Path of the Midnight Sun news & patch notes

Hello everyone,

This is Alfred, the Game Director! No, this isn't written with AI, so please read it.

First of all, I wanted to thank you so much for supporting Path of the Midnight Sun over the last 3 years! This was the first game I ever published, and it took me over 12,000 hours in an obscure engine called Visual Novel Maker. I had no one to help me, and I couldn't even code. I had to learn everything from scratch! Technically speaking, the engine only supported visual novels, but I hacked and tweaked it until I was able to create my own RPG system on top. And that's how this game came to be. Never give up!

Special Anniversary Illustration 🌟

Our lead artist made a very cute illustration to celebrate these 3 years together. Aren't Shiori and Faratras adorable? These characters mean a lot to me. I started writing their stories when I was 15. That's more than half my life ago now, haha. I'm really happy that I was able to create a game with them, and that so many people enjoyed their dynamics and internal struggles. Since I have two degrees in psychology, I enjoy writing memorable characters with great strengths... but also relatable weaknesses. And when a lot of the reviews said how this game was driven by its characters, it made me really happy.

New Price

I'm always extremely transparent when it comes to these things: I noticed that most of the game's sales happen when it's discounted nowadays. It tends to go 50% off, and only rarely 60% off. Personally, I'm of the philosophy that it's sad to discount a game to 75% or more, because it devalues the project and gives the idea that "this is worth buying only when it's on sale".

So I decided to do something else: I lowered the base price of Path of the Midnight Sun to $19.99 instead of $24.99! This way, I hope the game will always stay accessible to new players even outside of sales periods (please try it out - I'm sure you'll like it!). I plan on releasing Food Devils in Early Access later this year at $19.99, and even more budget and time went into the creation of that game, so this new price point for PotMS feels just fair.

Also, can I say it? Am I allowed to brag about my own game? Shucks, I'll do it anyway. It's a very competitive price. For $19.99 you usually find visual novels that don't have RPG elements, or games that don't match the same audiovisual quality. Here everything is animated, the illustrations are pretty, we have 3 hours of original soundtrack, 25 hours of content, and even professional voice acting from industry veterans who worked on AAA projects.

Is this a perfect game? Nah, I don't think so.

Are we still a bit under the radar? Hell yeah! (But time will fix this! Have faith!)

Final words

If you're wondering whether there will be a new content update... I don't think that will happen. The Visual Novel Maker engine is abandoned and discontinued (by the same company that makes RPG Maker, by the way), and unfortunately for me it's extremely hard and tedious to work on it in its current state. There were plans for a Chinese fan translation, but that's it. I also want to focus on new projects, and I believe that Path of the Midnight Sun is already full of content and in a very good state for what it tries to be. It's a great game for its price point. Especially its new price point. Hah!

If you've been here since the very beginning - thank you again for these wonderful 3 years together.

If you're new, welcome aboard!

Until next time,

-Alfred

• ❗Added an epic sequence during the final phase of the final boss battle. Cristoph will be the star here! It features new dialogues, a new mechanic and full voice acting.
• ❗Added a new item: the Panacea. Single target. It will cleanse all status ailments and grant Immunity for 2 turns.
• New effect for Legendary Hero Astra's blessing: Single target items will target an entire row instead.
• More fully voiced lines have been added for the Luckoi CG in Midbar.
• Added more "soundbytes" voice lines in all the lategame chapters.

• ❗Added a big tutorial about the main mechanics of the game in Chapter 6.
• ❗There's now a green sparkle to signal Rest Areas on Tactical Maps (these are usually important and may also grant you new Adjutants).
• Added more variety for the "page flip" sounds that play when you advance text.
• You can't sell Ice Cream anymore in Chapter 5, since it's needed to complete a quest.

