Patch 0.8.5 (The Kata Kata Update) - January 24th, 2025

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Hi all! This update concludes two of the LONGEST and flashiest sidequests in the game and also adds a lot of quality of life and fanservice to existing content, including new vore enemies, a brand new bloating system, new stuffing/burping art/content, and new weight tiers for a couple characters. Hope you enjoy!

ADDITIONS

~Quests and Major New Mechanics~

-The Caretakers Questline is now complete! New additions are as follows:

  -Four new MAJOR quests including the finale, all featuring heavy story content, branching paths, plot twists, gluttonous debauchery, new weapons, armour, skills, maps, enemies, and more! Discover the truth behind the Caretakers organization and several of the mysterious figures associated with it, and get that FRIGGING BOUNTY OFF YOUR HEAD FINALLY.

  -A minor epilogue quest that you can accept from Arciella after the finale.

  -A number of Capital City's people will move around and have new dialogue as you complete these new quests. It's all purely for flavour, though a couple of these changes may result in some pathways opening up that weren't accessible before~

-The Mungo sidequest 'Wanted: Iona the Sphinx' is now complete. If you've accepted the quest, travel to the lake beside Guscorp HQ, scale a snowy mountain, and confront the cunning Iona in her lair!

  -If Nell is in your party, you will have two options for dealing with Iona. One will unlock a new skill for Nell. The other, which is the default option on non-Nell playthroughs, unlocks a new quarterstaff weapon. Both feature a very, very overstuffed woman and some fun echoing sfx (the content is playable in Diet Mode, but lacks tummies and burps.)

  -Completing this content on a Nell playthrough (regardless of your choice) will unlock a new weight tier for Nell! One of the choices will bump Nell up to this tier immediately. The other will require you to get there the old fashioned way.

  -Defeating Iona (regardless of how you deal with her afterward) will unlock a new vore enemy: the Suspicious Flirt, which can then be encountered in the following places:

   -As a one-time encounter in the lumbermill at Big Gus Lake.

   -As a random encounter in the second section of the Undergus Mine.

   -And as a new random second encounter in the Vore Gauntlet. 

 -Several NPCs associated with the Caretakers questline have received new and/or updated art assets:

   -Lorenzo and Apollo now have full character artwork, character cards, and face graphics.

   -The Gazer now has a character sprite (an edit based on the Valerie sprite done by RocketShark/Maxtheberserker.)

   -Mallory now has updated full character artwork, character cards, new sprite variations, a second sheet of face graphics, and more!

   -Riley (the Alchemist's bodyguard who lent you a boat that one time) now has character sprites (which change slightly based on their gender), full character artwork, and several face graphics. A spooky character card now flashes for them during the Empty Nest mission.

   -Yana now has additional face sprites, and she makes additional sound effects when interacted with!

-A previously mysterious minor character who you may have encountered elsewhere in the game now gets a proper introduction at the conclusion of the Caretakers questline! This character belongs to BasedDarkBum and is a very special rock. Thanks to BasedDarkBum for everything. Love you, lad.

-Added a new quest chain that is essentially a proper conclusion to the Anya Fan Club questline. If you have completed the quest 'Secrets Buried Deep' and spoken to Lupita in the Night Market, you'll receive a letter from Natasha upon returning to the World Map, which will start this quest chain.

  -This chain focuses on the relationship between Anya and her friend Natasha, and takes place around Natasha's floating house, which you can explore. Travel Imperium in search of rare booze for Natasha's upcoming house party! Learn more about stonebird racing, the history of alcoholic drinks in Imperium, Natasha's career, and the day-to-day struggles she and Anya both face. Venture with Anya into the lair of a dangerous band of mercenaries, the leader of which she will conduct negotiations with and definitely not devour! (^:

  -Each step of the chain you complete will unlock a new postcard item! (These items will be fully implemented in one of the coming bugfix patches.)

  -New Travel Gems and new travel gem icons will be coming in one of the next few bugfix patches.

