New build! This one is especially noteworthy for being the one build in the history of the game’s development with the largest number of changes from the one that came before it (aside from the Osana release and 1980s Mode release). How many changes? 101 exactly – meaning that I can say this build has over one hundred differences between it and the previous build!
So, what are those differences?
- 31 changes/improvements
- 69 bug fixes (25 of which are specific to Osana)
- 1 new character
Yes, you read that correctly – a new character!
Are you disappointed that it’s another bug-fixing build? Read this.
To see what I have to say about the new character and read a list of everything that was changed or fixed in the latest build, please scroll down past this video – a song about Ayano, created by a Japanese fan of the game, using some very impressive voice synthesis software!
New Character
As most of you already know, 1980s Mode contains countless throwbacks to the earliest stages of the game’s development; the original school uniform, the original laugh animation, the original home music, the Rainbow Girls, Witness-chan, Study-kun A and Study-kun B, the pompadour delinquents, the female delinquents, the school nurse, etc. However, there is one other throwback that I always wanted to include, but never had the assets to implement…until now.
Back in 2014, the original plan for Info-chan was that she would be the president of the school’s newspaper club, and would be encouraging Ayano to commit murders so that she would have an exciting topic to write articles about. In 2014, one of the first artists who ever volunteered to help with Yandere Simulator – Aea – drew this concept artwork for Info-chan as Newspaper Club President:
In modern day, Newspapers aren’t as relevant as they used to be; the Internet has largely replaced printed media as the way that people get their news and information. I decided that teenagers living in 202X probably wouldn’t care about operating a Newspaper club, and scrapped the idea of putting a Newspaper Club into Akademi…however, newspapers were still relevant in the eighties, so I decided to bring back the concept of a Newspaper club for 1980s Mode.
So, in a gameplay mode built upon the idea of throwbacks to the earliest stages of the game’s development, what would be the most appropriate design for the president of the Newspaper Club? Why, the original design that was created for Info-chan back in 2014, of course!
Up until now, the president of the Newspaper Club in 1980s Mode has been some generic dude that was created by randomly choosing a hair model and randomly generating an authentic-sounding Japanese name. However, from now on, the president of the 1989 Newspaper Club will be this girl: Shinako Bunzai!
As a nod to her original 2014 design, she wears short white socks and clutches a camera in her hands everywhere she goes.
All students with the “Sleuth” Persona don’t actually start “Sleuthing” – actively searching for suspicious behavior at school – until after School Atmosphere has dropped beneath 80%. However, Shinako is different; she always has her camera in her hands, even when School Atmosphere is at 100%, which makes her the only student at school who can snap an incriminating photograph of you even when School Atmosphere is at its highest.
The school’s newspaper is posted on the bulletin board nearby the place where students change their shoes in the morning. While I was writing those articles, I was imagining them as being written by Shinako, rather than the generic randomly-generated dude who has been the head of the Newspaper Club up until now. So, you can consider those articles to be a good way to get insight into her personality.
Shinako idolizes Sonoko, the 10th rival of 1980s Mode. (Her reverence for Sonoko should probably come across in the articles she posts on the school bulletin board in the 10th week of the game.) Actually, I came up with a pretty extensive and elaborate backstory for Sonoko, including a dark secret she possesses that would absolutely destroy her career as a detective if it was ever exposed. I couldn’t figure out how to incorporate this dark secret into Sonoko’s week, so for now, it’s just an unknown part of the lore that has no way to be discovered by the player…but the addition of Shinako into the game could create some new options. Shinako is absolutely obsessed with Sonoko, and I think that the player should be able take advantage of that somehow; for example, encouraging Shinako to investigate a mystery about Sonoko, which would eventually lead Shinako to discover the dark truth about her idol. Shinako would immediately publish this information, leading to a unique elimination for Sonoko – being taken down by her own biggest fan.
