Thread by @ulsairi

It's been a long time, but finally I got enough to talk about Oracle Engine! This is an indie game developed by Yoshikazu Moriyama with cover art by aldarsign here on the twitters (I feel awkward pinging). Apparently the game was crowdfunded, so that's pretty neat! #JTRPGInfo

You'll have to pardon this one though, as it's an indie game there isn't a lot of art. Anyway, this game is set in a world called Noin (kind of like saying 'no win'). On Noin, there are six gods that oversee the world, and they play a major role in the background. #JTRPGInfo

The major conflict is that 15 years ago, creatures called "corruption beasts" (堕落獣) appeared, and by their very nature they drain everything around them of all mana and oracle. They destroy the world just by existing. Naturally this sucks, so Drivers stepped up. #JTRPGInfo

Drivers are people capable of handling Oracle Engines, which are machines built and designed to harness oracle, the energy of life. By channeling that energy, they can kill corruption beasts--which, by the way, are also called dragons. Hence the cover! #JTRPGInfo

There's more to the setting, but honestly it feels pretty standard sci-fantasy fare so I didn't feel the need to look too closely at it. The main draw of the game is its interesting mechanical system based around building your own Oracle Engine! #JTRPGInfo

The basic resolution system is d6. When you make a roll, you roll a number of d6s and then pick two of them. Those are your check dice. You add a stat modifier to the dice, and if you're equal or over the difficulty, you win. Normally you roll 2d6. #JTRPGInfo

However there's a way to give yourself more dice, of course. Every Driver can rev themselves up, building charge. You get charge by spending Oracle (read as: MP) equal to the level. So charge 1 = 1 oracle, charge 5 in one go = 15 oracle. #JTRPGInfo

There's also a mechanic called dice break, wherein after you roll but before you pick your check dice, you remove dice equal to the number of breaks, starting with the highest value dice. Charge can give you more dice, or it can negate dice breaks on a 1:1 basis. #JTRPGInfo

All charge disappears at the end of a scene, or at the end of "a process" in combat (so like, your turn usually, but also some other times like start process and end process--don't worry about that too much though). #JTRPGInfo

Crits happen when your check dice hit the critical value or higher (usually 12) and fumbles happen when your check dice are at least 2. Crit value can be lowered through certain actions, and fumble can be made easier if you get too many dice breaks. #JTRPGInfo

Characters are made up of six stats: Endurance, Strength, Agility, Willpower, Mana, and Perception. Like D&D, each stat has a base/big number, and then a mod that gets used in rolls. Unlike D&D however the big number actually gets used as damage reduction in combat. #JTRPGInfo

You get your stats by picking four--yes, four!--classes. These are weapon class, category class, style class, and your ancestry "class." You can take them in any combination, but you need one of each. Each gives you stat arrays that add up to your final, total stats. #JTRPGInfo

Weapon class is the form of your Oracle Weapon, the thing you use to slay dragons. You can pick from Impact, Blade, Thrust, Armor, Sorcery, and Shot. These are deliberately vague, so Impact could be a hammer or gauntlets, Blade could be a sword, axe, or scythe! #JTRPGInfo

Category class gives function to the form. Your choices are Standard, Light, Heavy, Elemental, Multiple, Legacy, Accel, Burst, or Living. These too are vague, but the idea is if you pick, say, "Shot" and "Heavy" you may wield a huge cannon, say. #JTRPGInfo

The last two classes define you as a person. Style class is how you wield your Weapon. Hunter, Soldier, Commander, Brave, Faithful, or Loner there. The ancestries are Brights (monochrome desert people), Depths (blue-skinned merfolk), Crags (they look like oni)... #JTRPGInfo

Wilds (catgirls), Draco (dragonborn), and Irregulars (isekai drop-ins). Each ancestry is a "human." Even if the Draco look like full lizard people, they're still considered to be a human being, as are the animal people and even the isekai people. #JTRPGInfo

You'd better like this one too @gayanimegirl !!

All right, so all this is cool and neat but what's with the gameplay? The majority of the focus is on your Oracle Weapon, and while the game provides defaults to start at, you can very easily get lost in the minutiae of fine-tuning your engine. #JTRPGInfo

This may get a little confusing, so bear with me. But essentially, the bulk of your abilities come from the parts you obtain from your weapon and category classes. Parts need to be installed on your Oracle Weapon to function, and this is a whole thing. #JTRPGInfo

First off, every* Oracle Weapon has six gears, labeled 1-6. Each gear can have multiple "part slots," into which you slot your parts. Some parts can be leveled (think Fire/Fira/Firaga) and if so, they take up more slots. Refer to this image for the next few posts. #JTRPGInfo

