NEXUS X BATTLE: Ninja Legacies

Hey Shinobi! It's that time of the month again. Here's what we've been working on throughout September: - Continued bug fixes, optimizations, and general improvements across the project. - Created a new prototype island region tied closely to the game's wider story and mythology. - Experimented with new terrain layouts, environment structure, and exploration routes for the island. - Created 7 new characters connected to the island, its history, and the events surrounding it. - Developed and refined the lore, relationships, and story roles for those characters. - Completely redesigned the main capital from the ground up with a much larger and more ambitious layout. - Blocked out new terrain, buildings, structures, districts, and navigation routes for the redesigned capital. - Reworked the capital's identity, history, and story connections to better fit its role in the main narrative. Before we wrap up, we also have one important change to share. Since September 2024, we've published one of these reports every month. After two years, we're retiring the monthly progress report format and moving to quarterly progress recaps. A lot of what we're working on now takes longer than a single month to properly come together. Rather than splitting that work into smaller updates filled with "continued work on...", we'd rather give things more time and show you a more complete picture of what changed. The format itself isn't going away. The recaps will work much like these reports, but they'll cover three months of development at a time. It feels a little strange ending the monthly reports after doing them for so long, but with development currently moving at a slower pace, as we discussed last month, we think quarterly recaps make more sense for where the project is right now. Thank you for your continued support, see you next quarter. 💙

Hey Shinobi! It's that time of the month again. Here's what we've been working on throughout August: - Upgraded the game's engine and completed the necessary compatibility fixes, while adding new development tools and improving our internal pipeline. - Continued improvements and fixes for Character Creator 2.0. - Continued work on new ability animations and Movement System 2.00 animations. - Continued development of the Duel PVP Arena. - Continued animation work for cinematic and QTE sequences. - Completed the first pass of Gashadokuro's 3D model for his initial encounter. - Created the first design draft for a new original character closely connected to Satoru. - Developed a standardized character rig to support future character and animation work. - Continued development and polish of Time Skip Satoru's 3D model. This month's report is a little different. Since September 2024, we've shared our progress every month. We've talked a lot about the game during that time, but not very much about the people actually making it, and I think some context is overdue. NEXUS X BATTLE: Ninja Legacies isn't being made by a large studio or a team of full-time developers. We're a small independent team, and as of writing this, the active team is 1 developer, 1 3D artist, 1 animator, 1 designer, and 1 soundtrack composer / designer. None of us are doing this because it's a safe or sensible project to make. We're doing it because we're gamers and this is the kind of game we've wanted to exist for a long time. I grew up playing games where it felt like the developers sometimes added things for no deeper reason than "this would be fucking cool." There was a certain kind of excess to them. fun mechanics, unnecessary details, things that probably made production harder but gave the game character. That's something I've missed, and it's a big part of why we exist. I've wanted a game like this since the 2010s, so eventually the answer became: fine, we'll try to make it ourselves. In retrospect, choosing a project this ambitious with a team this small was probably insane, but to pull off these things you need to have a certain level of insanity This also isn't anybody's full-time salaried job right now. We work on it around our normal lives and put in whatever time we can. There have been months where individual team members have each put in more than 300 hours of development work. A lot of that time isn't particularly glamorous either. It's fixing things, rebuilding systems, learning tools we didn't know before, solving technical problems, throwing work away when it isn't good enough, and figuring out how to do things we've never done before. That's been the reality of the project from the beginning, but lately real life has made it harder. We've had to deal with power outages, hardware problems, and more recently, serious safety concerns because of the ongoing regional conflict. Some of the footage in the accompanying video was recorded by a member of our own team while dealing with those circumstances. I'm not mentioning this because I want anyone to feel sorry for us. I just think that after almost two years of monthly reports, and after asking people to be patient with development for that long, you deserve to know a little more about what's happening on the other side of these posts. At the moment, things aren't particularly stable. Because of that, we're going to temporarily reduce our development pace while circumstances remain this way. I don't want anyone on this team putting themselves at risk for a video game. NXB:NL matters enormously to us, but the people making it matter more. I also know what some people are going to think when they read "development is slowing down," so I want to be completely clear about this. The game is NOT cancelled. Development is NOT stopping, and we're NOT abandoning it. We're going to keep working on it at whatever pace is realistic and safe for us right now. When circumstances improve, we'll be able to push harder again. I know people have been waiting a long time to actually play this thing. Believe me, nobody is more aware of that than we are. We want to get it into your hands too. But we're not going to give up on it. There's too much of our lives in this project at this point, and I've wanted to make this game for far too long to walk away from it now. So I'll end this month's report with something a certain blonde knucklehead ninja etched into my mind when I was growing up: I'll never give up on my dreams, or on the dreams of the people who have put their faith in us. That's my ninja way... and apparently my game developer way too. Thank you for sticking with us. Have faith in us a little longer. 💙

