Posted January 29, 2025 by DannyPhoenix
#adult #alice in wonderland #anime #dark fantasy #fairy tale #female protagonist #red riding hood #rpgmaker #the wizard of oz
Welcome! The end of January is upon us, and with that I can confidently share the next demo update release date.
February 14th!
Now I'd like to talk at length about what to expect and what's happened. It's strange because in some ways this is actually the BIGGEST update the demo has received yet, but it's mostly back end stuff that you as a player may not even realize. In terms of story content there's really very little new unfortunately. But I'll start with a bulleted overview and then explain in detail with images of systems working in game for you.
Now there's a lot here to discuss but I'm going to try and tackle it one concept at a time. So if you'd like the more explicit details you're welcome to keep reading. Otherwise you've got the brief overview and can just check out the pictures bellow.
The Divine Scale is a brand new system that intersects with the games mechanics on almost every level. If you've played the games current demo you've encountered the placeholder system. A simple morality bar that moves left or right on a scale when you make certain choices. This entire system has been erased from the game due to its simplicity and the inherent nature of a binary scale involving themes of "judgement' that aren't meant to be present here. Instead you will now have three explorable paths for Red.
To unlock higher Tiers, you must accomplish two things. First, you must have a higher affinity with your goddess. But second, you must also purchase at least 2 skills from the previous node. So for example, in the picture above, Red's affinity with Vesta is at level 1. This means you have access to Tier 1 abilities like Mend and Harvest. If I wanted to purchase Tier 2 skills, like Emergency Care, I would need to first purchase Mend and Harvest (or any 2 skills from Tier 1.). Then if my affinity was high enough, Tier 2 would unlock. This is all done seamlessly in the skill tree scene so if you came here with high enough affinity and a stockpile of SP to spend you could do that.
Now you saw that affinity for the Blood God is already a feature in this build. But for now I've decided to omit Ichor's skill tree. I'll be saving that for the next build. The skills themselves are already plotted out, along with her unique altar. But honestly programming these is incredibly tedious and boring and I just need a break after making these two back to back. That and with two weeks until update I'd like to cram in a bit more content of the fun variety for you all.
I'm not going to provide any images in this section but I'm also not going to talk at length either or we'd be here literally all day. All you need to know is that your save data will no longer work with the next build of the game. Well it might but it'll be REALLY broken and the skill trees wont work properly. I'd also advise everyone to start a new game regardless though, simply because the combat system has taken quite a leap forward. Statuses in particular were mostly the default RPG maker ones and as a result they had no real balancing. With this update I've gone through every single status and either altered their function, removed them, or replaced them. For example the Frozen status was highly abusable and could keep the player or enemy from making an action for up to 5 turns. Now there is no Frozen state. Instead there's frostbite, and it has completely different behavior. I won't go over all the details here as a future update will include a log book item that goes over EVERYTHING. But since I don't have all the new icons finished yet that's most likely going to be saved for the next build. Just make sure you READ what everything does as a lot of skills have been altered.
The biggest one that I will briefly talk about is Dominate. A new status unique to Eros skills. This replaces the arousal state for enemies and instead turns them into brainwashed ally's that will no longer fight Red for a short period of time. Lots of skills have other QOL updates like including % chances of working or inflicting certain statuses in their descriptions.
As said at the top there's really not MUCH new here in terms of actual plot. I worked with Adrian this month however and we completed all of Hati's voice lines so I'll do my best in my free time to put the scenes of him and Red talking into the game. I should have both actors lines ready to go for that, but I will likely omit optional dialogue just for the sake of time. Scarecrows lines are also being recorded but even if they were delivered today I think they won't make it into the build. Editing Hati and Red's lines will be work enough in these two weeks and I still have an event I promised my patrons to finish. Cheshire is in the midst of auditions as well and hopefully I'll be ordering her dialogues in February or March depending on how my income is looking.
But as for what you WILL see in the demo...
But my current priority is on the next camp sign event. The whole thing has voice acting set to go, and I've sketched out all the images and started the line work. It's about 9 illustrations or so to make so I SHOULD finish it in time if all goes well. But I'll apologize now if I can't manage that.
In terms of the games actual progress beyond the demo, I'm happy to share that I've met my quota and chapter 6 is more or less complete.
Now for those of you who DON'T want to replay the game, but want to play new battles and explore the new content, a new Battle Trial is being set up just for you. This will be a staple feature from this point on and be a set of challenges that allow you to play as Red alone, or to experiment with Scarecrow and Hati in your party for an easier time. It's also the ONLY way to play as Hati in the demo and the battles will even include the Crow King himself. Battles still give EXP and rewards and you'll unlock heal spots after clearing enough encounters. So if you JUST want to play with the new mechanics and skip the story you'll be able to do that.
There are a number of other QOL tweaks and changes that are planned. More clear explanations on where to find the Logs and Carpenters tools. The ability to toggle fishing from button mash to QTE and a reworking of that system in general. As well as planned changes to the SFW mode that should make the game much more friendly to anyone wishing to make content out of it. But since most of these aren't officially finished yet I'm not listing them as for sure additions.
All in all a lot of work has been done over the lat two months and there's still a bit to take care of before the update on the 14th. But I hope you'll look forward to it. I'll do a follow up post going over everything CONFIRMED to be in the demo either the day before the update or the day of the update. So until then, as always thank you for your continued support of Project Red. I hope you look forward to playing again soon.