Hi everyone,

welcome to our final Concept Log - this time about the Unreach Menu.

As stated before, this will conclude the series, as I basically presented everything notable now except 'Sanctum Gameplay' - which will still be a while.

This does not mean that there will not be any showcases anymore, however. The successor to this - the 'Insight' series - has already started on the official game page. Over time, it will re-summarize all these Concept Logs in four proper overviews for you to read and review.

Please note that, as with all Concept Logs (but especially this one), some details may still change in the (far) future.

Note: This devlog might be (partly) outdated.

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Topic I - What is 'The Unreach'?

This gameplay mode - formerly also known as 'The Abyss' - is a culmination of all prior dungeon (sanctum) themes from all before chapters.

Not only that, but it will also serve as a conclusion to the story of the game. At least it will, if you manage to get to it in your playthrough.

There are multiple aspects to this mode which will change up how you will play the game in contrast to the normal chapter experience.

Additionally, there will be different 'Runs' you can do, as well as 'Preferences' you can set to adjust them, specifically tied to this content.

Topic II - The Basic Setup

The Unreach Menu is built similar to the Arcade Menu, but instead of choosing a chapter/character to access their mini-game, you will choose to play your run with them respectively.

Based on the circumstance that you can adjust every character how much you like, this choice is mostly cosmetic. They will carry their name of gear for example, but you can choose their Nature, Elements and Weapon Inlays. They will also carry along their original partner, but you can adjust them as well.

Some things will be set according to your choice, however. Each character's Ultimate Skill cannot be changed, as well as how certain encounters play out in their route. So basically, if you want the flavour of a certain chapter/character, you can choose the one you like.

Topic III - The Unlocks

The Unreach Menu will be locked at the beginning of your playthrough and unlocks upon clearing your first chapter.

Every chapter you clear will make that character available to choose in the Unreach Menu. So after you cleared all 8 chapters once, all of them will be available to play a run with.

[It should be noted that the initial intention from my side was to lock the Unreach Mode until you have cleared all chapters, simply because it represents endgame content and features all dungeon themes randomly at a run. That being said, I want to go with my way of opening the game up as much as possible. So the mode cannot only be unlocked prematurely (as previewed in the Game Input Menu), but can also be accessed way sooner then planned by unlocking each character one by one.

Keep in mind that every run will still take the pool of all dungeons, though. So same as with the Portfolio Menu, there will be spoilers. You have to decide yourself if you want to experience what the Unreach has to offer soon, or after you played through all the chapters.

And again, while this may sound biased, I have made this choice purely because I want you to play however you like. It is just... a bit difficult to still needing to decide how I want to set everything up, that is all.]

Topic IV - The Runs and Unlocks

There are 4 'Runs' you can choose from for each character. The names are just placeholders for now.

Norm : The Normal (First) Run of a character. It will end with a personalized encounter tied to their story.

Plus : The Plus (Second) Run of a character. It will end with a ... plus-like encounter. [Unlocked by clearing their chapter in Plus Mode.]

Alter: The Alternate (Third) Run. Play as the Side Story Character and have a personalized encounter. [Unlocks by finishing the First Run.]

Ranked: The Ranked (Fourth) Run. It will combine the encounters of the First and Second Run. [Unlocks by finishing the Second Run.]

In order to unlock the ninth character, you have to clear all 8 chapters in Plus Mode. Their final encounters behave a bit differently from the other chapters. Additionally, there will be story scenes between the gameplay sections, as well as at the end. Additional runs for this character unlock the same way as for the rest of them.

Topic V - Points, Ranked Mode and Additional Features

As in the Arcade Menu, playing through 'Runs' will give you points and - depending on your score - the Bronze to Gold Achievement. Instead of giving you an actual reward however, these are only there to honour your progress of playing the respective runs. Reason for this being that you unlock the runs simply by clearing them, as I believe this is the better choice for this mode.

Also as in the Arcade Menu, there is a Ranked Mode. During this run you will gain more points. The final score will be set in comparison to your total amount of played runs. Same as in the Arcade, achieving the Platinum Reward will only give you an optical benefit.

You will also be able to Reset and Share your Unreach Mode data. Resetting will set back your Ranked data in order for you to get a better Score to Played Ratio. Sharing allows you to display your chosen profile alongside your Ranked Data to easier make a screenshot.

Topic VI - Additional Preferences

As you may know by now (as I did not explain it about three topics prior), I love to give you a lot of options to adjust your gameplay the way you like. I also want to give you this in Unreach Mode. Next to the preferences you can set to your overall Playthrough (like Skip Features and Extra Modes), you will be able to adjust settings specific to this content.

