Update Version 2.0: Ranking 02
Greetings Internet Void!
New stat balancing and Main Character organization system required me to do some reworking of some objects on a fundamental level. Therefore, all old save files no longer be playable. If you load them, you wonât have any money or stats and will most likely end up with a game crashing error. I apologize for this inconvenience of restarting. I really wanted to avoid this solution but I think for long term sustainability of the game, itâs better for me to make these changes early on to save myself from thousands of lines of unnecessary if/else statements of code down the line. On the brightside, the MC character now has an additional 30 stat points and enemies and boss fights should be a little easier now. Go get that S+ perfect score!
A special super duper thank you to Justaonegirl and Zack3333 for playtesting and helping me balance the daily training/ socializing simulator portion of the game. To be honest, itâs a lot more work than I anticipated to get it done and organized in a way that I can build off in the future but I think itâs worth the extra effort to make the ground work as fluid as my baby programmer brain can manage.
All companion characters have their own daily morning and evening routines that you can encounter by choosing to âstay at location for an hourâ.
MC can receive text messages from characters that have exchanged contact information with.
Gather contact information from companions requires successfully completing their event. Events that have been âfailedâ can be re-attempted at that same location, time and day of the week until the event has been successfully completed. The exception for this system is when recruiting Laurent, as his events are part of the main quest storyline.
MC can initiate texting 1 companion once in the morning and once in the evening..
Possible companions include: Manager Orwen, Rival Esper (Aedhan or Ember depending on choice of MC), Guide Lauren,, and Guide Wesyng
Morning consists of hours 1-7
Evening consists of hours 8-16
New outfit sprites for:
- Rival Ember- spa, gym, library
- Rival Aedhan- spa, gym, library
- Laurent- spa, gym, library
- Wesyng- spa, gym, library:
- Guide Jayde
Pricing at the Exchange Market changes depending on the day
Menu changes depending on the day
Jobs to earn money and gain a stat point are available at Personnel Office
Guiding is possible with Wesyng initially and Laurent can be unlocked through social events.
Player stats can be evaluated at the hospital and guiding relationships can be tracked at the guiding center.
Characters Laurent, Wesyng, Jayde and the rival Esper have their own daily schedules and can be encountered by hanging out at location for an hour.
They will be scheduled to be at one location during the day (hours 1-7) and another location in the evening (hours 8-14) so itâs possible to discover them twice a day. Encountering them will grant opportunities to gain dependence, trust and attraction that can be seen by viewing their statistics at the Guiding Center..
Eve will grant the player a stat âblessingâ of choice in the evenings but this amount will be dependent on how many points the player achieved that day. Less points, the greater the blessing in order to help players reach the stat goal while also limiting how much player can over power their character.
50k+ words added- Lots of player freedom to discover various optional character interactions!
Hope you enjoy exploring the Serenity Company Campus and make lots of fun interactions with the residents ^_~ while avoiding the wrath of your Manager, ha ha!
Files
Get Esper X Guide
Esper X Guide
Tactical Card RPG x Otome /BL VN x Social Sim
Status | In development |
Author | coffeedripstudios |
Genre | Role Playing, Visual Novel |
Tags | Amare, battle-action-fantasy, Cyberpunk, Dating Sim, josei, JRPG, LGBTQIA, Otome, Tactical RPG |
More posts
- Update 2.1 Second Dungeon Mission Added15 days ago
- v2.01 Minor update- small bugs and dialogue fixes34 days ago
- ver. 1.01 New MC choice added Esper Aedhan80 days ago
- Demo v.01 Launch!96 days ago
Comments
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Everyone in this game is so beautiful or handsome! I love their diversity in skin colors. I played as Aedhan but I enjoy how both player avatars have distinct appearances instead of having the same features but different gender.
Wesyng is so cute and won me over with his flirtatious demeanor, chill camaraderie, and nurturing patience. I did the Spa event with Wesyng (oooohhh yeah, fanservice!) and unlocked Aedhan's Spa outfit (even more steamy goodness!).
At first I thought this was going to be Cyberpunk dystopia. But then after meeting Eve, I realized that we were...
SPOILERS
A Transmigrator and instead of a system we have a Great Old One. Guideverse is definitely way more appealing to me than A/B/O. I'm so appreciative of Wesyng for establishing boundaries because he makes it clear he's not the type to take advantage of the power his position offers. And of course we must respect him as well and not force ourselves on him.
Orwen is a rude manager but in a way that's funny. I laughed at how all of his encouragement is insults, backhanded compliments, and automated messages. Also his reaction if you text him at night will make you go "I should have expected that, LOL"! The gameplay mechanic of being able to see a character's schedule for the day was such a callout. He presented it in a funny way "Don't be obvious about your crime!" but thinking about it, from Wesyng's offhand comments, Yandere Espers really are a problem. Forcing themselves on their Guides and taking energy without consent.
