NEWS

Hello, this is Soejima, the director of “TRIBE NINE”.

Today, I want to give an overview of the “Deadly Demo” and the changes that were made following the previous “Deadly Playtest”.

The Deadly Demo will be available starting Oct. 15 during the Steam Next Fest.

If you wishlist TRIBE NINE on Steam, you’ll be notified when the demo becomes available, so please make sure to add it to your wishlist!

Click here for the Steam Store Page

About the Deadly Demo

As far as content goes, in this Deadly Demo you’ll be able to enjoy the game’s story from Chapter 0 up until the climax of Chapter 1, just as in the previous Deadly Playtest.

However, the game system has been significantly revised based on the feedback and the data we’ve collected from the Deadly Playtest.

Playable Characters in the Open Beta

The following 14 characters will be playable in the Deadly Demo. This time, Kazuki and Hyakuichitaro will make their debut as playable characters!

Updated Content

As mentioned earlier, we’ve revised various aspects of the game system.

In this letter, I’d like to highlight some key changes that will significantly impact the gaming experience.

Refined Battle Camera

We’ve completely revamped the camera behavior in battle, ensuring a smooth experience even in the most chaotic fights. Players previously struggled to aim the camera when fighting against multiple enemies, so we’ve overhauled the locking system and camera behavior to make fighting more intuitive.

While we’ve made significant progress, we’re aware that some issues remain. As we approach the official release, we’ll continue to refine the camera and locking mechanics, including optional customization features, to further enhance usability.

Dash Action

We’ve introduced a new “Dash” action.

We noticed that melee attackers often need to cover longer distances, making it challenging for them to position themselves effectively against enemies compared to ranged attackers.

This new dash action allows you to approach and retreat from enemies more swiftly, streamlining battle engagement and disengagement.

Changes to Evasive Actions

As part of a new system, we’ve introduced a new “Evasion Gauge”. Now, evasive actions require a cooldown period before you can use them again.

The “Evasion Gauge” has a maximum limit that varies by character. As long as you have gauge remaining, you can continue to execute evasive actions. You can increase the maximum limit by enhancing the “Survival Instincts” potential.

In TRIBE NINE battles, a Perfect Evasion neutralizes an enemy’s attack and creates an opening for you to make continuous uninterrupted attacks. Previously, with the ability to perform unlimited evasive actions, we faced challenges in later level designs. We had to adjust difficulty by adding more enemies than the game could smoothly process.

We’ve implemented this system to lower the barrier for optimal playstyles and adjust enemy numbers to manageable levels. By limiting evasive actions, we aim to reduce player stress. It’s important to note that our goal isn’t to force gauge management or eliminate the aforementioned strong playstyles; rather, we aim to refine the overall gameplay experience.

New Tension Cards and Effect Changes

Along with the implementation of the new “Evasion Gauge”, we’re also adding a Tension Card effect where “The operating character will consume Evasion Gauge when performing an Attack Action.” While equipping this card increases damage output, it also makes managing the Evasion Gauge more challenging, adding a layer of complexity to gameplay.

Additionally, we’re modifying the cards that were available during the Deadly Playtest which featured automatic evasion effects. To prevent unintended Evasion Gauge consumption, we’re changing the effect to “Gradually recover HP.”

Improved Game Progression

We’ve significantly revised the early game progression, especially in Chapter 0. The structure of map exploration and events have been changed to increase strategic satisfaction and battle difficulty.

In particular, these battle adjustments now require correct reactions to enemy attacks from the very first encounter. While you may be wiped out several times even in the tutorial, we’ve streamlined the screen transitions for quick retries, so we encourage you to get back up and try again!

Also, unlike during the Deadly Playtest, Action Skill 2 will now be available from the start of the game. This, along with the Evasion Gauge introduced earlier, means that there will be many opportunities in the early stages of the game where you can Deflect.

Regarding story events, their contents and starting points have been changed for the entirety of Chapter 0 and the beginning of Chapter 1. In particular, the issues that were frequently brought up during the Deadly Playtest, such as “it takes too long to unlock the Gacha” and “the timing when you can finally roam freely is so late,” have been greatly improved.

Please note that as the Deadly Demo is a client that is still under development, there are some parts where the audio will not be available. The official release version of TRIBE NINE will be fully voiced.

Other Improvements

The Command List

Each TRIBE NINE character possesses unique mechanics, so switching the commanding character can greatly change your gameplay experience.

However, this variety in playstyle mechanics made it challenging for players to grasp specific control for each character. To address this, we’re introducing a new “Command List” that displays the actions each character can perform.

You can access the Command List and action details even during battle, so be sure to make use of it!

Additionally, a rematch option—which appears when your entire party has been wiped out—can now be selected from this same screen during battle.

Character Adjustments

We’ve made adjustments to each character’s abilities and improvements to their mechanics. As this includes an extensive amount of changes, we hope to share more details in a patch note that we plan to release before the Deadly Demo begins.

Chain Skill Changes

We’ve made changes to the conditions for activating chain skills to make them more accessible.

Previously, chain skills required specific impairments to be executed between team members, which significantly limited team formation options. Now, in addition to impairments, chain skills can be executed with a certain probability when any impairment is activated.

Initially this probability is quite low, so the effect may not be immediately noticeable. However, by developing Potentials, you can substantially increase the occurrence probability for the entire party. To reflect this change, we’ve renamed “Coordination” to “Combo Ability”.

As you progress in training, you’ll have more flexibility in team formation. We encourage you to try out many different combinations.

XB Updates

We’ve made improvements to the XB game balance and UI, and clarified the factors that players need to consider.

While the basic rules remain unchanged, baseball-like decisions now have a more significant impact compared to the Deadly Playtest. We’ve also improved the animations to better indicate whether the decision made during your turn has improved the situation or not.

You can now also skip conversations and cutscenes during XB, so feel free to use this feature as needed!

Final Comments

The development team is working diligently on the Deadly Demo, aiming to implement as many improvements as possible based on the feedback and play trends gathered from the Deadly Playtest.

Reflecting on our work, implementing so many improvements in such a short time frame was not an easy feat. We owe this achievement to the constructive feedback from the last Deadly Playtest, the enthusiastic comments on social media from players, and the reactions of content creators live streaming the game. Your support has been instrumental in driving our team forward.

We’d like to take this moment to express our heartfelt gratitude once again. Thank you very much!

The Deadly Demo will be available to everyone during the Steam Next Fest. We’re excited for more people to experience TRIBE NINE, so please add the game to your wishlist and check out the Deadly Demo.

We’re always sharing the latest information on our Official X, so follow us there to stay up to date with the latest news.

Steam Store page
Official English X

This got quite lengthy, but thank you for sticking around and reading until the end of this Director’s Letter!
The whole team is looking forward to seeing you again in Neo Tokyo!