Sorry to keep updating, some have said "it doesn't work" so I got an idea from another project on itch.io that D3DX9_43.dll can just be added to the files. I didn't know it was a single DLL. I got the idea from here (https://boghog.itch.io/mechstarastra) and I finally played the game I'd downloaded. Funnily it doesn't work with a controller. (It just needs an XInput controller!) I'm taken aback by how many people want to play King's Field without controllers. I really can't even fathom for the life of me how people are comfortable playing anything with a computer keyboard. Of course that's not how King's Field works, you can't even control it with one.

Something else that ended up in this update is I got the idea from messing with Moratheia's demo that when you take a hit your power gauges should reflect it. This fits perfectly because the hit animation is same as the ducking/dashing one, and it helps to illustrate what's happening, and further more you can receive a "critical hit" that results in a greater impact (knock-back) which is better illustrated by a dramatic drain on your gauge. This is random. I probably need to adjust the effect. Right now the critical drain is (by chance) the entire bar, which is probably fine, but the normal drain is inconsequential. It should probably be more severe. My plan isn't to make it a function of damage. But I will probably make damage under a threshold have no effect.

When shields are introduced, a large part of it will be to counteract this critical hit possibility. My approach isn't about making a challenging game. I'm thinking more in terms of how to create parity between the PC (player character) experience and how NPCs outwardly behave. And to just make it feel appropriate. I believe King's Field should be about embodying an experience and not a challenge oriented game. I don't think it should detract or distract from the narrative, aesthetic potential of the series. However I am interested in working on Armored Core, so I'm not against challenge or competition. But I feel generic games are too far in this direction, so I want to begin with an antidote to what I feel is a problem in our culture.  Armored Core is a better context for developing highly technical systems and putting them to the test, and that will inevitably feedback into King's Field.