the what?
this is a complete revisitation of the collapse. EP2, EP3 (+FRAME), and EP4.
and I do mean complete. the combat system has been totally redone. every fight, and the way combat flows with the story at all, is altered.
you’ll find it familiar, but more condensed, more cohesive, and in many ways more impactful!
the content of the story is the same, of course, but the execution of some scenes has changed!
I truly would describe it as a new game.
go ahead, give the collapse a replay! maybe give FRAME another shot, too! or just read the patch notes!
a year spent just redoing stuff?
oh yes. oh yes. oh yes. believe me I know. ohhhh I KNOW it’s been WAY too long.
I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but despite thinking I was about 70% done in February, I had a looong road to go filled with roadblocks and twists and false starts. now here we are, in september.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!
but it’s been worth it.
don’t think it’s just me poking at numbers and stuff, though! this is a very sweeping change, and while it’s familiar in most aspects, it will feel new!
also, there’s new non-combat stuff, too!! it’s about the size of a small ADD. a bunch of new mask content to be found through the collapse! you need only find one of the entrances…
why do this?
you might have felt it was fine, but the collapse has been fraught with issues building in my head for years. getting mechanical, conceptual, technical debts stacked up on it with each update, right up to and even during EP4…
when I started with corru.observer as a fast-paced passion project, one I expected only a handful of friends to really care about, I was just doing whatever seemed cool presentation-wise.
and it was cool! but the flaws only compounded on one another as it grew more complex, because while I have the story down, I was winging it with the gameplay.
so, I’d been wanting to do this since the very first ‘engoodening’ update, back in 2024. with the collapse arc concluded, I thought, what better time to go back and give it a proper director’s cut style update?
it’s such a big chunk of the game, so it damn well better be solid!!
you might have thought it was fine, and if you did, you’ll probably like it even more now. I took everything I liked about it, and focused on those parts more, tying everything together much better.
if you never cared for combat and you skipped through it, you’ll still like what’s been done. a lot of ideas are better executed, visually and narratively, even if they are the same!
if you were in the middle, and just thought it had issues - EP4’s systems, bits of EP3, the amount of fodder - you’ll find that things have been much more polished!
if you just want new stuff and don’t give a shit… you get a little bit, too!
but really, I made this update for me, to finally settle foundational issues I had with the game. things that stopped me from being confident in ever advertising it.
the costs were great, but this truly sets the stage for greater things!!
we are never doing this again.
what’s next?
I’m going to be monitoring launch, being on the defense in fixing bugs for a bit.
there’s likely going to be a few other things happening this year, especially some new merch. had to delay that to focus on this. I also really want to take a stab at a downloadable version. that might still fit in!
in terms of big new content updates and advancing the story: the next major update, E4A2, is currently planned to be an exploration update that will have nothing* to do with the embassy or any RPG systems. there will be an EP4 ‘evil mode’ equivalent eventually, but that’s not what E4A2 is!
after that, EP5 will begin the second (and final) arc of corru.observer.
there might be more between those two things, but right now, that’s the plan!
if you think I’m giving you a timeline after how wrong I was last time, you’re insane.
ok go read the ing patch notes, we’ll talk more later byee