the initial battles are pretty hard imho, especially if players aren't accustomed to the game yet.
maybe the characters should have a bit more health? as it is, sometimes the enemies randomly all decide to target a single character in the same turn and i can't do much about it
Its been a while since I've been told the game is too hard. Normally I try to err on the easy side.
I've been thinking about implementing a couple of simple minigames to break the combat and award the player a little of extra money before a round, but for the time being consider buying some worts and aloes. The shop is readily available during the first few levels and they are only $1 each while a regular fight usually nets you $3 so they are both affordable and heal a lot for that stage of the game.
i am not well read so i can't really comment on the quality of the story from start to finish except to say that i liked it a lot and the ending made me emotional. something that i did notice is that the egg only seems to exist in writing and flashbacks - there isn't a (present era) visual for it, which i think goes against the idea of it. if it's supposed to be an object of great temptation, great enough that Finnigan himself hides it without knowing where he puts it, it seems kinda weird to not show it. i'm reminded of LotR movies where the one ring is always shown (and zoomed in with a special music track) when exposed, which helps make it important to the viewer. i think even a single scene of "here's the egg. whoa" would reinforce how you are describing it. otherwise the ending is great. i mention this before but i specifically like how you handle the way characters exit the story. i am keeping it vague in case of anyone here reading that hasn't beaten the demo.
so, some technicals
"ocean" level, you can't see your staring position, it's obscured by the menu at the bottom right
the ground flickering effect is very, very good. i really like it.
the shop being unmanned and free in the lategame is a cool touch. i still basically never used anything from the shop, the only item i ever remember using was the reviving feather and that was several DDs ago. no clue if you really need to change anything, since i think at this point i am experienced enough and this might be more beneficial to newer players.
the goon/meduzoid god claw-attack sound is kinda weak. it does have the claw imagery but it doesn't really do it for me
for the last chunk of the game haydn feels a bit absent from dialogues - but at the same time what can you really do with an animal that doesn't really speak. he does have a moment in the end, but the section before that is absent, enough that on my playthrough last time i wrote "no haydn?".
going to comment again that the portraits changing depending on the character's mood is excellent. i notice it more and more and i like it every time i see it
the final boss felt kinda simple, same with the fights before it. it took me a bit to figure out the order for the Pets, but it was fine once i did. i think maybe another "arena puzzle" is in order, like how you did it previously with Sannoval or the forest level. the actual final boss i wouldn't really consider a battle - he only cast frog migration which doesn't really seem to do anything except slow (some? unsure which characters are chosen) characters. then i killed him with a sword.
another nerf suggestion for Mosca's AOE slow - i think it should have a hard-cap max slow amount. in the Pets fight, i spammed an unupgraded motivate on mosca for her to aoe slow, enough that the casting (bottom row, forgot name) enemy was slowed to basically nothing. i was able to wait -> slow -> wait before he got any action in. i think a max 3 multiplier of the same slow should be the enough, but allow multiple different slow instances to stack more.
well done. i am going to miss seeing new content every demo day and im glad i was able to join you for the ride to see how this game evolved. since i know this is your first game, i hope that you enjoyed making this enough to warrant more games from you in the future. expect a day 1 purchase from me once AG is for sale.
Thank you for playing and, in all honesty, encountering a lot of the worst issues firsthand.
As always, I'll take your feedback into consideration. I'm not that sure about the Egg either since it only shows up directly during the award ceremony and bestiary entries. The only thing I really wanted to communicate is that it's both dangerous and culturally important for one of the characters and how it plays into something that Mosca mentions a few times when faced with difficulties.
it might be a case of not playing the game fully through in one (or a few) sitting(s), since i kind of forgot about the award ceremony scene. you can also feel free to ignore any story criticism since i'm very much out of my element in that front
The new logo is not pixel art, so it looks jarring with the rest of the title screen. Same for the game over screen.
You can really FEEL the polish you've been adding. It feels so smooth it's like the game is running at a higher framerate.
After disabling fullscreen mode, the game goes back to it automatically between menus.
