New update is a lot of fun, don’t even mind having to restart from the beginning. The new skills help it go much faster, Power Slice just hit for loads of damage. I didn’t even need to use Debug Mode. I also love Sanura’s new belly levels.
But oh my Damia, this is the buggiest update yet. Portraits don’t load, causing crashes (the cat village seems to be a big culprit, but I got one in Damia Temple too. 3 crashes in total for a 7 hour playthrough.). The girls’ standing portraits don’t match their belly levels. The weapons don’t properly line up to the new battler sizes. If Valorie gets KO’d, she doesn’t go just naked, but bald too! Lily doesn’t take your Power anymore (convenient, but breaks that sidequest in half). Sanura can just randomly convert back to her old battler sprites instead of the new one if you fight immediately after giving birth. Leah’s can do that if all the you use the costumes (don’t appreciate them being useless this update either, but I do understand why…). Birthing is broken, you can either have multiple birth options or cheat out 5 seeds from a Level 1 birth! Some teleporters don’t use the new format, just the old one, like in Lakeview. Any pushing puzzle can be broken if you stand next to them, face in a different direction, and then go interact with a different block – REMOTE BOULDER PUSHING IN ANY DIRECTION! I’m not sure if the archaeologist is supposed to disappear from each place or not, but…she doesn’t…leading to odditieas once she gets pregnant. I think Sanura’s Level 3 quest doesn’t check for the flags correctly. Valorie has two methods to getting Level 3, one of them being a complete rip-off and just robs you of your Seeds if you do it at max level. And it feels like the game has the “Seen This Scene Before” flags up in a New Game, so stuff like Valorie inflating herself up in the Demon Temple scene are just missing.
And it says something that you convert the Neko Temple into the premier Divine Seed grinding spot by just circling around, absorbing the plant power, and have a max out Natural Growth level to make an easy 50+ seed gain in as little as 5 minutes…and the cowgirl quest is STILL insane…
But the worst part is easily the Fertility Temple. It just…doesn’t work! The dryads pull out nonexistent berries from your person, you can skip past opening the doors just by walking through the adjacent gate, you can walk on the grass walls if they have sprouts on them, you can easily get the Seedbed perk just by…walking in and out the restart house, no seeds required, you get to keep the Flower Power Transfer skill (which is actually very convenient, gives Valorie a much needed spell attack for free, would prefer it if you stick with this bug and just change what it gives you), if you time out while pushing the girls, Leah will just randomly gain blonde hair…and become a different person…
The dungeon is just a mess, and even design-wise it isn’t great. Getting kicked out if you overgrow is fine, not so much when several puzzles reset and you have to climb the entire tower again. It’s hard to tell when you are overgrowing, unlike the Demon Temple. The green spirals are more dangerous walking into them from above or below than side-to-side, since that just multi-hits you and instantly ends it. And having timing and waiting puzzles is…odd for a dungeon where you are on the clock… It’s probably my least favorite dungeon yet, even if all the bugs were fixed…
Still, I had a blast and it was well worth the wait. I still have several sidequests to finish up to get back to where I was before the update (side note: I think its the new Yanfly file structure that made saves incompatible, not the battle mode. Not that it matters, but it might help some people figure out how the transfer saves if they feel up to the challenge). And I gotta see if I can do the cowgirl quest legit instead of using the cheat debug bug from the last patch, especially with the deflated Seed costs of everywhere else and the new flood of Power points you can get.
For some smaller (relatively speaking) quibbles:
Quibbles & Requests
- While the skill upgrades are conceptually cool, it makes leveling feel pointless, and you just don’t get as many skills as before and you upgrade them by Seeds.
- Using Seeds for stats still feels like a raw deal. At best, you use them to pump Agility on Valorie so that you can escape battles easier. Using them for anything else is not only a bad idea, but even less worthwhile this update with everyone having much more stricter class designs and no Skill Books.
- Having a new battle tab for Damia’s Blessings is nice, but only Leah gets use out of it prior to the Fertility Temple, and that’s because of the glitch. Else its just useless for everyone else, cause…
- Belly Slam is just bad. I see every one of these belly inflation games have a skill that scales on the size and weight and it just never works. You have to make the scaling far more extreme than what it is, it is barely more damage than an attack, even at max level. Given that it is on a cooldown, you don’t have to join the cabal of devs afraid to use the scaling to its fullest potential. Think this one bothers me more because its not a new feature, just a rework, and it still doesn’t feel great to use…
- Money is a lot more easily obtainable now, which I like. But it does make the casino less valuable now…
- I’m still not sure what the triggers for the bakery sidequest are, or what will be it to be more precise. I’m guessing its story progression, but the text makes it seems like Leah needs to be at certain belly levels.
- The new cavern connection between the desert and Royal City feels pointless. I guess future content will expand on it, but it doesn’t really solve the issue of how little you are pulled away from going to Royal City until you complete the Neko Temple.
- It annoys me that the Neko Temple has a teleporter slab and a second floor you just cannot access, even with the refurbishments. If I am just missing the stairs, please tell me, it bothers a sense of OCD within me to not have all the Temple teleporters.
- Love the new design of Damia’s Temple, nonfunctional top-floor right staircase notwithstanding. But it feels like its lacking something now.
- The girl’s breasts on their battler sprites as they gain Power growing but not their hips gets to me more than it should… Becomes really apparent once you see Marazan’s art in the game, a wider pelvis is part of pregnancy! I don’t expect it in the overworld or portrait art, but I feel like the full body battlers could use that final touch to really make them great!
- I wish there was more gab windows for the girl’s growing states. Sort of annoying to get the same ones all the time now, especially with everyone having Level 3 access now. At the very least, would be nice to turn them off.
- Wish contractions was more apparent without having to look at the menu or gabs. The former feels like a button push too many and the latter doesn’t come up sometimes (feel like it happens the most with Sanura, though sometimes it skips even Leah’s). I feel like a field bubble or emote might fix this, probably a full overworld animation if you wanna go overboard, and to really push this request, having birthing being a quick button push would really help save on time.
- Valorie feels bad to use, little damage, super slow, no attacking skills. Even as a Taunt tank, she feels nonexistential, giving that only Tiamat poses a threat and how easy it is to get HP regen on everyone.
- There should be a different sparkle for what’s a Power Point and what’s a collectible now. Trips me up a lot when I go to grab more Power, only to get an Herb for my troubles.
- Grabbing Rusted Keys still feels like a really low chance. I went through 5 rat troops before I even got my first one, though after they came faster.
- Feel like having the Quest Log and Image Toggle be the first two options in the menu is…wrong. Put the most useful/thing you will click on the most stuff at the top, its why Items is at the top by default in RPGMaker.
- Right side of the Silent Temple still blocks you, there’s still a sparkle that you can’t get in the Neko Temple (starting to feel like its a running gag that each temple comes with a nonfunctional tile).
- Wish that all the UI got a new windowskin, like the battle mode.
- Feels like there are no more new food options in the game anymore. Guessing that will be fixed in a new update, but it does feel kind of sad that eating remains is the least effective method of gaining Power (obvious Weight Gaming-tier quibble is obvious
)
- Wish the Corrupted Seeds and Demon Eggs had a different inflation look. Know I’m asking for more work, but it would go a long way of making the Fertility Temple feel more like a distinct danger.
- Wish the girls got more things to do outside of saving the world or making everyone pregnant. Some more activities the girls get to do solo, as a group, or things they can leverage their bellies with. Doesn’t help that Leah gets all the scenes that are mildly akin to that to herself.
- Doing multiple Pie Eating contests is great, but getting more than one Pie Medallion doesn’t feel right.
- Need more bellies~
