《EMPRESS: Pokémon 2D Arena》1.0.0 重大更新发布

1.0.0 IS HERE!

Okay... this is a BIG one.

This update brings a lot of changes to EMPRESS: Pokémon 2D Arena on Windows and Android. Better controls, cleaner battles, quieter sounds, evolving Pokémon, more interactive arenas, and a few things people have been asking for!

Thank you to everyone playing and sending suggestions. Some of those suggestions are now part of the game. So let's get into it.

FULLSCREEN ARENA BATTLES

The battle now fills the game viewport, with your health bars and controls sitting inside the action.

Cleaner battle UI with less wasted space.
Health bars displayed over the arena.
Improved layouts for Windows, phones, and tablets.
Solo battles pause when you open the battle menu.

Private battles still run while your menu is open. Your friend isn't going to wait forever. LOL.

ANDROID PLAYERS: MOVE YOUR BUTTONS!

Playing on a big tablet with a tiny movement pad wasn't exactly comfortable. You can now set up the controls how you want them.

Open Settings > Customize Touch Controls to:

Move and resize the movement joystick.
Move and resize Dodge.
Adjust all four attack buttons.
Reposition and resize your Pokémon switching controls.
Change control opacity.
Start with a phone or tablet preset.
Save your layout, cancel changes, or reset it.

Your layout is remembered between sessions. Windows players can still customize their keyboard controls too.

YES, POKÉMON CAN EVOLVE DURING BATTLE

This is an optional Quick Battle setting. It is OFF by default.

Turn on Battle Evolution and your Pokémon can evolve while the fight is happening!

Landing attacks and taking damage build a Pokémon's battle spirit. Each Pokémon has its own readiness and timing, with some randomness involved. That little Pokémon taking a beating might still have something left to show you.

Player and CPU Pokémon evolve independently.
The same evolution rules apply to both sides.
Only Pokémon with a supported next evolution can evolve.
Each Pokémon can evolve one stage per match.
Branching evolutions choose a valid next form.
Evolution keeps your current health percentage. No free full heal!
PP, cooldowns, and status conditions carry through.
Your saved team stays the same after the battle.

This does not affect Story Mode or private matches. It's there for people who want a little extra unpredictability in their Quick Battles.

CPU VS CPU

Sometimes you just want to watch Pokémon fight. Fair enough.

You can now choose CPU vs CPU in Quick Battle and watch two randomized teams go at it!

Randomized Pokémon on both teams.
Choose the arena and CPU difficulty.
Use the optional evolution and living arena settings.
Pause the match whenever you want.
Roll another random matchup from the results screen.

Pick a side and see if your prediction survives the first Pokémon.

THE ARENAS HAVE MORE GOING ON

Cover can now take damage, crack, and break apart. Destroying it opens paths for movement and attacks, and different materials react differently to move types.

But I wanted more than breakable rocks everywhere.

The Living Arena option adds themed events to Quick Battles. Watch for the warning glows and decide whether going for the reward is worth leaving your position.

Indigo Stadium: Recharge pads restore missing PP.
Viridian Grove: Bloom gardens provide a small heal.
Cinder Crater: Thermal vents ready your Dodge, while pressure gradually cracks the cover.
Azure Coast: Tide pools wash away burn and poison.
Celestial Ruins: Echo sigils recover move cooldown time.
Frostpeak Summit: Updraft circles give you extra movement speed while you're inside.

Each side gets its own opportunity to claim the available rewards. Living arenas can be toggled separately from evolution and do not affect Story Mode or private matches.

THE SOUND NEEDED SOME WORK

Some attacks were way too loud. Others piled on top of each other and got annoying pretty quickly.

The sound levels have been reviewed, loud recordings have been brought down, harsh frequencies softened, and overlapping effects reduced. Quiet recordings haven't just been turned up to match the loud ones.

You also have separate controls for:

Master volume
Music
Attack sounds
Arena sounds
Menu and battle cues
Pokémon cries

There are Balanced and Gentle presets, plus sound previews. You can adjust the mix from the battle menu too.

Want the music up and the attacks down? Now you can actually do that.

MOVE EFFECTS AND ANIMATION IMPROVEMENTS

More distinct move trails, projectiles, impacts, and timing.
Improved use of the existing recorded move sounds.
Better handling of missing or invalid animation frames.
Idle and action motion for static sprites.
Improved visual fallbacks when a Pokémon doesn't have a matching attack animation.
Material-specific debris and effects when cover breaks.

This doesn't mean every Pokémon suddenly has a completely new animation set, but it should make battles feel more consistent and give moves more of their own identity.

EASY, NORMAL, OR HARD

The CPU was a bit much for some people. You now have a choice.

Easy: More room to learn and get comfortable.
Normal: The standard challenge.
Hard: Faster reactions and less room for mistakes.

Difficulty changes things like aim, reaction timing, dodging, and attack rhythm. It doesn't inflate the Pokémon's stats.

YOUR TRAINER NAME AND BADGE CASE

When you first enter Empress, you can choose your trainer name. You can change it later in Settings.

And when you beat a Gym Leader, you should have something to show for it!

Gym victories present the badge you've earned.
Earned badges are displayed in your Badge Case.
Uncollected badges stay locked until you defeat their Gym Leaders.
Open the case from the main navigation or the story menu.

Fill that case. You earned those wins.

PRIVATE ROOM FIXES AND BALANCE

You can now finish a private match, change your team, and return to the same room for another battle.

Rooms remain available after a match.
Change teams without having to create a new room.
Both players ready up before the host starts the next match.
The host can change arenas between matches.

Toxic and movement-speed boosts have also received limits in private battles to help with the whole "poison them once and run forever" situation.

Those balance changes are specific to private matches. Single-player status behavior is preserved.

Both players should use version 1.0.0. Internet connections can still depend on your network setup.

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL

Windows: Extract the entire ZIP into a folder, then run Empress-Pokemon-2D.exe. Keep the included files together.

Android: Install the new APK and allow the first-launch asset preparation to finish.

Important: Android 1.0 uses a new app identity and starts fresh. It does not carry over progress from the old 0.4.1 app.

Android 8.0 or newer is required. ARM64, ARMv7, and x86_64 are included. Compatibility with devices requiring 16 KB memory pages is still unverified.

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING

This is a big update, and I'm excited for people to get their hands on it.

Try the new options, move those buttons somewhere comfortable, collect your badges, and let me know how it feels. If something acts weird, tell me which Pokémon, which move, and what device you're playing on. That helps a lot.

Enjoy 1.0.0. I'm not done with this game yet!

Empress.