Game Manual
Game Version 1.0.0 |  |  |
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Valyria Tear is an open-source single-player medieval-fantasy 2D J-RPG based on an extended Hero of Allacrost engine
and inspired by classic console RPGs.
The player incarnates Bronann, a young boy forced to take part into the struggle for the possession of a mysterious crystal.
This powerful artifact will lead him to discover the actual threat set upon his world, but also courage and love.
The game has all the features you can expect from JRPG classics: entertaining story development, colourful map exploration,
active side-view battles, character management, puzzles... It is also translated in several languages.
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 BronannGender: Male Age: 17
Bronann is a young boy who has always lived peacefully in the village of Layna as far as he remembers. Despite his age, the protective nature
of his parents which have left him a bit naive, he is a helpful and willing lad, and is strongly trying to do for the best of his closings.
Bronann is the main hero of this story and you will incarnate him at the beginning of the game. He is also be the strongest support
in battles. His skills are a balanced mix between attacks and defensive spells.
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 KalyaGender: Female Age: 16
Kalya is a very handsome, yet very proud young woman who is living in the same village than Bronann since a few years
with her father Herth and her brother Orlinn.
While she is strong-tempered, she doesn't want to attract the attention or seem out of place. Also, Herth has taught her
the art of battle and magic since she was little and she can become a master in protective spells, and fearsome attacks.
Later, she will discover the true essence and the origins of her powers...
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 SylveGender: Female Age: 21
Sylve is a reknown thief living in the north, past the Layna Region. Her thirst of theft is endless and she's gathered
the most valuables possible for a secret purpose.
Sylve is a seasoned and frank warrior, using cunning ways to get past her enemies defences and reach their weaknesses.
Her blunt humour also hides a true-hearted woman who only hope for better tomorrows and revenge...
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 ThanisGender: Male Age: 24
Thanis is a fearsome warrior, leader of the Rebel Army and the heir of the Ancient civilization. He's been raised and trained
to become the armed fist of the Rebels, and fulfill every hopes in it.
Thanis is also very proud of himself and will show it whenever he can. On the other hand, he will never show the pain his parents left when
they abandonned him a long time ago, and prefers to put all his anger on the Lord's troops that plague his land...
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 OrlinnAge: 12 Orlinn is Kalya's younger brother and Herth's son. He's a joyful and jolly lad, who likes to do tricks to the others for fun. |
 HerthAge: 45 Herth is father of Kalya and Orlinn, the strongest fighter in their village and thus, the main watcher of its gate. |
 CarsonAge: 38 Carson is the father of Bronann and husband of Malta. He is a former soldier of the Royal Army, before the arrival of the Lord and his dark soldiers. He's retired with his family in the village of Layna in the hope to find peace, and a safe ground for him and his family. |
 MaltaAge: 42 Malta is the mother of Bronann and wife of Carson. |
Basic Keys
When running Valyria Tear for the first time, a window will prompt you to select a language with the UP and DOWN keyboard arrows.
Selecting the language will be done by pushing any other key. Don't worry, you'll be able to select a new language
in the Options menu later on.
Valyria Tear can also be played using a gamepad. In that case, selecting the language can be done with using the first gamepad axis or D-Pad,
and selected with any standard buttons.
Here are the game default key and their general purpose in the game:
| Default key | Action description |
|---|---|
| Up, Down, Left, Right | Move in menus, options lists, move the controlled character in game, ... |
| F | Confirm in menus, speak to characters, open chest boxes, ... |
| D | Cancel in menus, make the controlled character run if used with move keys, ... |
| S | Show the party menu, show skill/item description in battles, change the item type in shops, ... |
| F1 | Show/Hide the Help window. |
| Escape | Show the pause menu, or quit the game when on the intro menu. |
| Space | Pause the game. |
| Keyboard only | |
| Ctrl+F | Toggle windowed/fullscreen mode. |
| Ctrl+S | Takes a screenshot. The screenshot will be put along save games. |
| Developer mode options | |
| Ctrl+A | Toggle the debug view if available in the current mode. |
| Ctrl+R | Toggle the texture manager cache view or current texture shown. |
| Ctrl+T | Toggle FPS view. |
The main menu
The options menu
The 'Options' menu is available through the main menu when you select 'Options' or when you push the 'Escape' keyboard of the 'Quit' joystick key key while in game
or in another menu. The options menu will let you change different game settings, such as Video, Audio, Language, Keyboard keys, or Joystick settings.