• ❗It's now easier to inflict status ailments on enemies (including bosses). Moreover, enemies won't become resilient to specific ailments anymore upon being inflicted with the same ailment multiple times in a row.
• ❗Since many players considered Wide Guard too strong, enemies with Wide Guard have significantly less HP now.
• ❗The final boss is now Weak to Shiori and Faratras' ultimate spells... and nothing else.
• To balance the fact that it's easier to inflict and maintain status ailments on bosses, their effects have been nerfed (only against them, not common enemies). Blindness: x0.8 accuracy instead of x0.6. Frostbite: x0.8 damage inflicted by the boss, instead of x0.6. Bleeding: x1.3 damage received, instead of x1.4.
• Nerfed the damage reduction given by Elemental Resistance of the unit's armor against bosses.
• Ambrosia new effect: Heals 100% HP and greatly increases Atk & Spd for 2 turns.
• Poison damage now caps at 5000, but it's easier to inflict Poison on bosses.
• Legendary Hero Valoria's effect now grants 40% Crit chance instead of 25%.
• Legendary Hero Zander's effect now has a 70% FIXED chance of inflicting Paralysis (it will ignore enemy resilience to this ailment).
• Ornières automatically maxes out all the "Mana" Skills before the final boss battle.
• The items available in shops before the battle vs the Demon King have been updated.
• Greatly buffed the stats of Abomanders and Lavamanders.
• Balanced and slightly reworked the kits of all the Archdemons.
• The "Cleanse" effect used to cancel all positive AND negative ailments, now it only removes negative ones.
• "Midnight Flash" now grants Atk Up and Spd Up instead of Immunity and Spd Up.

👾 Other fixes:

• ❗Fixed Suzaku's Mana Shield, it now works as intended and it reflects on the UI as well.
• Legendary Hero Valoria's crit chance boost will now be applied only to the first unit in the Turn Order, as intended.
• Now you can't open the Log anymore if it's empty. This is to circumvent a rare case where the game would softlock if you did so.
• Poison and Blindness will be marked correctly on enemies after inflicting them with these ailments.
• Fixed an issue where swapping the Formation would sometimes change the ailments or guard levels incorrectly in the UI.
• Fixed an issue in the Tactical Map of Tarmen in Ch.11A where monsters could pass between nodes that aren't connected.
• The text in the diaries in Ch.11A & 11B is properly tinted in yellow now.
• A little detail in Ornières' battle portrait during the last chapter is different.
• Other minor fixes.

➡️ Next steps:

• As you may know, our team is currently working on a new video game at the moment, Food Devils!
• Version 3.0 of Path of the Midnight Sun might include New Game+, Steam Overlay and Achievements. However, since this is my passion project and my attention is currently focused on Food Devils, I don't have an ETA for this update. It's also become very stressful for me to work alone on this project after already investing over 12,000 hours in it, especially given that the engine I used back in 2019 is now very outdated and unsupported. Please understand and don't pressure me for PotMS updates for a while. I appreciate your support and love for the game nonetheless!

• ❗Added some voice clips to minor dialogues in Chapters 6-7-8-9.
• Added SFX to some attacks that were missing them before, and improved the SFX of a few other attacks.
• The drink displayed on the Inventory screen will change according to the current chapter and location: coffee for Hoikade, beer for Lazulis, wine for Magnolia, hot tea with marshmallows for Pylum, cold hybiscus tea for Midbar.

• ❗An exclamation mark now appears when there are new conversations available in the camp.
• You will now see how much Gold you have already donated to Luckos in the donation menu.
• You can't sell Soul Dust or Venom in Chapter 8 anymore, since they're needed to complete some quests.
• You can't prepare Phoenix Tears at the camp in Chapter 8 anymore, since "Venom" is one of the required materials, which is also needed for a quest in the same chapter.
• Added a checkpoint in the Encampment during the second day of Chapter 8.

• ❗Mana-shredding enemy skills will deal way more damage now. Among these, "Spirit Fission" will also have a chance of inflicting Poison.
• Scarablades will start using Wide Slash from Chapter 7. Samuwraiths will have a chance of using Wide Slash as well.
• Improved the damage and chance of inflicting status ailments of single-target enemy skills after Chapter 7.
• Tacitus will now Resist all damage when he's calm, and he'll be Weak to all attacks when he's furious.

