We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone supporting us.

Your support is the driving force behind our ability to continue working on Verdict, as well as future projects and maintaining support for all VerdictGames.

A special thank you to those who have contributed through our Patreon, made direct donations, or purchased our games.

We deeply appreciate your support of us and indie games!

We are excited to introduce the 3.0 update for ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence, titled “A Bold New Look”!

This update introduces a multitude of changes and adjustments, including a major refresh that enhances the game’s presentation and gameplay. We believe these improvements will make the game more welcoming to new players while providing a fresh and thrilling experience for our existing community.

The most significant change is a comprehensive overhaul of the game’s presentation. With fresh graphics, new music, updated character portraits, and revamped environments, players can expect a more immersive and accurate representation of the game’s world.

We’ve also introduced numerous updates, fixes, balancing adjustments, and new content to enrich the gameplay, offering players even more ways to enjoy the game.

Gameplay Changes and Updates

While improving the game’s presentation was a primary focus of this update, we also took the opportunity to revisit progression and balance to enhance the overall gameplay experience.

One major concern was the steep health and damage curves for both players and enemies. At higher levels, many enemies experienced sharp health increases, leading to prolonged and stressful battles. We’ve adjusted these curves, particularly for end-game and high-level encounters, to ensure a more gradual progression and to balance combat duration.

Additionally, the stat scaling previously caused certain enemies to experience unfair damage spikes at higher levels, resulting in unintended difficulty. We’ve made several adjustments to NPC stats and the scaling algorithm to address this issue.

Beyond balancing combat, we’ve improved enemy AI and tactics. Enemies are now more strategic in combat, utilizing the same tactics system as players. This means they will protect each other, exploit player weaknesses, and use their abilities more effectively.

As a result, you may find certain enemies slightly more challenging, as they will now employ smarter strategies and make better use of their strengths.

Items and Equipment

In addition to the combat changes, we’ve made substantial updates to the items in the game. Over a hundred new items have been introduced, including armor, weapons, equipment, consumables, and more.

We’ve also rebalanced many existing items to provide a wider variety of choices. The potency of various food and consumables has been adjusted to better match their rarity and availability.

While most equipment was already well-balanced, we noticed that some pieces could use a little fine-tuning. We’ve made adjustments to these items and added several new pieces for both high and low levels. Our hope is that these changes will offer more opportunities for you to upgrade and customize your characters.

Additionally, all playable characters now have access to two new weapon types that align with their base class. We’ve also introduced a new weapon type, “Crossbows,” which several characters can now wield, giving you greater flexibility in gameplay. We hope these additions make your experience even more enjoyable.

Story, World and more

Alongside the updated graphics, several maps in the game have been revamped, ranging from minor cosmetic tweaks to major redesigns. These changes aim to make the maps more visually appealing while better reflecting their intended spaces.

Many of these updates are also functional, expanding playable areas, adding extra content, and giving players more freedom in how they navigate the maps, creating a more engaging experience.

For example, the Player’s farm has been expanded with additional farming plots and new unlockable features, including livestock and gathering points.

We’ve also introduced new events, mini-quests, and side tasks, offering varied and interesting rewards. These additions provide more options for leveling up and gearing your characters.

One significant addition is the “Champion’s Guild” in Vasalthein, a new location where you can exchange “Champion’s Tokens” - earned by completing guild bounties - for a variety of consumables, equipment, and weapons.

Additionally, we’ve added several new flavor and mini-quests, such as item delivery tasks and object-finding missions. These quests add depth and variety to the world, offering new rewards like farm unlocks, powerful items, a new legendary artifact, and a companion. We hope these additions enhance your experience and bring even more enjoyment to your adventures.

Patch Notes

Among these changes have been a number of other minor tweaks, fixes and edits to the game to enhance the overall experience.

Please note that for the best experience, we recommend starting a new save file, as existing saves may have some issues with updated data.

