oath: there is a you that remains
On the 27th of June, my brand new album, there is a you that remains is releasing! It's a 9 track long project with some of my best work, that I hope you enjoy! And alongside that, a companion work, a free DLC expansion will be releasing for oath!
With my previous project, my EP called oath, I released this video game alongside it - originally meant to just be a bespoke music player for the EP, it evolved into a complete game - and in the following months leading to December of last year, I kept expanding on the game until it just got bigger and bigger....
The base game and story of oath is complete - playing through the story mode + the 'home' mode to completion is the narrative and story I wanted to tell with the project. Paired with the EP itself, the 3 or so endings, secrets and world to discover in oath are done and all there for you to find!
Since the final update, I moved onto my next project, my currently upcoming album, and thought about ways I could make the rollout anything to the level I did for oath - I didn't really want to release a new completely separate video game or anything, but I still wanted something fun...
So, I ended up working on an expansion for oath! This expansion I've been working on alongside my album for the last however many months, and it'll be out on the same day - June 27th - as a companion piece to that body of work!!
What is there is a you that remains?
So, what does this expansion add?
Well - the main thing is the brand new button on the main menu - anew.
Clicking that at any time will shoot you straight into the bulk of the new content - a completely new narrative and world to explore that ties into the story of my album, there is a you that remains!
You can play this story at any time, and it's completely unrelated to the main game / oath's story as well! But- I'll discuss the new mode in a little bit - first, I'll go over some of the other changes made to the game that come alongside the DLC.
New GUI, QoL and other changes!!
You might've noticed that the title screen looks... completely different now! It's been redesigned, alongside all of the GUI to fit with the new project.
Things such as the EP player have been overhauled especially (now called music player, which has been reflected in a recent-ish main game update!), and now also includes all the songs from the new album as well!
Installing the DLC content will replace your old title screen and GUI with the new album-related look. The progress indicators / changing main menu / current character icon does still stay though! If you prefer the look of the old menu, it's still available if you don't install the DLC.
Being said...
The DLC is now considered the "Full Version" of the game!
All future bugpatches / adjustments and any base game QoL features have and will be worked specifically into the DLC package - it's free to download, and in my eyes replaces your current version as the main way to play/experience the game! Upkeeping both base and DLC builds just gets way too messy, so my focus is entirely on improvements to the 'full' version, with DLC enabled.
You will also need to install the DLC to 100% the game, as unfortunately you cannot designate DLC-specific achievements, so the 20ish or so new achievements do require DLC installation as well.
QoL features?
I've been listening! Some of these features are already implemented into the base game - the bulk of the game now being much more easy to unlock, the base main menu music not being so... loud, and plenty of small tweaks and fixes. Over the development of the DLC I've watched many people play the game live, and taken notes on some things to change.
For example:
Right at the start of the game, new players were getting confused on who was talking - the mysterious figure in front of you or the narration/you - mostly due to the textbox being the exact same. A small but important change here is the other person now has a new textbox seen above that makes it much clearer to tell apart your dialogue from theirs!
This is a relatively minor change, but there's plenty like it that have been added in the DLC - including better interaction detection for many, many areas (reading a sign next to a door will hopefully not make you walk inside, but actually read the sign for example), as well as bugfixes, spelling error fixing and just some more polish even to areas which were fine before, but are now slightly nicer.
Installing the DLC will retroactively add all these additions to the base game, just like a regular update/patch would! This does also mean however, if you do uninstall the DLC the game will revert back to v4.18 - the final version prior to the DLC's development.
The new expansion...
So... what's in the anew mode?
As mentioned, the DLC adds a brand new story to the game - with a new main character and world to explore.
This new map is 4 times the size of the base games map when it launched - combining all the new areas added with updates, the new world is still bigger than all of them plus more! It's more interconnected than ever, with dynamic music between areas, and a ton more characters that roam all around the world that you can talk to. The map above is only a snippet of the full thing!
There's a myriad of improvements in interaction compared to the base game too:
almost all non-important characters in the game have variable dialogue, being able to say more than just one thing - they've got a bunch they can tell you about that they can choose between saying, and might say different things depending on what you've done or what you're carrying.
a good majority of these characters walk around - not only outside this time, but inside too! The hitboxes for moving characters are also improved since their original inclusion, allowing you to walk past them much, much easier.
Basically everything is interactable - like, everything. Try it: interact with every single bush in the overworld. Every seashell and every tree. The base game of oath had a ton for you to interact with and discover, but the expansion pushes that even further with much, much more to see and find. On top of that, every single building's interactable objects (which is, 99% of the things inside a building) have unique dialogue specific to that one building. If you're the type of person who likes finding out every small detail or just learning more about a world, there's plenty for you here.
..Graphical improvements?
While the expansion is still generally in the same art style - it is DLC after all! - I've tried my best to both give the new areas and world a unique look while still feeling at home in oath, as well as graphically improve places where I could too!
All interiors for buildings and elsewhere have lighting! unlike how the base game was completely static in terms of light and shadow, every single interior in the expansion has deep shadows and rays of light that both are there to improve the atmosphere and look of the places you visit, and also act dynamically too - actually lighting up or darkening objects, characters and you!
Maybe a slightly better looking visual style isn't the most interesting addition - but it's an important one to me so I hope you like the new look for all the buildings ingame!!
So... What can I do?
What good is this big map and fancy looking interiors without a reason to explore them!!
oath: there is a you that remains follows a similar structure to the later added parts of the base game - such as the coast and underwater areas. You aren't given a direction or objective when you start the expansion - getting up in your house and instantly able to explore the entire world to your hearts content.
So... How do you progress the story?
Well, there is a you that remains works in a non-linear fashion. Talking to people or going to different places may unlock something new for you, or have you discover a little activity or questline. Keep on discovering new things and one by one you'll start to piece together your overall objective and goal, and find more and more along the way!
The main objective isn't the only goal though! As you'll discover, there's multiple different things to find in game (without spoiling anything, obviously), which can lead to different side content, achievements and more. For example, the expansion has a place in game where you can change your current outfit at anytime! Find a cool shirt somewhere? You're free to put it on and play through the game wearing your new outfit.
And of course, there's plenty of small secrets and easter eggs hidden for you to find too...
The new expansion isn't insanely massive in length - probably justtt under the base game in terms of runtime, depending on whether you aim for the 100% or just story completion - but it ties into the story I wanted to tell with my new album, and I hope you enjoy it if you give it a playthrough!!
Bonus!!
And like always, there's tons of new music added into the game, from my friends and elsewhere for you to discover while playing. Along with that, there's some new music made specifically for the DLC by my friend maji*, as well as plenty music from my album and other works present as well!
I really didn't want to make the DLC paid (I'm thankful enough if you've bought the base game!!), especially since that would lock the new achievements and 100% behind a paywall - so if you enjoy and would like to support me, I just hope you check out the album side of the project as well! The whole things been in the works even since before the base game of oath was released (keen ears might recognize some of the albums music and even the albums title.. in the base game from back in the September release last year!?) and I'm really happy and excited to share what I've made.
Out on June 27th, both the album and the DLC expansion, I hope you enjoy!
Thanks for reading and playing my game if you have already, I appreciate you!! <33