From your Gamepage, Evelyn's Mercenaries sounds a bit boring. Its a fitting Name, just not a very interesting one.
I can't exit out of Menues via ESC, I have to use RMB? And I can't use Mouse to advance Text? I'd still really prefer it if you had proper Controls.
Your Art seems to have improved quite a bit on the Busts tho, nice. That being said, the Tabards being just blue and as short as they are feel a bit empty. They work, but just as with the Name, a proper Identification for Evelyn's Mercenaries could work better I think.
Shoulderpads aren't attached to anywhere, they just float on top of the Arms. Edmunds Gorget feels a little small.
"The boy gathers his things and the two head towards the training ground." That Sentence feels heavily out of Place. You have Dialogue there all the Time, you could just show Actions like this. You wouldn't even have to show it, you could just fade to training Grounds aswell, and it'd probably work better.
Evelyns Elbow Caps etc. are again not connected to anything and just float there. The Breastplate also just sits on top of Cloth, leaving the entire back of the upper half of the upper Body unprotected. And the only logical ConnectionPoint for it would be the BellyArmor, at which Point the top part would just fall off forward constantly. If you want to keep the Back open, add some Straps there. These Armor Issues go on through all of your Sprites, so I'll try not to say it again and again.
Still no Mouse Control for the Cursor and Battlegrid? It even says on your Page its currently only got Keyboard *and* Mousecontrol, why do you still have WASD to move, space to select, MMB to view Stats? Just let me click on a Tile or Unit already. And then its still RMB to close Menues or back out into previous selection State.
Your Conversation UI could use some Work I think, its pretty barebones, and the skip/auto/etc. on the right makes me think of a VN not a Tactics Game.
Good that you already know about your Sprite Expression Issue.
Simone is pretty much unsaveable, I'm just not fast enough.
The Duke actually looks a lot more like a Character of the Players Party then the rest. Usually your Characters are the special and interesting Ones, and the Enemies are Hordes of same-y Soldiers.
While the Skirt is pretty stupid on Leanne, the overall Armor holds better together then on your Mercenaries. And she also looks more like a Playerparty-Character.
While Leonard and Leanne indicate very lazy Parents on the naming I'd say, and he looks like that stupid pseudo-evil Anime Protagonist and not very likeable, he does again look like a potential party-character.
Lucerne then introduces Cassios to Leonard and Lucerne? Somethings off there. I think there were a few minor Issues with wrong Names in Dialogue before, but I forgot. Not like I'm good with writing anyway, sorry.
The Hero Aeaea? Is that pronounced ääa? Ä-Ä-A? Thats stupid, you didn't just slam onto the Keyboard did you? Generally, while I didn't pay attention, it sometimes felt like your Name heritages are all over the Place, even for People from the same Kingdoms or Areas. Like some sounding Roman, some Greece, some more nordic and so on.
Why do I have 2 Leannes and 2 Leonards to fight with in the Unit Screen?
Probably unfitting, but it'd be great if when Estelle joined, since apparently she's some kind of Shepherd, she'd come with a support Farm animal. Or some Sheep for the Partycamp later on, depending on where the Story takes this. Your Camp Graphic and interaction Stuff could also use some work I think.
Cassius starts his first Mission as a Knight without a Weapon? Seriously? And I don't even get a second Lance to equip him with? Guess my Rider will be useless, while I focus on leveling Cassius.
Also theres no Way to tell which Character can use what Weapons. I tried to give him a Sword from Leonard, but that didn't work.
Using Healing Potion didn't work, unless I did it wrong. There seemed to be something off with the Inventory. Anyhow, Party died, due to no Weapon on one Member and failed healing Potion.
Enemies were also able to just move on the Tile of my Healer after I used the Potion.
This Time I found a spare Lance in my Convoy. Since it was used, apparently the One I used in the previous Battle.
Theres no Way to restart a Battle, you'll have to sit it through once a Person dies/you reached a loosing State, and have to wait until everyones dead.
Thanks for playing again! I was hoping I'd get at least one or two returning players.
