Blosharper: Battle of Blossoms news & patch notes

Blosharper Early Access v0.8 Update Announcement

The Story Deepens — Late-Chapter Expansion

• New Encounters: In the late chapters that only deep-running Sharpers reach, a wave of new story scenes awaits. A familiar place may be where an unfamiliar bond begins.
• Events in Motion: Where that bond leads is something you should witness for yourself, hand after hand. Some moments may arrive before you are ready for them.
• We'll Say No More: The biggest piece of this update is deliberately not written here — it would spoil it. Those of you who go deep will know.

The Story, Rewritten

• New Stagecraft: Story scenes now distinguish narration, action, and dialogue in how they are presented. The same scene reads far better than before.
• A Literary Pass: Every narration line in the game has been polished with a literary hand. The short, dry scenes of the early chapters were rewritten from the script up.
• The Voice of Information: Every piece of information sold at the apothecary has been re-voiced to match its speaker, corrected where it strayed, and joined by fresh rumors. Some rumors may even open the door to a new deal.
• All 7 Languages: The entire overhaul is reflected across all seven supported languages.
• Translation Quality Pass: Beyond the story, we reviewed the game's text across the board — unifying inconsistent terminology in each language and fixing mistranslations and untranslated lines throughout.

Records of the Journey

• An Epilogue of Your Own: The closing screen that plays when a journey concludes now carries its own title and inscription depending on how your journey concluded. The way your run closed — and its afterglow — becomes part of the record.
• Collection Gallery Revamp: The gallery's record inscriptions have been rewritten in full and new entries added. Cards are wider, and clipped text in some languages is fixed.

Dice, Rerolled

• Natural Motion: The way dice roll, tip, and come to rest has been rebuilt from the ground up. No more overlapping or sliding awkwardly into place — and new lighting and shadows set the mood of the table.
• A Lighter Table: The heavy internals behind the dice were replaced entirely, making the game over 2MB lighter and removing the brief hitch on your very first dice roll.

Lighter and Cooler — Performance

• Less Heat, Fewer Hitches: We traced the main causes of the device heating up during long sessions and rebuilt the heavy effects that were forcing the screen to redraw nonstop. Heat is noticeably lower and some stutters are smoother — especially on heat-sensitive hardware like the Steam Deck.
• Smoother Effect Frames: Fixed momentary frame drops in the blade effect and some highlight effects, so the motion in decisive moments runs noticeably smoother.

UI Improvements

• Face to Face: Screens where you deal with someone — bribes, counterstrikes, seizures — now show the speaker's portrait. You always know who you're dealing with.
• Sleight-of-Hand Inventory: Hand techniques have moved out of the buff panel into their own place inside the inventory. The ones you've learned and the ones you haven't unlocked yet line up in a single row, and the inventory itself is wider now for an at-a-glance read.
• Uses at a Glance: Techniques that spend a charge each time — tan, undo, bottom-dealing — now show their remaining uses as a badge, and cleanly disappear the moment they can't be used, so there's no second-guessing.
• Deck Customization Layout: The Hwatu deck selection screen is reorganized into a two-column grid for at-a-glance comparison.
• Numbers That Move: Bank balance and debt amounts at the apothecary now count up and down smoothly.
• Back-Alley Signal: The back-alley button turns red when entry is unavailable, sparing you the wasted knock.
• Flawless & Fatality Tempo: Reaching FLAWLESS or FATALITY repeatedly within a run plays the blackout effect at double speed from the second time on.
• Clearer Dice Rulings: When a roll decides the outcome — like a counterstrike — the ruling screen is now larger, and the face across from you stays on screen to the end. Success and failure sound different, too.
• The Weight of a Score: On a controller, a climbing score is carried to your fingertips as a single rising rumble.
• Better Deck Navigation: Controller and keyboard focus now moves straight from your hand to the deck.

Bug Fixes & Stability

• No More Frozen Tables: Fixed multiple paths where overlapping effects and screen transitions could leave the game stuck and unable to resume.
• Shop Progression Freeze: Fixed a case where a certain shop screen could get stuck and fail to advance.
• Startup Input Cleanup: Fixed controller input at launch being routed to the start button, dropping you straight into the game instead of skipping the intro.
• Tutorial Tangles: Fixed abandoned tutorials or practice hands resurfacing over a brand-new run — sometimes leaving the screen stuck in black.
• Resume Stability: Fixed several cases where resuming a saved run restored the wrong music, or lost track of an in-progress choice and the state of the table.
• Music Transitions: Fixed cases where the wrong background track lingered between screens, or music leaked into moments that should have been silent.
• Information, Delivered: Fixed purchased information at the apothecary occasionally slipping by without showing its contents.
• Boss Lines Restored: Fixed the boss's defeat line being drowned out by mid-battle chatter.
• Viewport Drift: Fixed keyboard input nudging the game view downward.
• Route Map Stability: Fixed the screen jolting right after travel effects, and the moon icon flickering into the wrong shape for a moment.
• Japanese Text Cleanup: Removed stray Korean text remaining in the Japanese locale.

