Hello, everyone. Today we launch chapter 3 of the game, Godly Island! This new chapter will bring you across the sea to a bright new area full of new enemies, spells, hidden treasures and everything else you'd expect in a new chapter. There's a new trailer that you can see below which gives a bit of an overview of what you can expect as you continue your adventure, but suffice it to say that you'll need to be proficient with all aspects of the game to overcome the new challenges that await you.
[previewyoutube="AdNVEY2fXo8;full"]
This new chapter brings the overall playtime of the game up to around 12 hours for a thorough playthrough and brings you one step closer to reaching the Otherworld and finding that scoundrel, Dragore! Of course, there's a lot more that went into this update than just the new content, so we'll post the rest of the patch notes below for you guys to check out.
Additions and Improvements
Added a new enemy type to the game: Watchers. These flying eyeball creatures are agents of Dragore's who keep an eye on you as you progress through your adventure. Slaying a watcher will provide you with an "Essence of the Otherworld" which, once you have enough of them, can be used at a forge to craft "Vengeance," the strongest sword in the game.
Added the option to swap your primary grab button from the trigger to the grip, greatly improving the feel of the game on Touch/Index controllers.
Scepters no longer provide a passive 25% mana cost reduction. They now have charges which can be fired off as projectiles. These charges recharge over time, the speed of which is impacted by the enchantment cooldown perk in the melee tree.
Changed the way the spell selection menu works. You no longer need to directly touch the spell school you wish to select. You now just need to have your hand/arrow in the right direction of the spell school you want, basically allowing you to do quick swipes when opening the menu to select the desired spell school.
Reworked the way kinesis handles rotations. Not only will the object under your control attempt to match your hand's roll angle, but you can use kinesis with your second hand to directly control the object's full rotation.
You can now quickly pull objects to you with kinesis by pulling your hand quickly toward your body.
Increased the speed of heavier objects when controlled with kinesis.
Added the ability to "Shield Bash" enemies with your Illusory Shield for a small mana cost.
Improved the detection of the Sanctuary spell gesture to be more reliable.
Changed the sound effects for some of the magic in game.
Doubled the amount of damage blocked by Illusory Armor before it breaks.
Improved the responsiveness of dialogue option selection with your hand.
You can no longer accidentally purchase an item while interacting with the dialogue selection window at the shop.
Improved the visual and sound effects of lightning magic in the game.
Improved optimization throughout the game.
Made some much needed improvements to the Sanctuary spell puzzle. The projectiles now spawn faster after one is destroyed and they move a bit faster, and the receiver has been made significantly larger.
Improved the locomotion system when using sliding locomotion to better detect your surroundings and prevent you from trying to push through walls and other static geometry.
Improved the way the game detects where to reset you should you fall into a hazard or jump off a ledge into a void. It should no longer be possible for you to be reset onto a ledge.
Added an extra checkpoint in the Serafin Castle courtyard.
Increased the length of time that enemy arrows stick into you from 3 to 10 seconds.
Increased the brightness in the tutorial scene a bit.
Corrections and Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where your hand would bug out if you failed to cast a two-handed spell with something held in your hand.
The Warewood Bow has had its damage corrected to match its description.
The Serafin Bow now correctly deals melee damage.
Fixed a bug where the shop might detect the wrong object when purchasing something and cause you to buy the wrong item.
Fixed a bug where the shop would show that it had taken gold from you even when failing to purchase something.
Fixed a bug where you could potentially upgrade two perks at the same time, leaving yourself with negative perk points and forcing you to return to the main menu to exit the Isle of the Divines.
Fixed a bug that could potentially cause your vision to remain black when switching zones/respawning.
Fixed a bug that would potentially cause melee enemies to stop attacking and become passive until killed.
Fixed a bug that would leave your backpack floating in the game when you returned to the main menu, having it reappear when loading back in and resulting in a 2nd backpack and some weird duping.
Fixed a bug with one of the shaders that caused spell tooltips to have geometry showing through them, cutting off the text when viewed from certain angles.
Corrected some faulty climbing collision on the Life Fruit trees.
That's everything you can expect to find with today's patch. As always, we'd like to invite everyone to join our discord where we regularly have conversations with the community about the development of the game and the way things should progress moving forward. That's gonna do it for this announcement. Happy adventuring, everyone!
Chapter 3: Godly Island releases August 14th!
You've braved the ruins of the Serafin Castle and bested all manner of undead foe in the process, but a new threat has revealed itself!