I've gotten a few comments about adding esc as an alternative to the back button so I'll probably add that for next time. Same with click for advance dialogue. I remember getting that last time as well but I guess I had forgotten about that by the time I was done with the rest of the control changes.
I agree that the actions in dialogue feel unnatural how they are now. A few VNs I like do it but I think the reason those feel natural but mine doesn't is because mine is randomly switching to a 3rd person omniscient narrator whereas most VNs that do the same thing are strictly first person with first person narration. I think it's unfortunately necessary for now unless I want to draw/3d animate everything that happens between chapters that isn't standing around and talking and changing scenes, but I can play around to find out how to make it less akward.
Aeaea is an island from greek mythology it's pronounced aye-ee-ah. I know that there's a weird mix of greco-roman and germanic-y names but I generally try stay either within those two groups or things that are at least somewhat related.
>Why do I have 2 Leannes and 2 Leonards to fight with in the Unit Screen?
sounds like a bug. I can look into it.
>Cassius starts his first Mission as a Knight without a Weapon? Seriously?
Based on later comment you must've accidentally a stored it without realizing.
>Using Healing Potion didn't work, unless I did it wrong. There seemed to be something off with the Inventory. Anyhow, Party died, due to no Weapon on one Member and failed healing Potion.
>Enemies were also able to just move on the Tile of my Healer after I used the Potion.
Sounds like the same inventory bug that others ran into. Sorry about that, I think have it fixed locally but never hotpatched because I want to do more testing first.
>Theres no Way to restart a Battle, you'll have to sit it through once a Person dies/you reached a loosing State, and have to wait until everyones dead.
nope sorry. I'll probably add a "retry" button to the same menu with the end turn button.
>No new Missions?
Unfortunately, I had planned to add at least 2 more but I didn't end up having time for this DD.
Hey I'm trying your game and here's a remark : I find the text too big and widely spread from left to right of the screen to be easily read on a 1080p Screen at a desk.
Thanks for playing! Sorry that the UIs where messed up on Linux, I'll maybe try out a proper Linux build next time.
It looks like you also encountered the same inventory menu bug that other's had trouble with, so sorry about that one as well.
Otherwise thanks for the feedback, it seems a lot of my systems are still unclear so I'll so what I can do to make the onboarding experience a bit easier.
I'll also see what I can do about the general story pacing, it's just a bit hard syncing it up with the gameplay pacing. I feel like I need to introduce a bunch of characters to get deploy count higher, because the game is more fun when you have a bigger army, and maps are harder to design when the player has less units because the they will have way less room for mistakes (it'd probably help if I didn't split the party so early).
As far as a figure I think that would be neat if you wouldn't mind. Generally for stuff like this the character I prefer is Simone because I like to see her as the "mascot" character for my game, but if you do decide to do a figurine you can use whoever you want.
Gonna try this again now that I know the controls.
My laptop screen is definitely more square. 16:10? I don't remember, it's one of the new thinkpads. It's fine on my monitor.
I think honestly this is the best written game I've played from agdg. Characters felt believable to me, the story and world were engaging. Great writing.
The main screen with an eclipse and the weapons in the ground immediately makes me think "Berserk." I'm not sure you want to remind players of a different story so early in your presentation. Maybe there's not supposed to be any connection to berserk but I'd be wary of something that could be interpreted that way. Edit: now that I get into the story and see that it's about a band of mercenaries I'm doubling down on this.
It feels like archers can only shoot very short distances which is immersion breaking for me.
The perspective looks off with the guy behind the lady. It's as if the lady is standing on a box.
Now I can't stop looking for this and I feel like it's off with other character pairings.
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If Lucerne provides a buff to nearby units, it would be good if I could see that on the unit info screen.
The game is currently showing me for all characters that their only item is a healing staff. Preventing me from using any items. This was in mission 2.
It's difficult to visually see what characters still have their move. I also have trouble telling if I have a character selected or not.
Estelle should be interactable with on the map. She doesn't have to fight, but I think walking up to her and her saying "I'm too scared to move!" would be sufficient. Otherwise it seems odd to see someone who is just standing there with no explanation.