  -Completing the chain will unlock a new (final) weight tier for Anya. Feeding her enough plushcakes once she's reached this tier will unlock a new secret map where you can hang out with her and feed her more plushcakes (new plushcake interactions will be added in one of the coming bugfix patches.)

  -Natasha now has additional face graphics as well as a few new character sprite variations. Anya now has an additional face graphic as well (with a second coming asap.)

  -Added several new sprite variations for fat Anya, and touched up/completed the existing ones.

  -The Sprites of Anya sitting in the wooden chair (you'll know them when you see them) were done by a fan of the game (who shall remain anonymous unless they wish me to credit them directly), with slight edits made by me where necessary. Thanks so much for these!!

  -Added 'naked' sprites (with anime soap bubble censorship) for Anya, at all weight tiers, that can be seen when she's bathing (such as in the Del Nyan Spa, and ? ? ? )

  -Added a new bigger belly sprite for Governor Siraly Tull, which you'll encounter if you do the new Natasha quest.

-Added a Bloating system!

  -Each character with a stomach now has a hidden Bloat meter (characters with hardier stomachs have larger bloat meters, and characters bloat meters can increase if they gain weight or through certain other events.)

  -Using food/drink items on a bloatable character will fill that character's bloat meter based on the specific item. For instance, a Surpris Fruit will fill it by 1, whereas an Oppho Fruit will fill it by 20!

  -Using certain skills (such as Devour or one of Elmira's healing skills) will fill the recipient's bloat meter as well.

  -Enemy skills that stuff party members (slime stuffing, namely) will fill the target's bloat meter by 10 on successful hit!

  -Some cutscenes involving food will fill the bloat meters of all participating characters (cutscenes that end in the party sleeping or being healed are excluded.)

  -If a character's bloat meter exceeds its limit, that character will become Bloated, triggering some random sfx and dialogue specific to that character.

  -Bloated characters have their AGI heavily decreased, and their Evasion lowered as well. This status persists until the player sleeps or the party is fully recovered through some other means (entering an Iron Gut Contest resets a character's bloat meter, but completing it will fill it based on how much the character eats.)

  -The potential sfx and dialogue for each character change as that character's bloat limit is increased through weight gain or other circumstances.

  -Certain items (such as Brapples) and skills (Belch) will decrease a character's bloat.

 -The Fat status that is inflicted by Oppho Fruit and some of Elmira's skills has been reworked into the Bloated status and thus no longer exists.

-Added a new area to the Sand Swamp, accessible by exiting the Sand Swamp West map at the bottom.

  -This area comes with a couple new quests and some new de-bloating potions!

  -Completing this area's quests (specifically the Delivery for the Del Nyan Twygmart quest) will allow you to track each party's bloat meter in their respective companion log!

-Added a new shop to the Del Nyan Mall that sells two new healing items: Healing Hugs and Healing Snugs.

  -Because the bloat system is implemented using common events, this has the unfortunate side effect of items like Surpris Fruits no longer being spammable in menus (you have to re-enter the inventory, select the item, and then select the target each time.) This has no effect on using these items in battle, but it does make using them outside of battle more of a chore.

  -Healing Hugs and Snugs have been added as alternative healing items that can be spammed in the menu screen. They also do not increase bloat when used, which depending on your point of view could be an additional upside or a downside to them.

-Fleshed out the 'Abby is hungry' subplot during the game's opening. She now complains about it a couple more times.

  -Added a small interaction to the Lower Grok Barracks and Tower City 1F maps that serves as a resolution to this subplot as well as an opportunity to gain/lose approval with party members.

-Added a carriage to the Blightwood Entrance and Rotwald Gate maps that can be used, following the recruitment of either Evelyn or Caldryn, to travel back and forth between these maps.

~Party Member Mechanics and Character Artwork~

-Claire now learns a new skill: Let's Go Together, upon entering the World Map!

  -This is a purely cosmetic skill that can only be activated outside of battle, and only on maps where party members don't already appear.

