MONOWAVE v1.0.4 Update: Control Improvements / UI Improvements / Bug Fixes

Hello from Studio BBB.

This update fixes achievements that failed to unlock despite meeting their requirements and button presses that did not register at the moment an emotion changed . We have also improved the co-op join screen, controller connections, Codex notifications, and menus. Thank you for sharing your experiences in such detail.

Contents

1. Achievements and Save Data
2. Controls and Movement
3. Co-op Play
4. Codex and Collection Notifications
5. Key Bindings and Menus
6. Stages and Visuals
7. Audio, Languages, and Stability
8. Known Issues
9. Future Improvements and Thoughts from the Developers
10. Feedback and Bug Reports

1. Achievements and Save Data

1.1. Restoring Missing Achievements

• Loading an existing save slot after the update will restore achievements whose requirements you met but that did not unlock. The game checks records such as collected shards, cleared stages, and Codex entries to restore missing achievement progress.
• Fixed an issue where quitting immediately after making progress toward an achievement or unlocking one for the first time could leave that progress unsaved or prevent certain achievements from unlocking. Affected existing slots are also repaired when loaded.

1.2. Saving and Clear Indicators

• When you change skins on the stage selection screen and close the window, your new skin is now saved immediately.
• Improved the progress display and deletion prompts for save slots. The cursor now stays on the selected slot when you cancel deletion or return from difficulty selection.
• Fixed missing crowns on stages cleared on Hard difficulty.
• The tutorial (BEGINNING) can only be played on Normal difficulty from the stage selection screen. Existing Hard clear records for it are also shown as Normal. Starting a new game or continuing from the title screen keeps your selected difficulty. The tutorial does not count toward Hard difficulty clear totals or related achievement requirements.

2. Controls and Movement

2.1. Sections with Midair Emotion Changes

• Fixed an issue where pressing the button at the moment an emotion changed would fail to trigger a Double Jump, Glide, or midair Charge. You can now use that emotion's action even if you press the button just before touching an emotion plant or just after the emotion changes. This applies to all stages.
• In some sections where you move through the air by touching a sequence of emotion plants, holding the jump button as you touch a Sorrow plant now lets you glide when you start descending, without pressing the button again. Elsewhere, you still press the button again to glide as before.

Late-game stage spoilers — View GIF

Gliding when changing emotions while holding the jump button. Top: v1.0.3 / Bottom: v1.0.4.

• Fixed an issue where using a midair Charge without directional input covered less distance than with directional input. You can still release the directional input during a Charge to stop early.
• When playing solo on Normal difficulty with Support Mode enabled, control assistance applies to jumps, Charges, and Glides in certain sections with midair emotion changes. You can turn it on or off in Settings.

Late-game stage spoilers — View GIF

Midair movement in the same section. Top: Support off / Bottom: Support on.

• In some sections of the later stages, changing the Support setting restarts you from the checkpoint. In these cases, the message has been changed from “You will need to restart the stage.” to “You will need to restart from the checkpoint.”

2.2. Platforms and Movement

• Fixed an issue in 1-5 where, after singing in a narrow gap between underwater rocks, directional input only changed the way Mono faced without letting Mono move. This happened when Mono was pressed between the rock overhead and the ground. You can now get out in this situation.

Movement in the rock gap in 1-5. Top: Before the fix / Bottom: After the fix.

• Fixed an issue that prevented jumping again while climbing a Mimosa Vine.
• Fixed an issue where Mono could slide off a sloped platform before reaching its edge.
• Fixed normal jumps triggering even though Mono had not landed on a platform, or triggering in place of a wall jump.
• Fixed an issue where releasing directional input shortened the distance traveled when thrown by Rilla, knocked back by an attack, or evading danger while in Anxiety.
• Fixed Mono not turning toward the direction of movement when the stick was tilted slightly underwater.
• Fixed Look around activating during knockback from an attack, which made the screen appear frozen.

3. Co-op Play

3.1. Join Screen and Prism

• Redesigned the join screen to make each player's chosen character, input device, and ready status easier to see. Added an animation and sound effects when starting play.

The redesigned co-op join screen.

• Fixed an issue where opening the join screen while holding a button would automatically join. Joining and canceling now require a fresh button press after the window opens. If a controller disconnects during the starting animation, the game returns to the join screen.
• Fixed sound effects and character display errors on the join screen.
• Collecting an Emotion Shard in each world's EP stage now lets you use Prism's new ability immediately in that stage. This also applies to EP stages you have already cleared.