Isn't Leonard's getup a bit much? No one else is letting a nipple hang out. I think I could accept it if I'm given an explanation, like it's traditional garb for his family or something.
I need the ability to trade only a couple healing potions, not the whole stack.
I traded potions to Cassias and then after that I still get the option for Items. I can go into my items and see the potions but not use them. I guess I can't trade and use item in the same turn which is fair but this should be better communicated to the player.
What is swift winds? I can't figure out how to use it. Edit: oh I don't have to select anything around me.
In the mission where I face Euphemia, I'm initially prompted by the dialogue that I should run through and escape. But that's not the right strategy at all and it also is not the win condition. This is confusing.
Overall great story, serviceable combat, can't wait to see more.
Thanks for deciding to give the game a second try. Sorry for the issues the first time.
Perspective on character art in general is kinda fucked on the art. Every time I make a new one I try have a bunch of the other portraits pulled up in the same file next to it so I can look at them side by side and make sure everything lines up but it always ends up somewhat messed up. Something I have to work on I guess. I think Duke Circe and Estelle are the worst in terms of looking out of place.
You actually can see Lucerne's buff on her stat page but I get that it may not be that intuitive, you have to hover over the skill icon which should show a popup (though there is an issue where it will go off the side on 4k monitors if that's what you're using). I'll try to make skills more obvious next time.
Sorry about the heal staff bug. Another anon found it the other day and I wasn't able to figure out how it worked until earlier today. I've already fixed it on my end but I wasn't going to release a hotpatch because I want to do some more extensive testing to make sure the fix didn't introduce a new bug.
You should've been able to use the potion, the keyboard controls for the inventory menu where a little janked in the build, sorry about that. As with above I think I've got that fixed but I'm still testing.
For the last mission I agree that the story-gameplay synergy could be a little better. Maybe I can have it so Euphemia is physically blocking off the exit... I'll have to play around with it.
Thanks for the story praise, it's honestly the last thing I was expecting this DD. And spicing up the combat is going to be my next big goal because I feel it is a little plain at the moment.
Game over from a brainless ally's death on mission two? Come on.
The way to access menu during combat is quite weird, and it doesn't have much useful options. When I fuck up right at the start I would like to reset, unless you are going for permadeath thing.
Is there a way to check characters' attack ranges? It seems like there is no way to see that unless you can actually execute the attack, which means bruteforcing different positions.
I would like to know at a glance which character has already moved in the current turn.
Character portraits are weird: their overall shape and design is really good, but the details and shading not so much. Are those traced? Anyway, they could look quite professional after a few tweaks and a slight paintover.
Did you actually game over from that, or did you just see it in the "conditions"? I ask because it's supposed to be rigged to be impossible (so the player has a sense of urgency even though there's no actual danger) so if the villager was able to die for you that's a bug and I can look into it.
Permadeath is supposed to be a thing in this game but there's no way to stop people from alt+f4ing whenever a character dies so I could add a "quit to menu" or "restart chapter" to at least move the process along a little quicker.
Checking attack ranges is a bit obtuse right now. You can see the range of the currently equipped weapon by "inspecting" on it in any of the menus that show the inventory, along with other stats, like might (damage) and weight.
>8/10, would commit warcrimes with Lucerne
Oh boy, you'll like what happens in the next chapter then ;)
I'll preface this by saying the only time I've played something in this genre was a short try of something another DD. So my problems are probably because of inexperience with genre conventions. Played through three battles, skipped a lot of dialogue though.
I remember seeing your characters ages ago, you've improved immensely.
Most backgrounds could probably be run through a filter to make them look more "animey".
Right click to go back, like from the options menu feels weird to me. Esc doesn't go back.
The controls in general feel pretty awkward, can't use mouse in battles?
The "Move cursor" tooltip doesn't actually show you which buttons they are, I assumed it was the arrow keys at first glance.
I wonder if the battles would look nicer if the camera was tilted more, maybe if you could even control it yourself a bit.
I don't really get when units can attack, retaliate, double attack - seems arbitrary. For example I'd have a unit start diagonally next to an enemy and I couldn't attack, but if I move into another diagonal position he could attack. I thought I got how ranged units worked for a while, attack two squares, but then they can't anyway at times, etc. Most of the time I'd just click around to see what could be done from what square.
