edit: having played more, a lot of things i complained about (mood & interacting with others, resting, etc) don't apply anymore. i've played long enough that all of these things became unlocked for me . i'll leave the review as is otherwise but i'll post a new reply after i finish this run
I've played through it this morning (1h or so) and i'm taking a break for lunch but i'll resume this afternoon
all the complaints i've ever had have been resolved and i'm not running into any issues. the only things i've noticed were minor (broken cart event happened two days in a row, if you switch screens while John is doing the walking-away animation, you can reset him back).
things like Get-Quest being changed from Quest, the Mood +1 popups, and other small UI changes are all excellent additions. i no longer feel lost when traversing UIs as I once did.
the only things i'd consider adding thus far is more hints for the player after the start. something like the bloodstone, for example. i didn't solve it yet (don't spoil it, i want to see if i can figure it out), but i'm following along the hints. i've got the book, now what? i assume it contains a riddle or a hint that i missed, but i've as of yet been unable to find it. everyone tells me to talk to Helena (she tells me about the book) and that's it. there should be some ingame hint or feedback about the next step. even a small "hmm, this part is interesting , i wonder what that means" hint could be enough. perhaps you could also have more hints about "bigger picture" objectives every now and then. i talked to people about Mr.White, which i thought was a good start. i'd like to see this side expanded upon, but perhaps about more mundane tasks. maybe asking Billy (or John?) something like "how should i plan my farming/what should i do about wellness/etc" might be an interesting start. i feel like if the player has questions like this, there should be an obvious place for them to get "immersive" (non tooltip/tutorial) answers.
another minor thing would be wellness/mood increases. right now i'm in a safe loop of working/training/farming, so i have food and money, but i don't know of any "safe" mood/wellness increases. things like alcohol and smoking works, but i dont want to get drunk since nobody wants to talk to me (and thus i cant work) while drunk. might be a good idea to have more safe ways to increase both. thinking about this now, since the MC is a kid, perhaps playing with Georg could be something (i didn't check, perhaps this exists?). it could work like begging, where it's an afternoon-action that increases mood or wellness by some small amount
anyway, this is just some small nitpicks. i will continue to play again soon, and will report back. right now, my goal is to find the bloodstone, perhaps do some late-game dungeons, and try and reach the Mr.White compound.
Bloodstone quest is a little criptic, but there are atleast three ways to get one. The hint is in the book you get in the library. You should be able to use it in the inventory, which will add an entry to the book section in the menu. If not, then I broke something. One solution requires the dynamite, other requires a lot of money and last one just needs a good strong party.
The bigger picture is handled by the cutscenes, which are gated by location and time. First story cutscene triggers after about 60 days when you visit the beach. Second takes place after about 100 days in the forest area with the bear. The rest of the story cutscenes triggers automaticaly after some time passes so you can't miss these. Dialogue system is very barebones, but you can ask certain NPCs about some quests or topics.
John pretty much serves as an extended tutorial, but the way he works right now is not ideal. He gives you some tasks that can take quite a bit of time to achieve and he explains next mechanic only after you finish the previous task. Thanks to that, it can take more than hundred days before he explains to you how wellness or mood works.
I will rework him in some way. Probably allow the player to select what chalenge he wants to finish first and also allow to have more of them active at the same time. Still have to think about that.
As you said in the edit, you unlock more ways to handle mood and wellness as time goes on. Also, playing with other children is somewhat already in the game, since you gain more mood when talking to them. I want to add more half day activities though, since there is not that many of them that are really useful.
Again, thanks for playing the game. Hope you enjoy the story dungeon.
Apart from general bugfixes and QoL improvements, two biggest additions were a contact list (Call NPCs and they will come join your party if they like you enough) and a large story expansion with cutscenes and new dungeon using original tilesets.
If you want to skip straight to the new dungeon without having to play the game from the start, then go to the village Inn, go to the spot in the picture below and put in the code that is also in the picture.