Battle speed is not saved between fights
Xanadu archer's lifesteal is not permanent. It seems to reset after you reload with low ammo.
Xanadu knight should leave the hall
Facing Right Hand without Ermine alive to cast slowdown puts you in what seems to be a softlocked state where he just casts invincibility over and over again after running out of summons
8th plague's description has a typo
I can't enter the tallest tower. Clicking it plays the transition animation, then reloads the map exactly as it was
The orb flashback is a bit too close to Made in Abyss to my liking
Other than that I have enjoyed this game a lot. Is the ending already there? I'd like to be able to access it
Thank you for playing. The ending should work now with the latest hotfix.
You could have said the orb flashback is too much like Roadside Picnic or The Lord of the Rings too. "God-like wish granting artifact with a severe drawback that tempts desperate people" is a common trope, and I happen to like it. I'm also ripping off Dracula.
Yeah, that in itself is a common trope, overall. I think what made it stand out to me was the presentation of it being a very brown flashback + the imagery of displaced people traveling to it + it being linked to a healing factor purgatory-like environment with disfigured creatures in it + the viking helmet and moth duo. I wouldn't call it a ripoff, and it's probably just a coincidence, but it took me out of the story a bit during an important moment.
I managed to get to the end message with the new build. Pretty neat ending. I don't know how the battles earlier on have changed recently, but the encounter design has a lot better in the latter parts of the game. I hope to see more games from you in the future, as this one was very soulful.
I personally think the game gets incrementally more fun past level 5 as a combination of having more levels to distribute and less safe enemy designs. The issue is that it's hard to get into the mentality of someone who just picked up the game which is one of the reasons why feedback, such as yours, is so important.
I've been wondering if I should make more games set in the same universe. I wasn't planning on that but I have a lot of lore I wrote for consistency's sake already.
Interesting take on turn-based combat. Haven't played too long but what I played seemed fairly well thought out. Curious to see where this game will be once it's done.
It's really just a variation of ATB combat that I partially stole from Medarot. Combat gets more complex and dangerous later on, although I feel like I could have made it more varied.
upon defeating the 2nd fight of the 2nd to last level (with peter and ermine against true harmony) the game softlocks after the first 2 dialogs - you are stuck on the battlefield instead of transitioning to the next screen.
The bad news is that I could recreate the issue, but I'm not sure what is causing it.
The good news is that the game seems to save your progress normally so restarting the game should allow you to keep going regardless. Please try that if you can.
Good job on beating Harmony by the way, that's a side objective.
argh, i have been blueballed to the highest degree! the final fight won't begin - clicking the object i wont specify due to spoilers doesn't start the fight. even after saving and restarting, same thing. i sit here at the last hallowed ground waiting for one more hotfix. afterwards i'll post my full feedback
I'm so sorry, the game worked perfectly fine during testing, but it seems like the exported version doesn't run properly. While this had never happened to me before, the root cause of this is probably that a path somewhere isn't loading correctly.
In this case, it was the corpses! For some reason some of them aren't working and disabling them for the time being is a compromise I can live with.
Thank you a lot for your patience. The latest update should work properly.
Comments
the initial battles are pretty hard imho, especially if players aren't accustomed to the game yet.
maybe the characters should have a bit more health? as it is, sometimes the enemies randomly all decide to target a single character in the same turn and i can't do much about it
Its been a while since I've been told the game is too hard. Normally I try to err on the easy side.
I've been thinking about implementing a couple of simple minigames to break the combat and award the player a little of extra money before a round, but for the time being consider buying some worts and aloes. The shop is readily available during the first few levels and they are only $1 each while a regular fight usually nets you $3 so they are both affordable and heal a lot for that stage of the game.
i see, as i imagined i just suck at the game lol
i have beaten it, there were no further issues.