Hey Shinobi, As always, here is the monthly progress report for July: - Continued development of Character Creator 2.0, including additional character morphs and model integration. - Continued implementation work for the new character customization pipeline. - Fixed various issues and continued refining the Character Creator 2.0 interface. - Continued development of Movement System 2.00, including additional movement animations and mechanics. - Completed the character sheet for Time Skip Satoru. - Completed the first pass of Time Skip Satoru's 3D model. - Continued improving the landscape materials and began concept work for the game's starting location. - Completed the main animatic for the tutorial boss cinematics and QTE sequences. - Continued writing scripts and dialogue for key characters. - Expanded and refined Satoru's main theme soundtrack. - Continued development of Gashadokuro, including attack animations, encounter VFX, and supporting enemy variants. - Continued work on the game's dueling arena, including concept development and initial blockout. As always, we're excited to share more with you in the coming months. For this month's media, we're excited to share an early look at Time Skip Satoru. This represents the first pass of his updated design as development continues. As always, all visuals shown are work in progress and remain subject to change throughout development. Thank you for your continued support 💙

Hey Shinobi, We are back, here is the monthly progress report for June: - Continued development of Character Creator 2.0, including additional UI improvements and category navigation updates. - Expanded the game's frontend experience with further work on the title screen, login flow, and menu systems. - Continued development of Discord account linking and reward integration features. - Performed additional backend infrastructure improvements to support future online functionality. - Continued work on the Type 2 character base model for Character Creator 2.0. - Began planning and structuring an in-game bug reporting system. - Continued preparations for Tutorial 2.00 and its overall player onboarding experience. - Expanded NPC variant planning to support a wider range of character appearances throughout the world. - Continued storyboard and encounter development for Gashadokuro. - Further refined the visual design of Gashadokuro. - Drafted a new boss encounter currently codenamed "Shirobozu." - Continued development of Movement System 2.00 animations. - Expanded worldbuilding and lore across several major characters and hierarchical systems. - Conducted early research and development aimed at improving the visual fidelity of character models. We're excited to share more with you in the coming months. For this month's media, we'd like you to get to know a little more about Satoru, one of the main protagonists of NEXUS X BATTLE: Ninja Legacies. We're also excited to officially announce that @adamasenko will be providing the English voice for Satoru. As development progresses, we'll continue sharing more of Satoru's journey, his role within the story, and the characters that shape the world of Ninja Legacies. As always, all visuals shown are work in progress and remain subject to change throughout development. Thank you for your continued support 💙

Hey Shinobi, As always, here is the monthly progress report for May: - Continued improvements to core gameplay systems and overall project stability. - Migrated saving and loading systems to a new database backend. - Began development of Character Creator 2.0 and its new user flow. - Implemented the first in-engine prototype of the Character Creator 2.0 UI. - Added new fonts, buttons, visual effects, and interface elements to support the new character creation experience. - Implemented the initial character creation layout and navigation system. - Continued planning and development of Character Creator 2.0 customization options. - Updated the base model to support the new Character Creator 2.0 features. - Added planned customization options and morph targets for the Type 1 base model preset. - Planned and prepared the Type 2 base model preset for the next development sprint. As always, we're excited to share more with you in the coming months. For this month's media, we're sharing a very early prototype look at Character Creator 2.0. The short clip below showcases one of the body build options currently being tested, allowing players to adjust their physique between different body types. As with all prototype footage, much of what you see here is still subject to change. Several assets, UI elements, and visuals are temporary and will continue to evolve throughout development. Thank you for your continued support!

