Hey everyone,

It's been awhile (again) since my last update. Don't worry, I've been pretty diligent as of late and have made some great progress. I have progressed a good bit further past the end of the first demo (finally) and have seriously cleaned up most of the parts people struggled with. I've compiled a list of issues that people have brought up in the eight reviews written (love you guys) and done my best to fulfill their requests. Here is the list with a percentage of completion:

Decrease Battle Difficulty - 90% - I say 90% simply because I haven't had anyone else test this new difficulty. I think it is sufficient, but then again I thought my last demo was too, so this won't be finished until I get some beta testers. Also, I know some of you were actually quite happy with the original difficulty, and I hope (if I can find the time) to make a "hard" difficulty with the old stats for those of you who want a challenge. But right now, the consensus was that I make it easier, so I need to focus on that first.

Make Battles Less Boring - 75% - The original gameplay is still there, with unique battle commands for each character and the ability to learn new magic abilities through heraldry books. The new gameplay mechanic involves monster hunting and acts as both a sidequest and a battle strategy. Basically, you capture monsters and use their abilities to aid you on the battlefield. I think it's a fun system, and I'm hoping no one thinks it's completely stupid (because it took forever to program correctly). Also, if you collect all the monsters in an area, you score some sweet items. If you want more detail, read the last blog. Also, I've programmed some new battle abilities for later allies and perfected some of the old ones. And a new Limit Break type of system.

Get Rid of the Retarded Overhangs - 95% - One big issue from the last demo was the overhangs which made it difficult to tell exactly where to go. I've done my best to get rid of all the ones that involve a direct path, and added rewards to those that are off the beaten path. I still need to do one last check through to make sure there aren't any more, but I will probably do that right before I release the next demo.

Mapping Errors - 50% - I still need to work on this one a bit. There are areas around the world map that you cannot walk on because of "invisible mountains" (damn autotile) and some overhangs (that go to treasures) need to be worked on.

Do Something About Those Royal Hunting Grounds - 80% - Courtesy of LittleWingGuy, I've got a brand spanking new Hunting Grounds that doesn't blow anymore. There are still a few areas that need to be cleaned up, but it's pretty much done.

Fix the Music Looping - 100% - Every MP3 has been edited so that it loops perfectly (or near perfect), so no more awkward moments of fading out.

Decrease File Size - 60% - I've used Diet MP3 to decrease the file size of each song in my game, and it has really helped. Songs originally at 4 mb are now between 1 and 1.5 mb. Some are actually under 1. This is a big deal to me because I know there are many people who passed by this game simply because of the enormous file size (and I don't blame you, it is pretty ridiculous). I still need to clean up other unused resources, but I will save that for the end.

Flesh Out the Other Major Characters, Besides Epoch - 30% - I haven't done much work on this, truthfully. I know what I want to do, but I'm kinda in tired of making cutscenes and going through the laborious task of getting every little aspect of it made perfectly. But I will do this, I promise.

Throw Out Those Recognizable Tunes (Cough* cough*...JENOVA....cough*) - 80% - So yeah, looking back I'm not really sure what I was thinking with some of the song choices. Some were just way too recognizable and took away from the experience, so I've done my best to replace the really noticeable ones. There are still some I'm sure people will know, but it shouldn't detract from the overall experience. If I have to, I'll switch those out too.

Change Epoch, He's Too Blue! - 100% - Thanks to everyone's feedback on the screenshot forum, I think I've finally gotten a good look for our protagonist. I've already implemented his new animations into every battle and character set (which took a lot longer than you might think), so your eyes shouldn't bleed anymore every time you look at him.

Improve Villains - 90% - Some people mentioned that certain villains seemed a bit too cheesy and juvenile. I believe this has been remedied, though I will do one last check before next release.

Improve Introduction and Make It Skippable - 100% - Done.

Fixing Enemy Encounters - 50% - So I'm in the process of switching the regular encounters with something akin to Cyber Factor, where you approach an enemy, they start chasing you, and eventually stop, and if you attack while their stopped, you can get the jump on them. I'm trying to think of something else to spice it up, but nothing has come to mind yet.

Changed the Confirm Sound - 100% - Done.

So that's about where I am now. There a whole bunch of other additional stuff I haven't mentioned, such as improved battle graphics (more animations) and such, but I think I've already made this blog long enough. I'm hoping to post a new demo by next RSD!, so I'm being diligent.

Oh and you may have noticed the old demo has been taken down. It's been up for nearly a year now and is extremely dated. 938 downloads is pretty good though!