Hey everyone!
I hope the holidays have treated you well! Before I get back into the swing of releasing new content, I thought it might be nice to push an update with some quality-of-life changes in response to all the feedback you have provided thus far. I'll list the new stuff below, in approximate order of importance. Let's get started!
New Game Plus... kind of!
You can now enter the door in the Hall of Trials! Doing so will bring you to the Otherworldly Sanctum, a new zone that will lead to further content in future updates. In the meantime though, the Sanctum does have one special function...
You can interact with the statue of the Goddess in the Sanctum to begin a new Cycle. This functions a lot like New Game Plus in other games - your story progress will be reset, but you'll retain your level, equipment and recruited allies. It's a great way to re-acquire boss Ashes or change the decisions you make in the story! Just bear in mind, some things may not be quite so easy to undo...
Elements Panel
The status menu has a new panel that allows you to view the elemental weaknesses and resistances of your party members! You can now see exactly what your party member are resistant and vulnerable to, and by how much.
You can also view any bonuses or penalties your party members have to the damage they deal with different Elements. That system doesn't see much use yet, but watch this space!
New Settings
New settings have been added to the Game section of the Options menu (you can now find the idle animation settings in the Video section).
Disable Party Exp: When toggled on, this setting prevents characters in your active party from gaining any Exp.
Disable Reserve Exp: When toggled on, this setting prevents characters in your reserve from gaining any Exp.
Disable Random Recruits: When toggled on, this setting prevents fiends from randomly offering to join your party after battles (though scripted recruitments as part of story events or special encounters will still occur).
Malice
Some of my testers mentioned seeing a new UI element in the pause menu, but I wouldn't read too much into it. I'll look into it in the next update. Probably just some legacy code...
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Miscellaneous Changes
The Tormented Progeny now drop a useful item!
Moongleam's Lunar Rapture has had its skill type changed from Magic to Special.
Throwables now scale a little with the Luck stat, helping them stay relevant in the later game.
The Brigand Leader will now recognize that the Fiend is... well, a fiend.
Several typos have been fixed!
Demo Update
The demo version of Drowning Ashes is getting an update too, with the same quality of life features (except for New Game Plus, since you can't reach the Sanctum in the demo).
That's all for this update! I hope you all enjoy playing around with New Game Plus and some of the new options, and I'll be back with some new content soon!
Until then, may your adventures in the ruins of the Capital be glorious!