Hey Shinobi, As always, here is the monthly progress report for April: - Continued internal improvements and system refinements across the project. - Made significant progress on the skill tree, with major updates and structural changes. - Began preparations for upcoming updates to core gameplay systems, including animation and movement reworks. - Continued work on the new animation system, reaching a first pass implementation. - Added new ability animations and continued expanding animation coverage across gameplay. - Added new common animations as part of the ongoing animation system work. - Introduced an initial set of customization options, including multiple M outfit sets (MVP). - Continued development of the tutorial experience, including boss design, arena, and lore. - Drafted the tutorial boss encounter sequence. - Completed Satoru’s main theme soundtrack. As always, we’re excited to share more with you in the coming months. Thank you for your continued support!

Hey Shinobi, As always, here is the monthly progress report for March 2026: - Continued major work on a new animation system, including full root motion integration. - Reworked how animations behave in gameplay to better support movement, combat, and overall responsiveness. - Built new animation data systems and workflows to support the ongoing movement system rework. - Improved how movement direction and player input influence animations, making actions feel more grounded and reactive. - Continued migrating core animation functionality into more stable systems for long-term scalability. - Fixed various issues related to animations, chat systems, and overall stability. - Continued work on ability animations and overall animation polish. - Continued improvements to customization items. - Updated character drafts and refined their lore. - Reached a major milestone on Satoru’s main theme soundtrack, with composition and lyrics completed, now entering final vocalization. As always, we’re excited to share more with you in the coming months. As a small behind-the-scenes look, here’s a glimpse of our lead animator reviewing one of the attack animations that have been in development for this month. Thank you for your continued support!

Hey Shinobi, As always, here is the monthly progress report for February: - Added new internal tooling to streamline development of core gameplay systems. - Continued progress on backend systems. - Expanded chat functionality, including automatic channel joining and reconnection support. - Implemented show chat functionality and continued improvements to the chat UI. - Added an early prototype of the Skill Tree UI. - Added support for key binding directly from AngelScript. - Implemented a new camera pipeline, with further improvements planned. - Began a major rework of core movement systems, including dive, quick dash, ninja move, sprint, slide, stairs, wall running, and collision. - Rebalanced ninja enemy health. - Completed initial drafts for several new male outfit sets: Wudang, Kusari Ronin, and Yuzuri. - Completed the initial draft for Vigil, an important character in the story. As always, we’re excited to share more with you in the coming months. Enjoy these two renders of one of our main characters, Saturo. His journey begins in the prologue. There’s still polish ahead, but we’re excited to finally share him with you in full 3D glory. Thank you for your continued support 💙

Hey Shinobi, happy 2026! This is basically tradition at this point! 😁 Kicking off the new year with our first progress report as usual: - Fixed AngelScript compilation issues and improved overall stability. - Finished full input remapping for both keyboard and controller, including reset options. - Finalized the new options menu and expanded settings across graphics, audio, gameplay, HUD, and camera options. - Added quick chat support and a new HUD option to always show chat. - Fixed UI issues that could cause certain menus/widgets to stop updating after reopening. - Continued backend updates and alignment for upcoming online features. - Added early foundations for social features (chat, friends, party, and guild/clan systems), still in progress. - Improved aerial guard, added new fall transitions, and continued movement/ability animation updates. - Upgraded Kawaii Physics further and improved batch-processing for faster physics updates. - Continued experimental shader work. - Completed Part I of the Satoru model. - Continued animation work, including ability reworks and additional movement animations. As always, we’re excited to share more with you in the coming months. Oh, and before you go, we want to show you our current prologue key visual 😊 Thank you for your continued support as always 💙

