Hello everyone, today I am here to discuss an upcoming demo for the Shantae and Monster World 4 crossover project. This will include explaining a bit about the battle system and how some of the game's mechanics work. I won't go too much into detail because I'd like for you all to experience the game for yourselves. With that said, here we go.

Upgrades

This is one of the most important aspects of the game as you have complete freedom of how you choose to develop your characters. Similar to games such as Final Fantasy X and Tales of Xillia, this game has a "Skill Grid". However, you are able to activate any node on the map at any time as long as you have the required Synthesis Crystals(Synth Crystals).

Synthesis Crystals are red gems that you can earn in several ways such as clearing puzzles, leveling up, and finding them in various locations across the world map. With these gems, you can upgrade any stat or ability you want. Your success depends on your play style since you are given the freedom of being able to choose which nodes you'd like to activate first or last.If you want to increase a stat rather than increasing maximum HP, that is completely up to you.


An example of decreasing the MP value for Fireball.

Critical and Magical Hits
Monster World IV introduced a new kind of critical hit system known as Magical Hits. Usually, every 5th hit turned into an attack that was five times stronger than normal attacks. This time it is a bit different, the game features both critical hits and magical hits. Critical Hits do twice the damage and show up in yellow numbers, while Magical Hits will do 5 times the damage and show up in blue. Some upgrades will even allow you to gain experience with these hits.


Defense
Monster World IV also introduced a different kind of defense system for the franchise. Rather than simply decreasing the damage you take, you have a dice roll stat that you can upgrade that will increase the chance of completely blocking an attack. This time, when you get damaged not only will you block the attack, but gain an invincibility period along with it. this will help get away from the enemy or hazard that was trying to hurt you while also giving you a chance to go wild with attacks.

Specials
A new system to the game is a Special Attack system akin to the "Limit Breaks" or "Mystic Artes". When you are playing as Shantae or Asha (for now), if your special meter is full, it will begin to blink. If you press the special button, your character will release an attack much stronger than what they are normally capable of. This really helps if you are surrounded or in a desperate situation. If this mixes with a Magical Hit, you will be dishing out some serious damage.


Experience System:
This game handles experience points a little differently. As of now, every monster you kill no matter what the type or strength(except bosses), will reward you with one point of experience per kill. Every time you gain a level, the experience will reset to zero, you'll get a set amount of Synthesis Crystals and the required experience increases by ten. So if you kill ten monsters, you will level up and the next level will require twenty. Don't worry however, there are multiple ways to gain experience than simply defeating monsters.



With all of that said, if you've made it this far, you are a real trooper!
I hope this clears up a lot that is going on with the game, and we hope you all will enjoy the game when it is released. Also, feel free to discuss things you do or don't like about the game in it's current state, your feedback is incredibly important to us. Thank you and have an awesome day :)