First let’s talk about the things you can see in this picture.

I’m sure you’re all tired of me saying the Battle HUD has been finalized, but this time I’m serious. The only thing in this picture that isn’t final is the color of the ATB gauge. I personally don’t like having different bars share the same color and since the HP Bar already has shades of Yellow, Orange and Red, I’m looking to give the ATB something that hasn’t been taken yet.

In addition, the EXE Gauge has been given a proper number indicator. With EXE Skills no longer all costing a full bar (e.g. C-Sha’s EXE Skill), I felt that it’s important that you actually get to see what the value is. Nothing else has changed here. The maximum is still 100, and the method of generating EXE stays the same.

Vert’s sprite has been finished. For all you RPG Maker veterans out there who have played this game, you’re likely to have been bothered by the fact that Vert’s sprite up until this point was just taken straight out of the templates. Back when I was still using Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory’s portraits for the characters, one of the templates was the splitting image of Vert’s Victory outfit so I decided to just use that one. That’s no longer been the case since a few versions back, so things had to change.

As you can see, the boss is split into 5 different parts! This will surely separate those who have learned to use all factors of the battle system and have been paying attention to battle mechanics from those expecting to win by holding down 1 button.

Now let’s talk about what isn’t in this picture.

In contrast to the official games, ExaNep is quite reliant on states for the battles. As the game progresses and battles become harder, you find yourself needing the help of at least one or two buffs/debuffs/status effects (Or at least I’ve tried to make that happen anyway. The occasional person somehow still manages to get away with just pressing Z forever.) To me it’s important that each status is “balanced” - that it doesn’t do too much on its own or that its not obsolete/redundant.

Following this perspective, I’ve decided to make some changes to states in the game, listed below.

• Buff/Debuff rates have been lowered to 15% from 25%.

• Burn has been removed.

• Blind has been incorporated into Rage which has also received a new effect.

• Sap has been added. It works exactly like Bleed, but for magic attacks.

The items that deal with curing status effects will obviously also be updated to reflect these changes. In addition, there are two more status effect reworks planned, but why they’re not mentioned here will be explained shortly.

Subsequently, your party members aren’t the only ones who make use of states. Enemies have access to them as well, but it can be hard to prepare for them when there isn’t really a way to know what their attacks do. The only hint you have to go on is the name of the skill, but that may not always factor in things like whether the attack is physical or magical, or if it has an added effect. To fix this, I’ve designed some new icons that will allow you to understand what you’re up against. You may start seeing monsters use skills with at least two icons. One for the type of attack, and the rest for clues on what added bonuses it may carry. For those worried that this makes the game easier, I want to make clear that its always been my intention that you can appropriately react to whatever your enemies throw at you, and this change will help out a lot. Plus, it makes accessories that give resistances to states more viable and valuable.

Since it’s been more than half a year since the last release, I’ve really been trying (I know that’s hard to believe at this point but bear with me) to push out the next version as soon as possible. I’ve somewhat underestimated the scope of additions that are intended for the next release. With the arrival of more playable characters into the game, I’ve had to design another batch of skillsets, in addition to the already long process of destining these “original” characters. They are the highlight of the Chapter so having them in the game takes the priority. That being the situation, here’s a list of changes that are already planned, but won’t make the cut in v1.9.0

• Poison rate lowered to 5% of maxHP from 10% but can be upgraded to Corrosion by inflicting Poison on an already poisoned target. Corrosion will have Poison’s original effect.

• Battlers will first be dazed, before being fully immobilized from Paralysis. Similar to Poison and Corrosion, Daze can be upgraded to Paralyze by inflicting the status on an already dazed target. Daze’s effect is not final but may be something along the lines of only a chance of being unable to move.

• The Hunters Guild won’t be selling anything just yet. There will be a short cutscene in the continuation of Chapter 5 where you gain access to it and are shown inside, but the shops will not be functional until the next update after 1.9.0. Make sure to hold on to those Monster Medals!

• S-Sha’s skillset is getting a complete overhaul. For a game that adapts the FF battle system, and S-Sha being the personification of Square Enix, her skills are pretty boring right now.

I’m targeting a completion date of mid-July. Whether playtesting and bug fixing will be done by then is still uncertain though.