I've decided to make weekly posts to help keep myself accountable.  This week, I bring to you a snapshot of a fight from the introduction. If you played the previous version, someone might look familiar :)

What I've done this week: finished about 40% of the introduction (been working non-stop!), finished first boss on normal and hard mode. 

Like I believe I mentioned, I heavily rewrote the entire introduction of the game. We're starting in Alavon (the city in the title image), where our protagonist grew up, and before....stuff happened! I think I this version will be much more solid in connecting to Aarlin's character. That being said, while a lot of the story between leaving Tella and the end of the original demo won't be heavily changed in the narrative structure, Aarlin and his comrades will have a lot of dialogue reworks. What happens in the new introduction plays a role in this. There's also going to be a lot of mechanical balance changes, and I hope it works out! 

This has what has been solidified mechanically going forward: hard mode bosses not only do more damage, but they are being programmed to subvert some of the common strategies you come up with. With the Alter system, and with so many combinations of skills you can use, I can't account for everything. But I promise the bosses on hard mode are not pushovers by any means. 

Included is the reputation system. Finishing side quests and helping people with their problems will earn Aarlin reputation, which you can take to a vendor who will sell you unique items based on your current reputation. The catch? You can't get all of the items available unless you're on hard mode, because bosses on hard mode drop reputation as well. These items are just flavor items and aren't going to make you a god, so it'll be okay to play on normal.

Last (but not solidified yet, I need to see if it's feasible) is random encounters. Each section will have a set amount of encounters. You'll be able to manipulate encounters in a few ways: walk around and battle randomly (like normal), turn off random encounters, or chain battle encounters. You have to clear all the encounters in an area before you can proceed in the story, but you have the agency on how to approach it. You can jump in and chain the battles immediately (leaving you free to explore), fight them staggered with the typical random encounter setup, or turn off encounters until the end of the dungeon (then chain them). Totally inspired by Fantasian, yes. It also lets me have more control over the players level for balancing. There will be rare items available to reset the dungeon if you need more exp.