Item description:

1 - Introduction
Arcadian Tactics is a homebrew game made by HCF. I made this game as a tribute to all the people that made possible the Xbox scene.

In all these years, many people have contributed to make our scene become the greatest, with homebrew games, ports, emulators, applications, libraries, skins, rumbles, xtras... Thanks to all that people, now we can play in our Xbox with lots of games and lots of classical videogames characters.

Now, in Arcadian Tactics, all these classical videogames characters face their ultimate mission: all they fight together to save the universe... and to say BIG THANKS to everybody who made this possible!!

2 - Story
November 2011, Evil wizard Ghormoor has come from a parallel universe, he has got the Dark Gem of Destruction, and with its powerfull magic, he wants to subjugate the world. The only chance to fight with this evil wizard is Princess Kiryela, a young girl born in the woods, daughter of a mage and an elf, who appears to be immune to every kind of magic. She is the only one who can fight with Ghormoor.

But Ghormoor is awared of this, and he has summoned lots of classical videogame evil characters to try to kill Kiryela before she can arrive to Ghormoor.

Luckily, Kiryela is not alone. All the videogame heroes are going to protect and escort her, trying to guide Kiryela to the final battle versus Ghormoor. Kiryela is not a powerfull warrior, so our heroes must protect her in any case.

In this game, you will play with lots of classical videogame heroes: Ryu, Ken, Captain America, Richter Belmont, Rastan, Captain Commando, Billy and Jimmy Lee, Bub & Bob, Joe & Mac, Pitfall Harry, Wonderboy... All them will guide Kiryela to save our universe!!


3 - THE GAME:
Arcadian Tactics is a tactical game. You control a team of brave warriors to protect and guide Kiryela stage after stage, to finally defeat Ghormoor.

In the beginning, you start your mission with 3 characters: princess Kiryela, and you can choose 2 more characters from the classical "Street Fighter 2" staff. Each character has its own combat values, and a special ability: Ryu and Ken have projectile attacks, Blanka has a surrounding attack, Chun-Li can dodge some hits, and so on...

These characters are NOT well-balanced, and this has been made purposely. This way, you can try lots of combinations of characters, and this is a way to modify the difficulty of the game.

You will have to combine wisely the special abilities of your characters if you want to success. Furthermore, you will easily see that each special ability needs a special strategy to maximize its effects (for example, if you choose Honda and Ken, you will see that a good strategy is putting Honda in front of your army because he has a good defense value, and Ken can be placed behind Honda, launching lots of Hadoken's from the distance).

Each level is a board of squared cells that is randomly generated. One of these cells is marked with the EXIT word, and your ultimate goal is driving all your characters to this EXIT cell, to go to the next stage. This will not be easy, because lots of classical videogame villians will appear in every stage to try to stop you. The villians are also randomly generated, so you will never play two identical matches. This game has been designed trying to have a lot of replayability value.

If you manage to drive all your characters to the EXIT, you will advance to the next stage. Of course, this is not necessary: you can simply try to KILL every enemy in the stage, and when this is done, you will advance to the next stage easily too. But don't forget that, if the combat seems to be too tough, the main goal is trying to reach the EXIT cell, and it's not mandatory to kill every enemy.

Furthermore: the main goal is to protect Kiryela. If Kiryela dies, the game is over. If one of your other character dies, the game continues, although next stages will be very difficult if you have lost one of your heroes. So, remember: try to keep alive your 3 characters, and mainly Kiryela.

Each 5 rounds, a new ally character will join your party!! You will play with lots of classical videogame heroes. This ally characters are less powerfull than your 2 main characters, but their help will be mandatory if you want to progress in the game, because every stage will be more and more difficult. Even more: some of these ally characters have special abilities too. Use them wisely!

Characters gain experience when they fight. When they have gained enough experience, they will LEVEL UP, and their combat values (Strength, Defense and Stamina) will increase. Try to LEVEL UP your characters!

The rule of the experience is easy: a character gains a bit of experience each time that he attacks (or counter-attacks). If the hit KILLS the enemy, the amount of obtained experience is much more higher. Furthermore: the more powerfull the enemy is, the more EXP points will you get if you attack or kill him.


