The Use of Life News

Dear all,

Thank you for enjoying The Use of Life.

And thank you very much for waiting. Chapter 3 of the Misha route is finally complete!
It will be added to the game on March 10, 10am (JST).

You can play the new chapter by loading a save file from the end of the currently available Chapter 2 (Misha route), so please get a save file of the latest Misha chapter ready!

This update also introduces advanced classes and some of their skills, so battles will be more exciting than ever. Please look forward to the update!




https://store.steampowered.com/app/1483370/_/
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We've received another status update from Daraneko.
Please give it a read.

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Here's February's status update.
We're getting closer and closer to release day, so I'm working my ass off!
I don't want to be late again, after all.
Today, I'll talk about a couple of advanced class skills.

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Crescent Slash: Although it's only as strong as a regular Slash, you gain 1 CP after using this skill.
This is a basic skill of the Swordmaster class.


Ice Bind: A Spell with both the Cold and Curse attributes. Has a low chance of Paralyzing the enemy.
This is a basic skill of the Sage class.
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And here's a short rundown of what the advanced classes will probably look like:

◆Swordmaster
Learns skills that recover CP, and Sword Skills that require MP.
Also learns powerful physical attacks and counter skills.

◆Sage
Learns Spells that combine different attributes, and brand new incantation Spells.
Introduces multi-incantation, which allows you to layer spells on top of each other.
Can also use CP to recover MP.

◆Swordmage
Learns Enchants, which allow you to deal extra Magic damage with every Sword Skill.
Also learns Magic Sword Skills, which use both CP and MP and require incantation.

◆Curseblade
Learns Iai skills that depend on INT, and skills that deal greater damage the lower your HP is.
Also allows you to guard against skills that were previously unguardable during Iai stance.

Note: As the advanced class feature is still under development, these are all subject to change if they don't feel right. These are just for reference.

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We still haven't announced an official release date for the next update, but I think we'll be able to do that very soon!
Please wait just a little bit longer.

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And that's all for this status update.
Development is still going strong, so please continue to support us!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1483370/_/

Visit the Playism Website Follow us on Steam Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Facebook

We've received another status update from Daraneko.
Please give it a read.
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Alright then, what pictures should I show you today?
There's a lot I want to talk about, but if I say anything more than I already have, we'd be going into spoiler territory... This has been bugging me lately.
To be honest, I would prefer if you saw all the new stuff in the game when it updates.

Anyway, I guess I'll show off a new monster this time.



A lot of the monster art in this game is original, drawn by our dear artist, but some of them are assets that I bought.
The project just doesn't have enough money to get original art for every monster.

However, in this chapter, all of the monsters have original art!
I've also secured a bit more funding, so I'm working even harder now.
Unfortunately this has also slowed down the process a little. Oops.

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Oh, right. Status update.
I've been writing events all day all night, and I'll still be doing that for a while. Whew! Can't even catch a breath here!
But I'll be freed by the end of the month. It'll be done soon!

Development is still ongoing, so please just wait a little bit longer~!
=================================

And that's all for this status update.
Development is still going strong, so please continue to support us!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1483370/_/

Visit the Playism Website Follow us on Steam Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Facebook

Hello everyone,

We've received another status update from Daraneko.
Please give it a read.

==========================================

Here's the monthly status update for December.
I've been talking with the publisher, PLAYISM, and we've decided on a date for the update!
I'll talk about that later, so let's look at the illustrations first.
------------------------------
This time, I'll show you the village the next chapter starts in. You know, the place they ended up drinking at.



Do you remember this place from when the route split?
When I was making that, I was like, "Yeah, let's uh... Let's just go to a village! Yeah! A village!!" so I didn't put that much thought into it.
But this time, I managed to rebuild it and make a proper village. Yeah.



This village is closely tied to the "Deathwalker" thing that's been popping up thoughout the story.
I'm thinking of revealing details slowly as we go deeper into the story.

------------------------------

So about that update. We're planning to release the update during Q1 (Jan~Mar) 2023.

I know, I was so eager to update the game within the year.
I write around 30K words for each chapter, and I've written 30K words for this one too, but there's so much more I want to do with it that it'll probably need around 50K words... I'm working hard on these events.
What's more, this update will implement the advanced classes too, so I'll be working with the intention of making the update as balanced and polished as I can, rather than rushing it so I can release it sooner.
And thankfully, since we'll have more time to work on it, we should be able to update the game in all available languages at the same time.

We've got a clear idea of our upcoming schedule now, so all we have to do now is work hard.
Please wait just a little longer~!

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That's all for this report. The Use of Life is also a part of the Indie Live Expo sale going on right now!
If you haven't gotten the game yet, why not do so while it's on sale and wait for the update with us?

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/Playism/list/79442

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We've received another status update from Daraneko.
Please give it a read.
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I'm here with my second regular status update.

Right now, I'm making a whole lot of event scenes.
Chapter 3 Route A has as many scenes as Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 post-route split combined, so I'm screaming internally while I'm working on it.
And this is after deleting a bunch of stuff too. There were just too many things I absolutely didn't want to leave out, so I'm really giving myself a headache here.

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For this time's new art, here's a new pose for Misha in the desert.
Fun fact: in the survey (which you can access from the game), there's a question that asks "Who's your favorite character?" and it turns out that Misha's the most popular of them all.
What's more, every once in a while I get messages from people all over the world who are madly in love with her. Fear her irresistable charms.



Actually, even a slightly different pose like this isn't as simple as just going up to the illustrator and saying "Hey, can you draw this for me? Thanks."
It actually takes quite some time to make new art.

First, I have to think about what kind of scene I want to make, and what kind of composition would fit that scene.
Then, I collect a bunch of references so that the artist can understand what I want the illustration to look like.
When the art is done, I'll tell the artist what I think, and go, "Could you make that part a little bit more like this?" and tweak the details until it's perfect.
Neither me nor the artist could make the art on our own.
It's the fruit of our joint efforts.

And that includes this piece too, of course.
I asked for so many revisions with so much passion and conviction, like, "The cleavage! It needs to look more, y'know, like this! Like THIS!!" to the point where even the artist started cringing at me like, "Does this even look any different...?" Despite that, here it is. The fruit of our joint efforts.

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I was only planning to show one new illustration this time, but here's another extra sneak peek.
I'll keep this guy's identity a secret for now.



By the way, we don't know if he's actually going to attack like this.
This picture was suddenly sent to me by the artist. Unprompted. I kind of like it, though.
Maybe it'd be fun to add sound effects like this to the attacks, just like comic books.

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And that's all for this status update.
Please wait just a little bit longer!

And that concludes Daraneko's status update.
Development is still going strong, so please continue to support us!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1483370/_/

Visit the Playism Website Follow us on Steam Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Facebook