I've been absolutely thrilled with the immensely positive response the game has received - from an 86 on Metacritic, to a 90 on OpenCritic, to our Very Positive rating on Steam.

If you love the kind of games that Square and Enix were producing on the NES, SNES, and PS1, then you’re the type of player that 8-Bit Adventures 2 was made for!



From now until March 23rd at 10am PDT, you can get 8-Bit Adventures 2 for 20% Off ($15.99 USD)!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/733110/8Bit_Adventures_2/

You can also get the incredible Soundtrack for 20% Off ($7.99 USD), or the Game + Soundtrack Bundle for just $23.99 USD!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2281060/8Bit_Adventures_2_Soundtrack/

And while anyone can jump into the sequel without any prior experience, I've learnt over the last month that a lot of players really want to get the full story.

So for the next week, you can also get 8-Bit Adventures 1 for 60% Off ($3.99 USD)!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/370300/8Bit_Adventures_1_The_Forgotten_Journey_Remastered_Edition/

The first game's wonderful Soundtrack is also 30% Off ($3.49 USD), or you can get the 8-Bit Adventures 1 Game + Soundtrack Bundle for only $6.59 USD!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/387170/8Bit_Adventures__Soundtrack__Composers_Selection/

Finally, you can also get our experimental, short-story format RPG Tales Across Time for just $2.39 USD!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/461710/Tales_Across_Time/

---

If you love classic Japanese-style RPGs, then I sincerely hope you'll take a look at 8-Bit Adventures 2 and our other games!

For existing players, I'll be releasing a minor bug fix and balance adjustment update very soon. And on the horizon, we also have the Free DLC that I'm working on - as well as the console versions! But more on all that in the coming months ;)
~Josh

For more information and updates, please:

• Visit our Official Website
  
• Follow us on Twitter
  
• Subscribe to our Official Youtube Channel
  
• Listen to Music Samples on our SoundCloud
  
• Join us on Discord
  
• Buy 8-Bit Adventures 2 on Steam

Honestly, writing that feels a little surreal! Thank you so, so much to everyone who has supported the game in that time 🥰

While we're still working towards financial sustainability, the response from players and reviewers has been incredible. We've had 77 reviews from players on Steam so far, and achieved a Very Positive rating! This has really helped us a lot; I noticed that Steam started sharing the game a lot more when we initially hit Positive, and then again at Very Positive. So a massive thanks to everyone who's taken the time to share their thoughts! They've been a genuine joy to read 😊

And now, thanks to a new review from RPGFan (check it out by clicking on the link), we've also achieved an OpenCritic Rating of Mighty (the highest a game can receive), placing us near the top of their Best Video Games of 2023 list.



And that's not all! We've also received a Metacritic Score of 87, which should appear on the Steam page soon too 🥳



But most of all, I've been especially grateful for the people who have reached out and told me how much they've enjoyed the game - whether for its story, its characters, its music, its visuals, its combat, its sense of exploration, etc. It's been incredibly humbling and gratifying, and so I just wanted to express my gratitude. The community around 8-Bit Adventures 2 has been absolutely wonderful to interact with, and that's thanks to all of you 😊

https://store.steampowered.com/app/733110/8Bit_Adventures_2/

I'm thrilled to say that, as of February 9th, 8-Bit Adventures 2 has been classified as Steam Deck Verified by Valve! It was totally out-of-the-blue, but since so many players were asking about Deck compatibility, I'm really glad that it happened so soon after launch.



I've also now had many reports from players that the game is working really well on the Steam Deck! So if that's your preferred platform, 8-Bit Adventures 2 is ready and waiting for you 🥳


One of the most requested additions to 8-Bit Adventures 2 since its release was more text speed options. And I'm happy to say that these were included in the February 16th Update!

While the way the game is set-up made large changes difficult, we were able to take feedback on-board and incorporate some new features.

First off, you no longer need to hold the Confirm button to speed up the text; one simple press will speed it up now. Additionally, the speed up function will now cut off at the end of the current text box, preventing you from accidentally skipping through multiple boxes.