Blosharper Early Access v0.7 Update Announcement

Hwatu Deck Customization — Commit to a Strategy

• Four Decks: Equip one of the Standard Deck, the Gwang/Joker Deck, the Animal/Ribbon Deck, or the Month/Ddaeng Deck.
• Multipliers That Escalate: A customized deck amplifies your final multiplier in proportion to the round whenever you complete a combination in its specialty. The edge is slight early on, but the deeper you survive, the more it decides the match — this is the key to the late-game wall that has been stopping your runs.
• What Will You Give Up?: Specialization has a price: cards of the opposing suit score less. Choosing a deck is also choosing what to abandon.
• Skill Alone Is a Valid Path: The Standard Deck carries no specialty buff at all. Going the distance on nothing but your own hands is, and always will be, a legitimate way to play.
• Applied Next Round: To keep mid-round scoring from being distorted, a newly chosen deck takes effect when the next round begins. The UI shows both your active deck and the one you have queued.
• An Off-the-Books Offer: Deck customization is not handed to you at the start. It is taught only through an offer you will receive at the apothecary once your journey runs deep — and the right to refuse remains entirely yours. We'll let you discover that encounter for yourself.
• Buff Panel Integration: Your active deck's buff — and its multiplier at the current round — is displayed live on the in-game buff panel.

Moonlight Synergy: Full Moon and New Moon

• Moonlight on the 8-Gwang: At certain rounds the moon overhead changes phase. When the 8-Gwang (Moon) card contributes to a combination during one of them, your score multiplier detonates.
• The Moon Deepens: The full moon shines stronger than the new moon, and each time you survive long enough to meet the same phase again, its multiplier grows larger still. Reading when the moon will rise — and holding the 8-Gwang back for it — is a new layer of play.
• Advance Warning: The upcoming phase and its multiplier are previewed on the buff panel.

A New Boot Sequence

• Console Boot, Instantly: Launch the game and the console boot sequence starts immediately — no more waiting on a black screen. Resource loading progress streams alongside it.
• Digits Locking Into Place: As the boot finishes, the digits of a vacuum-tube gauge lock in one at a time until they settle on a final reading. What that number refers to… some of you will know.

Readability & UI

• Level-Up Stat Cards: Stat cards now spell out the actual effect per point and the size of the increase. Values no longer get swallowed by line wrapping, and finely-scaling stats like Insight and Luck are shown to one decimal place.
• Awakened Skill Growth Tracker: Awakened skill tooltips now show the total growth accumulated from every skill they have absorbed as material.
• Cleaner Skill Tooltips: Tooltip structure is now organized by skill type, so the information you need stands out.
• "Counterstrike" Terminology: In Korean, "Challenge" and "Challenge Bonus" are renamed to the table's own slang — 받아치기 (Counterstrike).
• Flawless & Fatality Banner Gate: FLAWLESS and FATALITY banners now appear only the first time you reach that tier within a run. The blackout and particle effects still fire every time.
• Screen Shake Gap Fix: Eliminated the black gaps that could peek in at the screen edges during shake effects.
• Tooltip Legibility: Numbers no longer split from their units (%, pts) across a line break, and emojis stay pinned to their labels.

Balance & Rules

• Moon Phase Rounds: The full moon now arrives at round 15 (was 16) and the new moon at round 30 (was 31), lining the phases up with the flow of a run.
• Month/Ddaeng Scoring: Realigned the Month/Ddaeng deck's scoring criteria to the same standard as the other specialties, and closed a path where points could leak out unintentionally.
• Per-Deck Multiplier Rebalance: The three specialty decks differ in how often their combinations trigger and how large their base scores are. Each deck's late-round multiplier ceiling is now tuned separately, so a deck that triggers often doesn't automatically become the strongest.
• The Offer Returns: Turning the deck-customization offer down once no longer closes the door — the opportunity may come around again.

Bug Fixes & Stability

• History Tooltip Restored: Fixed card tooltips failing to appear when hovering submitted cards in the round history.
• Yin-Yang Harmony Fix: Yin-Yang Harmony now triggers based on every card you actually submitted, not just the ones consumed by the combination.
• Japanese Card Theme Months: Fixed the classic Hanafuda sheet showing the November and December card art swapped, and corrected the Rain Ribbon's month label under the Japanese ruleset.
• Japanese Localization: Replaced the ゴーストップ transliteration with the native term 花札 (Hanafuda).
• Input Lockup During Effects: Closed the paths where overlapping input during an animation could freeze the screen.
• Loading & Cutscene Stalls: Fixed the loading queue stalling on a black screen, and recovered the story overlay from errors thrown during gallery cutscenes.
• Invalid Score Records: Blocked uncomputable values from ever being written as a high score; existing corrupted records are now healed safely.
• Session Restore: Protected your skill inventory from being altered when a run is restored via Continue.
• Faster Loading: Story background images have been substantially compressed, making cutscene transitions noticeably lighter.

Blosharper Early Access v0.6.0 Update Notes

Japanese Ruleset & Theme Additions

• Ruleset Mode Toggle: You can now switch between Korean Go-Stop and Japanese Koi-Koi rules in Settings. Ruleset changes lock in once a run begins and apply from the start of your next run for layout and scoring stability.
• Japanese Rules Integration: Implemented month swapping (Rain = 11th, Paulownia = 12th) along with their respective scoring methods. Godori is disabled in this mode, replaced by the pig-deer-butterfly combo, Inoshikacho. The September animal (Kikujin) card acts purely as a scoring card rather than a double-junk card in this mode.
• Japanese Localization for Combos: Polished combination text when playing under Japanese rules with a Japanese locale, ensuring combinations like "Ame-Sanko" and "Ame-Chotan" display correctly.
• Hanafuda & Classic Hanafuda Themes: Added two dedicated card themes to go along with the ruleset. Card themes act purely as visual swaps and can be toggled independently of the ruleset.
• Ruleset Application Toast Notification: Added a toast alert at the start of a round when a newly changed ruleset setting actually takes effect.
• Japanese Locale Defaults: Setting Japanese as the primary language on a fresh start now automatically defaults the ruleset to Koi-Koi and the card theme to Hanafuda.
• Modern Theme Unlocked by Default: The clean, vibrant Modern card theme is now available from the very start with no unlock condition. It is also automatically set as the default theme for players starting fresh in English, German, or Russian. In turn, the Classic Hanafuda card theme is now a challenge-reward theme, earned by reaching a specific milestone.