3.2. When a Controller Disconnects

• Fixed an issue where choosing “Return to Title” in the controller disconnect prompt lost all progress since the last save. Progress is now saved before returning to the title screen. It is not saved during the tutorial (BEGINNING) or cutscenes.
• Fixed menus becoming unresponsive when the controller that opened the pause menu disconnected and another controller joined.
• Fixed the boss clear cutscene continuing to play while the disconnect prompt was displayed. Also fixed other windows appearing over that prompt when Mono's controller disconnected and the player controlling Prism opened another menu.
• Fixed disconnected controllers remaining joined, and two devices controlling the same character after reconnection.
• Fixed the confirmation window asking whether to return to the title screen remaining visible after reconnecting a controller. Also fixed a button press intended to rejoin instead sending the player to the title screen.
• Updated the disconnect prompt's text and button icons to match their actual actions and the device in use.

3.3. Vibration and Button Prompts

• Fixed vibration continuing after disconnection or playing on the wrong controller. Also corrected vibration when switching from co-op back to solo play.
• Fixed button prompt icons changing size when using a keyboard and controller together.

4. Codex and Collection Notifications

A Spirit's Codex entry for an emotion is registered when that emotion is passed through song and accepted by the Spirit. Please sing to pass the emotion even if you meet a Spirit already feeling it.

4.1. Finding Newly Unlocked Content

• Opening the Codex now selects the most recently unlocked entry you have not yet read. Fixed notifications disappearing just from opening a tab or moving the cursor, which could cause you to miss new content. The “!” now disappears only after you view the new content itself.

The most recent unread entry is selected when you open the Codex.

• A “!” now appears on the page navigation arrow when the next page has new content. Also fixed notifications being obscured by other icons in the boss list.
• Fixed missing new-content notifications after collecting all 3 pieces of a nostalgic item in a Hidden stage. If you collected all the pieces before the update, the notification will appear once when you continue from that save slot.
• A notification appears when you collect all 30 collectibles in each world. A book icon now also appears correctly for world descriptions you can read. If you already collected all 30 before the update, no new notification will appear, but the world description remains available to read.

4.2. Emotion Spirit Stories

• The first page of an Emotion Spirit's Codex entry unlocks when you first meet them; the remaining pages unlock after the boss clear sequence ends. If you leave the stage or quit before the pages unlock, you can see the new content and notifications the next time you continue.
• “An Emotional Awakening” is only available after you collect all 3 of that boss's Emotion Shards. It also appears locked in existing save slots that have not collected all the shards.

4.3. Page Navigation and Readability

• Pressing a direction once more at the end of a list or set of pages takes you to the other end. Locked entries are skipped, and holding the button stops at the end. This does not apply to world storybooks, which are read in story order.
• Added a row of icons to the world details screen to distinguish the current world, locked worlds, and worlds with new content.
• Improved text and icon display in the Codex and related cutscenes. Also fixed stickers covering Mono's ability descriptions and overlapping text on other screens.

Fixed stickers covering ability descriptions. Left: Before / Right: After.

5. Key Bindings and Menus

5.1. Remapped Keys and On-screen Prompts

• Fixed the control prompts at the bottom of the screen still showing the old keys after remapping. New keys now appear immediately without closing and reopening the window. Also fixed controller prompts showing the wrong button or an icon for a different controller type.

The control prompts at the bottom of the screen update as you change keys.

• Even if you remap jump, the menu confirm keys remain Space and Enter. Confirm keys previously changed along with jump are also restored. Esc is reserved for going back and pausing, so it cannot be assigned to another action. Pressing it while remapping cancels the change.
• Fixed the Codex or Fast Forward Mode working while paused after remapping keys.
• Remapped page navigation keys now also work in the Codex opened from the stage selection screen. The controller's Codex button now works correctly as well.
• Fixed an issue where closing the window immediately after remapping a key prevented you from remapping that same key when reopening it. Also fixed “Reset Settings” stopping partway through.

5.2. Menu Controls and Layout

• Improved the layout and readability of the key binding, skin selection, and difficulty selection screens. Made the notice that difficulty can be changed during play more prominent.

The skin selection menu opened from the stage selection screen.

• Fixed diagonal D-pad input in Settings moving the cursor and changing a setting at the same time.
• Fixed the pause menu opening during stage transitions, and the controller's cancel button responding incorrectly in some menus and cutscenes.
• Switching to Hard difficulty on the stage selection screen turns Support off. If needed, please turn it back on after returning to Normal. Also fixed selecting Support on Hard difficulty triggering an unnecessary confirmation window or restart.
• Disabled Alt+Enter because switching fullscreen with this shortcut could leave the Settings display out of sync with the actual screen mode. Please use Settings → Graphics → Fullscreen instead.