Finally, a new Option has been added, allowing the player to choose between Normal text speed and Fast text speed. Essentially, the Fast text speed makes our current optional speed-up function automatic and always on. I still recommend Normal text speed, as this is timed with the choreography of cutscenes, and provides a stronger narrative experience in my view. But for anyone who wanted faster text, I hope these options address your concerns!

Please note that, while the speed-up function has been thoroughly tested, the Fast text speed system may have some unforeseen issues in certain cutscenes. They should only be minor issues at most, but if you run into any, please do let me know!


I wanted to take a moment to shout-out two members of the community who created some excellent guides for players. Note that both guides contain spoilers!

The first is the Court Room Guide by the awesome dragon_blade. This guide will help you to achieve a "Not Guilty!" verdict, and gain the best possible rewards.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2928255212
And the second is "Augments and You, a Party Build guide" by the wonderful SupahVi! She'll teach you one way to build a super-powered RPG party in 8-Bit Adventures 2, including Augments to Equip and character combinations to use.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2929560492
Thanks to dragon_blade and SupahVi for creating these for the community! 😊


Over the past month, Sufyan (our programmer) and I have fixed dozens of bugs reported to us by the community. Thank you very much for all of your feedback; it's been a big help. In fact, as of this past weekend, we've finally exhausted the list of reported bugs! So the game should be incredibly solid at this point (famous last words 😋).



This included everything from the addition of an ultimate Axe weapon that had been accidentally left out of the game, to balance changes and bug fixes (including one fight that became unwinnable if you followed a particular order of actions), to an additional shop added before a boss fight, to an overhaul of the turn-speed calculations to make sure that every build was viable and enemies weren't getting an unfair number of turns.

If you want to see what's changed, please check out the patch notes on the 8-Bit Adventures 2 Steam Community!


Finally, I wanted to share a couple of new interviews with everyone!

First off, we have an interview that our composer Sebastian Cruz did with the DeltronZ Youtube Channel, all about composing for 8-Bit Adventures 2:


Del has been a massive supporter of the game. He interviewed me in late January, and has actually been doing a full playthrough of 8-Bit Adventures 2, which is really enjoyable! But the interview with Sebastian is really good, and I highly recommend it - even I learnt some new things! 🥰

And then we also have another new interview that I recorded LIVE with NinjaGuyX and Gladiator50n on Youtube:


It was a ton of fun, and I think we talked about some interesting topics (including the future), so I hope that anyone interested might enjoy checking it out.

Finally, there's a written interview I did with Kosuke Seki from a media outlet in Japan called Game*Spark! It's entirely in Japanese, but for any fluent speakers, I thought you might find it interesting: https://www.gamespark.jp/article/2023/02/28/127507.html

A big thanks to Del, NinjaGuyX, Gladiator50n, and Kosuke for getting in touch and making these happen. I really appreciate the support 😊

---

Thanks so much for reading this update everyone! As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share them on the Steam forum, on Twitter, via my email (josh@criticalgames.com.au), or by joining up to our Discord linked below (which has a great RPG-loving community)!

Finally, I mentioned last time that there's a hint towards the Free DLC in the game already, but I've only seen a couple of people mention it so far 😉
~Josh

For more information and updates, please:

• Visit our Official Website
  
• Follow us on Twitter
  
• Subscribe to our Official Youtube Channel
  
• Listen to Music Samples on our SoundCloud
  
• Join us on Discord
  
• Buy 8-Bit Adventures 2 on Steam

- Fixed a bug in which equipping the Counter Augment to Warrior would give him a 100% chance of counter-attacking (rather than the intended 50%).

- Added a function which allows the game to export error reports to a log folder if the game crashes.

- Finished implementing improvements to the turn-order calculations, accounting for all possible builds without creating issues or an unfair amount of enemy turns. This took a while to implement, as every battle in the game had to be tested and tweaked, so thanks for your patience everyone!

- Fixed some minor collision issues in the Final Dungeon.

