Version 1.9 - In Depth Look

Hello! I'm a bit late on this one ahaha. Ended up sleeping for an absurd amount of time yesterday, but I'm feeling way better so I'll take it! 

Now as promised here's a breakdown into what's new and different with the updated demo. First of all, let's clearly state what it is. It is a fusion of the preexisting demo with the newer playable teaser.

When launching a new game, you'll immediately be met with a brand new screen.  Yes. We have difficulty modes now. Story Mode is the games version of an easy mode. Enjoy a very casual experience with lesser time penalties, easier combat, and starting the game with gold, memory fragments and things like that. Challenge Mode is then the standard difficulty that you are used to. It should be noted that these are still in the early stages of their existence and will likely change over time.  Currently as well, there is no way to change the difficulty after making your choice.  As part of getting sick that last day and my tons of crashes resulted in me NOT adding that feature in.  But the next update will fix that by giving difficulty selection as a new option in the mirror world

Next up! Tutorials. If you've played the PT, you saw tutorials. They were very quickly thrown together things. Now they have been replaced with proper tutorials in a more accessible format. Tutorials will be stored within the menu, offering lots of QOL improvements.

Tutorials can be enabled or disabled from the options menu at any time. Even when disabled the information will still be stored for you to view later if needed. So it's super handy! I would recommend leaving them on for your first run here as there are plenty of new mechanics and even some controls that are worth knowing.

Chapter 1 has been added back into the game as part of the merger of the old demo and the PT. Not much has really changed here beyond some grammar/typo fixes and updating the available endings to the finalized style. Unfortunately, there were issues with displaying unlocked endings on the title screen as intended, but again due to my health I was unable to sort that out in time. I plan to also fix this in the next update.

As an example, here's ending V which is actually brand new to this build. How do you get it? Secret!  There should be 9 endings available in this demo, if my memory is working properly at least. Of course, none of the ones found in these early chapters are too substantial, but at least one of them comes with a bit of extra art.

Completing Chapter 1 will load you into a brand new map. Unlike Chapter 1, Chapter 2 has received some small additions, including a brand new mechanic, 2 additional maps, and a bit more.

The gate to the park is locked, so you'll have to figure out the new push/pull puzzle mechanic to progress. Chapter 2 will properly give you the basic tutorial from now on. You'll learn basic controls for movement and puzzle solving during this section.  Of course since the demo concludes after chapter 4 there aren't many examples of puzzles, but it's a bit of a taste.  Chapter 2 teaches you basic controls.  Chapter 3 introduces you to basic combat.  And Chapter 4 opens with the basics of exploration. So you can imagine, with Chapter 5 and onwards, that these systems start to be combined in more interesting ways.

 Jumping will also be taught during Chapter 2 . It's not terribly different from the previous version, so don't expect too much there. However, the safe version includes variant artworks now to tell this story in a more suitable way for that content level. 

Speaking of images, we've got some new features in the main menu! To start you might notice that SP is no longer displayed. SP no longer exists as a currency. Memory Fragments will now be your main resource for purchasing skills. Besides that, you can find multiple new features stored in the menu including; The Bestiary (Keep track of enemy weaknesses! This one still needs A LOT of fleshing out, and most enemies will have empty lore text, but you can get the idea of what it'll be at least.), Tutorials (review any and all unlocked tutorials. Never forget a mechanic or input again!), and of course the much asked about CG Gallery. You can view unlocked artworks whenever you can pause now.

Entering Chapter 3 has some more big changes. The old UI has been completely replaced and updated. On the bottom left you can now see your HP, MP and ST at all times. You can no longer forget you were at low health or needed to use an item before the next battle. On the bottom right you will see 3 gauges.

1. The bloody heart is your new and updated Bloodlust gauge. This one will update in real time and help you manage that mechanic much easier.
2. The lust meter has also been updated. It's the normal heart bellow Bloodlust. This should make it clearer how to increase and decrease your lust, as well as prevent you from accidentally entering combat while too horny to focus.
3. Back for the first time since the OG Version 0 builds. We have a proper Armor gauge. It's a miracle. Not only does this update in real time, but there are distinct gauges for each wearable armor. This one was a major QOL improvement.

Worried about the new UI cluttering up the screen during CG's? Fret not, for it is disabled during most cutscenes involving visuals.  I will note, sometimes there seems to be some, strangeness with some gauges not properly reappearing. I'm currently looking into this. But it seems to fix itself from other events or entering combat so it shouldn't be a serious problem.

Unlocking Souls will now display the associated Tarot Card.  The Magician from the PT has been removed though you can instead unlock the Sun after meeting Skoll for the first time.  This is your REAL second Soul and includes a variety of Light and Fire themed skills. It's very worth having to help with the early forest monsters who tend to have lots of Fire weaknesses.   On the topic of Souls, you can now equip two at once. Your Primary Soul dictates your affinities and skill types, and your secondary Soul will give you minor buffs. It will also gain EXP allowing you to level up both Souls and gain the skill lists for both at the same time.

Battle UI has also been completely overhauled. No more massive empty spaces! We've got a new gauge which has never existed before, the EX gauge. This way you can actually KNOW when your super moves are going to be ready for use. There are a number of new features here as well.

I want to transparently state that I am aware the talk command is not displaying correctly.  Again, due to my falling sick on the last day I just had to throw in the towel and leave that cut after updating it to function more like it did in Alice In!.  This will be fixed in the next update.

Selecting your skills will now display A TON more information to help you understand how things work. Other new features in combat are the Status option, which gives you a better look at information about you and your enemies and can help remind you what enemy is weak to what elements.

There are some new mouse control benefits as well. Hovering your mouse over certain elements should give you a tooltip window with some extra information. For example, hovering over any of the new gauges should display a window that tells you a bit about what these gauges mean or how they work.  You can also do this in combat when characters are afflicted with statuses to see a short description over what those statuses mean.

For a quick rundown of other additions that I don't have pictures of for some reason.

• Golden Apples have been added to the merchant camp. Once per hour (don't actually try this too much, I didn't fully program it.) you can harvest one apple by dashing into the tree.  Golden Apples are powerful and rare items.
• Some water tiles can now be walked into, dealing damage to Red.
• Both Eros and Vestal skill trees have had complete UI overhauls to make them more in line with the rest of the game and less wonky to control.  The available skills have also been updated.
• All mini games have been updated. Most notably for this build are Fishing and Mining.
• Mechanics, including the hidden "Phase Shift" mechanic are no longer unlocked by default. Dashing will require Red to use any of the major arcana souls, and Phase Shift will be tied to a later game Soul.
• Some items have been updated to be in line with the finished game.  This includes the removal of the Doll Finger item which will be located elsewhere going forward.

And I think that's all I can think of off the top of my head.  I do want to say though, unlike previous demos I intend to update this one to take care of bugs and fix some of the unfinished or "broken" aspects that exist currently. This is intended to be the FINAL demo, and I hope that the save data will be compatible across it and the full game.  So please do report any issues you find. Since I was pretty ill on the last day I imagine I missed a few things here and there besides what I mentioned in this post.

We are officially so so SO close to the full version 2.0 release. Things are happening pretty rapidly now as I finalize system after system.  Even while sick I've still been hard at work on CG's and end game content.

I appreciate everyone's patience as I work on finishing up this game and hope you look forward to the finished game.

Next up on my list of things to do is to create the games PROPER trailer. I haven't had one of those since the earlier days before the 1.0 design changes so....we kinda REALLY need one.

It's a bit strange sitting on things like the Final Boss arts, and the end credits songs right now. But it just goes to show how close we really are. Please look forward to what comes next!