8-06-24 -- Combat Demo '6-24' Release and Patch Notes

Hello! This is just a short post to commemorate the release of the new '6-24' version of the combat demo, as well as detail the notable changes.

Content-wise, this version is largely the same as the previous demo, but with a handful of adjustments and additions to hopefully improve the combat, improve the tutorials, and give a few more things to play around with in the demo's 'post-game'.

You can download the new demo here, or from the itch.io page. As always, I'd appreciate any feedback, and please report any bugs, crashes, or strange behaviors encountered. Thank you!

Patch Notes

For anyone interested, here's a full list of the major, observable changes since the original '2-24' version.

New Features:

• An option to skip the tutorial fights and go straight to the 'post-game' has been added to the main menu.
• A handful of new abilities can be unlocked in the demo's post-game, including Spirit Stasis, Torrent, and the use of Heavy Weapons. These abilities haven't been as thoroughly tested as the core ones, so I'd still consider them slightly 'experimental' in terms of balance and potential buginess.
• Training Mode can be accessed in the demo's post-game, giving free reign to experiment with different enemies, items, attacks, and assist attacks. For those curious, there's even a few new enemies (with very unfinished sprites) that can be played with in this mode.

Changes/Fixes To Existing Features:

• On the default difficulty settings, SP is no longer drained when Saki takes damage. My initial intention was to add a risk of wasting SP if you store it rather than spend it, but in practice it turned out way too punishing to players who were frequently taking hits, as it created a constant struggle to ever build up enough to actually spend on special attacks. SP is still fully drained when Saki is knocked down, however, which I think should provide the same risk, while giving the player more of an opportunity to avoid it by making it more of a 'fail state' than a constant nuisance.
• There is now a slight 'push-back' on the player when knocking a standing enemy into a wall with a heavy attack, which causes Saki to move with the opponent as they rebound from the wall. This is to prevent the player from overlapping with or moving in front of an enemy as much when performing combos, and will hopefully make them easier to perform, or at least more visually clear.
• There have been some small adjustments to the dodging, making it easier to perform an attack immediately after a dodge and adding a clear audio-visual cue when doing so. There is now also some slight momentum given to light attacks performed immediately after dodging, with more momentum being given to ones performed after a backstep specifically.
• Enemies now have a visual indicator of when they're in the 'stagger immune' state--when their attack wind-ups can't be interrupted by heavy attacks. Stagger Immunity is existed as a mechanic in the first demo, but I chose not to have a visual indicator for it because I was worried it might make things too confusing. Having implemented the indicator into the game, though, I think it's a big improvement, and helps the player react to their situation better.
• There have been a variety of small tweaks to reduce enemy aggression and make combos easier, including a fix of a small bug in which enemies wouldn't bounce off of a wall correctly when hitting it at a certain angle.
• The term 'Parrying' has been changed to 'Perfect Blocking', to avoid potentially implying that the mechanic is something entirely separate from regular blocking.
• A number of the tutorials have been trimmed, added to, or restructured to improve clarity, and the menu for browsing previously seen tutorials has also been redesigned to be easier to search through. (Though it's design is still not finished.)
• Dodging can now be performed while Posture Broken.
• All dialogue portraits have been fully redrawn, and replaced with their new counterparts.
• Guard-crushing Critical Attacks now have a sound cue, and restore more SP and posture when successfully Perfect Blocked compared to normal attacks, to help balance out the extra risk they pose.
• A variety of minor number tweaks all over the place, including a slight (one frame) increase to the Perfect Block window, slight increase in the posture restored by Perfect Blocking, tweaks to the damage and stun time of some enemy attacks, and a handful of other things.
• Added 'voice acting' for Saki's taunt.

Known Bugs:

• On very rare occasions, while Livio is knocked down, he may suddenly get back on his feet with no animation and with none of his posture restored. I'm still not entirely sure what causes it, but if you happen to encounter it, it would be helpful to hear what was happening in the lead-up to it.

Thanks for reading!

- Topaz

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