As of now, Shinako sticks out as the only club leader in 1980s Mode who has a deliberate design and an actual personality; she’s the one 1980s Mode club leader who isn’t a generic character with a randomly-chosen hair and name. I would love to make every club leader in 1980s Mode as elaborate as Shinako is, but ultimately, it’s not high on my priority list compared to the other things I want to accomplish before the crowdfunding campaign. It would be fun to gradually start replacing the 1980s Mode club leaders with much deeper characters with much better designs…but it’s the sort of thing I could only accomplish with support from interested 2D and 3D artist volunteers.
Changes and Improvements
- After eliminating Osana, the game will display a message the next time the player enters the Calendar screen; a message that basically says, “Now that you’ve defeated your rival, you have the choice of continuing to attend school or just skipping directly to the next week.” However, this message didn’t display in 1980s Mode. I’ve updated the Calendar screen so that this message appears in 1980s Mode, too, so that new players who are playing Yandere Sim for the first time don’t get confused about what they’re supposed to be doing after they’ve eliminated their first rival.
- At high school atmosphere, the scream of a student being pushed off the school rooftop was not reaching Kokona and Saki, who were standing very close to the place where the student screamed. The scream was only reaching them at low school atmosphere (where students react to screams from further distances because they’re actively listening for screams). I’ve decided to increase the “size” of a scream that emanates from a student being pushed from the rooftop so that Kokona and Saki will actually react to it even at high school atmosphere.
- The “Fire Student Council Member” service is only available in Mission Mode. It is greyed out in the normal gameplay mode, which was supposed to indicate to the player that this feature is inaccessible outside of Mission Mode – but many players were still trying to access it, believing that it would become available if some kind of criteria was met. To prevent this misunderstanding from taking place, the “Fire Student Council Member” service will no longer even appear on the list in normal gameplay mode.
- Corrected an oversight in the 9th Rival’s week. If School Atmosphere is so low that the Photography Clubmembers have transformed into “Sleuths”, or if the entire Photography Club is dead, then the club wouldn’t be willing/able to participate in the 9th Rival’s photo shoot at the school pool. So, from now on, under those circumstances, the 9th Rival will no longer perform a photo shoot at the school pool, and instead will walk around school.
- When the player defeats a student or a teacher in the struggle minigame, the player tosses their corpse to the side. This would sometimes result in a character’s corpse clipping into a nearby wall, causing their ragdoll physics to freak out. From now on, chacters will move/rotate away from nearby walls after losing the Struggle Minigame, preventing the clipping or janky ragdolling from happening anymore.
- Removed exploit that allowed the player to sneak metal weapons past metal detectors by putting them into a bag. (I do think there should be a way to sneak metal weapons past metal detectors, but I think that the player should have to do little bit of extra work to modify a container so that it fools metal detectors. I’ll implement the feature in a future update.)
- From now on, when selecting the “Gossip” option from the student interaction wheel, the Student Info Menu will open on the last student that the player gossiped about, instead of resetting to the first student every time. This should make it easier to gossip about one student repeatedly, without having to manually re-select that student every time the menu is opened.
- Previously, the player was disallowed from pushing Ritsuko (the 5th rival of 1980s Mode) into the school pool if any students were present nearby. From now on, it is possible to do so if witnesses are present, but any witnesses see you kill her, they will immediately identify you as a murderer.
- If a teacher or student council member is guarding a corpse, they will no longer care if the player is trespassing nearby, since guarding a corpse / looking for a killer is more important than shouting at a student for trespassing.
- If the player was sent to the counselor in 1989 for taking lewd photographs, the counselor would describe the player as taking pictures with a “phone”. This was historically inaccurate, so the line has been changed for 1980s Mode.
- It is no longer possible for the player to collide with the weapon bag or the cello case, since the player could exploit those objects to build “staircases” that allowed the player to reach places they shouldn’t be able to reach.
- Once again, made adjustments to the “dump corpse into manhole” script in an attempt to eliminate the “corpse floats upwards after hitting the water” or “corpse floats just above the water” scenarios.
- Time will now freeze when the “Practice with Clubmembers” window is onscreen, to remove exploits that were only possible by letting large amounts of time pass while that window remained onscreen.
- A student will no longer react to stink bombs if they are dealing with something much more important – being soaking wet, reacting to consuming any type of poison, vomiting, or swimming.
