Hello everyone. Here is this month's development progress update. Development has continued at a good pace, and the goal is still to have the public demo and Early Access ready by December. But delays are always possible given my development situation, so I will not be formally announcing this until it is certain. Keep an eye out for any announcements here or on the official Twitter page.

Early Access Expectations Poll

I am curious about what kind of content gamers looks for in Early Access, so I made a small poll. (Hosted on Strawpoll) This will help me make a determination on pricing, timing, and release for Early Access. Please vote (and vote honestly!) if you have a chance. Now on to the progress!

Essence System and Menu

This month consisted mainly of reworking some menus. The Essence menu was one of the first to get some attention. Legends of Astravia uses a unique skill system similar to Final Fantasy 7's "Materia", where abilities can be given to any character without any need for specific builds or skill trees. This is to allow the player to pick their favorite characters and mix up combat through variation in character's stats and types without any real disadvantage in switching them around at any point in the game.
While the system itself had its programming finalized, the menu was also reworked, and is significantly more pleasant to interact with than in the alpha build last year.

Less Materia, More Badges

In the first iteration of this system, it was almost identical to materia in that you had to "level up" an Essence by using it in battle. After some feedback from testers, it was decided that something akin to Paper Mario's badge system would be better. So, instead, skills are enhanced by equipping multiple Essence instead.

This offers a couple advantages. The first is that it rewards players who explore and engage in the overworld; unlocking essence in other ways than just winning battles. The second is that it reduces grind. If you find a new essence, it's an immediate reward and advancement, instead of requiring additional, repetitive combat to make it useful.

Passive Abilities

Something that has been on the list for a while, but not possible without putting the final revisions on Essence, was passive abilities. Some essence will provide more than just abilities you can use. Instead, they'll provide special effects that offer some enhancement in battle. Some of these effects will work better on some characters than others, and may lead to some interesting and powerful combinations.
An example of the Channel passive ability, which converts damage into Mystic Energy.

Equipment and Menu

Equipment, like Essence, has had its systems finalized and its menu completed. Characters are only limited in their weapon choices, but any character can equip any type of armor. Certain armors and accessories offer advantages in particular stats, which allows building any of your party members in the way you want, without being gated by classes:
And like the Essence menu, this one received some pretty big enhancements over the previous one:

Effects Improvements

Battle effect animations were optimized in ways that will make development easier in the future. Their zoom factor has also been made modular, allowing for cleaner looking effects over the hyper-zoomed battle sprites:

Status Effect Text

While in these parts of the code, I also changed how status effects behave. Now there's a clear indication when a state has been applied to a character:

Victory Screen

The victory screen was both ugly and slow. Two separate screens for experience and spoils made exiting battle cumbersome. An extra button press has been eliminated by showing all of this information on one screen. Plus, your entire party--active and inactive characters alike--will gain some experience after every battle.
And that's all for now! I look forward to sharing more with you all next month. Thank you for your continued support and patience. -Jaiden