Holy moly, the patch notes kind of speak for themselves for this update. But the TLDR most important changes in this patch are:
Many bosses, especially late game bosses, got huge reworks. They will put up a proper challenge now
The Cat Call works now! Sorry this one took so long! To use, make sure you found the Cat Call item, and then go to the world map and select a place to go. Will only work while you are outdoors and not inside a dungeon
A ridiculous number of bug fixes, mapping fixes, and general improvements to the game
Some fixes to a few scenes
Better balance for freeze and stun status effects (ice and wind spells), especially against bosses (no more perma-stunlocking with wind)
A little bit of enemy balancing
Leave a comment if run into any issues, there's a lot of changes so it's possible bugs could have slipped through the cracks. And we'd love to hear how the bosses are feeling after the changes if you play through any of the late-game content! :)
We will be releasing more information about the upcoming free DLC soon as well, so keep an eye out for that. There's a good chance we'll release at least one more much smaller update before the DLC.
At any rate, for those daring enough to look through the full list of changes, here they are:
Patch Notes:
New Content / Features:
Cat Call works now! Use it from your main menu by selecting points on the world map
Cutscenes: Moved the scene that used to happen after the Sand Seas till after the Canyon if you do the dungeons in the opposite order
Siltens Overworld / Cutscene: Added a pan to the wind flower as a tutorial during the cutscene after the battle to make the way forward more clear
Ending: Added a new sprite to one of the areas / scenes
Sound Effects: Added a new pot breaking sound for all pots
Core Mechanics:
Movement: Greatly improved ally's and guest member's ability to comfortably follow the player while using the new dodge mobility added in the previous update
CPU Ally: Fixed a bug where the ally was taking damage from enemies even when the player wasn't getting hit
Bug Fixes / Adjustments:
Groonis Island: Fixed an issue where the boss wasn't taking the damage from the rock drop during the cutscene
Omdale / Aesthetic: Sunset is now daytime whenever you return to the room with the sunset parallax
Galadine: Fixed an issue where the Castle guards would not be present in front of the castle at a time when they were intended to be
Siltens: Mac's Shack torches now are visible when the roof is visible and not visible when the roof is invisible
Fellinore / Quicktravel: Fixed a bug where you could quicktravel out of town at a few points that would lock you out of the town with events if you tried to re-enter the town manually without quicktravelling back
Pyragord / Boss: Can no longer be hit by Reima's ranged charge attack before the battle starts
Pyragord / Overworld: Fixed an enemy that was placed outside of bounds after changes to flyer type enemies
General: Light / Water status are no longer visible during conversations or cutscenes (except for when you obtain the light gem)
General / Polish: Things in the sky such as seagulls and weather effects now disappear while inside a building
General: Fixed an issue where a player character could take a hit from sand whirlpools during a conversation in rare cases, causing unexpected behavior
General: Fixed an issue with the animation of saw blade obstacles
Potions: Delane no longer takes jelly if you have it when making the free potion
Sand Seas: Sandilopho, Shadow Goat etc (teleporting enemies) no longer chase you onto other elevations
Aesthetics: Added new hit effect graphics for purple and green poison type attacks (a handful of enemies use these)
Aesthetics: Added new hit effect for the lasers some enemies use
Aesthetics: New poison status effect graphic!
Aesthetics: New lightning shock status effect graphic!
