When you look at a photo you’ve taken, can you remember how you felt when you took the photo? Can you remember where you were standing or what was going on around you? Do you look at that photo and wonder, “What if I tried to take a photo of this from a different angle or spot?” A photo is a window to a different time and place; if we have lived through the moment, we can remember different aspects of the events. There is a theory that there is an infinite number of galaxies; in this theory, the alternate choices that we have made have created branching paths creating a parallel universe. This theory is what inspired Dreams Uncorporated’s upcoming game, Prisma. Earlier this month, we had a chance to meet with Dreams Uncorporated (Cris Tales) to talk about Prisma. 

For this meeting, Dreams Uncorporated ran us through a PowerPoint discussing the key aspects of the game. Before talking about Prisma, we talked about their experiences with Cris Tales, Haimrik, and Story Warriors: Fairy Tales. With their previous gaming focusing on Time distortion, the developers decided that they wanted to create a game revolving around Space distortion; for Pokemon fans think Diamond vs Pearl (Palkia vs Dialga). The story plans to use different perspectives and alignments to push along the narrative. In both the outside world and combat players will have the ability to find new ways to overcome any difficult task based on changing their perspective. Prisma revolves around a girl with an old camera that grants her magical powers; these powers are granted due to the camera containing a Prism Shard.

Within the world of Domacon where magic is just an everyday part of life, the player will need to take pictures of the world to see the unseen and find the world’s true nature. Unlike other action adventure narratives, Prisma’s narrative is solely focused on Alma and her choices. The game’s supporting characters and villains are alternate versions of Alma where their choices made them who they are. Even the world’s NPCs are comprised of Almas who have taken a less combative approach to life. In a world full of Almas the truth is in the eye of the beholder. 

As you talk with your counterparts, you can make decisions that impact your version of Alma, change her perspective, and even look. As you bond with each Alma, you will unlock new quests, combos, and even different routes in order to get home.  Conversations and interactions with NPCs and other characters in Domacon will give the player the ability to gather new allies but also make new enemies. Each decision that you make will strengthen your bond with your team; as your bond strengthens, you will be able to unlock new side quests that give backstories to the different Almas and see moments from their lives in their respective worlds. 

Each Alma has their own motivations and agendas. Even rival and enemy Almas have their own goals but their primary goal will be to steal you and your party’s Prism shards. Each playthrough of the game will have a maximum of four Almas to completely bond with; the game features the possibility of seven different Almas making for a wide variety of backstories and potential combos for combat. 

Prisma takes a JRPG-style approach to combat with menus and charge bars affecting combat. By depleting the enemies’ stamina, you will stun them making them more vulnerable to attacks. In combat as attacks connect, the battery gauge charges; once fully charged, you can use Alma’s influence to change lenses and filters. While Alma is looking through the lens of the camera she can see how an attack will hit. By changing Alma’s camera’s lens, the player can change the attack style and trajectory; this can make an attack hit multiple enemies at the same time vs only one. Filters can give aid to allies by healing them. Each Alma has their own skills that can be leveled by upgrading their Prism Shards granting new abilities; however, with each choice and upgrade, some abilities can be removed. During combat, the main character Alma will look at combat through a lens and help guide her allies to victory in the easiest way possible. 

Regular enemies within the game are inspired by Latin American folklore and look to show and inform others around the world more about Latin America. Enemy monsters can be turned into horrifying creatures by enemy Almas as well. Combat gives Persona vibes however rather than directly locking on to the enemy, the player is given a line targeting system to display how their attack will affect the enemy. The developers have also worked on a reflect system that reflects the attack back at you; this system allows you to come up with strategies to play around with it.

Prisma Q & A

Matt: What are some of the things that you considered when making the game and trying to make it different than the usual JRPG style?

Carlos Rocha: We really like to try and create unique kinds of strategies. Most of what you do in JRPGs is fight, so we looked at how we make it intriguing. How do we improve on and change the strength vs weakness gameplay elements? 

Matt: With the game taking on a JRPG style, are you focusing more on the relationships to level the characters or an experience system alongside the relationships? 

Carlos: It correlates with her growth and personality. You can see different kinds of changes that she will grow to develop as she agrees with one of the other Almas over the other ones. That relationship will change and that will change her. You will be able to see those positives and negatives. It is like you being aligned with yourself. Each playthrough can have a different moment and see how personalities clash. The story is more linear versus when you compare it to Baulders Gate; this is more of a reflexive type of relationship. It is more what you want to become.

Matt: Are there any Easter Eggs that you have put into the game as a subtle node or a direct reference?

Carlos: So yes, when you explore with the camera around town, you will start to notice these different Easter Eggs all around town. For instance, there are Easter Eggs to our previous games. For example with our previous game Cris Tales, you can see a Matias plushie around the town. We do want to respect other people’s intellectual properties but there are subtle nodes to certain things. Another example is a reference to the Nirvana baby cover. At the end of the day, we are from the West and don’t want to pretend like we are from the East. We want to incorporate different elements from our culture and share them with the rest of the world.

Matt: What are some anime that the team has used as inspiration? 

Carlos: shows like Blue Lock, Rurouni Kenshin, DanDaDan (Major influence on the game.) How they handle the cultural reference to Japanese Yokai Mythos and Legends; using it to infuse their culture into the game. We want people to see Columbian culture without preconceptions.

Jeff: Arcane and Berserk.