#burijeoo

To make up for the lack of in-game screenshots in the last post, here's some I took today while testing out a certain script and then roaming around the streets of Lower Yagziknia afterward.

As you may have been able to guess from the signs, this door will go to the Armory (where you can buy various equipment items -- robes, armor, jewelry, and new weapons for everyone) when I start working on the indoor maps.

The area definitely has a very different feel to it than... anywhere else in the game so far. Partly because the scenery is just so weird compared to the "standard American high school" hallways and grassy fields outside (and even the caves and sewers underneath), and partly because it's one of the only places in the game that is completely safe. It's the only "RPG town" type area in the whole game. There are no randomly encountered enemies anywhere in Yagziknia; the only other areas where that's the case are the classrooms and a few other special rooms like the nurse's office.

I guess technically this qualifies as a magical girl transformation sequence... even though the "transformed" state is the weak and ordinary one, rather than the other way around. 😅

Burijeoo transformation magic is an actual transformation, not just an illusion. Their bodies actually, physically change to more closely resemble the species they're taking the form of. While they can still use their magic (to an extent) while in human form... they're also slower and weaker than they would be in their true forms, and they can't stretch or squish their bodies or melt into a puddle of goo to squeeze into small spaces like they can in their true forms.

This is also how half-Burijeoo are even possible. If the spell didn't physically change a Burijeoo's body to that of a human, it wouldn't be possible for a human to get them pregnant.

(There is a half-Burijeoo character in the game, by the way, so that mention of them wasn't totally out of nowhere.)

And there is, in fact, at least one Burijeoo in human form attending Alleghany High School during the time the game takes place. So... she's probably right!

Vuenorri yu Yagziknia!

Finally starting on walkabout sprites for Burijeoo NPCs!

The Burijeoo are a species of aliens who will make their first appearance in the hidden underground city of Yagziknia.

Burijeoo go through a series of metamorphoses throughout their lives, numbered “Stage 1″ through “Stage 6.”  The ones shown here are in Stage 2 (the shorter, naked ones with their lower bodies liquified because it's easier for them not to have solid legs if they aren't needed at the moment) and Stage 3 (the taller, clothed ones who are walking with actual fully-formed legs.)

While visiting Mom's place, I ended up digging through my old notebooks from the high school years -- specifically, the 9th and 10th grade ones.  After finding a few creature designs I'd forgotten, I decided to pick out a few here and there and re-draw them.

This one was a design for a cyborg version of Bridget, the queen of the Burijeoo.  It’s based on a sorta-similar one appearing in an old comic I drew, probably around 2000-2001 if I had to guess. She had previously been decapitated in a battle against Supernum, but her followers found the head and kept it alive in a healing tank for several years. Only the head is a surviving part of her "real" body -- the rest is a new mechanical body built for her.