History VideoGame / ValdisStoryAbyssalCity

The game was released in 2013 for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], and is available for both UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and [[{{Website/GOGDotCom}} GOG]].

* GameplayGrading: Each boss battle is graded, ranking you based on style which is a combination of combo rank and damage/hits taken, time taken to beat the boss and the number of Potions used. The higher the rank, the larger the bonus you get for a stat and the more experience you gain. As stated above, [[RankInflation S-ranking]] {{Bonus Boss}}es is one of the few ways to get additional skill points. Thankfully, the ranking is moderately lenient in sense that you can take a lot of hits and still get an overall S ranking if you don't end up using any Potions and make up for it with high combo ranks. The game also rounds up your ranking, meaning that as long as you get at least A in the combat rank (which is the hardest one to get an S on, assuming avoiding all enemy attacks and getting highest combo ranks isn't what you excel at), you'll still get an overall S.

* OptionalBoss: There's a number of optional bosses, but they work somewhat differently than usual: 2 of them are always fought at some point of the game, but fighting them early prevents everyone in a late-game location from getting killed by the boss and saves you another boss fight later in the game, respectively: both of them also give you items that are required to craft 2 of the weapons. Another boss fight involves a possible DualBoss, the other boss powering up and getting a second form: if you choose not to spare the other boss' life earlier, the DualBoss fight won't occur, which deprives you of an unique item that's needed to craft a set of armor. There's also a pair of completely optional bonus bosses who mainly exist to give you stat boosts and additional ending scenes when you beat the game.

** If you don't defeat some bosses before you progress the story to a certain point, they might attack a friendly town and kill everyone in it, costing you all the items and services that would've been available in it. Before the game was updated, instead of the trigger for the above being story progress, [[NintendoHard it was a set number of hours as determined by the in-game timer.]] Finally, if you don't beat the {{Bonus Boss}}es with an S rank, you're permanently out of a skill point.

* SkillScoresAndPerks: One of the main mechanics: each character has 3 separate skill trees with general focus on offense, defense and magic. In addition to leveling up, you can also gain additional skill points by gathering Books of the Old Gods or beating {{Bonus Boss}}es with the highest rank.

* BonusBoss: There's a number of them, but they work somewhat differently than usual: 2 of them are always fought at some point of the game, but fighting them early prevents everyone in a late-game location from getting killed by the boss and saves you another boss fight later in the game, respectively: both of them also give you items that are required to craft 2 of the weapons. Another boss fight involves a possible DualBoss, the other boss powering up and getting a second form: if you choose not to spare the other boss' life earlier, the DualBoss fight won't occur, which deprives you of an unique item that's needed to craft a set of armor. There's also a pair of completely optional bonus bosses who mainly exist to give you stat boosts and additional ending scenes when you beat the game.

* SkillTree: One of the main mechanics: each character has 3 separate skill trees with general focus on offense, defense and magic. In addition to leveling up, you can also gain additional skill points by gathering Books of the Old Gods or beating {{Bonus Boss}}es with the highest rank.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Other than the playable characters, there's 20 named crew members to find, each of them with their own Lore entry and function: some of them function as assist characters while others run stores.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: As a plot point: something in the Abyssal City causes the hair of all humans who live there to turn bright white. Since angels and demons are immune to whatever is causing it, Wyatt's crew immediately comes off as suspicious to them. Downplayed with Reina, as her hair is close to white but still somewhat off for people living in that place.

''Valdis Story: Abyssal City'' is an indie {{Metroidvania}} created by [=EndlessFluff=] Games, a two-person company. Unlike most other Metroidvanias, it focuses more on combat over other games of its type, with combat closely approaching a 2D version of VideoGame/DevilMayCry.

