Hello Everyone!
We're back again to deliver you guys more news and talk about game progress! Everyone has been anticipating the endgame patch (so are we!), so we thought we could shed some light on the current game situation!
Current Development State of The Game
General Progress
Experience Points and Total Removal of Potions Implemented properly
General experience is obtainable by defeating enemies. Elemental EXP is acquired by collecting the cartridges, and healing replacement of potions will be provided via the grimoire system (obtainable early by defeating Elizabee or Kudalina).
Removal of Chests and Replacement with Collectibles
Chests will no longer be a part of the game, since they were associated with currencies, something that got removed from the game. In its place, will be fixed location collectibles that will lead to the unlocking of many costumes!
But what will happen to the old chest progress of existing players? Well, we have found a way to convert old chest progress into collectible progress! Players that have managed to gather all chests from the current EA version will automatically unlock the outfits associated with the collectibles upon reading the savefile!
All Dialogue Voice Acting Lines are Implemented!
All dialogue voices are implemented! We are still working to add voice sound effects to fights. You can also adjust voice volume on game settings without affecting regular sound effects. We'll have some cool showcases in the near future, specially when combat sounds are finally implemented!
Suspension of editing gamepad and keyboard control schemes
We're still having issues with this particular situation due to how control mapping is working in the game and bug reports involving gamepad and keyboard issues with multiple settings. We'll continue to look into it, but there is a chance this feature might be completely dropped. We truly apologize for the inconvenience.
Paid Outfits
We have given you guys a heads up about this in the past, but we believe it's best to clarify once more that some costumes will be DLC.
While some of them have fun extra mechanics, they are not a requirement in any way, shape or form to beat the game. The game will be beatable with the base content. The game will be beatable without using any of the outfits, whatsoever. All internal game testing is always done with base outfit.
We will also be making all paid DLC free for the Early Access players. We'll work out on the logistics at a later date.
Outfit Mechanics
The game possesses 16 outfits in total, to which 12 will be unlockable by playing the game normally. Some will be unlocked by story beats, and others will be unlocked via the new collectible system.
All outfits can be seen in action in the video below!
Outfits posesses different mechanics, the vast majority being passive bonuses to sources of damages, suiting different playstyles. Below is a table containing information for the beta effects of the outfits. We will rely on the feedback of players to adjust these accordingly.
Boss Fight Overhaul Progress
We have developed a new system to speed up progress on boss fights, which basically makes reworks and implementations of art, sounds and boss skills much faster to develop. Our previous pipeline was a bit more complicated and slower to work with. So far we feel this new method is helping us coming up with better fights overall.
Let's give a few explanations of the state of the game's boss fights. Be wary of spoilers.
- Kudalina, Nephelle, Elizabee and Rosalia will remain the same as seen in the EA build. We are reconsidering minor tweaks on Elizabee's behavior due to player feedback, but it will depend on how her fight holds up in final testing. We assume for now she will remain the same.
- Sphinx is on rework status. A lot of this boss fight was meant to be a joke fight but it ended up really rough around the edges and presented no challenges at all.
- Felicity boss fight will remain mostly the same but we are working towards improving the visual aspects of her fight. A lot of the VFX was done poorly and we really wanted to add more polish and better flow to her visuals.
- Dullahan is on complete overhaul status. We are replacing the spine boss with a sprite version, with completely different redesign (a more gladiator-esque style). We felt the way Dullahan behaves was really clunky. His old armor design will remain in the game in the Spirit Grimoire splash art as a visual homage.
- Isabelle and Isadora are being finalized. Isabelle is complete and plays out a bit more dynamically than her old spine counterpart. Isadora is a beast of a fight, and has the highest amounts of unique attacks bar the late game bosses and the final boss. We went ham on this fight but we are having a great time making it crazy, and we'll be showing you guys footage of this fight at the end of this month, if nothing crazy comes up in our schedule. Best fight ever.
- Sophia's fight is in incognito mode, due to a few complications. We have postponed the rework on this fight for the time being, but it is likely we'll return to it soon to fix all of it's issues.
- Sierra's fight will hold a surprise for you guys. Her current fight stays as is, yes... But let's just say she'll have some extras! The lead developer was bullied into accepting this change by the art director.
- Nanami's fight is one of the weakest and we are putting in a lot of work on adding a second phase to it. A few days ago we had shown some of the designs and a sneak peek of one of her attack motions. She will have an ascended miko form, and mostly perform water attacks while being a lot more mobile.
- Astral Knights will remain as is, but the art director has been pestering the lead developer to let her embelish their visuals. Denied! Perhaps this is something to consider after endgame patch is out...
- Aldebaran is the worst fight in this entire game and we are seriously considering discarding her entire fight. She will receive fixes not only on her initial phase, but also receive a second phase as well. We want this to be the hardest fight bar the endgame content.
- The rest of the endgame bosses (A total count of 8), won't be mentioned here for spoilers reasons. What we can say is: These fights need a lot of work before we are happy with them. We realize this is the biggest factor for the game's delay but we also believe it would be a major disservice to not work on these properly.
Here is a sneak peek at some new boss animations for Nanami, Dullahan and Sierra!
And here is a concept art of Aldebaran's ascended form, which will feature in her second phase:
Parting Notes
In hindsight, scope creep became our enemy. Upon reflecting our mistakes, we realize this game has an abnormal amount of boss fights. That being said, we really love all these bosses and want to make sure they make it to the game. It means we have to commit and see it all through the end. At this current time, it's mostly two people developing this game, and only one of them - the art director - has total time availability to dedicate to the game. Real life job and other commitments have been getting in our way.
To that effect, we really don't have a concrete release date of endgame patch, nor the final game. We realize this is a massive letdown, and truly apologize for it.
All we can say is that we'll continue doing our best, with all that we can.
That's it from us today. As always, thank you for the amazing support! Stay safe, and until next time!