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TLS 0.74.4 - The Even More Finaler Battle (Patreon)

Published:
2024-06-21 22:07:53
Edited:
2024-06-21 22:09:21
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Alright, it's time to open the update up to $1 supporters! I hope many of you guys enjoy it, of course, but I also hope this round will allow us to further balance the final battle.

Link: https://mega.nz/file/DtEGiLJY#8wvb9NrIuPVd52O94NCZABL5iKDRJzTmIfiGXRqoTME

RTP: https://mega.nz/file/3glklYzY#fv_ntK5lxp-R0sQ8hl6pq8Pvj-rE8Vd9rlpsX8nMaNQ

TLS 0.74.4

- Polishing and background changes.

- New illustrated scenes: New Lovers, Uyae's First Time

This content is all pretty well polished... in a sense. The problem is that the playtesters and feedback have overwhelmingly been via highly optimized saves. While this update is playable and vaguely correct, I'm not at all confident that this is the true final balance that I want.

If you haven't played before, just have at it! However, if you keep disaster saves or are one of the players who complains about the game catering to optimizers, I am especially interested in your feedback. The goal for the final battle is that you should do reasonably well if you have completed most of the final harem quests.

Aside from that, development has gone on long enough that Annikath and I have finished two more illustrated scenes. Otherwise, this is just another step on the way to the public release.

Comments

Treeman4

Perhaps even the Finalist battle

AnythingAtAll

The actual, final title is going to be "The Actual, Final Battle (For Real This Time x3)."

sierralee

Just replied to you on Cognosticon, but fuller answer here: 1) I wanted to finish the release of the final battle and Deathseed first. 2) I want to build a bit more audience, maybe by getting them on board for the throuple.

AnythingAtAll

As excessive as it sounds, I really want Omilaena to bawl her eyes out when ZZN and Kai finally accept her into the throuple. Hell, I want them all to ugly cry! Speaking of TWC, are we getting Skyvenom chapters later or will you focus on the promotional run for Deathseed first? Don't feel pressured! I'm just curious about the schedule.

Decarabia

The naming is similar to what happens when you download someone's thesis, final_final_revised.pdf. I will try to get around to playing it this weekend and give feedback here, all my saves are "semi-optimized" (about an even split between going with my gut and checking for good decisions).

sierralee

Haha, the chapter is written and I'll just have to wait to see how you react. This week's Sarah post will be reporting on the release, but after that there's no delay built in. Skyvenom needs a bit more editing, though.

AnythingAtAll

Actually, I've been curious about that. Do you hire an editor or do you do it all yourself?

sierralee

I have a number of early readers (most authors) who provide feedback and catch things I miss, but no hired editors.

Jason

Love the naming theme we have going here :D also, my partner and I are rounding up and finishing some of our final remaining quests before taking upon the battle! We haven't optimized much at all, I'd say it's a rather rough-n-stumble playthrough (to give some scope, never got the ruins... never had the money, RIP). We'll be sure to note down some stuff and return with feedback! Sidenote, worth writing that we've encountered a few bugs (I believe) and the odd typo here and there, but nothing super huge. Documented the ones we found, but sometimes they disappear with the newer versions? So we've refrained from any reports as they might just be patched out by themselves with the frequent updates haha. We'll keep you posted ^^

DuckTogo

Looking forward to the finalest battle!

gdbhyihghh

Can't wait for version 74.15-The Finalest Finally Finaler Final Battle of Finality!! In all seriousness, can't wait to see the new polish! Also, I know you mentioned this on another post somewhere, but I can't find it and it's making me go slightly crazy, so I'll just ask you here: after you're done polishing and balancing the Final Battle, what is the next planned content update for TLS? Is it the epilogue and aftermath of the Final Battle, or is the Final Optional Dungeon of Secrets before the Final Battle? Please, I know you said you're gonna focus on your books and other projects for awhile after you finish the Final Battle, and I'm 100% ok with that, I just need to know what comes next when you do the next big TLS update. Thank you, and I hope you have a lovely day, thank you for making such a great game!!!