Comments
edit: having played more, a lot of things i complained about (mood & interacting with others, resting, etc) don't apply anymore. i've played long enough that all of these things became unlocked for me . i'll leave the review as is otherwise but i'll post a new reply after i finish this run
I've played through it this morning (1h or so) and i'm taking a break for lunch but i'll resume this afternoon
all the complaints i've ever had have been resolved and i'm not running into any issues. the only things i've noticed were minor (broken cart event happened two days in a row, if you switch screens while John is doing the walking-away animation, you can reset him back).
things like Get-Quest being changed from Quest, the Mood +1 popups, and other small UI changes are all excellent additions. i no longer feel lost when traversing UIs as I once did.
the only things i'd consider adding thus far is more hints for the player after the start. something like the bloodstone, for example. i didn't solve it yet (don't spoil it, i want to see if i can figure it out), but i'm following along the hints. i've got the book, now what? i assume it contains a riddle or a hint that i missed, but i've as of yet been unable to find it. everyone tells me to talk to Helena (she tells me about the book) and that's it. there should be some ingame hint or feedback about the next step. even a small "hmm, this part is interesting , i wonder what that means" hint could be enough. perhaps you could also have more hints about "bigger picture" objectives every now and then. i talked to people about Mr.White, which i thought was a good start. i'd like to see this side expanded upon, but perhaps about more mundane tasks. maybe asking Billy (or John?) something like "how should i plan my farming/what should i do about wellness/etc" might be an interesting start. i feel like if the player has questions like this, there should be an obvious place for them to get "immersive" (non tooltip/tutorial) answers.
another minor thing would be wellness/mood increases. right now i'm in a safe loop of working/training/farming, so i have food and money, but i don't know of any "safe" mood/wellness increases. things like alcohol and smoking works, but i dont want to get drunk since nobody wants to talk to me (and thus i cant work) while drunk. might be a good idea to have more safe ways to increase both. thinking about this now, since the MC is a kid, perhaps playing with Georg could be something (i didn't check, perhaps this exists?). it could work like begging, where it's an afternoon-action that increases mood or wellness by some small amount
anyway, this is just some small nitpicks. i will continue to play again soon, and will report back. right now, my goal is to find the bloodstone, perhaps do some late-game dungeons, and try and reach the Mr.White compound.
keep up the good work!
Glad you decided to play again.
Bloodstone quest is a little criptic, but there are atleast three ways to get one. The hint is in the book you get in the library. You should be able to use it in the inventory, which will add an entry to the book section in the menu. If not, then I broke something. One solution requires the dynamite, other requires a lot of money and last one just needs a good strong party.
The bigger picture is handled by the cutscenes, which are gated by location and time. First story cutscene triggers after about 60 days when you visit the beach. Second takes place after about 100 days in the forest area with the bear. The rest of the story cutscenes triggers automaticaly after some time passes so you can't miss these. Dialogue system is very barebones, but you can ask certain NPCs about some quests or topics.
John pretty much serves as an extended tutorial, but the way he works right now is not ideal. He gives you some tasks that can take quite a bit of time to achieve and he explains next mechanic only after you finish the previous task. Thanks to that, it can take more than hundred days before he explains to you how wellness or mood works.
I will rework him in some way. Probably allow the player to select what chalenge he wants to finish first and also allow to have more of them active at the same time. Still have to think about that.
As you said in the edit, you unlock more ways to handle mood and wellness as time goes on. Also, playing with other children is somewhat already in the game, since you gain more mood when talking to them. I want to add more half day activities though, since there is not that many of them that are really useful.
Again, thanks for playing the game. Hope you enjoy the story dungeon.
Apart from general bugfixes and QoL improvements, two biggest additions were a contact list (Call NPCs and they will come join your party if they like you enough) and a large story expansion with cutscenes and new dungeon using original tilesets.
If you want to skip straight to the new dungeon without having to play the game from the start, then go to the village Inn, go to the spot in the picture below and put in the code that is also in the picture.