So here's an update on what I've been doing with Barbarous:

So, following along with a playthrough by the wonderful Amalgamash, it's obvious that my rushed-out damage system was not optimized for general gameplay. Of course that was only because I needed to get the game out in time for the game jam. SO, first on the list: 

Calculating Damage Calculation

In build 6, the way damage is calculated is a simple "Unga bunga, me subtract defense from damage." Of course, that makes it so that a TON of enemies were hitting our main character, "Hunter" for a measly 1 damage over and over. Now Barbarous is using a slightly updated damage formula:

(max(((a.atk + (a.eatk * b.edef)) - (b.def)/2) * rand(0.9, 1), 1))

So, what this does is it takes your attack and elemental attack (after enemy resistance) to get your final damage, then subtracted by defense divided by 2, then multiplies it by either 0.9 or 1 for a little RNG in there. Very similar, but just a little different. 
"Wait, that just makes defense half as effective!"
You would be correct! With this, a character stacked with a ton of defense should still take some damage from similarly leveled enemies, which being a significant reduction in damage. If your defenses are where they should be, your tanks should be taking half as much damage as your other members! I say that's worth the investment.
"Why not just half defense then?"
That is because there are certain skills in the game that use defense for damage calculation, such as "Sandbag", that uses the user's defense instead of their attack stat. Less defense means Sandbag would be terrible, and our current (only) tank wouldn't have any good damage dealing options available to him
And of course, it's more satisfying to look at! If all the stats scale at the same rate, you can easily compare your defense to your other stats and see exactly how proficient that character is in defense. Character progression is currently set up so that if your character had perfectly average stats across all stats, attack, magic attack, defense, and agility would all have the SAME exact value. This means keeping defense as it's current displayed value makes it easier to compare to other stats.

BEGONE Caster Meta! Magic vs Magic!

So, casters made use of their magic attack and compared it vs an opponent's defense like any other attack. This will be no more! For damage calculation, it will now be the user's magic attack - the target's magic attack divided by 2. Why was this change made?
Well first, casters were fragile against EVERYTHING. Sneeze on them and they explode. Now if you're fighting the dark necromancer of the underworld, Bianca is actually going to be taking the least damage out of your team! This also gives you a reason to put magic attack onto characters who don't even use magic.
Secondly, because Hunter! Hunter's magic attack is TERRIBLE, and now a fireball will put an end to this overpowered menace to society. 

Balance Goals

I asked a few people, "What is the ideal length of a random mob encounter, and what about for a boss battle?" The answer to those two questions were 5, and 15 turns. So with those numbers, I sat down and looked at the monster pool, and thought "About how much HP and other stats do I need to give these guys to make a battle last 5 turns?" And so that's what I did! I have also established the baseline stats which every other character is going to be compared to. At level 1, a character with perfectly "average" stats has:

HP: 100 + 20/lvl
MP: 25 + 5/lvl
Attack: 25 + 5/lvl
Magic Attack: 25 + 5/lvl
Defense: 25 + 5/lvl
Agility: 25 + 5/lvl

These stats are adjusted up and down depending on what the character's role is, and from the above points, if you fight an enemy that's "perfectly average", it would take about 8 turns to kill each other.

Do Hunters Dream of Exotic Loot?

Barbarous, at least on paper, is about discovering things on your own and going on an adventure of YOUR choosing, and as such, there is no correct way to play the game, no linear path or equipment progression. For the Game Jam, I made a completely arbitrary progression just so players could feel like they're making progress, and the areas had a clear "1, 2, 3" order to them. Now, since the world is expanding further, there's no need for that, so OUT with that pre-planned progression! 

What's taking it's place?

When Build 7 releases, all loot will be completely random. When you start a game of Barbarous from Build 7 and up, the game will generate a seed, and using that seed, all weapons, consumables, armor, accessories, money drops, and even store inventories will be randomized. So there's probably one question on your mind.
"Why doe?"
Well, because there is no intended linear progression in Barbarous, in this system, every weapon given to you in this manner are all on an equal power level. You can get ANY weapon, at ANY point, and it won't be any better or worse than other weapons you've found before. 
"So then how do I get better equipment?"
Here's the fun part. We'll be using Hammers for an example. As of writing this, there are 3 physical damage hammers you can obtain, and 6 elemental hammers. Say you got the fire hammer, "Meteor". Meteor is going to be statistically identical to the other 5 elemental hammers. However, you can take your Meteor to a blacksmith, and assuming you have the money and materials, upgrade it to a Meteor +. Then after that, Meteor ++. Then after that-- what's that? BRANCHING UPGRADE PATHS? Meteor will then break off into two specializations unique to Meteor, and change name accordingly. Maybe one gives you a unique skill while equipped, or the other ignores a portion of defense, who knows? Let's call these two paths... I dunno... Uuuuuh... (I legitimately don't have names for it yet.) Let's go with Titan and... Jeff. Sure, why not. So Titan and "Jeff" will upgrade the same way as Meteor, having a "plus" form and a "plus plus" form, and then branching off YET AGAIN into two more upgrade paths. 
So in this system, even if you have 4 of the same weapon, you can still get 4 unique weapons out of it if you invest into them, and you can potentially use your favorite weapon from the beginning of the game, all the way to the very end.