sierralee

I will appreciate your feedback - hope you enjoy! I am always responding to reports and polishing older content. If you want to report what you find, feel free - even if there's a duplicate or outdated report, it doesn't really cause any trouble. Just be clear about what and where and I'll be happy to get the report.

sierralee

I will continue to follow the roadmap Lamsey posted, so yes: optional dungeon and final harem member next. There's a lot of other stuff I need to handle, but please look forward to many TLS weekly updates as well, both about new content and about polishing. Thank you for playing TLS. ^-^

gdbhyihghh

Thank you, both of you! I appreciate the road map of content to come, as well as the confirmation you will still be following the roadmap and aren't just spinning off of it randomly! I will look forward to all the coming updates for TLS, whatever they may be!

Decarabia

Ok, I apologize that this is not the feedback I promised yet, but: - In Vhala's request, regarding the optional anti-sex monster in Denmiel, if you lose the fight, you are free to roam the world but you still only get the succubi back. (Also idk if you still want feedback regarding this quest's difficulty/reward for non optimizers, I can report once I finish it) - I have been completing the harem quests before going into the final battle and, in general, they are my favorite part of the game. I have cried a few times throughout the whole game experience, but nothing hit me harder and deeply personal than a conversation in Uyae's request, which was really unexpected. It's just crazy. Crazy how some party members's interactions can have such care put into it, in a world where often those barely exist or are just clashes of one-dimensional caricatures. I already praise your work/writing often enough so for now just allow me to thank you.

sierralee

Whoops, will add the party organization in the loss condition as well. Please feel free to provide non-optimizer feedback whenever! I'm glad to hear that the harem quests are such a meaningful part of the game for you. ^-^ Which conversation in Uyae's request?

DankPotatoes

There is one balancing thing I find myself wondering about, as a result of the Final Battle: The effects of torturing Estevan during the Erosian War, and how it impacts Entity Cohesion. I think it's a fair assesment to say that Entity Cohesion may be the single most important stat in the game now, as it's the one that potentionally determines which ending you can get. And it's not always the easiest stat to increase, and it occationally has some high thresholds, like triggering the conversation under the tree at the Nostalgic Home. One of the single most positively impactful choices you can make to increase it, is to let Wendis torture Estevan, which nets you +10, with practically no drawbacks (Nearly every other impacted RP score also increases, instead of decreasing). 10 Entity Cohesion is a LOT. For instance, it's nearly impossible to trigger the scene under the tree at the Nostalgic home for the casual player without that +10, and could honestly result in a lot of people losing the final battle, due to triggering the bad end. Triggering the bad end, because you didn't want to let Wendis indulge her darkest impulses and do the most sadistic form of torture imaginable seems a bit... off from the theme and message of the game, no? Not saying The Fuckwad didn't deserve it, but it's not really about him. I just don't think that the psychologically healthiest way for a deeply mentally scared being to recover her humanity and rationality, is to let her torture souls out of sheer sadistic glee. I was thinking, maybe it would make sense to keep the RP-score impacts from the torture-choice as they are, but add an event at some free-roaming point in Chapter 5, after gaining some distance from the event, where Wendis and Simon talk about the choice, where the Entity Cohesion score is evened out a bit? So people who didn't do torture, get a convo where Simon explains his choice to her, she understands, and she gains some Cohesion. While players who did do torture experience an event where Wendis sounds a bit dangerously unstable and hoping to do the same to The Lustlord/ Tanurak/ Xerces, causing her to lose Cohesion instead? Those are my thoughts, anyway. Have a nice week. :)

