v1.1.0 is now out! This is a major quality pass update that improves game balance, visuals, and general functionality. Some menus have been improved, the game has a few new features, several minor issues have been cleaned up, and the game should just generally play and feel better. If you enjoyed the game, it might be worth another look, as several boss encounters have been tweaked, including more refined level caps from the Challenge Stone.
This update also adds Steam Achievements. Progress-based achievements should unlock after you load an existing save game.
We hope you have fun! As usual, if you run into any issues, please let us know on the Steam forums or Discord channel.
The detailed changes are as follows:
Demo:
-The demo now uses a different title screen logo.
-The game no longer closes on interacting with the portal at the end of the demo. Instead, the player is notified, and the path to Valor Bridge remains blocked.
-The demo now prints a message if attempting to load a save past the demo content (would previously just crash on most maps past the demo).
General:
-Slightly decreased controller joystick deadzones to help with dropped inputs from Switch Pro Controller.
-Fixed several punctuation errors and typos and made small adjustments to many dialogues.
-Added (extremely large) cash caps to prevent overflow.
-Loading a save from a newer version than the one running now shows a warning before loading.
-Added achievements. These are viewable from the files button in the menu, which now has clickable tabs.
Achievements tied to ingame events will be unlocked automatically when the game is loaded the first time after updating.
The ingame achievement unlock popups can be disabled in the options menu.
-A hidden playthrough mode has been added. Hint: it must be activated before the first Rattock fight!
-Fixed minor delays when resizing the window while using integer scaling. Resizing is now much cleaner in general.
-Fixed a bug where the game window could reopen in an incorrect position if it was closed while maximized or on a second monitor.
-Implemented new optional onscreen pressable buttons to make the game much easier to play with a touch screen. They also reflect your keyboard/gamepad inputs. These options are found in the new Controls tab in the options menu; the old Controls tab has been re-labeled as "Input Binds."
-Starting a new game for the first time plays a message letting the player know that the game can be played with mouse, keyboard, or controller.
Balance:
-The Challenge Stone now uses custom level caps for bosses and minibosses, since they generally are intended to be a few levels higher than the player. This should make Challenge Stone gameplay more engaging.
-Non-elemental skills are now slightly less affected by weakness and resistance modifiers. This is reflected in the type chart, and a new NPC in castle town also mentions it.
-Chain damage is now capped at 3x.
-Halved the price of resummoning scanned monsters.
-Bosses now give slightly less overscaled experience.
-Most bosses and minibosses now get two turns of Shock immunity instead of one (but not when in the party).
-Many monsters have had adjustments to their base stats and movepools (mostly buffs).
-Significantly improved Spike damage. It now deals damage equal to defense * stacks. Harsh spikes add +1 to that multiplier.
-Security bots now have a lower Agility to allow a better escape chance if your own Agility is high enough.
-Reduced Symbolt's Shock chance (20% -> 8%).
-Stone Cloud now applies a speed debuff in addition to its shock chance; also lowered its MP cost (50 -> 35).
-Fixed a typo in Stone Cloud's description saying it affects all enemies.
-Spectral Torch, Solar Slash, Crescent Slash, and Prismatic Laser now state in their descriptions that they can chain from irregular elements.
-Fixed a bug where Jackdrill would chain from non-elemental attacks.
-Rebalanced several skills' MP costs.
-Buffed Rock Juice (150 HP -> 250 HP, 250 MP).
-Buffed Molten Rock (40 damage -> 120 damage).
-Added a new item, Caltrops, which can apply Spikes. Bullack and Saguarado can drop Caltrops.
-Removed Jerky from Saguarado's item drops.
-Added Jerky to Astaur's item drops.
-Increased drop rate of Black and White Jewels by 5%.
-The Duplicitous Ring now drains 5% HP each turn. It description is now more clear on its effects.
-Adjusted the stat buffs of many pieces of equipment.
-Several bosses and minibosses have been made more difficult, some through stat buffs and some through scripting.
-Rebalanced the Reserve Summon upgrade.
Stage 2 now only allows one free swap per battle and costs 3 Dilirium instead of 5.
Added Stage 3, which allows one free swap per turn.
