Two weeks ago, I attempted to balance the game because I knew that the enemies grew too strong too quickly starting in the second chapter (that's been a problem for a while).

There was also an issue where the map wasn't balanced, the bottom cards were slightly harder than the top cards. But even when that was fixed, things didn't go as smoothly as I hoped.

So, what did I do?

I figured the reason the game was so hard now was because of too few options to win. You absolutely depended on getting certain lacrima, like Exhume, Capture, Charm, etc. If you didn't get them, you'd have basically zero chances. So, I thought, I needed to add more ways to scale up damage.

And I also noticed that starting in chapter 2, the blessings were becoming more useless.

My conclusion: Make blessings scalable.

So, I sat down one Friday and added 12 new blessings with way too much text. They did scale, though. But it was just too much.

With those 12 new blessings came new modifiers, and new triggers, resulting in a whopping 150 total lacrima. Suffice to say, it suffocated the game and made it unplayable. That, in addition to the triggers from the last trigger revamp, were just the final straw.

I had to do what us gamedevs keep talking about: Cut content. Kill your darlings. Because less is more.

So, once again I sat down and totally gutted the game. Everything that was longer than 3-4 words had to go (with VERY few exceptions).

Slowly, but surely the game felt lighter. The combat felt tighter. Enemies had triggers that were short and precise and actually did something.

I reduced HP/ATK of enemies in chapter 2 by half, and it felt great. You could still die, but it wasn't this impossible wall to climb anymore.

Levitation was also cut. It might get reactivated later (or in higher difficulties), but in the end it's just unfair. Flying is still in the game, though. We'll see for how long.

Just Balance

So, is this release just a balance patch? Pretty much. People might say it's still unbalanced. That's okay. It's still a work in progress. But I believe it's more fun again. And that is what I'm going for.

Check out the game and let me know what you think.

Play in your browser: https://muddasheep.itch.io/faith-in-despair

Or play the demo on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2686020/Faith_in_Despair/

🧙‍♂️ To be continued...