=============================================================================== Meister Citadel*: Stage 5 Control Center -The Road to Heaven- =============================================================================== *Proposed name for first fortress, that is assuming there are two in the first place >_> Area: Meister Citadel/90-99F Inner Sanctum Elevator- To Main Control Center Length: 19 rooms Map: [C][B] [ ] [ ][ ][ ] Area: Meister Citadel/90-99F [ ] Inner Sanctum Elevator- To Main Control Center [ ] Length: 19 rooms [ ] [ ] [ ][ ][ ][ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ][ ][C][ ] Key: [ ] - Room [C] - Checkpoint [B] - Boss room Level theme: Shoji Meguro - Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner 1&2 Original Soundtrack Integral - 4-18 One-way Stairs.mp3 Synopsis: The party arrives at von Meister's front door after conquering the trials of the Meister Citadel's lower floors. It's up to the forces of Jul to stop von Meister from unleashing his latest invention- a device that allows the human body to transcend its limits by blurring the line between the real and imaginary planes. He's pulled out all the stops, too- the elevator ride to his inner sanctum is anything but smooth, as nearly every enemy and obstacle you've encountered so far will appear in a last-ditch attempt to prevent you from reaching the doctor's lair on the 99th floor. But even if you make it safely to the top, will you be ready for the truth that lies beyond the final door? Level summary: You begin the final stage of the first fortress in the lobby of the 92nd floor, which is lavishly decorated like an executive office floor, complete with reception desk, fake plants and leather furniture. The solid glass windows extend for about 64x144, providing a breathtaking view of the nighttime cityscape. This theme continues for the first three rooms in which you'll only face stock cannon fodder, mostly the humanoid bots and sentry drones. After taking the fire exit, you'll go down a stairwell leading to another short hallway on floor 90. The background perspective should imply the hall is as wide as it is long. The backdrop for this area is comprised of several portraits of other famous scientists and mathematicians, with a small plaque under each frame detailing their particular contributions to their field. Near the center of the hall are several dioramas depicting the progress of science throughout human history, from the invention of the wheel all the way to space travel and colonization. These dioramas are encased in a glass box perched atop a golden stand. Three chandeliers holding faux candles hang from the ceiling, adding to the majestic lighting and ambience of the trophy room. Blue flags with the Meister logo decorate the walls and ceiling, spaced evenly two pillars apart. At the far end of this room is a large door about twice as tall as the player character with the Meister logo vividly emblazoned on it, which opens into a large open elevator. Now the real fun starts as all the robot mooks you've seen so far will attack you in a desperate frenzy to knock you off the platform, and the spiked walls and ceilings won't help your cause either. If you manage to survive, you'll enter the Meister Citadel's control center, which serves as a stark contrast to the previous areas: this last section is little more than a series of rooms filled with all sorts of monitors and computers, with only the Meister logo and floor number prominently displayed in the background. After climbing one last set of stairs, you'll arrive at the door to the boss room. The boss room itself is merely a ring of countless displays and controls that surrounds the entire chamber, with a large holographic screen prominently displayed on the ceiling in the center. During the cutscene before the battle, said 80x112 screen will merely display a generic world map with random points marked in red, along with two or three sub-screens showing graphs, calculations and an image of the city or other similar stereotypical villain-y display. ========================================================================================================================================================== ---------------------------------------- STAGE BOSS: von Meister ---------------------------------------- HP: 64 (2 full bars) Sprite description: A tall young (around 25-ish) man in a black business suit and matching cape with embroidered logo. Short, straight grayish hair (#880000 should be fine) that extends to the back of the neck, pointing down like spikes. Wears glasses. Sprite size: Same as player. Boss intro: von Meister powers up his dark green beam sword and shouts "Time for your final exam!" as he drives it straight into the floor with both hands. Boss theme: Shoji Meguro - Digital Devil Saga Avatar Tuner 1&2 Original Soundtrack Integral - 2-34 Hari Hara - The Second Movement.mp3 Attack patterns: + Sine/Cosine: "Watch your step!" --- Exactly what it says on the tin. von Meister fires an energy beam in the shape of a sine or cosine wave that constantly fluctuates, forcing the player to stay under the crests to avoid taking damage. When the boss is under half health, he fires both waves simultaneously, giving you less room to move around. --- Range: 56 x Wall --- Damage: 6 + Arctangent: --- von Meister draws his sword and performs a dash attack in the shape of the graph of arctan(x) in either direction. As soon as he hits the wall, four energy balls will bounce on the floor as if they were rocks. When he's under half health, the slash itself will discharge a couple of orbs, thereby making it unsafe to stand below the high bound of the slice. Walljump to avoid. --- Range: 144 x Wall --- Damage: 8 (slash) 5 (fallout) + Pascal's Triangle: "Can you solve... THIS?" --- von Meister charges up purple energy in his hand and launches a triangle-shaped orb straight ahead that splits