Exploring the depths of Bottomrock in Auster Island…
Some cool changes
One of the cooler new things is the feel of Alicia’s horizontal movement. The controls feel miles more tight now: if you hold down the d-pad, she moves; if you don’t, she stops right away. This allows her to jump around and evade attacks with much more precision, and it makes a world of difference in many situations. She feels a lot like Alucard’s movement in SOTN!
Another addition is a checkpoint system, which triggers during important events, letting you get back there if you die, as opposed to going back to the last save-station. I’m using it sparingly, but if you think that’ll make the game too easy, I’m considering doing a newgame+ mode that turns this off, among some other changes. Might be fun!
Finding new uses for the Seeing Stone!
Other than that, I extended the first dungeon by adding a couple of puzzles spread across 4 rooms (shown above!). I also redesigned the fire spell (which now feels like playing pinball with grenades!) and buffed the ice spell with an area-of-effect attack. I also added an upgraded charged strike to strengthen Alicia’s whip, which grows as she levels up.
Some of this cool stuff will be showcased on video soon (for the first time in years!). There’s some exciting things happening in the next few months, so look forward to that!
