Later8

(Later9)

Items:

Evil Shoes, Germanicus’ Sweat-shirt, Caligula’s Caligae, Castor’s helmet___, Posthumous’ Pendant, ‘Iron Ravens’ Leather-Bound Book, Agrippina’s Scarf, Livia’s Coins 1-5, … maybe the Signet Ring of Augustus ( later,) of course all of the standard Roman Legionary equipment (although the equipment received in certain periods such as the Punic Wars are not saved and brought back to the ‘Claudius the God’ time period),

Sejanus’ Gloves,

the Mantle of Tiberius, (maybe the) Pen of Claudius, (maybe) Livila’s Necklace, Gladiator’s Gauntlet, The Three Lost Eagles, Bacchic Goblet, German Rune-stone, Hermann’s (Arminius) Helmet, the (spear?) of Vercingetorix (maybe), The Druid’s Wand, (maybe the) Carthaginian Cube,

Objects themselves unlock new traits as the character level progresses. This could make an item more or less useless but then gain in value when a higher tier ability is unlocked by achieving the outline character level and of course acquiring the item.

Page of Incantation: The Holographic-Fortress Spell; Page of Incantation: The Moving Fortress Spell; Page of Incantation …

The Knight-captain

The Count’s (the Fangs) cartoonishly-evil aspect, animalistic and Alice in Wonderland mania, and the knight-captain in contrast (is this Posthumous still?) will be the less Comedic and more Tragic depiction of the elder vampire, who will from the beginning of the Segway storyline shows the true Nightmare power of the vampire aspect, in terms of raw power in the material world.

The Count is dispatched in the first Act, like the Joker, flung off of the cathedral by a gargoyle.

The knight-captain will be the over-arching villain. (Posthumous?). Posthumous from the Rome storylines was picked just because the name is perfect for a vampire… and because he seemed to be one of the few pretty good people in the Claudian narrative.

The Knight-Captain (Posthumous)

in the futuristic storylines

In theCyber Punk / Hellsing future he has been resurrected, and has opened up a portal through the working dark conjugations aided by the Count, when he was at the apex of his power, and … his own experimentation in “piercing the veil” , a doorway could be opened up… and the Vampire has a myriad of opportunities to exploit this Nightmarish material-energy to its use.

The Count didn’t get to be as powerful as the Knight-Captain, but he did pioneer or discover the portal if magic, which as a conjuration tool is maybe the most powerful abilities the Vampire has.

Some of these turn into boss-fight style gameplay, monstrosities, but some maintain their Shinobi-style gameplay, or standard multi-hit combo street-fighter style gameplay, …

… or down the line unlocking the 13-hit combos of the Nightmare class Fangs.

Maybe the strongest of which have a 20-hit combo (with maybe a couple second delay charge-up, so there’s a weakness).

Perhaps both sides will unlock weapons versions of the future avatar, gun wielders, special melee weapons, futuristic weapons and gadgets, or Magic and sorcery, necromancy, from the vampire side.

Opening the veil to the madness dimension is the source of power for the Fangs, whereas technological innovations and engineering feats are the Stakes ally. He unlocks weapons from real history, on segments where he can use that era’s weapons… in the future-slayer era there is no restriction on weapon use, including favorites from previous eras.

It will be likely that the street-fighter style characters will come to dominate, and so unlocking abilities to quickly shift from fast-moving platformer, single hit gameplay to the beat-em-up combo style gameplay will be the optimal course.

Some builds will build off the blocking feature, blocking-counter, and some builds will build off grapples and throws… some from jump or dashing-hybrid builds.

Jumping up and attacking down diagonally, with like a spearing or lancing attack or weapon, or a dash-and slash 2-handed sword strike, maybe you get in close to your opponent in order to successfully grapple before their attack animation, and throw them behind you for cc and knockdown damage.

Hands-in-pocket techniques… tree… invites attackers, responding attack animations.

Boxer stance.

Karate stance.

Thai stance.

Wrestler’s stance.

The rest are weapons stances,

weapon specific-stances and animations.

Maybe even have more pixelated or stylized segments, experimentations with drawing styles.

Endless opportunity for plugging things in.

There must be some sort of coherency in the segment-shifting style… maybe have story guided largely until some freedom of choice in Slayer era of timeline (after young-slayer and before future-slayer), but which often returns to the alternate eras, where you may have something like separated stashes for each of the historical eras, the landmarks, visited. You have a little place in the gold mining town of Western North America, a little home to stash your things, you’ve got one in Ancient Rome, one in the Mongol camps, one in the future-resistance cell’s hidden layer.

You’ve got one in between them all, with the time traveling old man.

Sometimes the Slayer is grappled.

Each version of the character, each avatar, carries over their inventory, upon return, young-slaver lvl.1, mature slayer lvl.1, future-slayer lvl.1… despite the graphic change, if any, the same mechanics underly.

The awkward young-slayer segments may have bits where item inventory is restricted, for stealth or infiltration gameplay.

The Vampire can transform into bats, or summon wolves, a plague of frogs, mists, and the Nightmare-era Fangs can turn into the stuff of horror itself… a shadow creature, the embodiment of terror.

Between the personality of the Count, and the personality of the Knight-Commander, there is a myriad of possibilities for the Vampire archetypal expression by the player.

The trench coat adorned future-slayer has some variations down the line, but at first it is this mechanical wing sword-arsenal iteration, for the double-jump glide gameplay, and preview of the future battle mechanics early on for inspection and education of the player. Quickly seeing the multiple-hit combo animations promised down the line.

Pre-set builds can be utilized for multiplayer combat, as a means of leveling the playing field.

Players can also go head to head with their leveled and customized characters if they wish.

Level design for player matches either favors the spread-out mobility focused builds or the close-combat combo damage-multiplier builds.

Some of the pre-set era builds might include the Nosferatu clunky early young-slayer, with both players having to deal with the clunky movements and the extra animations and awkward timing of movements and engaging/disengagement of actions.

Summons builds: maybe some builds will have add generation as primary feature, a Vampire wolf summoner, or necromancer, and a Slayer who has a team of 3 or 4 mercenary-heroes, character swap out customization, or maybe he has some kind of robotic support or something… maybe even street-level slayers, or mercenaries (it would be kind of cool to have the two kids from Lost Boys, Buffy the vampire slayer, Blade, or maybe James Woods and Billy Baldwin tailing behind the player, adding attacks on top of yours for an adds combo build. You maybe attack one or two times, and then the line of slayers behind you adds one or two hits instantly in addition. Maybe some are offensive, and others are defensive shields… in the Western era, for example, you can hire competent gunfighters as well as human-shield dirtbag mercenaries.

Maybe your character is more diplomatic, and dialogue option-focused, you have adds in every era. You quickly assemble a team of 3 or 4 to fight for you. Some occupy a spot, one of the 3 or 4, but are say a kind of unnamed mass of say confederate soldiers, or Mongol warriors, and when used defensively merely take hits directed at you, providing shields from your health, and are constantly replenished when killed by another nameless soldier.

A hero companion like Blade will be better put to use in offense I think. The Slayer himself will be nerfed by this build, but it will be a fairly easy and automated mode of gameplay, for more casual spectators looking just to explore the timeline and story atmosphere of the game, and don’t want much challenge, or anything competitive in multiplayer. A single player experience, on easy mode. Buddy, Angel, and Spyke in one grouping, the day walker, underworld Kate Beckinsale, and an endless stream of Mongol warriors as meat shields in another.

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