Astatos News

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To the Crown Mages,

Story Trials are finally here just in time for the Steam Visual Novel Fest! You can now play through the entire story with all the intended gameplay scenarios included. This has been a monumental task for our team, and we’re glad to finally be back to releasing new story content.


In addition, this update includes a completely revised story mode, including new story scenes, character sprites, backgrounds, music, and various scripting improvements.

This update is also considered the third and final of the PvE content updates we announced last year. While our sights are now set on completing the development of Chapter II, and the release of Hero Pack III, we hope to be able to share more announcements regarding PvE content for the game in the future.


For those interested in keeping up to date on our latest developments, we release detailed blogs about our development progress over on our Patreon. www.patreon.com/studioklondike

Since this is just the first update including the story trials, we’ll be on the lookout to see player feedback on the community hub, our Discord, or even in reviews! We love to hear from you all, Crown Mages.

For the detailed list of changes implemented with Astatos v0.7, please read on below.

- From the team at Studio Klondike

[h2]Story Trials[/h2]
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Playable scenarios have been added to the entire story, including the prologue (Ab Initio) and Chapter I. These scenarios feature a new game mode designed for single player gameplay.

While the core gameplay is the same as the other game modes, we recommend you play through the prologue (Ab Initio) for tutorials regarding the new mechanics.

In summary, the following scenarios have been added:

• [Ab Initio] 6 Story Trials including 10 variations based on player choices.
  
• [Chapter 1] 16 Story Trials including 23 variations based on player choices.
  

Combined, these Story Trials contain almost 20,000 words of dialogue alone! We hope that players enjoy the debates that fill in the missing gaps in the story.


If you wish to experience the story from the beginning, you may use your existing save to replay scenes, or use a new save slot to begin again. You can manage your save data from Trials > Save Data

Note: Story Trials are in active development and their content and mechanics may change in future versions of the game. If you have any feedback or find any bugs please let us know!

[h2]New Content[/h2]
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Along with this update, the entire story has been revised in detail. Along with the addition of Story Trials, we recommend players try the updated experience.

• Revised the scripting of all story scenes for a more consistent experience.
  
• [English Version] Revised hundreds of dialogue lines for continuity and polish.
  
• Added sprites for the following characters: Janus, High Priest, The Tallest, The Broadest, The Strongest, The Thinnest.
  
• Added new sprites to existing characters.
  
• Added new music.
  
• Added new sound effects.
  
• Added new backgrounds.
  

Note: Due to the significant changes to the story, your bookmark progress will be reset when loading a previous save. While your overall story progression will remain the same, your progress will be reset to the beginning of the current scene you were on.

Additional scenes have been added to Chapter 1.

• The Art of Benevolence.5 – Blood from the Stone
  
• Pro Bono Publico.5 – Vive Ut Vivas
  

These scenes will be available automatically if their unlock conditions have been met.

New Hero Cards: 8 new Hero Cards have been added to the game to represent the side characters present throughout the story. Please note that these Hero Cards are only accessible in the story mode, and are not planned to be made available for use in multiplayer Trials.

[h2]New Features[/h2]
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Cut-In Sprites: Several scenes now have new cut-in sprites where no sprites were shown previously.

Ability Order UI: When toggling multiple Hero Card Abilities in a turn, the activation order will now be displayed on the card.

Colour-Blind Mode: This mode adds additional element indicators on cards during gameplay.

[h2]Game Changes[/h2]
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[h3]Story Changes[/h3]

• A notification now appears when the game has successfully saved your story progress to the server.
  

[h3]Trial Changes[/h3]

• The mid-Trial pause menu has been updated to allow you to restart or leave a story / tutorial Trial.
  
• The game now confirms with the player before they leave or restart a Trial.
  
• Improved feedback to the player if the game can’t connect to Steam when launched.
  
• Optimised the AI opponent behaviour to be less aggressive, but more varied.
  

[h3]General Changes[/h3]

• The splash/login screen artwork is now animated.
  
• The settings menu has been updated with new settings related to Story Trials, and Accessibility.
  
• A hidden player title for Season III of Takeover Trials has been added.
  

[h3]Technical Changes[/h3]

• The compression method used for character sprites has been updated, resulting in higher quality artwork than the previous version.
  
• The game now uses less RAM under certain conditions.
  

[h3]Game Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed an issue when the “Trial begin” screen appears during story mode while the skip button is held.
  
• Fixed an issue where the game would not load the “fade to black/white” state when loading a saved bookmark in story mode.
  
• Fixed an issue where activating a Hero Ability and quickly ending the Hero Stage would cause players to desync.
  

[h3]Additional Notes[/h3]

• As of this update, the minimum system requirements for Astatos have been revised.
  