into smaller orbs after hitting the wall. The bullets split five times, for a total of 2^5= 32 bullets on screen. --- Range: All --- Damage: 6 (at launch) 4 (after splitting once) 3 (after splitting thrice) + Triangle Slash: "Prepare yourself!" --- von Meister draws his sword, which flashes for a second before he rushes at you until he hits the wall, then rushes the opposite wall, and finally dives back to where he started. The slash 'lines' linger for a few seconds, forming a triangle that covers about half the area of the boss room. Then, without warning, the area inside the triangle explodes, heavily damaging the player if they are caught inside the blast. Although the explosion is contained inside the triangle, beware of random bullets flying around! --- Range: All --- Damage: 8 (slash) 16 (explosion) 4 (fallout) + Multisectrix: "I'll find the root of your resistance..." (when starting) "Why can't you.. understand... the glory of my research?!" (When starting and during the attack, desperate) "The only solution... is your death!" (finishing blow) "I'll finish you!" (finishing blow, desperate) --- von Meister draws his sword, then warps right in front of you and slashes at you in a rising stab. Then he warps again, but this time he reappears behind you. This pattern cycles around for about five hits, after which he appears right above you and meteor-smashes the ground, sending plasma and debris flying out in both directions. When he's under half health, he'll chain it for seven attacks instead of five, and sometimes he'll appear above and slash diagonally down at you just to mix things up. --- Range: von Meister will appear at most 48 away from you in either direction. The slashes themselves have a range of 60x60, approximately. --- Damage: 8 (slash) 6 (debris) + Secant: "No escape...!" --- von Meister teleports above the player and casts down two "Asymptotes" (vertical lasers), 32 away on either side. Bolts of energy start arcing downwards (a la Pikachu's B in Smash), displaced by exactly one length on either side. The volley continues for about ten seconds, after which he'll either teleport again for another one or return to the ground. von Meister will only use this when under half health. At 16HP and under, the arcing energy bolts will descend twice as fast, and he may use this attack twice in a row (1/8 chance). --- Range: 32 on either side of von Meister, adding up to Floor x 80. --- Damage: 9 + Chaos Theory: "I will derive you into nothingness!" --- von Meister teleports to the center of the room and summons two energy orbs which will proceed to orbit erratically around him, leaving a trail of hundreds of small bullets that start falling like snowflakes after about five seconds. The generator orbs themselves will vanish after about 12 seconds. This is his desperation move, one which he has a 1/16 chance in using once he hits 16 HP, which doubles for every 4 HP he loses further. This attack is nearly impossible to dodge completely, short of sheer luck or mad danmaku skillz. --- Range: The orbs will not stray further than 96 away from him. --- Damage: 8 (orbs) 4 (bullets) Quotes: - Desperation (1/4 HP): "Impossible... Am I at my limit...?" - Victory: von Meister drops his sword and collapses onto the floor, grasping his chest. He says "Stein... forgive... me...!" before he expires. - Defeat: "Problem solved!" von Meister puts away his sword and laughs. "The new world has no need for extraneous variables. Begone!" ========================================================================================================================================================== von Meister has no weapon weaknesses. However, if the player uses the game's equivalent of the Flash Stopper**, a cutscene takes place where von Meister will immediately warp to the opposite end of the screen and counter with a spiraling white fireball that explodes and accidentally creates a black hole that sucks BOTH of you in! Oh noes! **again, assuming it exists/is planned in the first place. =============================================================================== Meister Citadel*: Stage EX ???? -Imaginary Number Sector- =============================================================================== Area: Unknown Imaginary Number Space Map: [C][B] Key: [ ] - Room [C] - Checkpoint [B] - Boss room Level theme: none Synopsis: During the encounter with von Meister, unforeseen circumtances resulted in both parties becoming trapped in an unknown dimension. Can they escape the realm of complex numbers before they lose their sanity- and their lives? Level summary: The whole boss area becomes a jumbled mass of TV noise and grayscaled bits and pieces of the entire Meister Citadel tileset. The background turns into a mashup of meaningless signals, occasionally 'tuning in' to a desaturated version of the original control center background for a split-second. You'll find von Meister down on all fours near the other end of the room. As soon as the player approaches him, another cutscene starts. After the dialogue, he'll have a Scary Shiny Glasses moment before sprouting two massive pairs of tribal-patterned wings and mssive claws. von Meister will rise on his feet and hover a couple of feet above the floor before the battle starts. ========================================================================================================================================================== ---------------------------------------- STAGE BOSS: Complex Meister ---------------------------------------- HP: 96 (3 full bars) Sprite description: von Meister now gains two pairs of black tribal-patterned wings (about the same width as his original body, but rwice as tall) with a mark resembling a spiral on each one. The claws are approximately the size of von Meister's lower body, and the arms holding them have the same pattern as the wings, extending from the same place. Sprite