The art assets are struggling to catch up to the story.
That’s, in a nutshell, what’s happening with the game. Unlike JPDE1, which was an experimental wild west of a game, where I did whatever I wanted while figuring out how making a game worked, JPDE2 has a clear long-term story. I already know the big players, the big events, the arcs, who and what if not the how.
Unfortunately, though, my team’s artists can only work on so many pieces each month. For example, Chocojax, who does all our amazing sprite work, can only make two sprites per month. If you add in that she’s also a busy artist on Twitch and going to cons, it makes sense. Then of course, there’s the general needs of breaks for vacations, sometimes family emergencies, etc…
The result is that: for the last couple releases JPDE2 has been barely getting the assets it needs in time, and with the next story arc it’s going to be even worse. Just to give you an idea: Team ARSN -Aka, Jaune/Ren/Sierra/Nora- needs to be complete before we go into Menagerie, and we only have half of them. That’s without counting the other characters, like Jacqueline’s Mom and Assam Morlus of the Red Fang, just to name two…
So the choices presented to me are: either compromise the story I want to tell or take breaks in-between Arcs of JPDE2 as we wait for the art assets to build up…
You can probably guess from the [END OF SEASON 1] part which one I chose. But that doesn’t mean we won’t release anything in-between!
It just means that, while JPDE2 builds up strength for the next arc, well… We have a Remaster to work on, don’t we? 
The first demo of JPDE1REFRAIN is already out for Supporters!
Also, be sure to check out BABELOMANIA, our original entry for Spooktober VN Jam 2024 over on Itch.io! Leave us a rating if you liked it!
With that said, I hope you enjoy Episode 09! Also, I hope you don’t kill me for that double cliffhanger…
