The July 24th update is now live!

Please see the devlog for an extensive list of updates.

This update includes a number of changes that I'd considered implementing before, but didn't have the know-how to do effectively. There are three major changes that I will describe in further detail in this post.

First and foremost, sparring sessions with Shadow have been added, accessible in New Game Plus. Once you've beaten the game at least once, Shadow will appear in the Sanctuary (if he isn't in your party). Talking to Shadow will prompt an opportunity to spar with Shadow, allowing you to test your abilities much like the sequence during the mission "The Test." You can do this as often as you like, and Shadow will scale to your level. This doesn't affect gameplay in any way, but was a fun little addition that I decided to include in this update.

Second, the Horrify skill and status ailment has been updated. Initially, Horrify would cause enemies to run in fear when afflicted. While interesting, this isn't particularly useful, especially when you consider that there are other more useful skills available when Horrify becomes available, and enemies that flee do not grant experience. It also doesn't work on bosses or allies, so it ends up being the least used skill in the game. Now, Horrify will still cause enemies to flee, but will also reduce the ATK and SPI of the afflicted by 80% for the duration of the effect. This works on almost all enemies, including bosses, and can affect allies as well. To that end, certain enemies have had "Horrify" added to their list of usable skills. With these adjustments, "Horrify" carries a unique ability that separates it from every other skill, and when used in the right situation can turn the tide of important battles.

The third major change relates to the duration of certain skills, and requires some explanation. The affected skills are Shroud, Sleep, Insanity, and Horrify. Prior to version 4.9, Shroud would only last for ten turns, then immediately lift. Sleep, Insanity, and Horrify would last for five turns.

Here's the problem with that. In a one-on-one fight, Shroud would arguably become the best skill in the game, especially against purely physical fighters. After triggering the skill, you would have ten turns to do anything you want without worrying about damage. However, most fights are not one-on-one. Most fights have two or three enemies, and sometimes as many as eight, along with four party members, all taking turns quite rapidly. When you take that into consideration, applying Shroud would be a wasted effort. The skill would be applied, your three remaining allies would take their turns, four enemies would take their turns, and the duration of Shroud would be half over before you get a chance to take another turn with the character who used the skill. To keep it maintained, you'd have to use Shroud every second turn, mitigating the usefulness of the skill.

With this update, those durations have been fixed. For those of you who understand how RPG Maker works, I basically re-wrote the script that removes status ailments upon taking damage. Now, checking that particular box instead changes the duration from a fixed number of turns to a variable rate. In other words, while certain status ailments (poison, electrocution, etc.) will only last a set number of turns, now there are status ailments that will have their duration determined by the number of enemies you are facing at the time of application. For example, if you are fighting one enemy, Shroud will only last eight turns. If you are facing two enemies, it will last sixteen turns. Basically, Shroud will last eight turns per enemy at the time it is applied. Sleep, Insanity, and Horrify have been likewise adjusted to last three to six turns for each enemy on the field. With these changes, these skills are considerably more useful in large scale encounters, instead of only being useful for very specific scenarios, while still remaining balanced for one-on-one encounters and boss fights.

There are a couple more changes that are included in this update, but are fairly minor. For a detailed list please see the devlog. Thank you for your support, and happy playing! This update is compatible with saves from version 4.8. For updating from an earlier version, please see the devlog for the release of version 4.8 for update instructions.