Apology and Progress Update Regarding the Delay of Stigma of Corruption

To everyone who has been supporting me,
This is LactoQuest.

First of all, I would like to sincerely apologize to everyone who has been waiting for Stigma of Corruption.

The release will need to be delayed a little longer than originally planned.
I am truly sorry for making you wait again.

I know many of you have already been waiting for a long time.
Honestly, I also want to finish the game as soon as possible and finally let everyone play it.

However, if I release the game in its current state, there are still unstable parts and several issues that could hurt the overall experience.
Because of that, I have decided to take a little more time for the final fixes and testing.

The biggest reason for this delay is that new bugs keep appearing during testing.

Stigma of Corruption has become much larger and more complex than I initially expected.
Route branches, status changes, the recollection room, new game plus data, save systems, and the connections between different routes all affect one another.

Because of this, some problems cannot be found just by checking a single event.
Many bugs only appear after long play sessions, specific route choices, certain status values, or particular combinations of switches and variables.

So far, I have already found and fixed more than 200 bugs.
Even so, each full test still reveals issues that I feel must be fixed before the official release.
To make sure everyone can play the game in a more stable state, I need to extend the testing period a little longer.

Text adjustment is another major reason.

After playing through the game, I found that some dialogue needed more buildup.
Some emotional transitions felt a little too sudden, and some lines needed to feel more natural for the characters.

There were also NPC lines that I had written too seriously in earlier versions.
For a normal RPG, that might not be a big problem, but for this game, it weakens the atmosphere.
Because of that, I am making small adjustments to make the character writing, route pacing, and adult atmosphere feel more consistent.

However, revising dialogue is not something that ends after changing a few lines.
Since the game supports multiple languages, whenever one piece of text is changed, the wording, tone, and surrounding context in each language version also need to be checked again.

On top of that, typos, missing words, inconsistent terms, and other text issues found during testing also need to be corrected.
As a result, the final text review has taken more time than expected.

I have also added several features that I wanted to include in the official release.

First, I added save data for new game plus.
I also expanded the number of save slots to 99.
In addition, I added an automatic rotating save system.

This system saves automatically every 5 minutes of in-game time and uses high-numbered save slots in rotation.
The goal is to reduce situations where players lose too much progress because of a wrong choice, an unexpected issue, a progression problem, or any other accident.

While testing the game for long periods myself, I realized how painful it can be not to have this kind of safety net.
That is why I wanted to include it in the official version, so players can feel more secure while playing.

I have also adjusted the feel of movement.

Even within the same map, I added shortcut-like movement where necessary to reduce unnecessary backtracking and long detours.
This may not sound like a major feature, but in a long game, small sources of stress can build up quickly.
I want the final version to feel as comfortable to play as possible.

As a way to thank those who have supported me for a long time, I have also added some supporters into the game as NPCs.
However, because time is now extremely limited, I will not be accepting any more requests for this.
I hope you can understand.

During testing, I also found problems with the balance of certain values.

In some places, the gameplay could end up feeling like repeating the same actions over and over just to raise numbers.
I did not think that felt good as a player experience.

To improve this, I added two new CG sets and continued adjusting the pacing and value changes for certain routes.

The body status, mental status, and cross-section variations also require more time to handle properly.
These are not just simple images that can be displayed on their own.
They need to match the route progress, status changes, and recollection room unlock conditions.

If even one condition is slightly wrong, the display can become unnatural or no longer match the current story.
That is why these parts still need more testing.

The recollection room has also turned out to require much more work than expected.

The game currently has over 100 CG sets.
Aside from a very small number of necessary scenes, almost none of them are reused.
This means that registering them in the recollection room, setting unlock conditions, checking their display, and making sure they match each route all takes a lot of time.

It may look like simple organization from the outside, but in practice, it is very easy for problems to appear if this part is not tested carefully.
For example, a scene might fail to unlock, unlock at the wrong time, or show content that does not match the player’s route.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the blacksmith route also needed revisions.

I have added more battle CGs to this route.
I also changed the way battle CGs are triggered.

Previously, the CGs played when the protagonist took damage.
Now, they progress based on how many times the player attacks the enemy.

This means the player no longer has to wait around and deliberately take hits.
Instead, the CGs can be seen while actively participating in battle.
I believe this makes the battle pacing and overall experience much better than before.

I am also reworking the connections between different routes.

For example, reaching the Hero’s City from the merchant route and reaching the Hero’s City from the blacksmith route both lead to the same location, but the events before that are completely different.
Because of this, dialogue, events, NPC reactions, variables, switches, and other details in the Hero’s City need to be adjusted for each route.

These may look like small differences, but if they are not handled properly, players may feel that the story does not connect correctly.
I want to make sure these parts are cleaned up before release.

In addition, the DLsite sales page and promotional materials are still not fully prepared.

I should have started preparing them earlier, but bug fixing, testing, text revisions, and additional content have taken priority.
Because I have very limited help, I also need to make time to handle the store page and promotion myself.

For all of these reasons, I still need a little more time to finish the final work.

However, this time I can clearly promise one thing:

Stigma of Corruption will be released in July.
At the moment, I am aiming for a release around July 20.

I am truly sorry for delaying the game again and again.

Since restarting this project in January, I have been working on development, fixes, and testing almost every day.
To be honest, I am now close to my limit both physically and mentally.

Even so, after coming this far, I do not want to release something unfinished.
After making everyone wait for so long, I want the final version to be as complete, stable, and enjoyable as I can possibly make it.

Please give me just a little more time.
I will continue with the final fixes and testing, and I will deliver the game to everyone within July.

Once again, I am truly sorry for making you wait.
And thank you so much for continuing to support me.

LactoQuest