Decarabia

- Lynine's request: I was able to reach 85% of the project, not enough country score on either of elven nations to continue. - Vhala's request: 3 chests; support: orgasmic empire, aram token, eustrin, yhilin, new givini, ghenalon, erosia. Other countries not even close to support. Feels bad. In both of these cases, I found it rather anticlimatic that I can't (or don't know how to) just decide to finish it, even incomplete/failure, so I could at least read some closure. - Orcent's request: Sorry this is technically minor, but I think that the choice of continuing the sped-up version of the soundtrack from the dungeon at the tower-bar conversation of simon and orcent kind of goes against the atmosphere imo. - Other requests completed (aside from Trin's). All great quests and writing as usual. I'm headed to the final battle. As for the conversation in Uyae's... it was when they were restoring the ancient text, Uyae with Orilise. Uyae didn't know something, then didn't know some words, but Orilise met her with such kindness and respect. Uyae said that, in wanting to avoid appearing foolish, she became a fool. [personal stuff that might be oversharing ahead] I cried a lot because I really see myself in there, it's something that I struggle with every day, in family, professional and even in entertainment context such as this one. In a weird way, I projected myself onto Uyae, and a lot of things (including TLS) onto Orilise. I'm drawn to complexity and enjoy it a lot, but actively engaging on it is another story, but it's touching to see it's acknowledged that it's okay to bring other intelligences to the table. I understand this is a rather strong theme on Qum, but Uyae's struggles with language+knowledge is super relatable to me.

Lamsey

I agree. I had always expected that allowing the torture would have some negative repercussions down the line, and I'm very surprised that it doesn't (at least thus far) seem to be the case. "Torture is bad" doesn't seem like it should be a controversial position, but the game seems to be pushing players towards the opposite conclusion.

sierralee

Thanks for the info! Let me know how you feel once you get through the final battle. I do hear what you're saying about being unable to complete the requests, but I'm not sure how I'd handle it mechanically. That's not to say that it can't happen. Good point about the music. Will have it slow down at the end.

sierralee

This is a result of my obsessive thinking about the nature of video game decisions. I don't expect everyone to agree, but I'll give you my thoughts. There are many different types of moral decisions in games, from pure choice as flavor to situations where the ethical decision is meant to be ambiguous. One type TLS uses frequently is decisions where the right choice is clear, but more difficult. There have been other experiments, with varying degrees of success in my opinion, but I view that type as central. I spend a lot of time thinking about this, and the torture decision is the extreme form: there was never any intended negative for letting it happen. Is torture still wrong if it's the expedient choice? Players can decide that for themselves, but I think that the balance is loose enough that players can still get good outcomes if they decide that it matters to them. As for the in-universe reasoning, I tried to make that clear in Wendis's conversation afterwards.

Decarabia

Whew... just finished the final battle. Wow... congratulations for successfully reaching this point. It was absolutely amazing. All the graphical and musical heights achieved... bravo. To be quite honest, I underestimated it, because back then when it was framed as a labyrinth by Alonon, I figured this would be one huge dungeon, and I'm not the biggest fan of them. Yet I found the story and gameplay flow very fair and exciting. Even having finished it, I still feel like I have a lot of content yet to be seen. I don't want to be curt yet neither want to subject you or anyone's precious time to a big wall of text of all my impressions, so for now let's go to my notes: - At the first Dark Locus there are 2 very specific places you can jump onto, but should not be able to. One of them leads to a wall, another to the empty space. You can only jump back to where you came from. Nothing too serious or locking, but if you'd like to fix it, I would have to send you or someone the image because I wouldn't be able to explain where it is in words. - Vhala was injured against Xerces. - If I choose 2+ people to remain at the base, orcent will repeat "[name] can take down the demon lure,". - Lots of game overs: demon fight with 3 corporealities. - Ginasta couldn't activate her powers. - Aka wounded when retreating from the lost locus. - when dividing by groups with the interceptors spearhead etc, altina (slut)+lilith seems uncharacteristically OP to deal with the waves due to lilith's sleep spell. - yet I died when the interceptors had to deal with this huge crowd of unstable chosens. from the wording I figured I would have to fight hester, so I wasn't prepared to deal with this crowd-control "gimmick fight", game over. [final race to the center] - xerces reached the center first. ulrissa sacrifice. WHAT?! GAME OVER? - reloading, now hester comes first in the projection, yet the cutscene plays the same (xerces first, her reactig with "Impossible!"), ulrissa's sacrifice, but now the game continues. - at the light fortress, talking to na enemy to the left lets vhala talk, which seems weird since she's been out of the picture for some time, don't know if bug or intended. - final(?) conversation, deciding whether or not to take the power, vhala says "wendis, you seem.. tense" (should be "...", right? also, pointing out in case vhala speaking is a bug). - great tense mood in this conversation. I was shaking. - simon acquired the power, chose to do nothing, will gather up all the shards etc, end of chapter. ---- finale points: 10 hester advantage: 8 xerces advantage: 10 divine fight: 13 physical world success: 3 orilise counterattack points: 8 - Powerup/bonus skills achieved: Aka, Carina, Altina, Hilstara. - No one died, if that was possible. - Ended with 5 loci controlled, 2 from Xerces's. - Most used team at the end was Simon+Robin+Carina+Hilstara. - Had some close calls in both Hester and Xerces fights, but managed first try. If I may be so spoiled, I found it surprising that they didn't have dialogue inside the fight (usually I find it pretty hype and sets the mood pretty well when it happened). The writing from them, everywhere else, was top-notch as usual.

Rachnera

TLS or the modern Milgram experience: How many consequence free virtual points do you need to give a player before they become okay with equally virtual torture?

DankPotatoes

Cool, I understand the reasoning. :) Though I'll note that as far as I can tell (And correct me if I am wrong) not *all* good outcomes are achievable if you avoid torture. Specifically the scene at the tree, in the Nostalgic Home requires 90 Cohesion to trigger, and as far as I can tell, you can't get more than 88, without engaging in torture.

sierralee

Huh, I tried to calculate that, but could easily have been off by a few points.

sierralee

Thanks for all your feedback! I spent an enormous amount of time preparing this update, so getting people's reactions is a pleasure, not a chore. ^-^ I'd be happy to see screenshots of the wrong jumps in Vhala's section, sure. >If I choose 2+ people to remain at the base, orcent will repeat "[name] can take down the demon lure,". I'd need a screenshot and/or location to be able to pin this one down. Sorry to hear the Northern Locus didn't work for you (it was meant to be relatively easy). The enemies in that section are particularly vulnerable to the usual weaknesses of Hester's troops, so anyone who can deal that type of damage should, in theory, be able to take them out. Final Race: If either side gets too far ahead, you get a game over. Ulrissa's sacrifice reduces this variable, but isn't always enough. >at the light fortress, talking to na enemy to the left lets vhala talk, which seems weird since she's been out of the picture for some time, don't know if bug or intended. No, this should have had a check for her injury. Good catch. >final(?) conversation, deciding whether or not to take the power, vhala says "wendis, you seem.. tense" (should be "...", right? also, pointing out in case vhala speaking is a bug). Injured people come back for this conversation, but the missing period is an error. >If I may be so spoiled, I found it surprising that they didn't have dialogue inside the fight (usually I find it pretty hype and sets the mood pretty well when it happened). Hmm, I'm not opposed, but I'm not sure what else they should say...

WaxerRed

Just for my own thoughts I’m surprised how many people didn’t let Wendis do her thing with the Fucklord. Was always an easy choice for me, and Simon’s last line to the fucklord was a pretty damn good one in my opinion.

