Early Access Wave 1 - How to get/Info

Early Access Wave 1 is officially live on my patreon. I'm trying something new where you can make a one time purchase without having to adhere to the subscription model, though it should also be available to all paying patrons.  I've never messed around with purchasable posts before so forgive me if there's any quirks to this.  Regardless Wave 1 is set at a $3 price point, since it's available to all paid tiers I didn't think the standalone price should be higher than my lowest tier.  Consider it an early xmas present I guess.

Anyhow, with that out of the way let's discuss what Early Access Wave 1 entails.  How is it different from the free demo?

The free demo here on itch ends at Chapter 4 of the main story.  On the surface level, the Early Access simply adds Chapter 5 to the playable content.  Though it's not exactly that simple.  So I will break things down chapter by chapter, and end this post with a disclaimer about carrying over your existing save data, and how to make sure that works with the early access.

What's changed in Chapter 1? Nothing!

What's changed in Chapter 2? Also nothing!

What's changed in Chapter 3? Now here is where changes start to show up. The first thing you'll notice is some brand-new items laying on the floor. Herbs.

Herbs are going to be very important going forward. If you've played a Resident Evil game then you already will have the basic idea of what these do. But Herbs come in 4 varieties. Green, Red, Blue and Yellow. Some Herbs can be eaten raw, as is, to get medicinal benefits. Some do literally nothing. However Red will now have the option to craft items directly from the games menu screen.

Here you can mix different Herb combinations to create more useful items as well as things completely unrelated to the herbs.

Progressing to the Rest Spot will give you a new alteration. When Red first approaches the Goddess Statue, she will be gifted a Nectar Flask . This is a brand new item, and again, if you're familiar with souls games, this is your healing item. Any time you interact with a Goddess Statue, this bottle will be magically refilled. You can drink it in the field or in combat to heal a set amount of HP and ST. 

You can also craft additional bottles by buying crafting materials, Goddess Tears, from each of the three goddess statues. You can press F while in the field to automatically use your Flask without having to open the menus. Tutorials and on-screen information will be added at a later date.

You might be wondering why the game NEEDS this if it already has plenty of ways to heal, as well as herbs now being added to the game. To answer, it's because healing items are about to become a lot scarcer. Every single loot table in the game has been reworked. On top of that, buying potions was always a limitation, as there's only so much gold a player can get in one playthrough. Meaning it was perfectly possible for a player to, in theory, run out of healing items entirely. This flask will now make sure players always have a source of healing without spending, MP, ST or Time.

On top of this, enemy respawns have also been heavily adjusted. In the previous build, we were just introducing the new concepts. Now were fully diving in. Enemies in the demo would ONLY respawn if you rested at a bonfire. Now enemies will respawn whenever time moves forward. If you fast travel, enemies will respawn. If you pray to a goddess altar, enemies will respawn. 

What's changed in Chapter 4? Quite a bit, though nothing story wise.

Red's new crafting menu has also been used to update all of the crafting adjacent merchants.

So, when upgrading weapons at the Blacksmith, or trading items with the Alchemist, you'll get this nice little menu rather than the quick and dirty ones of the past. Also yes, upgrading weapons. It works now. You're welcome.

At this point as well, you'll likely notice that enemy drops have changed. You can now find Memory Shards and other items that can be used to give you some extra Memory Fragments. Use these to level up or buy more skills, but make sure you spend them before you die and risk losing them. Furthermore, you'll come across a brand-new item, Bear Traps.

Bear Traps can be bought, crafted and even found in the environment. Got an enemy hot on your tail? Just open the menu and drop a Bear Trap behind you. What will happen? Well, that'll depend. There are a wide variety of interactions that Bear Traps enable. Some enemies might die from being caught in one, other's might become trapped, allowing you to start a fight with a big advantage, and other's may not be phased at all. And if you step in one? Well, try to avoid that, or else you better have some quick fingers to avoid some serious damage.

In the future this will likely get mapped to a keyboard shortcut as well.

What is included in Chapter 5?

Chapter 5 boasts a wealth of new content. Not only does it mark the return of scenes from much earlier builds, but it also contains brand new content.

You'll start by crossing the bridge where you can find Cheshire. She's fully voiced and operational this time and her vocal song will play whenever you interact with her shop.