5.3. Support and Difficulty Descriptions

• When playing solo on Normal difficulty with Support Mode enabled, you can use unlimited hints without waiting for them to recharge. Turning on Support while a hint is recharging also makes it available immediately.
• Added information about unlimited hints and control assistance in certain sections to the Support description. The Hard difficulty description now reflects differences in platform and emotion plant placement in some sections, as well as the Spirits' starting emotions.
• Improved wording, layout, and line breaks on the difficulty selection screen in all 10 languages.

6. Stages and Visuals

• If you enter a Hidden stage from the stage selection screen, you now return to stage selection after clearing it. If you enter through an entrance within a regular stage, you return to that stage. Also fixed hints starting over from the first puzzle after directly selecting and clearing a Hidden stage.
• Fixed Mono passing through walls or getting stuck inside them while flying after being spat out by Basilio.
• Fixed Mono moving while swallowed, or briefly floating after being released, when another Spirit swallowed Mono during flight after being spat out by a Spirit.
• Fixed an issue in 2-4 where landing on Hopbit just as Mono emerged from the Sand left Mono small instead of returning to normal size.

Mono's size after emerging from the Sand. Top: Before the fix / Bottom: After the fix.

• Adjusted terrain in 1-5 where Mono could get stuck while melted, and sloped platforms in 2-4 and 2-9. Also adjusted ceiling spikes near a collectible in 2-5, spike placement after a wall jump in 2-6, and where collisions with cacti occur in some sections on Hard difficulty.
• Fixed platforms and objects overlapping in the wrong order, and Mono appearing to float above or sink into a Spirit when standing on it.
• Improved button prompts in the tutorial and boss fights, and fixed repeated health recovery prompts on Hard difficulty.
• Fixed the background briefly shifting out of place when the camera stopped or started moving again at the edge of a stage. Also fixed the screen shaking during the defeat animation if you lost all your lives while the camera was zooming in or out.
• Fixed Emotion Spirit entrance and exit animations changing speed depending on the FPS limit or monitor refresh rate. Also fixed these animations continuing while paused.
• Improved the visuals for clearing worlds and bosses, collapsing walls, and debris. Also fixed the “Screen Shake” setting not applying immediately in 1-BOSS.

7. Audio, Languages, and Stability

7.1. Audio and Language Display

• Singing near a Conch Shell now prioritizes passing your emotion to a Spirit by the paired Conch Shell. If there is no Spirit there, it passes to a Spirit beside you. To pass an emotion directly to a nearby Spirit, please move a little away from the Conch Shell before singing.
• Fixed music or sound effects continuing to play during certain menus and sequences.
• Fixed typos and garbled characters in subtitles and descriptions across several languages, and improved fonts and emphasis.
• Corrected some typos in the credits.

7.2. Stability

• Fixed an issue where damaged save files or achievement records could cause the game to get stuck during startup. Slots that cannot be loaded appear empty, but their original files are kept. Damaged save contents are not restored, and achievements already unlocked on your Steam account are retained.
• Fixed a rare issue where button presses did not respond on the start screen.
• Reduced unnecessary memory use when repeatedly moving between stages or opening and closing audio settings.
• Fixed an error that could occur when moving from stage selection to another screen.
• The game no longer records Steam nicknames or SteamIDs in its logs.

8. Known Issues

We are still investigating the causes of the following issues. If you have experienced any of them, please let us know using the reporting guidance below.

• The game unexpectedly closing on some PC configurations.
• The game closing on Nintendo Switch 2 when transitioning to the cutscene after defeating the World 4 boss.
• Intermittent stutters lasting about 2 seconds, including in the later parts of World 1. Please include where this happened and your PC specifications.
• Both movement and menu input becoming unresponsive for several minutes while playing with a controller. Please tell us whether a screen transition was in progress, what you were doing just beforehand, and what seemed to restore control.
• Background music stopping after restarting from a checkpoint, then returning at the next checkpoint. Please include the stage, where you restarted, and whether other sound effects were still audible.

9. Future Improvements and Thoughts from the Developers

As we prepared this update, we also looked through the experiences you shared. We want to gradually work on the things we can improve now while preserving the flow of the existing stages and their presentation. Below are some things we would like to improve and thoughts from development. Please feel free to tell us what you liked, what fell short, and what you would like to see.

9.1. Guidance and Convenience

• We have heard that the opening subtitles can advance before there is enough time to read them, making the story hard to follow.
• We are considering voice acting to help players follow the story more comfortably.
• Please let us know which languages and scenes were particularly difficult to read.

Some players noticed the hint button or its recharge indicator only later. We also heard from players who felt the controls were much too fast without realizing that Fast Forward Mode was on.

