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GorriDev1 year ago(+1)

Setting aside some time to play this was a good idea even though it's a long demo.

Loved act 3! Way less "trash" encounters makes the game more lean and less grindy.Gotta say maybe a recap 

I started at the recommended level and used the free lvl up, the one on one bosses were all pretty manageable, while the wolf and the two final party bossfights took a bunch of attempts.
In particular having to redo the cayote fight before being able to reattempt the final boss was a little annoying.
Definitely my fault but I always save on the same slot and if I had to rethink my strategy for the final boss I would have had to go back to the last autosave and idk how far back that was.
Thankfully I did manage in like 3 or 4 tries, it did feel like I had to get lucky but imo it was appropriately difficult for the final boss of the act.

Good progress, I'll definitely play act 4 whenever it's up.

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horbror1 year ago

I am very happy you liked it! What activities did you choose for Sarah?  I wanted to make act3 a bit leaner since there is so much story that needed to get done,  I still like grinding so my compromise was to make a dedicated area for people such as me who just like to see numbers go up, thus the grinding hole. 

If you do not grind at all and enter at lvl 17 the bosses you mentioned are punishing, if you do grind they naturally become a lot easier but all of the main skills are gotten at the levels you naturally would get as you progress through the story (and use the free level-up items). It can be cleared without them but it is a challenge. 

If you have any particular opinions on the narrative I would love to hear them. 

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GorriDev1 year ago
What activities did you choose for Sarah?

I stayed at the motel first and met toaster lady, then before school I worked a shift at the store.
At school I only studied marine biology three times in a row.
I also got the locks of hair from the grindhole and did the flower lady bossfight idk if that influenced anything.

so my compromise was to make a dedicated area for people such as me who just like to see numbers go up

I think it's fair if people know about it but concentrating the XP farm fights means players might miss the grindhole and accidentally make the game harder for themselves.
It wasn't a problem for me but if you're worried about difficulty it's something to keep in mind.

If you have any particular opinions on the narrative I would love to hear them. 

The party scene had me worried because this feels like the kind of game that doesn't pull punches when it comes to horrible things happening to the characters, I hope the girl who invited Sarah gets what's coming to her.
Switching from the countryside to the city makes the setting feel more grounded and less oneiric because there's regular people running around and not just skinned deer and meatgrinder men, the setting is starting to make more sense.
Winters' father being a regular nice guy (at least for now) is a nice contrast to the generational trauma of Sarah's family, although it's 3 acts and like 7 hours into the game and there's still no real progress on the Velouria situation, which is an interesting choice.
It's not a problem, I'm just invested and curious.

That's all, off the top of my head.
Is there some narrative branching path that I missed?

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horbror1 year ago(+1)

That's very interesting, thank you for sharing what you thought. There are some more narrative branches going on, but it's not  all done or available yet. 

These things are there: If you take all mariner classes Sarah regains the mariner skills, if you go to the city and start burning things you get the opportunity to regain bloodrites instead. Whichever things you choose as activities triggers something that is planned to pay off at least in some way. 

Not in there yet: There will also be another version of act 3 but that is not done yet. In act 1-2 if you make some particular choices Sarah and Billy leaves you at the end and you are instead joined by Arthur, Billy's dad. Right now if a player chooses to do this it won't change anything but I am working on that branching path which basically  changes half of act 3. 

This will be a big game game in sort of an anthology style, act 4 i s the last one of chapter 1.  5 more chapters to make with new characters. The Velouria stuff will be ongoing throughout all chapters until the very last.  Winter is the connecting point between all chapters. 

Bethany (girl who invites) and Steffani (snakegirl) will return later. Bethany will also be one of the bosses in the other version of act3 that has not been made yet.

Thanks for the input, it helps me a lot. 

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GorriDev1 year ago

I see, thanks for explaining.

6 chapters in total with branching paths seems like a massive undertaking, good luck!

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horbror1 year ago

I think I will manage to have chapter one totally completed by february and then I will put up a steam-version.  It will require a lot of polish after act 4 and the alternative act 3 is done. Not all chapters will be as long as the first one,  it will mostly depend on the story.  First one is a speedrun through the entirety of Sarah's life more or less,  second chapter will be divided into days instead of acts and take place during a week so it will be a lot shorter. Runtime of 3 hours perhaps. In total this will be massive if I can complete it, I am hoping for a development time of about three years. 

Some pretty minor spoilers: 

First chapter needs to do a lot of heavy lifting since it introduces a bunch of concepts which will be important for the overall narrative.  A lot of these concepts will be further explored in the following chapters. Chapter two will explore the "blue dust drug" and more of the citylife and the general decay of society going on, chapter three will take place on a big converted oil-rig which acts as a power plant for "ghost profanation, aka memory burning" which is something you might have seen mentioned.  Sarah's mom used to work at a power plant, you might remember Billy talking about this in the first act. 

The spirit sickness and curse is actually really important for the overall narrative and will be a part of all chapters. These are some very light spoilers. I try to plant clues and drop hints for later stuff throughout the story while still maintaining a human core and focusing on the people who experience this nightmarish reality. 

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