We have a progress update regarding CotH’s next demo as it nears completion. We’re currently working on Chapter 11’s script as well as implementing the new units recruited in that chapter. However, what we really want to show you are these:
The first annual SRPG Studio Game Awards were held earlier today, and we walked away with Community Choice awards for Game of the Year, Demo of the Year, and Best Presentation based on votes from the larger SRPG Studio community. We would not have achieved this milestone without your support, and we wish to thank you once again for it.
If you thought our first demo was impressive, get excited for this next one as it showcases new story developments and further improvements in presentation and gameplay. We continue looking forward to your enjoyment and feedback.
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With Chapter 12 completed, Demo 2 of Cycle of the Heavens has now entered its final stretch of testing and polishing. In the meantime, we’d like to give a small taste of the visual improvements you can look forward to, for those of you who haven’t joined our Discord server yet.
Since Demo 1 released last year, new AI tools (particularly Google AI Studio) have become available to us. Simply speaking, these tools are capable of taking images as input and redrawing specific portions to suit our needs. These, combined with Adarya’s usual Photoshop wizardry, have enabled us to put out much nicer-looking portraits than was possible a year ago, with more consistent detailing and fewer errors.
Below are some examples, with the old Demo 1 portraits on the left and the new Demo 2 portraits on the right.
Selenea doesn’t have a sloppy print on the front of her dress anymore, and her arms have been redrawn.
Stella’s cape is now one piece instead of two, has a more consistent-looking decorative pattern, and a little star brooch holding it in place.
Finally, fan favorite Sirius has had the extraneous hood on his cape removed, received nicer looking star decorations (including the same brooch as his sister), and consistently-colored sleeves.
Be on the lookout for more sneak peeks in the coming days as Demo 2 comes closer to completion!
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Here’s a look at more Prologue/Chapter 1 characters with new portraits, starting with the game’s Cain & Abel duo.
Frances’s armor has been tidied up to look more consistent. In particular, that hideous smudgy armor piece covering her navel is now gone.
James also has nicer looking armor now, with less sloppy gold trim as well as a red sash to indicate his special status as King Samson’s retainer.
Besides them, your first flier Odette has an improved collar and shoulders in addition to a red belt around her waist.
As for major NPCs, Samson and Gabrielle have been completely redesigned. I’m especially happy with Gabrielle’s new mask, which is far closer to how I’d originally envisioned the character.
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Portrait updates for Chapter 2 & 3 characters
Paul’s shirt, pauldrons, and armbands have been redrawn to look more sensible. The front of his shirt has also been opened up to show more of his chest and play up his sex appeal.
The ugly leather flaps on the sides of Barbi’s sleeves have been removed. Her belt and tie have also been redrawn, and she now wears a quiver of arrows on her back like any good archer should.
Finally, Asami’s hair is no longer cropped, and her outfit has been redrawn with new sleeves and a flower print on the front in reference to her late daughter Sakura.
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They’re all so beautiful I love it!!! Can’t wait to support conversation some of these hawt guys
Demo 2 of Cycle of the Heavens is now officially released!
This new version has been in the works for a year and a half and includes many notable changes, including dramatically improved backgrounds as well as improved portraits for most of the playable cast. Not to mention bugfixes and balancing tweaks throughout the pre-existing chapters.
Changelog
- General
- A new Con system for offsetting weapon weight has been implemented; the formula is Con = (max HP - 15) / 5.
- The player can now move back and forth between Bases and playable maps like in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
- An Inventory option has been added to the Manage menu, which functions similarly to the Convoy option, but includes weapons and items held by other units.
- The Manage menu now displays characters in 3 columns instead of two.
- A Help Log has been added to the map commands, which contains info about in-depth game mechanics not explained through in-game tutorials.
- Several songs now loop properly.
- Certain menu commands have been reordered more intuitively.
- The BEXP formula has been changed so that BEXP costs per 1 point of real EXP are rounded down to maintain consistent costs regardless of whether the player gives a unit BEXP in multiple increments or all at once.
- BEXP Level Ups now give 4 parameter points apiece instead of 3 points.
- All scenes of characters whispering are now rendered in gray text instead of being marked with visible whispering onomatopoeia.
- The game now confirms whether the player wants to exit the game if they press the Escape key.
- Classes
- The class type system has been overhauled to properly split class types into movement type and class property.
- All classes have had their HP caps raised by 20 to match SRPG Studio Heroes.
- All classes capable of wielding fire, thunder, or wind magic can now wield all three at once like in Thracia 776 and Path of Radiance.
- Mounted classes no longer receive Hit penalties when wielding throwing or Heavy weapons, but can now only use half their leftover Mov after performing an action.
- The Mage and Dark Priest classes have had their portraits completely replaced.
- Refer to the class spreadsheet for new info about class stats.
- Characters
- Most characters have received an updated and/or expanded selection of halfbody portraits.
- Characters now have different expressions when they Level Up depending on how many stat points they gain.
- All unrecruitable boss enemies have received custom palettes.
- Refer to the character spreadsheet for new info about character stats.
- Weapons & Items
- All weapons have been rebalanced around the new Con system in some capacity.
- Slim weapons have been expanded into a larger family of Light Weapons including Smallswords, Hasta, Splitters, and Shortbows, each with their own Iron, Steel, and Silver variants. Non-Dagger Knives have also been placed in this weapon category.
