The Reconstruction

You would have removed Kidra entirely? o_O Or just changed her personality?

I'm glad you think it works in its present form, though. I haven't heard any complaints other than in my own head, to be honest.

Hm. Yeah, I can see what you talked about, but I don't think it really detracts from the story all that much. The transition may be a little jarring but is suitably dramatic. It also works well with the theme of knowledge vs. ignorance.

Starting a new topic:

I apologize for the blog-stalking in advance, but, in your latest blog post, you mention that you think the story would have been better if the dark and light moments were a bit more spread out, instead of mostly relegated to each half of the story. Can you think of something you would have done, specifically? How would you have made the early game darker or the late game lighter?

Honestly, I think the flow works decently -- the first chapter is pretty mellow and lighthearted, but there are plenty of hints about darker things to come. I also think that chapter 4 works as a bit of a breather episode -- things don't dial all the way back, but I think it's a bit lighter and easier to swallow than chapter 3. I'm no expert though, of course, and I'm generally a serious grimdark drama kind of person anyway, so I'm probably biased.

I...see. I'll try to figure something out.

By the way, how old was she during the Plague? I have her as a little girl when the slaver ships first arrive, but that's probably too young if she's middle-aged during the main game.

...She's a traditionalist? Gaaaaaah you just shot my fanfic idea to pieces. ;_; I guess I'll have to move on to my next fic idea.

But wait, if she's a traditionalist, then shouldn't she be practicing isolationism as well and not be travelling the world with Skint?

I have a question, Deltree: How old is Aryn supposed to be? Was she alive during the Blue Plague outbreak? She looks fairly young during the main game. Also, does she know magic?

Bug report here. I'm still sort of new to this community, and I'd love to play this game, but it keeps telling me "RGSS104E.dll not found" when I load up the application. There's a "RGSS102E.dll" in the game folder, which is an 'application extension' file type, so I renamed it RGSS104E.dll and things booted up fine.

What, exactly, was going on here, and is this going to blow up in my face?

By the way, everyone who's still here: I have written a fanfic. Reviews would be appreciated. Try writing your own if you think you can!

Hm...in reference to your latest blog post: You say that mind/soul damage on a melee attack is a secondary effect to the physical damage it inflicts. However, wouldn't this mean that all melee weapons should deal body damage? Or are the people who use those weapons so wimpy that their physical strike doesn't inflict any significant damage? Really, I suppose the only way to make it work is to say they're literally attacking their opponent's mind/soul, but that raises questions of its own... :x

Wow, awesome! It's great that you're still willing to make bugfixes after all this time. Does it tweak the passive skill costs too? (There are some characters who don't even get the Rank I balancing -- I think everyone except the starting cast still has the 300/200 split, actually.)

I'll report any more bugs/typos I come across, I guess?

I...see. Interesting. That would explain why Fiery Raid does such paltry damage, even after I've been upgrading his spirit.

If you're planning on making a patch, I'll try to point out other bugs I come across, then. There are a number of typos, but I've forgotten where most of them are. I do know there's one in the prologue, though, during the ending cutscene where Sara is talking to the freed slaves.

While you're at it, here's weird battle bug I found: If an enemy rush empties the meter and causes a shift, if there's already at least one rush stage lit up for the player, the "damage up/damage down" messages don't appear, the zone-of-control bar doesn't shift, and the characters aren't pushed back if they're on the front line. (Characters who weren't on the front line can't advance further, though; it's merely a cosmetic bug.) Don't know what's causing it or if it's even worth fixing, though.

Also, not sure if it's a bug or not, but I seem to be able to trigger the effects of Growth of Hope when Falitza uses Press Fortune (+/- Rush, advance/break chain), even though she hasn't learned it yet. Do you know what's up with this?