Fixed a typo on an NPC in the Town of Repose.
Fixed a bug with the DLC Eraser battle where the game would softlock after its ally exploded.
Put in a precaution for a potential bug where the game could crash if you entered a particular DLC boss battle with a K.Oed party member.
Fixed a bug where the Sandman would repeat dialogue every time he attacked in the battle with Mage.
Fixed a bug where the Eraser would stop taking actions after its ally was defeated in the Free DLC. The issue was based on random numbers, so sometimes the fight worked as intended, and other times (often) it did not.
Fixed a typo on the word "authority" in the cutscene at the top of the Fortress in the Free DLC.
Fixed a bug where entering the room in the north of the Lava Cavern after activating the switch would reset the state of the room. And if the switch was pressed again, the player would be stuck being invisible (unless they used the Escape Amulet to fix their opacity).
Put in a fail-safe to prevent the game from triggering a game over after the Sandman battle with Mage.
Fixed a bug preventing the Second Chance Augment from functioning as intended. Now it works properly!
Fixed a bug where entering the elevator on the Ground Level of the Free DLC wouldn't remove the area's name banner.
Fixed a typo on the Breathing Barricade's attack - it now correctly says "entangled".
Fixed (or at least, greatly improved) a bug where the Cackling Pyre would get two turns in a row if you had a party of slow characters. This meant that it would detonate the Living Bomb status straight away, unfairly ending the fight. This was done by slowing down the boss, which may make it a little bit easier; but it should fix the issue of a cheap shot.
Fixed a bug where using the Swap Party command in the Nightmare Parasite DLC battle could crash the game. Essentially, if you used Swap Party to swap out someone affected with the Nightmare status, and then swapped them in and tried to take an action, the game would crash - as the game's logic says that this character currently cannot move. So I made the Swap Party command remove the Nightmare status, alongside similar statuses that could also trigger the bug.
Also fixed a bug where, if there was no character afflicted with Nightmare on the battlefield at a certain point in the fight, the Parasite boss would stop taking actions.
This new major content update adds a brand new post-game dungeon, unlocked after completing the main story.
Players must hunt powerful super bosses through a huge, open dungeon, in order to save the life of a beloved party member and uncover the mysteries of the Sandman – a decaying wizard with ancient ties to the villainous Glitch. Players have requested more challenging encounters, so this new content delivers the hardest – and most creative – battles in the game!
But it’s not just dungeon-crawling; this update adds a new town, the ability for players to upgrade their ultimate equipment, four new music tracks, and a rich story which builds on the core game’s ending.
I've also introduced some bug fixes to the core experience, including:
Fixed a minor collision bug in the Sky Forge.
Fixed a bug where the game could infinitely Game Over when entering a certain cutscene in Azureus.
Fixed the Clockwork Controller fight in the Arena, preventing softlocks from happening in the future.
Fixed a bug in the City of Sounds, where resting at the Inn after completing the dungeon would change the music to an incorrect song.
Fixed a bug which would allow players to accidentally take the Snowcraft to other regions, removing their ability to sprint or interact properly.
Fixed a bug where if you opened treasure chests underwater as the Robot character, the wrong sprite would appear.
Fixed a bug which prevented the Emergency Haste Augment from working as intended.
Fixed an unfortunate bug where the game would crash after defeating the Experimental Titan.
These are optimisations and improvements made during the development of the console versions of 8-Bit Adventures 2. Please note, this is just a summary of the changes. My personal notes are 23 pages, so listing out everything in explicit detail would be going overboard haha.
• Improved the speed and flow of text timings in the Prologue, Pheopolis Castle, Driftwood, Charlie Flashback, Raft Sequence, Bruneus, Forest Mimic sequence, and several one off lines throughout the game. This also means that players with the Fast text speed on will run into less interruptions. The first hour of the game in particular saw the most adjustments, as well as some dialogue alterations, as I wanted to create a smoother experience in the opening.
• Optimised numerous environments, improving performance on lower end PCs. This was a massive effort across the whole game, particularly on the World Map.