- Heavy Weapons (Blades, Greatlances, Labryes) no longer force the user to attack last in battle and can now follow up.
- Merciful weapons are now known as Pressure weapons and reduce the target’s HP by fixed percentages.
- Anti-Dragon weapons (Wyrmslayer, Dragonpike, Dragon Axe) have been added to the game; they use the graphics originally used by anti-Beast weapons.
- Blessed weapons have received new graphics.
- The Zanbato has received new graphics.
- The Regal Sword has been added to the game as a personal weapon for Selenea.
- The Ridersbane has been renamed the Beast Killer and received new graphics.
- The Butcher Axe has been renamed the Poleax and uses the graphics originally used by the Swordreaver, which has received new graphics.
- The Hatchet has been renamed the Wolf Beil.
- The Athame Dagger has been renamed the Occult Dagger.
- The Cupid’s Bow has been renamed the Shining Bow and its damage animations have had the sparkle effect placed closer to the ground.
- Imbued weapons (Gale Sword, Flame Lance, Bolt Axe, Occult Dagger, Shining Bow) have had their Mt lowered and cast weaker spells, but now give Mag +5 when equipped.
- To compensate for the increased accessibility of anima magic, its Reaver tomes have been removed from the game and the high-Critical Razor tome has been replaced by the one-way Freeze tome.
- Door & Chest Keys are now available for purchase from all Vendors.
- Skills
- The Guard class Skill used by Armored classes can now be used by enemy and ally NPCs.
- Refer to the character spreadsheet for new info about characters’ personal Skills.
- Refer to the Skill spreadsheet for new info about all other Skills.
- Chapters
- In general, most enemies have had their weapons changed to balance them around the new Con system.
- Most of the backgrounds including all battle backgrounds have been updated.
- Tutorial cards and other hints have been placed throughout the game to help inexperienced players learn how to play.
- Fades to black at the end of every chapter have been updated to be more consistent.
- Shop inventories have been updated for more consistent availability of weapons belonging to the same family (i.e. Anti-Cavalry, Killer, etc.)
- Prologue
- Selenea, Sirius, Frances, and James have all been removed from the internal starting party to prevent their Support data from displaying too early.
- Samson does not become an enemy unit until Ally Phase, meaning he will never ambush the player. His Explosion tome has been replaced with a Lightning tome, and his Seal Resistance Skill has been replaced with Immune Status and Armsthrift+.
- A bug that caused Stella to spawn on top of Sirius upon reloading a save file has been fixed.
- Cursor focus noises have been added where they were originally missing.
- Selenea now gives Stella a Heal staff before the twins fight Samson.
- The BEXP turn limit has been extended by 3 turns.
- Chapter 1
- The enemy Outlaws have been replaced with Hunters.
- Gabrielle is now a Shadow wielding a Blessed Knife and a Death tome. She has also had her Level and stats reduced, as well as Lethality and Knifefaire replaced with Critical Avoid +10 and Seal Luck.
- The ally Cavaliers and Heavy Cavaliers who show up to intercept Gabrielle are now Great Knights.
- Odette now flies closer to the bottom of the mountain where the player is expected to be after emerging from Celes Castle.
- Attempting to have a unit escape while carrying another unit will cause the former to drop the latter before exiting the map. This also applies to Chapter 7.
- Chapter 2
- The map has been extended down two rows.
- An oversight that caused the Houses to not properly change graphics when visited has been fixed. This also applies to Chapter 4.
- The player receives 5000 more G at the end.
- Chapter 3
- Asami’s involvement in Trixie’s kidnapping has been rewritten to make a little more narrative sense.
- Chapter 4
- The line in the opening narration implying Giselle to have romantic interests in her brother has been removed.
- Jarvis now drops 10000 G when defeated.
- Chapter 5
- The enemy Thieves have been replaced with Ninjas.
- Most of the enemy Dark Mages have been replaced with Dark Priests.
- Maurice and Ibrahim no longer use their Herbs as enemies.
- Franz has had Seal Movement replaced with a new personal Skill called Conqueror’s Charge.
- Sophia has had Counter and Power Heal replaced with a new personal Skill called Disarming Voice.
- Miriam has had Darkfaire and Death Blow replaced with a new personal Skill called Envious Lash.
- The BEXP turn limit has been extended by 2 turns.
- Chapter 6
- An oversight that prevented terrain bonus-dependent Skills from recognizing terrain bonuses has been fixed.
- The Iron Blade in the bottom-left chest has been replaced with a Master Seal.
- The BEXP turn limit has been extended by 1 turn.
- Edmond and Isaac no longer use their healing items as enemies.
- Chapter 7
- The enemy Dark Mage who spawns during the pre-battle cutscene is now a Dark Priest.
- One of the enemy Outlaws in Chapter 7 has been moved down a space so that Phillip can more easily Canter out of danger with less Mov left over.
- Clyde has had his Bow Rank lowered from S to A and his G drop doubled.
- The BEXP turn limit has been extended by 1 turn.
The new download link can be found in the original post. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to…
For all the latest updates on the game’s development!
We hope you enjoy this new demo as much as we enjoyed making it.
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Hello again. An emergency bugfix has been released which fixes an issue that prevents players from skipping anything. If you’ve already downloaded the game, hold onto your save files and let us know if you continue to experience issues with skipping.
We apologize deeply for the inconvenience and hope to ensure a great playing experience for everyone.
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