Greetings Soldiers,
We have returned from Köln, where we engaged in an arduous campaign to brave the hills of the Rhein region and the great Bavarian hordes of gamescom. Our Eternal Guard stood tall, inspiring faith in Emperor Napoleon, as we recruited hundreds of new soldiers to Valor Mortis.
We also unveiled a new look at the game unlike anything we’ve shown before. Our Story Trailer shows a glimpse at the narrative depth we are crafting in Valor Mortis. There aren’t many other survivors remaining, but each of them will play a pivotal role in determining William’s fate. Why can’t he remember his past? What is that beast in the sandy desert? Who is a friend and who is a foe? You’ll find all of these answers as you venture through the story of Valor Mortis on October 13.
Finally, the Steam Demo will go offline next week on September 8. Since releasing the Demo in June, we’ve made huge improvements to the full version of the game based on your feedback. But that also means the Demo is no longer very representative of the quality and polish we’ll have in the full release.
While the Demo levels are titled Chapter I and Chapter VII, they’re actually bespoke versions of those chapters that we recreated for Steam Next Fest. Therefore, it isn’t simple to implement the optimization improvements, finely tuned balancing, and bug fixes from the full game in the Demo version.
One of the most common criticisms we’ve seen about the Demo is that General Lothaire is too unforgiving at the end of Chapter I. We feel that this is partly because players have only spent about 30 minutes in the game when they reach the end of Chapter I to fight him. That’s a short time to become accustomed to the first-person combat system, which is unique in the soulslike genre. In the full game, General Lothaire is intended as the boss at the end of Chapter II. By that point, you’ll have spent more time with the mechanics and leveled up your character, making the difficulty curve much smoother.
We are confident that the full game you’ll see on October 13 will be much better than what’s in the Demo, and we’re excited to show you how we’ve addressed your feedback!