Hey guys, the big “Version 2” update for Epic Battle Fantasy 5 is about 50% done!
That sounds like it’s taking a long time, but I’ve not been working on it full-time until recently, so it should progress quite quickly from now on. Here’s a progress report of what’s already confirmed for the update…

• 52 “new” foes, with 24 of them being bosses or mini-bosses. I say “new” because about half of them are returning from previous EBF games. All of them will be catch-able.

• 31 new achievements. They’re of similar difficulty to what’s already in the game – nothing crazy is being added, and you won’t have to start from the beginning if you don’t want to.

• 16 new Flair equips, many of which have completely new types of effects. There’s also a lot of references to popular browser games in there.

• 14 new skills, including 2 limit breaks. Like other skills, these will be learned from NPCs and can be used by different players.

• 50 monster cards to collect. These are a new type of one-of-a-kind item that give you small perks, and are found in hard-to-reach treasure chests.

• A new biome, 3 new dungeons, and a bunch of secret areas. These areas are quite small, but they’ve got some unique battle gimmicks. For example, in the Battle Arena, you can only use one player in battle. Most of the new battles will be unique and challenging, with very few of them being “filler” battles.

• A “Cheats and Challenges” menu, which adds 30 options for customizing the game difficulty. You can mess around with overpowered players, make the foes unbeatable, or come up with some mix of the two. These can be changed at any time.

• A “Custom Quest” menu, which will allow you to start a new game with some major changes. Some options include: Randomized equipment locations, alternative weather, and alternative foes in filler battles.

Of course I’ll also be making some balancing and quality-of-life changes. But I haven’t started on those yet, and I’m not making any promises about those yet.

Old saved games will be completely compatible with the updated version, but I recommend playing from the beginning for the best experience. A lot of the new stuff will be hidden earlier on in the game, and the Cheats, Challenges and Custom Quest settings will make a second playthrough much more interesting.

Steam users who own EBF5 will be able to opt-in to the Version 2 beta when it is around 90% complete, and my Patreon supporters will have access to it a bit earlier. If you want more information and previews, you can browse the posts on my website, but they contain a lot of spoilers!

If you’ve enjoyed EBF5 so far, please leave a Steam review – and if you didn’t, please let me know, so that maybe I can fix it in the update.

And finally, I’ll be raising the price of the game to $20 once the update is released.

That is all.

Hey guys, the card and cheats menus are done!
I’m hoping these cards will be as fun to collect as achievements are.
You’ll usually find them in hard-to-reach treasure chests.

The big V2 update is 50% done btw! I’ll write a progress report tomorrow.

Hey guys, after I announced the new difficulty options a few days ago, someone mentioned that I should do the opposite of them too, so that casuals have some fun features to play with. I eventually warmed up to the idea, and now I completely agree – a lot more people will enjoy options to make the game easier. (and you can totally mix them, challenges and cheats, to make up your own difficulty settings, like in Bullet Heaven 2)

So here’s a list of cheats coming to Epic Battle Fantasy 5. They will all be unlocked from the beginning, and when enabled, will temporarily disable “Epic” achievements.

Super Effective: Foes’ elemental weaknesses are increased significantly. (for example, +50% becomes +100%)

Super Resistance: Equipment gives more elemental resistance. (you’ll be absorbing a lot)

Feeble Foes: Foes have 25% less HP. (if you want to rush through the game)

Blind Foes: Foes have 20% less accuracy.

Cowardly Foes: Foes surrender much more easily. (maybe useful for pacifist runs?)

Preemptive Strike: Always get the first turn in each wave in battle. (a lot of people want this to be a default feature)

Instant Healing: The party is healed instantly after every battle. (also a requested default feature)

Auto Scan: Foe info is always available in battle, without scanning them. (not in the bestiary though, so there’s no spoilers and no cheating the achievements)

Extra Attacks: Player counter attacks, unleashes, and other “free” skills activate more often. (a bit unfair to equips that don’t have any…)

Unlimited: Limit breaks charge 50% faster.

Summoner: Foes give 30% more SP when defeated, and max SP is also increased by 30%.

The goal with these cheats is to make the game easier, but not necessarily less complicated – good strategy is still rewarded. Also the effects of these cheats must not persist if they are turned off – so “Extra EXP” is not acceptable. Feel free to suggest more ideas if they meet those guidelines.

Here’s another new battle background:

EBF5 is getting 24 new battle backgrounds in the update, but to be honest, most of them aren’t that exciting. You’ve already seen many of them in the foe previews, and the others are mostly recycled (but updated) from the previous games, for the classic foe battles.

So here’s one of the more interesting ones.

Also, EBF5 now contains at least 1306 icons.

31 new medals are coming to EBF5 in the big update, along with 2 new rooms in the Grand Gallery, and 36 pieces of fanart and concept art.

The new medals won’t be harder than what is already in the game, and won’t require you to start again – but you still should, since there’s a lot of new secrets earlier on in the game.