Matsumori Days

The new Chapter 1 demo is up and ready! Or soon will be! Here's a few notes on what changes were made.

The riddles within the Wind Trial now accept answers with varying degrees of capitalization. Thanks, downcase function!

All flavor text has been removed. Items, equipment, and skills now have gameplay-related descriptions. Terminology changes also came into effect.

Enemy base statistics have changed a bit, and recalcumanced the way rewards are handed out. I'm not sure if the method I now use makes me totally happy, but the numbers curve out in a satisfactory enough manner.

I made a few minor changes to the script. I think there's a few lines that Mina says that seem a bit forced, but I wanted her to avoid using terms like "wake up" and what-not. I'm also considering the characters should question things more during the first visit to the dream world, but maybe not at the same time.

The statues in the Fire Trial now have a specific encounter linked to it, rather than having a succession of normal encounters. Arguably, I should have done that before, but, well...

Ah yes. Mapping. The thing I seem to get the most hate/disgust from. In the end, I'm a proponent of "smaller is better" (followed closely with "small means less room to screw up in"). If nothing else, the overall size of the dungeons have been reduced. The number encounters per section have been summarily reduced. The style of mapping, however, remains essentially the same. If you weren't a fan of the mapping before, I highly doubt you'd be a fan of it now.


Chapter 2 to-do list:

Look over the script, and probably re-write a bunch of stuff. If nothing else, I want a different opening than what I had before.

Optional tasks open up in this chapter. I have a few ideations on this already as far as what a player can do is concerned, but nothing is set in stone about what kinds of rewards are given out for completing the tasks.

Still don't have a clue what the puzzle for the Damned Trial should be. It doesn't need to be a traditional puzzle, per say, just something players can do that fits the flavor of what a Damned Trial may ask for. I don't want to be too extreme, but...

Ah yes. Mapping. I doubt the style of mapping will change all that much, and I also doubt that the size of the dungeons will expand all that much. The only map that I foresee causing problems for me is the Water Trial. We shall see when I get that far.

Speaking of dungeons, I don't have any Chapter 2 critters in the database yet. At this particular point, this is a minor issue at best.

I'm obviously nowhere near this point, but how many errors will I miss if I'm the only playtester for Chapter 2 content? Probably more than a few will pass by, since I'm the developer. I will probably outright ignore problems because I know things about this game that the average player doesn't know. Knowledge is power, after all.