To the Crown Mages,

This update includes some minor tweaks and this month’s Hero Skin. In addition, we would like to announce the release date for the next major Astatos update, v0.7.

Astatos v0.7 - Journey to Irinipolis, is planned to be released on August 7th. This update features a complete revision of the Prologue (Ab Initio) and Chapter I of the story. Some highlights of the new update include:

• All playable story sequences, with a brand new game mode.
  
• New character sprites, backgrounds, and music.
  
• Improved story scripting and text revisions.
  
• Additional story scenes and over 20,000 words of new dialogue.
  
• Plus many gameplay optimisations.
  

We would like to thank all the players who have been patiently waiting for more story content. We’re thankful that we have been able to take the time we needed to fulfil our original vision for the story mode gameplay, and believe this update will be a solid foundation for the production of more story content going forward.

For the detailed list of changes implemented with Astatos v0.6.7, please read on below.

- From the team at Studio Klondike

[h2]Game Changes[/h2]
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• After player feedback we have optimised the appearance of the skin “Timaios - Seeker of Solitude”.
  

[h2]Game Content[/h2]
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• Season III of the Takeover Trial leaderboard has concluded. The top 100 players will receive their player title upon the release of Astatos v0.7. We apologise for this delay!
  
• A new Hero Skin has been made available as the monthly reward. The previous month’s Hero Skin has been added to the in-game store.
  
• Nikos - The Shrouded Truth
  
  

To the Crown Mages,

The Steam Summer Sale is here till July 14! If you're a fan of our music, be sure to check out the Original Soundtrack DLC for 15% off. Or invite some friends to play and save 24% off on the Game + OST bundle! Your support means a lot to us!

We're also getting close to completing v0.7 which includes a revamp of Chapter I including extra art, music, story scenes, and card gameplay during the story! We hope you all find it worth the wait.

- From the team at Studio Klondike



https://store.steampowered.com/app/1764200/Astatos_Original_Soundtrack/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/22815/Astatos__Original_Soundtrack_Bundle/

[h2]Plus more from Studio Klondike[/h2]
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If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the DLC sale for our previous game, Nekojishi. The base game is free to download too!



https://store.steampowered.com/app/570840/_Nekojishi/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/6935/Nekojishi_DLC_bundle__A_Sunny_Day__Voice_Pack__Chinese/

To the Crown Mages,

This update includes some minor tweaks and this month’s Hero Skin. While the majority of the content for the next major patch has been finalised, we need some more time to complete the gameplay tutorial and bug-test the build.

For the detailed list of changes implemented with Astatos v0.6.6, please read on below.

- From the team at Studio Klondike

[h2]Story Progress Update[/h2]
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Following on from last month’s update, we have now finished development on all gameplay scenarios within Chapter I including a bunch of new mechanics and 8 new Hero Cards for the side characters during the story.



With the general gameplay settled, we're able to move on to designing the tutorial in the prologue. We'll need a little bit more time to complete this along with some extra polish and bug-testing, but we hope you'll all look forward to the update when it's done.

[h2]Game Changes[/h2]
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Store: A "Skin Preview" button has been added to the in-game store. This allows you to preview the full artwork of a Hero Skin as it appears during gameplay.

[h2]Game Content[/h2]
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• Season III of the Takeover Trial leaderboard has concluded. The top 100 players will receive their player title upon the release of Astatos v0.7. We apologise for this delay!
  
• A new Hero Skin has been made available as the monthly reward. The previous month’s Hero Skin has been added to the in-game store.
  
• Timaios - Seeker of Solitude
  
  

To the Crown Mages,

This update includes some minor tweaks and this month’s Hero Skin. While the majority of the content for the next major patch has been finalised, we need a little more time to bring it all together!

For the detailed list of changes implemented with Astatos v0.6.5, please read on below.

- From the team at Studio Klondike

[h2]Upcoming Content Update[/h2]
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Following on from last month’s update, our team has been working on a variety of changes to the story mode of Astatos.

Currently, all major revisions to Chapter I of the story are content complete including new sprites, music, and backgrounds! However, we’re still hard at work on the story trial gameplay which is needed before release.



While a work in progress we’re working on implementing a brand new game mode for the story. This mode was originally slated to be implemented after the release of Chapter II as separate PvE content, but we moved it forward to improve the story gameplay experience. We hope to be able to share more details soon!

[h2]Game Changes[/h2]
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Friend Requests: Pending friend invites sent by yourself can now be cancelled. Previously, you could only decline friend requests received from others.

Audio: The audio balance of the game has been adjusted. The volume of music has been lowered, and the game should be quieter in general. Please remember to update your volume settings if you had changed them previously.

[h2]Game Content[/h2]
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• A new Hero Skin has been made available as the monthly reward. The previous month’s Hero Skin has been added to the in-game store.
  
• Caelius - Fury of the Night