For those interested, here is the full list of patch notes:

Bugfixes

• Fixed an error that could cause the game to crash when entering the Catacombs.
• Fixed several triggers that were failing to activate during “Alan’s Pack”.
• Fixed a bug causing several items to be missing from Alan’s shop.
• Fixed an error that caused the game to crash during delivery quests for the Dryads.
• Fixed a problem that would cause errors to display on spells in the encyclopedia.
• Fixed several missing conversation backs in the Vasalthein Inn.
• Fixed several misconfigured tiles that would allow a player to walk on them.
• Fixed a bug that caused certain conversation backgrounds to not display as intended.
• Fixed several stray tiles on maps that were not on the correct layers.
• Fixed a number of erroneous shadows that were in the wrong places.
• Fixed several NPCs missing conversation backs in the player’s castle.
• Fixed a misplaced sprite in The Shady Shack.
• Fixed several erroneous prices on items in shops.
• Fixed several missing conversation backs in the Vasalthein Housing District.
• Fixed several dialogue errors in the Vasalthein Housing District.
• Fixed a missing book in the Vasalthein Housing District.
• Fixed a bug that would cause the player to get stuck while traversing an obstacle in Denskroll.
• Fixed an error causing unit rows to display incorrectly.
• Fixed an error that caused Malice to sometimes be unavailable in the party menu.
• Fixed an error that caused Malice to not appear in the player’s camp.
• Fixed an error causing a door in Denskroll Thickets to place the player incorrectly.
• Fixed a number of conversations that had incorrect formatting.
• Fixed an NPC with incorrect animations in the Vasalthein Housing District
• Fixed a variety of bad tile placements across many maps.

Added Content

• The game’s music has been completely rescored and updated, with new tracks and unique musical tracks for almost every area. (Please note that these updated tracks may cause an error in some save games - to fix this error, make a new save in a different area).
• Every portrait in the game has been updated with new, HD versions.
• Over a hundred new items, weapons and armors have been added.
• An Item Exchange vendor has been added in Felodrift.
• A new Legendary piece of equipment has been added.
• Many new hidden mini-quests/events have been added across Asalthana.
• The Champions Guild is now open for business in Vaselthein, offering opportunities for high level rewards.
• A new boss has been added.
• A new minor party member has been added.
• Crossbows have been added as a usable weapon type (as they were previously just a subtype of bow), and many new crossbows have been added to use.
• 20 new books have been added, and scattered across Asalthana for players to read and collect.
• Many more NPCs can now send mail to the player.

Balance Changes

• The AI of many humanoid enemies has been updated, allowing them to fully utilize the tactics system.
• Many food and consumable items have been buffed or nerfed, based on their rarity and availability.
• The health curve of all player characters has been adjusted to even out the combat experience.
• Most AOE Skills have had their damage reduced to bring them in line with regular attacks.
• Several weapons have had their damage values rebalanced to be more effective.
• A number of enemies have had their health adjusted to reflect their difficulty.
• The Primus Dryad has been rebalanced to reflect it’s position as an early boss.

Improvements

• The Farm has been extended with new plots.
• Chickens and Cows are now unlockable for your farm.
• The final part of the prologue campaign has been updated.
• An unlockable fishing point has been added to the farm.
• Adjusted the text of the Felodrift locked gates.
• Adjusted text during the ending scene.
• Adjusted the dialogue of the temple guard in Gantinmi.
• A number of new skill check chances have been added to new and existing content.
• Many textures and sprites have been updated with new versions.
• Sprites for a number of characters have been updated.
• A number of item tooltips have been updated to better reflect the item’s function
• A number of item tooltips have had spelling and grammatical errors fixed.
• Bastion can now wield scythes and staffs.
• Ghist can now wield scythes and swords.
• Ket can now wield scythes and crossbows.
• Fisket can now wield swords and crossbows.
• Laurel can now wield daggers and crossbows.
• Steif can now wield claws and whips.
• Canse can now wield crossbows and spears.
• Many maps have received minor cosmetic changes.
• Vasalthein Barricade’s map has been updated.
• Vasalthein Market’s map has been updated.
• Vasalthein Housing District’s map and many of it’s submaps have been updated.
• Felodrift’s sub-maps have been updated.
• Glitterweald’s map has been updated.
• Denskroll Thicket’s map has been updated.
• Denskroll’s sub-maps have been updated.
• Gantinmi’s sub-maps have been updated.
• The Player’s Farm map has been updated.
• The Cult’s Cave map has been updated.
• The Maison du Oufrei’s Garden map has been updated.
• Vasalthein Alley’s map has been updated.
• The Temple Catacombs’ map has been updated.
• Cave of Io’s map has been updated.
• Grimmstench Swamp’s map has been updated.

You can keep up to date with information about ABSENCE: Verdict of Silence, and other VerdictGames content at the links below:

VerdictGames Website

VerdictGames Forums

VerdictGames Discord

We would like to thank those that have supported us on this journey, and those that continue to support us.

We hope that our new and current projects will continue to bring excitement and joy to our fans.

If you would like to support us, help the development of the Verdict series or show your appreciation, please consider donating or becoming a Patron below: