VantaPsy DEMO V3.3.9 Update Log

Overview

The main changes in this update are combat animations. There's still more to come for these, but this is a good spot to be at for now.

Combat Animations

• Variations in weapon animations for the protagonist (Only per type, no different animations for each weapon of same type)
• As per this previous, it only applies to the first protagonist. I will do the second protag at a later date
• Extra animations for using Items, Healing, Charging, Focusing
• Extra animations for when an Ability is Stocked. E,g, Stocking Fire will show the party members holding onto a ball of fire
• Fixed Affinity showing up alongside the Party Member. They are now part of the same image, rather than separate. This allows them to stay on the same plane and won't overlap with other party members
• New animations for casting a spell or throwing
• A slow down effect when killing an enemy (I was inspired by Kingdom Hearts for this)
• New animation for when you have an extra attack
• New animation for when a Party Member is KOed. (They used to just disappear)

Combat

• Fixed/Tweaked Stock Ability
• Fixed Jumping when no one else is in the party
  

Misc

• Fixed the Trio enemies in the Compendium
• Not sure if this was in the previous update or not, but I split the Main Quest and World Quests into two submenus
• Fixed some of the Ability descriptions
• Weapons are now listed out by Type
• Added names to Limits in their descriptions
• Updated various icons
• Practice Fight menu optimised

Hotswap Added

I added the Hotswap mechanic. If you middle mouse click on an Ability (Y for gamepad, and R for keyboard) your Party will switch to prioritise that Ability. E.g. if you Hotswap with Attack, your party will prioritise STR. Bonuses are also taken into consideration. so if you Hotswap with Ice, Aysha will be placed into Support to take advantage of AP cost reduction for Ice. And so on.

This was kind of inspired by Final Fantasy XIII's paradigm shift mechanic, though you can't set your own presets.

You can also use Hotswap outside of combat, if you want to set them up before going in. This kind of functions like an Auto Equip in other RPGs.

Working on/next updates

• Visual updates to various areas
• Cutscenes for scenes that don’t have them
• Add Lovers card level up scene
• Animations for higher tier spells
• Animations for various abilities
• Enemy Sprites (Certain enemies are still placeholders)
•  Add clarity to the Party Menu, as well as the Cards Menu

New:

• Fix/Tweak Punch mechanic
  
• Weapon variation sprites for the second protag
• Reaction dialogue for characters (a speech bubble usually filled with one word/phrase, onomatopoeia, symbols, etc)
• Full picture illustrations for important events
• More variations in dialogue options and outcomes

Questionable Mechanic to add - Debate and Investigation 

I want to add a debate mechanic that goes hand in hand with investigations. The plot does revolve around a mystery (The titular Soul Snatcher) so I want to gamify the player doing their own investigations and coming to conclusions on who the Soul Snatcher is. This would also lead to various endings. The problem with this is that I would need the entire game to be done to fully develop the world in such a way that the player can engage in a robust investigation. Until that happens, this is going on the backburner for now, and depending on how cramp the game gets (It's already quite packed with mechanics) I may or may not actually add this.

If you're wondering, think of the investigations like that of Disco Elysium. Something like that.