Note that the language settings are disabled when you are not in the main menu.
The Video settings
The video settings will let you change the current screen resolution, whether the game should run in fullscreen or windowed mode,
the screen overall brightness, and the UI theme.
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The Audio settings
| The audio settings will let you change the music and game sounds overall volume. |
The Language settings
| The language settings will let you change the game in one of the available languages. By default, the game will be in English. |
The Keyboard settings
| The keyboard settings will let you configure the game keys when playing with a keyboard. See Basic Keys for the default configuration. |
The Joystick settings
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The joystick settings will permit to configure the first joystick plugged in. You can move there using the keyboard for instance,
while selecting the joystick key with the joystick itself when configuring. You can also disable joystick input in case it is giving issues. Both the joystick (if enabled) and the keyboard can be used to play the game at the same time. |
The Load/Save menu
This menu lets you select one of the 6 game slots available to save your progress. When selecting the load menu through the 'Load Game' option,
you can only load a game. To save your game, you'll have to find save points and push the confirm key (Default: 'F') while the character you're controlling
is within the save point to be able to save the game on any slot.
When saving, the last save slot used will be selected.
When moving through available slots with up and down keys, the given slot will report information about the currently active characters
in the party, their main characteristics, the time played, and the money the party is currently owning.
The save point general location and image are also displayed.
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In Game...
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This the main game mode. In this mode you incarnate one character usually centered on the map, and you can move him around
using the arrow keys, you can also run by holding the Cancel Key (Default: 'D') and move around. You can also interact with save points, other characters, and certain hidden spots using the Confirm key (Default: 'F').
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Character location and direction.
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Save points: Used to save the game. See the 
Layna statues: Restores the party HP/SP.
Doors / Gates / Exits. Not every exits are shown on maps, though.
This means you can run as much as you want in the corresponding location.
Battles
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When an enemy reaches your character on map, or when an event in game triggers it, a new battle starts... Your characters will then appear on the left side of the screen and the enemies will usually be dispatched on the right side.  On the right corner of the screen, the battle stamina bar is representing time flowing in battle. Characters and enemies icons
will move along the bar from bottom to top.
Once a character has reached action level  , you'll be prompted on the next action your character
will have to do.The stamina bar part under the action level is named the preparation time. During that time, character can't do any actions, while you can planned ahead and already select actions for them. The part above the action level is named the warmup time. Once a character has selected an action, this one is usually taking a few seconds before being triggered. You can see that by the time taken for the stamina icon to reach the upper edge of the stamina bar. The stronger the action, the more time it will take. Choosing an action:
When a character is selected, the character portrait is displayed, his current Hit Points and Skill Points are also shown next to his name and highlighted with a Red horizontal bar. The available action types are then displayed on the right side: Weapon, Magic and Items in this case. You can select an action type, a skill and a target using the Confirm Key (default: 'F'), and get back from a menu using the Cancel Key (Default: 'D'). Skills:
Skills can have different target types, such as: An Ally, All Foes, A Foe specific point, ... Hint: Be aware that skills attacking a specific target location will permit you "to find holes", ailing effects, or weaknesses in your enemies defences. Victory/Game Over:Once your enemies have disappeared from the battle screen, usually being defeated by your attacks, the characters will receive Experience Points (XP). When they have enough XP, they will reach a new level and gain points in Strength, Agility, HP, SP, ... overall becoming stronger. You should make sure to can face your enemies without too much pain before going further in a dungeon, or... If all the characters' HP get to 0, then you've lost and a game over screen will ask you whether you want to restart the battle, or stop the game and go back to the main menu. |
Shops
Thanks to certain merchants, when speaking to them or according to certain game events, you'll be able to buy, sell and trade items
throughout the game.
The upper menu will let you decide between those main three options, but note that certain shops won't accept you to sell and/or trade for items.
