[Released] PS: Fated Epistle - Episode 2

[AenaonDusky]

PSFE: 2.14

Changelog:

Spoiler:

-Updated all PDA entries referring to Citizens in mid-sizezd apartments, to match the apartment colors
-Updated more ambiguous PDA entries
-Updated unspecific PDA entries
-Updated riddle givers for East dialogue and PDA entries to be more specific
-Made NPC close to secret Shack in SW hint about its location.
-Added faction unlock prompts for initating mission-gathering for each
-Added a secret easter egg, if you manage to interact with all the pianos
-Fixed various typos
-Fixed musician event not disabling speedup
-Fixed asynced musician event
-Fixed musucian event getting you stuck if approached from the wrong side
-Fixed interior tiles
-Disabled speedup during all cutscenes
-Recolored special building roofs to make them less jarring
-Fixed possibility of gangster Trainer blocking the way to Harry in the Old School
-Fixed LVL100 levelup bug
-Fixed Fairy Spring hole entrance not activating by stepping on it, and needing to be interacted with
- Made Samantha goodbye dialogue clearly mention where she's going
-Fixed Rapid MC direction facing
-Added more autosave points
-Made all Rasperga bookcases interactable for consistency in regards to finding the notes

 

[AenaonDusky]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

There is a chance the Main Game will receive an important update that might make it incompatible with very old hardware. It cannot be updated the same way as TFJ (using both new and old versions) because it lags significantly on AMD cards due to map size. Unless someone knows how to retrofit the new map renderer of V20.1 to v18, and is willing to help, this will be impossible to fix.

Until now I've been very careful to make the games compatible with ALL hardware so people who couldn't afford better computers could run them. However the recent joiplay update made all Essentials games, regardless of version, compatible with Android. And since most people who cannot afford better pc hardware can afford, or already have, smartphones, I've been considering migrating FE to the newest engine. The newer Engine will allow for a big number of significant upgrades to the game experience. However, my top priority is for everyone to be able to enjoy the games.

I have opened a poll. Please submit your answer. I need to know whether the update is worth it.

 

[Shawn Heatherly]

Sounds like a worthwhile improvement to me.

 

[AenaonDusky]

Version 2.15 (still compatible with all computers. Won't update to new engine if there's no solution to old computers playing it)

Improvements:

- Applied parts of map connection and loading fixes from 20.1 to reduce chances of crashing (very low to none, now)
- Removed having healed Budew being a requirement to activate the Toilet Cleaning Mission
- Multiple secret areas added
- All Fridge events will now say "..." if interacted with more than once, singifying they have already been interacted with
- Improved city layout
- Reduced number of required Dragonite shots for the chasing minigame, to 28 from 40.
- shortened intro
- text improvements

Fixes:

- Fixed Bonsly Mission appearing on your PDA twice (applicable on new savefiles)
- Fixed Barrel Challenge Mission appearing on your PDA twice (applicable on new savefiles)
- Fixed Hugo the Weedle guy showing up before you got your starter
- Fixed lighter-colored void
- Fixed Pillow Mission man not detecting completion
- Various tile fixes
- fixed evolution BGM not stopping
- fixed high volume SNight theme

 

[AenaonDusky]

Hotfixed to 2.15a due to a title screen loading oversight. Should take care of it, but please inform me if anything's wrong.

 

[PatElMasSabroso]

I found a bug that doesn't let me continue with the game, I got stuck looking up and I can't interact with anyone if they're not above me, and I got stuck in a house without being able to get out because the entrance is below me, I hope please fix it :(

 

[AenaonDusky]

I found a bug that doesn't let me continue with the game, I got stuck looking up and I can't interact with anyone if they're not above me, and I got stuck in a house without being able to get out because the entrance is below me, I hope please fix it :(

I'll need more information, and your savefile to help you.

1. What version are you on?
2. Where did this happen?
3. When did this happen?

Please send me your savefile.