Re-Roll : The 4 dungeon themes available for you to pick can be re-picked. Either once or infinite depending on your setting.

Build-Pool : The build pool for a dungeon can be fixed to Version 1 or 2 instead of pulling from both at random.

Boss-Skip : You can choose to skip Side - or all - Bosses in your Run. This is in case you want to have normal encounters as default preference.

Re-Try : Failing in any way means the end of your run - or at least some reset options not being available. Still a concept placeholder, though.

Please note that in Ranked Mode, several fixed preferences are set to make the Result Ratio countable. Choices you have made to Skip and Unreach Preferences will be ignored because for that reason. That being said, some skips may be active automatically, or some preferences set to on - I am not sure on that front yet. I guess whatever makes the run more enjoyable at the end.

Topic VII - The Gameplay Structure - Unreach

When you begin a run, and after each sanctum, you will have a section within the Unreach itself.

It may or may not have encounters. Or obstacles. Or upgrades. Or anything.

... I am honestly not sure at this point. It will be something. And different / simpler than the sanctums themselves.

Topic VIII - The Gameplay Structure - Sanctum

Whenever you reach the end of... the Unreach... part, you will be given the choice of 4 sanctum themes to pick from. They will be chosen at random from the available pool of 32 themes and you can, as mentioned, set preferences to re-roll the selection if you like.

As soon as you commit to a theme, you will be taken to that sanctum to clear it. In comparison to the actual chapters, each sanctum in the Unreach will only consist of one area (so instead of 5 levels, there is only 1). These areas will be randomized as well, by having each of the 4 maps the area is constructed of have two versions each. This will give you... 16?... combinations (my brain is mushy again today, but should be right) a sanctum could play out in your run. Again, you can set a preference to fix it to either be Version 1 for all 4 maps - or Version 2.

While a sanctum will still consist of encounters, obstacles, treasures and upgrades, the experience will obviously be more dense based on it only being one area. There might also be some changes in those systems' structures, or how they are presented to you, in order to make it feel right. So basically, while it is still the same foundation, the gameplay will probably feel different to some extent.

After you cleared a sanctum, you will be back to the actual Unreach. This cycle will repeat until you have cleared 4 sanctums (like in a normal chapter). You will then arrive at the last Unreach Area, which will lead you to the final encounters. When finished, you will get the Result Screen and head back into the Unreach Menu.

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End of Concept Log

I think I have done a good job - to butcher yet another concept log.

Anyway. This is actually one of the reasons I am stopping these logs, as well. While they are intended as rough concepts - I get that - it still annoys me a bit to not being able to really present things as they are supposed to be when finished.

That being said, do not forget that the Unreach Mode is still planned to be the very last update to the game. So I am not sure how final the details will actually be until then.

Still, I think you got a decent idea of how this mode will play out. I want to give you a more gameplay-focused, sort of endless experience in terms of dungeon exploration, while still connecting it to the rest of the game and its chapters. There will also be some story, especially with the last character and the conclusion to everything, but it is mostly for the gameplay. Which is also why I look forward to how some things will differ compared to the typical setup within chapters.

I am also not completely finished with the preferences and such, so there might still be adjustments and additional ideas to it.

Finally, you could already tell that I have adjusted my vision of 'Completion' to being more 'Open Access', like described above. I am happy with it, but as said, I still have to connect it properly. For example, some may wonder why I even put the mode behind an initial chapter clearing at all, why you have to complete plus mode before getting the last character, or why I do not simply limit the pool of dungeon themes based on the cleared chapters to avoid spoilers. The simple answer is that I, as always, try to listen to my gut feeling in order to make something overall enjoyable for every aspect of the game - and for every kind of player that wants to enjoy the whole thing. Some may want to plunge simply into this mode when it arrives, others may want to go through the chapters first - and I do not want to put any kind of emphasis on any of those sides too much, if that makes sense. Still, I want to -actually- emphasize that you should play the game any way you like, which is also why you can basically do just that by various means.

... Well, all that and the fact that I could also adjust some of my plans for this mode until then.

But enough about that. As said multiple times by now over multiple devlogs, this will end the Concept Log series. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I when writing them (meaning kinda ambivalent). There will be one final special log listing all of these logs to pass revue on them, as well as giving an overview for anyone who missed them.

Like always, thank you for reading and have a nice week, everyone.

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