4 - COMBAT RULES:
Arcadian Tactics is a turn-based game. In each turn, you can move once every character in your army. When your turn ends, every enemy character will make his move, and then it will be your turn again.

When you move a character, you can perform two things: first of all, you can move your character to one of the accessible squares (the accessible squares depend of your character's speed and abilities).

After moving, your character can perform an action. This action can be an attack, or a special action

like healing himself (if your character has this special ability). You cannot attack AND make a
special action in the same turn.

When a character attacks an enemy, this enemy will perform a counter-attack. But this has a limitation: every character (ally or enemy) can only perform ONE counter-attack per turn. So, if a character is surrounded by many enemies and all of them attack him, he will only counter-attack to the first received hit (unless he has a special ability that enables him to counter-attack more times).

In the board, there are HOLES. Your characters cannot place in holes if they don't have the special ability "WALK-BY-HOLES". But all the enemy characters CAN place themselves in the holes, because they are specters-like bodies, guided by the magic of Ghormoor. Beware of this!!!


5 - CONTROLS:
DIGITAL PAD: The digital pad moves the cursor by the screen.

BUTTON A: This button is used to make selections, move, and attack.

In the character selection screen, you will use "BUTTON A" to choose your characters in the beginning of the game.

In the combat screen, you will use "BUTTON A" to select which character you want to select to move. Once you have selected a character, you can move it. To move a character, you go to the desired destination with the digital pad, and press "BUTTON A" again. After making a move, you can select the enemy that you want to attack, and this is made again with the digital pad and "BUTTON A"


BUTTON B: This button is used to de-select a character. If you select a character in the combat screen but later you prefer to move another character instead, you can de-select it with "BUTTON B"


BUTTON Y: You must push "BUTTON Y" to end your turn, when you have moved every character or if you don't want to perform any more moves.


BUTTON X: This button is used to perform special actions, like the characters that can heal themselves (if they have this special ability) or the Conga attack (if they have this special ability). Once you have selected a character, you can press "BUTTON X" to perform the special ability (instead of pressing "BUTTON A" to attack)


LEFT TRIGGER: If you have moved a character to a wrong cell, you can UNDO your move by pressing the LEFT TRIGGER. Your character will return to its original cell, and you will be able to move it again. Be warned that you can only UNDO your move BEFORE making your attack. If you have moved AND attacked with a character, you will not be able to UNDO the move (this has been done to prevent cheating).


RIGHT TRIGGER: When you place the cursor over a character and you press the RIGHT TRIGGER, you will show the data of that character: Name, Level, Speed, Combat Values... Besides, you will see the EXPERIENCE points that the character has, and how many points he needs to upgrade to the next level.


START BUTTON: During a combat, the START button is used to SAVE the game. In the initial screen where you select your characters, the START button is used to LOAD a saved game.


SELECT BUTTON: During a combat, the SELECT button is used to quit the current game, and go to the initial screen. Be warned that you will loose all your unsaved progress.


WHITE BUTTON: During a combat, enables or disables displaying help related to the controls, in the lower part of the screen.


WHITE+BLACK BUTTONS: During a combat (or in the Title screen) this combination of buttons quits the game and returns to the dashboard.


6 - SPECIAL ABILITIES:
This is a description of the special abilities that a character can have. A character can only have one (or zero) special abilities:


PROJECTILE ATTACK:
Normal characters can only attack to adjacent enemies. But characters with projectile attack can attack distant enemies!! Even more: the projectile attack cannot be counter-attacked, so it is a very usefull ability. Examples: Ryu, Ken, Bub, Bob.


INCREASING STRENGTH:
The strength of the character is increased by +1 every 3 rounds. If you manage to advance some rounds, your character will be very powerfull. Examples: Zangief


INCREASING DEFENSE:
The defense of the character is increased by +1 every 3 rounds. If you manage to advance some rounds, your character will be very tough. Examples: Honda


INCREASING STAMINA:
The stamina (life) of the character is increased by +1 every 3 rounds. If you manage to advance some rounds, your character will be very hard to kill. Examples: ???