  -Using the skill will make the SECOND PARTY MEMBER IN YOUR FORMATION visible on maps! They will move and emote along with Claire. Entering the world map and many other maps, and triggering some cutscenes will cancel this effect.

  -(This skill is still in development and needs heavy testing. There WILL be plenty of bugs with it, mostly those involving duplicate party members during cutscenes. Please save often while using it, and keep duplicate saves in case of disaster! Report all such bugs to the Let's_Go_Together thread in #bug_reports on the Axugaem2 Discord!

-Added popup artwork that appears briefly upon using Bubble Kelp alone in the Tent (shockingly not available in Diet Mode.)

-Cross has brand new character artwork that will show up on his character card (when he's first introduced) and in his companion log! Said companion log has received a slight update as well.

-Nell and Vespa also have brand new character artwork, which will show up on their character cards and in their companion logs.

  -Nell's face graphics have all been updated based on her new art. (Vespa's will be updated too, eventually.)

  -Added another sheet's worth of face graphics for Nell using her new art.

-Added new post-vore animations for Vespa after she successfully uses Devour and Max Devour (Nell will get these too, eventually.)

  -Updated Vespa and Nell's Devour and Max Devour cutscenes to flow and sound better.

-Added a few new burp faces: two for Claire, one for Arci, one for Ashley, one for Abby, two for Vespa, and four for Nell. (A promised face for Anya will be coming with one of the next couple bugfix patches.)

-Added new burp variations for all party members when using the various Brapple items, and updated the old ones.

  -Some of these variations will change depending on the affected party member's current weight!

-Added a new Key Item: the Pocket Mirror! This item comes with Claire when she joins the party, and allows her to briefly check herself out when used from the item menu (no art for this just yet). Following the completion of the new Sand Swamp quests, it also allows you to track her bloat meter.

  -For existing playthroughs, this item will be added to the player's inventory upon entering the world map.

-Ashley will now (eventually) learn Vampirism if the player visits Rotwald after winning the battle for the Scab, then walks around a bit, then leaves Blightwood.

  -The Vampirism skill has been reworked from a useless duplicate of the Vampire skill to one that is specific to Ashley.

  -The skill can now crit, and has a chance to heal Ashley for an additional 1/5 of her MHP when used on a blood-bearing enemy.

  -The skill now triggers some sfx and dialogue and fills Ashley's bloat meter slightly when the additional effect activates (if Diet Mode is disabled.)

~Enemies and Enemy Mechanics~

-Added slime enemies (similar to the one in the Capital City Sewers) to the Del Nyan Caves, Sand Swamp, Water Temple, and some parts of Blightwood!

  -Updated the slime beast artwork to be slightly more original.

-The Slime Stuffing ability now increases the target's bloat meter if it hits. Slime enemies will now use the Slime Stuffing skill more often.

  -Slimes will now gain an additional action each turn if one of the active party members has gained weight, and will use the Slime Stuffing skill even more frequently. ...They can sense when they're wanted.

  -Added a new skill point for getting stuffed with a certain number of slimes.

-Shadowman enemies and bosses now have a small chance to cast a new spell: Matterstorm!

  -This spell deals MDF-ignoring Magic damage to the entire party equal to 4x the caster's MAT, and can crit.

 -Also added a more powerful version of the spell, called Grand Matterstorm, which is the same spell but does damage equal to 6x the caster's MAT and has slightly more potential variance.

 -If a Shadowman enemy has been eaten by a party member, they will cast Matterstorm at the end of each turn from inside that party member's stomach! This does nothing except increase that party member's bloat meter.

  -More powerful shadowmen have a chance to cast Grand Matterstorm from inside a party member instead, which increases the party member's bloat meter by much more!

  -If a shadowman is defeated while inside a party member, it won't damage/heal surrounding enemies like usual. Instead, the party member that ate it will burp up a bit of shadow dust. (This is purely for flavour and doesn't add any shadow dust items to your inventory.)

-Implemented fattened versions of the Shadowman and Velocidon enemies.

