Secret of Evermore 25th Anniversary Balance Patch release video
12Balance patch can be obtained here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/anaynzba5n40ly1/Evermore25AnniversaryBal.zip?dl=0
Twitch stream here to be handled later on premiere day (will be non-vocal):
https://www.twitch.tv/mknightdh
Secret of Evermore was released on October 1, 1995, as a sort of consolation for issues with localizing Seiken Densetsu 3, better known as Trials of Mana, leading to some Misblaming issues toward SoE. But despite obvious flaws on its own, Secret of Evermore proves itself being worth glass half-full with aspects having it age like wine, a notion that seems strangely familiar to me for some reason I can't quite pinpoint even though I feel I should know what it is. Of course, Secret of Evermore does have its misfires that lead to active criticisms of it all the same, which the 25th Anniversary Balance Patch seeks to rectify while highlighting design philosophies both from Secret of Evermore itself inviting the Back To Back trope involvement from the player, and from my own touches to encourage bravery, variety, and empathy.
The video in general is with the balance patch active. Changes aren't entirely obvious, but the intent is to display the brand of gameplay I would try to encourage. To wit, I did the following making the balance patch:
-Change up enemy stat values including EXP and Money amounts, even flagging plenty of enemies to get the 30 Hit Penalty against the AI partner
-Modify Hit Chances to be less favorable to Evade (I still get those freaking Misses, granted, but not as horribly)
-Make Weapon EXP, as well as the Dog's Attack EXP at Level 1, so much faster for earlier charged attack availability
-Give Axes some armor piercing
-Have player projectiles deal less damage (Thunderball ammo's higher Might value is with this in mind)
-Nerf alchemy in general to (hopefully) where its overuse can actually hurt the player's economy
-Have the Dog's sniff movement be a power walk (inspired by Clubs in Kid Icarus Uprising similarly having Neutral Swing usage involve a mobility boost instead of the penalty that most other weapon families would get for their Neutral Rapids)
As a note for anybody worried about getting to the point where I start off here, I do have Maggots and Gore Grubs have a 25% chance of inflicting Poison on damage, with the return counterbalance being Maggots having 40 Hit and the addition of the 30 Hit Penalty against the AI partner. This is, of course, thought up to highlight how maggots had given my parents too many problems, but it works in the context of creativity, since this keeps the Thraxx fight tense enough through the nerf of Thraxx's Acid Rain abuse, and the Bugmuck revisit gets to be a familiarity challenge as well. There shouldn't be any potentially intolerable changes along the way.
That covered, I will say that there has some rushing with the patch to get it out and about in time, though I can be confident that there wouldn't be any new problems introduced by some ASM typo, like a game crash, and so I would have something presentable out there as intended. I also have in plan to make a later version that would address further issues as they would come up.
Of course, this marks the official end of the Secret of Evermore playlist. I will stream the game and keep tabs on the SoE community, but I do need to get to other things and I no longer have any need to rush anything related to Secret of Evermore. Don't get me wrong, of course: Secret of Evermore is IMO very much a solid game standing the test of time and the whole playlist has been worth my time. It's just that plenty of other adventures still await, and so do plenty of other threats needing to be fought back against as well.
At the very least, I can be glad I revisited this diamond in the rough. And I hope others can understand why I'd hold it in absolute esteem as well.
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