Sketches

Weapon Sketches - Parasite

AG: Enlarged demonic parasite concept. The facial features are derived from Tibetan imagery of wrathful deities. Perhaps this parasite may be demonic, divine, or semi-divine. Why it exists and its relevance besides the source of a weapon is not yet known. 

AG: Alternate design for the jaws of the devourer blade. Also on the bottom right corner is a little sketch of the weapon (parasite) communicating with the player telepathically.

Weapon Concepts: Mark

AG: This demon parasite design is an oni-masked snake that uses its tongue to burrow into the host. Once this happens the creature spreads dark power into the hosts' arm that allows the person to transform it into a blade. Oni is a Japanese orge demon.

AG: The first sketch page of a demonic blade. Ignore that wavy shape on the bottom right corner.

AG: Second sketch of a demonic blade, alongside an early parasite sketch. You will probably notice geometric marks on the blade. Said marks are channels through which the power of demons may be absorbed through the blade and into the parasite and its host.

AG: Initial concept of a blade with jaws, then titled the "Abaddon Muramasa", and the parasite that generates it, referred to as Rasetsu. It is noted that the name Abaddon Devourer was being reconsidered, mainly since Abaddon means "destroyer" not "devourer", and the blade is not technically separate from the arm due to the effect of the Rasetsu parasite. The Rasetsu fuses with the host's arm after entering through the arm or shoulder. Its goal is to fully fuse with the host's body after gaining enough power from devouring enemy demons. In the grand scheme of things, the protagonist would have to work with the character in order to survive.

AG: It might be worth considering the addition of other physical changes. As the Rasetsu's power grows it could take another arm, which could probably transform into a shield at the command of the player. Or it could take over the player's back and allow wing growth, though in hindsight this might be more complicated to actually implement. If it takes over his legs it could mean increased movement speed or acrobatics. On the bottom of this page is a depiction of how the player might look after the Rasetsu fully fuses with him (or her, it's not set in stone yet). At this point, I should state that by this time I started calling the parasites Rakshasas. Rasetsu/Rakshasa info can be found in the Secondary Research page.

AG: Another drawing of the blade's jaws. I figured the blade should change shape when it devourer mode rather than stay the same shape when the jaws are open because it feels more like the blade is actually becoming a pair of jaws. On the same page, some poses involving the arm blade. I draw this to try and get a sense of motion regarding the blade.

AG: The top of this page features possible motions involving the blade as jaws. I did in order to try and get a sense of how the blade could devour enemies. An XP bar is drawn in red ink to demonstrate the possible process of gaining XP from devouring enemy demons. On the bottom I drew another possible concept for a Rakshasa. This Rakshasa enters through the head or neck and fuses with the head (or scalp), and when it takes over that area it could generate whip-like blade extensions and snake-like jaws. I prefer to call them "hair blades".

AG: Another alternate Rakshasa concept. This Rakshasa enters through the back, shoulders, or chest in order to fuses with either and generate extra arms. The already existing arms would also be taken over, and the hands of either arm could be capable of transforming into jaws so as to devour the enemy. As its power grows, additional arms could generate. At the bottom of the page there is writing that posits the idea that there could be different types of Rakshasa that could be differently named. Blade-generating Rakshasas could be called Yato Rakshasa (named for a group of malevolent snake deities from Japanese folklore), hair-blade-generating Rakshasas could be called Medusa Rakshasas or Gorgon Rakshasas, and arm-generating Rakshasas could be called Shura Rakshasas (Shura being the Japanese word for the Hindu spirit known as Asura). It is also mentioned that this differentiation could also be unnecessary, and that the Rakshasa could all look the same but have different effects (blade, hair, extra arms etc.). And there's a little Rakshasa logo on the corner.

AG: This page is devoted to information on how the Rakshasa could enter the body, which I was motivated to do even though this is story information and is not fully relevant yet. First the Rakshasa climbs on to the body, then it has to make an incision into the body. The bite will cause paralysis and numb the body which will enable the Rakshasa to enter the body without interference from the potential host. The Rakshasa then burrows into the incision and searches for a place to nest in. Once it finds a body part to stay put in, it then fuses with said body part. If the potential host proves to be too weak, he/she dies and loses the body part. Because the Rakshasa has fused with a body part, it cannot be physically removed from the body.

Non-Parasite Weapon Sketches by Alexei

AG: Moving away from parasitic swords for a while, I figured "let's experiment with a gun". Except this is not a gun that shoots lead. It's a Ghostbusters-inspired gun, complete with a potential proton pack stand-in, except it contains a kind of dark-spiritual energy, which serves as ammo or a power source for the gun. Said energy will be referred to as Kimon for now (yet again referring to Japanese myth, this time it refers to a demon gate direction).

