Greetings from Team Tapas!
We've prioritized fixes for newly identified issues, along with sound and visual improvements that we could address quickly.
Patch Notes 1.0.3
Sound & Visual Improvements
Enhanced the sound effects for obtaining Artifacts in Epilogue 2.
Adjusted some of Nahatra's voice lines to make them clearer.
Adjusted some of Fiena's combat-action voice lines that sounded too similar to one another.
Adjusted sound balance so that the BGM is less likely to overpower other sounds during combat.
Shortened the display duration of the map shown when entering a new area in Epilogue 2 so that it no longer obstructs the player's view during combat.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue in certain story sequences in Epilogue 3 where the player could get caught on an obstacle before reaching the designated position, causing the sequence to loop indefinitely and prevent further progress.
Improved an issue where the frame rate could temporarily drop significantly when certain effects or objects appeared for the first time.
Fixed an issue where Flower projectiles could occasionally fly toward an incorrect location even when enemies were nearby.
Fixed an issue in Epilogue 2 where the Curse selection object could reappear when revisiting a Curse Room that had already been completed.
Fixed an issue in Epilogue 2 where Crafted Artifacts appearing after defeating a mini-boss could overlap with other rewards.
Fixed an issue in Epilogue 3 where using Ambush at certain locations could move the player outside the map.
Upcoming Update Plans
For now, our highest priority is fixing issues reported since launch and improving the overall stability of the game.
At the same time, we're also preparing new challenge content and cosmetic features so that there's more to enjoy after completing the main content.
The following plans are currently in development, and the schedule and details may change depending on development progress and testing results.
Update 1.1.0 — Targeting Mid-to-Late September
With update 1.1.0, we're aiming to add an outfit system and new endgame Challenge Modes as soon as possible.
After 1.1.0, we'll also consider expanding these Challenge Modes and adding more outfits depending on player feedback and our development schedule.
Outfit System
We're planning to add a system that allows you to change your character's appearance.
Some outfits will be obtainable through story progression, while others will be rewards for meeting specific conditions in the new Challenge Modes.
Fearless Mode (Working Title)
※ The name and concept was inspired by League of Legend's Fearless Draft mode.
This is a long-form challenge where you'll need to think carefully about when to use each piece of your repertoire as you take on multiple chapters in succession.
Using all of your strongest builds early may make later chapters much more difficult, so planning your builds across the entire run will be more important than in existing Challenge Modes.
Clear the Challenge Modes for the Main Story and Epilogues 1, 2, and 3 in succession.
Weapons, Spells, and Special Skills used in clearing a previous Challenge Mode cannot be used again in later Challenge Modes.
After clearing a Challenge Mode, you can save your progress before starting the next one and continue later.
On Hardcore difficulty, dying or quitting the game will reset the entire run.
Reaching certain score and difficulty requirements will reward you with outfits.
Clearing higher difficulties or Hardcore Mode will unlock corresponding Steam achievements.
Boss Rush Mode (Working Title)
This is an expanded version of Epilogue 3's Challenge Mode, where you choose a single build and see how far you can make it through a series of consecutive boss battles.
Build your loadout through Shasha's Mirror, then take on multiple bosses in succession.
After defeating a boss, you can save your progress before starting the next battle.
On Hardcore difficulty, dying during a boss battle or quitting the game will reset the run, so you will have to start from the beginning.
Reaching certain score and difficulty requirements will reward you with outfits.
Clearing higher difficulties or Hardcore Mode will unlock corresponding Steam achievements.
New Challenge Mode — Targeting October 30
After 1.1.0, we're planning another new Challenge Mode with a very different style of gameplay from what we currently have.
We're currently calling it "Rule Breaking Mode" (working title), and we're targeting an October 30 update while conducting early development and testing.
Rule Breaking Mode (Working Title)
The current progression systems in Garden of Witches are designed to make the direction toward a strong build relatively easy to understand, even for players who aren't particularly familiar with roguelikes.
We think this has the advantage of lowering the barrier to entry and allowing players to focus more on the story and learning boss encounters. At the same time, we also feel that this can limit some of the freedom and enjoyment that comes from creating extreme or unusual builds.
Rule Breaking Mode is intended to loosen many of those restrictions and focus on the fun of creating much more aggressive, powerful, and complex builds.
Many of the existing rules surrounding Attributes, Imprints, Relics, and other progression systems will be significantly changed.
You'll continue acquiring items with new abilities throughout the run.
We're aiming to allow far more effects to stack together, creating much stronger and more complex builds than usual.
As the player grows stronger, enemies will also scale more quickly and gain a variety of powerful enhancements.
Rather than placing a low ceiling on growth, we're aiming for a mode where you can continue becoming stronger over a long run.
However, this mode is still in the early experimentation and testing stage.
As builds grow stronger, we expect the number of projectiles and effects appearing simultaneously to increase significantly, so there are still performance and optimization challenges that we need to work through and test.
We also still need to verify whether the current concept will actually be fun when played. Depending on our testing results and any issues we encounter during development, the rules or progression structure may change substantially, and some parts of the plan may be reduced or changed altogether.
For now, please consider what we've described here as the direction we're aiming for rather than a finalized plan.
We'll do our best to turn it into a mode where you can enjoy building and growing Sil in ways that aren't normally possible in Garden of Witches.
Other Plans
Since late October is also close to Halloween, we're considering adding some small Halloween-related content or other types of cosmetic features.
We're also preparing an OST update and additional Japanese voice recording for the Epilogues.
Our priority, however, will remain on reliably delivering the new Challenge Modes and Outfit System.
We're continuing to review the issues you've reported since launch, and alongside these updates, we'll continue to review and address additional bug reports and suggestions as they come in.
Thank you to everyone who has been playing the game and sending us your feedback and reports.
Thank you, Team Tapas
