Bloodstained Hands

Hello all! Just want to announce that the game has been updated as of September 15, 2021.

After getting some feedback, I adjusted the difficulty of certain bosses and altered certain parts of the game that were either too challenging or not challenging enough. But I didn't stop there! That's not enough for an update in my opinion. Regardless, you should find certain parts of the game to be less of a grind.

But on to the big stuff. This update includes two new features that I'm pretty happy with, and did a playthrough of the game, start to finish to test them out as thoroughly as I could before releasing it to you all. Didn't want to release a bug-riddled update. That would suck. So, what are the new features? Let me tell you.

First, and kind of a last minute change that I made literally today, and decided to throw together with eventing, is the introduction of Scal, a simple dice game found in any Pub in Ilythea! Scal can be played as long as you have at least two players in your party, and you can make small wagers. You'll play against a random member of your party, and they'll make comments based on how well or how poorly they're doing. The rules are similar to the dice game "Pig," but have been modified to suit this game. Also I really didn't want to name this minigame "Pig." I mean, come on. What kind of name is that? No offense to you if your name is Pig.

But, that's not all that's changed. Not even close. May I present to you... Overdrive!

After nearly a week straight (had time, off work sick) of consistent hours in front of a script database writing in a programming language that I don't understand and have never actually taken any sort of courses on, I managed to do a number of things. I found an old copy of KGC's Overdrive system for VX that WASN'T a broken link, or in Italian, Spanish, or Japanese. I re-worked the script as best I could to make it compatible for this game. I studied and duplicated the CTB scripts for enemy Overdrive gauges and the HP bar scripts for Ally Overdrive gauges, then created the graphics to represent them. I then brainstormed ideas for six new Overdrive skills that I could introduce - then figured, nah, that's not enough, and created twenty-nine Overdrive skills instead, one for each tier of weapon per class, plus two unique skills per character. I rigorously tested these skills and the functionality of the feature, de-bugged like crazy, and found ways of balancing combat much more thoroughly. For example, those ultimate abilities that you've seen if you're close to the end of the game? No spoilers. But they're Overdrive skills now. Can't spam them to kill anything that moves. Also, you know how enemies will sometimes use ridiculously overpowered skills repeatedly? Can't anymore. They're Overdrive skills. They'll still use them, but not as frequently. Same with medicines. Tired of enemies healing half their health just as you're about to kill them? Well, they might still do that, but not all the time, and it'll cost them.

What does all this actually mean? Basically, now you've got powerful skills that you can use, but only when you've either taken enough damage or enough actions. Same goes for enemies. And it's all compatible with old save files, at least as long as you refer to the download instructions on the main page. My hope is that this makes the combat in the game a) A lot less stale, especially for purely physical fighters, and b) A lot more balanced, and less grindful. Grindy? Full of grind. Grindful.

Anyway. If you feel like updating and giving it a try, by all means do so! And if you're new to the game, I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to give feedback, and let me know if there's anything you'd like to see change or any major bugs that I'm unaware of. Peace!

Okay, good to know. Still, since you aren't the first person to struggle against it, and I've already got an update in the works, I'll probably nerf the boss a little bit. I still want it to be a bit of a challenge, it is a boss after all, but it doesn't have to be THAT tough. Especially so early in the game. Thanks for the feedback, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the game!

Yikes, that is a little unbalanced. In testing I only lost to him maybe once out of every five tries, but I made the game so I know how best to utilize combat and what to expect. Out of curiosity, do you remember what level you were during that fight? And did you adjust any battle settings such as battle speed or wait modes?

Hi Miremira,