In the last update, I wrote about the new battle system I was working on. But after having the polished prototype done, I realized that the reason I was including a battle system was more due to conditioning than the needs of my game or its story. After all, almost every RPG I've ever played has contained the theme of killing innumerable enemies for the sake of currency and progression; imagining an RPG without combat is like imagining the world without money, it seems: It's nigh impossible.
But after a lot of thought and experimentation, I have come to the conclusion that I can make an engrossing and exciting game without combat as a core gameplay mechanic. Instead I will put exploration and "puzzle" to the forefront. Talking with people, exploring the world and your characters is what the story was always meant to be about. Removing combat as a gameplay mechanic means I can afford to spend much more time on level design and puzzles, and also story elements.
It was a scary choice, because for me it's truly taking a big leap into the unknown. But it feels right. I've remade a big part of the current version, improving it while removing combat, and I've started work on new content too. I'll have a new version available in not too long with new content that lets you see what I have in mind. For now, the download has been updated with a lot of updates to dialogue, timing, events, and a new map replacing an existing one.
Yeah, I hope so too. It really feels good to be able to spend more time on creating truly interesting maps; it's what I enjoy the most apart from creating the story itself :)