Heya, as a big end of the year gift, I want to give an update on how I Hate You, Please Suffer - Complete - is going!

The first two of the last batch of quests (as well as the alternative version of the first) are basically done! The first quest has you restoring a lighthouse, which Devon has a vested emotional interest in. The second quest involves bringing in other NPCs for a whole big adventure investigating some weird petty crime, and Kyrie sure does hate crime.

A big thing with the second quest is that it introduces NPC helpers that has the chance to pitch in moves at the end of every turn. Plus, losing while they're in the party allows you to keep going - and in fact, boss fights will have different outcomes if you lose. The main challenge I had with this part of the game is balancing things so that NPCs have their presence felt and are helpful, but not too helpful to carry fights.

Why the NPCs? Well, a major idea I want to express in this game is that the main party isn't the heroes. They're heroic, (mostly), but they aren't the main characters of life. Other people are also on that adventuring hustle, and Ramona's ultimately just trying to establish a new normal for herself. In fact, to emphasize this, some tasks in the game are locked off at certain points, because well, some other adventurer did it already. It's not all about her.

But what if you do want her to be the main character of life? Well, that's what that alternative route is for. As opposed to the open world of trying to make money and pursue whatever JRPG tasks suits your fancy, the alternative route takes that last batch of quests and puts them on a linear route with a bunch of divergences from the normal game, railroading you toward a different kind of experience.

The last big area in the game available has also opened up! Going north from the harbor takes you to the beach, where you'll find a new assortment of things to do, including this completely normal building and the aforementioned lighthouse. While there's still a bunch of things I want to change or add, the last big maps that's going to be made for the game are the quest-only dungeons and the final floors of the Tower, where maybe Ramona can find some kinda closure for herself besides paying her rent and buying her way out of her lease.

In a major mechanics change, exhaustion is now a thing. Every battle/death makes your characters sleepy. It will eventually reach the point where they start developing Exhausted at the start of every battle. The only way to avert this is to get your ass in bed. Be responsible about sleep though! Sleeping too soon since the last time you slept in will make characters Sluggish, and while it's not as bad of a debuff as Exhausted, you probably wouldn't want that.

(I thought about doing a thing for hunger too but it's really annoying how using an item in the menu that has an event connected to it kicks you out of the menu entirely, so screw that.)

In another change, Uzbek's bar has also been updated! He'll now convert the stat raising pills you find into drinks that will remove the health draining problem downing random drugs will have. I figured that the bar is really unused, so I figured that I change it to something that will be more generally useful.

You may wonder, "when will I finish this game?" Well, I wonder that, too. Besides the game really expanding past my initial scope, I have a lot of real life things to deal with, along with my obligations to Indie Hell Zone. Sometimes, I feel like I'm destroying myself between all my wants and needs. But that's okay!! Hopefully this game will be successful enough for me to quit my shitty day job and establish a new life for myself, right!??? Developing this game totally isn't me crafting a world of wish fulfillment and developing a sense of control over my life!!!!

Anyway, I'm hoping to finish this game in 2023. Thank you

ALSO I dunno if you played it but I made a separate game for a game jam while I was fucked up with Covid, you'll like it maybe