It took a little bit of extra work, but the public demo for GENBA no Kizuna has finally beend updated!
You can download it either over on itch.io or through MediaFire. The game’s page here on our website has been updated as well.
With this, the demo is now much closer to what the finished product will be like.
From here on out, nothing else will change outside of the occasional dialogue line, if the later chapters require it, or if we should stumble across any further typos or inconsistencies that have managed to elude us. No further adjustments to the gameplay, assets, story and overall presentation will be undertaken, however. We want to release this game next year, after all!
So, what exactly’s different compared to the previous demo release? To be honest, it’s mostly a whole bunch of minor things, so if you’ve already played the demo, especially rather recently, I don’t think there is enough new stuff here to warrant another playthrough. I’ve already talked in detail about all the changes in two previous blog posts (Prologue Changes, Chapter I Changes), so I’m just gonna leave a quick change log here:
The most notable changes here are the addition of past tense narrative segments (which better help separate Keiichi‘s thoughts from his narration and which make a few scenes less awkward, now that we don’t solely rely on dialogues to convey what’s going on anymore), along with the fact that assets that were previously still a work-in-progress (such as the main hall background) are now finished and depict a lot more detail.
We have also decided to add some little indicators to help players differentiate between mandatory and optional conversation options, just in case you’re the type who doesn’t want to guess and move right ahead with the story!
I should probably also mention that the “special demo ending” has not been touched. So, when Himatsu states that “the rest of the game has not been programmed yet” and that finishing it could take “months” or even “years”, that’s not quite accurate anymore!
A lot more of the game has been completed by now. Still, I really liked the demo ending and simply decided to keep it as is.
Anyway, that about sums it up. If you’re curious as to what’s happening beyond the content of our public demo, don’t forget that we have published the entire first chapter over on Patreon, available to all tiers! We’ve already received some very helpful feedback that sure has me relieved and gave me quite a bit more confidence!
Our next goal will be to finish Keiichi‘s route in chapter 2 and publish it on Patreon as well. And, of course, there’s also the release of SHINRAI‘s console port drawing closer, but I will talk more about those things in the coming weeks!
For now, it’s time to get back to work, so please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3
