Hey all! A bit more content in this patch. The main addition is the New Game+ mode which you can read about below as well as the normal bug fixes and some requested changes.
The discord server is still brand new, but if you would like to chat with others about the game, consider joining:
https://discord.gg/JrYbrhBE
New Game+
After completing the game, instead of just unlocking the stage selector, the final game save will put you into New Game+. Starting from a New Game+ save will have the following changes:
- You will start from the beginning at Chapter 1 but will retain all of your levels, supplies, Ring Drives, and any recruited allies.
- Wolf dialogue will now be readable for more story context.
- Assassins, Berserkers, and Snipers will now be recruitable.
- Enemies will gain a number of advantages over you. They will always have a full set of Ring Drives, the Ring Drive quality will be higher than normal, and all Boss Ring Drives will be added to the item pool. Enemies will have a level advantage over you based on the number of times you have cleared the game. For example, if you clear the game 10 times, in the next cycle, they will be at minimum, 10 levels higher than your party.
- The number of times you have cleared the game will appear on your save file.
I plan to add additional post / end game activities, this is just something small for now.
Gameplay / Balance Changes
- Enemies will now be limited to 4 traits maximum.
- Chapter 1, Chapter 13, and Chapter 23 will now have all units scale properly relative to the party's level.
- Your party will now have a maximum level of 70 which is just a couple levels higher than needed to max out all of your skills. Balance gets wonky at really high levels and there isn't any benefit to leveling up after maxing out all of your skills.
- You can now dismiss wolves from your party, but they will be sad.
New Features / Quality of Life Requests
- Stage Selector / Replaying beaten stages can now be enabled immediately in the Difficulty Settings or when you start a new game. I know this is something a lot of you have been asking about and I was looking at incorporating it into the base game but I came to the conclusion that there were too many issues with doing so. From both a story narrative standpoint to a game balancing standpoint, I did not think it fits in cleanly. However, I understand if people would find the game more enjoyable by being able to do so. So, it is there if you want to enable it, but it is not something I consider part of the base experience and is not on by default.
- Mid-battle cutscene on Chapter 16 can now be skipped.
- Final cutscene can now be skipped.
- Removed tutorial dialogue from Chapter 1 if you've already beaten it on current save file.
- Added an option to show seconds on the in game clock and save files. This can be toggled in the game settings.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug in Chapter 8 where the Battlemaster would start the fight in passive mode if no enemies were in range.
- Fixed a bug on Chapter 25 where Combat Analytics was not being properly affected by the Negotiator / Disperse.
- Fixed a bug when loading a save file where newly recruited wolves would end up duplicated in the roster.
- Fixed a bug where the on screen Menu button would display during some cutscenes.
- Fixed a bug on Chapter 1 relating to the tutorial if the enemy happens to go first from increased Speed modifiers.
- Fixed an issue where you could accidentally toggle game modes when not hovering over the game mode option and clicking a mouse button.
- Fixed a bug where the combat menu would not automatically reappear when triggering level 4 Gut Smash on a manually controlled wolf unit.
As always, if you find any issues or would like to see something added into the game, don't hesitate to let me know! Thanks, and I hope you all continue to enjoy the game.