gdbhyihghh

I agree with Waxer on this. Maybe I'm just distancing myself from it because it's ultimately a video game with no real world consequences, but I never let him just fade away, in any of my saves. He's a terrible, disgusting WRETCH of a man, nothing more than the vilest predator and monster in a human guise. And then, after causing so much pain, so much suffering, so much horror for so many people, when he finally gets a FRACTION of the punishment he deserves for his actions, he BEGS. He begs to Simon for mercy, and it's at that point I REALLY lose any and all potential to try and empathize with this piece of shit. You've raped hundreds, thousands, possibly Tens, if not HUNDREDS of thousands of people, and even those he doesn't personally rape are still suffering under him from one the most deranged spells to even exist, with even his own personal subordinates, who he needs in order for his plans to work at all, he makes Sabitha addicted to cock just for his own pleasure, and even his Trin-esque underling he was planning to forcibly transition into a women just so he could rape him next!!!! There is not a SINGLE moment I've played TLS where I EVER thought, even for a second, 'Oh hey, Estaven isn't actually the worst in the world.' EVEN THE FUCKING INCUBUS EMPEROR, CREATOR OF THE UNSUCCUBI, has ONE moment where he treats Iris with some decency and respect, undercut by the fact it's mostly because Iris is just pretending to be a silly Succubus who loves his massive penis and his 'amazing' war plans, but it's still SOMETHING. The Fucklord has NOTHING like this, not once in the game. So seeing him beg for mercy, after providing NONE for the many, MANY times people have begged him for the same? Give him straight to Wendis, and move on with life, knowing she's happy, and a monster is gone and forever removed from this world, his last moments of awareness and consciousness filled only with the pain he inflicted on so, so, SO many other's before we could stop him. FUCK the Fucklord, he deserves nothing but hatred and suffering, and Wendis can most certainly provide them.

