Register for the playtest on Steam

(It's set to auto-accept, so just click Request Access and you should be in. Also, you can send invites to your friends!)

And here's the updates/patch notes:

• Completely revamped the hub area. A lot of it is still WIP, but about half of it should remain largely the same.
• New Spell - Claw Branding:
  • Marks a target with a debuff that records damage dealt.
  • Can be applied from the charged attack, or the follow-up attack.
  • Can be extended up to 2x using the uncharged claw attack.
  • Using the charged claw attack will detonate the recorded damage, dealing extra damage based on the number of hits and amount of damage taken during the debuff period. 
• New Technique- Petalfall Dance:
  • Charged hits deal heavy damage, but will deplete HP (recoverable).
  • Uncharged version hits multiple times, and has the added effect of restoring recoverable HP (the greyed out part of the bar).
  • This can be interleaved with the regular attack combo. e.g. N1 C2 P3 C4 (where N is normal uncharged, C is charged, P is this skill, etc.)
  • Similarly, some other skills can now chain directly into later parts of the normal attack combo. 
• Spell Changes - Throwing Knife
  • Counter Throw action that can be used after a deflection or parry. This moves backwards a moderate distance while throwing out another knife.
  • Shuriken - Charged variant. This returns to the user after a moderate distance, and can be parried to send it flying at the current target one more time. 
• Spell Changes - Mist Form
  • The animation speed has been improved.
• Technique Changes - Kick
  • The animation for the uncharged variant has been adjusted to be slightly longer. 
• Technique Changes - Iai Stance
  • Iai Slash has been changed from 1 hit to a 3 hit attack.
  • Dash and Jump variants have had their timing adjusted to better differentiate each option.
  • Blocking while in Iai Stance now does a parry with the scabbard. (This is probably the fastest attack possible, excluding the time it takes to enter the stance).
  • Backward, forward, and stationary animations have been added to the stance enter animation. 
  • Movement when entering the stance has been sped up. 
  • Dodge frames upon entering the stance have been replaced with deflect/block frames. 
• Normal Attack Changes - The 4th hit of the combo can now be charged. 
• HUD and UI have been improved. (Maybe just the Settings menu might still have some issues)
• Status Effects and their displays have been properly implemented, which means that Nia can now burn and poison you. 
• Nia Updates
  • New grab attack - it might look like she's kissing you, but she's really sucking out your vitality and poisoning you in the process.
  • Teleport dodge - This can trigger if you attack her with the same attacks too much, and she'll follow it up with a couple of possible choices.
  • Fire Attacks (Phase 2 only) - Can cause  Burn, which increases your damage taken while dealing a small DoT to you. Non-lethal.
  • Poison (Grab and thrown needles) - Fast, high damage that expires quickly. Like burn, this is also non-lethal. 
  • Parry - she can straight up just parry you now. This won't break your stance, but it will interrupt some of your attacks and deal massive stance damage to you which can end up killing you later on. Again, this mainly happens if you repeat attacks too much while she's in neutral.
  • An intro cutscene has been added. The phase transition cutscene... still needs a lot of work. Expect that to be overhauled in future. 
• Louise Updates
  • Weapon spawning animations have been changed to attacks. This should help to reduce the downtime in the fight. 
• Post-boss dialogue sequences have been added. Instead of just spawning the return door,  there's a short scene now where you can talk to the boss after you win before you head back. 

And now to hibernate through the weekend after crunching for an entire month...