- The “Provide Rival’s Dark Secrets” service can only be purchased once per week, but the text description implied that it could only be purchased once, ever. This text has been re-worded.
- Updated the mask that appears on Ayano’s face after she joins the delinquents to match the “Delinquent Ayano” artwork that was added to the Characters page of the official website.
- After joining the delinquents Ayano will now obtain ear piercings so that her in-game appearance matches her delinquent design on the Characters page of the official website.
- It is now possible to use the “Void Goddess” (floating spider lady) to disable the Journalist in 1980s Mode (by pressing the “E” key while highlighting Info-chan’s icon).
- Made a rendering optimization that should drastically improve the FPS when looking towards the school while standing at the mythical cherry tree hill.
- Corrected an error in one of Jose’s subtitles (every teacher in school is a woman, so he should have been saying “professora” instead of “professor”).
- From now on, it will no longer be considered “suspicious” to walk around with a lit candle in your hands if you are a member of the Occult Club.
- It is no longer possible to be electrocuted by a puddle of water if you are wearing a raincoat and rubber boots while you step into the puddle.
- Cooking Club students should no longer attempt to feed a student who is currently asleep in the school infirmary after eating drugged food.
- Reading your rival’s diary will now cause their likes and dislikes to appear on their “Opinions” page within their Student Info page.
- Added a “Personas” tutorial to the tutorial menu so that players can learn about the “Change your Persona” mechanic.
- It is now possible to rapidly scroll up/down the Student Info Menu by holding the up/down buttons.
- Changed Yuna Hina’s hair model; now it looks much more like her original classic hair style.
- Corrected typo on the golden emblem above the school gate; “Akademi” was spelled “Academi.”
- The price of the Yakuza’s narcotics now goes up every week, exactly like the explosives.
- Added one new plushie to the plushie shelf. Welcome, Oishiioppa!
- Replaced all 1980s Mode rival hair models.
Fixes
- When Senpai is traumatized by a rival’s death, he is supposed to stay home from school on the next day to mourn the death of the rival. However, if the player used the “Skip Day” feature at the Calendar screen, Senpai would stay home from school the next day the player went to school, rather than staying home the day after the rival’s death. This bug has been fixed.
- If the protagonist’s Sanity is lower than 33%, she will giggle involuntarily every few seconds. This could create an extremely rare circumstance where the player could giggle and attack a student at the same time, creating visual glitches. This bug has been fixed.
- Fixed bug that prevented any button prompts from appearing at the bottom of the screen after the player had used Info-chan’s “Send a Student Home” service, preventing the player from knowing what buttons to press in order to exit the screen and return to gameplay.
- Fixed bug that would cause Sports Club students to fail to return to their “jogging” animation after they finished inspecting a mysterious object on the ground, if they spotted a mysterious object while in the “jogging” phase of their day.
- Fixed bug that would cause Student Council members to perform a “Super Shove” – a telekinetic shove from 2 meters away – if the player approached them with a non-suspicious weapon while the council member was showing a corpse to a teacher.
- Fixed bug that would cause the player to enter the “Struggle Minigame” and “Being Pepper Sprayed” states simultaneously if the player attached a teacher beside a student council member who was guarding a corpse.
- Fixed bug that caused the game to display the wrong text underneath a rival’s elimination method on the stats screen if the rival was eliminated by a mind-broken slave and the police never learned about it.
- Fixed bug that caused Musume to perform her “writing graffiti on a girl’s desk” animation inside of a bathroom if the player splashed her with water early in the day, stole her phone, and then returned it.
- Fixed bug that would allow the player to regain control of the protagonist even after a game over had occurred if the game over happened specifically because the player was pepper-sprayed during a dismembering animation.
- Fixed bug that would cause the 202X blank portrait – instead of the 1980s blank portrait – to appear on the 1980s Mode Student Info menu when the player killed a teacher and a replacement arrived.
- Fixed bug that prevented a member of the Sports Club from resuming their jog if they noticed something on the ground while jogging, and then the object they noticed was picked up by the player.
- Fixed bug that allowed the player to enter an invalid type of Mission Mode ID into the “Load Mission” text field (a Mission Mode ID for creating any mission about assassinating a teacher).
