Archive/Black Ritual

Black Ritual is the second game part of the Dymunia game serie. The game revolve around the Helliosian cult and their captive prisoner, Elysys. The developpement of the game started on February 12th 2017. The game was remade under the promotional title of Black Ritual RE in 2019. This remake features revamped graphics, rewritten dialogue and story and a score composed by Adrian Von Ziegler. The game was delisted on multiple platforms in early 2021 to avoid confusion with the game Dymunia. An archive of the game can be found here:

Synopsis
The elf Elysys was kidnaped by a mysterious cult worshipping the deity of light and knowledge Hellios. With the help of a powerful mage named Lucien, she gets a chance to escape. During her journey, she will discover that she is ignorant about the myths and legend of the world of Dymunia.

Your escape will not be easy! Infiltration and exploration phases await you. Will you make your way through the darkness of night?

Release history
The game was originally released in two chapter, the first was released on November 27 2017. The final game was released on December 7 2017 on Gamejolt, RPG Maker Forums and Oniromancie. Black Ritual was later released on 28 February 2018 on RPG Maker Net. The remake was released on all platform on February 29th 2019.

Original
One of the most notable element of Black Ritual is the graphics; all graphic are original and kind of similar to a japanesse anime style but with a toon style. Similar to Myrkri, the game have "shaders" using pictures. The inventory and combat were entirely made through common event. Unlike it's prequel, the languages french and english are "hard-coded" in, meaning the game language can be changed through file renaming during normal gameplay. The game was originally intend to have an attack and defence levels, but this idea was scrapped due to the lack of battle in-game.

Remake
The work on Black Ritual RE started on January 7th 2019. The main goal was to apply to the knowledge and experience gained during the work of ARCH ULTRA to polish its prequel.The story of the orginial game was known as "burning dumpset of magic and multiple temporalities", so the story and dialogue were the first thing remaked. During the devloppement of the game, three "Quality Assurance Version" were relesed for select player to beta-test. Tester notably struggled on the library inflitration scene and the crystal forest sequence.

Original
Originally, there was supossed to be a scene where Elysys had to waer Helliosians robes to not be seen. Attempting to go in the forest would make an Helliosians ask you some question about the original elven homeworld to prove that you are an Helliosian or otherwise get attacked. This idea was scrapped because of the requirement of knowing obscure lore tat player would likely not know about.

In one of te very first "draft", Lucien was planned to be revealed that he was The Architect himself but that idea was quickly scapped due to how "cheesy" it is.

Originally, there was going to be an attack and defence level that would help you to defeat ennemies quickier, it was scrapped due to length of the game.

Originally, ennemies would had a concentraction bar that would augment their accuracy over time if the player didn't act quickly. This idea however, was devlopped further in the sequel ARCH ULTRA but then ended up being scrapped there aswell.

Remake
Originally, a scene where Lucien and a Mysterious Woman exiting the Ecclesian Cathedral while mentionning the murder of Alexender Jovklai was planned. The murder and the scene ended up not showing up in game due to lore consistency reasons.

Original
Unlike on Gamejolt and Oniromancie, the game gained a lot of profile views on RPG Maker Net. The game was praised for it's visuals, however, the gameplay annoying according to critics. The combat was said to be a Damage-per-second race. Multiple users did not like the section with thge lantern due to visibility and scenery-based interactions. The game lore was also confusing for some. A lot of users think the game engine and serie have potential, especially for the upcoming sequel.

Remake
Players tend to like the overall ambience and atmosphere of the game. Many think the gameplay sequences are too dificult.