Sorry, We're Closed

By the way, shops will change inventory depending on what day of the week it is. Check in frequently! Gives you a reason to check shops in starting areas AND the end game areas if you're trying to get your hands on something specific.

Tanks Are Stupid

What's that? You don't want to play as a tank? Well if you were playing Build 6, that's tough luck kid, deal with it. No longer in Build 7! When you register as a hunter, or at a new NPC added to the Hunter's Office, you can now change the class of the main character! You can be a tank, fighter, rogue, caster, and brawler. Though be warned, these classes level independently of each other. If you get to level 13 as a tank, and switch to a caster, you'll be back at level 1. At least as of now, that is. Looking into a way to get that remedied. Just one of the limitations of using a "What you see is what you get" game engine.

Currently in the Works:

Third Party Member: Julian

I am currently working on adding a new recruitable party member named Julian. A sort of agile rogue-y caster type of character, I would describe his role as a disrupter. He's not intended to deal damage on his own, but just be very very annoying to his enemies. Sleep, paralysis, poison, things like that. He just inflicts all the stats effects. He's only slightly harder to kill than Bianca, so might take two gusts of wind instead of 1. Protect him well!

Sunken Tower

A new dungeon that just sort of exists. No quests, nothing brings you there, just explore the world and find it, and complete it if you want! Freedom is the name of the game afterall! Though something may wait at the bottom! "Wait, at the bottom?" Yes, it's the sunken tower.

Marindale

Have you seen a town to the East that says something along the lines of "This Area is not implemented yet?" Yeah that's Marindale (Name pending). It's an oceanside town where sailors and traders live. There will be a boat there that will bring you to a new continent to explore! Oooooh. And maybe something big and angry is in the water.

Southwest Desert

The world expands and is less empty! A desert has been added to the South West of the starting overworld map. There are currently 3 locations planned for the area, and none of them have names yet. Probably some desert-y stuff. I was actually worried it might have been too small but I got lost in it anyways, so it's probably fine.

Colosseum Completed

Just finish the god damn colosseum.

Planned Content for Build 7:

The Spiral Abyss

The Mystery Dungeon

Pit of 100 Trials

The Drifting Oubliette

We aren't strong enough! We need EVEN MORE RNG! So I was thinking, what if the player doesn't have enough levels to do what they want to do, or is maybe looking for something to kill the time, or maybe even just looking for a challenge? So, I introduce you to the Drifting Oubliette. The Oubliette is a special dungeon you can delve into, that is unique in that it never ends. A mysterious realm in which the rooms and walls are always shifting, that always loops back into itself. The Oubliette will be split into several rooms, and the room progression is, as you guessed it, COMPLETELY RANDOM! You won't be able to plan for what you may encounter in the Oubliette, but one thing is for certain. While the Oubliette picks the rooms you'll be entering completely randomly, it does keep track of how many rooms you've progressed through. The further you delve, the more difficult enemies get, until you simply cannot handle the sheer strength of the enemies and are defeated. Oubliette loot is granted after you decide to end the run. The further you get, the better. Though, of course, there is a sense of risk when delving into the darkness. If you are killed in the Oubliette, you lose out on your rewards. How far down will you delve?

Perhaps someone waits for you at the bottom.

Painting a Prettier Picture

Time crunches really force you to make compromises. One of those compromises was with the current dungeons available in Barbarous. Now that I'm not working with a time limit, I can really revisit them, make them more dense with content and decorations, and make them longer across the board. I wanna make them adventures in and of themselves, not just the 1 room romps they are currently set up to be. The "Forest of Harvest" has already been expanded with one more large area and a unique event.

Living World, Shifting World

This one is probably going to be a longer ways off, but I also want to expand the lore of the world and towns and make the player care about what's going on in them. And with a living world, people have opinions and political views, and two towns may not be ruled in the same way. And let's say those two towns really really don't like each other. Which town would you support? Would you be willing to attack the other town? I want to give the player these options in the future and directly influence the overworld map.

You're Still Not the Main Character

Soon.tm I want to implement the actual "Main Character" of Barbarous who's out saving the world and doing all that fun stuff while the player is faffing about with slimes and cats that look funny. The "Main Character" would affect the world as well, and you'd encounter them at several points. There may even be cases where your actions are hindering the "Main Character's" progress towards saving the world. My my, how selfish. But screw that guy, they aren't you, you've got this weird lookin' cat to deal with.

Misc. Changes:

• Littlerock Town is no more. My geographically challenged brain didn't know Littlerock was apparently a real town. Begone, Littlerock! Make way for the new and improved, Honeywood!
• Heehee, chests come in different colors now.
• What if the skill tutor actually taught you skills and didn't just try to sell you more herbs?
• Hunter (Tank) now uses Axes and Hammers as opposed to Axes and Sword from last build.

Hey, are you a modeler? I need a modeler for Barbarous, as I have the modeling skills of a 2 year old!
JuliusNovaArt@gmail.com