0.4.3 fixes a battle problem that affected play, Android phones that would not start and a random freeze with HD images, and improves large screens, Windows and the layout of translated text. The HD pack has not changed and is still HD 1.0; if you have it installed, there is nothing to download again.
What’s new
- No more random freezes with HD images. On every platform since 0.3.1, with HD images on, the game could now and then stop for good on some screen (sometimes the sound too), and even Esc could not close it; it came more often after openings that pass several HD maps. The render thread, releasing an expired HD map, asked for a lock it already held and locked itself. That is fixed. Thanks to the players who sent problem reports; that is how it was found.
- Battle: spirits cast on the pre-battle page now count. The original settles an exchange, hit rolls included, before its confirmation screen. After casting a spirit on our pre-battle page, only the shown hit rates were updated: Bullseye showed 100% while the battle played the earlier rolls, and Valor, Soul, Spirit, Wall, Vigor, Guts, Fortune and Gain did not apply to that battle. The exchange is now settled again after the cast with the original’s own steps, keeping the chosen response and counter weapon.
- Android: some phones no longer quit at start. Mali phones with older drivers (such as the Samsung Galaxy A15 and A35) said “Unable to find compatible graphics device” and closed. The Android build required a Vulkan extension that is only used for debugging, and those drivers do not offer it. It is optional now, and the game starts on real Galaxy A15, A35 and Pixel 7 phones. The Android build also drops its debug asserts and is a little smaller.
- Android: Snapdragon 865/870/888 phones no longer crash or miss parts of the picture. Adreno 650 (Snapdragon 865/870, such as the POCO F3 and Galaxy Tab S7) crashed about a second into drawing; the Adreno 660 driver (Snapdragon 888, such as the Galaxy S21 Ultra) could not build some shaders and crashed at start. Both are fixed and checked on real devices. On Android, a new material also came out nearly transparent for its first frames; on the Adreno 660 that meant missing battle backgrounds and HP/EN frames, and trails behind units.
- Android: a game that gets stuck writes where each thread is into its log, so a problem report from Options → Report shows us where it stopped.
- Android: touch controls are one fixed full set again. The buttons that changed by screen were missing some that a few screens needed, so for now every screen shows the whole set: the stick on the left, OK, Back, L1/R1, L2/R2, settings and START, named in the game’s language. At PRESS START, the L2/R2 places are the Library and the Battle Viewer.
- Upgrade several levels at once. On the five-stat upgrade screen, left/right plan levels for each stat (several stats at a time), and A then はい pays the whole plan; on the weapon confirm screen, left/right choose how many levels to add. Prices, caps, linked upgrades and the full-upgrade bonus follow the original’s rules; the confirm window shows the total, in red when your funds do not cover it.
- Translations keep inside the original windows. The unit command and intermission menus are wider in every language; a translated label takes the width of its column’s widest original, a sentence the original continues on one line is laid out as one, and English is narrowed before it is made smaller.
- On large screens the pages grow with the window. At 1080p or 4K, the pre-battle page, the settings window and the Battle Viewer were half or a quarter of their Steam Deck size, gathered in the middle and the corners. The Interface size now lays them out by the window’s height (Standard, Large, Largest); the Steam Deck is unchanged.
- Windows: sharp on scaled screens. On screens scaled to 150% or 200%, Windows stretched the whole window and everything was soft; the game now draws at the screen’s own pixels.
- Windows: the program has an icon, and the window has a menu bar (settings, reload dialogue text, check for updates, view options). In full screen the bar hides and the picture fills the screen; moving the mouse to the top edge brings it down. The macOS app has a new icon too.
- Battle: the ability banners (Critical, Shield Defense, Afterimage, the barriers) lose their black plate, so the battle shows through them, and the number beside a banner (Critical 3000) is drawn in HD.
- Starting again is friendlier. Starting right after closing the game waits for the old one to finish exiting; if another game is still open, the game says so in your language and offers to end it and start (unsaved progress there is lost), or to cancel.
- Windows: internal UI checks no longer stop the game with a dialog.
- Settings… in the menu bar now opens the settings from the Library, the Battle Viewer and the MOD page.
- English: “Counterattack Settings” and “Weapon Stats” are now “Counter Plan” and “Weapons”, so they fit their frames.
If the game stops on one screen, the most common cause is an old graphics driver; the FAQ says how to update it.
If something goes wrong, please report it on GitHub Issues; in the game, Options → Report copies the platform info and saves a problem report. For Android, please include the phone model and its processor.
Android chips tested
The game starts and plays on real phones with these chips (Android 12–16). Entry-level chips like the Dimensity 6100+ run at about 14 FPS; the others mostly at 30. A chip that is not listed has simply not been tested yet; reports on Issues are welcome.
- Qualcomm: Snapdragon 865/870 (Adreno 650; Galaxy Tab S7, POCO F3), 888 (Adreno 660; Galaxy S21 Ultra), 8 Gen 1 (Adreno 730; Galaxy S22, Xiaomi 12), 8 Gen 2 (Adreno 740; Xiaomi 13, Galaxy S23), 8 Gen 3 (Adreno 750; Galaxy S24 Ultra), 8 Elite (Adreno 830; Galaxy S25)
- MediaTek: Dimensity 7300 (Mali-G615; Solana Seeker), Dimensity 6100+ (Mali-G57; Galaxy A15)
- Samsung: Exynos 1380 (Mali-G68; Galaxy A35)
- Google: Tensor G2 (Mali-G710; Pixel 7), Tensor G3 (Mali-G715; Pixel 8)
If you play on a Dimensity 8200 phone, please let us know whether it runs well.
Download
Get it from the install page or from GitHub. On Android it installs over the old version and keeps your saves; on Windows, extract it over the old folder. Earlier changes are in the 0.4.2 and 0.4.1 notes, and the full feature list in the 0.4.0 release notes.