👾 Other fixes:

• ❗Fixed a bug where the game would freeze if a status condition or Adjutant acted immediately after Faratras, after she wasn't able to cast her spell due to a lack of MP.
• Fixed an issue where the arrow used to navigate the Food inventory would disappear after eating something and then canceling the selection.
• Fixed an issue where the name of Adjutants was displayed improperly on empty slots when the player tried to un-deploy them.
• Fixed a rare bug in Ch.7 about the behavior of a Boarshroom on the map.
• "Resist!" will appear when you hit shielded enemies & bosses now.
• "Resist!" won't appear for Poison damage anymore if the character is shielded.
• Corrected an error in the enemy's battle behavior that didn't allow them to use certain skills under some very rare circumstances.
• Fixed an issue where the "evil font" of the message box would revert to white after opening the Pause Menu mid-sentence.
• The foliage of a tree on the map of ch.7 no longer covers the chibi character improperly.
• Fixed some typos in the Italian script.
• Changed a detail on Shiori's portrait in the Victory Screen after a certain chapter.
• The time & gold icons will now disappear properly upon refusing to donate gold to Luckos.
• Fixed a very rare, faulty interaction between the time & gold display and the Pause Menu in Chapter 8.
• Faratras' portrait was missing from a line she said during Ceapana's recruitment scene in Chapter 8.

✅ Known issue:

• There are 3 scripted bosses in the game (that aren't on a Tactical Map). If you saved in front of one of these bosses in version 1.3 or earlier, then after updating to version 2.0 (or later) you might not be able to challenge them anymore. This is a side effect to the recent "Restart Boss Fight" feature that was added in v.2.0. In the rare case you have an old save in those specific locations, it's advised to load another save file and just progress to the boss scene in v.2.0 (or later).

➡️ Next steps:

• I will release another minor update soon with a few balance changes for the final chapters of the game.
• Later this year, I will release a big update! Among other changes, it will include: New Game+, Steam Overlay and Achievements.

• ❗There's a new scene at the encampment before the final battle against the Demon King. You will be able to channel the power of one of the Eight Legendary Heroes that you encountered during your adventure. You will also obtain the legendary weapons for Rya and Cristoph: the Nidhogg bow and the Garm axe.
• ❗Added the Japanese and Italian translations! 🍣🍕
• Implemented full voice acting for two major scenes before the final boss fight.
• Added a new tutorial for "secret personality traits" in Chapter 1, and another one for Luckos' blessing in Chapter 5.

• ❗You can now restart boss battles immediately after losing.
• ❗At the camp, you can sell any items in your inventory instead of just a selected few.
• ❗You can change the difficulty of the game at any time without penalties. You can do that from the Settings, even in the middle of a map.
• Whenever you hit a Weakness or a Resistance in battle, you will be notified with dynamic text.
• Added a checkpoint before the final phase of the final boss fight.
• The skills Solarabyssus and Midnight Flash now buff the entire party, making 'a certain fight' more enjoyable.

• ❗The skills system was revamped. The HP/MP cost of most skills increases when you level them up, making it harder for the player to trivialize the game by investing all the resources on a single overpowered attack.
• In addition to that, the damage of single-target skills has greatly increased.
• The damage of skills that target all foes was reduced (and/or their cost increased), and their accuracy was nerfed from 95% to 90%.
• The Critical Hit multiplier has been slightly nerfed from x1.6 to x1.4.
• The multipliers of Weaknesses and Resistances have been reworked, greatly increasing their importance.
• The cost of Suzaku's Ultima skills was greatly reduced. However, they also are a bit weaker now.
• The damage multiplier of Cristoph's lv.4 "100 Push-Ups" passive has been nerfed from x2 to x1.6.
• The stats of various enemies have been adjusted.
• The stats of some bosses have been slightly buffed. This is balanced out by the fact that their Weaknesses are more relevant, the player can restart the battle without drawbacks, and the characters' equipment is much better due to the new Sell mechanic granting more Gold to the party.
• The Wide Guard enemy mechanic has been buffed, making protected enemies take only x0.25 damage instead of x0.5. The enemy shield will disappear if the user is killed.
• Other minor changes to game balance.

