[Click here to start from the first progress log]

It’s been a month and a half since I last checked in on Foxtail, though it feels like it’s been a million years because of how busy things have become since then. Still, it received some updates and I’ve been meaning to see what those are all about. Also, I saw some people talking about an alternate solution to the cat problem, so obviously that was a factor. Foxtail advertises itself as an adventure game where puzzles often have multiple solutions, so it’s difficult to know exactly which solutions are new and which were existing ones I merely stumbled across for the first time, but other things like the dialogue and progression have definitely been tweaked a bit.

And some explanation screens

It wasn’t particularly difficult to figure out what all of the options did when the game first came out, but you did have to figure that stuff out on your own. Now the menu has a button you can press that explains everything, including some things that are either new or that I simply failed to piece together. Things like the scroll wheel apparently scrolling the inventory, and the existence of a quick save and quick load.

The search for alternate solutions

This is something I’m pretty sure was already in the game before, but using the coin on the pond (or swamp, as Leah calls it) causes a fish to leap out of the water, giving you a short time to pick it up. It’s also possible for the fish to just eat the coin. I’m not 100% on what causes this, but I suspect that you’re only able to obtain one fish.

I could swear that I read something about the fish working to distract the cat, but I couldn’t get it to work. Still, in the process of experimenting, I managed to find a use for the syrup you get when mixing candy and a cup of water. Another thing I noticed is that saving is much faster than it used to be. Save files are also much smaller.

Things that are definitely new

Being able to give carrots to the rabbit is one of those obvious combinations that was inexplicably impossible when Foxtail first came out. That’s since been addressed, with the game allowing you to use multiple objects on it. The result is usually Leah taunting it, but it now eats any carrots that you offer up. This probably seems like a totally unimportant detail, but little touches like this can really add up.

Another thing I noticed is the game calling attention to something inside of the burned house after Leah obtains the tricolor plant outside; once you take the hint and go inside, Leah draws further attention to a safe that can be opened with a key you’ve found. That’s something I never figured out before because that part of the wall looked like an empty picture frame or something (to me, at least). Another change is that you can’t get the fox head medallion required to fix the chest in Leah’s grandfather’s workshop by dropping random things into the tree, with it instead being found in the safe. This not only allows the game to provide a hint for how to open up the fixed chest, but provide the item inside when it’s actually needed instead of leaving you to carry around something you can’t use for most of the game.

Then there are the dialogue tweaks. Obviously there are new lines for things like interacting with the rabbit, and existing lines seem to have been altered, as well. I don’t really have an opinion on these changes either way, with the only line that was noticeably different being right at the very end of the current content. Leah used to say something about the day looking like it’d end up being more interesting than she first expected, but now says something much more upbeat about going to look for foxtails. I can understand this to a certain extent, as the first sounds kind of reluctant and has a certain amount of attitude to it, but I still think I preferred it. That’s being nitpicky to the extreme, though, and overall, the changes are for the better.

[Click here to go to Foxtail log #2]

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