-The Melkai Ambusher, Cultist and Hunter enemies will now sometimes use vore skills, and have new alternate battle sprites for when they succeed! This excludes the 'Assassin' enemy and the Melkai Hunter encountered with the Ravenous Catshark in the Arena.

  -Updated the battle sprites for most of the melkai enemies, including the fattened variants.

-Added a few minor sound and screen effects when the glutton and ovidon enemies successfully devour a party member.

-Added several new artworks to the Royal Feldwich's Rooftop Gallery that can be unlocked.

  -Two new Nell artworks can be viewed following the completion of the 'Wanted: Iona the Sphinx' quest (Nell route only.) Huge thanks to Genp for the work on these!!

  -Three new Kira artworks can be viewed following the completion of the 'Bloody History' quest. Huge thanks to ClinkoClinko for the surprise gift!!

  -Two 'new' artworks featuring Natasha can be viewed following the completion of the 'Feline Diplomacy' quest. One of these artworks also features two other nekos!

-Added a few new belly variants for Claire and Abby's sprites to better represent them at different sizes!

  -Claire's original big belly sprite has received a long-overdue touch-up, now featuring improved shading befitting of her amphibiousness! (Also she no longer randomly carries her staff in her right hand when facing to the right.)

-Added a tiny stoopid easter egg to the Del Nyan Mayor's office that can be found after recruiting Kortis.

TWEAKS

-Updated the cutscenes introducing Mallory and the other Caretakers to be more interesting and flow better with the new content.

-Made a few more small cosmetic tweaks to some of the game's Opening maps (Grunk Forest, Grok, etc.)

-Also tweaked some of the dialogue throughout the opening to try and make it easier to follow (and less cringey for me to replay through.)

-Added a hidden chest containing Bulk Powder to the Flowery Hill Map.

-Added a couple of elemental crystal shard drops each to Lower Grok and the Tower City.

-Added a little segment on Vexus and Nell to the Team Gusbuters debriefing scene, complete with pictures, to flesh out their character introductions a bit more.

-Fixed the second Bolero encounter in Lower Grok/the Tower City to be less abrupt and stilted.

-Renamed all the Mithril armour to Kromsteel armour and added a 15% Wind resistance bonus to each piece.

-Slightly reduced the accuracy of the Holy Beam, Runestaff, and Glass Quarterstaff weapons to balance out the extra attack they grant.

-The 'Crunch' skill used by various enemies now does slightly more damage and says something more interesting than just 'uses Crunch'

-Some enemies that used the Vampirism skill now use the Vampire skill instead (this should prevent any bugs related to the reworked Vampirism skill from occurring.)

-The 'Piledriver' skill used by Bel and a couple other bosses now has a unique animation.

-Lowered the HP of the Succubus Hustler that you encounter in the arena by 100.

-Increased Iona's MHP from 5000 to 5800, her DEF from 30 to 40, and her MDF from 35 to 50 during her bossfight on Capital Bridge.

-Iona now resists 75% of all physical dmg while airborne.

-Reduced the Silence chance of Iona's Ice Shards skill from 85% to 75%.

-Reduced the Magic Regeneration per turn granted by the Elarel's Blessing state from 50% to 25%.

-Adjusted the display priority of various statuses (this refers to the priority each statuses icon has in showing up next to the afflicted character, relative to that character's other statuses.) Certain nonvital buffs, such as HP regen, now have less priority compared to other buffs (such as Lani's anticipate and Abby's reflect screen.) This should make battles a bit less of a guessing/memory game when there are a lot of different status effects being thrown around.

-Updated Kira's face graphics with slightly higher quality versions.

-Updated the battle sprites for the fattened Succubus Purgers and one of the Incubus Trackers, as well as for Buffy and Nell.

BUGFIXES

-The party will be fully healed immediately after defeating Nell in the Church of Vexus. This should prevent any instant gameover bugs from occurring in later parts of the game when these characters are re-added to the party.