Decarabia

First of all, how fitting that it opens up with strong writing. "I'd say heaven help us, but there's nothing left in the heavens but our enemies". PEAK The final clearing set the mood pretty well. I wasn't particularly nervous before, but checking out on everyone, some more affected than others, was building up my own anxiouness. Thanks for the recap, Riala. Also, great usage of characters to explain to the player the whole context of the battle, very helpful to me. When they finally entered the battlefield and all this chaos ensued, I loved it!! It was such an intense first exposure to it all, with nice music and usage of assets to make a good cutscene. This is something that I would think often times throughout this update: "this game really has come a long way". I don't know how much was due to your personal improvement of using the game engine and how much was held back for this moment, but it was definitely pretty impactful. Usually gamers dislike linearity, but in my case at this moment, I was pretty hyped at this "on-rails" (and all the subsequent) section. Again, I was under the impression that this was all one big dungeon, not a "War" like all the others. It was the result of my naiveté + the name "Battle" instead of war + for how long I believed this would just be Alonon's labyrinth... Anyway, just to say that I was really fond of the on-rail segments. Also lmao the fake party split. Making the player think hard about this, only to have it be thrown off in the chaos of the battle, was actually pretty clever and immersive. And as much as I enjoy the occasional freedom the game gives you, I'd much rather have preset teams so they can have more dialog. Here is the bug report part, I forgot earlier that I could had just uploaded somewhere and sent a link: https://i.imgur.com/Ik58TkB.jpeg You have no idea how much I enjoyed the projection. I had a big smile, because it's all so pretty, well made and helpful. Having maps in general helps me a lot, so the projection dynamic was great for my experience. I was positively surprised with Simon's proactiveness here. Not just reacting, but sound strategies to tackle with not one but two powerhouses at the same time. He is definitely plenty experienced by now. Nice development. That one thing I talked about Orcent repeating the lines was about the first decision on how to employ wendis/esthera/sabitha on your Final HQ. I chose to let Wendis at base; send Esthera to scout locus points; Sabitha to remain at base; focus hester. I was replaying this to get the screenshots and the chemistry between Orcent and Iris makes me very happy <3 even if it's only platonic, as "my" Orcent is happy with Kara. I also noticed it changed when you have Yarra or Riala, perhaps even more. Noticing stuff like these is very nice. Wow, this changes if Robin is defending and we talk to Wendis, too. Sabitha also changes depending on the mammal friend. Aaaaa so good! Omg, Sabitha even comments if you take too long to defeat the demon boss fight hahaha. Ok, I'm sad to report that even recounting my steps, I have not managed to replicate the Orcent lines I talked about. I tried twice, and in both times he, more approprietaly, referred that two powers were behind defending, rather than repeating the line like I said. Uh... it was not a grave matter, at least. The concrete bomb was nice, though not very much. It seemed to only affect a few forces, and then Hester and Xerces arriving to destroy it. I think I expected a little more from the impact. How about silencing the music on the moment of landing, or erasing/modifying tiles, or even changing the background to a less abstract one? Then after they destroy the bomb then it can go back to normal, signifying the abstract is back on the table. Lilith's "sacrifice" was pretty fun. I admit I bought it for a second when her sprite disappeared. Although I have badmouthed dungeons twice already in these comments, I didn't mind the Harem Prison. I thought it was a nice throwback, even more that the great music was brought back. It was nice. For the record, I managed to complete it without equipping the anti-imprison gear, so it seemed fair balancing, though I think I needed to restart a few fights. Balia's scene was great. I had my laughs when the orc expressed better than her. Most importantly, I CLAPPED when the portraits were showing the orcs standing up to protect mistress Balia. Seriously that was amazing. The usage of the portraits to convey cutscenes in this final battle was awesome. Dari's moment was short but nice. And again I'm glad that everyone gets a chance to shine! Every time the superpowers came to talk, I was really glad it's this kind of game. They weren't just there to monologue. All their motives were valid and, in a 3-way battle, it's always a chance that truces could be made. Overall I was pretty satisfied that we had the chance to interact with them throughout the whole ordeal, not just at the end, which had a real chance of happening. Um... now that I have checked people's comments, and the wiki page, I'm sad that I had not seen anything related to Mestan. He was one of my favorite characters. :( (I don't have the final potion) It was fun to see Ivala confront Hester, though it pains me to admit I don't care much about other goddesses - apart from Grynyth due to her incredible minigame, of course. Hester's walls are pretty hype. Xerces's decision to open up to the real world was chilling. "No, I've been using my full ethics" was an incredible line that I considered showing to my friends, but I still believe I will manage to convince someone to play one day so I decided against spoiling hehehe. That was very tense, and seeing Fuani attacked destroyed me. The way the game treats the palace workers with care and kindness is so touching that it makes me retroatively angry at myself for not investing more in the base defenses. To be honest, I only realized they died AFTER finishing the whole battle and seeing the discussions. I thought they were just attacked, not actually killed. I understand this is in part my interpreation skills problem, but this time I will advocate that it's also RPGM's limitations, and with such I think you should have some way to make it clearer that they actually DIED. Really, from the way it's set up, it's almost like having the final potion was supposed to be something common among the players, but I can tell you that from a casual perspective I didn't have it nor knew it was a thing. Now for Orilise's part. Starts off great, another moment with a big smile on my face, seeing her fearlessly get one-up on Xerces. Now... I have mixed feelings, unfortunately. To be clear, I absolutely stand for what is going on here, thematically, structurally, etc. But considering the execution, I thought it seemed to take longer to load, for such brief scenes, without much dynamics, and... sorry, I thought the song choice works better in theory than I thought it did in practice. I like the main theme, I do, but the speeding-up (and whatever more remixing was made) didn't seem that appropriate due to the structure of the song, or something like that, I don't know I'm a layman. At the moment I caught myself thinking that comissioning