Maids & Masters Strategy Guide Progress Update - Act 3 Midpoint

We've officially broken 300 pages!

At the time I'm writing this, I still have the Sanctum of Lightning to finish before getting into the castle at the end of the story, but despite falling behind a bit (more on that on the dev blog) the shrines and Servants have gone pretty quickly and smoothly, so I'm still on track to have those done today, which means I should (hopefully) be able to finish the story portion of the guide and have the next test build up for VIPs next Friday.

That also means the tiebreaker poll for my next project is going to be closing soon, and in two weeks (provided nothing goes wrong and I'm able to get it all done), the Patron poll for my next project will go live. If you haven't voted yet (even if you'd just vote for Redemption Harem and push it even further into the lead), go vote!

Knowing which project you're excited for is a big part of why I make demos in the first place, so even if it won't change anything, go make yourself heard. Here's a link to the public poll.

With that out of the way, first some stats, then a projection.

As of writing this, the guide is at 305 pages (I'm expecting 307 by the end of the last shrine), we're at exactly 500MB before deployment compression kicks in, and my play-along save is a few minutes shy of 127.5 hours of gameplay. As an extra stat, while the Task List suggests being level 40 for the portion of the game I'm in, I started The Frozen North with my Maids largely around level 30 (aside from Nina, who starts at level 33).

I bring this up because I intend to include it as a point in the guide's afterword, the final page of commentary before the appendix entries start. I see a lot of people struggle early on because they don't want to do any combat, so when they're confronted with the Extermination fight against the Rat Swarm boss, it's not only at the starting point of 8 rats (instead of being reduced to 7 or 6 as a result of killing the rats around the Estate), but their Maids are under-leveled, leaving them in a position where they don't have a very deep understanding of how the combat mechanics work and feeling like they can't progress, blaming the game (or me personally) for putting them in that situation.

This will be the second time I've played through the game from start to finish while the game has been in its finished state (not counting all the smaller playthroughs hunting for bugs and testing things during development), and it will also be the second time I've played through the whole game without using the Mind Hold and while being severely under-leveled. For this guide-related playthrough, I've even skipped other things that make the game easier, like getting the extra XP and the Champion's Belt trophy out of the Stebbing Arena.

I do this not as a challenge to myself for the fun of it, but to try and understand how people end up in those scenarios where they feel it's impossible to continue because the game is too hard. I do understand that, as the game's developer, I have a considerably deeper grasp on everything the game does than someone who might not have ever played a game like Final Fantasy 4 or Breath of Fire 2, but I also feel I've gone pretty far out of my way to make it possible for those "I don't want to fight anything" players to complete the game and every single one of its challenges while being 5-10 levels below where the game tells you to be and I continue to want those people to be able to enjoy the game the way they want to play it.

But for as much as I want for them to be able to enjoy the game how they like, I don't think it's possible to come to a conclusion other than "you need to stop making the game harder for yourself." That's not a conclusion I like, especially as I'm coming to the end of creating something that exists solely to make the game easier for those players, but I'm making the game as hard on myself as I possibly can, and the only fights I've really struggled with are against Archibald's Maids at Lalita's Estate and against the Servant of Nature because RNG hates me.

And that's a much larger wall of text than I intended it to be. Phew.

Let's try to make the projection quick to make up for it.

If you're paying attention, you already know I post here every Friday with few exceptions. If next week is the next guide "test build," and the week after that is the Patron-only next project poll, that means the quickest the guide will actually be finished and available for purchase (or download, if you're a Supporter or higher and/or bought early access on itch and/or your lifetime support is more than $8) is 3 weeks from now (which is probably about right anyway, with how much work the appendices are going to take).

That's a little later than I really want it to be for a number of reasons, one of which is that I'll be out of town for about a week in the middle of June while my brother moves halfway across the country. I'm hoping things will go faster than that and the guide will be done sooner, but that doesn't really change my post schedule.

So, like always, we'll have to play it by ear and hope for the best. If nothing else, I'm still glad making the guide is as close to done as it is.