The time has come to set out for distant shores! Godly Island lies beyond the sea, its mysteries and secrets waiting to be uncovered by an adventurer worthy of its many dangers and challenges!
You'll need to prove yourself with sword, bow and magic if you're to overcome the many trials that stand between you and the portal to the Otherworld, adventurer. This place is the last line of defense this world has to offer between you and Dragore!
But, while the enemies and obstacles you'll encounter will be far more dangerous and treacherous than any you've yet come across, so too will your power grow to match them!
Hello, everyone! We're incredibly excited today to announce the release of Chapter 3: Godly Island! A whole new type of dungeon awaits! Don't let the sunny atmosphere fool you into dropping your guard, though, the foes you'll face are more lethal than ever! This new chapter brings with it new enemies, spells, puzzles, bosses and more, bringing the current play time of the campaign up to roughly 12 hours!
We wanted to keep things fresh as the length of the adventure continues to grow, so we've set out to create a brighter area with a heavier focus on puzzles and trials that will test your mettle with each of the different combat disciplines. You'll find paths dedicated to swords, archery and magic that you'll have to best to reach the island's interior to collect the final Keystone. Have you mastered your skills enough to press onward and gain entry to the Otherworld?
We're so excited for you to get in there and continue your adventure, and the wait is nearly finished! Chapter 3 launches on August 14th!
Chapter 3 is now on the test branch!
It's taken us a bit longer than we anticipated, but we're finally able to upload the third chapter of the game! The new location has a very different atmosphere compared to the previous chapters, with a bright, sunny feel and a greater focus on the individual aspects of combat in the game. We'll be continually updating the test branch with further optimization and visual upgrades while incorporating the feedback we get from all of you as we move closer to moving the chapter onto the main branch.
Some of the things we're looking for feedback on:
How does the difficulty curve feel?
Can you find places to force yourself outside of the map?
Any bugs that bar your progress.
General feedback to make things feel better.
As always, we invite you all to join our discord if you haven't already, as it's the best place to share your feedback and get help with any issues you might encounter. We hope you all enjoy the new content! Happy adventuring!
New Devlog! Check out the reveal of the new dungeon coming with chapter 3!
Hello, everyone! Today we're posting our latest devlog which shows some of what you'll be encountering when you continue your adventure with chapter 3. There's not much more to say here that isn't covered in the devlog, so without further adieu, here it is. Enjoy!
[previewyoutube="rTJbXBIO6co;full"]
As always, if you'd like to keep up to date or help us shape the game going forward with your feedback, you can do so in our discord. Happy adventuring, everyone!
The first area of chapter 3 is now live on the test branch!
Hello, everyone! As you know, we've been hard at work on chapter 3 for some time now and while the dungeon isn't quite ready for the public yet, the first zone of the chapter is. If you've got a save file with chapter 2 completed, you can now continue your adventure in the newest area behind the Serafin Castle.
Also in the test build are some tweaks to Kinesis. We're still ironing out the feel of it, but with the new changes you can incorporate your second hand when controlling an object. One handed Kinesis still functions the same as you're used to, but locking on with your second hand will give you a much finer level of control over the object's orientation.
If you'd like to help us out by jumping into the new zone and finding bugs and other issues, please do so by going to the game's properties in your Steam library and selecting "test" in the betas tab. You can also join us in our discord to report bugs and help us shape development going forward. Enjoy the new area and happy adventuring, everyone!
Loads of Quality of Life improvements and bug fixes.
Hello, everyone. Today's patch is chock full of small improvements and bug fixes. Thanks to everyone in the community for telling us about a lot of these. If you find anything irksome or discover a bug, we appreciate you letting us know about it--the best place to do so is in our discord, where you can also keep up with development and help shape the game with the rest of the community. On to the patch notes!
Additions and Improvements
The game now has Steam Cloud support, so your save files will be automatically backed up every time you close the game. If you uninstall or delete your save files (not from within the game), they'll be automatically restored the next time you launch it.
Scepters now bestow their bonuses even while sheathed. If you have two scepters for some reason(I mean why would you do that?), the free cast chance of the better scepter will be applied.
Gave the burnable brambles a new effect when hit with fireballs to hint that fire can destroy them.
Added a sparkle effect on dropped arrows to make them more visible.
Improved the AI pathfinding a bit so they can detect if they're blocking each other and reroute.
Your magic selection wheel will now only affect the hand you opened it with.
