A first look, and rundown of NEOS: Illuminated City. (Patreon)

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed v0.5 (Titas, and Tanya)! With that build wrapped up, we are moving right onto our Catgirl, and the Neon City. Just before we get into that, I want to just bring up something involving the polls. Normally on the first week of a new build I would open a poll for people to vote on the next character. This isn't exactly the case anymore, as the alien is the final ally and will be the next build regardless. Due to this, the poll will involve something else. The team will be discussing the contents, and I will likely put the poll up in a couple weeks or so.  The poll may involve either types of scenes/positions for an Hscene, or potentially something else.

Just as a quick recap for anyone new, or if they missed previous posts. The ally featured, and unlocked from Neos is the new catgirl.

With that covered, let's talk about Neos. While the aesthetic isn't quite complete, the base idea is here. Lets get into the rundown, shall we?

Ideally there will be more variation in billboards, and few more colors, but beneath the player will be  a smog with lights simulating aerial traffic within. You will be weaving within this dense city's architecture to reach your goal.

What is your goal? Well let's cover the setting. The illuminated city is under a cyber attack of sorts by a particular AI, who has been infected by a virus. This AI is well known throughout the city, and with the help of your new cat friend, you are out to quell this threat.

Who/What is the AI? It's our first female boss.

First question many of you will likely be asking: "do we fukk?"

In this build the Hcontent will be focused on the catgirl, but we mayyy have more plans for this boss. An idea we want to push forward with this boss is something along the lines of cleansing the virus, and she will become the AI interface for your hub ship, and possibly give instance support (much like Rob64 did in Star Fox). She likely won't have as much Hcontent as the main ally roster, but we do want to give her some if we go ahead with this.

We will dive more into this boss in a later week, but for now I will jump back into the layout for the rest of the level.

You will come across these rails after the first section. The city's tram systems have turned against you as well, and will have rail cars cruising by and shooting at you.

Shortly after, the boss will taunt you on a large display. Only to have the building detonate from the inside. Flying out from the explosions will be the catgirl. I will go more into details for her in a later post as well.

You will fly over the ruins of the building into a tram-way.

You will be faced with more Trams on rails here, but with somewhat limited space to maneuver.

Upon exiting the tram-way, you are faced with the game's 2nd instance of route split.

By default the rail will bring you left here. The catgirl will ask you to clear the way for her (On the right will be a closed entry way). By shooting open the way, you will be following her into the passage on the right. There will be some give/take depending on the route you choose.

By going right, you will gain affinity for the catgirl, and be put through instances to gain further affinity, and potentially give you an advantage against the boss.

Going left will likely give a bit of Aether affinity, but will also yield many more enemies. This means it will be easier to get a higher score if you go left. (Likely to be more relevant when function for gold medals is implemented).

I'll start with the left route.

After going through a small, more open segment you are faced with a tramway in your path

Forced to duck beneath this tramway, you dip into the smog

While in here, there will likely be a few enemies to play with visibility, but ultimately this section will be very brief.

After emerging from the smoke, you will be facing off with the boss of the stage.

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Now on the 2nd route:

Entering this way is going to put you through an area that sports wires/cables as obstacles. While the wires are not in yet, I will explain the point of them.

As mentioned, there won't be many enemies on this route. It will mostly be a dodging game, however you CAN shoot these wires. You will be instructed to only shoot wires of a certain color. Shooting the right color will result in affinity with the catgirl, and potentially a debuff of sorts on the boss. Shooting the wrong wires will likely result in a small explosion, or shock to the player, causing damage.

There isn't too much to show on this route, as the wires and such will be implemented in the "mechanics" week.

After this section, you will fight the same boss as the left route.

Overall it's seeming like this will technically be the longest level so far.

That should pretty much do it for the base layout of the level. There will still be work done on some of the aesthetic side of things, but next week is going to be dedicated to implementing the enemies.

This is where I will follow up that next week's post will NOT be on Friday. Unfortunately I will only have a few days to get the enemies in, and I will need to do the weekly progress update on Tuesday. Due to some personal life reasons, I am going to be away for a week. We will be working to ensure we meet the weekly quota around this, however.

With that said, I think I will wrap up here, and I'll catch you all on Tuesday with a breakdown on some of the enemies! Thanks everyone!

-Regulus