• Optimised the performance of movement in Airship battles, making them run significantly smoother on lower end PCs.
• Optimised the enemy chase behaviour to perform significantly better on lower end PCs.
• Made the scene in Driftwood where Charlie comments to Thief about the Weapon Saleswoman winking at him unable to be missed. Just because I think it's a charming little moment that people playing with Fast text wouldn't previously have seen.
• Enlarged the cinematic scene where the Airship reaches the Floating Continent. I don't know why I letterboxed it so heavily before, but I think this looks nicer.
• Rebalanced the Gold Toss ability from last update, as it was extremely powerful. I initially thought about it as a bit of a joke, but with console players experiencing the game for the first time and Free DLC coming up, I wanted to make some adjustments so that it fit better into the game. Bosses now take 50% damage from it, it has an MP cost of 30, and it uses an eighth of your gold instead of a quarter. It's still incredibly powerful by the end of the game when you're overflowing with Gold, though - I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't too powerful earlier in the game.
• Fixed a bug where Thief would get stuck with her eyes shut (and unable to animate) in the scene where you meet the Computer.
• Lowered the volume on the water background sound effect when the water begins running in the Sewers.
• Fixed a bug where the "What a Croc!" enemy used an incorrect behaviour in the battle where it's paired up with two Antlions. I also made "What a Croc!" immune to counterattacks, as that could break its behaviour.
• I realised that before his name's introduced, the Bandit Bro named Zeke was called "Pink-haired Bandit"...even though he's clearly got purple hair
This update fixes a bug which prevented players on GOG from continuing the game after obtaining the Airship.
Streamlined dialogue and text speeds across the entire game. I also removed superfluous dialogue from some scenes to make things flow better, and rewrote small sections of dialogue (usually to convey something better or more succinctly). This includes scenes and NPCs in Stonecrest, Azureus, Pheopolis, Sky Forge, Niveus, Burial Grounds, Anbu City, Ancient Fortress, Glade of Graphics, Tropical Island, Bruneus, Maze of Memory, Factory Roof, Green Mage Tower, the Nexus/Ice Cavern, Deep Forest, Time-Space Mansion, the final city, the final dungeon, and at the start of the game’s second Glitch battle.
The Golden Sapling side-quest has had an update to make it more difficult, interesting, and rewarding. Firstly, all of the Golden enemies you fight have gained elemental resistances, as well as the ability Gold Toss. This ability deals damage based on how much gold the player currently possesses. All of this means that the enemies are harder to kill, and by the end of the game (when you have a lot of Gold), can potentially wipe out your party in a single Gold Toss. So you’ll have to get clever to take them down! For example, by using fast characters to open the battle, and by inflicting status ailments. Additionally, one character’s Personal Ability is very useful for staying alive…There’s also a new reward – just a bit of fun if your pocket’s overflowing with Gold ;) If you’ve already completed the Golden Sapling side-quest, just return to Glendon’s Glen (next to Pheopolis) and you’ll find the reward sitting on the ground. Since this side-quest isn’t tied to any achievements, and the rewards are just bonuses, I wanted to make it a bit trickier and more memorable.
Made the screen flashes when transitioning into battle slightly darker, as they can be extremely bright on some screens.
Overhauled performance in some parts of the game by removing thousands of events from 35 maps – things like water and fire animations. These maps now run more efficiently, which was important for our console preparation.
Altered the syntax for the Priceless Treasure achievement to conform with the rest of the achievements (in preparation for console launch).
Fixed a speed issue with the Willie the Wisp boss – specifically when the lantern would re-appear for the second time, it would accidentally have its Agility reduced to 0.
Fixed a bug where the Confusion status would be added to an enemy (via the Confuse Attack Augment) and then could get immediately removed by the damage calculation. The Confuse Attack Augment is now fully functional, as intended.
Fixed some minor visual bugs inside the painting section of the Glade of Graphics.
Fixed a bug where you could open the World Map item during certain cutscenes, which would break the game. Now, like the Escape Amulet, the item is removed from your inventory during these scenes.
