So, it's been a while since my last report on the condition of the game, but I have been making some very steady progress in creating the meat of the game. There are quite a few announcements that I need to make pertaining to the state of the game and it's predicted state.

1. I am nearly 2 weeks from Beta Testing the game, and I already have a beta testing team ready to go. After 3 or so people finish what will essentially be the first demo, I will take consider any input they have about the game and fix any bugs found in the game, and FINALLY release the demo.

2.There has been a major shift in graphic style pertaining to the sprites as the sprites will now be in a Romancing SaGa 3 style rather than the RM2k style that I had before. There are two particular reasons why this is happening.

I- I had already been using this style as the template for 90 percent of the battle chars in the project, and to make the look of characters more uniform, I chose to change the map sprites also.

II- The sprites allow for a better realism than the 2k3, while still keeping the cute feel of RPG sprites, which I always liked. There is more room for detail in these as well

Since I couldn't find a sheet of the NPC's from RSG3 on the web as far as i looked (3rd page on Google), I had to play through RSG3 again to rip nearly every sprite onto a comprehensive sprite sheet. From what I understand there are possibly more that were never used in the game that I will be investigating at a later time, but for now, for anyone else who has or will be looking for a sheet of these sprites, here is the sheet that I have compiled



Note that not every possible color of the characters are here on the sheet, for I would assume if someone wanted a specific color set, they could simply do what I did and just recolor them. Also if you do happen to use this sprite sheet, I would like some credit for the time it took to rip these.

Also this is a preview of how 4 of the main protagonists have been redone. Some are minor changes, others are major.



In other news, I have been doing ALOT of behind the screens stuff, such as battle systems, menu systems and progression systems becuase I want to add some flare to classic conventions. Below is a shot form my common event list where at the top and displayed is the event for the custom menu which is quite lengthy...



The CMS has been another task that I have redone and rethought multiple times, but as the project inches closer to publishing, I feel the need to finalize it's lay out. For now I'm going to hide what It's actually going to look like, but I hope you guys will enjoy not only it's design and it's smooth ingenuity.

As for progression and leveling, one of my major focuses recently is determining what weapons and armor can be accessible, and how to make players think a bit more on how to develop characters, making a win-loss scenario when choosing development. The weapon system that I came up with is not as much an innovation on equipment use in RPG's as much as it is a tweaked sytem, with a few original bits and pieces thrown in. Below is the chart I created for the Eternal dusk Weapon manual that shows the possible weapon paths each class can take. (For a refresher on the classes and their respective tiers, please check out the images for Eternal Dusk)



Each weapon type has distinct disadvantages and advantages in battle so equipping your squad with the right classes and weapons will ultimately determine how successful you are in battle, in different parts of the story, and they can open up many optional opportunities later in the game. So choose wisely.

Hopefully this update gives you some insight on what is happening with the game and where it's going. And for those of you who have shown interest, constructive criticism and support for the game to this point, I thank you from the bottom of my metaphysical representation of one's soul!