Project Nineveh is a Fan Sequel of the MARDEK series. Developed by a group of dedicated fans, it seeks to complete MARDEK by expanding and improving upon the three chapters released by Tobias Cornwall and developing the remaining five chapters, which never made it past the drawing board before the series in its original form was officially cancelled. The new additions seek to improve the player experience, while maintaining the original series' identity.
Not to be confused with Taming Dreams and Atonal Dreams, which are Continuity Reboots made by Tobias Cornwall himself.
The mod can be downloaded from its Discord server here
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As a Game Mod for MARDEK, the same tropes in the parent game apply. Tropes unique to Project Nineveh itself include:
- Adaptational Badass: Many bosses have been buffed to provide a greater challenge to the player, especially those that were deemed too easy in the original version.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: A few enemies that originally debuted in Chapter 3 were pushed to Chapter 2, including Moonstones, Cavefish, Sekils, Rot Rats and Posh Gruuls.
- Adaptation Expansion: The original series has been expanded with new graphics, music, dialogue and areas to explore.
- Adaptation Name Change: The minibosses in the Dark Temple were renamed from Molestors to Tormentors, and the Golems who guard treasure chests in the Earth Temple from Niggardly Golems to Miserly Golems.
- Art Evolution: Numerous art assets, including treasure chests, terrain, medals, encyclopaedia, skill and enemy icons have been updated to higher standards.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Jack O' Booms have a lot of hit points and their only attack is a One-Hit Kill that takes several rounds to charge and wipes out your entire party.
- Debug Room: Each chapter (other than chapter 1) has a 'cheat' room, located in the Guardpost (chapter 2) and Sun Temple (chapter 3) and only accessible by using the console to give yourself the Alexandrite Key. Inside each room is a book containing a list of console commands, non-canon party members who can be recruited into the party, and four treasure chests containing the Boots of Speed (Perma-Haste with no caveats), Alexandrite (an accessory with blatantly overpowered stats and skills), Holy Hand Grenade (deals 999999 Divine damage to any enemy) and Unlucky Coin (which serves to ensure that the wielder will quickly get KO'd).
- Door to Before: One addition to the Goznor Sewer-Catacomb complex is a door that leads from the first floor of the Sewer to the fourth floor of the Catacomb. Just like in the original game, defeating the boss of the dungeon (who drops the key) will automatically return you to Castle Goznor; the door is still useful in that you won't need to cross the second floor of the Sewer and the first four floors of the Catacomb again in order to access the optional fifth floor.
- Fan Sequel: One goal of Project Nineveh is to finish the original MARDEK series by developing the five remaining chapters, which were planned but never made by Tobias Cornwall.
- Foregone Victory: Gryystal is a crystallized Gruul with no attacks or elemental resistances. Lampshaded in its description:It can't attack, so if you need help defeating it, only YALORT can save you.
- Flunky Boss: Whereas the original Lake Hag has no minions, here it is accompanied by two Puckerfish.
- King Mook: One treasure chest in the Eastern Glens, which contains the new item Honeycomb, is guarded by the Queen Wasp, which is mechanically just a renamed Blade Bee with an abnormally high level (11) for the area. Similarly, Ignatz, Milton, Marshall and Irving are functionally identical to standard Rot Rats, but are treated as a boss fight due to their level (26 for Ignatz, 14 for the minions) compared to the second floor of the Goznor Sewer.
- Level Limiter: The No Experience passive skill, unlocked by the Letter from Mum (which is found inside Mardek's bedroom and is thus one of the very first items obtainable in the game), disables all experience gain when turned on.
- Mythology Gag: The Canonia Shaman was given the name Sylvia, which is the name of the Goznor Shaman's Taming Dreams counterpart.
- Named by the Adaptation: All shamans now have been given personal names instead of simply being called by their job.
- Non-Standard Skill Learning: Expanded from the original game (where this mechanic is only used by Meraeador's inventions), some unique skills cannot be mastered and are only available while the item is equipped.
- Optional Party Member: Non-canon party members play no role in the main story and are only recruitable in the Debug Room. Despite this status, they all have fully developed skillsets and exclusive items.
- Poison Mushroom: The Unlucky Coin, an item used for debugging that is nonetheless obtainable by regular players, inflicts Perma-Poison and Perma-Bleed and massively reduces the equipped character's stats (except for a boost to AGL, ensuring that the wielder will quickly get KO'd).This coin is unlucky! The last 578 owners of this coin have all perished in horrible ways, but you know what they say... 579th try's a charm! Useful for solo runs, or other such situations when your party members should just get out of your way and DIE.
- Super Boss: Mimameith and Laeradr, two aspects of the World Tree, are even more powerful than the existing Superbosses in the original version and completely optional to fight.