AG: This weapon concept is a sword with two blades on each end, with a vajra for a hilt (vajra meaning thunderbolt). The idea was inspired by the weapon used by Cao Pi in Dynasty Warriors 5 and Dynasty Warriors 8 and the sword used by the Buddhist deity Fudo Myo-O. 

AG: This weapon is called a Kila. In Tibet it is called a Phurba. It is a dagger-like ritual implement associated with a deity named Vajrakilaya. It was used as a tool for exorcism and as a tool to symbolically destroy hatred by transmuting it. If implemented in a game, it could appear as a weapon of exorcism used to destroy demons and draw out their power to be acquired or absorbed by the player. 

New Weapon Sketches

AG: This weapon came about after I started sketching the Tibetan Buddhist deity Vajrakilaya. I saw an artwork of him and I noticed a monster-like face between his body and the kila blade which served as his lower half. The main concept for this blade is that the monster-like head could devour or absorb negative energy or blood from defeated enemies

AG: This sword continues on from the concept of the previous sword, except the head here is based on the Kirtimukha, a Hindu icon of a fierce swallowing monster or demon. The sword actually reminds me of Rebellion, the sword used by Dante in the Devil May Cry series. The main problem, however, is that it doesn't strictly follow the concept of a sword attached to an arm that we are pursuing, but it can be seen as a step in developing a concept.

AG: Putting what I previously typed into effect, I have taken the previous concept and transformed it into an arm blade with the same concept in mind. The monstrous head devours negative energy that the blade draws towards it.

AG: I was researching a kind of Chinese sword called a Dao, and found a weapon that a large sword which I would soon draw as this. I have also drawn sharp teeth on the bottom on the blade, though it appears to detract from the concept of jaws.


AG: Now here's a weapon that will seem very unusual. This sword's design was inspired by the sword held by Susano-o as he appears in the Shin Megami Tensei series, but I have given a twist. Those portrusions coming out of the blade are actually demonic creatures or mouths that, like previous concepts, devour negative energy from defeated enemies. However the main down side, theoretically, is that it might detract from devouring since something like this would have to work by having you absorb said energy, which would still go to the blade.

AG: This sketch shows a hand, then a kila-like arm blade, then an arm sword with jaws, much like some earlier concepts.

AG: Another arm blade concept, this time inspired by Nero's Devil Bringer in Devil May Cry 4. Here we have a hand that could make a blade appear at the will of the player rather than simply having the blade stay active.


AG: This concept expands on the idea of a blade with jaws via a scissors-like design. Here the blades can open and close to chomp on or devour a target.

LH: This is the initial 10 concepts I started with, I was just toying around with a few ideas for weapon idea with concepts ranging from Battle Axes to Sai's, Most of the ideas are bladed because as a Fantasy Weapon the mind defaults to a sword of some kind, I have also looked into non-bladed weapon ideas such as the Hammer and the Crossbow, To see how a ranged idea or blunt instrument might work out with our idea, I feel that going with the generic bladed weapon would be more beneficial to the task we has set ourselves.

CG: I had put together a quick character model encase we decided to put the weapon onto a character.

AG: A sketch of the concept of the symbiotic sword with jaws, this time shaded. I wasn't entirely sure if I was making a sketch of a finalized concept.

AG: I thought I'd experiment with a character design. It's not much, but then the protagonist is not an important subject to be dealing with right now.

AG: Another sketch featuring the same character mold, with a frontal view of the opened jaws of the blade. Plus some writing just for the sake of a poster-esque hint at possible plot, and a fun logo.

AG: A comparison of three designs for the symbiotic sword. One of them is based on the Ramdao sword, and I think two of them look vaguely similar to katanas.

LH: I was looking online for a few Blade designs, We had told each other to start to try and finalise the idea for the weapon. So I have looked at different blade shapes and intensites.

LH: I started to look at the curvature and kinks within different blade concepts to see what could give either a heavy feel or more organic feel to its design

LH: Instead of just looking at curved blades I looked at some more linear ideas with a contrast in thickness'

LH: I then looked at blades the split or are duel bladed to get a feel for how the idea might work to our design

LH: Even the more generic ideas for blades could fit well to our design, With a contrast of size and scale could change the entire weapon

LH: Then looking at a twin bladed glave I thought it had a very powerful feel to it, being able to operate in a manifest of ways just being into the form in itself and I really liked the idea of this one in particular