Aesthetics: Fixed a bug where afterimage sprites wouldn't always be the correct palette
Aesthetics: Fixed a minor issue where Rio and Reima's weapons were not drawn to the correct depth when swimming in water
Aesthetics: When stunning an enemy with wind, a visual effect is now present
Aesthetics: Many breakable objects (pots, crystals, etc) had their break visual and audio effects fixed
Aesthetics: Added a new sound effect for the new kind of postcat that appears after completing the postcat letter sidequest
Crystal Cavern: Fixed some instances of breakable crystals not being interactable when they should be, and vice versa
Yuril: Fixed an issue where the background color in Carolyn's basement wasn't drawing correctly, causing some minor visual issues when you dash attack or cast through the walls
Aesthetics: Fixed an issue where when an AI player or guest character fades out to warp, they would lose their palette temporarily if wearing different armor
Menu / Status: Fixed a bug where the wrong text displayed for next level when you reached the max level
Canyon / Boss: Fixed a new issue with the wind platforms allowing you to exit the arena
Final Dungeon / Boss: Fixed an issue where it was possible for the first boss in the dungeon to teleport and move outside of their arena. Also fixed their shadow y position to look better
Final Dungeon / Boss: The first boss inside the dungeon now fades out correctly when they die. Fixed some other minor bugs with leftover objects that could occasionally happen when they were defeated
Secret Dungeon 1: Fixed an issue where the P1 character would lose control temporarily after finishing the quest when this dungeon was the final part of the quest completed
Secret Dungeon 2 / Boss: Can no longer be hit by Reima's ranged charge attack before the battle starts
Secret Dungeon 2 / Boss: Fixed a layering issue
Ending: Light / Water status are cured after certain encounters to prevent awkwardness
Ending: Fixed a character saying the line for the bad ending first before the correct line specifically during the best ending
Ending / Final Boss: Fixed an issue where the character graphic was set incorrectly during the battle
Ending: Made an improvement to the scene on the peak
Ending: Fixed the character's attack sound when swiping, dash attacking, and charge attacking during the final section
Ending: Removed enemy healthbars from a certain moment
Jewels: Azotic sound effect no longer triples up with ice / crystal magic
Combat: Fixed a bug where getting hit while falling would interupt the falling state, and briefly prevent the ally AI character from following you correctly
Combat: Fixed a rare bug where certain attacks could make the player character's get stuck in their "got hit" pose. Also added a quickfix to make this less likely to cause issues around cutscenes
Combat: No longer draws healthbars of enemies while they are invisible
Combat / Crash: Fixed a crash that could rarely happen when defeating one of the enemies in the second secret dungeon. Added a safe-guard to prevent the crash from happening with any other enemy just in case it's possible
Combat / Minigames: Fixed an issue where you were invincible in the Dummy Minigames while on Hard Mode
Combat: Fixed a bug where you could hit frozen enemies into enemies that otherwise shouldn't be possible to attack, damaging both
World Map: Lollipop NPC is now visible on the minimap once you've found them
General: Fixed an issue in the room before the final dungeon where the camera would flash a different part of a room briefly when you unpaused the menu
General: The quicktravel transition looks a little cleaner now
Menus: Updated the descriptions of the Cat Call and another item
Desolate Valley / Cutscenes: Fixed the outfits of a certain group of characters
Omdale / Cutscenes: During the boss here, the music now fades out during the beginning of the scene to increase tension
Omdale / Cutscenes: Fixed an issue where Delane wasn't properly walking up to the switch anymore
Fellinore / Cutscenes: Better sound effects and visual improvements during an important moment in the scene just before you enter Fellinore
Final Dungeon / Cutscenes: Fixed an animation bug with Rio during the cutscene before the first boss
Localization: Widened the quit confirmation box to fit the text better
Localization: Fixed an issue with npc names of guest party members not being translated correctly
Localization: Fixed an issue with "Mugger" not being translated correctly
Localization: Fixed an instance of "Lord Fisherman" npc name not getting translated correctly
Localization: Fixed a part where "Thaiden" was not being translated correctly
Bugfix: Fixed an instance of a character's name appearing too soon in the dialogue (Papaw)
Marize / Cutscenes: Fixed an issue with Dengy's story quest where one clue was getting found errenously when you talk to Dengy an extra time after finding at least one clue
Marize / Cutscenes: Fixed an issue with Dengy's story quest where he wouldn't run off correctly after finding all the clues if the last clue isn't the last one you turn in
Marize / Cutscenes: Fixed an issue with Dengy's story quest running an incorrect scene if you go to the end without talking to him first
Fellinore / Cutscenes: Minor fixes to several different scenes
Siltens Overworld / Cutscenes: Fixed a bug with the cutscene after the boss where they are briefly positioned incorrectly, and made some other improvements to the scene
Marsh / Boss: More variety and actions added to the background characters
More that I can't remember...