Prove Innocence (Dice Challenge) Mechanic

• High-Stakes Dilemma: When you lack the funds to pay standard commissions, you now face a stark choice instead of taking mandatory health (HP) damage — hand over your precious technique, or risk a last-ditch "Prove Innocence" dice challenge to bypass the penalty entirely.
• Dice Resolution: Roll three dice (3D6) and add a bonus based on your Luck stat to beat a difficulty class (DC) that rises each time you plead innocence — they won't fall for the same trick twice. The difficulty and potential damage are disclosed up front, but once you commit, there is no backing out.
• Outcome Differences: - Victory: You successfully convince the collector, completely avoiding the health damage while keeping your technique safe. - Defeat: You face a harsh penalty for failing to defend yourself, taking 1.5x increased health damage and accumulating additional suspicion heat. (Your technique stays with you.)

Technique Rebalancing & Input Polish

• Technique Unlock Level Redistribution: Shifted the unlock level pacing for various hand techniques so they unlock gradually across levels rather than all at once in the early game.
• Combination-Seeking Deck Swap Bias: When performing a deck swap technique, if your hand is only 1 card away from completing a combination, the target card has a significantly higher chance to appear in the candidate pool (applied via probability weighting to preserve variety).
• Combination Evaluation Fix: Resolved an issue where certain multi-card synergy techniques (such as Rainbow Burst and Magic Hand) failed to evaluate properly under specific card rule selections.
• VFX Enhancements on Streak Fails: - One-Shot: Breaking a One-Shot streak of 10 or more now triggers a dramatic screen puncture effect, and customized monologue variations have been added when choosing to stop after a successful One-Shot. - Fortune: Raised the threshold for the Fortune streak break effect to 30 streaks, which now triggers a dramatic glass shatter effect across the screen.

Visuals & UI Enhancements

• Ruleset Option UI Rework: Redesigned the ruleset toggle in Settings into clean radio buttons.
• Range Slider Focus Styling: Polished visual feedback for range sliders (volume controls, etc.) when navigating with a keyboard or controller, making the edit state and focus area stand out.
• Menu Active Underline Cleanup: Adjusted the active tab underlines in the Gallery and Settings menus to match the width of the tab button text.
• Duplicate Card Selection Checkmark: Corrected selection checkmark logic in card choice modals to target the exact instance selected when duplicate cards are present.
• Draw Animation Position Alignment: Resolved a visual bug where cards drew into the hand normally but briefly drifted or snapped abnormally at the end of the animation.
• Removed Spike from Screen Hole VFX: Removed the 3D metal spikes from the screen puncture effect to better align with the 2D noir aesthetic.

Bug Fixes & General Refinements

• Tutorial Dialog Skip Freeze: Hardened input handling to prevent the game from freezing when rapidly skipping dialogue or inputting keys during tutorial story sequences.
• Late-Game Boss Phase Penalty: Added a new threat to the later phases of a certain boss battle, raising the stakes even higher. You'll have to face it yourself to find out.
• Area Exit Block on Boss Battles: Prevented exiting to other areas (Back Alley) during active boss battles, adding appropriate dialogue when attempted.
• Deck Cut (Giri) Timing Adjustment: Shifted the deck cut choice window to trigger immediately after the boss introduction cutscene finishes, smoothing out the round start flow.
• Deck Shuffle Invariant on Session Recovery: Resolved an issue where cards locked in place by certain hand techniques (such as bottom-deck locking or previews) were abnormally reshuffled upon session recovery, ensuring consistent deck ordering.

Blosharper Early Access v0.5.1 Update Notes

Hand Techniques Rework & Risk Assessment

• Reworked Active Skills as Run-Scoped Techniques: Overhauled the skill system so that rather than owning skills permanently, you strategically acquire and use active techniques within each play session (Run). The technique info panel has also been redesigned to be much more compact and user-friendly.
• Technique Selection & Balance Tuning: Redesigned the "Deck Cut" technique into a multi-card selection where you pick your preferred cards from several candidates at the start. Basic technique rewards are now granted on a probability basis, with the Deck Cut / Steki grant ratio rebalanced, and each buff tooltip now spells out its per-level effect values for clarity.
• Exposed Card Locking Rule: Refined the rules so that already-revealed cards stay fixed in place instead of being shuffled during a Tan swap or a starting-hand shuffle.
• Risk Assessment & Technique Sealing: Added a new risk assessment system when executing powerful techniques. If you fail to manage the danger levels properly, the technique may get sealed temporarily, heightening the tension during matches.
• Score-Reward Charge Techniques: Certain highly impactful techniques (such as Steki) are now granted as charge-based buffs that recharge each time you score past a high threshold (10M points) in a single hand. Each activation consumes one charge, and the technique vanishes once all charges are spent, adding a new layer of tactical planning.
• Technique Activation Improvements: Certain hand techniques now let you pick the exact card you want from a set of presented candidates instead of leaving it to chance, expanding your tactical options.
• Technique Hotkey Change: Hand-technique hotkeys have moved from the number keys to Shift + number combinations. This prevents techniques from firing unintentionally when the number keys overlapped with card selection in short hands, improving input precision.
• Technique Rename: Renamed the "Time Machine" technique to "Rulebreaker" for better mechanical clarity.

