Update 10/01/21

Well, I *meant* to post an update sooner, but... well, in the words of Michael Crichton(?) via Jeff Goldblum, "Life finds a way [to stop you from making updates]". Weirdly prescient quote for something that came out in the early 90's.

So to elaborate on my last post... The second part of the game opens up with the player being forcibly indebted to Grace, in that she gives you access to her Penthouse as your new "base," but you have to pay off a bill first. This bill scales with the number of party members, but is offset by most members will offer some sort of sidequest mechanic to earn their keep.  Now, 'losing' a party member during this time might make this more difficult, as you'd retain their share of the bill while losing out on the quest at hand, but luckily/conveniently/deliberately(?) the easiest way of party member loss--betrayal, via betrayal tokens--is only accessible in your 'base'. In other words, you can't lose a party member before you pay off the penthouse, because you need the penthouse to lose them!

On top of that, Charity, Grace's mom, guards it in the interim. You can still digest there, but maybe don't visit it too many times before you pay it off, or she'll eat you...

Once you DO pay it off, it'll function much like your earlier apartment, where you can talk to/have your party talk to one another.

Additionally, paying it off will make Charity mostly recruitable, unless you fucked up and did something to piss her off. You might still need to jump through a few hoops, although it's mostly a level gate iirc. If the player has beaten her in the *optional* fight in phase one, she'll join you if you ask; alternatively, if the player has Phoebe in their party, Charity will demand to let her join you; she'll insist on it.

In scenarios without Phoebe, turning Charity down will net you a monetary gift (she refunds part of your payment) along with an item used to recruit another character. So, there's always that.

As for the pictures today... I've been a bit busy to create too many new assets (I need to make enemies!!!) but I have made new face sizes/sets... the latter, Nanette, is essentially a complete re-do of her initial face portrait, which was so messily made that it couldn't be easily altered like later faces.

The primary image is of my eventing in rpgmaker... I've been making items with assorted functions, and variable effects given the user. Particularly, using these items with Jeff will cause a short dialogue to play out, where the player wonders why she even gave Jeff the item in the first place.

Jeff's a great punching bag, haha.

Till next time!