Fixed a bug where, if you tried to open the World Map on the Floating Continent while in the Airship, it will trigger the landing message instead.
Gave the Detective character a walking left and right animation in the Glade of Graphics, as he looked a little odd when he moved without one.
Fixed a visual/collision issue on a roof tile outside the Swamp Mansion.
Fixed a bug where if you skipped through dialogue in one part of the Desert Ruins, Charlie would be stuck standing still for 300 frames.
To avoid a potential issue afterwards, I reset the Escape Amulet’s destination during the Factory Roof cutscene.
Fixed a bug where you could open the World Map and Airship Simulator in the Snowcraft during a narrative sequence late in the game.
Fixed a bug in the Nexus where the Warrior failed to walk down at one point if you’re speeding through the text, leading to a choreography issue.
Added some boss music to the fight with Null. The poor thing needed to feel a bit more special!
Fixed a small bug where there was an accidental delay between two text boxes while talking to the Traveller. This made the box do its full closing and opening animation between lines.
Fixed a bug where, during a scene where a rock is dropped in the final dungeon, Charlie appeared standing on top of the Mage’s sprite.
Made the Mutant Monitor’s Vigilant Vigilante ally immune to the Frozen state, as it made the fight extremely easy.
Fixed a bug in the final city’s Inn, where the black screen while you rested wouldn’t cover up the city’s name banner.
Fixed a bug where Charlie was able to block the Leviathan’s Tidal Wave attack.
Fixed a bug in the Arena where the Hibernator enemy would get slower when it wakes up, whereas it’s meant to get faster.
Fixed a bug where the Living Arena’s MP Break attack was able to miss. I also rebalanced his Berserk status to trigger earlier in the fight.
Fixed a bug on the Clockwork Controller battle (for the thousandth time XD) which could cause the battle to soft lock the game. Essentially, its AI could get confused and it would become unable to take any actions. Now it will use Retaliation Directive if it gets into that situation.
Slightly rebalanced the Savage Strike ability, along with the Cursed status’ attack boost. These mechanics are still incredibly powerful; they’re just a bit more balanced when it comes to formulas that multiply their effects further.
Fixed a bug in the Blademaster rematch where he would use Haste on himself twice in a row, wasting a turn. So I incorporated an extra failsafe to prevent him from casting Haste on himself if he already has the status.
Fixed a bug when saving Bruno in Stonecrest, where he would flash out of existence before the black transition effect was able to cover the screen.
Changed the text box positions in the Azureus shops. This was because the text box would partially overlap the shopkeeper if you talked to them from behind the counter.
Fixed a collision issue in late-game Stonecrest where you could walk through a wall.
Fixed a collision issue in the Estriatus Inn, where you could walk through the counter.
Fixed a mistake where you could open a treasure chest in the Dwarven Tunnels from the side, even though it’s being guarded by a goblin. Now you can only open it after defeating the goblin, and new text was added when you try to open it from the side.
Fixed an audio bug during the player’s trip to Niveus via Airship. The propeller noise from the previous cutscene didn’t stop playing in the background after the scene was over, and remained present during gameplay.
Fixed a bug in the sequence where Emma crosses the ice in the Ship Graveyard. When you got to the end of the path, one of the triggers wasn’t working properly, and wouldn’t trigger – leading to a lot of confusion.
Added menu access when the party is transitioning back from Anbu to the Ice Cavern. That way, the player can un-equip Warrior/Thief/Robot if they want to.
Added a full-sized map which can be viewed while on the World Map via the Key Items menu. It's not perfect, but it includes the player's position and the locations of every major town. Since towns are what are used as reference points to guide the player in the story, this felt like the most important information to provide.
The "World Map" Key Item is given to Charlie in Stonecrest as part of the story. But if you're already further in your adventure, you can buy a map from the Chryseus Item Shop (the town in the desert).
Did some behind-the-scenes work, tweaking things in preparation for the console versions.
Streamlined some of the dialogue on the first Desert Ruins cutscene, the Desert Ruins pre-boss cutscene, and the Volcano pre-boss cutscene, to make it a bit faster and more natural. Also added some extra visual flair to the Desert Ruins pre-boss scene.
