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Hi knightmarish_Games, thanks for the latest update! Also thanks for the personal acknowledgement as part of the release. I'm amazed by what you've been able to implement and adapt in such a short period of time. I've offered as much feedback as I can, directly building on what you communicated as the 4.0 changes below, so any future updates are supported to round out the mechanics and balance as best as possible. With the exciting changes to Light/Dark Dragons, I've offered some balance suggestions between Ranger vs Dragon, and skills/skill trees. 

[Feedback is upto the Joker Boss at the end of the Joker's Lair, approx. party Lvl 14] 

4.0 Changes

Auto-Save now only saves on transitioning to new maps and no longer soft locking you in battle or certain areas.

• Slightly Inconsistent – but much better!  It will sometimes autosave prior to engaging in a random mob fight (Joker’s Lair). When I died at the Joker boss fight, it as intended, , and autosave took me back to the beginning of the zone (without Nina in party) – what a relief!

Yua is now a recruitable party member that uses Boomerangs.

• Looking forward to seeing how she turned out!

Cutscene with Ray in Mt.Fubi now triggers the Light/Dark Dragon choice.

• Any chance to have this definitive choice made again later in the adventure? You know what they say: ‘just try it man, the first one’s free’.
  • What if you got a taste of both skill trees until you clear Bosch’s name and then you have to ‘pick a path’. Are you a protector, or conqueror? By the party round-table at the end of the Trout saga - You’ve had a chance to see and defeat the big bads of the world at that point (Trout, Argus, Joker, Jean 2.0) You've seen the inherent corruption/weakness of the kingdoms (Hometown, Coursair, Windia & Simafort) Does power entice?  Are these people/kingdoms worth defending if they fall to evil and their hubris so easily? 
• It would be nice to look at both sides of the skill tree – because I wasn’t ‘in deep enough’ to make a call by Mt Fubi. Just as Ganer gave you the Dragon Tear, maybe Ray gives you something at Mt Fubi from St Eva that links to the Dark Dragon skill set?

Light and Dark Points added based off Morality choices.

• Unclear how/when these are obtained. I had emerged with 5 Light side points after rescuing Lin, but before engaging with Argus. Can there be a prompt that explains when/how these are obtained. Also, I ended up with a Dark point – but can’t use it. Was it linked to party member deaths in battle? It later vanished.

Light/Dark Dragon Tree added.

• For Ryu’s SOLO section, the LightDragon ability that offers +10%HP recovery made him a bit too overpowered for TagWoods and the Arena. Oils (which were essential in the last 3.2 update, were no longer needed. Ryu’s HP recovery (and evasion) outpaced enemy damage until R-66Y – who was dangerous for his barrage attacks.
  
• I haven’t seen the DarkDragon Skill Tree yet, but the LightDragon skills (and regen ability specifically) seems like an added early game buff that makes Ryu overpowered, relative to (3.2). That said, I can see this being underwhelming by the nature of how combat plays out with barrage attacks soon after the Colliseum segment. Also, the LightDragon skill that gives all player allies.+100HP and +10MP does not appear to apply the MP bonus. While harder to code, what if the party buffs were more subtle like:
  • Spirit of the Brood -  adds +15% chance to party members’ case of surviving fatal attack with 1HP? Weaker version of GUTS for whole party, but is a passive skill and can be upgraded. Reminds be of GUTS stat (the flames) in the original BOFII
  • Dragon’s Valor: When Ryu uses a CP ability, allies recover CP relative to ½ of what Ryu spent

• Something like the above will ensure that the skill retains some functionality in the late game, while not throwing off the balance in favour of the player too much in the early game.
• I also think that whichever side (Light/Dark) you pick – four skill trees is maybe a bit of a crowd, and I would suggest that they be kept more manageable (in line with other games where skill-trees feature, usually it’s 2 or 3).

Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Earth Whelps and Dragons now have a Claw attack that uses CB to drain life and inflict Status Ailments.

• Nice change to the dragons, I will have to see how this scales over the game progression. I suspect that Dragon-use will overtake Ranger use by endgame? Through the Bosch-to-Joker Lair sections, a (Ranger) Ryu with x2 or x3 Attack is generally the favourable strategic (better DPS), compared to dragon. As for extended battles, it seems the same. Currently this is my choice:
  • Ryu x3 attack with the Fire-Oil? 
•  -OR- 

  
  

  •  Dragon Breath or Dragon Claw x1 attack with enflamed/siphon and CP cooldown?
    
    
• I want to invest in Dragons, but they are the slower approach and, presently, skill trees are a zero-sum game (points in DragonBrood Tree reduce ATK, which Ranger relies on). As the majority of Ryu's combat time will be spent in human form – it seems dangerous to undermine his ATK. Instead of a 1 point to Dragon ability increase results in ½ ATK power, what if the penalties are omitted, but overall pool of skill points is reduced, instead? Basically, I want to build up Ryu for general competence in human form, and then start investing in his Dragon forms (without feeling like I sacrifice previous gains).
  