Increased the likelihood that goblin mages will teleport at least once when you get close to them.
Reduced the thickness of the fog in the Stormy Swamp.
Enemies will no longer take reduced damage if your weapon crossed theirs on the way to hitting them.
Shortened the knockdown duration of enemies by 1 second. This may be reduced further as we continue to balance things.
Re-positioned the unstable mana crystal before the final boss of chapter 1 to better allude to its interaction with the crystal wall.
The magic selection wheel no longer turns to face you continually while out, it will maintain it's initial orientation once spawned.
Reduced the brightness of the Illusory Armor effect to be less severe.
Made life fruits immune to your Kinetic Thrust so you can't send them somewhere out of reach.
Incorporated a new shader into the game that better identifies climbable surfaces by placing a detail texture along the top of them.
Re-positioned some of the goblins in the Misty Mine to provide more opportunities to be stealthy.
Changed the textures of some of the enemies and/or their armor.
Removed the last bit of jank with the ballistae of chapter 2. They were functional but their various pivot points could sometimes become awkwardly oriented when manipulated.
Corrections and Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that would continually respawn a collectible meteor shard in chapter 2 after you had already collected it.
Fixed a bug that would allow you to brute force your way into using the archery ultimate without first unlocking it.
Fixed a couple of bugs that might prevent you from opening your magic selection wheel under various circumstances.
Goblin mage health bars will no longer remain visible when the mage has disappeared.
Fixed a bug preventing enemy arrows from being destroyed if they struck something shortly after coming under your control.
Fixed a bug that would occasionally prevent enemies from playing their death animations.
Fixed a bug where you could technically kill the final boss of chapter 1 and have him continue fighting until you reloaded the scene.
Fixed a bug that could cause your sheathed weapon to not be grabbable if you had a quickslot highlighted on your belt when you sheathed it.
Fixed some collision issues around chapter 1 that could allow you to skip over varying amounts of content.
Fixed some missing collision in the tunnels before the vampire boss in chapter 2.
Corrected some improperly configured normal maps for some of the bows/materials in the game.
That's it for today. Happy adventuring, everyone!
New Devlog -- Chapter 3 First Look!
Hello, everyone! Today is the day that we begin to show some of what we've been working on with chapter 3! New enemies, a new meteor shard and a new friend make their debut in our latest devlog. Check it out below to get some insight into what's coming your way as the adventure continues. Keep in mind, this does contain some spoilers for chapter 3, so if you'd like to go in blind, you may want to skip this one.
In other news, the game is currently on sale with a 20% discount both here and on the Oculus Store. There's never been a better time to jump in and start your adventure!
[previewyoutube="8lubzTsZmrI;full"]
We've partnered with The Morrigan to release The Master Swordsman VR Bundle!
Hello, everyone! We're extremely excited today to announce our collaboration with The Pixel Mine in bringing you the Master Swordsman VR Bundle! If you're a fan of Vengeful Rites, you'll love the Morrigan, and now you can get both in this great bundle with a 20% savings! Already own one of these great games? Complete the set and save 20% on the other! Everybody wins!
The Morrigan, like Vengeful Rites, is committed to bringing its players a great experience from a very dedicated developer. With physics based combat, beautiful visuals and a myriad of weapons to discover and collect, there's plenty to love with The Morrigan! If you haven't checked out the game yet, what are you waiting for? There's never been a better time to pick it up if you already own Vengeful Rites. If you haven't played either, yet, now's your chance to pick up both for a great price!
We couldn't be happier with this collaboration. Not only do we developers get to support each other and spread the love for VR RPGs but we can bring a great deal to our current and future players. The Pixel Mine Ltd. is a great studio and The Morrigan is a worthy addition to any VR library. Go check out the trailer below!
[previewyoutube="MZcndNtoKQk;full"]
Small quality of life patch and improved water visuals.
Hello, everyone! It's been a while since our last update, about 6 weeks, and we don't like to go that long without keeping you all updated. We're firm believers in the idea of developers staying transparent and we've seen people constantly say with other games that even something as small as a "we're still working" goes a long way, so with that in mind: We're still working. :P
Obviously our current focus is on chapter 3 and getting that out to you all and we're hard at work on that, but we're still improving the rest of the game as we go with balance and optimization tweaks and other quality of life stuff, so we figured now was as good a time as any to patch some of that stuff in. Most of today's patch is focused on bug fixes and minor cosmetic things, with the most notable being a new water shader that we've integrated into the game. We think it looks much much better than the one we were using and really helps to solidify the toony visuals we've got going. It has a real Wind Waker vibe to it and we're very happy with how it's improved the look of the game. You can check out the full patch notes below to see everything included with today's patch.