Eve is very shifty with how she dodges questions and her condescending, babying of the player. The fact that we apparently have karmic debt and that worlds would be destroyed if we ever told anyone our true name- well, that makes the Old Ones sound very manipulative and abusive by forcing our dependence on them and punishing us if we try to argue.
Ember! I was not expecting the character we don't play as to be in the story. Being an Esper gives a native viewpoint into the life of Espers. Because though we're an F-rank, we're not really struggling due to all the advantages handed to us. Sure we still have to work for it but the world's fate is favoring us with high potential and the attention of high grade Guides. Ember shows us that other Espers don't really help each other. That they're highly competitive and hate giving even the slightest benefit to others- even if they would get compensated for more than market price!
Ether and Stim Paks can heal in a pinch... but overuse is probably like using performance enhancers. Legal but definitely not good for the overall health of your body since you're forcing it to recover so that you can train more. Then again, Espers are fighting for the privilege of a comfortable life. They're genetically engineered and the failures get kicked out of Serenity and forever trapped in poverty (or worse). In the end, it's a system of capitalism that disposes of anyone who can't keep up...
...Though for us, the Player, we know how to min-max and grind stats so we're in a completely different genre! Actually, I tried to be so efficient that I ended up having too much Mana that I missed out on both Thursday and Friday sessions with Laurent and Wesyng...
So what happened was I basically spent all my time Training in the Simulator, then remaining time in a Recreation center (the Spa if Wesyng or Laurent is there, the Library until 20 Logic).
Besides when Orwen treated me to dinner or later Laurent did the same, I never visited Dining Plaza. So I took opportunity to buy the max two meals (S Grade) which raised my max MP enough where I'm above the safety threshold for Guidance, RIP.
You only lose max 12 MP per day if you both training at the Simulator. I'm guessing you need less than half max MP to be Guided?
Double tapping a Guide on both of their work days is probably difficult. But hitting up Laurent on Monday and Wesyng on Friday should be doable.
Another thing that ironically backfired on me was treasure. I had a rough time in the tutorial dungeon due to opening all the chests and getting additional Attack cards. I ended up realizing that they were a detriment to me when I fought the boss and I couldn't draw enough Support cards to chain and extend my Buffs/Debuffs.
Unless I missed where you could do Deckbuilding?
I also learned that this game is more Memory-based than a traditional RPG. That you needed to memorize what cards are in which spots so that you can 4-combo them later.
For the first boss, you have plenty of breathing space to figure out where everything is. Muse being a mime that attacks or buffs depending on whether you attack or buff. So you can just do nothing and regenerate MP/GP or pop a medkit. But I'm pretty sure later bosses won't just sit there while you: 4 Support/4 Support/4 Attack/4 Attack them.
They might even be able to do interface screw like swapping the location of cards, locking cards (can't flip them unless you first flip another card adjacent or diagonal to the locked card), transforming flipped cards into the opposite type (Corporeal <-> Astral) if you flip but don't play them, etc.
I will say Immunity sucks when all your remaining attack cards are the type the boss is immune to. And since you can't manually discard/reshuffle, you're forced to spend MP/GP using those cards until only 3 remain.
Hi Chimera,
Thank you so much for all of your feedback! I thought especially about your feedback on fighting against immunity and decided to have an option for the player to reshuffle and redraw their deck during the flip phase. This will end the player turn, but it will also help you wipe the board of an unlucky hand. This option will be added in the next update.
I did have plans on giving the player the ability to customize their deck, as well as have more advanced card effects cost more mana to use than basic cards. These systems are not implemented yet, but will probably be added to the game at some point.
I did plan on making the "guiding" sessions limited to 3 with Wesyng, 1 Laurent (not possible to do both and it would require some strategic use of time) but maybe I miscalculated based on MP gain from food. I might up the MP cost, but these scenes can still be unlocked at the next HQ training period so I think it's not too much of a loss.
If you don't mind, I'd like to ask some follow up questions so I can continue to improve the player experience.
1. Did you find the sim portion of 14 in game days to be too long, too short, or just right?
2. What is your MC stats at the end of the training period?
Thank you so much for giving my game a try and providing me with feedback!
Best wishes,
Jen
I think the character events, Guiding sessions, text messaging, and Eve conversations kept me engaged through the 14 day period. This is primarily a dating visual novel with some RPG elements so it's expected to have lots to read which I don't mind doing. I think 7 day training would be too rushed (at least this early as F-D Rank) since you would need to cram the meeting with Laurent and other events in such short time.
Will there be more locations to visit in the city later? What is the Game Pass at the Exchange Market?
My stats on the last day were:
HP 144
MP 77
COR 68
AST 78
DIS 17
ORD 11
BAL 16
POW 16
EMP 17
LOG 22
wooo life sim came our perfectly >w< thanks for the all hard work!
Yes, thank you so, so much! You really helped me figure out how to balance issues that I didn't even know were going to be a problem XD