Fixed a bug in the Clockwork Controller battle which made status bubbles scroll down the screen and forced the boss to summon 4 allies at once (instead of the intended two). I'm not sure when this issue was introduced, so apologies for not catching it until now!
Fixed a bug where - upon your first visit to the Red Mage Tower - the music would start playing for a moment, and then stop, and then start again.
Fixed a bug where the game would fail to recognise a music file for the April Fools boss.
Fixed a bug where the Glitched Croc from the last major update would appear on your first visit to the Desert Ruins.
Streamlined some of the dialogue in Charlie's tutorial fight, in order to speed it up a bit more.
Increased Charlie's Omega Burst bar from 60% to 75% full ahead of the Guard Captain boss battle.
This update fixes a bug (introduced in the previous update) that would crash the game on the GOG version. My sincere apologies for this issue!
There were two bugs with the previous update (one in regards to final dungeon music and one in regards to achievements), so I've just pushed a hotfix which should take of the issues. Sorry about that!
• Updated the 8-Bit Adventures 2 Demo with post-launch features. I hadn’t realised until recently that the demo was still a pre-release build.
• Added an NPC to the Pheopolis Castle Courtyard at the start of the game, which allows you to rename characters if you made a mistake when naming them in the story.
• Fixed a bug which allowed players to use the Escape Amulet during the dark room sequence in the Desert Ruins.
• Fixed a typo on the word “furnace” during the player’s first visit to the Factory.
• Changed the First Aid animation from a red cross to a green cross, in order to avoid issues with the Red Cross trademark.
• Enabled Attack State effects to activate on the single target versions of Grenadier and Arrow Volley. This might make them less balanced; but after talking with Abomination713 on the Steam forums, I decided it would be more fun for players if this feature was able to be taken advantage of for character builds and strategies.
• Fixed a typo on the word “beared” in the Burial Grounds in the end-game.
• Fixed a typo on the word “beginning” in the game’s ending.
• Drastically lowered the Evasion chance of the Rattling Ravager enemies you fight in the opening tutorial. This means that you won't miss as often while fighting them, and these initial battles won't get dragged out by RNG.
• Made small changes to the opening Pheopolis Classroom cutscene in order to make it move a little bit faster, and be more like the rest of the game.
Fixed a typo just before the first Airship Battle, and on the Titan Soul accessory description.
Fixed a bug which was causing the game to crash upon Game Over (seemingly due to recent changes to our shader system).
Fixed a bug which would sometimes cause weapons with lower stats to be selected for Charlie when using the Optimize function in the Equipment menu.
Happy April Fools’ Day everyone! I wanted to do something special to celebrate, so the latest update include two special features – alongside the usual list of fixes.
For anyone just trying to play the game normally, I apologise if this causes you any trouble. The changes to the towns and the extra boss will ONLY be available to players for 1 day (until midnight on April Fools’ Day in PST).
This was something that I can only do while the game’s exclusive to PC (as updating on console is much more complicated), so I hope it gives everyone a chuckle =) I’d love to know if you beat the boss!
In addition to the foolish festivities, this update also makes some further changes:
Fixed a minor treasure chest bug in the Cliffside Ruins.
Fixed a typo in the Final Dungeon.
Nerfed Sunder HP a little more (from 12% to 10% of a foe's current HP), and fixed the incorrect description.
Nerfed the Zero Sabre a bit more, reducing its Critical Hit chance from 50% to 25%, and its Attack power from 23 to 16. I've been trying to find a good balance with this weapon (as it can be incorporated very effectively in certain builds), so hopefully this is it!
Changed the text directing players to the Leviathan's Lair to make its location a little more clear.
Fixed a collision bug in the the Forgotten Town.
Fixed a typo during a cutscene in an Arena.
Adjusted the power of the All-Seeing Idol.
Fixed a bug in the Maze of Memory which could result in a sudden Game Over when transitioning between K.Oed party members.