Full Patch Notes
Additions and Improvements
Changed the water shader used everywhere in the game over to a new and improved one that's more in line with the art direction of the game.
Tweaked your inventory holster to be better aligned with your equipment.
Striking enemy armor will no longer result in blood spray, but instead will send sparks flying.
Increased the visibility of the Goblin Mage's AoE attack so it's more apparent when they're casting it under you.
Improved the navigation pathfinding in the tutorial scene so that enemies could follow you into your house.
Corrections and Bug Fixes
Added a fix to the pressure plates puzzle for anyone who might have lost some of the objects in the room. If any of them are out of bounds, they'll respawn at their original locations within the room.
Fixed a bug where the pressure plates puzzle would be considered correctly solved even with multiple objects on the plates so long as the first object placed on each was the correct one for that plate. It will now only be properly solved if only the correct object is on the correct plate.
Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause your stats to persist if you returned to the main menu from a saved game and started a new save.
Corrected an issue causing the center playspace marker to go invisible when walking over certain materials.
Fixed a bug that would keep spell orbs in Seraf's hand after he completed casting the spell.
Made it so the 7th elixir would be spawned immediately upon completing the required task to make it accessible where it previously would only happen if you reloaded the scene/returned to checkpoint.
Fixed some faulty collision that could force you through some walls in the Serafin Castle area.
Fixed a minor graphical issue with the Kinetic Thrust spell altar that occurred when the scene was reloaded.
That's it for today, everyone! Our next planned announcement will be in regards to chapter 3 as we begin showing some of the stuff you can expect to encounter there. In the meantime we'd like to invite you all to join our discord to keep up to date on development and have a direct means of sharing your feedback with us. We've made a lot of improvements to the game thanks to our great community and we really appreciate everyone who takes the time to share their thoughts and help us make the game better!
Happy adventuring, everyone!
Ultimate Perks and a new difficulty setting! (Devlog inside)
Hello, adventurers! Today's patch is another sizable one. Ultimate perks can now be unlocked should you find yourself with a 7th point to spend, enemies have undergone some training and are now much harder to exploit, and a difficulty setting has been added to the game that can be changed at any time to make things more manageable or more challenging. Read on for all the details or check out the latest devlog below!
Ultimate Perks!
After maxing out both perks of a given combat discipline, you can now unlock a 7th ultimate perk for that discipline which will significantly increase your effectiveness in combat. These are:
Melee: Specialists in melee can unlock the ability to dual wield as their ultimate perk! This one is pretty straight forward. You effectively double your damage output and your ability to parry. Rock two enchanted blades for maximum killing power or maybe combine a scepter and sword for more flexibility with your spell casting. However you decide to take advantage of this skill, you'll notice a significant increase in your combat ability.
Magic: Those who choose to focus on their mastery of Serafin Magic will unlock new spells that require both hands to cast and can turn the tide in battle at a moment's notice! Casting these spells requires one free hand, but your other hand can have a different spell school selected, be holding a weapon or doing anything else at all. The 2 handed spells you'll unlock are as follows:
Flame Nova(Destruction) - An eruption of destructive power that emanates outward from you in all directions dealing huge amounts of burning damage to all nearby enemies and igniting them for additional burning damage over time if possible.
Kinetic Pulse(Kinesis) - An explosion of pure kinetic energy that emanates outward from you in all directions impacting enemies and the environment. Enemies in close proximity are put off-balance and have a high chance of being knocked down.
Lifeleach(Restoration) - Unleash a wave of life stealing energy that directly steals health from all nearby enemies!
Illusory Armor(Protection) - Conjure a bubble of protective magic around yourself that deflects incoming projectiles and absorbs incoming damage. The bubble will disappear after 30 seconds or upon absorbing 200 damage, whichever comes first.
Archery: For the archers out there, you'll unlock the ability to imbue your bow with Serafin Magic! Firing arrows from your imbued bow will impart certain properties to your arrows for no mana cost. The properties you'll be able to imbue your arrows with are as follows:
Fiery Arrows(Destruction) - Fiery arrows will ignite enemies they hit, dealing a fraction of their damage every second for 5 seconds. If the arrow strikes something other than an enemy, it will explode, dealing a small amount of damage to and possibly igniting nearby enemies.
