Echo Spire

A Godot 4.7 vertical slice of a Chrono Trigger-style seamless world with round-based positional combat and Paper Mario: TTYD action commands (Stylish follow-ups, Guard / Super Guard).

You walk Hollowbrook and the roads that leave it in real time. Bump a wanderer and the fight happens on that ground — the camera dollies in, no battle scene, no fade to an arena. After the echo fades, you keep walking.

Combat uses a round command queue. During Party Planning, enter a command and position the shadow for every living party member; enemies are paused until the whole party is locked in. The party then resolves its commands in order, including the Grandia-style cast delay, TTYD action command, Stylish follow-ups, positioning, and air juggles. After the party resolves, the enemy turn begins and incoming hits open Guard / Super Guard windows. The IP gauge still communicates COM → CAST → ACT timing during resolution, while the round boundary keeps command entry deliberate.

Play

./start.sh

Or ./start.sh editor for the Godot editor, ./start.sh test for headless tests.

Input	Explore	Battle
WASD / arrows	Walk the party	Walk the shadow (after a command)
Shift	Run
J / Enter	Talk / pick up	Queue command · confirm · action command · stylish · guard
K / Esc	Close talk	Cancel
↑ ↓	Dialogue choices	Command menu
I	Open party dossier
Q E		Rotate facing
J / Space		Action command

Don't stack the party — enemy slams are circles. Plan the full party before the enemy turn. Guard incoming blows: mid-time J is Guard, late J is Super Guard.

The I party dossier has Status, Equipment, and Items tabs. Use ↑/↓ to select a party member and ←/→ to change tabs; J expands the selected profile's skill list, and K/I closes the menu. Equipment bonuses feed the same battle stats shown in combat. Hollowbrook now has three garden plots: use J to till, plant a turnip seed, water, and harvest; crops grow while you explore. The three marked hub spots can be customized with lanterns, benches, or flower beds. At the Reedfen dock, cast a line and press J when the bite appears. Inventory state persists while you continue exploring the same world.

The north road now climbs into Echo Spire through a series of walkable stairs and a mountain plateau. West of town, a stepped Whisperwood path reaches Venn's raised cliff ledge. Terrain edges are traversable only through these connected steps, so dropping straight off a cliff is blocked.

Town and roads

Hollowbrook has four gates.

Road	Region	Who
North	Echo Meadow → Echo Spire	Elder Thorne's Hollow. Garrick's wisps. Tavi's charm by the yellow rocks.
West	Orchard Road → Whisperwood	Venn and the cold cairn
East	Mill Docks → Reedfen	Nera at the mill, lantern in the reeds
South	Millbridge	Pell on the farm

Lessa (inn) and Brin (shop) stay in town. The camera pulls in when a fight starts and eases back out when you walk on.

Commands by move

Move	Action command	Stylish
Attack (everyone)	Timed star-in-gold	1
Kael Slash	Timed star-in-gold	2
Kael Sweep	Mash J	2
Ryn Pierce	Hold J, release in gold	3
Ryn Volley	J → K → Space	2
Mira Burst	Mash J	3
Mira Bolt	Timed (ping-pong)	2
Potion	Instant	—
Flee	Instant (chance)	—

Assets

Town, trees, NPCs, and orcs are Kenney CC0 kits in assets/kenney/ (Fantasy Town, Mini Characters, Mini Dungeon). Party combat still falls back to the Blender cast / procedural meshes if those files are missing.

Cel-ready GLBs are generated by Blender 5.2 (headless). The fight still runs on procedural fallback meshes if the GLBs are missing.

# blender is symlinked from /Applications/Blender.app
./tools/blender/export.sh
godot --path . --import

Install the Blender MCP addon (optional, for live iteration):

blender --background --python tools/blender/install_mcp_addon.py
# Then in a GUI Blender: sidebar N → BlenderMCP → Connect

Tests

make test

Tooling

• Godot 4.7 + addons/godot_ai (enable the plugin; Grok uses godot-ai attach)
• Blender CLI on PATH
• Project MCP: .grok/config.toml → blender-mcp