Advanced Visuals & Cinematic VFX

• Boss Clear Cinematic Overlay Enhanced: Removed the top and bottom letterboxing from the cinematic reward overlay that plays when you defeat a specific boss character, giving a wider view and a smoother presentation.
• Retro VHS Visuals & Stability: Enhanced the Undo (Rulebreaker) effect with stylized retro VHS distortion and rewind noise, and added a wobbling VHS wave-distortion effect for an even stronger retro mood. We also hardened stability so the play screen no longer shakes or drifts until the effect finishes.
• Icon & Visual Resource Sync: Updated the combination icons for certain card rules and the hand-technique icons to a cleaner, more intuitive set.
• Suspicion Warning Siren: When your suspicion level reaches a dangerous threshold, a staged red warning-siren effect now appears on screen to convey the risk of being caught at a glance.
• 10M+ Score Milestone Presentation: Added a dramatic presentation where the score ticks up sequentially when you hit or surpass the 10 million score milestone in a single round.

Rule Refinements & Balance Tuning

• Risk Exemption under Specific Card Rules: Playing under specific card rule modes now exempts you from accumulating risk heat, allowing for more flexible tactical play.
• Special Tie Rules & Card Combo Resolution: Further polished combination-check precision and ensured that edge-case rulings (such as special ties) resolve consistently.
• Shop Dialogue & UI Polish: Added dedicated, unique dialogue for when you try to learn a technique while your bag (inventory) is full, alongside broader improvements to shop accessibility conditions and localized dialogue.
• Post-Boss Flow Polish: After winning a boss battle, the flow now transitions smoothly from the victory dialogue straight into the boss's idle dialogue.
• High Streak Combo Break Adjustment: Tuned the combo break visual effect to only trigger when breaking a streak of 10 or higher, reducing excessive visual feedback. We also varied the accompanying comments and removed minor toast popups to minimize gameplay fatigue.
• Large Number Readability: Scores and assets above 1 million are now shown with abbreviated units for easier at-a-glance reading.
• Tutorial & Onboarding Polish: Overhauled the early-game guidance for new players (tutorial card presentation and the intro sequence) for a smoother onboarding experience.

Bug Fixes & System Polish

• Session Recovery Stability: Hardened save/load so that intermittent screen freezes — and contract-progress states that could fall out of sync — are safely guarded against and recovered, even when saving during transitional phases (such as right after a settlement).
• Sound Feedback Additions: Added a finger-snap sound when acquiring a hand technique, a ticking-clock warning in the final 10 seconds of timed boss battles, and a jingling coin sound when in-game assets (chips, gold, etc.) are spent — for richer audio immersion.
• Undo Button Visibility Fix: Corrected a bug where the Undo button was displayed abnormally under certain conditions.
• Demo & Build Optimization: Resolved demo progression issues stemming from the hand-technique rework, and streamlined distribution resources for a smoother play environment.
• Hand Technique Feel & Display Polish: When choosing among multiple bottom-deck candidates, the cards now stack cleanly, and we fixed a flickering issue along with a few interaction bugs. We also refined the paging and alignment of the next-card preview and tightened the area where the preview appears.
• Icon & Menu Text Cleanup: Tidied up the hand-technique icons and unified the exit menu wording to "To Title."

Blosharper Early Access v0.4.3 Update Notes

Interactive Visuals & Audio Enhancements

• Physics-based 3D Dice Rolling: Face high-tension special events where your fate is decided by an interactive 3D dice roll, fully powered by a custom physics engine.
• Dynamic Audio & Dramatic Lighting: Dice collision sound volumes now scale dynamically based on impact velocity, complemented by dramatic spotlighting to heighten the immersion.
• Enhanced Card Slam Visuals & Sound: Feel the weight of your choices with an intense new slam-down animation and highly satisfying card-slapping sound effects when playing strategic special hands.
• Hover-based Tension UI: Added new UI tension effects that escalate visually the longer you interact with specific mechanics, amplifying the thrill of high-stakes decisions.
• Hardboiled Localization Tone Adjustment: Applied a consistent, gritty hardboiled and noir tone across all localized story dialogues to drastically heighten text immersion.
• High Refresh Rate Adaptation: Fixed an issue where the falling cherry blossom effect would run excessively fast on high refresh rate monitors (120Hz+), ensuring uniform playback speed.
• Visual Details & Character Motion Polish: Enhanced the visual curvature and detailing of cherry blossom petals and fine-tuned character motion effects for smoother, more natural animations.

Penalty & Mechanics Overhaul

• Skill Impoundment Penalty: Failing specific interactive challenges will now result in a severe consequence: your active skill will be permanently sealed for the rest of the run.
• Secret Recovery Mechanic: When visiting the Shop, you may have a chance to cure sealed skills through a special interaction, depending heavily on your Luck stat and NPC intimacy.
• Enhanced Challenge Rewards: Successfully overcoming these high-risk events will grant you a massive payout multiplier and a powerful 3-round buff.
• Score Calculation Overhaul for Alternative Card Rules: When forming strategic card combinations (strategy hands), individual card base scores and additional bonuses are now set to zero. This rebalance allows players to focus entirely on the unique rule-changing effects and multipliers of these special hands.
• Action Sequence & Multiplier Timing Adjustments: Adjusted the execution order between playing cards and updates to target stakes to ensure skills scaling with your "Go" count calculate scores using the most accurate, real-time value.
• Risk & Heat System Integration: Introduced a new heat system where overusing powerful techniques gradually builds up your risk of being caught, adding another layer of risk management.
• Special Hand Rule Adjustments: Polished rule resolution logic for specific special card combinations (such as Sagu-pato) to enhance mechanical consistency, and fixed an issue where card-specific techniques persisted abnormally.

