Heyho!
This major update is quite a bit smaller than the last one, as the new bad end introduced in this update didn't need any further major build-up work and I decided to split the Roland update into two parts: One focusing only on the Bad End and another focusing on content impacting the Victory Ending (<- will be the focus of the next update 1.3).
With this update we will also be generally done with "Bad Ends" for the forseeable future. While there are many more stories to further flesh out (Hermann will be next after Roland), they won't end in a Bad End, but instead rather add new scene variations to the existing major endings; which is also why I decided to split up this update.
Alright, with that general information out of the way, let's look at what's new in the update:
1. The new Roland Bad End
Just like 1.1 focused on the Maid Bad End, this update focuses on the Roland Bad End. I won't be talking too much about it here to avoid spoilers, but simply mention how to trigger it: Reach 0 Soul Dust during the Reverse Summoning Ritual to trigger this ending. You don't need to perform the Roland Storyline beforehand, but doing so will unlock a unique interaction if you lose to him at the Ritual and some other minor story modifiers for the epilogue scenes.
As a final note: This is also an ending for all those who randomly want to see Richard angry and seethe.
2. Minor new Victory Ending Epilogue Scene: John Cheating Partner
Not all new ending content is for bad ends! For all John fans: If you have triggered the John events a bunch of time, you can now get a special ending scene with him.
He has the least "pull" on Aura, so if you want to trigger this epilogue scene, be careful not to also have either of the Hermann, Roland or Trademond events going on, because they can easily sway Aura to their direction.
3. New Hair Corruption Colour: Platinum Blonde
This continues the trend of expanding the player options for picking appearance changing mental changes. While the last update focused on introducing alternate clothings, we are now shifting more into the direction of offering new hair options. This update focusing on the option of picking a different tone for the blonde hair dye option. In the next update, we will also add a new option for the hair style in the form of Twin Tails (I repeat: That's currently in the works for the next update, not this one!).
4. General polish work
And then to close out the update, we have the usual batch of further general game improvements. New pixel art animations, new soundtracks for title and battle (I liked the old bgms but they were the default tracks in RPGMaker MZ, so I can imagine that those playing RPGM games more often might be a bit sick of hearing them) by a new composer who has recently joined the team thanks to our increased funding, and some general NPC work especially in Verdeaux to give out some more backup places where the player can find useful information.
I have also done a bit more balancing on the Maid Bad End, so it should be a bit easier now to carry out the Full Time Maid Job without getting locked into the Maid Bad End.
Community Translations have also been progressing, most notably the spanish version has recently broken through the 20% milestone. Thanks to all the community members helping out! If you also would like to help, check out the translation channel in our official discord server. We have also been improving our general translation workflow thanks to the generated feedback. I hope it will make all translation attempts in the future even more efficient.
The next major update is projected to come out in February next year. It will continue on the Roland events as its main focus, and expand on Lorraine's fate after the Nothing But the Truth Vice Ending.
As a final note, I will be slightly bumping up the game's price as major updates come out. I think this kind of model is a lot fairer towards people who bought the game as opposed to having to buy DLC... Of course everyone will have different opinions on this.
