The migration of Shattered Realms: Mortal Tale to MZ is official! I know that I spoke of doing so last time as something to come after the demo is finished, but circumstances forced my hand.

With 1.6 having broken Class Change plugin and no guarantees that the glitch that has plagued us for so long had actually gone, I was pushed into a situation where I was no closer to a solution to the very real problems than when I had started. Having been told and having read that the migration effort itself isn't that hard, I made the decision to migrate rather than suffer through problems again.

What does that mean for you the players?

Mv Save Files are likely obsolete. 

You will need to start a new game more than likely, and especially with the fact that this is not going to be a similar version to the previous, any attempts to port saves will only result in unexpected and likely unwelcome errors.

Superior Performance

MZ runs miles beyond what MV could, and best of all, the glitch that froze screens (with playability continuing) is no more. 

Improved Graphics

With the port comes the inclusion of Fog Effects, new lighting tools, and more robust mapping. New customization options have opened, making the game more visually distinct than before. On that note, it's time for screenshots!

Here is the new battle screen, with the ability to use portraits instead of faces, new lighting, and a custom UI picture for the Death Curse, the game now stands out well. With that, more visuals will be added as time continues, so look forward to it!

God Rays and Bloom improve the visual quality of the game immensely, making certain scenes look far better than they ever did before!

Some of these changes are very much cosmetic and fluff, such as the introduction of Class Icons, which will help give personality and character to the classes in a simplistic way. I have designed two already, the Ritualist and Warlock (not confirmed class).

I've actually made pretty significant headway on Interactions and how they function. They are effectively extra skits or side conversations that unlock as a consequence of the Player's actions or what you experience in the story. There are two, and probably more will be made as I progress through polishing and testing. This is strictly content you have to engage with yourself, the game will not force interactions upon you, but they will impact your story experience. 

There is one change I'm not pleased with in this update, that being the change to how the skill learning system works. It has made things far more narrow than it used to be, and currently operates through purely menu based systems, where the MV version allowed me to set up trainer NPCs. It is annoying but I have another method to utilize said NPCs.

With the corescript of the MZ engine updated as well, I'll be able to (in the future) begin designing my own animations, which  I hope to delve into later in the game development cycle. For now, default animations will suffice.

I intend to continue tweaking the combat side of things, and when I'm ready, I'll be recording brand new combat gameplay showing off the new look and flow of combat. I've made skills far more varied in their skill speed, making Agility more useful. Spells are universally faster than physicals, but gradually slow down to more normal skill speeds as their power increases. Physicals start at normal speeds but quickly slow down once you get into the stronger abilities.

Anyway, that's all I have for you, I have heard from the composer recently and Xavier has said some promising things lately. I'm hoping to have updates on the OST in future devlogs but it's anyone's guess when we'll know more. You all take care, I've been hard at work and don't intend to stop now.