Played on a laptop so middle mouse button was a bit annoying.
No way to quit out of the game in the middle of a battle?
But as I said, I think most the control issues are with me not having played similar games. The battles were fun though, and I didn't encounter any bugs as far as I know. So I hope you keep working on it!
I've been getting a lot of camera comments (both here and in the threads) so I think experimenting with it will be a big priority going forward.
In terms of attacking, I think the source of your confusion is that a diagonal counts as 2 spaces. So units with 2 or 1-2 range weapons (bows or tomes) can only attack at the diagonals that share a corner with the tile the enemy is on. When you're in the screen where you select an attack target there should be an outline showing the unit's attack radius.
Counterattacks occur if the defending unit can attack at the range your attacking from, so if you attack a bow from 2 range with a tome they can counter but if you attack them at 1 range they can't.
Follow up attacks, occur when you're attack speed is 5 or more higher than your opponent's. Attack speed is a combination of a unit's speed and encumbrance penalties incurred by using a weapon higher than the unit's constitution stat. This part would've been more obvious if you had a chance to look at the stat screen, but since you were playing on laptop you weren't able to do that.
These interactions are lifted 1:1 from Fire Emblem so I'm likely not going to change them drastically but I'll see what I can do to make it more obvious to players.
Honestly I'm not sure if you should try to cater much to players like me who never played similar games. I would think most players for your game would be people that already have. A little bit can't hurt of course.
The Flash game aesthetic is a difficult and dangerous style to pull off (I speak from experience). I'd recommend at least getting a lot of feedback from artists to make sure you get it just right for it to look good.
No clicking the text box to advance? Let me cultivate my carpal tunnel syndrome!
Using something to differentiate Dialogue and Action text would be good, like Madodev said
I'd recommend adding a lot more flair to the character sprites during scenes, as the "talking PNGs" effect is harsh. A little breathing animation, some varying poses, animations for coming in-and-out etc. Try to put in the work in these scenes to avoid the VN-hater effect
I'd recommend a lower angle for battles, the current one doesn't look too appealing. Try the Orthogonal camera mode for a sick 2D-ish look that I think would go well with your artstyle for 2D and 3D.
Zooming the camera way in for some sick angles during combat would do wonders, I think.
I think units that've already acted should be a little darker.
I'm not sure about bows having only 1 cell of range, that seems like a spear thing.
This is something for the future, but please avoid the typical pitfall of TRPGs that is to constantly bend and break the combat rules for "variety" and "surprises". Keep the systems consistent and focus on their own depth and exploring it instead of cheap tricks to keep your players engaged. Make it feel like playing against several chess masters, instead of against your little brother that suddenly says his king "powered up" and is now a queen after turn 3.
I wasn't actually going for a flash game aesthetic, I was moreso trying to replicate the look of low-budget VNs like Higurashi, Umineko, and Tsukihime, but the fact that it currently gives off flash game vibes is good to note.
I'm still fiddling with the camera movement. I think for next time I want to experiment with free camera movement similar to FE3H.
I played the first two missions and had a look at the third, some things I noticed while playing:
The switch between spoken dialogue and actions ("The boy gathers his things and the two head to the training ground") isn't clear. Consider using a different font or italics or something.
The character art is very good (especially considering what you posted earlier on /agdg/). The strokes on your artwork are very rough though, consider using a fixed width brush and drawing the artwork at a higher resolution and then scaling it down. Evelyn looks really off, and Cassius seems to be leaning backwards.
Tha AI(?) backgrounds are fine.
Middle mousebutton for unit stats will fuck over people with laptops.
Controls are weird, maybe because I'm used to Fire Emblem emulator controls, but mixing mouse and keyboard feels strange regardless.
Cassius almost got one shot by a crit by Lucerne in the first mission, and then died the next turn. Might be coincidence, but I got a whole lot of enemy crits while playing. I think normally Fire Emblem games tune down the enemy luck stats on normal difficulties.
Nice, fighting bandits with axes during the first mission, feels very Fire Emblem.