 

[PatElMasSabroso]

I'm playing in version 2.15, it happened to me in Western Artemisa outside, it seems that I talked to an object very fast with the turbo activated and it got stuck in that position, then I got into a house and I couldn't get out and by mistake I saved The game, the same thing had happened to me once talking very fast with an object in Southwestern Artemisa, but this time I simply went back to the last point where I had saved.
Here I leave my game:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/v792h91zfcltk3t/Game.rxdata/file

 

[AenaonDusky]

I'm playing in version 2.15, it happened to me in Western Artemisa outside, it seems that I talked to an object very fast with the turbo activated and it got stuck in that position, then I got into a house and I couldn't get out and by mistake I saved The game, the same thing had happened to me once talking very fast with an object in Southwestern Artemisa, but this time I simply went back to the last point where I had saved.
Here I leave my game:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/v792h91zfcltk3t/Game.rxdata/file

I have sent you your fixed savefile back. It would help me a lot if you could take a screenshot of the objects you interacted with before it happend - for both occasions. Most likely attributed to speedup, but still.
Thank you! I will push out an update that disables speedup during item interactions.

Version 2.16
- Almost all item picking events should disable speedup now
- Fixed Fall's Pass cave entrance, and R2 Tile bugs
- Fixed some typos

 

[AenaonDusky]

Version 2.17


- A possible PDA-disabling bug if your character was named a particular way has been worked around
- Fixed two missions possibly being accessed before you got your starter
- Fixed Rations Courier NPC not resetting speedup
- Fixed First Sokol encounter not disabling speedup
- Matched Sig's OW hair color to his Portrait
- Fixed missing MooMooShake Icon
- Fixed various tile passability issues
- Fixed Checkpoint to W guard referring to you as courier when not in uniform


Version 2.18


- Fixed naming bug reverting you to a blank player state
- Fixed Morty pay loop glitch
- Made Cap face south to be more easy to spot

 

[AenaonDusky]

Version 2.19

A major progression bug has been fixed.

Improvements:

- Added a healer in S Artemisia

Fixes:

- A significant bug that would prevent a mid-game (semi-mandatory) mission from appearing has been fixed
- flower seller will now comment on bonsly earlier
- A buttload of tile fixes
- A lot of typo and grammar corrections
- fixed invisible npc
- fixed many more scenes not disabling/enabling speedup when they should
- the old map will be deleted after helping the man relieve himself
- fixed west underpass directional transfer to R0
- corrected some floaty mon sprites
- the forgotten uni fridge will now tell you how many fridges you have interacted with
- fixed uni directional transfer to basement
- fixed incorrect npc facing player
- fixed wrong player direction upon exiting an S building
- fixed wrong npc sprite outside S building
- fixed trainer not talking to you before you got your starter in SW

 

[AenaonDusky]

Version 2.20

Additions:

- Added the legacy event for Ulysses house after a certain point in the story

Improvements:

- Fixed various descriptions that wouldn't update at certain mission points. Almost all missions should update properly now.
- Added more save points after and during missions

Fixes:

- Fixed PDA menu check checking for the wrong thing (your PDA should show up / disappear properly now)
- Fixed SE tent interiors being visible from other tent interiors
- Fixed speedup not being disabled/enabled in various cutscenes
- Fixed Senkopex Enforcer not disappearing after the Doctor event in E
- Fixed incorrect enemy trainer positioning
- Fixed NPC in E not having any dialogue
- Various tile fixes
- A whole bunch of typos and grammar
- Added mission complete message after procurement of Bonsly
- Fixed wild battle theme not playing during the Ariados fight
- Fixed Ulysses not disappearing during and after a certain mission
- Fixed MC portrait not showing in a couple of dialogues
- Fixed duplicate fairy spring entrance dialogue
- Fixed a port NPC not turning towards player
- Fixed some sewer transfers transferring you one tile higher
- Fixed Acrobatics description

 

[AenaonDusky]

2.21 - Episode 2 Final update (for real this time - unless something major comes up)
Thanks to the amazing work of Erun, a crazy amount of bugs have been fixed.

Improvements:

- Redesigned some parts of Fall's Pass
- updated Amalcaldesa relative dialogue post-karp form.