- PROPERLY fixed an issue when combining the Cover Ally Augment and Emma's 3-Hit Combo attack (promise!).

- Fixed a bug where the Robot could bizarrely appear twice in a cutscene in the Factory.

- Fixed a bug where the battle with the Bandit Bros. could be made unwinnable.

- Fixed an incorrect description presented when you first receive the Demonic Microphone accessory.

- Fixed a collision issue in the Green Mage Tower, and another in Bruneus.

- Fixed a bug where the player could accidentally create a softlock by moving during a cutscene in the Final Dungeon.

- Added the (accidentally left-out!) Energy Axe weapon to an early room in the Final Dungeon.

This update fixes a bug wherein some battles would become soft-locked and unable to progress due to a bug introduced in the February 16th text speed Update. Sorry for the trouble to anyone who encountered it!

*Please note that there's currently an issue from February 16th's patch which results in the game softlocking during certain battles. Our programmer Sufyan has identified the issue and we're working on a fix to release as soon as possible. I sincerely apologise for the issue, and thank everyone for your patience!

- Adjusted one of the Memory Wraith's attacks to target a single ally, rather than the entire party.

- Fixed bugs on some bosses which would result in them gaining an unfair number of turns if the battle went on for too long.

- Added new text options and improvements! First off, you no longer need to hold the Confirm button to speed up the text; one simple press will speed it up now. Additionally, the speed up function will now cut off at the end of the current text box, preventing you from accidentally skipping through multiple boxes.

Finally, a new Option has been added, allowing the player to choose between Normal text speed and Fast text speed. Essentially, the Fast text speed makes our current optional speed-up function automatic and always on. I still recommend Normal text speed, as this is timed with the choreography of cutscenes, and provides a stronger narrative experience in my view. But for anyone who wanted faster text, I hope these options address your concerns!

Please note that, while the speed-up function has been thoroughly tested, the Fast text speed system may have some unforeseen issues in certain cutscenes. They should only be minor issues at most, but if you run into any, please let me know!

- Another memory leak has been fixed, significantly reducing the chance of any crashes.

- Updated the early tutorial message to reflect changes to speeding up text.

- Fixed a collision bug in a cave in the Ship Graveyard.

- Fixed an issue in two cutscenes in the Glade where an incorrect character sprite could show up depending on your party composition.

- Fixed a bug wherein the game could reduce the levels of three of your characters if you'd grinded to a higher level previously.

- Added an Item Shop to the lift before fighting the Eraser boss.

- Fixed a bug which could result in a bizarre Game Over screen appearing when characters switch positions in the story in the Desert Ruins and Ice Cavern.

- Fixed a bug where you can move the camera around in a cutscene in the Maze of Memory.

- Fixed a bug where returning to the Foundry later in the game could result in the Battle Music being replaced with a loop of the Victory Theme.

- Added more opportunities to remove Augments and Equipment from allies when they leave the party during a certain segment of the game.

- Fixed a collision bug on the World Map, in a house in Niveus, and in a room in the Glade.

- Fixed a bug where the Cover Ally Augment would bizarrely trigger during Emma's 3-Hit Combo attack.

- Fixed a bug which prevented Counter from working with the Cover Ally Augment.

- Fixed a bug whereby the Anti-Stun Augment wouldn't prevent Robot from being stunned when using the Siphon Charge ability.

- Continued in-progress improvements for the turn-order calculations to account for all possible builds without creating issues or an unfair amount of enemy turns. This is taking a long time to implement, as every battle in the game has to be tested and tweaked, so this update only goes up to the boss fights in the Ruined Factory.

(For anyone wondering, some additional text options are being worked on, but aren't quite ready yet. Please stay tuned!)

- Altered a line on the Torch Puzzle in the Desert Ruins to make the solution a little more obvious.

- Made finding the solution in the Red Tower Puzzle in the City of Sounds a bit easier and more obvious.

- Created a brief grace period in the Sheet Ice sequence with Emma to prevent the player from accidentally stepping on a crack due to accidental button presses.

