What to Expect in Early Access Wave 1! (Patreon)

I was hoping to release the first early access build today, but a snowstorm knocked me on my ass, and I wasn't expecting to be invited out to dinner so...hopefully tomorrow will be the day, if I have the energy to make sure the final additions are working after I get back home.

That being said, for those of you who don't use the discord server, I wanted to give a brief recap of the additions made to the early access version compared to the demo.

The first and most obvious one, is that the amount of content has been extended. The public demo covers chapters 1-4 of Project Red. Early Access wave 1 will cover chapters 1-5. If you have a save file from the demo you CAN carry it over to the early access, however you MUST speak to an additional Forgotten Maiden NPC who will spawn into the Merchant Camp. If you do NOT speak to her, your save will break later sections of the game, and you'll be locked out of some of the changes/new content from prior chapters.

What's changed in Chapter 1? Nothing!

What's changed in Chapter 2? Also nothing!

What's changed in Chapter 3? Now here is where changes start to show up. The first thing you'll notice is some brand new items laying on the floor. Herbs.

Herbs are going to be very important going forward. If you've played a Resident Evil game then you already will have the basic idea of what these do. But Herbs come in 4 varieties. Green, Red, Blue and Yellow. Some Herbs can be eaten raw, as is, to get medicinal benefits. Some do literally nothing. However Red will now have the option to craft items directly from the games menu screen.

Here you can mix different Herb combinations to create more useful items as well as things completely unrelated to the herbs.

Progressing to the Rest Spot will give you a new alteration. When Red first approaches the Goddess Statue, she will be gifted a Flask of Nectar. This is a brand new item, and again, if you're familiar with souls games, this is your healing item. Any time you interact with a Goddess Statue, this bottle will be magically refilled. You can drink it in the field or in combat to heal a set amount of HP and ST. You can also craft additional bottles by buying crafting materials, Goddess Tears, from each of the three goddess statues.

You might be wondering why the game NEEDS this if it already has plenty of ways to heal, as well as herbs now being added to the game. To answer, it's because healing items are about to become a lot scarcer. Every single loot table in the game has been reworked. On top of that, buying potions was always a limitation, as there's only so much gold a player can get in one playthrough. Meaning it was perfectly possible for a player to, in theory, run out of healing items entirely. This flask will now make sure players always have a source of healing without spending, MP, ST or Time.

What's changed in Chapter 4? Quite a bit, though nothing story wise.

Red's new crafting menu has also been used to update all of the crafting adjacent merchants.

So, when upgrading weapons at the Blacksmith, or trading items with the Alchemist, you'll get this nice little menu rather than the quick and dirty ones of the past. Also yes, upgrading weapons. It works now. You're welcome.

At this point as well, you'll likely notice that enemy drops have changed as well. You can now find Memory Shards and other items that can be used to give you some extra Memory Fragments. Use these to level up or buy more skills, but make sure you spend them before you die and risk losing them. Furthermore, you'll come across a brand new item, Bear Traps.

Bear Traps can be bought, crafted and even found in the environment. Got an enemy hot on your tail? Just open the menu and drop a Bear Trap behind you. What will happen? Well, that'll depend. There are a wide variety of interactions that Bear Traps enable. Some enemies might die from being caught in one, other's might become trapped, allowing you to start a fight with a big advantage, and other's may not be phased at all. And if you step in one? Well, try to avoid that, or else you better have some quick fingers to avoid some serious damage.

What is included in Chapter 5?

Chapter 5 boasts a wealth of new content. Not only does it mark the return of scenes from much earlier builds, but it also contains brand new content.

You'll start by crossing the bridge where you can find Cheshire. She's fully voiced and operational this time and her vocal song will play whenever you interact with her shop.

Moving past her you'll find yourself in brand new territory, the Dead Carnival. Read the various lore documents to piece together what happened, battle the murderous puppets, play a variety of minigames to collect Carnival Tickets, and go trade them in for a prize at the Prize Tent! You'll need to beat the Jester boss in order to escape the locked gate and continue onward.

Past here will be a return to the familiar, with a reunion with Hati, followed by your first meeting with Scarecrow. These characters are also fully voiced this time. You can explore Broomhill Farm and play around a bit with Scarecrow as a party member. Once you explore the Farmhouse, you'll reach the end of Chapter 5. It is advised that you make a save at this point so as to carry on your data to Wave 2 when that launches with the addition of Chapter 6 and maybe more.

For now though, that should be a lot of content to enjoy and explore.

I want to state once more that wave 1 will be available to all paid patrons. There is no additional charge of any sort. This is my way of thanking you for the vast support I've received.

Expect a more finalized breakdown of the new additions and mechanics once the update is live on the patreon, as I'll make another post both here and on the itchio page to promote it. I'll include some finalized screenshots as well showing off even more new things such as the boss fight against Alice, though don't expect any help finding out how to access that :P