Couldn't talk to the villager, the bandits also don't seem to target her. Don't know if she's meant as anti-turtling incentive.
No rescue/pair up mechanics like in some of the FE games? That would add an extra layer of depth.
You probably need different expressions for your characters. Seeing Lucerne grinning while seeing Simone's body is kinda strange.
I guess there's no way to save Simone? The art looks extremely silly here, although I don't know if I prefer the alternative well-drawn gore.
Currently there is no map dialogue with the villager (there was on my last demo but I've refactored how dialogue works since then and didn't get time to update talk targets on the map to work with the new changes). Also they're not supposed to target her. In my last demo they did and I felt like it was too much for the first real map (especially because a lot of the people playing weren't already familiar with this type of game), so I kept her in as fake anti-turtling incentive (so players may try to play fast because they think they need to save her, despite her not actually being in any danger) for now.
I'm not planning on porting over mechanics like pair-up/rescue from FE but I do have some similar mechanics planned, they just fell out of scope for this demo.
Different expressions are also planned for future demos I just didn't do it this time because art is the bane of my existence.
Comments
From your Gamepage, Evelyn's Mercenaries sounds a bit boring. Its a fitting Name, just not a very interesting one.
I can't exit out of Menues via ESC, I have to use RMB? And I can't use Mouse to advance Text? I'd still really prefer it if you had proper Controls.
Your Art seems to have improved quite a bit on the Busts tho, nice. That being said, the Tabards being just blue and as short as they are feel a bit empty. They work, but just as with the Name, a proper Identification for Evelyn's Mercenaries could work better I think.
Shoulderpads aren't attached to anywhere, they just float on top of the Arms. Edmunds Gorget feels a little small.
"The boy gathers his things and the two head towards the training ground." That Sentence feels heavily out of Place. You have Dialogue there all the Time, you could just show Actions like this. You wouldn't even have to show it, you could just fade to training Grounds aswell, and it'd probably work better.
Evelyns Elbow Caps etc. are again not connected to anything and just float there. The Breastplate also just sits on top of Cloth, leaving the entire back of the upper half of the upper Body unprotected. And the only logical ConnectionPoint for it would be the BellyArmor, at which Point the top part would just fall off forward constantly. If you want to keep the Back open, add some Straps there. These Armor Issues go on through all of your Sprites, so I'll try not to say it again and again.
Still no Mouse Control for the Cursor and Battlegrid? It even says on your Page its currently only got Keyboard *and* Mousecontrol, why do you still have WASD to move, space to select, MMB to view Stats? Just let me click on a Tile or Unit already. And then its still RMB to close Menues or back out into previous selection State.
Your Conversation UI could use some Work I think, its pretty barebones, and the skip/auto/etc. on the right makes me think of a VN not a Tactics Game.
Good that you already know about your Sprite Expression Issue.
Simone is pretty much unsaveable, I'm just not fast enough.
The Duke actually looks a lot more like a Character of the Players Party then the rest. Usually your Characters are the special and interesting Ones, and the Enemies are Hordes of same-y Soldiers.
While the Skirt is pretty stupid on Leanne, the overall Armor holds better together then on your Mercenaries. And she also looks more like a Playerparty-Character.
While Leonard and Leanne indicate very lazy Parents on the naming I'd say, and he looks like that stupid pseudo-evil Anime Protagonist and not very likeable, he does again look like a potential party-character.
Lucerne then introduces Cassios to Leonard and Lucerne? Somethings off there. I think there were a few minor Issues with wrong Names in Dialogue before, but I forgot. Not like I'm good with writing anyway, sorry.
The Hero Aeaea? Is that pronounced ääa? Ä-Ä-A? Thats stupid, you didn't just slam onto the Keyboard did you? Generally, while I didn't pay attention, it sometimes felt like your Name heritages are all over the Place, even for People from the same Kingdoms or Areas. Like some sounding Roman, some Greece, some more nordic and so on.
Why do I have 2 Leannes and 2 Leonards to fight with in the Unit Screen?