Mapping:
Canyon / Dungeon: Improved occlusions and shadows for the second half of the dungeon
Galadine and Galadine Castle: Added some new decorations and made some general improvements and layering fixes
Galadine Castle: Cloud fog no longer appears inside the castle
Moglore Overworld: Some collision, occlusion, shadow, and layering fixes
Moglore Woods: Some collision occlusion, shadow, and layering fixes
Omdale Overworld: Collision, occlusion, shadow, and layering fixes
Omdale: Improvements to the town. Fixed the appearance of the trees on the transition to the gulf screen
Fellinore Cemetery: Fixed a tile layering issue
Illdar: Beds on the upper elevation now have their blanket depth set correctly
Illdar: Fixed an NPC whose silhouette was partially visible through their house
Illdar: Fixed some very minor layering / collision issues
Crystal Cavern: Fixed a tile layering issue in one room
General: in some towns, some occlusion fixes with the top of house roofs
Final Dungeon / Entrance: Made some mapping fixes to the outside entrance
Balance:
General / Bosses: Almost every end-game boss (from the final dungeon onwards) got some much needed major reworks, improvements, and bug fixes! They are much more formidable foes now. The very final boss still needs a bit of polish but that will come soon
Status Effects / Wind: The stun effect is nerfed. Subsequent repeated stuns get weaker/shorter now unless you wait some time. The nerf is more pronounced on bosses. Still very effective if used sparingly!
Status Effects / Wind: No longer bugs out animations when hitting enemies during attacks which control their animation speeds (example, ice turtle spin attack). Some enemies used to even get perma-stuck
Status Effects / Ice: Improved how the freeze effect works when used in the middle of enemy attacks to match how the new wind stun effect does (i.e. better)
Status Effects: Some bosses now have more resistance to wind stun and freeze effect time
Intro: Buffed the stats of the character at the start a bit and adjusted the enemy AI to be less aggressive
Canyon / Boss: The wind attack now pushes you harder to account for the improved speed gained from the new dodge from the previous updates
Cloaked Figure: Adjusted the delay before attacking to be generally faster, and reduced the knockback received by the boss. Made some slight adjustments to his spawned enemies too
General / Aesthetic: Some additional small effects were added to a few enemy attacks
General / Bosses: Many late game bosses had attacks adjusted from physical type damage to magical type damage to make more sense (also helps out Reima a bit since her magic defense is better)
General / Bosses: During the final battles (after the point of no return only), Boss HP now scales slightly with your player level when you are level 20 or higher average
Final Dungeon / Boss: The boss fight before the dungeon was completely reworked and is much more threatening now. Much more HP, improved AI, an extra phase, and more clarity in the hitboxes
Siltens Overworld / Boss: Slightly boosted HP. Adjusted AI to be tougher, along with other changes
Omdale Overworld / Boss: Slightly boosted HP. Adjusted AI to be tougher, along with other changes
Marsh / Boss: Added a brief visual cue (flash) before one of the harder to react to movements, and adjusted the way the hitbox of the related attack works to be more fair
Marsh / Boss: Boss regains a tiny bit more HP on the final phase
Marsh / Boss: Slightly reduced the size of their standing hitbox and increased the size of the range where your attacks hit them
Desolate Valley / Boss: The first boss here got some buffs, a lot of bug fixes, and some AI adjustments
General / Monsters: A few enemies that used to stand still while they swing their weapons now sling forward to various degrees depending on the enemy.
General / Monsters: Monsters with bullet hell style attacks now have their projectiles immune to wall collisions, making them more challenging since projectiles won't be randomly disappearing
General / Monsters: Adjusted AI for the shadow goat enemy to be more effective, but also increased the startup and improved the visual cue on its scream attack
Omdale / Monsters: Prawna no longer take knockback, but have a bit more startup and endlag on their attack
Tunnel / Monsters: Egg shell barrage now can be destroyed with attacks if you swing at them
Crystal Dungeon / Monsters: Fixed a minor issue with depth sorting position of an enemy type, and now they play their unique sound effect more often
General: Charge attack hitboxes can now destroy any projectile that a normal attack can