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I beat the demo at level 7-8 on Nightmare. I hope our demo save files are compatible in the complete version.

Thoughts:

• It feels weird to call the classic skills EX Boost and EX Recover when they now consume Limit Index.
• Is there an in-universe explanation for how the party returns to town after clearing a dungeon, no matter the distance? It seems weird for Kanna to complain about fatigue when clearing the dungeon normally, only for the party to walk back to town anyways. My headcanon is that Kanna set up her own warp system using some kind of advanced Ether Art.
• The names of the two possible protagonists feels ominous.
• I saw that Sacred Earth Desires reference in the first dungeon.

Tips for new players:

• I recommend using arrow keys to chain into EX Arts and EX Limits, and not the mouse.
• Before trying to go for a chain, always check which arts are on cooldown.
• Always keep a pre-boss save, in case you don't have enough money to buy everything in town. The game is strict about not letting you leave dungeons until you clear them, as well as disallowing you from reexploring them.
• Unlike most SE games, you can grind infinitely before taking on the dungeon boss. Consider this your safety net for suboptimal shopping and AP allocation.
• Use the champion of each dungeon as a measuring stick for how ready you are for the boss.
  
• Kanna's passive for blessing will always target someone other than her, thus allowing her to manually bless someone else so that all party members will be blessed.
• Before taking on the second dungeon, buy a spare set of rank 2 gems for another mage character.
• For skill allocation on new characters, I recommend starting with learning a second EX Art so that they have something to do if one EX Art is on cooldown.
• If you're low on TP, save before your encounter index fills.

Does that mean DLC3 will go back to using Devil Points? If so, it'd be nice if excess AZP could be partially converted into Gas Points, Devil Points or whatever new resource that'll be introduced.

Story:

-It's bit anvilicious, but still funny and depressing at the same time.

-If I buy at least once, but refuse on subsequent dialogue choices, Team Hogwarts still gets mad and I still get pretty much the same ending as buying 0, even though the headline(s) still show up. I'm guessing the player character refunded their copies offscreen?

-The player character seems to have a disproportionately large amount of market influence if they can make or break the game's sales. By that logic, there should be a True Ending™ where they use that power to promote trans-friendly games.

UI:

-There needs to be a way to quickly exit back to the start menu if the player wants to immediately start a new run.

-Is there no way to manually save?

-If you buy the game enough times to generate headlines and then choose to start a new run, the headlines from the previous run are still on the screen. I don't know if this is intentional or not, since some games like Undertale remind players of the consequences of their previous runs.

I'm a little conflicted on the battle system. There are some neat additions like EX Boost, unique buffs, and passives. The UI also allows the player to keep track of buffs and debuffs, as well as what each one does. However, I kind of miss being able to use weak attacks to combo into stronger ones. While the old system does require dexterity that I often lack because I mindlessly mash, there's something satisfying about attacking that way. On the other hand, a less dexterity-based system will likely be easier for players to learn and the game still maintains the core strategy of maintaining EP and EX efficiently.

As for the story, there wasn't much time to get emotionally invested in the protagonist's companions, which is likely due to the time constraints of the contest. Though the way the "ending" is written implies that the player merely finished the tutorial and that future chapters could expand on the companions and the protagonist's past.

For the skill menu, I noticed that info box on the right doesn't always match the description. For example, Burial Wind is supposed to be wind elemental, but the info box lists it as No Element.

Phantasmic Array is supposed to deal 5 hits, but the info box says it only deals 1. Again, it's a minor discrepancy.

When is the cutoff point for the void dungeon achievements? Can the player still revisit old story areas as long as they don't enter the next story area? Also, how strong would the second story area be compared to the first void area?

How does the companion's AI work? Even when the party is at low HP and all the companion's points are invested in their healing skill, they're not guaranteed to heal the party, which is a problem because they're the only source of non-item healing at the moment. Is there a way to set the threshold for their healing skill?

Are older saves compatible?

I don't see any options to enable auto-dash, despite that being a staple in most VX and later games. Is this intentional? I'm guessing auto-dash has the potential to break certain puzzles.

Did you find the mirror key item? You're supposed to use those on the eyeballs to get rid of them.

During the battle against the golem monster, Jin told me to use an aura skill, but I didn't learn it during the battle or after the battle. Is this a glitch? I took the aura skill class after getting Alyssa and Ein to learn their aura skills, so that may have messed things up. On the other hand, considering what happened at the end of the demo, maybe the player character's aura is meant to unlock later, like during a rematch against a certain unbeatable boss.

Whenever I start up the game again, it doesn't remember any of the settings I picked before, such as auto-dash.

Edit: Is there a way to disable auto-save? It's bad design to have this feature save over a slot the player can manually save over, since they can lose their manual saves this way. You should instead have auto-save only affect a slot that the player is never allowed to manually save to.

Did you install the fonts in the "Fonts to Install" folder?

I don't know if this is intentional or not, but during the Dominator miniboss, I tested out EMP Grenade and the result seems to contradict the item description, unless it's foreshadowing.

SPOILERS: https://imgur.com/a/KGJW4vb

Thanks for the fix.

For the second battle, I have a feeling the story is supposed to progress no matter who wins, but I won on my first try.

The third battle is indeed an optional victory battle. Even with the cookie, which can be used before a fight, I feel like the enemy's damage wasn't reduced that much and it took me several attempts to win. It's possible on the hardest difficulty with regen effects and Rin's speed buff. Sadly, Rin didn't confiscate the boss's weapon for her own use.

Edit: I beat the demo and did as many events for the party members as I could. Hopefully, this doesn't lead to a yandere ending if I try the same thing in the full release.

I had to use two meat buns to survive against Hideki on Abstract Nonsense difficulty. This is really taking me back to Laetitia’s Hellish Yard mode where even nameless mooks were a threat. Hopefully a dedicated healer joins me soon

The smartphone is a good modern way to keep track of information, but mapping it to Z is bad for players who are used to using that key for confirmation. Is there a way for players to set their keys?

The game keeps track of how many in-game days passed. Are there any penalties or achievements associated with taking too long to beat the game?

I finished the demo on Nightmare, which felt harder than in Promise due to the lack of skills and being outnumbered four-to-two in certain mobs. Fortunately, the reroll feature alleviates this somewhat and the bigger mobs become doable after leveling a bit.

The link attack system really made it easy to accumulate EX, which made up for the duo's current lack of EP arts. I'm curious about how link attacks will work when there are three party members, unless you plan on limiting the party to two for the entire game.

Still, it would be nice if the enemy HP display also showed what buffs/debuffs they currently have. It's pretty hard to fight strategically unless you're aware of enemy status at all times. My current workaround is to cast my buffs and debuffs in the same turn so that they wear off at the same time, allowing me to know when to EX Heal and cast them again.

I feel like the game dumps you into the middle of a plot without much context, almost as if I was dumped into a midgame area. I guess this is forgivable since it's a demo, though the full version should at least introduce the characters and the curse better. There are some moments where I think a CG could help, like one showing what the airship looks like or one showing the effects of the curse.

This line of the tutorial says "Sacred Earth: Promise," even though the title of this demo should be "Sacred Earth - New Theory".

Some lines in the tutorial have cut-off text:

Finally, what happened to Gunnar using dual pistols? Are we going to have to rename him Bowwar Myrrine now?