Good evening,

I've launched an update for Bloodstained Hands, so version 5.9 is now available. I'll go over what's available and why I made these adjustments, but first I have some bittersweet news.

As of this update, I have to announce that I will be sunsetting the support for this game. I will still be keeping an eye on the comments and responding where I can, and of course if someone finds a bug I will gladly fix it, but I will likely not be releasing any more game-changing updates or modifications past this point. The reason for this is that I've spent over a decade in polishing this game, and I've learned that it will never be perfect. I will always be able to improve some feature or mechanic, or enhance a graphic or add more content. There is no such thing as an end date for a passion project such as this. However, the more time I spend polishing a finished project, the less time I have to spend on other endeavors.

I have a project in mind that I want to work on, and it's going to require a major time commitment. It's a visual novel I've dubbed the "Children of Gaia," and I'm going for the most beautiful project I can possibly make, using all the skills and knowledge I've accumulated over the last 13 years of game development. For that reason, I need to take my focus away from Bloodstained Hands, at least the development side of things. I have already committed to putting together a game-guide to help out players and answer some of the more frequently asked questions, and I will complete that. I may also release a few more videos based on certain requests, but that's about all. I sincerely appreciate the feedback I've received from all of you, I can honestly say I've stretched myself more and improved this game more in the last two months than I have in the last two years prior. So, with this last round of feedback, I've made a few final modifications that I hope you enjoy, and I hope you'll keep an eye out for my next project!

So without further ado, what's included in version 5.9?

Battle music! Probably the second-most requested feature besides a repel item (which I included in 5.8), there is now battle BGM for random encounters. It's not perfect though, since I was unable to prevent the map BGM from restarting after every battle, but if you prefer it the old way, that's fine, because of the second update.

You can now disable the new battle BGM in the system menu. If you prefer the classic way, where the map music would continue playing through random encounters, and only bosses had special music, you can disable the random encounter BGM.

In addition to these updates, I also modified the shop scene and the forge scene to properly display stat changes for new weapons and armour. Now, this requires some explanation. Let's say you've got a character with a single dagger equipped, but he can dual wield. What would the stat change display if he was looking at a two handed weapon? It would show what the stat growth would be, replacing the current equipped item. Now, how about a reverse situation? You've got a two handed weapon, you can dual wield, and you're looking at a one handed weapon. Well, in that case, you would see the stat changes for if you equipped TWO of that one handed weapon. Basically, if you're looking at a new weapon, the comparison stats will show you the highest possible stat increase if you were to use that weapon (even if it would grow just by equipping one but not the other), or the lowest possible stat decrease if you were to swap your equipment. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to put this bit of code together. Four hours of my life, gone. On about 12 lines of code.

And the last change is in regards to cutscenes. They've been enhanced with more character movement and on screen interaction. Hopefully it'll make for a more interesting and engaging gameplay experience.

Well, with all that said (gosh that was long-winded), I hope you enjoy the final update of Bloodstained Hands! Save files are of course compatible. Thank you for your support and feedback, please report any bugs below, and happy playing!