Wander Stars and the Power of Phrases: How the Japanese Belief of Kotodama Shaped a Battle System

Would you ever think about the concept that the phrases you utilize have the energy to form your actuality? Properly, in Wander Stars, phrases fairly actually have energy. On this turn-based JRPG impressed by ’90s anime, the objective is to gather as many phrases as you’ll be able to to mix them into highly effective assaults and defeat your enemies in Kiai battles.

Kiai (気合, きあい) is a time period we borrowed from Japanese martial arts, which describes the shouts and exhalations carried out throughout an assault. It’s additionally used extensively in anime, with characters typically calling out their assaults – which is what impressed us to create the word-building gameplay mechanic for Wander Stars. Kiai itself additionally falls beneath the class of one other Japanese idea referred to as Kotodama (言霊, ことだま), which is the perception that phrases and names have energy of their very own.

The time period kotodoma consists by the kanji for phrase (言) and soul/spirit (霊), and it’s typically actually translated as “the spirit of language” or “the energy of phrases”. It’s intently tied to Shintoism – the worship of nature and spirits, thought of to be Japan’s indigenous faith, which shares the perception that saying constructive phrases can have a favorable impression and damaging phrases can carry unhealthy luck.

Discover a Huge Universe

The concept phrases have energy is just not uniquely attributed to the Japanese. There are a lot of examples in cultures throughout the world of magical phrases and incantations utilized in fantasy, faith and historical rituals.

In Wander Stars, we got down to create a multi-cultural universe through which our protagonists can run into many alternative characters and all kinds of conditions, whereas additionally borrowing closely from our personal Latin American background and the kind of post-earth monoculture typically seen in sci-fi the place house journey turns into the norm like Cowboy Bebop and Star Wars.

Our intention after we began growing Wander Stars was to have a sport with two stable foundations: gameplay and narrative. The word-building gameplay mechanic got here first, and it formed the total world of Wander Stars and the manner the characters work together with it by means of the idea of Kiai and the energy of phrases.

This new word-building battle system could be very a lot impressed by traditional turn-based video games like Dragon Quest and Pokemon, however as an alternative of selecting from a checklist of predetermined strikes, you truly get to create what your subsequent transfer shall be.

The word-building mechanic might be divided into three differing kinds of phrases, beginning with Motion Phrases that dictate what you do throughout your flip, like “punch” or “kick”. That’s adopted by Elemental Phrases that add an elemental property to your motion, like turning a easy kick into a “fireplace kick”, which might additionally inflict a standing impact like burn. And, lastly, Modifier Phrases can add many alternative perks to any motion, like “particular,” which provides +2 injury, or “broad,” which helps you to goal two enemies as an alternative of one.

The phrases are easy and self-explanatory for the most half, so the act of combining them in many alternative methods might be a very enjoyable and intuitive solution to uncover new methods and results.

Ringo And Wolfe – Unlikely Allies

For the narrative, we got down to discover a story the place the characters navigate a world through which phrases could make or break the connections between them. Ringo is a younger martial artist who lives together with her grandma. Brash and quick-tempered, Ringo typically says issues she doesn’t actually imply.

She quickly finds herself roped into an intergalactic journey with the mysterious scoundrel Wolfe as her companion in the seek for the Wanderstar map. In distinction to Ringo, Wolfe is sort of sharp together with his phrases and isn’t above mendacity and stealing to get his manner. As he reluctantly accompanies Ringo of their quest, the fact about his character and motivations will turn out to be clear.

As they journey by means of an endlessly increasing universe, Ringo and Wolfe will meet different characters who will be a part of them of their journey. Like the strains we make as much as join the stars and create constellations, they’ll learn to give form and that means to their very own connections by means of the energy of phrases.

Ensure you additionally take part the quest for the Wanderstar map as Wander Stars makes its manner into Xbox Collection X|S and Xbox on PC on September 19.