A few merchant will also be friendly to you according to your fame and/or friendship with them, or according to the story. This can be seen with the buy/sell ranking
when the shop has opened up (with the star icons). The merchant prices will thus likely change according to that ranking.
Buy / Sell:
Once you've selected an item, you'll be presented the info menu where more detailed info about the item are displayed and how many item you're wishing to buy / sell. Use the 'Left' and 'Right' keys to decrease or increase the desired amount, and confirm to make the deal happen. Trade:The trade window detailed info view will also display the requisite items needed to obtain the desired ones. In that case, you can use the 'Left' and 'Right' keys to select how much items you want to buy, and the 'Up' and 'Down' keys to scroll the conditions needed for the given item (if there a more than 4, like in the image below.) For each trade conditions, the game will tell you wether you meet them or not by displaying a OK or KO icon right to the item condition. It will also tell you how many items for the given condition you have versus the need number. E.g.: 4 / 5
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The Party menu
Characters Statistics
Base Statistics
Each character is defined 6 base statistics:
Strength (STR): The Character strength represents the amount of raw hit points damage the character can deal to an enemy.
Vigor (VIG): The Vigor represents the base magical attack of the character and will affect the amount of attack spells damage.
Fortitude (FRT): The Fortitude represents the natural armor of a character. His armor will reduce the amount of hit point lost
when receiving an attack from an enemy.It will also be used to determine whether a spell will win over the opponent's magical protection when dealing special effects to enemies.
Protection (PRO): The Protection represents the natural armor of a character against Magic. Useful to resist against magical effects from spells and attacks.
Agility (AGI): The Agility will permit to make you character go faster during the preparation time in battles,
meaning you will have more chance to strike before your opponents, and more often than them if you have a sufficiently high value.
Evade (EVD): The Evade value permitted to dodge enemies attacks. The higher it is from your opponent's own value, the more likely you will dodge its attacks.
Combat Statistics
Characters statistics are used along with equipment statistics to obtain Combat statistics. There are also 2 kinds of combat defense statistics. The global character defense, and the detailled one. Attack (ATK): The Attack is used as a base for any armed attack. It represents the amount of damage your standard attack will do.
Magical Attack (M.ATK): The Magic Attack is used as a base for any attack spell. It represents the amount of damage your standard magic will do.
Defense (DEF): The Defense is used against standard attack to reflect your overall armor against them and reduce the amount of damage received.
Magical Defense (M.DEF): The Magical Defense is used against standard attack spells.
Certain attacks and spells will also target a body part instead of a whole opponent. In that case, the detailled defense determines how well defended each boy part is.Moreover, aimed attacks are easier for the victim to dodge, but usually come along with a negative status effect if successful, so watch your equipment carefully.
Head: Here, only your base Fortitude or Protection + your head armor statistics will count against the attack. A character can temporarily lose Vigor if hurt on that part.
Torso: Here, only your base Fortitude or Protection + your torso armor statistics will count against the attack.
Arms: Here, only your base Fortitude or Protection + your arms armor statistics will count against the attack. A character can temporarily lose Strength if hurt on that part.
Legs: Here, only your base Fortitude or Protection + your legs armor statistics will count against the attack. A character can temporarily lose Agility if hurt on that part.
Status Effects
When using special spells, drinking an elixir, being hit by a special attack, falling into a trap or running on the map for too long in danger zones,
the characters can be affected by different type of positive and negative status effects.
There is 9 status effect types that can improve and amper your character throughout the game:
Effects on Statistics
During battles and in game, they will appear next to your character portrait to show how strong they are applied. When positive, a green arrow heading up will be next the effect, and when negative, a red arrow heading down will be shown next to the effect. Every effect has a limited time of appliance and will fade out as time flies. Don't forget certain items and equipment can get rid of such effects. The first 6 are status effects applied on base statistics. They can improve or decrease your character corresponding statistics:
Poison and Regen effects
There are also status effects applied on hit points (as known as Poison) and Skill Points (as known as SP Poison):
Those effects will increase or decrease your characters every few seconds.
Stun effect
Last but not least, the Stun effect will make your character sleep during battles, preventing him from dealing damage.