- Fixed bug that prevented the game from accurately remembering whether or not the player had taken a photograph of a student if the player photographed a student and then reset the day.
- Fixed bug that would cause a water cooler to slide across the ground and spin if the player was carrying a water cooler as they were pushed by a delinquent or student council member.
- Fixed bug that would cause the protagonist to freeze in place permanently if they were being chased by a teacher at the exact moment that a mind-broken slave attacked that teacher.
- Fixed bug that would cause male delinquents to ignore the protagonist’s giggles if they had been alarmed by the sight of the protagonist holding a weapon earlier in the day.
- Fixed bug in the Student Info screen that prevented the “Tag” or “Untag” text from correctly updating after highlighting a student that was currently tagged or not tagged.
- Fixed bug that would cause your rival to spin around in circles if she was attacked by a mind-broken slave while waiting under the confession tree to confess to Senpai.
- Fixed bug that would cause the “teacher lectures you for being late” cutscene to appear even if the protagonist’s teacher was dead or far away from her classroom.
- Fixed bug that allowed players to use the “Send Student Home” service multiple times within one day (it was intended to be a one-student-per-day kind of feature.)
- Fixed bug that would cause the game to get stuck in Yandere Vision of the character was apprehended by a group of 4 students while Yandere Vision was active.
- Fixed bug in the “YouTube Chat Interaction” feature that would cause the feature to stop working if anyone in the chat attempted to use the !cloak command.
- Fixed bug that would cause Senpai to perform a “changing shoes” animation at the confession tree if he was spooked by the player while waiting at the tree.
- Fixed bug that would cause any rival in 1980s Mode to respond to the corpse of Sora Sosuke as if they were Osana discovering the corpse of Raibaru.
- Fixed bug that would cause an attack animation to de-synchronize if the player attacked a student while they were checking their locker for a note.
- Fixed bug that caused the ceiling light in the haunted bathroom to be perpetually on, instead of perpetually off, like it was supposed to be.
- Fixed bug that would cause the rival’s bookbag to teleport to the wrong classroom if the player loaded any 1980s Mode save file past Week 1.
- Fixed bug that prevented student council members from entering the “guarding corpse” state after a nearby teacher had entered that state.
- Fixed bug that would cause the “Rival” map marker to become visible above a rival’s head after they were attacked by a mind-broken slave.
- Fixed bug that prevented the game from correctly remembering which doors were open and which doors were closed upon loading a save file.
- Fixed bug in the “YouTube Chat Interaction” feature that prevented people from being able to disable the reputation or hair commands.
- Fixed bug that could result in characters not noticing corpses if those corpses were located in the exact center of a doorway.
- Fixed bug that made Senpai’s portrait appear when designating a target as “Nobody” in the Mission Mode “Multi Mission” menu.
- Fixed bug that caused the leader of the Photography Club to get stuck while walking around inside of his club in 1980s Mode.
- Fixed bug that was preventing the game from recognizing whether or not the player was aiming a phone at a student’s skirt.
- Fixed bug that prevented the game from recognizing that the player was taking a photo of Nemesis-chan during Mission Mode.
- Fixed bug that made it possible to activate the “rival confesses to Senpai” cutscene while the player was in SNAP Mode.
- Fixed bug that caused a mind-broken slave’s body to turn invisible if their corpse was dropped from the school rooftop.
- Fixed bug that would cause a mind-broken slave’s corpse to turn invisible if they were dumped into the sewers.
- Due to a bug, Komako and Teiko would never move their eyes or lips. This bug has been fixed.
- Fixed bug that would prevent characters from being able to see Ayano when she was crawling.
- Fixed bug that was causing Jokichi to have the wrong school uniform in his student profile.
- Fixed bug that made the player unable to talk to Toga at the start of the school day.
- Fixed bug that made puddles of water appear glitchy while inside of the Cooking Club.
