Beloved Rapture News

Hello everyone!

Since launching the demo in October 2022, we've received a tremendous amount of support and critiques from all across the spectrum.

I wanted to personally thank everyone who's played the game thus far - it truly means the world to us!

Over the past months, Cameron and I dug into all the feedback, and rebalanced many aspects of the gameplay experience itself. In some cases, we added entire new systems (such as swimming & fishing).

The demo will still contain the game's first chapter, but with some significant overhaul & refinement. I believe this version represents a more accurate picture of what the final game might feel like!



[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

• Added GUIDE Menu: A sub-menu allowing the player to check the map, view quests, enemy details, game mechanics, and more.
  
• Swimming: Certain bodies of water are now traversable! The player can also dive to reach hidden gold, chests or underwater switches!
  
• Active vs Wait Modes: The player can now CHOOSE if they want battles to run on ACTIVE mode (a FF7 style ATB), vs WAIT (enemies won't attack continuously until the player chooses). This can be changed at any time in the menu.
  
• Maiden Statues Rebalanced: Statues will now only give a GODDESS TEAR item if the game is running on Story Mode. Otherwise, they only offer a single-use heal.
  
• Fishing: Use your fishing rod + lure at certain locations throughout the game! Over 15 unique fish to catch!
  
• Item Messages: The "Item Found" message boxes now will show a small visual icon of each item once it's been obtained!
  
• Golden Chests: New varieties of treasure. Chests will look visually distinct if they contain Gear/Equipment.
  
• Stats Rebalanced: Some enemies adjusted according to player feedback.
  
• New locations: Chapter 1 has been greatly expanded with over 4 new optional areas & hidden treasures.
  
• Graphical Bugs: Minor visual bugs fixed.
  

[h3]- Aaron[/h3]

Hey, everyone!
Hope you've all been well.

I have to offer a huge thanks to those who have continued to support, stream, or share the game!

We've been quietly plugging away on development ever since the demo's release...with special attention paid to address player feedback.

One of the central themes was the management of battles, and enemy difficulty.

To address this specific issue, we took quite a few steps to make the enemy Stats/Weaknesses/HP etc more evident within the game itself. Thus, the addition of the Bestiary menu. Giznads did an incredible job fleshing out all of the customized UI.

Bestiary is contained in the GUIDE section, which is full of maps, quests, and other information.

Once an enemy is slain, the page will log into the guide automatically





The Bestiary can tell you how much EXP to expect from an enemy (for the sort who prefers some grinding), GOLD dropped, Items, elemental weaknesses, and so on!

Look forward to filling in the Bestiary over time. Special items and collectibles can be found in every enemy type is defeated within a particular region!

I'll showcase more on the other Guide sections in the coming weeks.

We are overjoyed to finally have Beloved Rapture in players hands. It's such a thrilling thing to see how different players approach a game. How they handle puzzles, exploration and combat. What they like and dislike. All of it is super valuable to us! So thank you for trying it out, and be sure to leave us feedback, if you have any!
Whether that be here in the Steam Community page, or over in the Beloved Rapture Discord.

[h2]PRESSKIT[/h2]
To any creators who might be picking up the game during this Next Fest, and are looking to share it with their audiences, here are some helpful pngs that should assist you when creating thumbnails and the like:

Hi all,
Wanted to share a pretty exciting update with everyone!

With the help of my collaborator, Giznads, we've managed to reprogram the previous game menus to take more advantage of the recent shift to Widescreen (16:9) format!



[h3]The pages that Giz helped to reprogram include:

• Items/Inventory
  
• Status Page
  
• Save/Load Menu
  
• Skills/Magic
  
• Equipment
  
• More TBD.

[/h3]



[h3]Skills Menu: [/h3]
Any skills not yet unlocked are marked with ???? on the screen.
The submenu is divided up into standard magic/skills, and the more powerful Relica, an advanced finishing blow.



[h3]Inventory: [/h3]
Similarly, all Items (including consumables and Key Items) will display visually.
This offers the player some clues as to the game's scope, as well as some curiosity of what's yet to come. Most importantly, it creates a feeling of true accomplishment as they're gradually rounded-up!

Consumable Items can be used at any time, but Armor/Weapons/Accessories can only be modified from the Equipment section.

[h3]More still to come:

• Tutorials/Battle Guide
  
• Custom Shop Menus
  
• Overworld Map
  
• Bestiary
  
• More TBD.

[/h3]

When Beloved Rapture was originally conceived, a commitment was made to honor the classic 8:7 aspect ratio of the SNES. Along with the gameplay, story, graphics, music (and practically everything else) also being inspired by the 16-bit SNES era - honoring that old-school square format felt like the logical presentation style.

(An example of the original aspect ratio)

As the game has evolved over the last few years of development, it began to feel that we were short changing both you and ourselves! With so much care and effort being put into the visuals of Beloved Rapture it began to feel that the smaller, square aspect ratio didn't do the game justice.

(The updated look for Beloved Rapture)

While this 16:9 update is a departure from those SNES games that most heavily inspired our own, we feel that this is a worthwhile trade-off. It bridges the gap between old and new, making best use of modern gaming capabilities, without sacrificing any of that 16-bit DNA that continue to course through every other facet of Beloved Rapture.

We hope you are all as excited by this update as we are!
-Graeme (2 Left Thumbs)