Since deciding a few months back that I would allow players to revisit any location from the first game in this sequel, I've been cautiously planning the best way to go about it without rehashing too much of the same old. Well... the endings definitely helped out in that area! (SPOLIER ALERT) For instance, the City of Witches has been rebuilt since its destruction int he first game, and how it looks depends solely on whether or not players chose one of the harder ending routes (Haddy becomes the new high witch). If she is indeed a person of great power, the town will have a huge castle in its center where she lives (or reigns over the other witches). Obviously, these 2 routes will have different story elements and side quests associated with them.

On the other hand, the town of Orin, for instance, is pretty much exactly how you'll remember it (albeit with a different chipset). It's kind of unavoidable at this point to change areas like that too much without totally ruining continuity. In terms of fighting areas, I'm trying to come up with ways to create new routes instead of trudging all of the old ones, which is actually quite a bit easier than I thought (so far).

It's been fun, finally being able to explore alternate story elements, now that I've gotten to the later chapters of the game. I truly believe that when all is said and done, people will actually want to replay the game with the alternate endings so that they can experience it in a completely different way. And the way I'm going about it, there are major bonuses for EVERY single story variable you've hit (that's 6 total variables from the ending of the first game).

As previously stated, I'll be including 2 savefiles in the release (one that chose the first 3 variables, the other that chose the other 3 variables). I believe your savestates from the first game (if you've managed to keep them since beating it) should work regardless, but in case not, this is the only alternative I really have right now).

Anyways, I've been so busy designing older areas the last couple days that I've yet to finish off the other things I intended to from the first 3 chapters. However, check my last post on the main game page, and you'll see that there isn't much left to do for them.

I haven't decided if I'm going to include the director's cut chapter again this time around. It seems there may just be way too much story to be able to fit it in... on the other hand though, seeing as how many of the quests are going to be rather optional in nature... I just may be able to yet.