  
• Rethinking the emphasis on DPS: The other thought is that (at present) the battle mechanics mirror BOFIII in which EX-turns (multiple actions) reign supreme. Thus, it makes sense for players to prioritise Attack x3 Ryu, with skills/BUFFs that prompt multiple-actions in turn progression – but should that be my play-style?
  • Compare 3.2 character set-ups: Bosch begins the game with Autocross-Bow, an expensive but effective 20CP attack vs. Lin’s natural 2-4 hits with normal ATK, or with Aerial Strike 2-4 hits for 5CP. Should these be toned down slightly, and base stats be raised to compensate? Individually, Ryu/Rand/Lin's ATK is average, with the multiple hits however, they stack up. 
    

• The consequence of the above, towards overall party balance, means that I wasn’t using Jean/Sten much in the previous 3.2 -  partly because I had other party members (Ryu, Nina, Rand, Lin… Aspara for Lores) who were already BUFFed for barrage-style attacks/turn actions. Jean as a sort of spellsword Paladin didn't fit that strategy (inferior damage to Lin/Nina/Aspara; inferior support to Rand). Sten, while fast, lacked the 2-4 hit barrage of Lin (admittedly he was good for some AOE disrupt attacks). So, while I haven't progressed far in 4.0, this may be a problem long term. 
  

• Enemy Barrage: It could be toned down for enemies as well: example, a group of 5 bandits will spam the Stealth ability (making them harder to hit, and drawing out the fight). When they do attack, it’s a barrage of 3-5 hits. These do nothing to someone like Rand, but for Lin/Nina, there’s a high chance of death as only a few need to connect for KO. If the Bandits hit just once, but more often, they still represent a significant threat, but now Ryu is covering for one hit per enemy, instead of 3-5. Lin has high evasion, but not high enough to warrant Taunt where she’s expected to dodge multiple barrages.
  • Toning this down could see it used as an easy “second wind” BUFF for mobs. Perhaps single mob enemies, or enemies in critical condition unlock the barrage mode? Same with party members. Maybe that’s a Ryu skill-tree bonus or relic that adds a +% chance for barrage attacks.

Rebalancing and rework on some useless Skills in trees.

• I went for the skill upgrade to get improved Oils (Ranger), hoping for the revive cooked meal to turn up. After 4 points invested, it still didn’t appear, but the +400 increased health (coupled with Light Dragon HP regen BUFF), significantly reduced the difficulty of the game pre-Joker Lair.

• What if Oil skill investment was separated from stat increase? Applied oil strikes 3 times, or last duration of 1 battle, or 20 minutes?

Ryu Dragon Whelps and Dragons cost CB to transform.

• Nice one. I noticed I still have to unlock all three whelps before I can upgrade any specific elemental. With most enemies having numerous weaknesses, Fire seems like a safe first bet and I’d rather focus on that first, then go back and work on Ice/Thunder (perhaps).

Ryu Dragon Breath now cost CB to use

• Dragon Whelps should have a CP-free ability, maybe with the added x3 cut that Ranger gets?

Ryu can now use Dragon Bone Swords that grants Ability Power instead of Attack Power.

• I want to check these out, but across my playthroughs the battle mechanics seem to privilege DPS attack/evasion/speed with the x3 attack ranger ability and the emphasis of ending battles as quickly as possible (due to no revive options).

Items are ineffective when used by Ryu in all Dragon Forms except Wind Dragon which gains a +200% Boost to all healing items.

• Great way to further differentiate the Wind Dragon – though it may seem thematically off to have chosen the Dark Dragon Skill Tree and still have access to this form.
•  Cool! I’ll have to explore this.

Ryu reverting to human now deals Health Damage; however, grants 50 CB.

•  Cool! I’ll have to explore this.

Mob and Boss Balancing.

• Joker is a threat now! Or at least killed me on first attempt. Nina still hits weakness with Thunder, but not quite as hard (maybe because I didn’t have the overpowered +100% Ability power Rune this time?) Definitely was a powerful Rune (I think Wizard) and I wonder how much reliance on Runes is required to keep her relevant over time. Does the nature of random LOOT mean that Bosses are either cheesed or challenging based on LOOT RNG – instead of strategy and character natural progression?

Monster Sprite Update Throughout all Dungeons and Dens.

• Big upgrade for immersion! I laughed when I saw Mote, however -  I suppose this head is Goblin like!

Barubary final fight is scaled correctly.

• Still haven’t made it that far – but good move considering all the changes introduced.

Ryu face bug on Auto-Save fixed.

• Excellent – first time players might not fully process the use of SLOT 1 for Autosave and find themselves in trouble (that was me, 3.0).

The Frogs in the Bog trigger random encounters.

            Nice one. I hope you add more 'modern-encounter' zones (both optional, and mandatory)

Giant island now has monsters for non-random encounters.