Gears are important because at the start of every round in battle, you make what's called a Clutch Roll. Pick a gear you want to be at, roll 1d6. If you get your # or higher, you go to your desired gear. If you don't, you go to the highest die you rolled -1. #JTRPGInfo

Clutch rolls can be revved, and some parts give better control over clutch, but it's designed to be tricky--you're wielding an engine that's chugging oracle, after all. It's not supposed to be easy! Meanwhile, you can only use parts from your gear or lower, none higher #JTRPGInfo

Which parts are on what gear is important because you'll rarely be in fifth or sixth gear. But also, we turn back now to Oracle (your MP) which has a lot to do with your parts placement too. More specifically, it's about your inertia. #JTRPGInfo

If you check out the image above, you'll see two inertial values: base and gain. Your base inertia is calculated by taking your number of part slots at a gear level and all gear levels below it, adding those up, then doubling it. So for example... #JTRPGInfo

If you take the default of having 5 part slots on each gear, you have (5 x 2 = 10) inertial base at first gear, ((5+5)x2 = 20) at second gear, and so on. Then, you calculate each installed part's install cost and total them up for each gear level and below it. #JTRPGInfo

Once you do that, you subtract going up. If you have a part that has an install cost of 4 at first gear and an inertial base of 10, your inertial gain is 6. If you have two parts at second gear for 7 cost total, that'd be 7 + 4 = 11, subtracted from 20 base for 9 gain. #JTRPGInfo

Whew! And what's the point of all that? Well you see, at the start of the game, you actually have only 1/10th your maximum Oracle. So if you have max 30, you start with 3 Oracle. That's not a lot of MP to fuel stuff, you know? #JTRPGInfo

But then at the end of each round, you recover Oracle equal to your inertial gain for the gear that you're in. This replenishes you every round, and the game expects you to spend it all... a lot. Since you see, Oracle can also double as HP! #JTRPGInfo

When you get hit, you get to divide the damage you're taking between HP and your Oracle in any division that you like. Having 0 Oracle isn't a problem beyond being unable to fuel effects, but 0 HP means you get incapacitated. #JTRPGInfo

So to recap, you have six gears on your weapon. Each gear can have up to 10 part slots. The more part slots you have, the higher your inertial base and the more/higher level parts you can install. #JTRPGInfo

You need to balance your part slot # vs. install cost of parts to maintain a positive and preferably high inertial gain value so you can replenish your Oracle every round to fuel powers, rev your weapon for charge, and also to protect yourself. #JTRPGInfo

One other thing to spend your Oracle on are your three Overdrives. (Hmm, I just realized I fucked up on a translation... oh well!) Overdrives are big, powerful effects that cost a large chunk of Oracle, but they're how you kill the heck out of dragons. #JTRPGInfo

Furthermore, you can actually combine parts in action. Attacks for example won't combine damage, but they WILL combine effects, and also give you the biggest targeting scope and the longest (and shortest minimum) ranges, but it all costs Oracle. Check this sheet. #JTRPGInfo

If you're on sixth gear, you roll 2d6+9 to hit, 6d6+15 for damage, and every effect from sixth gear up is applied to your attack. You can also see in this way that some parts rely on what gear they're installed on (usually for damage), and also what gear -you're- on. #JTRPGInfo

Since you can technically start with no defaults and fine tune your Oracle Engine up from nothing, you can see how you can spend a lot of time figuring out your parts and configuration! #JTRPGInfo

Let's see... really, that's the biggest draw there. Combat works very like any other JRPG you know. The biggest thing otherwise is that each attack action actually offers a choice in how the defender can defend against it, usually giving a physical and a magical stat. #JTRPGInfo

So for example an attack might say you can dodge it with either Agility or Mana. Likewise, as I mentioned before, if you fail on your defense check, you use your stat like armor to reduce the damage. Any remaining damage is split between HP and Oracle as you like. #JTRPGInfo

Combat is done on a grid, either squares or hexes. And uh... oh! Your weapon and category classes give you "action ranks"--essentially you get to take two turns per round, and each action rank tells you the initiative formula calcuation. #JTRPGInfo

For example the Light category class gives you an action rank that is (Base Agility x 2) + (Base Perception x 2). Meanwhile the Armor weapon class gives you "Base Endurance + Base Strength + Base Willpower." #JTRPGInfo

Interestingly, they play with this mechanically too. There's some part somewhere that will, when activated, burn your faster action rank but give you a massive damage boost in return, and similar things like that. #JTRPGInfo

Lastly I should mention that the Style and Ancestry abilities are not parts, but rather skills, and can be used independently of your current gear--and don't get installed. They're just things you have, because that's who you are. #JTRPGInfo

And that I think will be that. Feel free to ask me any questions if you like! Meanwhile I'll try not to go so long without another update. I'm thinking... idols, next... #JTRPGInfo