Phora

Phora: War for Kalidash is a highly interactive RPG I worked on shortly after graduating from high school, with an ambitious scope and setting. Phora was designed to be a living world, each town populated with dozens of NPCs who fully interact and converse with you. Every character can be completely unique, both in appearance and abilities, thanks to literally hundreds of combinations of clothing, equipment, skin tones, and hairstyles, and to a classless system. No choice you make when you create your character will prevent you from learning any skills or spells, or from improving any abilities indefinitely.

Undergo quests that actually affect the world around you, not just yourself. Slay monsters in the forest to keep them from swarming into the town and killing the villagers, protect travelers as they journey through the wilderness, deliver messages from one town to another, even battle at the front lines of the Allstrife. Or, you can take on the ultimate challenge, and be the one to finally find and recover Kalidash, the ultimate weapon.

Story

Ages ago, far too long for the date to be remembered in the history books, the War began. No one now knows what began this great War, the Allstrife. Few now even care.

The Allstrife has always been a war of attrition. At first, generals would send thousands at a time to battle in an attempt to wear away the enemy's number. Losses increased on both sides, however, and as the populations dwindled, the fighting slowed. Battles remained infrequent, but still costly, for over five hundred years. Then, some two hundred years ago, the Medyrans came. Tales began to spread of fallen warriors rising from the dead, awakening to find themselves back in their home towns. Soon it became well known that the Medyrans, a strange race from beyond the grave, would come to anyone killed in battle. Any warrior willing to pay the price would be restored to life by these otherworldly beings. White Wizards who were killed eventually bargained for the knowledge of how to restore life to their own fallen comrades, but such knowledge and power still remains scarce.

With the coming of the Medyrans, facing death in battle seemed almost laughable and thousands flocked to the battlefield. The Allstrife has been fought with great numbers ever since, and little has been gained or lost on either side. It still remains a war of attrition, and fighting occurs all the more frequently. However, the armies now have a new goal. The Medyrans speak of a weapon called Kalidash. The details are unknown, but it is believed that Kalidash will be the key to finally ending the Allstrife, and it is now sought after endlessly not just by those with a desire for peace, but also by those seeking only power.

Features

The features listed here come from an earlier version of the game. Those entries that have a strikethrough no longer apply.

Highly engaging NPC interactions

  • NPCs will learn your name - or remember what you tell them it is if you choose to lie
  • Ask whatever questions you want of the NPCs, typing in single words to get a full response to the topic
  • Asking the same questions multiple times may result in new information, or it may just irritate the NPCs
  • NPCs will ask you questions and remember your responses

Sophisticated chat options

  • In-character and out-of-character chat are separate and distinct
  • Dozens of pre-defined emotes, or create your own if you want to do something else

Straightforward combat system

  • Select any weapon from eight different weapon types, each with several options to choose from
  • Have access to several spells based on your white and black magic proficiencies
  • Easy access to all spells and skills via a simple drag-and-drop skill bar - up to 15 active skills at once.

Alchemy

Not yet implemented

  • Brew your own truly unique potions and poisons
  • Mix different ingredients together, blending the properties of each of the ingredients with each of the others
  • Each ingredient has a specific compatibility rating with every other one, making some combinations much more effective than others

Card Battling

Not yet implemented

  • A built-in strategic card battling game, unique to Phora
  • Buy, sell, or trade cards to build a powerful deck comprised of monster, enchantment, terrain, evocation, and equipment cards
  • Playing the cardgame is not a waste, as your character will gain experience from card battling, and can participate in battles against other players and NPCs to earn gold or valuable items

Merchant system

Temporarily removed
  • Easy to use - just click items in the merchant's inventory to buy them, or in your own to sell them
  • Total cost or sale value of items updates in real time as you change your selections, so you can easily see how much selling your items will help you afford your purchase
  • Haggle with the merchants to lower their prices, or gain more from what you sell (But be careful not to anger them, or they'll only raise the price on future deals) - Haggling not yet implemented

Other Features

  • Fully customizable character generation, including 3 races, gender, hairstyle and color, skin tones, faces, and clothing.
  • Equippable items displayed on your character, including various colors and types of clothing, armor, weapons, and shields
  • Basic enemy AI (attack you if attacked, and chase while in sight. Much more to come)
  • A functional quest system that allows you to get quests by talking to NPCs and keep track of your progress in each of them in a quest log - Temporarily removed
  • A developing crafting system that allows you to create truly unique items from dozens of different weapon pieces - assemble swords, spears, flails, or even nunchaku from blades, shafts, guards, and chains - Not yet implemented

While there is currently only one town, players will eventually have the opportunity to explore dozens of towns and cities in three countries and two continents.

Screen Shots

Graphical screenshot 1
Graphical screenshot 2