Hi everyone,

while I do not have a Devlog ready currently, I have recently continued working on the several sub-menus accessible from the 'Chapter Selection'. I was not sure if presenting them before they are fully implemented was what I wanted to do - but I guess this is a good opportunity to finally bring back the Concept Logs.

That being said, I hope you enjoy another more in-depth look (the last being from almost a year ago, actually). Keep in mind though, that most of this can of course still change. A lot is also not implemented yet, so the pictures you will see are only layout-constructs for now.

Note: This devlog might be (partly) outdated.

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The Portfolio Menu

This menu contains enemies, locations and characters you will encounter during each chapter. By switching the category, you can see your current progress in finding them, as well as open the corresponding gallery.

As mentioned in the last Concept Log, to make Portfolio Content available, you have to buy it first from the Points Shop. You will gain Points by doing various things during a chapter, like winning battles and finishing puzzles, among other things.

Now, as this basically combines unlocking a feature with content that you have to find first to avoid spoilers, the idea is to give you the freedom of doing both how you please.

Let us have a look at the Gallery in order to better explain this:

This interface gives you a picture of how you can see an enemy, location or character in the game.

Below that you will have two textboxes, one for the Normal Run of a chapter - and one for the New Game Plus variant.

Each will give you an explanation, flavour text or maybe even hidden information. They will be unlocked after you have completed the respective playthrough of the chapter.

However, you can also choose to reveal the information early and basically unlock the whole gallery of a chapter before even playing it, if you so desire.

Of course, you can also mix this by only revealing some of the entries you like to see, leaving the rest or Plus information hidden. You will also get notified about the potential of getting spoiled every time, as long as you have not found the whole gallery you want to look into.

While all of this may seem counter-intuitive at first, I believe that creating an open experience like this can be enjoyable if you choose how you want to approach your playthrough for yourself.

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The Arcade Menu

Minigames will also be something you can unlock by buying them from the Points Shop.

Each one will have five different modes: Level One to Three can be bought and each expands the game by a new gimmick and higher difficulty. You can play these ones to try and reach their highest score possible (300, 600 and 900) and gain the Achievement for getting a partial score (at least 1/3, 1/2 and 2/3).

The other two are Co-op and Ranked. While the former will allow you to play Level Two for two rounds in succession to compete against a friend locally, the latter will allow you to play Level Three for an even higher score. Both use a Total Score instead and collect your points from each round. Depending on how you perform, the Total Score to Played ratio will be better. You could even dare to max both of them out, simply because there has to be a limit somewhere - but it is of course not necessary.

If you get the Achievement for Level One to Three, you will unlock a reward. The Bronze Achievement will give you... something. I am not sure at this point actually, but it has something to do with what you can see below Chapter 8 on the picture. The rewards for every Bronze Achievement will collect there and give you something new at the end.

Silver Achievements will unlock the Co-op Level for the corresponding Minigame. Gold Achievements will grant you the Ranked Level respectively. There is also a Platinum Achievement for reaching a perfect score in Ranked - but it is only for display purposes.

In addition to being able to Play these games, you can also choose Reset and Share. The former will allow you to delete your Score and Play counter for the Co-op and Ranked level of each minigame. This will be handy to start your local play anew or to try and get a better ratio in Ranked.

Share will display the selected minigame's stats of either Co-op or Ranked next to your Profile (the one you could create during Startup). With that you can make a screenshot for yourself more easily (You still have to paste it into a picture program yourself, though).

Again, most of this is trying to give you many options to do what you want. Some of it may seem unnecessary or overdoing it, but maybe you will enjoy the possibilities.

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End of Concept Log

There was actually more I wanted to say about these menus and pictures, but while writing it did not really fit in. I suppose some things are more interesting when you make them compared to when you have to tell someone about it. That being said, it also leaves some exploring of it for yourself if you are eager to.

Now, as some might remember these and the Points Shop are only half of the sub-menus. There are still three more left: The Code Input, Side Stories and Abyss Menu. So these I will probably tackle next and present to you in another Concept Log in the future.

But for now, I will go back and finish those layouts and begin implementing them.

Like always, thank you for reading and have a nice week, everyone.

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