Osana Fixes
- From now on, if Osana’s “sunbathe on Thursday” event is interrupted by a stink bomb, her response will depend on whether or not she is in a bikini. If she is hit by a stink bomb at any point during the event, she will stop moving and hold her nose until the smell goes away, rather than immediately start running away from the stink bomb cloud. This is because she wouldn’t run on the wet surface around the pool (dangerous!). If she is hit by a stink bomb after she has begun to lie down to sunbathe, she will cut the event short and stop, since the stink bomb has ruined the mood and removed her enthusiasm for sunbathing.
- From now on, if Osana’s “read Senpai’s book on Tuesday” event is interrupted by a stink bomb, her response will depend on whether or not Senpai’s book is in her hands. If she is holding his book, the event will end. If she is not holding his book, she will just hold her breath until the smell goes away, and then resume the event.
- Removed exploit that allowed the player to eavesdrop on Osana’s Monday morning private phonecall while standing in a classroom or outside of the school building, where they shouldn’t logically be able to hear the phone call.
- If the player eliminates Osana by forcing her to commit suicide, causing Osana’s corpse to appear at the title screen hanging from a tree, Osana’s corpse and hair will now sway back and forth in the wind.
- Fixed bug that could cause Osana to be in the “having a meeting after reading a note in her locker” state and the “Talk with Musume” or “make a playlist for Senpai” states simultaneously.
- Fixed bug that would cause the player to get caught in the “turning off phone alarm” minigame if Osana was attacked by a mind-broken slave while the player was in that minigame.
- Fixed bug that would cause the game to soft-lock if Osana’s “confess to Senpai” cutscene played immediately after the police had been called to school to investigate a murder.
- Fixed bug that would prevent Osana from playing the “stabbed to death by mind-broken slave” animation if the slave attacked her while she was sleeping on the school rooftop.
- Updated Osana’s student portrait – she should never have looked mean and grumpy in her portrait, since she’s meant to be a nice and friendly girl to everyone except Senpai.
- Fixed bug that would cause Raibaru to forget what she was supposed to be doing during Osana’s “talk with Musume” event if the player giggled near Raibaru during the event.
- Fixed bug that prevented any of Osana’s “talk with Senpai after 5:00 PM before going home” events from ending properly if she was hit by a stink bomb during the event.
- From now on, if Osana’s “private phone call on Monday” event is interrupted by a stink bomb, her subsequent event (tour all clubs with Raibaru) will not happen.
- Fixed bug that could cause Osana to be in the “having a meeting after reading a note in her locker” state and the “Thursday rooftop nap” state simultaneously.
- Fixed bug that prevented Osana/Raibaru from changing back into the correct clothing in the shower building if Osana’s pool event was interrupted.
- Fixed bug that prevented Osana’s “make a mixtape for Senpai” event from ending properly if she was hit by a stink bomb during the event.
- Fixed bug that prevented Osana’s “share mixtape with Senpai” event from ending properly if she was hit by a stink bomb during the event.
- Fixed bug that would cause Osana’s hair model to detatch itself from Osana’s head if Osana was attacked during her sunbathing event.
- Fixed bug that would cause Osana to instantly snap into her school uniform if Raibaru was attacked during Osana’s sunbathing event.
- Fixed bug that prevented Osana’s “kick vending machine” event from ending properly if she was hit by a stink bomb during the event.
- Fixed bug that prevented Osana’s “give bento to Senpai” event from ending properly if she was hit by a stink bomb during the event.
- Fixed bug that prevented Osana’s “private phone call” event from ending properly if she was hit by a stink bomb during the event.
- Fixed bug that prevented Osana’s “talk with Musume” event from ending properly if she was hit by a stink bomb during the event.
- Fixed bug that prevented Osana’s “nap on rooftop” event from ending properly if she was hit by a stink bomb during the event.
- Fixed bug in Mission Mode that would make Osana react to a corpse by searching for a Senpai that does not exist.
- Fixed bug that would cause Osana to freeze in place permanently if she was alarmed while sunbathing.
What’s Next?
The number of bug reports I’ve been receiving has dropped sharply. I’d like to believe that this is the month I’ll finally return to adding/improving features rather than fixing bugs. However, there’s no way to predict the future. It all depends on how many bug reports I get.
