Alrighty, now that I've sorted out a few bugs here or there, the initial demo for Blood Shard is out and ready to be played. It'll take about an hour to complete, give or take.

The response I've had so far is looking quite positive. The main stand out point for me is the combat, as that was a very hit and miss area in the initial demo if anyone recalls. Basically, combat in this game is TOUGH now, and it'll be tough if you don't prioritize strategically. There is some room for trial and error, but each encounter in the demo is unique in that there are different strategies for each one. It's very easy to get killed, but it's balanced out with healing items being instant use, and your skills being more than enough to stop the enemies from owning you. Basically, spamming attack will get you mauled. That was the main problem with the prior release, because just attack-attack-attack could get you through most battles.

Now, however, if you do that then you'll more than likely wind up dead.

So my general rules of thumb when it comes to combat - use your buff/debuff items, they stack twice and REALLY help against the harder hitting foes. Use your Forte skills because you'll really need them if you don't want to hit a brick wall of frustration. The battles aren't tailored for attack spamming, so I hope you all enjoy them.

Hopefully now then, that RSW is over, I can crack on with the rest of part one. I'm waiting on a script to be commissioned that'll give the characters a means of learning new Forte skills and boosting various parameters - a lot like Dragon Quest 8's, actually. It'll mean databasing will need to be redone, but I'll have a clear picture in mind of what I'm wanting to do. I'm now in the same stage I was after the VX demo, so it's time to get cracking on.

A question - would you prefer a new demo after part one is complete, or a demo after part one's kinda at the halfway point?