- Fixed a collision issue in Chryseus at night.

- Fixed a major issue which could be triggered by particular builds, resulting in an unfair number of extra turns for the enemies in battle.

- Fixed a bug where the Auto-Haste Augment could incorrectly influence the turn order.

- Fixed a cutscene bug where a character could end up in a wall.

- Fixed a bug where you could flee from story-driven battles in the Ice Cavern

- Fixed a minor graphical issue on the World Map.

- Fixed a couple of typos.

- Adjusted the Icy Touch ability on Wilie the Wisp

- Fixed a bug where the Escape Amulet could teleport you back to a position you couldn't escape from (the Cliffside Ruins).

- Made an adjustment to the entrance of the Pyramid to make it more obvious.

- Fixed a bug which could stall the player's walking animation in a cutscene in the Catacombs.

- Fixed a bug which would replace Thief's sprite with Warrior by accident during a cutscene in the Deep Forest.

- Made small adjustments to the Quake Crawler enemies in the Estriatus Ruins and their Tremor ability.

- Fixed a bug related to the Cover Ally Augment, which would result in a 'makeTargets' error message.

- Fixed a memory leak related to the pre-load of assets when you'd transition between scenes.

- In-progress improvements for the turn-order calculations to account for all possible builds without creating issues or an unfair amount of enemy turns. This is taking a long time to implement, as every battle in the game has to be tested and tweaked, so I'm releasing it in a partial state (from Old Castle Ruins to the Floating Continent) so as not to delay the other fixes any longer.

• Adjusted the stats of two bosses (The Eraser and the Memory Wraith.
  
  
• Fixed a bug with the Neon Plating armour and Motion Gel item.

8-Bit Adventures 2 is finally out on Steam & GOG, and we've had an incredible outpouring of support from so many. I've been genuinely touched by the number of kind, considerate, and uplifting messages folks have sent me, and reading them has absolutely made the last 7 years of work feel worthwhile.

Especially since my dear grandmother has had to go into a nursing home this past week, due to Alzheimer's, and that's taken a big emotional toll on my family and I (along with all the work involved). She was always one of my biggest supporters, and it's been a little sad to have finally reached the release of 8-Bit Adventures 2, but with her now unable to understand what I've done.

So with that going on in the background, receiving your messages has been especially meaningful for me, and it's made me feel very appreciative of our community. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all of your kindness and support - it genuinely means the world to me.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/733110/8Bit_Adventures_2/

I'm also thrilled to say that we've had over 1000 sales, and have nearly recouped the cost of the game's development! We've even made it onto the top of the JRPG New and Trending list this week 😊 That's a wonderful start and I'm immensely grateful to everyone who's bought a copy of 8-Bit Adventures 2.



We've still got a long way to go to make the game a success and earn enough money to fund future projects, but I'm confident that we'll get there in the long-run. I've already seen lots of people sharing the word with friends and followers, and that sincerely means a lot! Word of mouth is an indie developer's biggest support 😁

The only other thing I'd ask is that if you're enjoying the game, then please consider leaving us a review. If we can get to 50 positive reviews, we'll earn the Very Positive status - and that's a big help on Steam!

Anyway, with all that out of the way, I wanted to talk about what's going on at the moment, and tease the future of 8-Bit Adventures 2! (The Free DLC Tease is further below)

---

Unfortunately like any game launch, there have been some bugs which snuck through our rigorous testing. I'm sincerely sorry for these issues, and for any impact they may have on your experience with 8-Bit Adventures 2.

I've updated the game every day since launch, and am trying to respond to issues as quickly as possible. The same goes for our fantastic programmer Sufyan, who's worked to fix some of the particularly nasty issues! Please check the Patch Notes for a rundown of what's been fixed so far.


Pictured above is the good ol' humping glitch. This was fixed years ago, but is still one of the funniest bugs we encountered!

If a problem arises, we'll do whatever we can to fix it. So please let us know if you run into any issues via the Steam forums, Twitter, or our Discord (linked at the bottom of this post).