• Revive meal has not come through in cooking list (even when upgrading the first Ranger ability x4). I’m guessing this is a BUG

Additional Oils and Gem rebalancing.

• Revive meal has not come through in cooking list (even when upgrading the first Ranger ability x4). I’m guessing this is a BUG.

You now may Set Camp. At Camp you can romance Lin or Nina, as well companions share items with you.

• Can we use the camp fire to cook? So far, only Ryu/Bosch’s room function as a cooking spot. I also noticed that, at some point in the Ryu/Bosch segment, the camp item stopped working (made a chime sound, but no longer loaded the camp zone). Once Ryu was progressed a bit into the SOLO segment, it started to work again.
  
• When Bosch and Rand give you items – a prompt indicating what they have given you, would be helpful.

Party now heals after battle.

• Somewhat inconsistent, and takes away some of the fun in strategic resource management (consumables). The problem is,  ‘healing at end of battle’ doesn’t revive lost allies – and without a revive consumable, added to the tedium walking back and forth between Joker’s Lair and Coursair's inn. I'd prefer no healing, with more dungeon prep required (HP and revive consumable cooking).  

Tweaked Battle A.I for most monsters.

• The added Goblins in Mt Fubi are a welcome addition. In fact, any increase in mob diversity is lovely, as it gives you an option to extend dungeons in the future (where appropriate)
• Overall Mob progression from Mt.Fubi to  Argus segment is much easier. Part of that is due to what’s available to him for skills (TagWoods was as cake walk due to Light Dragon's +% self-regen, and Ranger's  2x attack), and introduced  Goblin/Spider Mob group at Mt Fubi is easier than Zombie group. Oils were no longer an ‘essential part of the strategy’ as I used it once.
  
  That said, the RNG of barrage attacks and NOT having a consumable revive option inflates the difficulty of the early game.

Monsters now drop junk that can be vendored for extra coin.

• If found LOOT could be reduced in value, this would help. Or, if there a way you can rebalance [bought cost vs sale price]. Presently, I can still sell Yum-yums and the odd consumable to alleviate any early game financial needs (cooking costs being omitted helps here). I think economic scaling is generally really tough in RPGs though. In 3.2, I thought the economic progression was pretty good until I got through Capitan (Great Swords dropping was a noticeable change, along with passing beyond the Coursair/Windia full party equiping load outs) 

Most cooking recipes no longer requires Zenny.

• Welcome change, but salt is essential for both Oils and HP/MP restore items – yet the hardest to source for the early game. Might I suggest leaving salt for the HP/MP, and for the oils have oil + unique monster spoil for each of them? Like, could Eye Goos be a mob that holds ingredient for Shock oil? Zombies have ingredient for poison oil, etc…? Maybe successful attack on enemies’ elemental weakness increases chance to drop cooking ingredient for relevant elemental oil? So Nina using Flame, might result in ‘charred fur’ spoil which can be used with Oil to make FlameOil?

Cooked Items now do % healing vs flat.

• It would seem all healing consumable (bought and cooked) heal for %. A distinction between the two would give them each their own strategic purpose. That said, I like that cooking is higher value.

Rebalanced some monster areas to be in line with no Experience growth.

• Not sure what this means… yet. I will say that the 4.0 is much easier – until I hit the brick wall that is the Joker’s Lair.  The various bandits high HP, DEF and EVA – coupled with the frequency to be in groups of 5, make this dungeon rather tedious. In 3.2, it was the hardest dungeon in the game. For 4.0, it’s a dramatic difficulty increase from TagWoods/Arena. Lin is very frail at this point in the game and, without revives, I’ve had to walk back to Coursairs about four times to revive her. Each battle takes much longer than a typical boss encounter might.

Tweaked Runes and Crests.

• Haven’t seen the more extravagant ones yet, but the ones I’ve used seem to be in the 15% (runes) and 5% (crests) category – good.

Fixed Rural Cabin warping.

Carpenters now explain their town properly. Buffs now applied.

Rural Town reworked for gathering.

Consumables now can be used at anytime. Buffs From Certain Spells and Items now can be used before a battle.

• Great, tried Mina’s Revive III and that seemed to apply itself for the first round of the Joker Boss (minions), but not Joker himself.

Banter between characters is no longer randomized (Bug fixed).

• Noticed that – excellent.
  
• CAMP BUG - Just be aware that talking to Lin at the campsite will progress without plot checks (she mentioned buying tangerines with Bosch in the second encounter). Can I talk to her at campsite without automatically initiating the romance subplot. Something like a prompt – “stay out by the fire with Lin? YES/NO”

Fixed Duplicate Party Sprites at various cutscenes.

            Briefly happened when Nina is recruited to party at the magic school.

Having Ryu in different slot no longer shows other characters speaking/romancing Lin and Nina.

            I’m sure Bosch/Sten will be disappointed ;)