Netorase Phone: Iris version 0.4 - Taking Control
The Old Gods of Asgard are smiling upon us today: version 0.4 of Netorase Phone: Iris is available!
This version adds Chapters 9 to 12 in Act 2, completing Iris' "Introduction Arc".
I hope you'll enjoy this new update! As always, I'll be waiting for your feedback, here or on Discord.
About Memories
I'm trying out a new system for Memories with this new version of Iris. From now on, starting a chapter from the Memories app will require that you already have completed it at least once. This ensures that you don't start the story from a random point. For now, though, the first newly released chapter will be an exception, which means that, in version 0.4, you can start Chapter 9 from Memories, without having completed it before. Next version will allow that for Chapter 13 (and no longer allow it for Chapter 9), and so on.
I am also considering, for future version, making Memories only play a single chapter. The ability to start the story from any point is causing issues with Netorase Phone, and people are missing out on large chunk of content because their saves has been started at a later point.
The point of Memories had never been to let you start from anywhere in the story, but to easily give you a way to replay a certain chapter (in case, you know, you wanted to see some specific content again...), and the way it's working right now is causing some issues.
Don't worry, though, if I implement this change, I'll find a way to allow you to restart the story at specific points, so that you don't have to replay the whole game to get specific content. Which is why this change isn't implemented yet, because I want to do it properly.
Note that this change won't be applied to Netorase Phone, as I feel its structure wouldn't work with it.
About Interludes
As you may have noticed if you've already played one of the previous version of Iris, Interludes play after certain chapters. They're a good way for me to share one-off pictures, add some variety, and show some of Iris daily-life.
These interludes have been a source of issues in Netorase Phone, though. Mainly because of their randomness, preventing people from easily getting all their pictures.
So, I changed the system a bit for Iris. In this game, while Interludes are still triggered in a random order, you will see all of them in a complete playthrough, and they are limited to specific acts.
For example, between Acts 1 and 2, you'll see 15 Interludes. They'll always be the same in each playthrough, and these 15 will only be triggered during Acts 1 or 2.
That means that, not only will you see them all, and not miss any pictures, but it also means I can use these Interludes to setup future content, or to bridge past chapters with future ones.
I hope this change will avoid some of the issues you might have encountered with Netorase Phone.