👾 Other fixes:

• Shiori used to have -1 base Fire Resistance (instead of 0) for some reason. She isn't highly flammable anymore!
• Fixed a rare issue that softlocked the game... if Suzaku was friendzoned by Faratras twice in a row during their confession scene.
• Fixed 23 small inconsistencies in the script.
• Fixed 11 typos in the script.
• Implemented a few missing sounds during dialogue.
• Suzaku won't say "The Manacrest!" anymore during the final chapter, if he has the Mana Blessing skill.
• Suzaku's battle model has a small detail which is different during the final chapter.
• Some tutorial pictures have been updated.
• The text color of tutorials is now more consistently yellow-ish instead of changing to white.
• A plethora of other very small changes similar to these.

Next Steps ➡️

• (!) Renamed some Difficulty modes and their description to give a better idea of the game experience and to remove stigma associated with a lower difficulty. In short, “Easy” has been renamed to “Relax”, and “Normal” to “Classic”. The four Difficulties in PotMS now are Story, Relax, Classic and Hardcore.
• The color of text in messages has been enhanced to be more consistent.

• (!) Damage dealt by enemies in later chapters of the game has been slightly adjusted.
• Hellios will now give Faratras 3000 G (in addition to Vulneraries and Phoenix Drops) upon joining your party in Chapter 2.
• Hellios now starts the game with a Leather Vest equipped.
• Balanced the Mana requirements to unlock some of Rya’s skills.
• Rearranged the order in which Nefertiti uses her attacks, so that her buffs don’t get reset on the same turn.
• Changed the nutritional value of “Fa’s Special” from 7 to 6 (three apples).

• (!) Fixed a bug that caused the game to softlock upon left-clicking very fast between the move selection screens of your characters.
• (!) Fixed a rare bug that corrupted your party upon defeating Squinking with secondary effects (poison, Adjutants, or Ultima skills) right after it summoned its Golden Squink underlings.
• You will now be able to immediately report the “potato quest” in Chapter 4 if you have already obtained potatoes in the forest before.
• The image assigned to a tutorial in Chapter 5 will now display correctly.
• The dialogue with the male guard in Chapter 8 during the stealth segment has been fixed and should now work properly.
• Triggering a Game Over by talking to the guards in Chapter 8 now works as intended.
• Inspecting the barrels in Chapter 8 before talking to Scott won’t trigger the green check (on cursor hover) anymore.
• Inspecting the vase after the female guard in Chapter 8 has returned home won’t mention the guard anymore.
• The transactions to enter the Hot Springs in Chapter 8 now work as intended and you won’t be charged with 5000 G anymore if you completed the Squinking quest and arrived before 5:05 PM.
• Changed some dialogue lines in Astra’s house so that it’s more obvious that Shiori already knew her, especially if you have also triggered her Legendary Hero cutscene in Chapter 8.
• Rearranged the enemies in a battle in Chapter 9 so that a foe in the rear isn’t covered by the Boarshroom anymore, making it easier to select the targets.
• Suzaku’s model won’t appear suddenly anymore but will fade properly in one of his supports with Faratras in the “postgame”.
• Fixed a glitch that changed Suzaku’s Max MP to 0 after a certain event in the story.
• Fixed 18 typos.
• Fixed other minor issues like “page flip sounds” not playing after a few select messages in the game.

• I will pay attention to players' feedback and post frequent updates including QoL (quality of life) changes, balance patches, and any eventual minor bug fixes, etc.
• I will also add more sound bytes (voice grunts in scenes without full voice acting) in some scenes.