This update adds a new side quest, a new character, and a major combat enhancement. There are also various bug fixes and other changes.

New Features!

Target Lock: You are now able to lock onto enemies by clicking your thumbstick or middle mouse button. A reticle will be displayed over your target and your camera will begin following them. In cases where there are multiple targets available, distance will be weighted against how close the potential target is to the center of your screen before choosing one. Flicking the thumbstick in any direction will attempt to swap the target to any enemies in that direction.

While I don't intend for combat to be so complicated that it requires a target lock mechanic, I think it's going to be a critical quality-of-life feature when it comes to ranged attacks and spell casting. It'll be easier to work on the spells with this feature already in place as well.

Enemy Knockback: A repeated point of feedback has been the way enemies slide back when attacked. It's been noted as especially noticeable due to how player momentum halts when attacking. With this in mind I've changed how knockbacks are handled and I've added a new attack: Power Strike. Previously, all enemies slid back on any melee hit. This still happens, but now the damage threshold for knocking them back is much higher. In addition to sliding back on powerful attacks, enemies can now smack into each other in a sort of pinball effect. You can whack an enemy, have it smack into another, then that one will fly back and smack into another. I had fun making that feature.

Power Strike: This is a new skill designed to take advantage of the new knockback mechanics as well as alleviate mobility issues when it comes to melee combat. It's a powerful cleaving attack that can strike multiple enemies in a single blow. You have to charge up a melee attack to unleash it, but you're able to move around while charging it. It's a great attack to queue up while repositioning.

Running Strike: This is another new skill designed to address mobility in melee combat. You perform a Running Strike by sprinting at full speed before attacking. You'll slide forward for a bit, striking anything in front of you with increased damage. It doesn't knock back like the Power Strike, but it can still land on multiple targets if they're clustered together. Just be careful not to slide off a cliff.

Backstab: While backstabs were previously in the game, they were basically just a free crit and nothing special. With this update, backstabs are now a fully-developed feature. Instead of a regular attack that's a guaranteed crit, backstabs are now an their own category of attack that does a massive amount of damage. Backstabs are also integrated with the target lock mechanic in that you will be alerted when you are within backstab distance of a target. You do now have to be locked onto an enemy to backstab it, the alert just hooks into the targeting reticle functions internally.

With these features in place I think the gameplay side of things is in a good place to start designing monsters to use the new moves against. I still need to add menus for reslotting spells and potions, but aside from that I'm happy with where the melee is at.

Other Stuff~

I've added a title screen shout-out for Champion tier patrons! It's a live list so even if you aren't at that tier now, becoming one later would automatically display your prestige to anyone playing this/future versions of the game. I'd like to eventually include way to permanently credit supporters of a certain threshold or supporters who've reached lifetime amounts, but I'll need to get more familiar with Patreon's API to automate it and make it something you'd have to opt into.

If you enjoy Isekai RPG, please consider supporting us on Patreon!

Here's the full changelog:

Features:

• Added quest: Just The Tips
• Added NPC: Rook
• Added skill: Power Strike
• Added skill: Running Strike
• Added skill: Backstab
• Added weapon: Wooden Stick
• Added TargetLock functionality.
• Added QuickSlot and TargetLock buttons to input settings menu.
• Player character will now return to player's desired crouch state upon landing from a fall.
• Added sword trail VFX for basic attacks.
• Added new section to Starter Town.
• Added debug map for development builds.
• Added highlight indicator for TargetLock and Backstab.
• Knockback overhaul.
• NPCs will now only slide back when struck by powerful attacks.
• NPCs knocked back will now knock back other NPCs, dealing damage.
• Sliding is less prone to hanging on things or ending early.
• Added soft lock failsafe for infinite falling.
• Quest screen will now auto-navigate to newly-added quests.
• Added rolling Champion supporter display to the title screen.

Changes:

• Fixed a bug where AI would perceive noise from sword swings that didn't impact anything.
• Fixed a bug where player could crouch during cutscene.
• Fixed a bug where jumping while crouched would uncrouch, but not jump.
• Adjusted Hicket's model.
• Adjusted sword impact VFX.
• Fixed a bug where swinging sword while putting it away would return player to unarmed pose while holding sword.
• Sword attacks now trigger on button release, allowing for charged strikes.
• Fixed a bug where player could soft lock when drowning in certain locations.
• Adjusted NPC name colors.
• Added TargetLock tutorial prompt to "Panty Goblins?" quest.
• Cutscenes requiring a sword will now auto-equip Wooden Stick.
• Fixed a bug where hostile NPC would not rotate to face target before melee attack.
• Fixed a bug where boss fight save disabling could get stuck in some situations.
• Fixed a bug where Quest and Equipment screen weren't remembering what submenu they were last navigated to when being opened again.
• Fixed various pause menu navigation issues.
• Fixed a bug where NPC attacks could still land even when dying mid-attack.
• Fixed a bug where player knockdown animations wouldn't always play.
• Fixed a bug where a loud footstep sound would play when loading a level.
• Fixed a bug where loot notifications could continue between level transitions.
• Fixed a bug where clicking to end some prompts would trigger a sword swing.
• Reduced size of continue cursor.
• Fixed a bug where some text was not fitting within textboxes.
• Adjusted the speed and hitbox of Panty Goblin Ambusher.
• Cursor ping effect is no longer anchored to cursor when being revealed.