Bug Fixes & System Optimizations

• Rendering Performance & Framerate Optimization: Overhauled heavy visual effects with optimized techniques, drastically resolving framerate drops and screen freezes across various desktop and portable devices.
• Multi-OS & Display Compatibility: Resolved UI scaling glitches, abnormal window resizing, and graphical rendering conflicts that occurred on specific OS configurations and high-resolution displays.
• Event Flow & Dialogue Sync: Corrected asynchronous bugs that caused dialogue flows to disconnect after specific narrative encounters.
• Exploit Prevention: Patched a loophole where players could abuse the natural recovery mechanics during a true game over state.
• Tooltip & Translation Stability: Simplified tooltip rendering and reorganized translation keys, ensuring that active buff states and remaining turns are now correctly reflected in the multiplier tooltip.
• New Boss Dialogue & Text Polishing: Added more diverse reactions for various boss characters and polished localized text files to improve overall dialogue flow.
• System Stability Improvements: Improved exception handling and error dialog mechanisms to enhance overall game stability.
• Mobile & Portable Platform Optimizations: Reduced background blur intensity to improve rendering performance on mobile devices, polished the dice overlay layout, and resolved issues regarding iOS silent mode switch detection and audio context recovery.
• Navigation Focus & Overlay Input Guards: Implemented tab focus traps to prevent control focus from escaping the screen, and strictly blocked background inputs during active overlays with warning sounds on invalid clicks.
• System Integrity & Build Stabilization: Strengthened game security integrity verification, optimized internal resource loading mechanisms, and enhanced multi-OS build packaging stability.

Blosharper Early Access v0.3.3 (Build 11810) Update Notes

Gallery System Overhaul & Replay Feature

• Cutscene Replays & Progress Reset: Added a replay gallery allowing you to re-experience previously unlocked story cutscenes, along with an option to reset your story completion progress.
• Automated Save Data Migration: Redesigned internal storage mapping to strengthen data preservation for unlocked collections, and securely migrated existing local cutscene data.
• Separated Player Stats & Refined Navigation: Split player training statistics into their own dedicated screen to clearly distinguish them from story collections. Added LB/RB controller bumper tab navigation and notification badges for newly unlocked content.
• 2D Spatial Navigation & Categorization: Implemented full 2D keyboard and gamepad navigation support for the gallery tiles. Organized unlocked cutscenes into general story scenes and final outcome scenes for easier browsing.

High-Impact Visual & Audio Feedback for Massive Scores

• Massive Score Blackout: Achieving exceptionally high scores now triggers a dramatic blackout visual effect paired with custom audio, randomly snapping thematic splash decals onto cards with dynamic tilts.
• High Score Impact Effect: Reaching a high score milestone triggers a satisfying screen shake, paired with trimmed kick sounds and cards bouncing off the table dynamically.
• Progressive Score Ticking & Font Scaling: Adjusted score ticking sounds to accelerate progressively during tallying, and balanced font scaling dynamically based on score length to heighten tension.
• Flawless Victory Visual Polish: Polished the delay, banner transition, and deck dimming sequence when achieving a perfect victory.

Journey Map & Game Over Visual/Audio Enhancements

• Cinematic Game Over Visuals: Added an immersive game over sequence featuring pixel-style typography, dramatic explosion sound effects, and a smooth screen blackout.
• Visualized Journey (Route Map) Added: Added a new animated Route Map overlay that displays your progress upon final outcome transitions or round progression.
• Journey Map Moon Phase Effects: Implemented a realistic moon phase transition on the journey map that shifts dynamically over time.
• Expanded Journey Map Vision: Increased the visible upcoming journey on the journey map to 8 steps, and updated the traveler icon and movement audio.
• Map Entry & Audio Polish: Reduced delay during map transitions and refined ambient music transitions upon entry.
• Ambient Sound Volume Balance: Finetuned the volume levels of various ambient sounds, including cherry blossoms and travel vehicles.

