Hi there,

So if you're at this part of the game's highlight, you either stayed for a while and read the previous two parts, or you were naughty and skimmed things. Either way, let's get on with explaining the future plans I had for BLANK that would come AFTER The Spirits Within content update.

Second Expansion - The First Deman

So I'm not sure if you remember or not, but there was an optional boss in the base game called "The Convicted" that you needed to defeat in order to unlock the game's True Ending. For context's sake, it was this guy. Also, go listen to his theme "The Prisoner", since it's badass.

Just in case it wasn't obvious, I'll explain what the first image is. In the story of BLANK, many of the optional bosses were just "there" and didn't feel as though they had a part to play in the game's overall narrative. The Spirits Within would explain the details of half, explaining the origins of both Angeral and the Black Spirit. The second expansion would've delved deeper into the lore of both King Atevius and finally, the Convicted.

But in the deeper lore of BLANK, the Convicted is not actually his true name. To be convicted is to be imprisoned, and what is a prisoner's name to be if they are no longer imprisoned? See, the synopsis of the game's second Expansion was that The Cult of Void (those buggers) would have found a way to break the Convicted's cursed form into that of his original mold, that being Kaios, the First Deman.

As the expansion would've explained, Kaios was the first Deman born of Corruption, whose sacred duty was to uphold the virtues of the Forsaken Son and oppose all those that served the Guardians. As The Spirits Within would've explained, Kaios was too powerful and rather than become a subject, he would be imprisoned on top of Mount Orsus, with the Temple of the Void actually being his prison. Now that he was free, Kaios would've fled to a brand new area of Transech, which I prototyped as being called the North Lands. Not much else was added, but the intention was to refer to Kaios as the Augur and that his character design was made to be a mockery of Veta's. The narrative theme I had for this area was that both the Augur and Harbinger of Transech would inevitably face off against each other at the end to determine whether the land should live or die.

This expansion's development was very barebones, with not much resources going into the enemy designs or the locations the player would visit. All I know is I wanted to some more snowy areas, as Lunos and Mount Orsus didn't feel the quota enough for me. Anyway, let's instead focus on the more exciting expansion and what was to be the game's final installment.

Third Expansion: The Last Guardian

This is it, fellas. This was going to be the mother of all expansions. In case the title wasn't enough of an indicator, The Last Guardian was going to focus on the mysterious Forsaken Son. Turns out he's also a Guardian.

Meet Enerjux the Lifegiver, the former Guardian of Energy. But as the history of BLANK went along further, he went by a different name. Enerjux the Soulreaver. Enerjux was the nail in the lore coffin and he was to be the antagonist of the game's third and final expansion. The setting of this expansion goes is that the player was able to locate Enerjux's prison, buried deep under New Lumenia. Remember the mysterious voices that supposedly came from below them? That was the whispers of Enerjux, he became corrupted and lead a genocidal war against his kin, giving birth to Kaios and the Deman race. Unfortunately for him, he lost badly as was forced to become a slave to Lumenax in New Lumenia.

This expansion would've started when the player finds his prison and inadvertently chooses to free him. If done, the third boss fight of the game with Lumenax would be interrupted and the player would instead be thrown all the way to an uncorrupted Decillia. With Lumenax still alive, Transech would not become as heavily corrupted as it becomes in the base game after doing the dirty deed. This expansion would've focused on an entirely revamped Transech, being able to visit areas such as an Uncorrupted Sonuvia (the region where Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are based in) and a heavily corrupted Lumenia (Chapters 1, 2 and 3). Like with The First Deman, not too much work had gone into the initial foes the player would face. But unlike the previous expansion, this one actually had a Final Final Final Final Boss to fight, and surprisingly, it was not Enerjux himself.

You see, the story of BLANK was born from the supposed demise of The Ancient One, who initially gave birth to the three Guardians. Well as the final expansion would've explained, the Ancient One was still very much alive. In fact, he was in front of the player's eyes the whole time.

Remember the Omen?

Well he certainly remembers you, Veta Prime.

The story of BLANK would have ended with the final confrontation between Veta and the Ancient One, leading to a semi-happy ending for players, which would have been a far cry from the main setting of the base game. And there-in lies the issues that I had with the narrative going forward.

The main theme of the game was Despair. A despair as you hopelessly struggle to save your world from complete oblivion, only to find that not only did you not stop it, but that you actually hastened it. The big inspiration for this narrative was obviously OFF, by Mortis Ghost. But the key differentiation between OFF and BLANK in this regard is that the Batter's purification of the world was seen as a sacred charge that you as the protagonist upheld to the end without much care in the world. Instead with BLANK, you played as a girl who loved her world and wanted to save it, only to watch her fall into despair towards the end.

As a result of this, it made me decide that adding endings towards the narrative like this would only confuse players and/or undermine the integrity of the simple narrative I gave for the game. They were cool ideas, I'm not gonna lie. But at the end of it, my Fiancee, Crystallized0Rose explained that her love of the game's narrative came from the open-ended setting and grim nature it presented. As such, I wanted to respect her wishes on that end and instead put the game to rest.

In the next and final part, I'll be explaining a bit about some of the new projects I've been working on and why you should definitely keep an eye out for the future. (Trust me, I'm really excited to show you what I have for this new one).

Kind regards,

Sangos