Moving past her you'll find yourself in brand new territory, the Dead Carnival. Read the various lore documents to piece together what happened, battle the murderous puppets, play a variety of minigames to collect Carnival Tickets, and go trade them in for a key! You'll need to beat the Jester boss in order to escape the locked gate and continue onward. (NOTE: If you experience slow downs in this area, try adjusting the weather effects from the main menu.  I was able to run this level at 60fps on my pc, but my mac laptop was having some issues.)

Past here will be a return to the familiar, with a reunion with Hati, followed by your first meeting with Scarecrow. These characters are also fully voiced this time. You can explore Broomhill Farm and play around a bit with Scarecrow as a party member. Once you explore the Farmhouse, you'll reach the end of Chapter 5. It is advised that you make a save at this point so as to carry on your data to Wave 2 when that launches with the addition of Chapter 6 and maybe more.

Aside from this there have been some minor bug fixes, a large increase of available images in the CG Gallery, updates to some menu icons, the addition of the Ichor skills, skills that cost HP to cast, and some extra super bosses.

On the subject of super bosses...

For those of you who venture deep enough you may also encounter a major addition in Alice.

The boss fight itself is sadly not fully tested yet as I simply did not have the time, so I can't say if she's too easy, or impossible to beat even. I genuinely have not tried it beyond grabbing a quick screen shot. That being said if you DO beat her, you will unlock a new memory sequence that you can view with the forgotten maiden.

Furthermore two new classes are also available, though both are entirely optional. The Lovers can be awoken by defeating the optional boss Quiberon. And the Star, of course, can be unlocked after defeating Alice and bringing her relic to the Forgotten Maiden.

One new Sword has been added to the game, and with the new classes come more accessible skills for the player to unlock.

I hope you can tell that a lot of work was put into this, despite it boiling down to one additional chapter.

How do I carry over my demo save data?

For those of you who wish to carry over save data from the demo there is some vital information here! In order to have a stable experience and gain a your Nectar Flask, you MUST return to the Merchant Camp.

In the Merchant Camp all players will find the Forgotten Maiden has been added. When you speak to her, she will ask if you are running a new game or carrying over a save from the demo version. If you are carrying over your save you MUST tell her, and she will make adjustments to your data to make the rest of the game compatible. If you do NOT tell her so, and you experience broken things or bugs as a result, please do not report them to me.

If you are playing a new game, you can either ignore her, or tell her you're playing a new game, and she will simply despawn.

When you reach the end of the early access, you will find a similar situation.

The Forgotten Maiden will ONLY spawn in once you have completed all of the story segments of Chapter 5. You will be unable to progress forward in the game from here. However, that doesn't mean your experience will be "complete." 

Speaking to the Forgotten will have her offer you a choice to create a ONE TIME ONLY game clear save at this location. Now if you are satisfied with what you've done and would like to wait until the next wave of early access, to pick up from here, you can save and shut the game down.

If, however, you'd like to go back and clean up side quests and other optional content, you may put off creating your save until you are ready. This save is not required for early access 2 to function, rather it will just be a convenient location to resume playing from.

Your UI will likely break during the final scenes of Chapter 5. Do not be alarmed by this. There's just some missing code to have it pop back up on screen. It can also be restored by doing any number of events.

And yeah, I think that's pretty much all there is to cover at the moment.  I'll do a mini FAQ here to deal with some common questions you may have.

FAQ

Will the Early Access Wave 1 content be added to the free demo, or be given away for free at a later date?

No. While the demo will eventually be updated to include the missing mechanics and adjustments, it will never receive content beyond Chapter 4.  The free demo exists to be a free demo, and give you an idea of what the full game will be like.  It will never include additional story content.

Does buying Early Access Wave 1 entitle me to the full game when it releases?

Also no. The Early Access was designed as a special bonus for my existing supporters. The final game will of course not be $3, and purchasing this build will only entitle you to updates to this build.  Future waves on the other hand, may very well come at the games full price and entitle you to a free copy of the full release upon launch.  Just not wave 1.  If and when a Wave 2 or future wave that DOES entitle you to the full game launches, I will make sure that is abundantly clear.

Will there be more Waves? How will they be priced?

Yes, there will be more waves. I will release the next wave when I feel like the content it covers is of an acceptable quality.  A future Wave  will likely be at the games full price, with a discount to patrons.  Whether that is Wave 2 or Wave 3 is currently undecided.  As for how much the full game will be priced, it's going to be between $10 and $20.  $15 is a pretty safe bet though it very well might go for $10 or $9.99.  I can safely say I won't be charging more than $20 in any case.

If you have any more questions or thoughts, leave a comment and I'll do my best to respond in a timely manner.