Fuchian Chronicles News

Thank you for waiting, Fuchian Chronicles is now out of Early Access! Here’s a list of changes from the old public version and the new one (many of these changes were already available in the playtest beta):

- Menu, battle, and dialogue UI has been overhauled
- Databank is now complete and expanded with new entries
- New character portraits for Fitz, Arlette, and Ferdi
- New weapon: Heavy Incinerator
- New equipment mods, including mods to make mid-game heavy weapons more effective in the endgame
- Trophies now have pictures
- Heavy weapons re-balanced a little

As mentioned in the beta release announcement, this new update requires a new save due to some additional functionality. Saves made in the beta playtest build will still work, but some equipment (specifically helmets, trauma kits, and heavy weapons) might lack the proper mod slots, but you can buy new equipment at the supply vendor to replace them. Saves from the previous default build (the one with the old UI) will not work. If you’d like to play on the old build to finish a run, you can enter the beta code “oldschoolfox” to go back to it so you can continue where you left off.

So what’s next? Aside from fixing any bugs that might have fallen between the cracks, I’ll be taking a short break from dev work. After that, I’d like to continue with game development, though what form that takes is currently unclear. I do have plans for more games set in the Fuchian Chronicles universe, but first I’d like to learn to use a different game engine and make smaller games to help with that. I’ll make another announcement once I’ve decided on what I’ll do next.

In the meantime, thank you all for your support thus far. I hope you enjoy the full release of Fuchian Chronicles!

Sincerely,
ShenTzu

I was thinking back a little and thought that the finale of Chapter 4 was a bit lackluster, so I went back to rework it a little. It's not MASSIVELY different, but I think the new boss fight is more interesting than before.

Other than that, a new weapon has been added to the game: the Heavy Incinerator! You will be given it when you pick up new gear in Chapter 4, and can purchase it from the supply vendor afterwards.

Please note that this update only affects the opt-in playtest beta, which can be accessed by entering the code "foxesgokonkon" in the betas section of the game's properties in your Steam library. If you get the chance, please check it out!

Hey everyone, hope you’re doing well! Turns out the previous announcement isn’t the last one before full release, but there’s a good reason for it! A playtest version of the final build of Fuchian Chronicles is now available for anyone who’d like to help me playtest one more time and catch any bugs that I’ve missed (or if you just want to play the final build early, that’s fine too!). It includes all the previously shown UI/walking animation updates, a brand new logo/main menu, expanded Databank, new portraits, and a few tweaked/expanded scenes. Aside from bug fixes and perhaps one or two more tweaks, this should be the final version of Fuchian Chronicles. I hope you like it!



To access it, right click Fuchian Chronicles in your Steam Library, click “Properties”, click “Betas” on the left, and enter the code “foxesgokonkon”. That will unlock the “devtestbuild” with the playtest version of the final build and you’ll be able to play it. The main reason I went with an opt-in build instead of updating the main one is because the final release build requires you to start a new game due to some new functionality. If you’re in the middle of a run, feel free to finish that first if you don’t want to lose your progress. As always, please let me know about any bugs or issues you run into in the Steam Discussion thread, or email me at [email protected], which leads me to the last thing for this update.

Your feedback and help with playtesting has been a great help to me while Fuchian Chronicles is in Early Access. As such, I’d like to put everyone who has posted in the bug report and suggestions threads, and those who have sent me emails, in the game’s credits as playtesters for the final, final release. I don’t want to assume that everyone’s okay with it though, so this will be an opt-in thing. If you’d like to be added to the credits, please either reply to this announcement or email me at the address above.

That’s it for this update! With the bulk of development done, I’ll be working on updating the store page and marketing material such as screenshots and trailers from now till final release. Thank you once again for all your support thus far, and I hope you enjoy the final version of Fuchian Chronicles, whether you decide to play it now or at release on April 19th!

Sincerely,
- ShenTzu

Hello everyone, and welcome to what should be the final update prior to Fuchian Chronicle’s full release! This will be a text heavy one so please bear with me here.

I’ve fixed all the issues I mentioned in the previous updates, and addressed another one of the major complaints that I got:

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New walking animations! This was an issue that was first brought up near the start of development, and I thought I had fixed it with a sprite update. The feedback I got however, made it clear that the lackluster animation hadn’t been adequately addressed. I hope that this new update goes further towards fixing that issue.

