Progress has been a bit slow over the last week, but I'm still making progress. I've done all the cutscenes for the first "quest". Still using placeholder graphics for all the NPCs, aside from one who's very plot-significant. Attack animations, except Miana's physical attack, are still all placeholders.
I might just stick to leaving placeholders except for major characters, for now (including for attack animations). I intend to replace the current graphics with better ones later anyway, so it's probably not that vital to have not-as-placeholder-y placeholders.
But I do like to have proper graphics for
major characters (including non-party-members), even if they're low-quality placeholder ones.
I've also created the heal / fast travel points (these are the same thing, you can do either at them). Generally, fast travel points in towns can be travelled to, while ones in dungeons / fields cannot (you can only travel
from them, or use them to heal). You can save anywhere, so I won't be calling them anything resembling "save point" this time around.
Heals, however, are limited. While there's no permanent cap, either globally or per-point, you need to fight a certain number of battles inbetween heals at these points. You begin the game with a heal available, but after this, you must
win 3 battles before the next heal, then 5 before the one after that, and so on. This is capped at 32 battles between heals. Battles you escape from, or losing a battle that doesn't result in a game over for losing, won't count towards the requirement. Discovering a new destination point will immediately drop the "battles until next heal" to zero. This is not tracked per-point; it's a single battle count requirement shared across all fast travel points in the game.
Note that the heal is not automatic when you access a fast travel point and are eligible for a heal - you must explicitly select to use it. This also means you can fast travel, while still saving your heal for a later time. If you aren't currently eligible for a heal, the fast travel points will display in a darker color on the map, and when you try to use it, the (disabled) "heal" option will have a number next to it indicating how many battles you need to fight until you can heal again.
I haven't implemented the actual fast travel mechanism yet, only the healing mechanism and the unlocking of new points. The travel itself is probably one of the next non-content things I'll do.
I may revise having the cap set at 32, but aside from that I'm pretty happy with these mechanics.