Homing Arrows(Kinesis) - Homing arrows will seek out the heads of the nearest enemies along their paths, altering their trajectories slightly to improve accuracy.
Lifesteal Arrows(Restoration) - Lifesteal arrows return a small amount of the damage dealt to enemies back to the archer as healing energy, restoring missing health.
Anti-Defense Arrows(Protection) - Anti-Defense arrows reduce natural protections of enemies hit, increasing the damage they take from all incoming attacks for a short duration.
Difficulty Settings!
One of the other improvements introduced in this patch is a bump in the AI of the enemies you'll face. With this improved AI, the game becomes considerably more difficult by default, so to offset this increase in difficulty, we're finally introducing a difficulty setting for those who find the current level of challenge to be too much or who want to make things even less forgiving! You'll now be able to choose between three different difficulty levels from the options menu (your chosen difficulty will be saved with your progress and can be changed at any time).
The game will default to "Apprentice" difficulty which is more or less what it's been up to this point, although a bit harder as it includes the newly added AI improvements like melee enemies detecting if they're being kited and performing jumping attacks to compensate, as well as knowing if you're stepping in and out of their attacks and behaving accordingly. Archers will also no longer switch to their melee stance once an arrow is nocked to their bow. They'll now always fire an arrow before switching to a melee stance, so you can no longer step in and out and trick them into never actually attacking.
Novice difficulty is the easiest option. With the game set to novice, melee enemies will behave less ferociously. They'll never lunge or continue chasing while mid attack and parrying their attacks are more likely to result in them losing balance. Beyond that, you take 25% less and deal 25% more damage. Additionally, melee enemies will spawn wearing fewer pieces of armor.
Master difficulty is for those seeking a true challenge. All melee enemies will always continue chasing at full speed while attacking, so dodging is much more difficult and parries/blocking with a shield become much more necessary. Additionally, enemies are more likely to chain attacks following a parry, making their offense practically relentless. Even more dangerous though is that all sources of incoming damage are doubled. If you've struggled on the standard difficulty up until now, you may want to hold off on this mode until you're very comfortable with the combat of the game and the tools you have at your disposal.
Full Patch Notes
Additions and Improvements
Ultimate Perks can now be unlocked in the Isle of the Divines once you've earned your 7th perk point!
A new difficulty setting has been added to the options menu for those looking to enjoy a more casual adventure or beef up the challenges they face!
Enemy AI has been improved to make melee enemies and archers much harder to exploit, especially when playing on Apprentice and Master difficulty.
Melee enemies now make sounds when attacking, both making them more lifelike and easier to detect when they get the jump on you from behind.
Changed the look of the enemy health bar and removed the decreasing health animation as some people were mistaking it for regeneration.
Added a new type of barrier before the giant golem fight at the end of chapter one to introduce players to the mechanic required to defeat the boss before they're actually in the fight.
Added an attention grabbing particle effect to the Stealth Gem reveal after defeating the Spider Queen in chapter one to make it harder to miss.
Added a couple of additional frames to the horizontal melee attack of enemies to increase the window for a successful parry slightly.
Tweaked the priority of some of the sound effects when placing objects into holsters on your body or interacting with your inventory, making it less likely that you won't hear them in certain situations.
Walking into a portal will now fade the screen to black before loading into the next area to make the transition less harsh while loading.
Changed the skybox in the Forbidden Mine dungeon.
Changed the wording above the magic and archery ultimate perks for clarity.
Corrections and Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug where your teleport distance was being calculated from the center of your playspace and not from where you were standing (affecting whether or not you were considered to be moving stealthily).
Corrected some floating props in the Stormy Swamp and in the graveyard of the Serafin Castle.
Fixed some invisible wall issues around the water wheels in the Forbidden Mine.
Fixed a bug that would occasionally cause the screen to stay black and not reload the level on death.
Fixed a bug preventing the magic beanstalk in the Stormy Swamp from being fully grown if you loaded into the scene after having activated it.
Fixed a bug that was triggering the free cast for casting spells if you had points in the perk even if you didn't have a scepter in hand.
See a lot of this stuff in action in our latest devlog! [previewyoutube="hUYFqjsoB7M;full"]
That's it for today, everyone! As always, we invite you to join our discord to share your feedback on the game and help us shape development going forward. Let us know what you'd like to see as the game continues moving toward chapter 3 and beyond!