Hey Shinobi, This is the last 2025 monthly report; it only feels like it was yesterday, right? 😌 Hope you had a fantastic year. Without further ado, here’s the final monthly progress report for 2025: - Fixed packaged build issues, including AngelScript integration. - Fixed a dev server crash and improved overall stability. - Updated the project to Unreal Engine 5.7.1 and resolved upgrade-related issues. - Improved character collision and movement consistency across different character types. - Updated the character movement/animation foundation and expanded wall running support. - Refined wall running behavior and animations for smoother traversal. - Continued groundwork for more dynamic character collision sizing, with related animation and physics adjustments. - Built out a new options menu with proper categories, saving/loading, and expanded support for graphics, audio, and gameplay settings. - Began keyboard and controller remapping options, including reset functionality. - Fixed editor issues and tool-related crashes to improve development stability. - Updated abilities and Ninjutsu animations. - Added 3 new hairstyles. - Added 3 new modular outfit models. - Completed a heavily customizable female base model. - Continued work on an experimental new combat mechanic, including a new animation and early VFX. - Continued backend-related work and updates to the game's pre-launch website. On a closing note, have you ever watched a movie that stuck with you and hit you with every emotion at once? 🤔 We recently did. 😔 Our indie team wanted to pay tribute by ending this month's note with a familiar dance as a small salute. Thank you, Fujimoto-sensei, and everyone involved in that recent masterpiece. 🌼 As usual, we look forward to sharing more with you in 2026, and we wish you a happy New Year! 🎆 Thank you for your continued support.🙏

Hey Shinobi, As always, here is the monthly progress report for November: - Fixed issues in the packaged build. - Upgraded the engine version. - Added a new scripting system integration and a supporting UI system. - Began integration of the new backend, completing the initial login flow. - Added rudimentary Login, Character Selection, and Character Creation UIs. - Successfully tested login and map transition functionality in packaged builds. - Added a new overworld map. - Completed a major overhaul of the main town area. - Added new visual effects to specific attack animations. - Added new motion for cinematic confrontations. - Updated animations for all acrobatic movement options. - Improved damage motion and animation feedback. - Updated experimental voice lines for testing. As per usual, we are excited to share more with you in the coming months. Thank you for your continued support.

Hey Shinobi, As always, here is monthly progress report for October: - Fixed several rollback system issues, including read attempt past end errors. - Rollback functions now use relative position for improved stability and cleanup. - Server and client rollback functions now properly acknowledge and delete stale data. - Experimental Dynamic Cinematic Combat Camera System introduced. - Implemented Dynamic Combat Slowdown (experimental) for more cinematic hit moments. - Fixed camera jitter when collision was enabled. - Fixed sound effect persistence issue on side dodge loop. - Continued Sword Master Style combat rework (Part 1, still in progress). - Added visual enhancements and effects for Sword Down Combo and Sword Aerial Combo. - Implemented new Spark Event system for advanced hit spark handling across sword combos (neutral, side, up, down, aerial). - Enemies now grant EXP on defeat. - Completed stats system integration with character status displayed in the UI. As per usual, we are excited to share more with you in the coming months. Thank you for your continued support.

Hey Shinobi, As always, here is monthly progress report for September: - Expanded the quest system with UI updates, popups for objectives and rewards, and proper saving/loading. - Improved combat visuals with updated effects on heavy attacks, down attacks, etc. - Adjusted enemy mob visual appearance and effects. - Added first pass visual updates to specific move actions. - Fixed display issues in the quest UI. - Fixed issues with saving and loading quests. - Added a mission reward system. - Introduced a new resource framework including levels, experience, and currency. - Implemented a leveling system and linked it to quest rewards. - Completed planning and began work on the new inventory system. - Developed core parts of the inventory system, including the inventory manager and UI for stats and equipment. - Improved backend systems to streamline inventory and rollback functions. - Continued research and concept planning for impactful combat and visual effects to be introduced in future updates. - Expanded the stats system with new effects, client/server validation, and a WIP character status section in the equipment menu. As per usual, we are excited to share more with you in the coming months. Thank you for your continued support.