an actual cover but with different instruments or whatnot could go hard. Like the kind of stuff you see as "(rock cover)". Again, no offense to whoever made or enjoyed this. I'm saying this because I think the idea is good and I see even more potential, though I understand if this is too different or undesirable to change. Then, about Hilstara and the Order of Silence, I thought it fit rather well thematically when they explained what they stand for and how Hilstara has been all about defending the common people, but... I ended up thinking to myself that this was just rather sudden. I think it's kind of awkward for her to be put on that position, at this moment, in the heat of the battle, and she reacting like "ah really? well ok". But to be honest I have no idea how else it could have been for me to even suggest something. I was thinking of presenting her as more proactive, but that could maybe make her kind of a dick (the bad kind!) towards a supposedly neutral organization. I don't know if that makes sense. I managed to see Altina's boost, Avatar Neranda, Avatar Carina, all nice, but I missed Uyae, Lynine, Nalili... T_T I might have been harsh before on the Northern locus battle comment, because of that unstable chosen segment that threw me off, but don't get me wrong, I think this is one of my favorite moments in the whole game. High-pace, combat tactics, groups with specialized functions, it was all done incredibly well and I had lots of fun imagining it all going down. Again, the map overview already made it better to me, and to see Xerces commenting with tactics of his own was very nice. It reminded me a bit of Musou games. TLS hack'n slash when?! Also people are saying that a really good Grubbak scene happens at this moment and I didn't have the opportunity to see, I didn't have neither good tak'kan nor succubus holy knights, nooooo Props to Annikath for delivering awesome illustrations for the battle!! I'm glad you managed to work together to include this now and not later. Uh, I was kind of surprised on how blunt Riala was when telling Robin to do the magic to open the central door herself. From what I gathered, it was a mix between her probably being occupied and her pushing Robin towards independence, which was a good character moment, however I also think Riala would be more prudent rather than try a "personal development experiment" for a moment with such high stakes, you know? I'm not saying to change this, but perhaps add something to Riala's line to justify that she is on her own, rather than being "tested/encouraged"? Sorry I don't have a screenshot, but I think it went something like "No, Robin, you do it yourself[...]". Or perhaps I misread the whole situation, hehe. The lustbomb was just perfect. I mirror what someone said somewhere, that it really is what TLS is all about. Showing the serious results of your actions, while being dramatic and silly simultaneously. If that was just a "generic" spirit bomb, I would have been a bit disappointed, specially since we already had one other moment of "give me your energy!". But for it to be a lust bomb, a pair of tits. Xerces reacting being the straight-man in comedy... oh man, so good. Congratulations for having the balls (XD) to do that. When defeating the two guardian enemies, one of lust and one of purity, I found it rather cool that some combinations trigger a certain pre-battle dialogue. At first I was putting my hands on my head thinking "wtf she wrote all possible combinations?!", but then I thought, oh, pretty clever, since the guardians have obvious counters, it's possible to narrow down the most probable duos. This stuff gets me pumped! That Varia part was pretty dramatic, and I'm glad Orcent managed to save her. I feel kind of bad that this is my second playthrough, and as such I chose to use Slutty Altina and Dominated Varia to see the differences, but then I decided to use this run to go to the final battle and I had to view the "weaker character" Varia. About the Wheel of Fate, I thought this was a good fight. Actually, it was kind of a whiplash seeing people comment on how HARD it is. Definitely not my experience, so I guess you did downscale it a lot considering my poor points. I just replayed it with other two different teams, and I managed to beat it first try in both cases. I wouldn't say it's "easy", but be on the lookout for feedback from other players on the opposite extreme in this fight. Now, as for what I said about dialogue in-fights... Do you have a check if a party member faints? What about when someone is buffed? Since the wheel of fate can't talk, I just thought about having people react to some conditions. Only once, of course. Very dry quick examples: carina faints -> Ivala: Carina, be strong! Have faith in yourself! varia slave frenzy -> Varia: Nothing can stop me now, Destiny. You will regret what you did to me! wait... alternatively, for the people with worst points out there, what if, instead of making the fight easier, you implement something mechanically that would give a chance of ressurrection of each character once, with flavor text? in reality it will be part of a mercy system, but if you play the cards right it won't feel the player is being pitied, it will feel like the stakes are too high and the characters are resisting and giving their all in the face of death. or I don't know, you might disagree and that's fine. As for Hester and Xerces, I think that perhaps if they don't have anything more to say, then the inverse could happen: they react to something a party member can say. Let's see, once it reaches 50%, 1 of 3 party members will say something. Or they could be divided like, at 80% the second member says, at 50% the second sayd, at 30% etc. Or just any system you feel better with. Examples: Nalili: You're going down, old man! And your cock is probably really small! Xerces: Someone please remove the child from the vicinity. - Qum: Church grandma should stop with the bad sparkles!! Hester: I will create a better world for you, dear. (sorry I forgot if or how qum refers to her) - Riala: It's a pity you're going down with such amount of knowledge. Xerces: I should say the same. - Aka: Don't you see what you're doing?! The goddesses are living people like you and me! Hester: You should have thought about that before slaying all monsters in your path. - etc. The point is, I think you have great skill in writing snappy dialogue, and in my humble opinion it should work well in this format. As far as I'm aware, usually JRPGs have the trope of each party member having a one-liner against the final boss. However, they are usually just "okay" lines, there to remind everyone that they are here and the battle involves everyone. Since TLS is much stronger with its interactions, in a way I see it as another opportunity for your playful twisting of tropes, since this time the bosses can and WILL fight back / stand their own pretty well in a battle of words. They could be dramatic, philosophic or funny, the good things is anything would fit. After a lust bomb I don't think someone would be too sensitive about a funny interaction, if you decided to include it. And I think that's all. Thanks for reading and making the game!!