-The Ball and Chain upgrade now only increases Cecel's attack by half the amount his speed has been lowered. Its effect is also now added in on the status screen.
-Reduced the Dilirium cost of the Monster Spray upgrade's Stage 2 (2 -> 1).
-Added a new Dragonfly Upgrade, Mob Rule. It activate when all monsters in the party have a Dilirium value of 1.
Stage 1 reduces monster MP usage by 25% in battle.
Stage 2 also increases monster combo gain by 20%.
Shows Dilirium value on Status screen when enabled.
-Lowered the base prices of several items.
-Added prices to the Knife Gadget, Gold Earring, and Pyrite Earring so they can be repurchased if lost.
-The Sealing Charm is now repurchasable if lost.
-Reduced Jay's Ammo price markup from 2x to 1.5x.
-After chapter 1, the coffee shop stocks a new key item and some new unique overworld-only healing items.
-Fixed a bug where dual-resisted attacks were dealing more damage than they should have been.
Fusion:
-Significantly decreased the cash price of most incense items.
-Increased the value of Chaotic Incense and Proudest Incense.
-Added new fusion items in the Dragonfly shop:
Miner's Incense (late-game result group modifier)
Mana Incense (-5% max HP, +7% max MP)
Sanity Incense (halves negative stat modifiers)
Inverted Incense (flips stat modifiers)
Some monsters that cannot normally be fused will now unlock their incenses on recruitment:
Forlord, Canischupa, Rattock, Felirae, Chukachoo, and Salavador
-Using a fusion item that limits results to a specific monster class will now prefer a result that shares a class with one of the material monsters.
-Fixed a bug where fusing a monster with 7+ skills naturally learned by its current level would pick six random ones to learn. You can now choose.
-Dilirium value now has slightly less impact on fusion outcome.
-Significantly increased the stat bonus given when fusing a monster 2+ fusion groups below the highest material fusion group.
-Fixed a bug where using any fusion item would remove the resulting monster's lower result group stat bonus.
-Fixed Siegfreeze having Fusion Group 1 instead of 2, which resulted in him always gaining the "lower group than material" stat bonus.
-When using the Nostalgia Incense, monsters no longer also gain the additional "lower group than material" stat bonus.
-Fixed a bug where selecting an item that changes the result monster was not updating the stat modifiers, which could result in incorrect modifiers if the new result monster had a different fusion group.
-Fusion stat bonuses are now capped at +/- 999%.
-Set fusion group on Bildur, Caliclysm, Capt. Jones, Cognazzo, Goregoyle, and Jellissa (they still cannot result from regular fusion, but now have a source group).
Overworld:
-Cecel now has unique overworld sprites when at 0 HP.
-Added a new "hold to run" option instead of the toggle.
-Cleaned up tile, boundary and collision errors in many maps. Also visually reworked various lackluster maps.
-Fixed stutter on the first controllable frame when entering some maps with several enemy encounters.
-Reworked the Comics Guy's hint system. He now gives hints based on not-yet-discovered hidden fights.
-Fixed a few items not playing a sound on pickup.
-Added a few hidden consumable pickups in suspicious places.
-Sacrifice Statue barriers leave marks on the ground even after removal.
-The Status Guide now gives information about stat buffs/debuffs and lists durations for all statuses.
-Many shops now have more fitting signs outside.
-Valor City Improvements:
Added an interactable to hint that the player can get the Comics Guy's phone number.
Fixed interaction detection preferring the Comics Guy's computer over him.
The Police Dept. receptionist now has new dialogue throughout the story similar to other NPCs. She also provides access to a music player in the postgame.
Gave the Chief new dialogue if spoken to between the end of Chapter 4 and the start of Chapter 5.
-Sun Kingdom improvements:
Fixed being able to miss the camera return trigger outside Al's cabin.
Visually reworked the cliffside map.
The stuck Nokap's cutscene no longer has him vanish. He can also have a different outcome.
Reworked Goodhands second encounter cutscenes.
Fixed the Sundial trap cutscenes putting Cecel in the fallen animation during the fade-out.
The Sundial now has a shortcut linking the top and bottom.
