I read the whole thing!
Gameplay
Yep, the intent was to have it so any of the playables could pop off. Given that it’s a short game and replaying is encouraged (achievements/game modes) it helps make each playthrough unique. Looking at your final team I’m seeing a lot of purple stats. Lucky you!
There’s a lot more to it than just tweaking the convoy. Enemies get higher growths (enemy level ups are randomized, btw) in hard, higher in lunatic. In lunatic they even get higher base defenses. Other difficulty changes have text boxes pop up when they’re relevant (i.e. on hard/lunatic you have 2 less turns to escape in chapter 1. Like many things with popup text, codex entries get added for each one.
Other people have made this complaint and I’m okay with changing this in the update to accommodate the masses. My intent was to have normal difficulty act as an introduction to the game, to get the player familiar with its systems and the freedoms therein.
Story
Ch5 has Ailsa’s and Orla’s houses, they each have their own flashback scene +prf reward and Elspeth has a prf reward for visiting each. Similar to how in Ch2 you can get Saraid’s flashback at Elwynn’s house, and Elwynn’s 2nd or Quinley’s at Elspeth’s house. The textbox at the start of ch1 says “they or somebody close to them”. Also, when you select a unit and they have a unique visit the house tile glows (which I’m sure you’ve probably noticed).
Presentation
Thanks! A lot of work went into the visuals and audio!
Glad to hear it! It took me a long time to get that done between engine editing and making the graphics.
Chapter-by-Chapter
Ch1:
Noted, will include an explanation for the funky prfs that get included in the codex.
Ch2:
Wait, what? What do you mean delayed game over? Can you please clarify this, this may be a bug.
Ah, yeah I can see that being frustrating. I’ll make sure it’s telegraphed to the player.
I think the move is to have the tutorial pop up on turn 1 to avoid any confusion.
Yep, based on whether or not Leod lives in Ch2. They also give Elspeth a different staff in Ch3 (Lamonte’s buffs an ally, Garvey’s debuffs an enemy).
Ch3:
Normal mode!
Not really an exploit, it’s intended behaviour!
Ch4:
Incredibly cracked little girl with a harpoon does incredibly cracked little girl with harpoon things. Part of the fun is going nuts with a blessed unit, aha.
Ch5:
Good. It’s supposed to be intense. I hope the explanation about the boss/promoted death reinforcements was well explained, as killing too many in a short time can overwhelm you with a whole hoard of reinforcements.
Endgame Team
Blessed units going off the rails, you love to see it. So many purple stats.
Raelin:
Popping off seems to be pretty common for this lass. Getting a few lucky level ups in tandem with her mobility makes her a solid contender for any endgame team. I call her Racecar Raelin when she gets Mov blessed.
Elspeth and Corridon:
With so few deploy slots and so many free actions at the player’s disposal, overtuning the supports was the only way to make them viable. Which in turn, ended up making them very fun to use.
Alpin:
Getting Lionheart is actually a fun little secret! Each of the trainees has their own skill upgrade. I implemented a tutorial box that explains them after you trigger one of them (which I’m hoping popped up).
Quinley:
Yeah, they aren’t as important in normal mode as they are in higher difficulties. Having them pull aggro is a great trick to have up one’s sleeve on hard/lunatic.
Lamonte:
Most people who have an opinion on Lamonte have a negative one. While he isn’t a bad unit as is, he just doesn’t really fit well with the player-phase oriented game play like you mentioned. Even on higher difficulties where ORKOing is much less common. People think even less of him after getting Garvey (Garvey is insane).
I too, feel like Lamonte doesn’t really fit and he needs some love. He’s been buffed/reworked in the past but it seems I’ll have to go back to the drawing board and revise his personal skill/prf. I won’t spoil you on what his counterpart (Garvey)'s kit looks like, but you’ll come to your own conclusion should you decide to replay.
Saraid:
In every map after you recruit Saraid you get plenty of opportunities to play around her skill (she doesn’t even have movement penalties for forests). Although you did get 2 pts of STR, eventually she would end up being stuck with chip damage duty (where in normal mode ORKOing is the norm), making her usefulness kinda meh. Her skill does work with the pillars in ch2 and the crags in ch5 btw! Wasn’t sure if that was 100% clear in the description.
Shayla:
Huh. Weird Shayla. 1 STR and 0 SPD levels makes for a sad Shayla D;
Thrall:
Devilry Thrall best Thrall?! Experts say yes.
Achievements:
Good job on getting so many in your first playthrough!
Bugs:
The bugs have been noted! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for playing and giving feedback! Please give more details on the ‘delayed game over’ issue in ch2 to help me figure out what’s up with that.
