Sorry all, the last while has been a bit crazy between the new job, my band, and some family issues. As a result, I've been forced to place this on hiatus again, hopefully only for a month or two, but we'll see.

The only project that isn't on hiatus for me atm is Mafiosi, so make sure to check that out to tide you over (the story is much better in it anyway).

I'll report back when I finally get some time to spend on this again.

While I'm slowly piecing away at this, I've kinda gotten away from RM over the last couple months, as I've needed the break since finishing Fragile Hearts 2. The level mapping has been a bit of a bitch, so it's not the most appealing creative outlet for me atm.

Anyways, my August completion estimate was probably a little premature. Never say never, but I believe it'll still be a while yet. Anyways, I may end up releasing the brushed up demo that went to testers to whet people's appetites. Hopefully that'll make up for my poor estimation. Also, the game has a whopping 47 subs, so I can tell there are a few people who are quite excited for this (I have actually found ads for it on VN forums, completely by accident lol).

I'm still in a re-testing phase right now, trying to figure out exactly what still needs to be done before I can move on to the main routes. More updates to come!

Currently:
Still working away at the finishing touches of day 2 of the common route (for those who remember, there are 6 in all). I'm also beta testing as I go along, so that should help with the production time even further. So far I haven't run into anything too messy, the odd switch I forgot to turn on here and there is all. The most tedious part right now is adding the items and enemies to the maps, which I'll have to do before moving on to the next common route day.

As my day 1 beta players suggested, I added a weak attack that can be used at any time by any character. It's another key item, instead of a regular attack, but that's just how I wanna keep it.

Character routes will be finished off last, after the common route is done. The first of which will have the missions being made at the same time, so it'll take longer than others. It'll be smooth sailing from there, as I can relax and let the writer in me take over completely. Ah, how I long for that phase...

Release:
So, I want to aim for a July release, or at least be well into beta testing by then (as in testing done by others, not myself). It's pretty much a lot of tedium from now on until I'm finished the common route, but it's nice that I'm getting a refresher of the story as I move along at least.

Graphics:
So, I've just had an awful time with Windows 7 and png edits in any program. I know it seems to be working for other RMN users, but I can't seem to get any of my GIMP conversions to be recognized by rm2k3. As a result, the character portraits are going to remain pretty subpar. It's unfortunate, but it's the way things are right now. Hopefully on a future update of the game I'll eventually be able to fix them up, but right now it's become a low priority, especially since I have so many other projects to get to after this (including some fan disks for this game).

Based on some feedback from the preview demo, I'm trying to fix some things up and redo some others. I took a few weeks off to clear my head a bit so I could come back at it in full force. I think FH2 got a decent amount of progress in that time, and it's time to focus on this again.

I think since I'm reworking some of the gameplay elements, I'll make the dungeons before I move onto the individual character arcs. That'll be a little bit of back and forth, but hopefully it'll be worth it in the end and it will be a smoother transition later on.

Anyways, thanks to all who were involved in giving me feedback! It's going to be very useful to me during this next phase.

I admittedly didn't get around to making any graphical edits yet, so the character art is still very poor looking (for instance, lots of white specs around character profiles, Apo has awful purple hair that will be fixed and changed to black, etc). If you can forgive that for the moment, then go ahead and ask for a link.

I am sending the link to those who have asked for it right now, so they should all have it in the next 10 or so minutes. I'm hoping everything goes smoothly enough, but it's still in a very raw form atm, so please bear that in mind. I also tested it myself without the help of amerk this time, as he will be beta testing the full version instead. It is very possible that I missed something crucial.

Also, you can save anywhere in the game at this point, so hopefully that won't screw anyone over.

Time for me to get back to beta testing FH v.1.3, as I've held off too long on that.