Bugfixes

Spoiler:

- Fixed more incorrect speedup enabling/disabling
- Fixed Portrait Crash in Port
- Fixed wrong direction NPCs
- Fixed gangsta outfit rope climbing events
- Fixed one npc not responding to gangsta outfit properly
- S Doctor will no be permanently scared if gangsta
- more tile fixes
- Fixed Fall's Pass Cave to Fall's Pass side not detecting you one tile higher
- Fixed strength prompt refusal still activating strength
- Fixed weirdly behaving stairs in Route 1
- Fixed 1 tile higher Cave spawn
- Fixed missing portrait in R1 hole events
- Fixed missing item icon
- Fixed autumn ruins entrance warp length
- Replaced missing item icons
- updated swamp mission description after stage 1
- yet another bunch of typos and grammar

 

[Sirius Black]

Spoiler:

my review of Postscriptum: Fated Epistle without spoilers​

I'd like to start by saying, this review is of my own opinion and in no way should anyone take anything I say to be reflective of the creators of this game, I have been in their discord community for several days while playing PS:FE and PS:MS (The side-story which unveils more of the current lore of the game and some more of the characters mentioned in PS:FE either overtly or directly.)

When I first started playing PS:FE I was not active in their discord, and I played it like I would ANY other Pokémon fangame - I talked to NPCs, and got a feel for the world around me. I immersed myself in the surface level. This is a mistake. PS:FE is much more than this, as I soon came to find out. You can very easily play this game and miss a lot of side-content that is hidden just well enough to really cause you (the player) to have to think in order to find it. Which I personally find to be excellent.

With that said, there are serious moments in the game that get pretty close to touching on a lot of real-life issues, including morality, philosophy and religion. This is part of the games charm, but it can be offsetting to many people. Fair warning.

Those serious moments are also offset by very unserious moments, wherein the MC (Main Character) may do or say something that may cause you (The Player) to snort in laughter or roll your eyes in exasperation. Totally depends on your humor. I found them to be mildly hilarious if not a tad overdone at times.

I was able to invest roughly 30-40 hours in a true playthrough of PS:FE, which was doing everything I could to go outside of the box and discover everything I could. I truly did enjoy that 30-40 hours of gameplay, which involved a LOT of usage of their discord and Google when I was stuck. I truly think it was worth my time.

This game has a really interesting and in-depth lore, the likes of which I feel I have very rarely seen in recent years. It definitely isn't meant for the younger audience however, and the game itself does attempt to be just confusing enough to offset the younger audience which is a good (and bad) thing.

There are cons as well though, due to the need to try and dissuade the younger audience from playing the game, the intro of the game is quite... rough to get through. It's confusing. There are better ways to go about doing this, however in order to do so effectively and remain in lore with the series is another topic of debate altogether.

If I had to rate PS:FE and PS:MA (I haven't gotten around to TFJ - Episode 0 if you will) i'd give it a solid 8/10 for Lore, Gameplay and Creativity.

As stated before, this is my own opinion and I will stand by it, I'll definitely be playing any and all future releases. I do truly like the game thus far, a lot.

UPDATED REVIEW OF PS:FE (Including a review of Red's Journey West and The First Journey) - without spoilers
Above you will find my original review from 2021.​

Where to begin... Postscriptum: Fated Epistle truly does hold a special place in my heart. The game has been revamped massively since I last played it in 2021, but good little side-note, this game never really left my conscious memory. What I mean by this, is that I never forgot that I wanted to revisit it. I know that might come off... odd - but it's true. Sometimes you'll play fan games or rom hacks, and they have their own little caveats or niches that are fun like excellent story, excellent mechanics, funny humor, deep plotlines, excellent mapping, Pokémon diversity, and overall genuine creativity but you may only play it once or twice, or visit a beta that's released and play it and maybe decide you want to wait for a full release... and Postscriptum has it all... minus the Pokémon diversity - BUT this fits the storyline of the game entirely. To date, Postscriptum is actually one of maybe 2 total fangames/rom hacks (combining the categories here, don't hate me.) that I've consistently wanted to play/revisit despite not being a full release. It's that good.

With the revamp of the game, there's actually been a significant reduction in content since the last version I played, but what AenaonDusky makes up for with this decision is just how much more polished the game actually is. The world feels much more fluid and easy to access. In my previous review I noted that the intro to the game felt jarring and "rough to get through" and I feel like the revamped version of the game (as of 2.21) has solved most of this. The side quest system is much more involved, creating a ideal situation where unlike my first playthrough in the legacy version, I did not have to use Google or Discord nearly as much as before. This is a huge positive thing to point out. (Do note, there's been a roughly 2 year time gap in between my playthroughs, so I did not remember a lot of what I did before.)

