Not really sure what title works for this post, but hey ho. Demo 2 is shaping up to be a pretty massive update and rework to most of the existing systems and mechanics, the list of changes is... quite big, to say the least. It might as well be a completely different game. The core fundamentals are unchanged but everything surrounding them is different, so I'll just quickly go over some of the big changes:

Party deaths no longer load your latest save. When you die you now get sent back to the last/nearest town. This means you keep all the XP you gained, but you also lose all the items you used. Bosses will send you back to the start of the room instead, so you don't have to slowly walk all the way back. This is currently in testing and is likely to be reverted.

Massive stat reworks. Lots of items have had their stats changed, characters have had their stats slightly tweaked or in the case of Sophia their damage has been reduced to balance for the late game, and so on. Way, way too many changes to quickly list. To go with these changes though...

Inventory rework. You can now see the full list of attributes that equipping an item will give, and weapon/armour descriptions have been expanded to make use of both lines of the description. You now have way more info about what things will actually do.

Deus Coin rework. There was a very silly 15 minute speedrun of Demo 1 which was partly responsible for the party death rework, but it also showed just how broken Deus Coins can be. Deus Coins have had their mechanics reworked so instead of being a 33% chance of dealing 1000 damage (reduced to bosses), they have a 50% chance of dealing 1 damage and a 50% chance of dealing 125, 250, 375, or 500 damage (still reduced to bosses). They are still powerful and random, but a bit more variable.

Shop changes. Just a couple really minor ones, the iron shield is now available from the start, the bazaar sells a steel shield instead, the bottles no longer need to be purchased from the shop in Inkagafar because you start with them (I bet none of you even knew you could do that), and the Power/Charged rings that you could buy from a table in Port Magnus have also been removed due to being ridiculously overpowered for how early you can get them.

Elemental damage changes. Flame damage is now Heat damage, most notably. This helps complete the elemental damage triangle from a few posts ago a bit better, and all enemy resistances have been updated. Just like in that diagram, enemies now fall into one of three categories - Terra, Heat, or Cold. Heat beats Cold, Cold beats Terra, and Terra beats Heat. If you hit an enemy with its weakness you do 50% more damage, if you hit an enemy with the same element it does 50% less damage, and if you hit it with the third element it deals base damage. There are exceptions to this triangle, but this is typically how it works.

Aaaaaaaaand that's about it! Most of the changes are balance related but a few are presentation related or just general gameplay tweaks. If you've played Demo 1 it might be worth starting again once Demo 2 releases because it'll be very different, but there's nothing stopping you from carrying on with your existing save if you want to.

Demo 2 is currently in a testing phase and most of the major issues have been caught and ironed out, it's back in the balance testing phase now just like Demo 1 was a while ago. Not sure when it'll be out, but I imagine it'll be released before the end of May. Demo 2 will contain both Shivermoore and the Silvam, alongside all the side content that is currently inaccessible from Demo 1.

After Demo 2 is released the full release will be next, featuring the end of the game and post game content.