SURROUNDING ATTACK:
When the character attacks an enemy, he will damage EVERY adjacent enemy. Even more: only the enemy attacked will be able to counter-attack. So, if you are surrounded by a weak enemy and a strong enemy, you will prefer to attack the WEAK enemy. The strong character will be damaged too, but you will not suffer his strong counter-attack. Examples: Blanka


TWO-COUNTERATTACKS:
Normal characters only can perform one counter-attack per turn, so they have a hard time when they are surrounded by several enemies. Characters with this special ability can perform two counter-attacks per turn, so they can fight with several units with better chances of success. Examples: Guile


NO-COUNTER-ATTACK:
When a normal character attacks, he will suffer a counter-attack from the damaged enemy (if he is still alive). Characters with this special ability can attack without receiving counter-attacks. Example: ????


DODGE-MOVE:
Characters with the dodge ability will dodge some attacks (when a character dodges, he receives 0 damage). The chance of dodging a hit is random, but there is a rule: a faster character has a bigger chance to dodge than a slower one with the same ability. For example, Chun-Li is a fast character and will dodge around 50% of the hits, but Donkey-JR is faster and he will dodge around 75-80% of the attacks. Example: Chun-li, DonkeyKongJR


YOGA POWER:
This special power is a combination of two abilities: the character can TELEPORT himself to every cell in the board instead of making a normal move (with the exception of the holes). After teleporting, your character can perform an attack, and these attacks cannot be counter-attacked. So, Yoga Power is the combination of TELEPORTING and NO-COUNTER-ATTACK. Example: Dhalsim


HEALING:
After moving, these characters can choose between performing an attack (pressing "BUTTON A" like every normal character) or HEALING themselves by pressing BUTTON X. Healing will recover 5 points of stamina, and you can heal yourself once per turn. Example: Cormano, Homer Simpson


CONGA ATTACK:
After moving, these characters can choose between performing a normal attack (pressing "BUTTON A" like every normal character) or making the powerfull "Conga Attack" by pressing BUTTON X. This "Conga Attack" will hit 7 times to one enemy of the screen.

The Conga Attack is very powerfull but has some limitations: first of all, you can only perform "Conga Attack" once per stage (so, use it wisely). Second, you cannot choose which enemy will be damaged by the "Conga Attack" (it will be selected randomly between all the enemies that stay alive). And third, you will not earn any experience from "Conga Attack" hits: you will see that you character is not the one that is hitting ;) Example: The Mask


DRAGON_SLAYER:
Characters with this ability, have a big bonus when attacking dragons, so they make more damage when they fight with these creatures. There is no bonus when defending from dragons. Example: Dirk the Daring


UNDEAD_SLAYER:
Characters with this ability, have a bonus when attacking the undead bosses (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and Medusa), so they make more damage when they fight with these creatures. There is no bonus when defending from them. Example: Richter Belmont


WALK BY HOLES:
Normal characters cannot place themselves in the holes of the board. But some small characters have the ability "Walk by holes", and they can hide themselves in the holes of the board. Furthermore: characters with this ability, gain a bonus in combat when they are hidden in a hole (they make more damage and they receive less damage). Example: Wonderboy, Pitfall-Harry

NOTE: All the enemy characters can walk by holes because they are guided by the magic of Ghormoor, but they are not "hidden" there, so they don't have any combat bonus when they are placed in a hole.


COWARDY:
Yes, this IS a special ability!! ;) Coward characters cannot die. When a coward character is hit and his stamina reaches zero, the character runs away to the exit. He does not fight anymore in that stage... but if you manage to advance to the next stage, the coward character will be available again in your army. Example: Norimaro

NOTE: In the final battle versus Ghormoor, as there is no "exit" in the stage, coward characters fight bravely as usual characters (in fact, they cannot run away!). This is the only situation where a coward character can die.


7 - BOSSES
Every 10 levels, you will face a BOSS. Bosses are special villians with special abilities that will force you to use special strategies to defeat them. These are the bosses:


LEVEL 11 - BARON VON BUBBA: This character from the game Bubble Bobble is immortal, so don't waste your hits trying to damage him. The goal of this stage is simply reaching the Exit!! (you can try to kill all the enemies except Baron Von Bubba, if you want).