The humor is as always, top-notch and I must admit, it's been refined. It's not as out of place, yet you can randomly talk to a fridge NPC or just a random NPC and be hit with something so absurd that you will laugh at the sheer randomness of the dialogue. I find this to be delightful.

The battle system is a bit interesting, there are fakemon, this isn't always everyone's cup of tea. However, AenaonDusky creates a interesting atmosphere where the Pokémon available are a good mix between regular and fakemon, and the fakemon that do exist are Postscriptum lore-consistent, it's not just cause giggles.

Red's Journey West (which has it's own separate thread but I digress as this is a whole universe) opens up a lot of addition sub-lore that helps create an understanding of why Fated Epistle is the way it is, it doesn't explain everything, as we (the players) don't know everything going on yet, but it gives us more than enough to theory-craft and salivate over what's to come. On top of that, it's just a really well done spin off of a version of Johto. Likewise, The First Journey also gives this kind of context (hence why it will always be known as Episode 0 in the PS series.) and subsequently makes you hate a character in canon Pokémon lore that you would never expect nor want to hate. Which is wild, truly. It speaks volumes of the story crafting.

With that said: This game delves into more mature aspects of life without being intrusive - you can expect to learn quite a bit about religious aspects, concepts of total world control/evolution over creationism and the concepts that go along with that, but it never sinks so deeply into these aspects that it removes from the enjoyability of the series itself. It's fun for most if not all audiences as long as you take the time to understand what you are reading as you progress through the story. It never becomes so focused on these aspects that it becomes edgy, which is a really fine balance that the more-mature focused Pokémon fangames can sometimes struggle with. AenaonDusky pulls this off superbly.

tl;dr - for those of us who hate long-winded text walls - this game deserves the attention and praise and is definitely worth playing. With the revamped version as it currently stands, 10/10. Up from 8/10 due to the sheer amount of effort and resolve into improving what existed and refining the world created while also introducing several hours of side-games that delve even deeper into existing in-universe lore.

 

[FreeRPGFiend]

Please help XD I walked into the barrel gang place after having beat it already and I was teleported to the main desk guy who did the whole "Here's your reward" conversation again, I guess I then saved my game, like an idiot- cause the barrel door guard won't move so I can't leave, and when I reload my save I'm right there at the front desk. It's okay if this is irreversible Xp I don't mind playing through the game again. I'm already mourning my lost progress XD but this is a great game. Also, just a bug report I have two of the mission "Personal Log: Weird-ass tree" in my PDA.

 

[AenaonDusky]

Please help XD I walked into the barrel gang place after having beat it already and I was teleported to the main desk guy who did the whole "Here's your reward" conversation again, I guess I then saved my game, like an idiot- cause the barrel door guard won't move so I can't leave, and when I reload my save I'm right there at the front desk. It's okay if this is irreversible Xp I don't mind playing through the game again. I'm already mourning my lost progress XD but this is a great game. Also, just a bug report I have two of the mission "Personal Log: Weird-ass tree" in my PDA.

Oof, not that bug again... I thought I took care of it. Thanks for both bug reports.
Please send me your save, It's easy to fix on my side. There is a chance I might not be able to get back to you until after next week, but I will do my best.

Glad you like the game!

 

[FreeRPGFiend]

No problem! Here you are- https://mega.nz/file/dq9hCJQY#y-2MU6D4KCR1TXxZ1ZocdPFrPpPM5pUdyZtWLi3f4no

Sorry for the wait. It took me a while to find a way to share the file. Thanks so much for the help! I'm excited to get back to playing through it. Take your time though, I'm just glad to hear it may be recoverable. X) I'm having an epic time replaying the game while I wait for "Kyle 1" to get repaired XD. So cool to see how much has changed since I originally started playing the game!

