranger to my own reflection. Just like all the others I've seen in this place. I've heard so many cry since I arrived here. They call it hell. They say it's not fair. What is fairness, but a happy lie told and a resulted ignorance?"

Take your place as the recently deceased and see the realm of the afterlife for the wicked with your own two eyes. Play as either Erin or Adam as they fulfill their unfortunate sentence: an eternity in hell for sins that they don't remember committing. Like all convicted heretics and sinners, they're stripped of the memory of their crimes and forced to live a new life in a new body until they can atone. Atone for what they don't yet know what they did.

"These are your papers, sign here, please... Good, thank you. Alright, then. Welcome to Sector Nineteen."

Characters

Erin
The female player character. She's been sentenced to damnation for reasons she's yet to figure out.


Adam
The male player character. He's been sentenced to damnation for reasons he's yet to figure out.


Lajude
The head warden or "Judge" of Sector Nineteen. She's power hungry and determined to keep her subjects in line. [BxG, GxG]


Avan
The head of admissions. Although distant, he's compassionate and pitiful towards the humans. Some say he keeps his distance for good reason. [GxB, BxB]


Allessandra
A hopeless, twisted, romantic, sentenced to hell for the most extreme heresy: the taking of one's own life. One of the few in Sector Nineteen who are unable to achieve salvation due to the nature of their death. [BxG]


Demetri
A revolutionary in hell, once sentenced to damnation for the part he played in the murder of countless roman soldiers in a siege he also died in almost two thousand years ago. [GxB]


Emilie
An apathetic, unemotional woman who was sent to hell for her lack of sanctity in marriage and questionable sexual taste. [GxG]


Joshua
An artist and pacifist who has also yet to discover his crimes and sins that landed him in hell. He speaks with a heavy stutter. [BxB]



Full Description

Human souls, once the physical body dies, are controlled by being called "Angels", although they are far from that. The angels live on a separate plain of existence than the humans do and manipulate them from afar. The problem is that all the angels have different ideas about what should be done with the human souls when the body dies. Some believe that they should move the souls to a form of "heaven" or "hell", while others believe that they should reincarnate the souls into new bodies. They also argue amongst themselves over how humans should behave. They try to control human actions through religions and that's how religions form. The angels form sects (like Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, Wicca, etc.) and end up warring amongst themselves to decide what to do with the humans. However, angels cannot kill other angels, so wars are long and useless.

Not all angels can manipulate human souls, though, only angels with "spiritual divinity" can affect humans. These angels are the leaders of the sects and try to find ways to overpower the others and take control. Eventually, they found that the concept of "spiritual divinity" applied to humans as well and certain humans could be spiritually divine. A spiritually divine human was often referred to as an "angel slayer" because they had the ability to kill an angel. The angels used these humans in their wars by bringing them to their plain of existence and arming them for battle. This process has continued for years and years and always ends with one sect gaining power and getting their way for a certain amount of time before another war breaks out.

At the start of the first game of the trilogy, the sect of Christianity has power and controls what happens to human souls. The main character is a boy/girl (player decides) who has recently died of natural causes and an angel sent his soul to what they consider "hell" for not abiding by their "laws". He/she then interacts with other people in "hell" and can take the story in a number of directions, depending on who the player decides to romance.

Progress
Script-45%
Sprites-100%
BG's-0%
CG's-0%
Coding-10%

Artist: Geckos

[ChaeoRusse]

Production Schedule

Currently undergoing revision, sorry for the inconvenience...

[inhalance]

Wow, this is definitely something new! What caught my eye at first was all of your different romance tags, haha. Although your description lost me at some parts since everything seems so complex, overall it sounds really interesting. ^^ What will be the general length of each route? Also, is this game a certain age rating (like 16+, etc.)? Hope to see more!

[Geckos]

I'm quite intrigued to see how the story turns out! I like what you up so far.

[gekiganwing]

ChaeoRusse, it seems you're working on a large and unusual project. That's admirable. I like seeing people create VNs that have a large scope, and that don't conform to current expectations.