Reduced the Critical Hit chance of the Zero Sabre weapon from 60% to 50%.
Reduced Sunder HP's damage from 15% of a foe's current HP to 12% of a foe's current HP.
Fixed a collision issue in the Time-Space Mansion.
Fixed an issue which could cause a Game Over to appear shortly after entering the Glade.
Fixed a bug in which equipping the Counter Augment to Warrior would give him a 100% chance of counter-attacking (rather than the intended 50%).
Added a function which allows the game to export error reports to a log folder if the game crashes.
Finished implementing improvements to the turn-order calculations, accounting for all possible builds without creating issues or an unfair amount of enemy turns. This took a while to implement, as every battle in the game had to be tested and tweaked, so thanks for your patience everyone!
Fixed some minor collision issues in the Final Dungeon.
PROPERLY fixed an issue when combining the Cover Ally Augment and Emma's 3-Hit Combo attack (promise!).
Fixed a bug where the Robot could bizarrely appear twice in a cutscene in the Factory.
Fixed a bug where the battle with the Bandit Bros. could be made unwinnable.
Fixed an incorrect description presented when you first receive the Demonic Microphone accessory.
Fixed a collision issue in the Green Mage Tower, and another in Bruneus.
Fixed a bug where the player could accidentally create a softlock by moving during a cutscene in the Final Dungeon.
Added the (accidentally left-out) Energy Axe weapon to an early room in the Final Dungeon.
This update fixes a bug wherein some battles would become soft-locked and unable to progress due to a bug introduced in the February 16th text speed Update. Sorry for the trouble to anyone who encountered it!
Adjusted one of the Memory Wraith's attacks to target a single ally, rather than the entire party.
Fixed bugs on some bosses which would result in them gaining an unfair number of turns if the battle went on for too long.
Added new text options and improvements! First off, you no longer need to hold the Confirm button to speed up the text; one simple press will speed it up now. Additionally, the speed up function will now cut off at the end of the current text box, preventing you from accidentally skipping through multiple boxes.
Finally, a new Option has been added, allowing the player to choose between Normal text speed and Fast text speed. Essentially, the Fast text speed makes our current optional speed-up function automatic and always on. I still recommend Normal text speed, as this is timed with the choreography of cutscenes, and provides a stronger narrative experience in my view. But for anyone who wanted faster text, I hope these options address your concerns!
Please note that, while the speed-up function has been thoroughly tested, the Fast text speed system may have some unforeseen issues in certain cutscenes. They should only be minor issues at most, but if you run into any, please let me know!
Another memory leak has been fixed, significantly reducing the chance of any crashes.
Updated the early tutorial message to reflect changes to speeding up text.
Fixed a collision bug in a cave in the Ship Graveyard.
Fixed an issue in two cutscenes in the Glade where an incorrect character sprite could show up depending on your party composition.
Fixed a bug wherein the game could reduce the levels of three of your characters if you'd grinded to a higher level previously.
Added an Item Shop to the lift before fighting the Eraser boss.
Fixed a bug which could result in a bizarre Game Over screen appearing when characters switch positions in the story in the Desert Ruins and Ice Cavern.
Fixed a bug where you can move the camera around in a cutscene in the Maze of Memory.
Fixed a bug where returning to the Foundry later in the game could result in the Battle Music being replaced with a loop of the Victory Theme.
Added more opportunities to remove Augments and Equipment from allies when they leave the party during a certain segment of the game.
Fixed a collision bug on the World Map, in a house in Niveus, and in a room in the Glade.
Fixed a bug where the Cover Ally Augment would bizarrely trigger during Emma's 3-Hit Combo attack.
Fixed a bug which prevented Counter from working with the Cover Ally Augment.
Fixed a bug whereby the Anti-Stun Augment wouldn't prevent Robot from being stunned when using the Siphon Charge ability.
Continued in-progress improvements for the turn-order calculations to account for all possible builds without creating issues or an unfair amount of enemy turns. This is taking a long time to implement, as every battle in the game has to be tested and tweaked, so this update only goes up to the boss fights in the Ruined Factory.
