Alright, so I've got some good news.

I thought with the beginning of a new semester and upcoming career decisions I wouldn't have any time to work on Forever's End. Thankfully, that hasn't been the case. My semester hasn't been difficult at all thus far, and although applying for jobs is time-consuming, it isn't something that completely takes all my free time. So what kind of progress have I made? Well, all the cutscenes for the demo are finally finished!

This may not sound like that big of a deal to some of you, but this is really a big step forward because now I can move on to the rest of the gameplay elements. And there were ton of cutscenes too, so it feels really really nice to have them all out of the way. So you all can expect a demo to come sooner rather than later.

So what's left to do? Well, I've still got a bit, but the nice thing is that much of the code is already made; I just need to copy, paste, and alter it into different areas. Here are some fun new gameplay mechanics you can expect from this upcoming demo:

1. Some new, unique character skills for new party members (I'm not going to go into too much detail because I'd rather they be a surprise; but I think people will like them).

2. The ability to challenge NPCs to monster fights. That's right, now you can enter fights where you're only allowed to use your captured monsters' abilities. Winning can score you some rather cool rare items/monsters.

3. Tournaments for both character battles and monster battles.

4. When Nel is in your party, you can pickpocket NPCs. I'm still working out the specifics of this, but I'm pretty sure it will follow Star Ocean's example and give you just one opportunity to steal. I'm going to see if I can't set up a system that shows your odds of stealing and may even add a level up and experience system so it isn't just a random guessing game.

5. A lot of nifty puzzles this time around, with one in particular involving time travel.

6. New Soul Rend skills. I never really set up a system for learning new ones in the previous demo, but characters will be able to learn new Rends this time around.

There are a few others, but these are probably the most notable ones. Because the sheer amount to do in this game is getting to be rather staggering, I'm also going to include a complete comprehensive guide that updates itself as new characters and gameplay mechanics are introduced. You'll receive it near the start of the game, so I'll need to find a way to get it those players who already have a save file. I'm also going to do my best to improve some of the boss battles (revise some of the latter ones in the previous demo) to make them more interesting and challenging.

I want players to feel like they can do a lot in this game. I hope it doesn't end up being too much and overwhelming players, but hopefully the guide will aid with that. Thankfully, because there are so many opportunities to get new items and get stronger, I will be able to really amp up the difficult of boss battles, so expect some doozies.

If you have any questions/comments/criticisms, please don't hesitate to post. Everyone's feedback has really helped me improve this game. More feedback can only make it that much better!