Probably unfitting, but it'd be great if when Estelle joined, since apparently she's some kind of Shepherd, she'd come with a support Farm animal. Or some Sheep for the Partycamp later on, depending on where the Story takes this. Your Camp Graphic and interaction Stuff could also use some work I think.
Cassius starts his first Mission as a Knight without a Weapon? Seriously? And I don't even get a second Lance to equip him with? Guess my Rider will be useless, while I focus on leveling Cassius.
Also theres no Way to tell which Character can use what Weapons. I tried to give him a Sword from Leonard, but that didn't work.
Using Healing Potion didn't work, unless I did it wrong. There seemed to be something off with the Inventory. Anyhow, Party died, due to no Weapon on one Member and failed healing Potion.
Enemies were also able to just move on the Tile of my Healer after I used the Potion.
This Time I found a spare Lance in my Convoy. Since it was used, apparently the One I used in the previous Battle.
Theres no Way to restart a Battle, you'll have to sit it through once a Person dies/you reached a loosing State, and have to wait until everyones dead.
No new Missions?
Thanks for playing again! I was hoping I'd get at least one or two returning players.
I've gotten a few comments about adding esc as an alternative to the back button so I'll probably add that for next time. Same with click for advance dialogue. I remember getting that last time as well but I guess I had forgotten about that by the time I was done with the rest of the control changes.
I agree that the actions in dialogue feel unnatural how they are now. A few VNs I like do it but I think the reason those feel natural but mine doesn't is because mine is randomly switching to a 3rd person omniscient narrator whereas most VNs that do the same thing are strictly first person with first person narration. I think it's unfortunately necessary for now unless I want to draw/3d animate everything that happens between chapters that isn't standing around and talking and changing scenes, but I can play around to find out how to make it less akward.
Aeaea is an island from greek mythology it's pronounced aye-ee-ah. I know that there's a weird mix of greco-roman and germanic-y names but I generally try stay either within those two groups or things that are at least somewhat related.
>Why do I have 2 Leannes and 2 Leonards to fight with in the Unit Screen?
sounds like a bug. I can look into it.
>Cassius starts his first Mission as a Knight without a Weapon? Seriously?
Based on later comment you must've accidentally a stored it without realizing.
>Using Healing Potion didn't work, unless I did it wrong. There seemed to be something off with the Inventory. Anyhow, Party died, due to no Weapon on one Member and failed healing Potion.
>Enemies were also able to just move on the Tile of my Healer after I used the Potion.
Sounds like the same inventory bug that others ran into. Sorry about that, I think have it fixed locally but never hotpatched because I want to do more testing first.
>Theres no Way to restart a Battle, you'll have to sit it through once a Person dies/you reached a loosing State, and have to wait until everyones dead.
nope sorry. I'll probably add a "retry" button to the same menu with the end turn button.
>No new Missions?
Unfortunately, I had planned to add at least 2 more but I didn't end up having time for this DD.
Hey I'm trying your game and here's a remark : I find the text too big and widely spread from left to right of the screen to be easily read on a 1080p Screen at a desk.
I recorded playing games with commentary, and your game is one of them.
Here's the link to the whole DD50 folder:
https://mega.nz/folder/GclCXISL#gwE9S1kRTbe6amYLH2RiYA
Would you like a figurine of one of your characters in my game?
Thanks for playing! Sorry that the UIs where messed up on Linux, I'll maybe try out a proper Linux build next time.
It looks like you also encountered the same inventory menu bug that other's had trouble with, so sorry about that one as well.
Otherwise thanks for the feedback, it seems a lot of my systems are still unclear so I'll so what I can do to make the onboarding experience a bit easier.
I'll also see what I can do about the general story pacing, it's just a bit hard syncing it up with the gameplay pacing. I feel like I need to introduce a bunch of characters to get deploy count higher, because the game is more fun when you have a bigger army, and maps are harder to design when the player has less units because the they will have way less room for mistakes (it'd probably help if I didn't split the party so early).
As far as a figure I think that would be neat if you wouldn't mind. Generally for stuff like this the character I prefer is Simone because I like to see her as the "mascot" character for my game, but if you do decide to do a figurine you can use whoever you want.
