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Vacant Sky: Contention

Vacant Sky Complete Edition: Act I+ Released!

regi

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Hold up. Complete edition? As in the entire game, or all of Act I? Either way, kudos for finishing (at least one part of) such an ambitious project. I remember starting one of the earlier demos, but everything looks so much more polished now. I'd give you more in-depth feedback if I had the time to play it, but I promise I'll get around to it eventually (once my college life settles down). Good luck, and congrats!
 
I played through ActI+ twice. First time on easy, I ran past everything. Avoided talking to npcs that didn't look important avoided encounters when I could ect... Second time on legendary, I got up to level 5 but the only difference I noticed was the battle with the masked guy, he kept cutting turns and healing himself twice in a row. I pumped all my stat points into speed, plus speed charm, and chose the daggers from the pools. I was hoping it would make me untouchable with the dodge reaction or at least attack more often but it didn't.

The story was a little hard to follow with all the jumping around in time. I haven't played the other acts yet but I feel like the opening monologue had nothing to do with act I and bound to be forgotten before it becomes relevant. Something about going down, coming back as a different person and then killing him?
Also very confused how Blaise follows along to her father's house at the end. Does Auria not remember that he killed her? I'm sure it'll be explained later, the whole black feather and shooting business. But it's weird that she doesn't seemed phased that her killer is around.
Just to poke holes, She fixed her cell phone in the beginning. Even assuming it got lost, broken, no signal later on, did none of the towns they visited have phones? There's evidence of advanced technology but people fight with swords and daggers. Do they only have trains for transportation? One town, everyone was slaughtered and they act like it was normal and don't even bring it up at the next town. What kind of a world is this? The journals arn't very informative and the npc's I talked to had nothing useful to say. Are the sprites in the journal suppose to be discolored?
 
I was hoping it would make me untouchable with the dodge reaction or at least attack more often but it didn't.
The maximum dodge chance levels off at around 50%, otherwise Accuracy would be too much of a must-have stat for everyone. At low levels like in Act I, the difference between stat builds isn't as pronounced as it will be as you progress further.

The story was a little hard to follow with all the jumping around in time. I haven't played the other acts yet but I feel like the opening monologue had nothing to do with act I and bound to be forgotten before it becomes relevant. Something about going down, coming back as a different person and then killing him?
The opening sequence is from Act III. It's mostly to set the tone of the story since, as you noticed, it isn't relevant to Act I's story.

Also very confused how Blaise follows along to her father's house at the end. Does Auria not remember that he killed her? I'm sure it'll be explained later, the whole black feather and shooting business. But it's weird that she doesn't seemed phased that her killer is around.
Haha, that's actually one of the very first exchanges in Act II (which picks up just after Act I ends). She remembers who is he and recognizes him, but in the situation she finds herself in at the end of Act I, she isn't in a position to question someone who's helping her. Once events start to calm down, however...

Just to poke holes, She fixed her cell phone in the beginning. Even assuming it got lost, broken, no signal later on, did none of the towns they visited have phones?
Most of Act I takes place in Banivia, which is a third world country that lags behind the rest of the world socially and technologically (in the beginning, Auria makes several remarks about missing luxuries such as running water). Auria's country of origin, the UP, has technology at or slightly above ours.

The journals arn't very informative and the npc's I talked to had nothing useful to say.
It's tough to strike a balance between too much setting exposition and too little. The original Act I had substantially more, but many people complained that they weren't interested and just wanted to get on with the story. Maybe I went a little too far in trimming it out.
 
I just finished Act 1+, I really liked it, but I finished it in under 2 hours! It was such a great game. I loved the characters, the music was great, I had no problem with the battle system and the world/lore is interesting. How long is Act 2 and 3? I hope they are longer.
 
I'm glad you enjoyed! Act II+ is significantly longer than Act I+ and, on top of that, there are multiple endings and massive branches in the story. Act III is longer still, with a total of five endings.
 
Awesome, I'm already 3 hours into Act 2+. Can the save file of Act 2+ be imported into Act 3? I know your working on Awakening, so you didn't finish 3+. How is that game coming along anyway?
 
The situation with Act III is a little complicated. The version that's out is the old Act III so save files from the Complete Edition won't be compatible with it (though you'll be able to start a new game in it using default choices). There will eventually be a CE version of Act III, but it won't be out until after Awakening Act I is out. If you really want to find out what happens, then go ahead and finish on the original Act III.

Awakening is coming along well! We took a brief recess from it to work on Ars Harmonia and are just getting back to work on it again. There'll be some exciting stuff to show soon now that we're finalizing the assets.
 
I beat Act 2+, it was great. I entered the point of no return by accident though when I wanted to finish some sidequests, so I need to reload a previous save file and finish those up. I'm wondering what the default decisions in Act 3 are, in my game, I did:

I let Kasch go and at the end of the act, Ray killed Mia. I'm not sure what else can be changed, but the party is together(besides Zaqris and Seri). Ray suppresed Auria at the end when she was about to destroy her home town. I don't know what things can be different, so I'm not sure if any scenes can be altered.
 
Sounds like you actually managed to make almost all of the canon choices. Believe it or not, you can completely change the outcome.

What about Vanquish?
 
Hes alive. Though, I think I know what occasion where he can die. Is it going to the demon dungeon before recruiting Vel?
 
Okay, in that case, you managed to get exactly the canon ending of Act II+ so you shouldn't notice anything out of place if you start anew in the old Act III.

Yes. In Kasch's dungeon, you can radically change the outcome of the rest of the game if you don't have Vel yet.
 

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