Input Optimizations & Bug Fixes

• Controller Lockout Fix: Resolved an input lockout bug caused by gamepad driver priority conflicts under specific PC configurations.
• UI Overlap Focus Resolution: Fixed a mouse click issue that occurred when settings and gallery layers overlapped, causing focus conflicts.
• Reliable Story Progression: Replaced volatile event triggers with persistent flags tied directly to session saves, ensuring consistent narrative branch transitions.
• Skill Animation Sync: Synced magnifier card scan activation perfectly with the card drawing animation sequence.
• Modal Line Break Fix: Resolved a layout issue in confirmation dialogs where translation strings failed to wrap or display line breaks correctly.
• Low-Spec & Steam Deck Optimization: Enhanced graphic option configurations and optimized animation rendering to ensure smoother gameplay on lower-spec hardware and Steam Deck.
• Audio Resource Stability: Improved system resource efficiency for sound playback, ensuring stable audio performance during long gameplay sessions.
• Robust Story Save Progression: Reconstructed the narrative progression save architecture to ensure unlocked story events persist reliably in session saves.
• Shop NPC Interaction Polish: Added new dialogue branches and polished interactions when declining offers from specific shop NPCs.
• Combo & Buff Sound Feedback: Added satisfying audio cues when triggering specific card combination buffs or updating high score streaks.
• Round Settlement Cleanup: Fixed a minor visual issue where cards occasionally lingered on the screen after a round was settled.
• Encounter Visual Sequencing: Resolved a visual issue where the shop background could be seen prematurely during specific narrative encounters.
• Save File Exception Safeguards: Integrated fallback mechanisms to isolate corrupted save files and prevent unexpected crashes on startup.
• Master Volume Control Integration: Cleaned up settings configurations and merged volume options into a single, intuitive Master Volume slider.
• Master Shop Skill Balancing: Capped the high-tier skill occurrence rate based on your Luck stat and adjusted the weights of pre-leveled skills to prevent early-game over-balancing.
• Dialogue & Flow Unfreezes: Resolved occasional freeze bugs occurring during mentor dialogues or round transition, and fixed the intro sequence when encountering the first boss character.
• Gameplay & Transition Polish: Auto-skips the draft selection window when only one reward card is available to maintain a faster gameplay tempo.
• Improved Game Over Visuals: Hand cards now briefly remain displayed on the field during the game over sequence, allowing players to review their final state.
• Card Rendering & Asset Fixes: Resolved a rendering bug where cards became invisible in low-performance optimization mode, and fixed visual overlapping artifacts during card flip transitions.
• Dialogue & Progression Fixes: Fixed rare freeze and deadlock bugs occurring when rapidly clicking skip or autoplay buttons during tutorial sequences or story events.
• Save Stability & Storage Polish: Strengthened the background saving mechanism to ensure all progress and session data write safely, reducing save file error rates.
• Demo Gallery & Optimization Refinements: Implemented dynamic filtering in the demo gallery to hide main game cutscenes and prevent spoilers, and optimized background petal particle rendering.
• v0.3.3 Patch - QoL Enhancements: Added wealth-based map vehicle scaling, unified asynchronous storage for improved reliability, and optimized cherry blossom particle rendering for smoother visuals.

Blosharper Early Access v0.2 (Build 1173) Update Notes

Major Improvements & Security Stability

• System Stability Enhancements: Strengthened code integrity to prevent external tampering or unauthorized client execution, improving general launch speed and stability.
• Save Issue Resolution: Resolved an issue in certain isolated environments where local save files would fail to load properly.
• Unexpected Error Tracking: Implemented a system-level logging hook that detects and reports unexpected errors during runtime, making troubleshooting more efficient.
• Autosave & Title Screen UX Polish: - Improved save state visibility by pairing the saving sequence with the global autosave LED indicator. - Simplified the initial autosave warning text to be clear and direct, and hid overlaying menu assets during warning displays to prevent visual clutter.
• Official Rating Indicator & Photosensitivity Warning: Integrated official rating classification icons, developer notices, and photosensitivity seizure warning layouts into the intro sequence, aligning with regulatory and health standards. Enhanced responsive scaling settings to support various aspect ratios.

New Convenience Features & Dynamic Visuals

• Screen Shake Toggle: Added an option to completely disable screen shake effects in the settings menu, and repositioned options for a cleaner layout.
• Dynamic Viewer Count: Streamer viewer counts now fluctuate naturally based on gameplay situations, creating a more realistic atmosphere.
• Audio Adjustments: Added a new audio cue when starting a new adventure and balanced general sound volumes for a smoother experience.
• Intro Animation Skip Improvements: Enforced a 2-second minimum exposure for each warning cut during booting to ensure readability. Added multi-stage skipping (first input outputs all logs, second input skips) and sequential cut skipping to improve flow control.
• Translation Quality Overhaul: Significantly improved translation naturalness across all supported languages and standardized inconsistent game terminology (e.g., unified "fold" to "discard" in English/German).
• Russian UI Optimization: Fixed font rendering issues and text overflow in Cyrillic character environments. Optimized intro screen layouts so that Russian warning text displays cleanly without clipping.

Challenge Balancing & Learning Flow

• Boss Spawn Balancing: Subdivided and redistributed the spawn rounds of mysterious boss characters to create a more natural difficulty progression.
• Card Combination Learning Opportunity: If you enter a specific phase without unlocking the special card rules, opportunities to learn the combination rules from a mysterious master will now trigger dynamically based on your "Luck" stat bonus.
• Shop Dialog Flow: Standardized the dialogue and interactions when encountering certain shop NPCs to maintain a consistent tone.
• Cherry Blossom Timing: Delayed the initial cherry blossom falling animation by 3 seconds and adjusted fall speed variance for a calmer, more atmospheric title screen.

Bug Fixes & Optimizations

• Seeded Play Safety Warning: Added a warning dialog when starting a new game with a custom seed, preventing your precious existing save file from being accidentally overwritten.
• UI Text Overflow Protection: Applied text-truncation (ellipsis) styling to fixed-width buttons (.btn) to prevent long localized texts from breaking layouts.
• Demo Build Stabilization: Fixed a packaging bug in the Demo version where certain visual assets were mistakenly cleaned up, and ensured the autosave LED works properly in the Demo as well.
• Internal Optimizations: Resolved memory overheads, fixed potential crashes, and enhanced overall type safety.
• Autosave Indicator & Focus Protection: Prevented keyboard and gamepad focus from moving incorrectly while the autosave warning is displayed. Enabled dynamic layout scaling for the warning screen and added an immediate skip of the idle delay on input.
• Welcome Seed Input Reset: Fixed a minor issue where cancelling the seed configuration modal on the welcome screen left unfinished seed strings in the input field.
• Enhanced Save Data Protection: Introduced a safeguard that prevents save data corruption even if the system shuts down unexpectedly during saving. An automatic backup-based recovery path is now available.
• Crash Recovery Dialog: Added a native dialog that detects rare critical errors during gameplay and guides you to restart or exit safely.
• Rating Mark Update: Updated the official rating classification icons on the intro screen to reflect the latest rating results, and improved overall intro layout readability.

