Hello!
Before we get into it, let us take a moment to thank you all for your support, bug submissions, and feedback up to this point. It has all been tremendously helpful in guiding our prioritization as we’ve released updates. Please continue to keep us honest and engaged via Discord and Twitter.
One of the consistent themes in feedback to date has been the idea that success in the game feels too random at times. We agree, and that's the primary focus of this blog and of the next update. We’ll have a host of other goodies in addition to a balance overhaul, which will make this our largest update so far. Thus, it will take a bit more time than some of the previous updates, but we are confident it will be worth the effort.
Tiering, Progression, and the Fight Against Complete Randomness
In the next update, Allies, Weapons, and Charms will all have “Tiers” associated with them. As you might expect, more powerful Tiers will unlock as you progress through the regions of the game. Within each tier is a common/uncommon/rare hierarchy - the higher the rarity, the more powerful the unit or item will be. By converting all of our party elements into this rarity/tier system, we are able to break everything down into smaller chunks and introduce things gradually across regions, facilitating a better and more natural feeling progression.
In order to support this improvement (and for other reasons we'll mention in the next section), we needed to rebalance almost everything in the game. For the past few weeks we've been re-running much of the math to make sure each element of the game is appropriately balanced. In the past, many of our Weapons and Allies have been somewhat flat in terms of their relative power within their respective type.
When this update launches, you will notice a change in many elements of the game - almost everything has been made more powerful, and Allies have been reconfigured to make levelling up more impactful and important. As a result, enemies also received their own rebalance to match these player-side changes. So expect to hate certain enemies even more than before!
You’ll still get the feeling of some good or bad luck occasionally, but having a run of “bad luck” will feel less impactful now. The goal is to make the feeling of randomness far less swingy.
Today, because all elements are available at the start of the game, there is less reason to invest in weaker units, and the metagame revolves around the hunt for specific Allies and Weapons. Because enemies are balanced against those better Allies, the game can feel extremely challenging at times without the “best” allies. Unfortunately for most of you, these coming balance changes mean you may finally need to invest some scrolls in improving those Farmers :).
Two New Regions!
Part of the reason we need this rebalancing is because the time has arrived to expand the game world. With the next update, we’ll be adding regions for Tohoku and Hokkaido (known as Ezogashima during the Heian period, and thus, in the game as well). On launch, these regions will be similar to the existing regions of the game, but we have more planned for Ezogashima that will arrive in future releases. For example, events that are unique to the island that cannot be encountered anywhere else in the game world.
An Explosive Yokai
We're also introducing another yokai to frustrate you, the Katawaguruma. This yokai will explode in a fiery mess, setting your party and the surrounding terrain ablaze with the new Burning status effect (Armor and then HP damage every turn until Cured).
A New Boss
This update will also include a new Boss with an icy disposition.
More Charms
We are adding a host of new Charms with corresponding Achievements. Many of these charms are themed around defense, like granting party Immunity to certain Status Effects or weather events. We are also introducing a few Charms focused on amplifying specific Allies, to encourage more variation in party builds.
Rebalanced Economy
We are rebalancing the Resource economy. You'll see far more XP scrolls than before with a much better feeling of progression.
Thanks again for your support and feedback. We look forward to sharing this update with you soon!
- Picklefeet Games