In which our hero crunches numbers!

I'm happy to say I'm getting somewhere after fighting through the fog!

Stats are aligning with some of the minigame mechanics in what will hopefully be a semi-balanced way. Gifts and Affection points are on the up-and-up. Previously, with one particular skater, a $5 gift gave 2 Affection points and a $15 gift garnered 3. Huh?! I think I know what I was trying to do with that, but it's just tedious for a game of this (short) length. You can expect a dollar value and an Affection bonus to be at a fairly solid ratio in Rorasuketo. I won't try to bamboozle or irritate anybody.

I'm also inserting a Hunger mechanic. HP drains a little during the story and a lot during derby bouts. Similar to the Confidence mechanic, the game will contain certain checkpoints. You can let things slide sometimes, but if your statistics aren't taken care of at certain critical moments, the story suffers. This is my answer to lacking a classic JRPG system but still wanting food around. Because... c'mon. It's fun.

And, with those stats in the right range, equipment is getting dialed in.

Back to bouts. It's worth noting that I think they stopped calling them "bouts" in 2018 or something like that, but referring to a minigame in a game in a game gets a little dizzying. So "bout" remains.

Take care of each other out there. Times are tough, but compassion and community are not to be underestimated.