Our plans for March and much more

Greetings, brave explorers of Nanraas! Winter is almost over, and the nature is finally starting to wake up. Thus, another natural cycle keeps on rolling, so we have to get prepared for more sun and warmth. Cold and dull weather usually makes feel a bit ill, antsy and drained of energy, but the upcoming spring should fix our mood and pace of life. Despite being under the weather, our team has been working hard to bring you the top-notch freshly baked content and long-awaited updated. So, let’s cut to the chase!

Thus, long ours of hardcore coding, drawing, and translating have resulted into the following list of achievements:

· We’ve finally completed the revision of the first in-game days, which resulted in reworked animations, improved logic of the cutscenes, implementation of the newly designed animations/reactions of certain characters as well as revamped backgrounds and even more minor cosmetic changes;

· We’ve revised and updated Ukrainian (VA+text) and English (Text) localizations of the game, thus we strongly recommend you avoid the previous versions due to vast number of changes/improvements implemented into the newest build of the game. Still, if you wish to check out the old Patreon/free builds – get ready for some cringe! We warned ya!

· The differences between Azaries’ classes have been further deepened and substantiated. The new Stats Check System (SCS) opens a wide variety of ways to customize MC’s behavior and unlocks multiple choices/branches during the events of main story, as well as adds unique class- and architype-exclusive events/quests/ways to act under certain circumstances;

·  Ukrainian VO for all characters encountered in High Circles is currently in production (the EA release will feature full VO, except for optional dialogs and side stories);

· Combat system has been heavily rebalanced. We’ve revised and discussed stats of the majority of enemies encountered in order to enhance the combat experience depending on the difficulty level selected;

· UI has been improved and updated;

Our plans for March/to do list:

· To completely revise few days of Azaries’ journey in order to implement the same set of improvements/animations/cutscenes to meet our new standards of in-game storytelling logic;

· To finish the development of the secondary in-game modules, such as «Dictionary», «Jukebox crystal» and«Memories». Each modules will provide the player with certain non-essential in-game mechanics. For example, the «Dictionary» module will allow to read all the collected info regarding om’veri language, terms, definitions and meaning of certain words and even the deciphered fragments of the ancient tongue. Also, System of Azaries’ flashbacks, which is currently in developments, will unlock and save all viewed memory fragments regardless of the current save state and route chosen. Basically, each player will be able to watch each encountered and viewed/skipped flashback again in main menu or in-game even if they start a new playthrough or delete the save folder. This system proves useful for returning players and those who admire collecting the pieces of lore and story together. However, the memories must be collecting first by progressing the main plot or meeting certain requirements;

· To fully revise/finish/polish Ukrainian and English localizations of currently existing content.

· To rework/improve/enhance UI/graphics in certain game situations;

· To finalize and eventually implement the kinetic concept of playthrough for those willing to enjoy the story without all other mechanics (combat, trade, affection, etc.). Due to non-linear essence of HotA, this won’t be an easy task. Moreover, some of the decisions Azaries makes directly impact the ending of the main plot, as well the fates of some characters. Thus, we’re currently experimenting with possible options including mixed mode (autobattles with canonical outcome, but Azaries still makes the decisions/interacts with other characters) and True Ending mode (full-auto on all in-game mechanics; all decisions/battle outcomes are set to canonical; zero customization of the main character), which is similar to Agarest GoW Digest mode.

· More fixes, improvements, and optimizations of all aspects of the game!

We keep on working hard every day to make your gaming experience on release as smooth as possible. Unfortunately, the wintertime and some events in Ukraine slowed down our progress, so we decided to postpone the release date of the game in order not to turn a blind eye on potential bugs, glitches, inconsistencies, and presence of certain outdated pieces of content in HotA. But worry not! We’re releasing the game this spring! However, the release date itself has been moved to May (wait for the announce). By the way, according to the lore, Azaries’ adventures actually happened in spring, so let’s start this wonderful journey together with our bellowed little om’verai!

Also, a few weeks before the release we will remove the playable demo from Steam due to the urgent need to update it with newly polished content and remove certain inconsistencies. Updated Demo will be available in summer.

Thank you for your support! See you in Nanraas!