Update on Our Sequel Development #7

Hello, everyone. This is the TROUBLESHOOTER development team.

First and foremost, we sincerely apologize for not sharing any development updates with you for such a long time.

We know very well how much your interest and support mean to a small team like ours.

Even so, due to circumstances within the development team, we were unable to keep you updated for quite some time. We take full responsibility for falling short in this regard.

Though long overdue, we would now like to share with you the journey our team has taken over the past ten months, one step at a time.

1. The Development Team's Situation

At the beginning of this year, we encountered many obstacles due to the limitations of our team's capabilities.

We had initially believed that using a powerful commercial engine would allow us to accomplish many things more easily. In reality, however, many of its impressive features proved difficult for our team to properly manage and control.

At times, this created more problems than if those features had not been there at all. As a result, we kept postponing our development update month after month, and before we knew it, nine months had passed.

At present, many of our plans have fallen behind schedule. We have also been asking ourselves whether the game, in its current state, is truly something our players would be satisfied with.

For that reason, we plan to release a playable demo before the end of this year.

Rather than treating it as a one-time demo, we intend to update it for some time in a manner similar to Early Access, gradually improving and building upon it with your feedback.

With your help, we want to go through as much of this process as possible together and make the game better step by step.

We will do everything we can to see this commitment through.

2. New Abilities

In turn-based combat, moving enemies around the battlefield or securing advantageous positions can create a wide variety of tactical possibilities.

As the number of playable characters grows, it also becomes increasingly important to keep their gameplay from feeling too similar. To make each character more distinct and varied, we are drawing inspiration from various RPGs and fighting games and exploring ways to adapt their elements into turn-based gameplay.

Reed's Abduction

This is an upgraded version of Negoori's tongue-pull ability. After pulling an enemy toward him, Reid takes one step back.

Although it is a light ability that costs only 1 Action Point, we deliberately added the "step back" movement because we wanted the movement itself to give you another tactical option—one that you can experiment with by combining it with various traits and finding your own strategies.

Aurora's Breeze Kick

For an archer, keeping your distance is naturally the key to maintaining an advantage.

This ability knocks back the enemy you strike while also putting some distance between you and your target. Like the previous ability, it is a light harassment tool that costs only 1 Action Point.

And if there happens to be a wall behind the enemy you're about to send flying with a kick...?

We'll leave the rest to your imagination.

Gravis's Reel In

Even for a close-range powerhouse, if an ability can prove useful in the right situation, perhaps there's no harm in adding it as one more option among the many abilities at your disposal.

We hear that one of Gravis's traits allows him to attack once more when a nearby enemy is taken down.

Or so we've heard.

Yuri's Fire Wall

We finally have a Fire Wall—and abilities that let you designate two points!

Choose the first point, then choose another, and we think you'll be able to create exactly the kind of situation you have in mind.

Feye's Seismic Whirlwind Kick

We're now hard at work adding visual effects to the various abilities.

We're still getting used to the engine, so there are plenty of rough edges, but we'll do our very best to make the results even better than in our previous game!!

3. Tooltip Improvements

Our game contains a great deal of information about abilities, traits, and various other gameplay elements. As a result, tooltips would often end up taking up most of the screen.

So we spent a lot of time thinking about how we could make them visually cleaner while still clearly communicating the wide range of mechanics and information they contain.

After considering various approaches, we decided to adopt the nested tooltip system commonly used in many games.

In our previous game, you often had to open the Help menu to look up how many of the game's mechanics worked.

This time, however, most of that information can be accessed directly from the tooltips. If you come across a concept you're curious about, simply hover over it to see more information right away.

4. Scenario Development Progress

This story begins several months after Albus founded his company, with events unfolding in the Kalter Mountains.

As a result, many characters from the previous game will return throughout the story—some as enemies, some as allies, and some as companions.

We are also steadily working on the stories of our eleven protagonists.

We will do our best to make their stories something you can truly enjoy as you discover who they are and why each of them has chosen to embark on this journey.

5. New BGM

Most of the music for this game is being composed by KaZing.

We'll do our very best to fill the time you spend with our game with wonderful music!

They Are Back

This is the song we're planning to use as the main theme for this game.

Those who were once banished are coming back.

Highlander

A fate from which there is no turning back awaits the warriors of the Frosthorn Highlands.

Yuri

Yuri is painting again today, hoping to foretell the future he paints...

6. Closing This Development Update

Your support and interest are what keep us going.

And while we have always hoped for your continued interest and support, we owe you an apology for failing to keep you updated on the game's development.

Once again, we sincerely apologize for the delays in development.

Before the end of this year, we will make sure to show you how this game begins—and how it has changed.

Until then, we hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Thank you.