Simone being a mascot is cruel. Don't concentrate on linux, because you got many other more important things to prioritize.
I don't know about that, it already felt like a lot of clicking, but I don't have exp with these kind of games.
Uh... I went to options from the main screen and can't leave it now... That's annoying I had to alt f4
something is messed up with fullscreen on my laptop. The character names are cut off on the left side.
I don't know what's going on but my arrow keys aren't working so I couldn't move my character. So can't play.
Right click is back and wasd is move, not arrow keys.
What resolution are you playing on? I've done absolutely 0 testing with non-16:9 monitors so that may be the problem.
Gonna try this again now that I know the controls.
My laptop screen is definitely more square. 16:10? I don't remember, it's one of the new thinkpads. It's fine on my monitor.
I think honestly this is the best written game I've played from agdg. Characters felt believable to me, the story and world were engaging. Great writing.
The main screen with an eclipse and the weapons in the ground immediately makes me think "Berserk." I'm not sure you want to remind players of a different story so early in your presentation. Maybe there's not supposed to be any connection to berserk but I'd be wary of something that could be interpreted that way. Edit: now that I get into the story and see that it's about a band of mercenaries I'm doubling down on this.
It feels like archers can only shoot very short distances which is immersion breaking for me.
The perspective looks off with the guy behind the lady. It's as if the lady is standing on a box.
Now I can't stop looking for this and I feel like it's off with other character pairings.
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If Lucerne provides a buff to nearby units, it would be good if I could see that on the unit info screen.
The game is currently showing me for all characters that their only item is a healing staff. Preventing me from using any items. This was in mission 2.
It's difficult to visually see what characters still have their move. I also have trouble telling if I have a character selected or not.
Estelle should be interactable with on the map. She doesn't have to fight, but I think walking up to her and her saying "I'm too scared to move!" would be sufficient. Otherwise it seems odd to see someone who is just standing there with no explanation.
Isn't Leonard's getup a bit much? No one else is letting a nipple hang out. I think I could accept it if I'm given an explanation, like it's traditional garb for his family or something.
I need the ability to trade only a couple healing potions, not the whole stack.
I traded potions to Cassias and then after that I still get the option for Items. I can go into my items and see the potions but not use them. I guess I can't trade and use item in the same turn which is fair but this should be better communicated to the player.
What is swift winds? I can't figure out how to use it. Edit: oh I don't have to select anything around me.
In the mission where I face Euphemia, I'm initially prompted by the dialogue that I should run through and escape. But that's not the right strategy at all and it also is not the win condition. This is confusing.
Overall great story, serviceable combat, can't wait to see more.
Thanks for deciding to give the game a second try. Sorry for the issues the first time.
Perspective on character art in general is kinda fucked on the art. Every time I make a new one I try have a bunch of the other portraits pulled up in the same file next to it so I can look at them side by side and make sure everything lines up but it always ends up somewhat messed up. Something I have to work on I guess. I think Duke Circe and Estelle are the worst in terms of looking out of place.
You actually can see Lucerne's buff on her stat page but I get that it may not be that intuitive, you have to hover over the skill icon which should show a popup (though there is an issue where it will go off the side on 4k monitors if that's what you're using). I'll try to make skills more obvious next time.
Sorry about the heal staff bug. Another anon found it the other day and I wasn't able to figure out how it worked until earlier today. I've already fixed it on my end but I wasn't going to release a hotpatch because I want to do some more extensive testing to make sure the fix didn't introduce a new bug.
You should've been able to use the potion, the keyboard controls for the inventory menu where a little janked in the build, sorry about that. As with above I think I've got that fixed but I'm still testing.
For the last mission I agree that the story-gameplay synergy could be a little better. Maybe I can have it so Euphemia is physically blocking off the exit... I'll have to play around with it.
Thanks for the story praise, it's honestly the last thing I was expecting this DD. And spicing up the combat is going to be my next big goal because I feel it is a little plain at the moment.
Game over from a brainless ally's death on mission two? Come on.
The way to access menu during combat is quite weird, and it doesn't have much useful options. When I fuck up right at the start I would like to reset, unless you are going for permadeath thing.