---

While I'm sure everyone knows that you can purchase the 8-Bit Adventures 2 Soundtrack on Steam, you may not have realised that you can also listen to the Soundtrack on Spotify, Youtube Music, iTunes, Deezer, Pandora, Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, iHeartRadio, and more!



The Soundtrack includes 78 songs pulled from the game, plus 7 dramatic orchestral arrangements - all composed by the wonderful Sebastian "Carfonu" Cruz!

So wherever you listen to music, please check it out and show him some love 😊

---

Since my last post, there have been even more reviews for 8-Bit Adventures 2. If anyone's still on the fence, please check them out, as I think they're all very well-written & interesting looks at the game.

• RPGLMNTZ Review - https://rpglmntz.com/2023/01/31/8-bit-adventures-2-rpg-review/
  
  
• Turn-Based Lovers Review - https://turnbasedlovers.com/review/8-bit-adventures-2-brings-back-the-classics-impressions/?amp=1
  
  
• Chalgyr's Game Room Review - https://www.chalgyr.com/2023/02/8bit-adventures-2-pc-review.html
  
  
• Tech-Gaming Review - https://www.tech-gaming.com/8-bit-adventures-2/

---

Since I've had a lot of people ask me about Steam Deck, I just wanted to explain the situation.

Essentially, Valve wouldn't give me access to the Steam Deck tools, or consider approving the game for Steam Deck. And since I live in Australia, I can't buy a Deck to test the game on myself. As such, I relied on the testimonies of a couple of reviewers, who both very kindly gave me feedback on the performance and informed me that the game has issues like lag, frame drops, and long loads.

But now that it's out, I'm hearing reports from players that the game is actually running quite well. We have fixed a couple of memory leaks around launch, so that could be helping with the Deck performance as well.

So if you'd like to play on Steam Deck, my recommendation is to try the free demo, and see how it performs for you. Hopefully I'll be able to get an official stamp of approval from Valve sometime in the future!

---

Valve requires that newly released games reach a certain number of players and be out for a certain number of days before Trading Cards and Community Items can be implemented.



I'm happy to say that Valve have just today granted me the ability to send our Trading Cards and Community Items to them for review, so they should hopefully be added to the game this week!

---

At the suggestion of a good friend, I've now made 8-Bit Adventures 1 and 2 available on Itch.io! So if you prefer that storefront, then please check it out.

8-Bit Adventures 1: https://criticalgames.itch.io/8-bit-adventures-1

8-Bit Adventures 2: https://criticalgames.itch.io/8-bit-adventures-2

---

Due to requests from players, I'm working on an 8-Bit Adventures 1 + 2 Bundle which will sell for a small discount and include both games.

This bundle is scheduled to launch on Steam and GOG on the 10th of February at 6am PST!

---

Finally, I wanted to offer a small glimpse at what’s to come. As some of you may know, I’ve been planning and developing some Free Post-Game DLC for 8-Bit Adventures 2.

While I’d wanted to get the Free DLC released only 1-2 months after release, there’s still a lot left to do. And to be completely honest, the last couple of months have been extremely intense, ‘round-the-clock work with constant late nights; so I feel I need to recharge and take it slow for a little while. Seven years is a long time to go without a break 😅



(Check our Twitter for the animated version - Steam's file size restrictions wouldn't let me upload it)

The Free DLC begins with you discovering a new location, sequestered deep in the woods. Called the Shrine of Slumber, it will force you to face foes old and new in high level challenges – all while unravelling a story from the ancient past, long lost to conscious memory.

There might even be a hint to the Free DLC hidden in the game already 😉

---

Thanks for reading everyone - and for all of your support! I'll have even more news soon, so please keep an eye out for it 😊

For more information and updates, please:

• Visit our Official Website
  
• Follow us on Twitter
  
• Subscribe to our Official Youtube Channel
  
• Listen to Music Samples on our SoundCloud
  
• Join us on Discord
  
• Wishlist 8-Bit Adventures 2 on Steam