size: 120 x 72 (when facing sideways) 96 x 108 (when facing screen) Boss intro: "Drown in the endless sea of imaginary numbers!" Complex Meister laughs maniacally while doing a "mad genius" stance where both his hands and claws perform the same gesture. Boss theme: Hellsinker - 26 - The Great Majority.mp3 Attack patterns: + Catapult Smash: "Get back here!" (grab) "Still alive?" (after getting smashed in the wall) --- Complex Meister tries to grab the player with his massive claw, reaching out to about 1/3 screen. If he succeeds, he will throw you straight up into the ceiling, then while you're stuck he'll fly up to you and swat you into the opposite wall for massive damage. When he's under 1/2 health, he'll dive at you and start grabbing you from the air as well. --- Range: 96 forward --- Damage: 4 (grab) 5 (ceiling throw) 7 (wall smash) + Limit Swell: "Let's see you SQUEEZE out of this one!" --- Complex Meister will smash the ground with one of his claws, creating a "shockwave" composed of evenly spaced pillars, each one taller than the last. When he's desperate, the pillars will have less space between them. (It's supposed to resemble the graph of sin (x)/x as x-> +/-inf.) --- Range: Wall. Pillars are spaced 24 apart. Under 1/4 HP, pillars are spaced 16 apart. Each pillar is 16 taller than the last. --- Damage: 9 + Complex Render: --- Complex Meister swipes at you once with both claws, then with both of them at once releasing a shockwave that extends for about one screen. Getting hit by this will stun you for one second and knock you back a tile. The shockwave slash stuns you for two seconds. When under half health, if he hits you he'll continuously slash at you while you're stunned, so watch out! --- Range: 108 forward + 16 step after first slash, 240 last slash. --- Damage: 6 (normal slash) 8 (last slash/shockwave) + Arc Reaper: "Bite the dust, you negative roots! Ahaha!" (when diving) --- Complex Meister will try to swat you out of the air if you're jumping, and then dive at you while plowing through the ground. No stun, but the knockback is fierce. When he's under half health, he may dive several times. ---Range: Wall ---Damage: 6 (air slash) 9 (dive slash) + Killing Vector: "Stand still and be erased!" (while charging) --- Complex Meister will charge up a white spiral of energy in his claw and fire a wide laser with five smaller beams spiraling around it. He may also do this while airborne, except the laser will sweep across part of the ground instead of firing straight ahead. When under half health, their charge time is reduced, and Complex Meister will always fire two of them, either in quick succession (ground) or in two directions at once (air). ---Range: Wall (ground, any angle) Floor (air, any angle) ---Damage: 10 +Vector Field: --- Complex Meister draws his claws close together and charges up a bright ball of energy, then releases it as a burst of randomly-aimed laser pulses that start out slow but accelerate quickly as they go. When he's under 1/3 health, he releases twice the volume of lasers. ---Range: All ---Damage: 6 + Fourier Transform: "You will be integrated into our new world!" (while starting) "Your values are meaningless!" (while starting, desperate) --- Complex Meister extends his arms so you end up between his claws, which he'll space generously to give you some room to move. Then, he'll fire a sine wave connecting them that will disphase and remodulate at random, making it hard for the player to gauge the safe spots and forcing them to move almost at random. When under 1/3 health, the regular waveform will occasionally split into displaced red and blue copies, giving you even less space to move around. ---Range: 160 either side ---Damage: 7 +Fibonacci: "Witness the beauty of my calculations!" (while starting) "Your arrogance shall be your undoing!" (while starting, desperate) --- Complex Meister will fly to the center of the room and launch an increasing barrage of fireballs at the player. Each salvo curves in opposite directions, and the number of fireballs per salvo is determined by the first 10 terms of the Fibonacci sequence: {1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55}. He will only do this when under 48 HP. When he's desperate (1/4 health), Complex Meister will extend this up to the 12th term {...89, 144} and also loop through the sequence in reverse, and some of the bullets will phase out randomly. ---Range: All ---Damage: 5 Quotes: -Desperation (1/4 HP): "This Riemann sphere shall be your grave!" -Victory: Complex Meister's claws drop to the ground and shatter, and the wings do the same as the possessed von Meister screams in agony and falls to the ground. He says "I just wanted to save the world..." before collapsing, and the background returns to normal. -Defeat: "Let's face it, your chances of victory were infinitesimal. Now, disappear from my spatial coordinates!" ========================================================================================================================================================== Now, the idea with the switch-up is that von Meister was hired by the Big Bad to research a form of immortality which has the unwanted side effect of driving people insane due to becoming possessed by the imaginary number space. Ideally, this decision should be a 'cutoff point' or at the very least affect the ending, depending on which boss you defeat: -Defeating real-world von Meister should either leave the Big Bad's identity and location unexposed, and/or net you the Bad Ending after the final boss. -Defeating Complex Meister triggers a cutscene where von Meister snaps out of it, apologizes and reveals the Big Bad and his intentions. This would simply grant the player access to the second fortress, or maybe open up an alternate path/change some stages around, possibly opening the other EX-stages. Whether he lives or dies is up to the person writing the script.