Is there a way to check characters' attack ranges? It seems like there is no way to see that unless you can actually execute the attack, which means bruteforcing different positions.
I would like to know at a glance which character has already moved in the current turn.
Character portraits are weird: their overall shape and design is really good, but the details and shading not so much. Are those traced? Anyway, they could look quite professional after a few tweaks and a slight paintover.
8/10, would commit warcrimes with Lucerne
Thanks for playing!
Did you actually game over from that, or did you just see it in the "conditions"? I ask because it's supposed to be rigged to be impossible (so the player has a sense of urgency even though there's no actual danger) so if the villager was able to die for you that's a bug and I can look into it.
Permadeath is supposed to be a thing in this game but there's no way to stop people from alt+f4ing whenever a character dies so I could add a "quit to menu" or "restart chapter" to at least move the process along a little quicker.
Checking attack ranges is a bit obtuse right now. You can see the range of the currently equipped weapon by "inspecting" on it in any of the menus that show the inventory, along with other stats, like might (damage) and weight.
>8/10, would commit warcrimes with Lucerne
Oh boy, you'll like what happens in the next chapter then ;)
I actually got a game over from the villager dying. I'm glad that's a bug rather than skyrocketing difficulty.
Yep, I just checked in the editor and she's somehow missing the invisible skill that's supposed to give her 999 bonus avoid in combat, thanks.
I'll preface this by saying the only time I've played something in this genre was a short try of something another DD. So my problems are probably because of inexperience with genre conventions. Played through three battles, skipped a lot of dialogue though.
But as I said, I think most the control issues are with me not having played similar games. The battles were fun though, and I didn't encounter any bugs as far as I know. So I hope you keep working on it!
Thanks for playing!
I've been getting a lot of camera comments (both here and in the threads) so I think experimenting with it will be a big priority going forward.
In terms of attacking, I think the source of your confusion is that a diagonal counts as 2 spaces. So units with 2 or 1-2 range weapons (bows or tomes) can only attack at the diagonals that share a corner with the tile the enemy is on. When you're in the screen where you select an attack target there should be an outline showing the unit's attack radius.
Counterattacks occur if the defending unit can attack at the range your attacking from, so if you attack a bow from 2 range with a tome they can counter but if you attack them at 1 range they can't.
Follow up attacks, occur when you're attack speed is 5 or more higher than your opponent's. Attack speed is a combination of a unit's speed and encumbrance penalties incurred by using a weapon higher than the unit's constitution stat. This part would've been more obvious if you had a chance to look at the stat screen, but since you were playing on laptop you weren't able to do that.
These interactions are lifted 1:1 from Fire Emblem so I'm likely not going to change them drastically but I'll see what I can do to make it more obvious to players.
Honestly I'm not sure if you should try to cater much to players like me who never played similar games. I would think most players for your game would be people that already have. A little bit can't hurt of course.
Nice work! So here are my thoughts:
Thanks for playing!
I wasn't actually going for a flash game aesthetic, I was moreso trying to replicate the look of low-budget VNs like Higurashi, Umineko, and Tsukihime, but the fact that it currently gives off flash game vibes is good to note.
I'm still fiddling with the camera movement. I think for next time I want to experiment with free camera movement similar to FE3H.
Thanks for the feedback!
I played the first two missions and had a look at the third, some things I noticed while playing:
I really enjoyed it, felt very Fire Emblemlike.
Thanks for playing!
Currently there is no map dialogue with the villager (there was on my last demo but I've refactored how dialogue works since then and didn't get time to update talk targets on the map to work with the new changes). Also they're not supposed to target her. In my last demo they did and I felt like it was too much for the first real map (especially because a lot of the people playing weren't already familiar with this type of game), so I kept her in as fake anti-turtling incentive (so players may try to play fast because they think they need to save her, despite her not actually being in any danger) for now.
I'm not planning on porting over mechanics like pair-up/rescue from FE but I do have some similar mechanics planned, they just fell out of scope for this demo.
Different expressions are also planned for future demos I just didn't do it this time because art is the bane of my existence.
>I guess there's no way to save Simone
You're welcome to try ;)