-Removed an invisible square in the Del Nyan Mall that, when interacted with using the action button, would change Arci's face graphic in the menu to the one used while she's possessed by Kortis.

-Fixed a bugged hookshot launchpoint in the Sand Swamp Preserve that was allowing players to skip important cutscenes.

-Fixed a minor visual bug where Riley would reappear in Creme's Cove if the player saved and reloaded the game immediately after the cutscene where Riley and Creme leave.

-The Spicy Food scene in Khur's Smiling Swine Inn and the Vespa bloating scene in Whiteshore's Foamy Cap Inn are now unavailable in Diet Mode due to excess fetish content, as should have been the case to begin with.

-The Succubus Purger and Flirt in the Vore Gauntlet now count toward the relevant skill points for defeating a certain number of each when defeated.

-Fixed a few encounters where the Highland Pummeler and Chasm Ogre enemies weren't counting toward the relevant skill point for defeating a certain number of gremlins/ogres when defeated.

-The Shadowmen that appear during the first two Maddie fights and the Spiteful Growth fight now explode into dust like all the others when defeated. The Shadowmancers that appear during the Spiteful Growth and Stonevenge fights will now explode properly as well.

-In addition, those Shadowmen (and the Hounds and Shadowmancers from those fights and the Stonevenge fight, should they appear) now properly count toward the relevant skill point for defeating a certain number of Shadowmen when defeated.

-Cross will now actually learn Cleave at level 16. For existing playthroughs where he is already level 16, entering the world map will add the skill to his skillset.

-The Filtered Mask and Odd Hat armours can now be recycled for Biricoins as stated in their descriptions.

KNOWN ISSUES/POSSIBLE BUGS

-I believe I've fixed a bug where, upon completing a gauntlet in the arena and returning to the lobby, another arena fight would start. Due to the complexity of the arena events, this is an especially time-consuming thing to bugtest and it's possible there may be a specific instance where the bug still occurs. If you encounter this bug at any point, please let me know!

-There will be bugs with the bloating cutscenes, as this feature is complicated and rough right now. I've encountered an instance where Evelyn's bloat cutscene inexplicably triggered after using a surprise fruit on Abby, to give you some idea of what to expect. None of these bugs should be game breaking, but please do report them where you find them!

-As mentioned above, Let's Go Together is also bound to be buggy. This may occasionally result in softlocks during specific cutscenes, so save often when using this skill, and report all softlocks you find!

-There's a lot going on at once during the Caretakers finale, and it's possible it may lead to a 'stack level too deep' error that crashes the game. That said, having tested the finale over ten times, I have not once had this error occur, so it may not end up being an issue. Generally with this sort of error, replaying the cutscene tends to get you through it, so hopefully that works if you do end up encountering it.

-Elmira's ally-fattening skills don't trigger bloating cutscenes when they probably should. I'll add this asap.

-Anya's new weight tier sprite is missing two frames during its walk cycle when she's facing upward. Thus, you'll see her flicker from fat to thin during this animation. I haven't drawn these sprites yet, but I will asap!

-Vespa's post-devour animation jitters a little due to the frames not being properly aligned. I'll fix this asap.

-Finally, a huge apology for promising a Nell post-devour animation and not delivering on that. I got bogged down by all the little things I wanted to add with this update, and ended up not having the energy to draw anymore. As soon as I've recovered and caught my breath a bit, I'll get to work on that!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE WITH THIS UPDATE! It's been a long time coming, and I'm so happy to be able to finally share it with all of you. <3

I'LL BE PUTTING OUT BUGFIX PATCHES OVER THE NEXT COUPLE WEEKS THAT WILL ALSO CONTAIN VARIOUS BITS OF CONTENT I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO INCLUDE IN THIS RELEASE. This includes the postcard images for the respective items, the new travel gems and travel gem icons, and a third plushcake benchmark reward for Anya. There are also a number of bugs that have been reported which I haven't gotten to checking as of this release, so those will be checked and fixed over the next few patches as well.

Axugaem2 is (c) Me. For full credits, please see the text files in the game's folder.