Blosharper Early Access v0.1 (Build 1162) Release Notes: "Debt, Cherry Blossoms, and Cheats"

1. Ultimate Hardboiled Noir Visuals

• Introduced 20 new 2.5D illustration poses conveying situational emotions for the 5 main characters (Protagonist, Jinni, Madam Hong, Old Man, and Moneylender).
• Characters' movements and expressions now react dynamically in real-time according to the flow of bets and the tension of conversations.
• Implemented a high-definition original graphic for Jinni with refined physics-based secondary motion (jiggle effects) to deliver a more dimensional and polished appearance.
• Added precise layer perspective rendering based on screen depth, resolving previous visual glitches like overlapping or clipping character outlines.
• Adjusted layout proportions so that characters' heads are no longer cut off on various display aspect ratios or resolutions.

• Added a sleek, contemporary "Modern" card theme with dedicated graphic assets.
• Eased the unlock barrier so players can enjoy this new theme more casually. It now unlocks immediately upon achieving a 3-Combo Streak.

• To assist players who find traditional Hwatu (floral cards) month classifications challenging, we added a 'Show Card Months' option in the settings and applied intuitive month overlays directly to the card faces.
• Synchronized the animation timing perfectly so that the month overlays and card numbers reveal simultaneously with the dynamic card-flipping animation.

• Refined the card number overlays for each theme so that text remains highly legible even on stylized themes, such as the Ink Wash theme, without blending into the background.
• Added a high-visibility mint green border highlight to help players instantly distinguish their currently held cheat skill cards from regular cards.

• Introduced a satisfying glass shattering effect, screen bullet hole effect, and a sharper Katana Slash effect to maximize the visceral impact of gameplay.
• These dramatic shattering effects are now seamlessly integrated when you are defeated in boss battles or narrowly escape through financial rescue.
• Reworked screen scaling formulas to ensure impact visual effects retain their perfect aspect ratios across all resolutions and zoom factors without stretching or distortion.
• Refined the physical screen-shake algorithm when characters take damage to deliver a heavier, more elastic tactile feedback.

• In response to a valuable suggestion from our demo player kokokoo ("It would be great to have cherry blossoms falling on the main title screen"), we implemented a multi-layered 3D cherry blossom parallax effect along with a dedicated melancholic BGM.
• Replaced the main menu background with a flickering retro cathode-ray tube (CRT) filter to deepen the dark, lonely hardboiled noir ambiance.

• Halved the size of character emotion icons inside the dialogue window to prevent text line wraps from being broken, significantly improving dialogue readability.
• Reworked the entry animation of speech bubbles so they pop up using the bubble's tail as the anchor point rather than a static center axis, adding a more dynamic, theatrical flair.

2. High-Stakes Gambling Economics & Upgrades (System Rebalancing)

• Removed the previous refund system that returned awakening costs when selling awakened skills, amplifying the risk and commitment of skill choice. (Materials are preserved on failed attempts, but no refund is provided when selling already awakened skills.)
• To mitigate frustration from consecutive failures, we designed a 'Bad Luck Protection' system where each consecutive failure increases the next attempt's success rate by +1% (capped at a maximum of +10%) per round.
• The adjusted success rate is clearly displayed on the upgrade screen, accompanied by a unique floating upward badge animation on failure to soften the blow.

• Implemented a "two-tier standby unlock" system to prevent newly unlocked cheat skills from suddenly appearing in the shop mid-run and disrupting difficulty balance.
• During an active run, unlocked skills are held in a queue and formally reported and added to the pool only during the final Game Over settlement.

• Added a "Brainwash" reset option to the Level Up menu, allowing players to reset and redistribute their stats in exchange for a small amount of in-game Cash.
• Added a secondary confirmation dialog to prevent accidental triggers and verify your choice, avoiding unintended resets.

• Reduced the frustration of losing all progress upon death or bankruptcy. Now, only the cash in hand is confiscated, while bank deposits and debt status carry over safely to the next run.
• Conversely, high-level loan shark interest rates and late-game round fees now scale exponentially (non-linearly), creating intense financial pressure in the late game.
• Refactored and streamlined the complex interest rate system to improve game stability.

• Removed the cumulative death count requirement to progress to the next stage (Special Cards), smoothing out the narrative flow and easing progression barriers.
• Added dedicated story events and multilingual dialogues for the first encounter with Special Cards, optimized tooltip readability, and improved rendering performance.
• Fixed an edge-case bug where the initial Special Card encounter would trigger twice consecutively.

• In mid-to-late rounds, players must now pay a "House Entry Fee" to join the betting table.
• If you are completely broke, bank accounts are now permitted to go into negative balances (overdraft), allowing you to keep playing even when you lack the entry fee.

• Applied Trillion (T) and scientific notation (eN) formatting to prevent astronomical late-game currency numbers from overflowing or clipping the UI.
• Introduced Seeded Play, allowing players to copy a seed code or share a URL parameter to compete against others on an identical map layout.
• During Seeded Play, bank functions (deposits, loans) and specific story encounters are disabled, and a dedicated seed status badge is displayed on the screen.