LEVEL 21 - WORM: A giant worm will go out of the Exit cell. Its head is the only part where you can damage it. So, you can try to kill the worm, or maybe wait until it goes out of the exit entirely,

to try to scape.
LEVEL 31 - MANDARA: This boss is inspired in the epic Mandara boss of the game Shinobi. A collection of Mandara statues will push (and damage) your characters. Try to break a way to the exit before being squased!!

LEVEL 41: CASTLEVANIA COCKTAIL: In this level, you will face Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and Medusa. Both are very powerfull enemies, so... good luck!!

LEVEL 51: GHORMOOR AND MINIONS: This is the final level, and the goal is killing Ghormoor. But there is a big dificulty: only Kiryela can damage Ghormoor!! This was the reason why all your heroes tried to escort Kiryela during the game... The rest of your characters will not be able to damage Ghormoor, so don't waste their hits with him. Instead of that, use the rest of your characters to kill the minions, so that Kiryela could have a chance to fight with Ghormoor.

After level 51, you have won the game!!! But the game will let you the chance of keeping fighting if you want to know how long can you go ;)

8 - SAVING/LOADING GAME
You can save the status of your quest during the game, by pressing the START button DURING A COMBAT. You have 5 slots where you can save different games, so select the slot that you prefer, and the game will be saved in it. If a slot already has a saved game, it will have printed the number of the last stage that you managed to beat.

If another day you want to load the game to continue your quest, you can do it by pressing the START button IN THE INITIAL SCREEN of the game where you select your characters (instead of selecting two characters to start a new game, simply press START). You will be prompted which slot you want to load. The slots that have saved games, will have printed the number of the last stage that you managed to beat when you saved.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You can save a game in the middle of a combat, but when you load the game you will

restore the situation in the begining of the stage. But this has not been tested deeply, so I
recommend to save the game allways AT THE BEGINING of a combat.

IMPORTANT NOTE 2: At the moment, this game saves the quest in the same folder of the game. So, if you are playing from a DVD, you will not be able to save your quest. Sorry :(

9 - UNLOCKABLES
If you manage to arrive to Stage 31, the game will tell you a secret trick, and you will be able to unlock every character of the game by pressing a sequence of keys in the Title Screen. If you do it, you will be able to choose any good character to begin the game (not only the Street Fighter II staff).


10 - ADDING CHARACTERS
Yes, you can add your own characters to this game!! :)

If you want to do that, please read the ADDING.txt document


11 - KNOWN BUGS
* To be completed... ;)

12 - THANKS & CREDITS
This is an amateur homebrew game, but I have put all my efforts in it, because I want this to be a tribute to everybody contributing to the Xbox scene. They made possible to play in our Xbox with all the classical videogame characters appearing in this game, and many more. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

I don't want to write names because it would be impossible to collect them all, but of course you can think about the enormous work made by Xport, Madmab, Freakdave, A600, Lantus, RessurectionX... and many many more!!!

Thanks too to all the people involved in the creation of the Xtras and the Emuxtras site (RessurectionX, you are an inspiration for us!!).

Thanks to all the people who created spritesheets and made them available for everybody. I made some of the spritesheets myself, but I reused some other from The Spriters Resource site, so thanks to Lord Zymeth, Hokuto No Kenshiro, Belial, SonicFreak, Caffeine Ripper, Wing Wang Wao, Dolphman, Random Talking Bush, Grim, The Shirt Ninja, Cyrus Annihilator, and Maneko.

I want to say big thanks to my brother too, as he helped me a lot in the beta-testing stage, and gave me lots of good ideas to make the game better :)

And finally, if you have contributed to the xbox scene too, big thanks to you, and this game is a tribute to you too!!! Oh, and if you have not contributed to the scene, I hope that you enjoy the game anyways, and keep in mind that it's never too late to learn how to program for the Xbox ;) I didn't know anything about Xbox programming six months ago, and now I have released my first game, and I hope to release many more in the future.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, and I hope that you enjoy this game!!!! :)

HCF