This devlog encompasses many changes that the game went through in preparation for Demo Day 58, the 11th and last one as far as Afterlife Gladiator is concerned. If everything goes as planned then I'll be busy with the game's release by the time Demo Day 59 takes place.

First of all, the game has undergone significant changes when it comes to sound effects. UI elements like buttons now have distinctive sound effects. I have tweaked these slightly since Demo Day but they are still about the same. Also, the WAIT action now has a sound, which is currently in it's third iteration after some experimentation and a bug regarding Mosca's WAIT has been corrected. She was too loud.

A crash that occurred when the party was defeated sometimes has hopefully been corrected. The problem was related to snare traps which are exclusive to Desert Guardians. Hence why the bug was prevalent in particular stages. While trying to recreate the crash I also stumbled upon an issue no one else noticed but I won't tell you what it was, hypothetical reader who's dying to know.

On a similar note, the Desert Pariah enemy has received a small nerf to it's maximum RES and, therefore, maximum damage output. This enemy only shows past the demo's end but it was giving people some problems. Also, healer AI has been improved slightly because it was being too dumb.

Some issues regarding HP/MP bars have been fixed although not all of them, especially when it comes to HP and the though/fragile status effect. Status effect icons were tweaked slightly as well and when hovering over a unit affected by haste/slow the percentages are more accurate.

While we are talking about status effects, a lot of freeze related issues have been corrected. Also, more enemies are now resistant to slow.

The boss encounters in stage 10, 14, 15 and 19 were made harder. The party now starts certain stages in the third act with some items for the sake of balance and story coherence. The end game may be still too easy all things considered.

An issue with perk points not updating correctly after pressing "discard changes" was corrected. Thanks for the heads up, Matra. If you ever read this I'm almost afraid to tell you that there's an enemy later on in the game that's essentially an elite version of the Desert Pariah.

Other miscellaneous changes that I feel like mentioning:

Combat speed is now saved between battles, this one's for you, Osur. However, I decided to reset speed at the start of a stage so new players don't get immediately killed out of nowhere by new enemies.

Finnegan semi-crits now have a unique sound effect. He was also given a bowl of soup during a particular story moment and his base job portrait was changed slightly. 

Actions UI is no longer visible after victory. The buttons were unusable but I guess it did look kind of janky.

Some mistakes regarding dialogue segments were corrected. Mostly minor stuff that bothers me a lot. I still haven't proofread the Spanish version and I'm dreading having to do it.

Anyway, that's all I had in this occasion. On a personal note, last week was horrendous and I'm glad it's over, but I ought to follow my own advice and be thankful for every day. 

For those who are inclined to endure spoilers or have already finished the game: If there's a central theme in Afterlife Gladiator it's the idea that everything happens for a reason. An important piece of Christian belief that Mosca paraphrases in multiple opportunities and, by the end of the story, I hope the player believes that she was proven right. 

I hope to see you again in about 2 weeks.

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