• Simplified the internal save data structure to completely prevent save corruption risks. The 🍂Aficionado styling is now applied dynamically at the UI stage.
• Implemented save data migration to seamlessly transfer existing player progress and stats, ensuring any redundant duplicate data is safely cleaned up during the process.

3. Narrative & Challenge (Interaction Polish)

• Replaced the plain results screen with a comprehensive dashboard showcasing 6 performance indicators: Final Score, Surviving Rounds, Max Profit per Round, Highest Single-Turn Score, Best Combination Bonus, and Bribe Amount.
• Categories where you achieved a personal best will glow with a subtly blinking orange NEW badge.
• Newly unlocked cheat cards (available for selection in subsequent runs) are displayed prominently on the right.
• Implemented a button to easily copy your run's seed code to the clipboard and share it with friends.

• Madam Hong's dialogue poses now change dynamically to match the depth of your affinity and trust level.
• As your relationship deepens, new welcoming greetings unlock when entering the shop, and departure lines become more emotionally poignant.
• Resolved a stuttering bug where shop greetings would blink rapidly upon entering, ensuring a smoother greeting sequence.

• Implemented a monolog bubble system where the protagonist reacts with thoughts when achieving astronomical scores or facing imminent bankruptcy.
• Replaced the NPC title in Tutorial stages 4, 5, and 6 to maintain narrative consistency and align with the story progression.
• Resolved instances where mismatched character portraits, audio tracks, and subtitles occurred during certain story intros and branching paths.

• Fixed a sound conflict where the lobby background music would bypass the global master volume settings and play at maximum volume.
• Added a 4-second loop delay at the end of the lobby theme, introducing periods of silence that blend with the cherry blossom visuals to emphasize the game's lonely noir mood.
• Fixed an audio glitch where the lobby theme would overlap with in-game audio when refreshing the browser or exiting to the lobby mid-session.

• Enhanced the defeat screen visuals to dynamically project the portrait of the boss you clashed with.

4. Player Experience (UX) & Platform Optimization

• Set the "Show Card Numbers always" option to true by default, enabling new players to grasp Hwatu numbers immediately and play intuitively.

• Implemented controller haptics (such as PS5 DualSense) providing subtle vibration profiles for shuffling cards and colliding chips.
• Implemented Force Feedback: the R2 trigger resists compression when throwing the final Suicide Hand, creating physical tension.
• Refined the gamepad focus navigation to guarantee seamless menu navigation, specifically tailored for Steam Deck compatibility.

• Added a mini HUD panel in the top-right corner of the screen to track active buffs/debuffs (All-In status, Boss Curse, Insurance status, etc.).
• Players can navigate focus to these icons using a gamepad or keyboard to display detailed tooltip explanations.

• Rewrote the background music backend, drastically reducing initial load times and runtime memory footprint.
• Background tracks now transition smoothly with volume fade-ins and fade-outs.

• Replaced vulnerable browser localstorage saves with a secure, encrypted single-file format (.sav).
• Configured Steam Cloud synchronization to enable cross-saving between Steam Deck and PC without data loss or conflicts.
• Provided automatic progress migration for players who ran the Next Fest demo (*_demo.sav) into the Early Access v0.1 release.

• Resolved a freeze bug where the CRT glitch noise filter failed to clear during Tutorial Stage 3 loading, leaving the screen pitch-black.
• Resolved skip button locking issues during key dialogue flows in Tutorial Stages 2 and 5, allowing players to skip sections freely.
• Restored camera zoom equations so that pack opening effects, boss encounters, and victory screens scale perfectly without clipping on ultra-wide or narrow screens.
• Blocked scoreboard vibration from interfering with guide focus indicators during tutorial sequences.
• Resolved focus initialization lag where the first card of a newly loaded tutorial round failed to receive default focus, improving initial gamepad responsiveness.

• Prevents accidental browser navigation or abrupt session closures. The game now prompts an in-game confirmation overlay to verify your choice, allowing you to save your progress safely before exiting.

• Eased the early game fatigue by removing redundant shake warning alerts and vibration sequences during the opening round, allowing a smoother entry into the first hand.

📢 Blosharper Steam Deck Support & Optimization

Greetings, players! This is the Blosharper Development Team. Today, we are thrilled to announce that official Steam Deck support and hardware optimization have been successfully implemented! You can now experience the high-stakes, under-the-table card action of the underworld anytime, anywhere on your Steam Deck. Here are the key details of the Steam Deck optimizations included in this update:

🎮 Key Optimizations

• Full Controller & Navigation Support Completely supports 2D spatial navigation utilizing the Steam Deck's built-in gamepad controls. Enhanced card selection and shop menu navigation with analogue stick and D-pad inputs for a much more intuitive feel. Fine-tuned input sensitivity and analog deadzones to prevent accidental inputs and ensure fluid card manipulation.

• Display & UI/UX Accessibility Optimized font rendering and layout resolutions specifically for the Steam Deck’s 7-inch display to prevent any text blur or rendering issues. Adjusted card descriptions and cheat skill tooltips to guarantee crystal-clear legibility on a smaller handheld screen.

• Performance & Battery Efficiency Re-engineered our rendering pipelines and particle systems to lock in a stable, buttery-smooth 60 FPS. Significantly reduced CPU/GPU overhead, which translates directly to longer battery life during portable play sessions.

• Steam Cloud Synchronization Fully integrated Steam Cloud saves, allowing you to seamlessly sync your progression and pick up right where you left off between your PC and Steam Deck.