This shortcut must be activated from the roof to be reused. If the player ever interacted with the item drops on the roof in an old save file, it will be considered activated.
Lyzen now drops an item needed to trigger reuse of the shortcut. Old files that have beaten him will be given the item on first load after the update.
The NPC that sells the Sealing Charm no longer repeats expository dialogue it if the player has sold the charm.
-Underground Base improvements:
Added animations and sounds to Underground Base barriers.
Fixed a few instances where the player could get stuck inside the barriers in Underground Base.
Added sounds to the quizbots.
Shortened the length of the long barrier hallway.
-Desert improvements:
The desert Cactus Fruit pickups now regrow over time.
Added a new NPC in the desert that sells healing items.
Added encounters to the desert canyon.
Improved desert landmark shadow perspective and hitboxes.
Being cursed is now a bit more evident.
Some secret rooms received a visual rework.
-Desert Dungeon improvements:
Cleaned up the dungeon tileset.
Visually reworked some of the dungeon pillar rooms and the long hallway to the exit.
The dungeon pillar puzzle now only sends you back one room on an incorrect move.
Improved logic consistency of dungeon pillar puzzles and added a small hint after the second pillar room.
Fixed an out-of-bounds encounter in one of the dungeon pillar rooms.
Adjusted the kill timers' onscreen behavior slightly. They now blink onscreen for a few seconds before starting and after stopping.
Fixed getting stuck on a black screen if triggering a map transition as the kill timer ran out.
Fixed the kill timer running out during the battle escape text box causing the party's HP to drop to 0 but not causing a game over.
The dungeon blockades now have opening animations.
The dungeon spikes now have (dis)appear animations.
Added warning signs outside the dungeon rooms with inescapable encounters. Also changed the color of those encounters' overworld sprites.
Reworked the explanation text for the dungeon grid puzzle. It is now less overt, but hints at the starting location.
The dungeon grid puzzle no longer resets on checking a pillar after entering the correct sequence.
Added a small dungeon prisoner location hint.
The battles in B1F of the dungeon no longer keep the overworld music after returning to the area.
Revised dialogue and slightly improved visuals in some Chapter 3 story cutscenes.
Can now acquire a Dungeon Key from Neff after defeating Amakamut. This activates a timer; the key must be returned before the timer runs out.
Neff will now reward the player for freeing all dungeon prisoners.
-Fixed Ifron's overworld hitbox being too high and added a subtle animation to his sprite.
-Fixed Ashen Grove map exits allowing out of bounds clips if unequipping the charm before using them.
-Ocean Palace improvements:
Reworked some Ocean Palace tile puzzles. One wrong sequence has also been corrected (the second row in the hallway before the first save room was wrong).
Ocean Palace pattern puzzle tile collision is more forgiving if picking the correct tile and will now only damage the player from one side, but incorrect tiles are now solid.
Taking damage from the Ocean Palace pattern puzzle tiles now plays a sound.
The Ocean Palace pattern puzzle doors now deal damage instead of warping the player to the entrance.
Uniformized the Ocean Palace knife spitters.
Added a shortcut connecting the top of the Ocean Palace to the bottom after completing the area.
Added a fuser right before the Ocean Palace top floor. Also shortened the hallway.
The Pearl room and top floor have received a visual overhaul.
-Added some new encounters in a couple of Ocean maps with unique enemy pools.
-Hills improvements:
Improved perspective on several Hills maps.
Reworked higher-level Hills overworld backdrops.
Added animations to green single-use cannons.
Recreated the Hills switch visuals.
Fixed an issue with some of the Warrior Spirit sprites.
The last Warrior Spirit now tells you how many other spirits remain.
The last Warrior Spirit fight now correctly uses the specific spirits that were not fought previously.
Added a unique piece of equipment as a reward for beating all five Warrior Spirits at once with the Challenge Stone active.
If all other spirits are defeated and the Challenge Stone is active, the last Warrior Spirit gives an offer to fight all the spirits at once anyway. If skipped, the fight will be available again after Chapter 5.
-Mirrorlord's Castle improvements:
Fixed an issue with one of the Mirrorlord's Castle puzzle room exits.
