As teased throughout previous updates this is a complete rework of Dawn of Djinn from the ground up to create a brand new experience.
Check out the trailer below for more details on this update. I don't say it lightly when I say this update is so huge, that I was very tempted to rebrand it as a brand new Golden Sun mod, rather than just an update to Dawn of Djinn.
I'm trying to keep expectations leveled to some degree, since it's still Golden Sun at the end of the day. Even with some new NPCs and slight alterations to dialogue, it's still the overall plot and gameplay of Golden Sun at the end of the day. But it should at least be apparent why its been so long between updates once you actually get to see it in action, between the trailer and playing it yourself.
To list the most drastic updates:
New classes for every Djinn combination, including a couple that didn't previously exist in version 1 of Dawn of Djinn. -Stats remain the same from the vanilla game, but they all now have different names and different sets of Psynergy to reflect these titles.
Party characters now have a different set of default classes and stats.
A wide assortment of new Psynergy has been added between the new classes and equipment found throughout the game.
Version 1 Djinn have either been rebalanced or replaced.
Djinni Charms have been readjusted. Both in ability and locations they appear throughout the game.
All previous enemies/bosses have been reworked, with new ones sprinkled in throughout the adventure.
Lack of dialogue issue from version 1 releases has been fixed.
In addition, dialogue both from within the story and with certain NPCs has been adjusted to better reflect Dawn of Djinn features.
A small handful of new NPCs have been inserted into Dawn of Djinn for in-universe explanations of Dawn of Djinn changes, a little extra diversity, and perhaps a new side-plot.
An optional patch in the "advance set-up" folder exists to turn dialogue back off and speed-up cutscenes if wished. Keep in mind this will also skip any Dawn of Djinn exclusive additions or modifications to the dialogue as well. -Visual bugs may occur when using the cutscene-skip patch, as it does speed through some cutscenes faster than the game can handle. Additional Bug fixes/rebalances/ mis adjustments listed on the release page.
As a reminder, the latest version of all my mods are available on my github page.
As for "what's next", the short answer is taking a break for a little bit, mixed in with additional development blogs, videos to give more detail to certain Dawn of Djinn features.
For example, I'm considering going back through the Discord and include some more of the behind the scenes I shared, so more people have access to it. I'll need some time to decide how I want to do that and prepare some posts though, for now, I think I just want to take some time to finish sharing and just chill for a bit.
As for the videos, they'll be a bit on the smaller side, just to put more focus on things I glossed over in the main trailer. No entire playthrough of the entire game again any time soon. For example, on Discord, I shared this little video going through a Djinn fight in both casual and veteran mode...
I did make a better casual/veteran comparsion video that'll probably go up in the near future. I'm just not in a rush to publish it between it featuring an early game boss and the fact I've spent so much time just prepping the release of this version that I want to take a tiny break from promotional prep.
Also, I'll squeeze this on to the end. One feature that I don't really talk about is cleaning things up on the back-end. Version 1 was very messy in terms of what items and skills replaced what, which would have made making a sequel Lost Age mod impossible, or at least very rough of a transition from GS1 to 2. There currently isn't a Dawn of Djinn equivalent for the Lost Age, but with being much more considerate to what items are shared between Golden Sun 1 and 2, it should make that process much smoother if I go through with it some day.
I want to empathize that I currently don't have plans to make a Lost Age follow-up, at least not right away. I want to keep my focus in learning the Godot engine and game creation outside of modding for now. But there is still some temptation. So, I want to keep the door open a little until have a chance to see if I'm still interested in modding after exploring more original avenues in Game Design.
I'm sure this version will at least get a couple updates down the line. There were a lot of technical issues I had to overcome to get to this point, so despite the time I've spent reviewing, playtesting, and rebalancing I'm certain at least a couple things will have slipped under the cracks. If nothing else, a bit of post-release rebalancing is in the cards since as careful as you may be, the general audience will always be a better play test audience than just yourself.
Plus I've been considering making a brutal mode proper, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to finish it before the end of the year so I settled with just rereleasing the brutal key for now. If Dawn of Djinn gets any more content updates, that's up there with things I have planned. But I already feel like I'm getting ahead of myself.
For now, I hope you enjoy playing this new version of Dawn of Djinn.
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