Hello everyone, dev here! Work continues on the Oceanic Stage update, and while there still isn't too much to show yet for the Bosses, a great deal of progress has been made on upcoming system changes, both big and small, that I'll be going over here!
First, as is tradition, the usual breakdown of completion progress:
- Equipment: DONE!
- Stage Art: 5%
- Enemies: 90%
- Music: 40%
- Boss Art: 10%
- Boss Battles: Pending
- System Changes: DONE!
New Enemies
All enemies that will appear in the Oceanic Stage have been implemented! The only work remaining here concerns the enemies that are to appear in the yet to be revealed Extra Stage. Of course, these enemies will show up in Shrine Sweep as well.
Alternate Enemy Waves
Some preset enemy waves in Main Expeditions will now randomly select from multiple enemy layouts, adding a bit more unpredictability to runs. More variations may continue to be added in future updates.
Expedition Menu Improvements
Hovering over a button for a specific stage in the Expedition menu now shows a thumbnail of the stage, as well as icons for every Boss that can be encountered! Bosses that have not yet been discovered will be hidden and marked with a ? symbol.
Separate Boss Rushes
The Boss Rush button in the Expedition menu now opens a new submenu, with options for taking on shorter Boss Rushes per completed stage tier! Holo Essence will be required for stage tiers past the first. The full thing will still be available as well, as Boss Rush (All).
New System: Bonuses
This one's the big one! In Main Expeditions and Boss Rush, meeting certain criteria during gameplay will award Bonuses upon stage clear, contributing to filling a meter that grants additional Amezon Deliveries (or Holo Essence if there is no further stage tier). The purpose of this system is to provide more incentive for attempting full runs over starting from a later stage.
Here is a list of obtainable Bonuses and their criteria:
- Clear: Successfully clear a stage. The amount of meter granted is always equivalent to 2 Amezon Deliveries, matching the current behavior.
- Untouchable: Take no or minimal hits.
- Resolute: Deal damage while at low HP.
- Ambush: Defeat regular enemies immediately after they appear.
- Breaker: Deal substantial damage to Bosses during Break.
- Combo: Deal damage with Gohei or Talisman Attacks while maintaining high Combo.
- On Fire: Deal damage with Gohei or Talisman Attacks while maintaining high Heat.
- Versatile: Deal damage through any means other than Gohei and Talisman Attacks.
- Graze: Closely graze enemy projectiles and attacks.
Some additional details on how Bonuses are handled:
- In Main Expeditions, if a rematch is initiated, all Bonuses except for Clear Bonus will be nullified for that stage.
- In Boss Rush, the amount of meter awarded will be split across all stages in a tier, and Amezon Deliveries can only be selected after the final stage in a tier is cleared.
- Starting from a later stage will automatically grant Clear Bonus meter and 2 Amezon Deliveries per tier skipped, matching the current behavior.
The impact this system will have on game balance is still a bit uncertain, so it will likely be subject to changes in future updates as needed. There's also the possibility of more Bonus types being added later down the line.
That's all for now! From here on, work will focus on stage content, and hopefully Bosses soon. I'll have a progress update for you again when I think I've got a good amount of stuff to show! Until next time!
- tian nya