Added an extra hint to one of the Mirrorlord's Castle puzzle rooms.
Fixed the "mirror fall" animation not playing properly in some rooms.
Added two secret shortcuts back to the entrance.
Fixed a logical inconsistency where you could leave the area before the boss fight without Spot.
-Fixed weird Pygmeleon and Qirain NPC collision.
-Certain boss rooms now play the standard area music after the boss fight ends.
-Fixed one-shot hazards (ex. knives, cannonballs) colliding with each other only destroying one of the hazards instead of both.
Battle:
-Several more overworld encounters can now have four enemies.
-Battles with 4+ enemies now drop more money and have a higher item drop rate. The amounts increase with each enemy past the fourth.
-Certain overworld encounters will now never have duplicate enemies.
-Certain overworld encounters now have slightly altered odds for specific enemies to appear.
-Fixed a bug where KOed enemies' sprites would reappear and names would be announced on escaping from and re-entering a battle.
-Escaping from and re-entering the same battle no longer re-enables Negotiate after an enemy is recruited.
-When a monster would learn a seventh skill after battle, the popup now occurs after the levelup text instead of at the same time.
-If a monster gains multiple levels at once, the amount gained is written with the level text.
-Fixed a bug where levelups would take place after the next turn's actions were chosen if a monster had dialogue on KO and the battle hadn't yet ended.
-Getting 2+ of an item as battle rewards now writes out a quantity string instead of repeating the name.
-Statuses being purged or expiring now show a popup.
-If an enemy is scripted to lose skills mid-turn that it was queued to use (for example, moveset changes on reaching an HP threshold), it will now select other skills in their place.
-KOing or otherwise removing Thrasher from battle and then escapaing now removes his overworld sprite and adjusts the music on re-entering the battle.
-Thrasher can no longer appear in the sewers.
-Added new battle animations for Amakamut and Kabubis.
-Minor changes to Pyramortar's and Mattas's animations.
-Fixed a bug where Detoxifier or Shock Absorber could activate as a party member was being KOed, resulting in not actually collapsing despite having 0 HP.
-Cleaned up several battle dialogues.
Reordered Meteletron's Negotiate dialogues.
Fenrum's dialogue tree now lists item names, making it more intuitive and less likely to "trick" the player.
Fenrum's dialogue no longer allows using an outfit.
Fixed being able to give Fenrum certain key equipment, which would result in a softlock.
Fenrum and Mirikat no longer care about the barrier color after the barriers have vanished.
Fixed one of Cheriff's and El Spinoso's dialogue choices leaving the cash counter on the screen.
Expanded Basaur's dialogue tree.
Fixed Basaur's and one of Skubloon's dialogue options not actually taking your money.
Made some small adjustments to Bullack's dialogue.
Fixed a missing text box in Skubloon's dialogue.
Fixed many monster dialogues that damage the player not playing any sound and immediately showing the next text box below the damage number popup.
Fixed several instances of the cash indicator not showing up when dialogue choices spend money.
Added "ChaChing" sound effect to many dialogues on spending money.
Slightly improved the scripting for the Mirrorlord's intro and guard status effects.
-Enemies spawned mid-battle that exceed the player's Challenge Stone level cap no longer show the capped level. This was only a visual bug; stats were unaffected.
-Cloned enemies are no longer distinguished by their animations, stat box order, or status effects.
-Fixed missing flavor text line for the highest debt tier.
-Reworked animation for & added sounds to Stone Cloud.
-Added an actual animation for Plunderang.
-Added animation and sounds for Holy Acid.
-Bloody Tears now plays the revive sound.
-Slightly improved SFX for Birthday Bomb and derivatives.
-Some skills now use the bat animation when used by Goodhands.
-Fixed many monsters having visual issues with outlines from the Magic Reflect status.
-Poison damage and MP regen ticks now play SFX.
-Fixed a bug where tagged-in enemies were unable to be targeted by mousing over or clicking on their sprites.
-Fixed a bug where Quickdraw Lv. 1 would sometimes use the incorrect skill if multiple guns were equipped.
-Fixed a rare bug where Quickdraw caused a monster's sprite to be stuck offset if the damage shaking effect ended on the same frame as the entry animation ending.