• We are considering how to improve the indicators so it is easy to see during play whether a hint is available and whether Fast Forward Mode is active.
• In particular, the streamer's video in the bottom-right corner of the broadcast often covered the Fast Forward Mode icon in the same spot. With this in mind, we are also considering adjusting the icon's position.

We have heard that it was difficult to understand why singing was unavailable in the fog.

• We would like to review the guidance so players can naturally learn during play that the fog blocks singing and how Flutterfly, the butterfly Spirit, affects the fog.

You told us that in large areas, you had to keep moving Mono around to inspect the elements needed for a puzzle, and that remembering the layout you had seen while making your way back was also a burden.

• For Look around, rather than offering an unrestricted view of the entire map, we are considering ways to let you check the places you need more easily while keeping the fun of exploring and discovering paths and solutions for yourself.
• It would help to know what you were trying to check and which areas you had to go back and forth between.

We are also considering how to offer guidance at the right moment so players remember that hints or Support are available and can use them when they need help in a section where they are stuck.

We have read about two players being unable to find a solution and having to switch to solo play to view a hint.

• We have also heard that the player controlling Prism felt there was too little to do, or that Prism's abilities let players move on to the next section before learning the rules, leaving them stuck later.
• As we consider ways to make hints and Support available in co-op, we also want to look at whether each player's role comes through clearly and whether players can learn about the Spirits' behavior together.

We are also considering an overall revision of controller vibration to make playing feel more satisfying.

• Please tell us about moments when you wished there had been vibration but there was none, or when vibration felt unnecessary or out of place. It would help to know which controller you used and what you were doing at the time.

9.2. Thoughts on Puzzles, Platforming, Story, and Music

• We have heard that carrying out a solution could take a long time even after players had worked it out, or that resetting the Spirits' emotions and the surroundings after a mistake became tiring.
• We want to preserve the fun of working out a solution while reducing the burden of repeating steps you have already figured out.
• We would like to look at where players return after a failure, what they have to do again, and how long that takes, to find things we can improve within the current structure.

MONOWAVE's puzzles center on finding solutions relatively easily and opening paths by using the changes in the Spirits' behavior when you pass emotions to them.

• We have read both that puzzles were enjoyable because they were easy to understand and progress through, and that solutions became apparent early, making them feel like following a fixed sequence.
• We want to keep puzzles easy to understand while making learning about the Spirits' reactions and discovering solutions more enjoyable. As part of that, we also think it is important to avoid complicating routes in a way that only makes getting around cumbersome.

We have heard that the controls felt difficult in sections that link jumps, Charges, and Glides in quick succession. In particular, later sections felt like an abrupt change because they demanded much more precise control than earlier parts of the game.

• Our current focus is on improving how the controls feel so players can move as intended, rather than lowering the difficulty of those sections.
• In this update, we fixed actions failing to trigger when a button was pressed at the moment an emotion changed, and Charges covering less distance without directional input.

In MONOWAVE, we chose to keep dialogue sparse and tell the story indirectly through the symbolism in scenes, the Spirits' behavior, and the descriptions in the Codex. Gradually discovering the emotions and the world within the puzzles as you solve them is an experience we value.

• We have also heard that players wanted more of the story to unfold as they progressed through stages. We have read feedback that too much of the story was confined to the Codex, and that the meaning of the emotions did not come across strongly enough during play.
• In this update, we improved Codex notifications and readability to make stories you have already unlocked easier to find and read.
• We are also keeping open the possibility of telling more of Mono and the Spirits' stories in the future.

We have heard that players wanted more variety in how the music changes, and that they wanted it to respond to changes in Mono's emotions more often and in more sections of the game.

• The current music is arranged to sustain the mood of a scene so that frequent transitions do not interrupt the flow of examining puzzles and playing through them.
• We would like to start by looking at the current music placement and transitions to see whether changes in emotion could come through more clearly in the music while preserving that flow.

10. Feedback and Bug Reports

Please share the stage and what was happening, whether you were playing solo or co-op, and which keyboard or controller you used on the Steam Discussion Board or our official Discord. Screenshots and videos are welcome too. If you experienced an unexpected closure or stuttering, please also include your PC specifications.

If the game closed unexpectedly, you can find its log files in the following Windows folder. Send Player.log before launching the game again, or Player-prev.log if you have already relaunched it. Logs created before this update may contain your Steam nickname and SteamID, so please check them before sharing.

%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\LocalLow\\Studio BBB\\MONOWAVE

Steam Discussion Board MONOWAVE Official Discord

After playing the update, please feel free to tell us what has changed for you and what still feels uncomfortable.

Please share your experience of playing MONOWAVE in a Steam review. Your experience can also help others who are considering the game.

Steam Reviews

Thank you for joining Mono on this journey.

Studio BBB