Hey Shinobi, As always, here is monthly progress report for August: - Implemented quest and objective systems, including completion and confirmation on both server and client. - Added networking, structs, and data tables to support quests and objectives. - Linked the quest system to the new UI. - Expanded the pause menu with mission, equipment, and skills options. - Added new visual effects and enhancements across various attacks. - Overhauled combat flow with player-facing improvements in mind. - Adjusted combat mechanics and attack movement for more consistent combos. - Enhanced guard and dodge cancels for smoother skill interruptions. - Fixed multiple combat and tracking issues. - Various bug fixes and optimizations. As per usual, we are excited to share more with you in the coming months. Thank you for your continued support.

Hello, Another month has passed, and progress continues. Here’s what we’ve been working on: - Updated engine version - Adjusted boss battle arena for first pass. - Added experimental special boss attack. - Added danger indicator to specific attacks. - Updated decal logic. - Fixed decal collision. - Adjusted water material. - Adjusted water particles. - Started implementation of a new data-driven UI system. - Finished UI background effects. - UI bug fixes. - Various bug fixes. Here is a small snippet of an experimental boss fight that is currently in early development, more to come soon!

Hey Shinobi, Here’s a look at what we’ve worked on this June: - Prepared engine features for upcoming testing and version updates. - Reworked the AI system for a more streamlined and scalable approach. - Added a new actor for mob AI to support real-time (rather than frame-time) decision-making. - Implemented new states and animations for mobs. - Adjusted movement and behavior of grounded Chakra Dashes. - Added light attack, heavy attack, and skill tasks to AI behavior trees. - Enabled per-mob speed settings within AI logic. - Extended the base navmesh query extent to support jumping player movement. - Created foundational aggro logic. - Added max awareness and aggro cap for the aggro service. - Integrated AI perception systems. - Fixed enemy combat transition animations. - Implemented an Aggro Token System to better manage enemy focus. - Completed initial development on Tutorial Part 2. To close out the month, here's a glimpse at something mysterious waiting... As the portal opens, so too does the sky. The Qilin brings the storm.

Hey there, Let's get started with the monthly progress report: - Adjusted camera behavior and logic - Added a new "Secret Ninja Art" technique - Tweaked post-processing settings - Added new wearable customization items - Fixed and adjusted shadow rendering - Buffed throws across several fighting styles - Updated behavior for unblockable attacks - Adjusted elemental damage scaling - Improved and buffed certain attack behaviors for the "Sword Master Style" - Optimizations and adjustments to the game engine Lastly, we're excited to share with you a small teaser of the first part of our brand new "Secret Ninja Art" technique. There's a lot more exciting stuff we would like to reveal in the future, stay tuned and thank you for your support!

Yo! Here we go again with the monthly highlight report: - Added experimental MP-synced & rollback-enabled root motion added (for cutscenes & acrobatics). - Bug fixes for the new root motion system. - General bug fixes pertaining to rollback errors. - Added a new experimental primary data asset type for animations. - Added root motion data to blend space animation asset type. - Connected new blend space animation asset type to the root motion rollback system. - Network optimizations. - Added a very early, work-in-progress dueling arena map (1st pass).

Hey Shinobi! It's the end of the month so here we go with another progress highlight report: - Adjustments to mob AI behaviors. - Created system for Mob entrance and exit status, effects and animations. - Started Combat Tutorial Sequence. - Added Mob behavior Editor intended for specific enemy archetypes. - Various bug fixes with Mob AI and other engine related issues. - More network optimizations. - Updated rollback netcode with experimental features. - Adjustments to the functionality of the 2 new combat mechanics. - Added VFX to the 2 new combat mechanics. This concludes this month's progress report. Thank you once again for your support! Eid Mubarak to those celebrating! 🌙🎉