Kaizen (改善) → Japanese for "betterment" and pertains to the philosophy of continuous improvement.
Samurai vs Zombies Defense 2: Kaizen is a mod of the original SvZ2, redesigning it to be more balanced, challenging, and fun!
As I only began work on this mod fairly recently, there's still quite a bit I need to implement system-wise before I can start releasing playable builds, for testing or otherwise. However, expect an alpha release in the near future!
Below is a list of changes that have already been implemented, at least partially:
- The title screen has been improved, with bigger Heroes and a custom logo for the mod.
- A very limited costume select has been added, currently allowing switching between normal and gold outfits for Heroes.
- Glu Coins have been abolished, with prices replaced with normal coins.
- Most upgrades have been removed, save for stuff like Leadership and the Sacred Gate.
- Resources dropped from enemies in general will now be auto-collected, as if you always have a Wealth Charm active.
- You will also gain them immediately upon collection, instead of after their disappearing animation finishes.
- Rebalancing is being done to everything so as to make the game more strategic and challenging.
- Characters have been renamed, either for accuracy or to lean heavier into the theme of feudal Japan.
- An example is Farmers being renamed as "Ashigaru", who were typically peasant infantry.
- There is a new armour mechanic that gives certain units damage reduction which can be countered by armour-piercing attacks.
- Waves and progression are being redone from scratch.
- There are 100 Waves planned for the story mode, ending with Shuten Dōji.
- Although not yet implemented, the endless Waves will be moved to a separate mode as a continuation of the main story.
- Waves can now (optionally) have unique titles which display at the beginning of a Wave alongside the Wave number.
- The Wave command system has been redesigned, now more akin to Plants vs. Zombies and its 50% rule.
- Enemies will now either spawn earlier than they otherwise would if enough of the current on-field enemies' health is depleted. This is 50% by default, although can be customised in the Wave data.
- To make writing Wave command data much simpler, the same enemy can be spawned in clusters rather than having to list them all out individually, and other parameters have been added to further customise this pattern.
- The enemy portal/gate now starts much closer to the player's gate, and relocates multiple times throughout a Wave, going further back each time.
- This was in part to combat the boredom of the Waves' early sections since you'd have to run across the entire map and wait for your Allies to catch up.
- Abilities now cost Souls to use, which are guaranteed to drop from enemies.
- This is unrelated to Multiplayer Souls.
- Certain Abilities have been made into "Special Abilities" which are free and tied to the Hero.
- e.g., Katana Slash for the Samurai
- The progress UI no longer displays a percentage, but rather the exact number of enemies remaining.
- The command/cheat menu has been re-enabled, but can only be accessed in debug builds.
There are also many changes that are planned to be added, but have not yet been so:
- Premium Heroes will no longer locked behind a paywall, and will instead be integrated into the game's progression like the other Heroes.
- A Zombies Rising mode (or similar) like in the first SvZ will be added alongside new Zombie Heroes and enemy helpers.
- Challenges will be added to each Wave, allowing Waves to be replayed at higher difficulties and with more rewards.
- A trophy/achievement system will be added, integrated with the game itself as opposed to depending on some external cloud service.
- Many Allies will be reworked, breathing into them new life and generally making them more useful.
- Heroes may be reworked in some ways. In particular, the Onmyoji (formerly Sorceress) will focus more on healing Allies than just spamming abilities.
Stages and music from the first SvZ will be ported and used.- There is currently an issue with porting stages, but hopefully this can be fixed in future.
- Pachinko may be added, although less as a means of progression and rather for some other fun purpose if I can figure one out.
You can help this project reach its full potential by sending feedback via the SvZ Discord server! It is here that you will also be able to keep up with news regarding the mod, as well as see the progress on it behind the scenes, completely for free (and that's a great price)!