-Fixed swapping in monsters with stat change statuses replaying the buff/debuff animations.
-Fixed a memory leak on queueing up a Wait action and not using it due to ending battle or getting Shocked.
-Fixed text overflow when Shock Absorber or Detoxifier activated during a combo.
UI:
-Saving the game over an existing slot now defaults the cursor over the "No" option when asking to overwrite.
-Added an option to hide the mouse cursor.
-Fixed removing the scroll bar on scanning a monster not properly centering the buttons afterwards.
-The monster storage menu now shows blank buttons for open unsummoned soul slots.
-Enemy stat change statuses are now shown on their status boxes just like party members.
-Changed Pearl of Equinost's description to suggest selling it as an option for large cash influx.
-Fixed mousing over two overlapping enemy sprites in battle repeatedly playing the menu selection sound.
-Clicking the combo indicator will now trigger a combo.
-Fixed a rare bug where the skill menu would not focus any buttons in battle, softlocking controller players.
-Fixed framedrops on opening the party menu on low-end systems.
-Swapping positions in the party menu now shows a small icon on the button of the selected monster to swap.
-Fixed being unable to close the skill menu if using the mouse to select another unsummoned monster while attempting to select a skill target. This now properly attempts to use the skill on the clicked monster.
-The Page Up/Down inputs now change which party members' skills are shown when viewing skills in the pause menu.
-Fixed a bug with the turn order UI shifting after negotiating.
-The files menu now includes new submenus.
The "Records" tab opens a new page that shows the playthrough's stats and achievements.
The "Logs" tab opens a new page that shows the current story objective and discovered sidequests.
-Added greater functionality to the shop menus.
The shop menu now lists sellable items under expandable and collapsable categories.
The shop menu now keeps track of the current scroll position and focused item when changing between buying and selling.
The buy/sell indicator is now shown as a button to be more explicit that it can be clicked to swap modes.
The shop menu now allows buying/selling in bulk.
Fixed a bug where having multiple of an equipped item would allow selling the last copy of it.
The "currently equipped" text is now properly aligned.
Selling an item to a shop that stocks the same item in limited quantities will restock the shop.
-Fixed errors with the Scan/Resummon menu.
Fixed scanning a monster moving the "Summon" button on top of the "Scan" button.
Scanned monsters are now properly sorted in the same order used in the monster library.
Scanning or resummoning a monster no longer resets the scroll to the top.
Changing between Scan and Summon categories now remembers the last highlighted button per category. This should make comparisons much easier.
The scroll now properly snaps when changing category.
Bottom-row grid focus neighbors are now properly set.
-Various improvements to the monster library/bestiary.
The associated tab is now labeled "Bestiary."
Fixed dropped frames on opening and page turning.
Fixed speaking to Al after Chapter 2 not automatically updating the monster library's current filtering mode.
No longer shows cash UI while open.
Now lists Dilirium value under detailed stats.
Fixed the monster library occasionally having one frame of all buttons being invisible when changing page using the Page Up/Down inputs instead of the onscreen buttons or mouse wheel (this consistently happened at lower framerates).
The earlygame Rattock encounter no longer shows a move in the monster library that he does not know in that fight.
The "combat style" section will now only list up to two behaviors, which are now ordered by priority.
Fixed Magmander being listed in the incorrect spot. It is now correctly listed as #79.
Fixed Security Sam and Sal showing incorrect base stats.
Security Sam and Sal no longer list boss numbers in the monster library (previously listed incorrect numbers).
Bosses in the monster library no longer list fusion group (none actually had an assigned group).
Adjusted the labels and centering on the base stat display to prevent larger numbers from overlapping the bars.
Fixed Agility being listed above Speed in base stats.
Fixed some monsters with more intricate fight scripting listing certain skills more than once.
Fixed vertical spacing for skills not yet discovered.
Fixed pause menu visual issues after closing the monster library at lower framerates.
Monster descriptions are now better centered.
Fixed pressing "Cancel" with the class filter open closing the entire menu.
Increased description lines shown per page by 1.
