2/23/2024 - Shop Demo

Hey all, Sana/Shirley here.

This is it, the home stretch! The Shop will be the second to last demo before version 1 prepares for release.
The final demo will be the (not really) long awaited Switch Member feature! Sorry to spoil it, but it's not as interesting as it sounds.

Anyway, remember how in the tech demo I didn't demo the shop? Well, that changes today!

Sometimes when you step forward you'll encounter a Shop. If you have any Sines on you, you can enter and buy things! You know, kinda like a real shop. The odds of encountering a shop should become more slim if you're on Normal or Hard difficulty, but on Easy they should be fairly common. Keyword common, not frequent. There's a difference.

Depending on how many Sines you have, different items will display. In this screenshot, I'm within the third range (there are five ranges, if you have over 100 Sines you're in the fifth range), so the items that are available are as follows: Demotion, AUX Cord Energy Drink, 3-Shot Slingshot, and a Promotion.

Here is what each item does (even ones you can't purchase):

Ambersoda - Heals you by a quarter of your Max HP. If your Max HP is 20, 20 divided by 4 is 5, so you'll recover 5 HP. If you have other characters in your party, anyone that is unconscious will recover 10 HP.
AUX Cord Energy Drink - Maxes out your HP and recovers your Vocal Points. If you don't know what Vocal Points are, see the Battle System demo devlog.
Shepard Tone - When used, you learn a new attack of the same name. Only useful if you're fighting.
Enemy Repellant - Spare an enemy instantly without having to interact with them.
3-Shot Slingshot - Deals 10 damage to your opponent if you're in battle. If you're not in battle, congratulations, you wasted a shot. The second shot deals another 10 damage and the final deals 15. (the item name does change when you use it, but it's the same thing over and over so I didn't want to waste lines.)
Slingshot - A flimsier version of the 3-Shot Slingshot, its functionality inspired by the flimsy items in Animal Crossing. If you're in battle, there are 5 different outcomes upon use: worst case scenario, the Slingshot breaks without dealing damage. Second-to-worst case scenario, the ammo deals 1 damage (weak hit). Third-to-worst case scenario, the ammo deals 4 damage (less weak hit). Fourth-to-worst case scenario, the ammo deals 5 damage (mediocre hit). Otherwise, the ammo can deal 10 damage (good hit) or 15 damage (strong hit). The Slingshot breaks after being used once. If you're not in battle, the Slingshot will break straight up, no RNG.
Promotion - If you're not in battle, this item allows you to proceed to the next area without taking all the necessary steps. If you're in battle, the item does nothing.
Demotion - The opposite of the Promotion. If you're not in battle, this item allows you to backtrack to the previous area. This is useful whether you're doing a "kill everything" run or if you forgot a Tone.
Foreign Stimulant - Another RNG-based item. There are 8 outcomes. The first outcome is you get sick and lose 10 HP. The second outcome is you have a sugar rush, so your HP becomes 3 times the maximum. The third outcome is you fall asleep for 4 turns. If you use another Foreign Stimulant and get the same outcome, you will have to wait an extra 4 turns before waking up. (As for why you can use items while you're asleep, it would be a bit unfair if you couldn't, right?) The fourth outcome is your Max HP increases by 10. The fifth outcome is you straight up die. The sixth outcome is your attack increases by 1. The seventh outcome is the same but with your defense, and the eighth outcome is nothing.
Unused Ring - This item is exclusive to the Shadorako fight. If used outside of the first phase of her battle, it does nothing.
Ring - Nothing.

When selecting an item, you'll be asked to choose someone to hold it. This means that, if you're not alone, to use the item you'll have to view the inventory of the person you give it to and use it from there.

After confirming the holder of the item, the game will check if they have any free slots. Slots that do not have a value of "None" will not show up. Each character has 4 slots (except for one, which is only used for fighting).

After selecting the slot, the purchase will be made and you return to the menu.

Once you're done, just say you'd like to leave and you're back in the overworld.

As promised, here is what the Game Over screen looks like. Now that I think about it, it would have made much more sense to include it in the previous devlog.

Well, that's all! See you for the final demo!