Now I’m back to adding new content to the game and playtesting to make sure everything is in order. I’ve already showed most of the new stuff I’m adding in the previous updates, but there is one thing I’m taking out: selectable battlemodes. The main reason for this is that the Action Time Battle (ATB) mode simply looks too unpolished, especially with how barebones the enemy ATB gauges looks and how it doesn’t line up with the enemy when the camera moves. If there’s one takeaway I got from all the feedback I got, it’s that looking unpolished is a big red flag. I’m fully aware that there are other parts of Fuchian Chronicles that look unpolished, but many of those cannot be feasibly fixed at this point. I can improve polish by removing ATB mode though, and so I’m doing that, and setting Conditional Turn Based (CTB) mode as the only battle mode. I don’t know how much being able to change battle modes affects your enjoyment of Fuchian Chronicles, but I hope you can see my reasoning and thank you for understanding.

The Steam store page is in need of serious overhaul as well. All the screenshots and trailers need replacing, I’ll need to rewrite the introduction blurb and some of the descriptions, and I’m even looking into getting a brand new logo for Fuchian Chronicles. I am taking new screenshots and recording clips as I playtest (and I’m sharing them on my Twitter/X @ShenTzuGames), but I’m in the slightly awkward position where Fuchian Chronicles is purchasable and playable while the new screenshots aren’t reflective of the current published version of the game. Because of this, I’ve decided to hold off on publishing any changes to the store page until final release so anyone who buys the game now will get what was advertised. As stated before, the price will not increase upon final release, but as a matter of disclosure, Fuchian Chronicles is part of the Steam Spring Sale, which will likely have a larger discount than the launch discount. If you’d like to hold off on buying/playing Fuchian Chronicles until final release, I’d completely understand and even encourage you to do so if you’re not satisfied with what you’ve seen in my updates.

So when is final release? Barring any major set-back or unforeseen circumstances, Fuchian Chronicles will come out of Early Access on April 19th, 2024! It’s been a long road, longer than I anticipated (but that’s how things are sometimes), and I thank you for your support thus far. I’m looking forward to finishing Fuchian Chronicles, and hope you will enjoy the game!

- ShenTzu

Early update announcement this time for a few reasons. First, more art!



Getting art for all party members was one of my priorities in this final phase of development, and with Ferdi and Arlette’s portraits completed, that’s that part finished! Some of their dialogues have also been updated, namely their introductions. A handful of other recurring characters may get more art later, but there are more pressing matters at the moment.

If you’ve been following my social media (@ShenTzuGames on X/Twitter), you’ll know that I recently got a lot of feedback for Fuchian Chronicles. I’m extremely grateful for this, especially since they pointed out several major issues I had not considered. Unfortunately some of them simply can’t be feasibly fixed at this stage given my limited resources, but I am committed to improving what I can, starting with updating the UI.







I will readily admit that I put too much focus on looking “unique” and overlooked player readability, and I hope you will agree that the updated UI is much cleaner than before. Additional fixes are in the works, and more feedback is always welcome! That said, these fixes likely won’t be implemented until final release, so I won’t be updating the screenshots and trailers on the Steam page at this point as to not give the wrong impression. Please follow my X/Twitter if you’d like to see the updates as they come.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, the price of Fuchian Chronicle has been permanently reduced to $7.99 USD as of this announcement. I was under the impression that a cheap game would be seen as not worth considering, and overcorrected when I gave it a price tag of over $10 USD, especially considering the other amazing games you can get at that price. Just to be clear, $7.99 USD will be the final base price at release. If you previously bought Fuchian Chronicles at a higher price, I thank you for the support! I understand if you wish to refund the game though, and hope you’ll buy it again at the reduced price if you do. Fuchian Chronicles will also be part of the upcoming RPG Maker Franchise Sale and Steam Spring Sales (I can’t say when, but really soon!), so look forward to that!

That’s it for this time. I need to travel for two weeks starting next week, and combined with the need to fix the aforementioned issues, I’m currently predicting a final release date of sometime between early to mid-April. I’ll announce a concrete release date when I know one. As always, thank you for the continued support, and I hope you enjoy Fuchian Chronicles!

- ShenTzu