sierralee

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. ^-^ I can't reply to everything, but it always makes me happy to hear which sections stand out enough for people to mention, for example the fake party split. I believe I also have all bug reports fixed now, thanks to your screenshots. I will have to think about your idea for additional dialogue. It's fun, just tricky to implement. >wait... alternatively, for the people with worst points out there, what if, instead of making the fight easier, you implement something mechanically that would give a chance of ressurrection of each character once, with flavor text? in reality it will be part of a mercy system, but if you play the cards right it won't feel the player is being pitied, it will feel like the stakes are too high and the characters are resisting and giving their all in the face of death. or I don't know, you might disagree and that's fine. While this is an interesting concept, it'd be pretty elaborate to implement. Currently, the game only increases the combat difficulty for saves that are doing extraordinarily well. If there are any parts that you thought were unreasonable for your save, I could look into tweaking them.

Decarabia

In that case, I don't think anything was unreasonable, so no tweaking necessary imo. Eventually I will play with my first save, which is even less optimized, and I'll share if I run into trouble. Good luck!

Jason

Just popping in to say hi and that we’ve started the final battle! So far, absolutely fantastic. Adoring all of it. We have a Google doc form shared right now where we’re documenting our reactions, appreciations, thoughts on what is intended, and bugs. Incidentally, would you only want certain parts of the doc? Or if all is desired, would it be more expedient for the parts to be separate files? I’m trying to organize them as we go regardless. Just let me know and I’d be happy to send it however is convenient!

sierralee

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! I wouldn't worry too much about organizing or splitting your doc unless it's truly massive, as in 100+ pages. I like reading people's reactions. ^-^

Ethanor

Whooo! I just finished the battle! I was giddy the entire time, such an awsome finale! Seeing all the impacts of past decisions was totally worth it!

sierralee

I'm glad to hear that it was a satisfying conclusion for you. ^-^

DankPotatoes

I don't disagree in the slightest about anything you said about The Fucklord. Like I said earlier, he is a piece of shit, who deserves everything that's coming to him. Fuck him. But my whole reason for avoiding torture in all of my saves, is grounded in my thoughts about Wendis, not Estevan. Frankly, I would rather see that my loved ones thrive, than see my enemies punished. Wendis, by the time you meet her, needs psychological help, big time. And I still don't believe that maliciously torturing a soul, no matter how big an asshole it belongs to, would ever serve to improve the wellbeing of a being like Wendis. She has been stuck by decades in what might as well be hell, with nothing but pain and thoughts of violence to keep her company. Now she is free. Free to start over, reform connections with loved ones and recover a semblance of her former mind. She has lost touch with the world, and everything that happens to her post-release serves to either confirm or refute her darkest thoughts about how the world works, that she formed, while stuck in the Depths of the Tower. So I think the absolute worst thing you could do to her mental health is not just accept but encourage her darkest behavior: That Simon just accepts her newly formed paradigm called "Torturing my enemies for my own sadistic pleasure is not just acceptable, but morally sanctioned by my husband". I know it's the not the direction the story went, but it seems like a surefire way to encourage some real sociopathic traits in Wendis, that could easily have come back to bite, well, everyone in the world. Would a rape-victim truly feel better about herself, after scalping off every inch of a rapists skin, with a kitchen knife while he howls in pain? The rapist would suffer, but would she be happier for it aterwards? Would she be mentally healthier? I'm no psychologist, but I sincerelly doubt it.