Overall this update is great. Now time to list my thoughts out.
SPOILER WARNING
Positives
1. Love that the images change as the characters level up. Great way to visualize them growing bigger.
2. Most of the mechanics are explained, including ones that had no explanation in the original release.
3. Thank you thank you thank you for changing Red's voice LOL.
4. The addition of items is a nice little touch, albeit a bit bare. I'll get more into that later.
5. I do like how there is now the base of an actual story, whereas in the original story there was essentially none.
6. I do like that draining does have consequences now.
Now for parts that I think could be worked on/tweaked a bit.
1. Although I do love the dynamic portraits, the existence of the shrink and grow mechanic (the effects, not just by leveling up) kind of throws it off a little. It shoots them up to what I would call their max size/final stage, but without the stats to show for it. Now I'm not saying that the growth ray should massively increase your stats, it's just a little weird visually.
2. Although more id explained than the original release there's still some gaps. Although it is mentioned to check the log, I still do wish it would be possible to see what effects do by maybe just hovering over them and maybe also being able to see how long an effect will last. Seeing the chances of ana stun working would be nice as well. Even with the logs some things aren't clear. For example I still have no clue how much damage I should expect bleed to do, or how much seduction will reduce the enemies attack. Also it's a little confusing see the growth and shrink work differently with the scientist where she just isnta kills anyone who's shrunk and she gets like five attacks when she's grown.
3. Though the items are nice, I think the main flaw is that you can get literally any item by random chance. Like you could just happen to get a legendary thing right off the bat, or only get common for ages. Another thing with them is that they're pretty vague. Yes, once I have the growth effect in battle I can see what it does in the logs but I have no clue what it does just by looking at the growth ray. Even after using it for a while I still do not understand the Dragon's Throat at all, and it just seems incredibly weak. I also do wish that there was maybe some sort of storage as it sucks having to throw a legendary item out to try a different one out, and then having to reroll it if I want to go back.
4. Despite draining have consequences it still feels like it's essentially the only way to beat enemies. Even with the goddess buffs if you're up against two or three healers you can't do anything. Also I recall in the original version that anyone attacking would steal some xp but now only Red's do. I'm not sure if that's intentional but if it is as far I could see there was zero mention of it.
5. Out of all of the bosses I would say the easiest is ironically the dragon, with the scientist being in the middle and the slime being the hardest. Killing the minions isn't really an option because they just get resummoned, and killing the boss isn't enough either because she just gets revived. Once again, we're forced to stall with draining and break the minions. Even overleveling doesn't really work against the slime because of the unholy amount of xp she steals from you when she's eating you. Unlike every other drain, her drain seems to be based off of not her xp, but the opponents.
6. As I mentioned before, the goddess powers are a bit underwhelming... except for when it's completely broken. So for the underwhelming part, that's simply because it can just do less and less the higher level you get. Even if she's level 100 that does literally nothing if you're level 100, and you've wasted all that xp. In normal gameplay it has a very little effect. When playing normally I did not get the Divine Judgement a single time, and was left wondering what it was. Now, how can something be underwhelming and completely broken? Because divine judgement is literally an insta kill which you can almost guarantee if she's high enough level and Red is low enough level. By having Red be broken, and with the goddess at let's say, level 50, I now have a party member that will 1 hit KO 50% of the time and literally cannot be defeated. And while I have this massive cannon my other two party members can literally be doing nothing but heal each other while Red does everything. The only reason this doesn't work for everything is because it seemingly doesn't work on bosses, which isn't mentioned anywhere.
7. Short and simple one, having multiple save slots would be nice.
TLDR:
New content is great, I like that there's a story, but the new stuff needs some tweaking to be balanced. I know that there was a lot more things that I think could be changed than I sang praise, but I'm being pretty picky. I don't want this to discourage you as I did genuinely enjoy playing this and the new additions certainly add to the game over the original version. I give this feedback out of a desire to see this game grow and develop as it's already fun, but I believe it has so much potential. As I said in my other feedback for the original version, please reach out to me if you want to discuss this any more or you want any clarifications from me. I really just want to help and see this game be great.
Now, I've buried this section at the bottom just in case someone decided to disregard the spoiler warning. For the love of me I can not defeat Miss Darkness. I'm not sure if she's meant to be beatable but if she is, I just can't. Her kitsunes are constantly spawned in by her so you can't get rid of them. She regens a crazy amount of health. She stacks an insane amount of bleed. And the kitsunes do so much damage. I tried so many times with different strategies and nothing worked.
Also on the subject of breaking enemies, love the reset that happens if you break enemies after you fully power the goddess.
Anyways again, great game, keep up the great work, and please reach out to me if you want to. It's hard for me to convey all my thoughts so if anything isn't clear or you don't agree with something, I'm happy to talk.
