Hey y'all!

Lots of new stuff coming your way, so it's time for another community update! We're nearing completion of Chapter 3, and have decided to push it as a standalone update rather than paired with Chapter 4; I think we're all tired of waiting!

As mentioned in the last community update, Chapter 3 is more story than gameplay driven, but this upcoming build is still chock full of new features. Here's a breakdown of some of the changes you'll be seeing.

[u]New Features & Updates[/u]

First off, we've revamped the entire UI, and the whole thing is more functional and much more readable. Here's the new party menu:
Hmm, wait a minute... I think there's a new button by the bottom tabs... that looks a bit ominous, huh?

Our new post-battle screen is looking slick, and we've got a sweet new feature: you can see three new grade performance meters at the bottom of the window; these are percentage scores based on your speed/lethality, party health (throughout a match, not just what you end a battle with), and stealth. And that leads into our third image...

Totem powers! These new abilities are activated independently of any individual characters, and the powers range from party-wide stat buffs to massive AOE damage. There are many different powers to discover, as you can see below!

Introducing the Scout class! The Scout's spotting ability allows you to learn more about your enemies and take advantage of various weaknesses. You can also see that enemy sprites sizes now reflect their prowess and difficulty.

New health indicators appear above enemies while aiming, allowing for faster, more efficient battle planning.

As for story, we won't say too much, but prepare yourself for a very royal meeting at the heart of Abbol.

Finally, a strange new menu has appeared in-game... What could it mean!?

[u]And Most Importantly:[/u]

Now for the biggest news of all: we're looking to push this update to you [u]within the next month[/u]! We're so impossibly excited to be bringing new FLAMBERGE content to you, and we can't wait to hear your thoughts on these new features.

For those who are itching for even more ways to play the game, we're in the process of structuring a beta initiative; players will be able to offer feedback much more directly, and help squash those bugs to get new content rolling out more quickly. We'll have more details on the FLAMBERGE beta soon.

That about wraps things up for this community update; please feel free to send us questions via comments, discussion boards, or email at contact@hydezeke.com.

Thanks so much for your patience and support; the enthusiasm and positivity we receive from y'all means the world to us.

Until next time,
-Ben

[ 2018-07-01 14:30:23 CET ] [Original Post]