I am thrilled to announce that 8-Bit Adventures 2 launches October 16th on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One! 🥳
I know it's been a long wait since the console versions were first announced in 2021, so I apologise for the delay. I had always hoped for a simultaneous release on PC and console, but it didn't end up being possible.
On the flipside, though, I've been able to spend a lot of time improving and optimising the game, based on feedback from players on Steam and GOG. So thank you all very much for your support! And now with our latest update (patch notes below), we're able to share the improvements we've made through console development with PC players too.
A HUGE thanks to Ratalaika Games for their work porting the game to consoles, as well as xor_mgambrell_0, ZServ & chaucer for helping me to optimise the game! 🙏
If you love story-driven games, turn-based combat, and the Golden Age of JRPGs, please check out 8-Bit Adventures 2 on your platform of choice and consider supporting our work 😊
~Josh
For more information and updates, please:
- Visit our Official Website
- Follow us on Twitter
- Subscribe to our Official Youtube Channel
- Listen to Music Samples on our SoundCloud
- Join us on Discord
Full Patch Notes
Please note, this is just a summary of changes. My personal notes are 23 pages, so listing out everything in explicit detail would be going overboard haha. There were also updates in February, March, and June of 2024, so please check Steam & GOG for a full rundown of the year's changes and features.
- Improved the speed and flow of text timings in the Prologue, Pheopolis Castle, Driftwood, Charlie Flashback, Raft Sequence, Bruneus, Forest Mimic sequence, and several one off lines throughout the game. This also means that players with the Fast text speed on will run into less interruptions. The first hour of the game in particular saw the most adjustments, as well as some dialogue alterations, as I wanted to create a smoother experience in the opening.
- Optimised numerous environments, improving performance on lower end PCs. This was a massive effort across the whole game, particularly on the World Map.
- Optimised the performance of movement in Airship battles, making them run significantly smoother on lower end PCs.
- Optimised the enemy chase behaviour to perform significantly better on lower end PCs.
- Made the scene in Driftwood where Charlie comments to Thief about the Weapon Saleswoman winking at him unable to be missed. Just because I think it's a charming little moment that people playing with Fast text wouldn't previously have seen.
- Enlarged the cinematic scene where the Airship reaches the Floating Continent. I don't know why I letterboxed it so heavily before, but I think this looks nicer.
- Rebalanced the Gold Toss ability from last update, as it was extremely powerful. I initially thought about it as a bit of a joke, but with console players experiencing the game for the first time and Free DLC coming up, I wanted to make some adjustments so that it fit better into the game. Bosses now take 50% damage from it, it has an MP cost of 30, and it uses an eighth of your gold instead of a quarter. It's still incredibly powerful by the end of the game when you're overflowing with Gold, though - I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't too powerful earlier in the game.
- Fixed a bug where Thief would get stuck with her eyes shut (and unable to animate) in the scene where you meet the Computer.
- Lowered the volume on the water background sound effect when the water begins running in the Sewers.
- Fixed a bug where the "What a Croc!" enemy used an incorrect behaviour in the battle where it's paired up with two Antlions. I also made "What a Croc!" immune to counterattacks, as that could break its behaviour.
- I realised that before his name's introduced, the Bandit Bro named Zeke was called "Pink-haired Bandit"...even though he's clearly got purple hair 😅 So he's now called "Purple-haired Bandit" for clarity.
- Fixed an issue in the Ship Graveyard and Frozen Wood where some snow is a different shade of white than the snow around it. It was only visible on certain displays, but looked very rough.
- Fixed a visual bug where some of the fog on the 4th Burial Grounds map was rendering under the player (it should've been appearing over the player).
- Fixed a visual bug in combat to do with the way that windows are loaded - particularly on lower end PCs.
- Fixed a bug where, when the menu appears just after leaving the Nexus, I failed to remove the Escape Amulet and World Map items from the player's inventory. If the player used these items while in the menu during a cutscene, the game would break.
- The boss of the Ice Cavern is meant to have the special Boss-specific death animation, but only had a normal death animation instead, which felt underwhelming. So this has been fixed.
- Fixed a bug in the Estriatus Ruins, where if you do the whole dungeon in one run, the Escape Amulet never activates (it's meant to activate after you clear out the vines).
- Fixed a bug on the Foundry's infinite staircase, where you could trick the camera into following the player if you simply doubled back to the entrance after walking up the first set of stairs.
- Adjusted the sound effects when you attempt to fly to the Floating Continent, to make them more comfortable on the ears.
- Fixed a bug where you could open Treasure Chests and plant Golden Saplings while in the Airship - the latter of which would actually crash the game.
- Fixed a bug on the Floating Continent where you could walk up waterfalls which passed under bridges.
- Improved the performance of the battle which takes place towards the end of the game in the Nexus, by handling the spawning of monsters more efficiently.
- Had to redo the cutscenes in the large cavern near the start of the Final Dungeon, in order to better optimise the game for lower end PCs. Also fixed a bug here where the wrong character was briefly visible during the party switch over.
- Fixed a late game scene in Thief's bedroom where the mirror didn't accurately reflect her position.
- Fixed a bug where, if you mash through the text in the opening scene of the City of Sounds, Charlie will move incredibly slowly.
- Fixed a bug where, after seeing him leave with his army in a cutscene, the Samurai character would retain his collision after disappearing. This would block the most obvious path to the exit in the Burial Grounds.