* ElementalPowers: Each character has access to 2 unique elements with their own set of spells, and by defeating bosses, gains [[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[AnIcePerson Ice]], [[ShockAndAwe Lightning]] and [[PowerOfTheVoid Void]]-elemental spellsets, each of which has a secondary function that's required to access new locations: Fire's Dragon Fist breaks down stone walls, Ice's Ice Tower creates [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin ice pillars]] to stand on, and Void's Black Hole creates a slow-moving sphere of energy that allows you to warp to its location, bypassing traps and crossing large horizontal distances. Each element also has a [[StandardStatusEffects status aliment]] associated with it that can be inflicted either by the respective offensive spells with a base chance equal to your Affliction % or with a static chance with specific magic weapons:

* ElementalPowers: Each character has access to 2 unique elements with their own set of spells, and by defeating bosses, gains [[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[AnIcePerson Ice]], [[ShockAndAwe Lightning]] and [[PowerOfTheVoid Void]]-elemental spellsets, each of which has a secondary function that's required to access new locations: Fire's Dragon Fist breaks down stone walls, Ice's Ice Tower creates [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin ice pillars]] to stand on, Lightning's Bolt Jump functions as a DoubleJump and Void's Black Hole creates a slow-moving sphere of energy that allows you to warp to its location, bypassing traps and crossing large horizontal distances. Each element also has a [[StandardStatusEffects status aliment]] associated with it that can be inflicted either by the respective offensive spells with a base chance equal to your Affliction % or with a static chance with specific magic weapons:

* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: The maximum level is 20, which doesn't take much effort to reach if you try to find all crew members, get enough materials to upgrade all weapons and armor and find all hidden items. However, since levels are far from being the only source of your strength, there's still plenty of things you can do to power up your character even after you reach the maximum level.

'''Valdis Story: Abyssal City''' is an indie {{Metroidvania}} created by [=EndlessFluff=] Games, a two-person company. Unlike most other Metroidvanias, it focuses more on combat over other games of its type, with combat closely approaching a 2D version of VideoGame/DevilMayCry.

The game is available both on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and [[{{Website/GOGDotCom}} GOG]].
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!!Tropes:

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: As a plot point: something in the Abyssal City causes the hair of all humans who live there to turn bright white. Since angels and demons are immune to whatever is causing it, Wyatt's crew immediately comes off as suspicious to them. Downplayed with Reina as her hair is close to white but still somewhat off for people living in that place.

* SequelBait: The various cutscenes after completing the game show [[spoiler:Alagath sending an enforcer with the captured Reina's old mentor Abaddon; Myrgato sending Wyatt's mother and sister to kill him; Gilda leading both the goddesses to Reina to force a showdown; Reina raising a Goibniu army from the dead; and Vladyn discovering that the elder dark god defeated by Valdis looong ago is NotQuiteDead... too bad the sequel is unlikely to get made, since the designers have moved to other projects.]]

** Good luck finding all of the crew the first time through: they're all over the place and some of them only spawn after advancing the story far enough, although thankfully you can't permanently miss out any of them outside of the two crewmen from the Mana Crystal Mine. No more the case after certain updates, though it'll take a bit more of an effort and harder pathways to reach them after the cave-in.

* HailfirePeaks: The setting is a some sort of a variant of this: while it seems to be cold by default to the degree that multiple areas that people live in need a mana heater to keep them liveable, the town of Ishk is located right on top of a volcanic area, but still needs one to keep it warm. In fact, [[spoiler: when their malfunctioning mana heater finally breaks down later in the story, the whole town instantly grows cold, and if you don't fix it in time, the entire town ends up being evacuated.]]

* MissingSecret: Since the game is still being worked on, there's a number of equipment slots that can't be filled yet, most noticeably the Focus Finishers.

* OurAngelsAreDifferent / OurDemonsAreDifferent: For the most part, both of them either are born into their factions or start of as humans and are either converted over or willingly choose the respective faction depending on which deity they prefer: Angels worship Alagath, while demons worship Myrgato. Neither side is shown to be superior to one another, with good and bad people on both sides.

The game is available both on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and Website/[[{{GOGDotCom}} GOG]].

The game is available both on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and GOGDotCom.

The game is available both on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and Website/{{GOGDotCom}}.

The game is available both on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and UsefulNotes/{{GOGDotCom}}.