We're announcing a significant update headed exclusively for the Steam version of Chronicles of a Dark Lord: Episode 1 Tides of Fate! This update will be free to download, and (depending on your settings) should automatically update the game. We wanted you all to know, both fans of the game and those who were critical of it, that we have been listening and reading your reviews and comments, and we've implemented as much as we can (as per the engine's inherent limitations) to give you the better experience you deserve.
Features of this update:
1) Revised dialogue for many of the major cut-scenes of the game. NPC dialogue has been mostly left as-is (save for a few grammar and spelling fixes). We felt that some of the dialogue in the game, especially for the more significant cut-scenes, needed to be more on par with the quality of Episode 2's writing, and act as more of a tie-in rather than the disconnect that was there.
2) The current sprites for the party members that are seen in towns/overworld are no longer the same sprites seen in combat. In-combat sprites are now larger, more detailed sprites.
3) Resolution options before the start of the game. When the update goes into effect and the game is launched, you'll be greeted with a choice of resolutions. Due to the native resolution of the engine (544x416), we had to keep the width multiples of 544 in order to have the best display quality. The following will be the options: "Full Screen", "1632x1080", "1088x768", "544x416".
4) Steam Achievements - Yes, we've now got a way to make Steam achievements compatible with the engine. We're still testing this feature out thoroughly, however there is a possible downside, current save files may not be compatible once the new programming goes into effect. For the next week, we're going to determine for sure whether this is confirmed or not. If save files are not compatible with this new programming (VX and VX Ace save files traditionally don't like new programming being introduced), then we need feedback from you all as to whether or not we ought to implement this feature. We will be implementing Steam Achievements in our future games, but we want to know what you think about possibly starting over with a new save file for if we implement Steam Achievements for this game.
5) Minor graphical enhancements for the overworld, water, and some objects.
6) Miscellaneous bug fixes, gameplay smoothing.
We want to also note that due to the inherent limitations of the engine, we won't be able to fix the issue of those with Xbox/PC Controllers having to use the analog stick instead of the D-Pad to move your character around/navigate the menus. This is a known issue with these engines unfortunately, however if you press F1 at any time when the game is launched you'll be able to configure some of the button controls if you desire (but not the D-Pad controls unfortunately).
As a final note, we are also working on Cloud Saving functionality, and we will let you all know if this will be incorporated into the update or not for our next announcement.