Ascension (MV) Alpha 10.0 [Purgatory]

This update took a little longer. The official reason is that I had more to do - not just the final stage (Purgatory), but also the ending, and the secret level. But I could have released just Purgatory, and followed that up later with the completed ending. The truth is, Purgatory involves a lot of dialogue, so that was actually the part that took the longest to polish. And working on those other things served as a nice distraction when I got fed up with tweaking the dialogue.

So, this release almost represents the complete game. But I'm not quite ready to go beta yet - there are a few things I want to polish up, but I wanted to put out a release with everything I've worked on since finishing up Erebus before I go mucking around, in case I screw something up. The only thing missing from this release is the secret level, which is actually mostly finished - but I have it disabled. And here's why:

There's a bit of nonlinear topography involved, that gets screwed up with MV's inability to perform instantaneous map transfers (which I've worked around throughout the rest of the game). I could restructure that bit of the level, but before I go to that trouble, I want to update RPG Maker because the latest update mentions fixing "the freeze when changing screen in-game". I don't know if this means that instantaneous transfers will work or not, but it sounds promising, and it's worth a try.

I've just been delaying updating the program while I work on this game, because there's no telling what problems it might cause, by changing up the way the program does certain things (particularly with plugin functionality - although luckily this game doesn't use a lot of plugins). So I wanted to put out a nearly finished product before I took that gamble, and that's what this is. I'd also like to go through and polish up the innards of my game now that it's pretty much finished (including stripping unused files to reduce the download size), and this seems like a good time to do that.

But in the meantime, here's my latest release, with all stages playable, from beginning to end. Just don't waste time collecting the secrets on Hard Mode yet, because you can't get the reward. Other modifications I've made in this release include an even more streamlined (and, importantly, more intuitive) pause screen. I also reduced the number of picture files required to display the story completion percentage, but you won't notice any difference on your end. I hope to be back with an official beta release in the near future!

Ascension (MV) Alpha 10.0 (including all stages up to Chapter 12 - Purgatory)
Download (~230 MB): Windows | Mac [see sidebar for latest release]