Draug's Resurrection 0.9.7

0.9.7 makes some pretty massive strides, although I feel some of them are things people would argue should've been there since day one.

I went all-in on making quick one-frame attack animations, broken down into physical, magical, and 'third', a bonus category I can specify to make specific moves for specific characters look more standout. All characters, enemies, and bosses have at least one, though most are limited to just one for now, excluding your own party members, who all have two. All told, well over 800 new sprites have been made to support attack frames so far. In a similar vein, damage numbers now appear directly above the target in battle, in addition to being mentioned in the toptext. Both of these things make battles feel a lot more dynamic and engaging, even if nothing mechanically has changed.

Whiterock got a fair bit of an overhaul, making it less unfair if you go there immediately. A couple bugs and design flaws were addressed (the massive Whiterock Volcano got split from 2 boards into 9, as it turns out the engine can't reload old boards, but has to lock up new memory for each new board you go to per session). The biggest change was allowing you to recruit Oliver much earlier. There's four different ways to do so, and can interact with basically every single event on the island, so many got heavily reworked.

Lastly, and far more optionally, Save Obelisks have been dotted across the world, alongside the option to restrict saving to only in towns and in front of said Obelisks. However, by default, you're still allowed to save anywhere. Either way, they can be a helpful reminder to save regularly and a warning that a boss may be ahead very shortly.

Basically, the only things holding it back from being 1.0 are the lack of a full-blown epilogue and a need for more bug testing; both of which are time-consuming and unnoticeable in most circumstances. Ultimately, if you're ever interested in getting into Draug's Resurrection, now's a fine time. Save data can be transferred between versions, so there shouldn't be fear of losing data.