Draft:Dimensional Delusion

Dimensional Delusion is a 2013 action-adventure game as the first installment in the Dimensional Delusion series. It takes place on Home Island, on a fictional, alternate-universe-version of Earth. It follows protagonists Rachel, Fz, Haylie, Dizzy, Captain and Deimos, as they are sent on a journey through realms to save their home, their friends, and dozens of lives from the wrath of ancient Vemien king Trompeer.

The gameplay style is regarded as a mix of a fighting game and a graphic adventure with a free roam aspect, utilizing varying customizable difficulties. It allows you to play as one of the six protagonists, able to switch between them freely before any imminent battle, all with different move sets and abilities, while progressing through majorly linear levels-- known as Realms-- to shut them down, defeat the respective boss, and to take and redeem the artifact to progress to the final boss. Throughout each realm, depending on what character you play as, you can earn xp to level your character and unlock new weapons and abilities. Each level can be replayed for different rankings depending on your scores (judged by damage taken, dealt, moves used etc) and explore(find secrets, interact with npcs, different enemies etc) The only levels partially excluded from this gameplay formula are the last two.

Development of the true game began in 2012,. It utilized the cast (most importantly the main antagonist Trompeer) of an old concept/personal project to the founder that spurred in 2011-- an unnamed game that was regarded as "the Colosseum" by the game studio. The first trailer for DD was released on February 14th, 2013, consecutive trailers being released alongside the release of new games such as Clone Chaos, the demo of Corner Studios' Among Us 2 and the indie game Mike's Gameshow until it's eventual release worldwide on April 22nd, 2013, released digitally and with physical copies for the Xbox 360, and solely digitally for the Xbox one.

Reception for the game was initially full of praise, with around 3.1 million copies selling in all countries. Players praised the effort put into each individual playable character, and the visual and animation quality for it's admittedly smaller-than-usual budget. A major critique amongst fans, however, were the bugs that were prominent in the ingame cutscenes that often took place, and more importantly the lack of bounds for exploration in some areas (notably "The Warehouse" and "His Realm".) Many critics claimed the gameplay was "too linear", and "lacked freedom" in each area- along with the fact that there was "only one shop point in the entire game", this being the Merchant's Stand in The Village.

Despite it's initial praise, Dimensional Delusion (for the 360 was delisted from retailers in 2015, after plans for the already-teased 2014 dlc "Trompeer's Reign" were halted. Although, the game still did get regular updates and bug fixes, with the "last update", "Dimensional Upscale", being released in May 2017, purely for the focus of upscaling animation and texture quality.

The true last update would take place on January 2020, "Lord's Resurrection", where they added new move set skills, abilities, secrets (that appeared to tease a sequel), dialogue, battle quotes and more space to each Realm-- even going as far to add a higher rank, known as the Perfect Rank (commonly abbreviated as P rank) to the game, which ended up revitalizing the game's popularity once more, and encouraged old time fans, streamers and youtubers alike to replay and update their scores.

Gameplay
Dimensional Delusion regards a mix of open-world, beat em' up, dense combat and graphic adventure. The main focus of the game are the different Realms; zones that are consecutively unlocked one after the other as long as you are to beat the respective boss of the realm. Despite each realm being a bit smaller in length, each of them offers a sort of hub world, allowing you to explore more dialogue and combat opportunities, with the addition of being able to find entire new skills along the way. There is also no direct linear way to play each Realm as they are all unlocked initially (the exception being the final boss), different orders having lighter or heavier and more specific effects on the story (there is a certain popular route regarded as the correct way to play each realm to digest the story correctly). A player might spend a lot of their time in The Walkway, however- a place that allows you to sort out abilities, customisables and redeem artifacts to get one step closer to unlocking the final boss door.

Each ability works different in a way that they apply different status effects; with it being possible and encouraged to chain these on certain enemies (though certain enemies are also resistant or weakened to certain statuses). These effects consist of the likes of being stunned by electricity, set ablaze via fire, crippled etc. A major bug that was made fun of during gameplay were the "cutscene fireflies", things that appeared solely during midgame cutscenes of the game that often interrupted immersion, yet brought many laughs to and was memed on by the playerbase.

Plot
One fateful morning, the six main protagonists, alongside Alann, Rob and MX are all awoken strangely early. Dizzy glances outside, only to see that the island was almost nearly enveloped in black mist-- which was slowly spilling into the house. After brief panic, more ensues as they scramble their way to the attic, and are soon cornered as the voice of the supposed "Man Of The Mist" emits from the fog. He teases the gang, and then informs them that he comes with an offer; one that would presumably help save thousands. He tells them they are to go through several trials, each and every one saving many people along the way-- and that if they are to fail, they are to perish under his wrath for eternity-- and that if they are to decline, they will be engulfed by the fog. The group, however, refuses, standing up to TMOTM with defiance. Despite their resistance, he informs them that they hadn't a choice in the first place, sending the fog forth and suffocating the group with the mist, driving them to unconsciousness.

They awaken in a strange, dreamlike void, recieving little time to get their barings before they spot a set of four doors, accompanied by a gargantuan double door, and a figure sitting next to it, facing away from the group. Chained down, enveloped by the same fog that followed The Man Of The Mist. They approach him, and he requests that they free him from his binds. They do so, and the man stands, thanking them and properly introduces himself as Vetrium, with the reasoning for his supposed imprisonment being that he had continuously disobeyed TMOTM. He asks why they are all there, with Captain responding that they had supposedly died by the mist. Vetrium informs them that when individuals are usually taken by the fog, they are never transported in groups-- nor transferrred to the "dreamlike void" that they are currently within.