CORPSE CASTLE - PARASITES OF THE GODS! UPDATE

It’s here folks, this is a massive update that brings us pretty close to many of the game’s intended base features. Including one of my FAVORITE difficulty customization mechanics.

GIFTING BOSS POWERUPS TO ENEMIES

Defeating bosses will reward players with  a "Boss Parasite" that lets you use powerful new special abilities in combat when your super meter is full. However INSTEAD of accepting the Parasite, you will also have the option to pull a "Reverse Megaman" and give the Boss Parasite away to the enemies! Doing so WILL UPGRADE EVERY SINGLE ENEMY IN THE GAME with new abilities and raise the overall difficulty!

In this way, over the course the game players will be able to fine-tune different aspects of the game's challenge level. As an example, releasing the Parasite gained from the "Daughter of the Cosmos" transforms enemies into Shield Experts who employ advanced usage of blocking techniques in combat. Even minor enemies become empowered with some form of basic block ability.

However if this turns out to be an aspect of the difficulty that players do not like however, they can absorb the "Cosmic Parasite" and instead release other Boss Parasites that activate more desirable difficulty buffs.

ENEMY BLOCKING & NEW-GAME+

As with every update I've made quite a few changes to how the overall combat plays out. I'll start first with enemy blocking!

The enemy AI now has the ability to block and uses it in a manner very similar to how players do. At first only a handful of highly skilled or special enemies will use even the most basic of blocking ability but as you progress the enemies will become increasingly adept at it. AND SHOULD PLAYERS RELEASE THE COSMIC PARASITE THEN ALL ENEMIES WILL GAIN BLOCKING!

Not only that but enemies who already possessed some degree of minor or advanced blocking ability WILL BECOME EVEN MORE ADEPT AT IT! This makes playing through the demo after unleashing the Parasite a unique and WILDLY DIFFERENT experience than the base game.

I am SUPER obsessed with customizable difficulty, replayability, and generally just being able fine tune one's own perfect level of personal challenge. I am hoping with these systems that players will be enabled to optimize the level of fun and challenge they get out of Corpse Castle.

COMBAT SYSTEM UPDATES

And lastly I will go over some of the combat updates! With every update I refine a LOT of the core combat systems but the last 2 updates have probably been the most extreme.

In this update I have removed the "Wrecking Ball" technique described in the tutorial videos. Players now instead have the ability to "SHIELD-CANCEL" out of nearly any attack by blocking. This is useful for reverting to a defensive position the moment an attack lands without having to worry about wind-down frames, and lets you use attacks in a non-committal fashion.

I'm still experimenting to see if I can implement some form of "Whiffing" (when at attack misses, or whiffs, there are typically additional/unique wind down frames). But as it stands with the current pacing and deflections in game, predictability in an attack pattern is punished more than inaccuracy and I'm ok with that.

Beyond core combat features I've spent a lot of time balancing individual characters for general usability and to place them more appropriately in their respective tier lists. Including adjusting a number of attacks:

The Blight Witch has a much more usable ranged ability which places a health leeching trap on surfaces that is capable of impaling enemies both as a projectile and a trap. I also increased the size and changed the behavior of a number of attacks including the Meat Mage's default Leech-Life Tentacle. Attacks like the tentacle or the hammer also hit groups of enemies in a more uniform fashion that just makes them generally easier to use.

Anyways that's most of the fun stuff, there's a lot more nitty gritty that I should probably drop some appendices for soon. I think I'll be making a master appendix post soon to localize the one's I've already made and update things like the Blight Witch's moveset.

Thanks everyone for sitting through all that if you've made it this far. The combat is really beginning to shape-up to something like what I've ultimately envisioned and I'm getting really excited about it' I've deeply appreciated all the user feedback we've recieved so far, it's really helped to shape this incredible unique combat system and I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of  the adjustments!

Now go FILL THE PIT! And enjoy :)