EDIT: I linked the wrong save file at first but I fixed it 20 minutes after I posted it. Also figured out how to have multiple saves- though I almost lost my save file in the process. X)

 

[AenaonDusky]

No problem! Here you are- https://mega.nz/file/dq9hCJQY#y-2MU6D4KCR1TXxZ1ZocdPFrPpPM5pUdyZtWLi3f4no

Sorry for the wait. It took me a while to find a way to share the file. Thanks so much for the help! I'm excited to get back to playing through it. Take your time though, I'm just glad to hear it may be recoverable. X) I'm having an epic time replaying the game while I wait for "Kyle 1" to get repaired XD. So cool to see how much has changed since I originally started playing the game!

EDIT: I linked the wrong save file at first but I fixed it 20 minutes after I posted it. Also figured out how to have multiple saves- though I almost lost my save file in the process. X)

I am back, sorry for the long delay!

Here is your fixed Kyle savefile (rename to "game")
https://mega.nz/file/AHYEwTwR#CVaVotrhWPjs6-Up9zH7iIF46PRok8x7Da9KW9V60GU

Glad to see a returning player, I hope you had fun! Please leave a review if you'd like! And I am doing my best to have the next update drop as soon as I can. In the meanwhile, check out Frontier!

 

[Mr. SU]

Just made an account to I can post here. I really enjoyed this game so far! Just hit the end of episode 2.

I really enjoyed the story a lot, having a good non-silent protagonist really strengthens their place in the world and their relationship to other characters. The biggest advantage of this is there being a disconnect between the player and the player character means people can get mad at the player character without the player themself taking it too personally, Sylvia ended up being my favorite character because of this. I'm certainly familiar with fangames taking place in a crapsack city (Reborn is my all-time favorite fangame) but I love the way it uses it to examine the flaws of meritocracy, the innate privileges and disadvantages people are born with and being an excuse for a lot of blues music.

Sidequests are a very tricky thing to get right in rpgs, I either don't care for them and I avoid them at all costs unless I have to (Hi Xenoblade 1) or I do almost all of them and I love them (Hi Shin Megami Tensei 5). I got really into them for how they all iterated on the world-building and with some of the later ones, gave you more time to spend with the characters. If you can get me hooked on them when there's literally no reward for them 99% of the time then you know you did something right.

The only thing I disliked is early on it's not always entirely clear when you can't complete a sidequest, I spent way too much time running around route 0 trying to figure out if I could progress the Farm sidequest with the former convict and I ended up checking in rpgmaker to see if I could progress it or not. I think a good fix to this would be adding an event right at the entrance to the route after you hit that point in the sidequest where The Courier (idk if he has a cannon name or not) comments on not being able to reach the cave at this time.

Other than that, I thought the design was pretty intuitive, it took me an embarrassingly long time to notice bonsly was hiding in the park in the west when it was hiding in plain sight. And I also never got my hands on Budew, I lost a battle on my way back to the doc at the courier center and I think I gave the budew to the doc and then nothing ever came of that, either I missed something or it's a glitch, oh well. Someone should make a guide for this game, if no one else is willing to do it after the next episode, I might step up to the plate on that.

All in all, great job! I look forward to trying out The First Journey and Red's Journey West in the future and seeing the next update whenever that is. By the way, is the soundtrack for this game anywhere on Youtube?

 

[AenaonDusky]

Just made an account to I can post here. I really enjoyed this game so far! Just hit the end of episode 2.

I really enjoyed the story a lot, having a good non-silent protagonist really strengthens their place in the world and their relationship to other characters. The biggest advantage of this is there being a disconnect between the player and the player character means people can get mad at the player character without the player themself taking it too personally, Sylvia ended up being my favorite character because of this. I'm certainly familiar with fangames taking place in a crapsack city (Reborn is my all-time favorite fangame) but I love the way it uses it to examine the flaws of meritocracy, the innate privileges and disadvantages people are born with and being an excuse for a lot of blues music.

Thanks so much for your detailed review and kind words!
I will get to implementing and fixing everything you mentioned asap.

I understand that many people read the game in a more sociological aspect than a psychological one, but the original intention was for the latter. You got me on the blues excuse though xD

The canon name for the Courier is more of a fanon name, haha. We call him George. But, there is also a secret canon name you might figure out once you've gone through TFJRJW.

I would advise you to wait for TFJRWJ big update coming up pretty soon (hopefully in a couple of weeks). Then, play Frontier demo (pre-prequel), and you can also try Overcome in the meanwhile (unrelated game, and genre, but still as fun... not for everyone though)