Fixed cases of Filter button being visible at the start of the game when it shouldn't be.
Opening the pages at the start of the game with no monsters seen now shows placeholder text instead of totally blank pages.
-Various improvements to the Items menu.
Key Items can now be sorted by type. This places the Type Chart first, followed by other usable items.
Closing item selection from the Equipment menu returns focus to the last selected equipment slot button.
Using an MP item that doesn't heal HP no longer shows a "0" healing popup alongside the MP popup.
Fixed closing the item sort dropdown by re-clicking the sort button blocking further mouse inputs.
Fixed switching equipment mid-battle and then opening the items menu out of battle forcing the Consumables to the last-viewed Equipment page number.
Item buttons now stay highlighted when picking a target outside of battle.
Pressing "Cancel" now closes the selection grid for the Status Guide and Monsterpedia.
Fixed minor Sort button dropdown issue when used on multiple different tabs in the same menu session.
Fixed using an item outside of battle showing text as if the target were using the item on another party member.
The last highlighted item button is now consistently re-focused on closing and reopening the items menu during battle.
Reskinned the page up/down buttons to be more visible.
The "remove equipment" button now says in the text box what item would be unequipped.
Added equip SFX to Tyrant's Sceptre, Lyzen's Staff, Sanguinus, and Maripi.
Sorting consumables by type now places revive items after HP and MP recovery items.
Accessing items during fusion no longer causes the next time the items menu is opened in another context to snap to fusion items.
Made minor adjustments to several item descriptions.
Fixed text overflow on Snake Fang, Eye of Lucian, and The Anchor.
Fixed a crash on trying to change pages while selecting an item target.
-Various improvements to the fusion interface.
The highlighted item is remembered on closing and reopening the fusion item selection.
Refined item button selection/clearing sound effects.
Slightly adjusted the position of the items grid in the fusion menu.
Fixed the page change arrows in the fusion menu's item selection grid rendering behind other menu elements.
Fixed a rare bug where the fusion menu did not display a selected party member's info.
Fixed a bug where a page of items in the fusion menu would be unlisted and not selectable if that page would only have one item.
-Other general Dragonfly improvements:
On unlocking new Dragonfly fusion shop items, a popup is now displayed onscreen. Newly unlocked items are also denoted with a new icon in the shop until viewed.
Fixed the Dragonfly not properly storing the wallpaper animation option properly to the save file.
Fixed disabling wallpaper animation also disabling thespecific background animations during battle.
Added an outline around the Mandrake Inc. Logo on the Dragonfly's home screen to keep it from blending in with some wallpapers.
Added overlay VFX to highlighted Dragonfly home icons.
Added Icon Color options to the Dragonfly's wallpaper selection menu. This should help keep the UI elements visible even with some of the brighter wallpapers.
Fixed a bug where setting the Dragonfly's wallpaper to the Valor City battle background would reset to the mirror world void background on loading a save file.
Closing the Dragonfly now fades the screen out instead of blinking out in one frame.
-The Exit Game button now allows returning to the title screen. The popup now also has a slight animation on opening/closing.
-Added SFX on confirming a save.
-Fixed a bug where the skill selection menu would not clear the "selected" icons properly on cancel inputs if the monster's skills had been manually rearranged.
-The Options menu layout has been slightly modified. The old "Controls" tab is now labeled as "Input Binds."
-The Window Size dropdown in the Options menu will now automatically be set to Custom on resizing the window while the menu is open.
-Renamed Saguarado Hideout Basement to Saguarado Hideout B7F on the save/load screen to fix overflow.
-Fixed Capt. Jones's name not fitting some UI elements.
-Made minor adjustments to Pyramortar's, Bezorre's, Bullionze's, and Vamprima's mini-sprites.
-Fixed running from a monster with no remaining MP and then re-initiating combat causing the status panel to behave as if the monster had a max MP of 0.
-Fixed a crash in the Skills menu on rearranging skills, picking one skill, changing the selected monster with the skill menu still open (via mouse click), and trying to rearrange skills again.
-Several yes/no dialogues, mainly to open shops or buy an item, now select the "No" option on Cancel input.
-Fixed missing bottom pixel of desert battle background.