Though I admit that I'm worried. I've seen a lot of works-in-progress with ambitious plans, interesting worlds, and extensive character profiles... and then they stop updating after a few weeks or months, and don't even get a demo. I say this acknowledging that life happens. People have other commitments and concerns. Not everyone can dedicate the time and effort needed to work on a freeware game. So, do you have a plan for how you will work on your VN? How will you make sure it doesn't end up abandoned?

Also, your work sounds *slightly* similar to What is Life When the Golden is Gone, which was active from July to November 2012. It was about various religions and sects, and had a serious tone, but in almost every other way, it sounded quite different from what you have planned.

[cladinpink]

I admit, that like anhilance, it was your wide variety of romance tags that initially caught my eye. And there can never be too much variety!

But then I went on to read the summary, and oh my- I swear, it was love at first sight (or word, whatever floats your boat)! I read some books with a somewhat similar premise a few years back, and I really loved the theme, so finding this simply made my day. Not to mention that I love the character designs; I can already tell I'm going to looove Lajude~

And I know a great many people are quick to warn about taking on games that seems "ambiguous", but there has to be someone who ventures down that road, and it might as well be people like you who've got a good plot and a good cast going. Who cares if it takes a little while to finish, or if you take a break at some point? I've seen some great games that have been underway for two years now and are still in development, but that's the point; they're still works in progress.

I don't care how long it takes you to finish this (though I'd love for it to be sooner than later, of course). I'll play it once it gets here!

[Flowers from Nowhere]

This looks like a fascinating and unique game and I hope to play it when it comes out.

In the mean time I would recommend you take out the last paragraph of your post where you talk about endings. It's very spoiler-y.

[silverpikachu99]

Can`t wait

[bellice]

Wow, I really like both the art and the story.
The themes of sin, redemption and whathaveyou have always interested me, plus it allows for GxG, so I'll definitely be looking forward to this.
Good luck!

[thanatoaster]

This looks really cool! I like the story concept and the characters seem really interesting. I'll be watching this!

[ChaeoRusse]

ChaeoRusse, it seems you're working on a large and unusual project. That's admirable. I like seeing people create VNs that have a large scope, and that don't conform to current expectations.

Though I admit that I'm worried. I've seen a lot of works-in-progress with ambitious plans, interesting worlds, and extensive character profiles... and then they stop updating after a few weeks or months, and don't even get a demo. I say this acknowledging that life happens. People have other commitments and concerns. Not everyone can dedicate the time and effort needed to work on a freeware game. So, do you have a plan for how you will work on your VN? How will you make sure it doesn't end up abandoned?

Also, your work sounds *slightly* similar to What is Life When the Golden is Gone, which was active from July to November 2012. It was about various religions and sects, and had a serious tone, but in almost every other way, it sounded quite different from what you have planned.

I completely understand your concerns. It will be a time consuming project that will take up most of my time for quite a while, but I'm prepared to make that sacrifice and stick it out until the end.

As far as plans go, I have a work schedule set up for myself with self-imposed deadlines related to the writing progress, the purchasing of art, coding, etc. I'm determined to follow it strictly, the only exception being if severe circumstances take priority and deter my work. If it would be comforting to know my plans in more detail, I could post the schedule for followers of the project so they know when to expect everything to come together.

Tentatively, I'm expecting the game to be ready for beta-testing by June 2014. I know that seems to be a long way off, but It's better to set a later release date and be ahead of schedule, then to set an earlier release date and be behind.

Also, I've read the description of What is Life When the Golden is Gone before, and I find their story highly fascinating, but, like you said, it is quite different from my own work.

I appreciate your input! Thank you very much!

[ChaeoRusse]

Wow, this is definitely something new! What caught my eye at first was all of your different romance tags, haha. Although your description lost me at some parts since everything seems so complex, overall it sounds really interesting. ^^ What will be the general length of each route? Also, is this game a certain age rating (like 16+, etc.)? Hope to see more!

As of current, the rating should be 16+.

I've always found the length of route question difficult, because I'm not quite sure how to style my answer, haha. The game is split into chapters and once the initial prologue and chapters 1-3 are completed, you enter a romance path, assuming that your score is high enough with one of the characters. Each romance route has between 4-6 chapters of it's own, depending on the character. A chapter should typically take an hour or more, assuming that nothing is skipped or fast-forwarded through.

I'm glad to know the game is generating interest, thank you for your input!