i am not well read so i can't really comment on the quality of the story from start to finish except to say that i liked it a lot and the ending made me emotional. something that i did notice is that the egg only seems to exist in writing and flashbacks - there isn't a (present era) visual for it, which i think goes against the idea of it. if it's supposed to be an object of great temptation, great enough that Finnigan himself hides it without knowing where he puts it, it seems kinda weird to not show it. i'm reminded of LotR movies where the one ring is always shown (and zoomed in with a special music track) when exposed, which helps make it important to the viewer. i think even a single scene of "here's the egg. whoa" would reinforce how you are describing it. otherwise the ending is great. i mention this before but i specifically like how you handle the way characters exit the story. i am keeping it vague in case of anyone here reading that hasn't beaten the demo.
so, some technicals
"ocean" level, you can't see your staring position, it's obscured by the menu at the bottom right
the ground flickering effect is very, very good. i really like it.
the shop being unmanned and free in the lategame is a cool touch. i still basically never used anything from the shop, the only item i ever remember using was the reviving feather and that was several DDs ago. no clue if you really need to change anything, since i think at this point i am experienced enough and this might be more beneficial to newer players.
the goon/meduzoid god claw-attack sound is kinda weak. it does have the claw imagery but it doesn't really do it for me
for the last chunk of the game haydn feels a bit absent from dialogues - but at the same time what can you really do with an animal that doesn't really speak. he does have a moment in the end, but the section before that is absent, enough that on my playthrough last time i wrote "no haydn?".
going to comment again that the portraits changing depending on the character's mood is excellent. i notice it more and more and i like it every time i see it
the final boss felt kinda simple, same with the fights before it. it took me a bit to figure out the order for the Pets, but it was fine once i did. i think maybe another "arena puzzle" is in order, like how you did it previously with Sannoval or the forest level. the actual final boss i wouldn't really consider a battle - he only cast frog migration which doesn't really seem to do anything except slow (some? unsure which characters are chosen) characters. then i killed him with a sword.
another nerf suggestion for Mosca's AOE slow - i think it should have a hard-cap max slow amount. in the Pets fight, i spammed an unupgraded motivate on mosca for her to aoe slow, enough that the casting (bottom row, forgot name) enemy was slowed to basically nothing. i was able to wait -> slow -> wait before he got any action in. i think a max 3 multiplier of the same slow should be the enough, but allow multiple different slow instances to stack more.
well done. i am going to miss seeing new content every demo day and im glad i was able to join you for the ride to see how this game evolved. since i know this is your first game, i hope that you enjoyed making this enough to warrant more games from you in the future. expect a day 1 purchase from me once AG is for sale.
Thank you for playing and, in all honesty, encountering a lot of the worst issues firsthand.
As always, I'll take your feedback into consideration. I'm not that sure about the Egg either since it only shows up directly during the award ceremony and bestiary entries. The only thing I really wanted to communicate is that it's both dangerous and culturally important for one of the characters and how it plays into something that Mosca mentions a few times when faced with difficulties.
it might be a case of not playing the game fully through in one (or a few) sitting(s), since i kind of forgot about the award ceremony scene. you can also feel free to ignore any story criticism since i'm very much out of my element in that front
The new logo is not pixel art, so it looks jarring with the rest of the title screen. Same for the game over screen.
You can really FEEL the polish you've been adding. It feels so smooth it's like the game is running at a higher framerate.
After disabling fullscreen mode, the game goes back to it automatically between menus.
Battle speed is not saved between fights
Xanadu archer's lifesteal is not permanent. It seems to reset after you reload with low ammo.
Xanadu knight should leave the hall
Facing Right Hand without Ermine alive to cast slowdown puts you in what seems to be a softlocked state where he just casts invincibility over and over again after running out of summons
8th plague's description has a typo
I can't enter the tallest tower. Clicking it plays the transition animation, then reloads the map exactly as it was
The orb flashback is a bit too close to Made in Abyss to my liking
Other than that I have enjoyed this game a lot. Is the ending already there? I'd like to be able to access it
Thank you for playing. The ending should work now with the latest hotfix.
You could have said the orb flashback is too much like Roadside Picnic or The Lord of the Rings too. "God-like wish granting artifact with a severe drawback that tempts desperate people" is a common trope, and I happen to like it. I'm also ripping off Dracula.
Yeah, that in itself is a common trope, overall. I think what made it stand out to me was the presentation of it being a very brown flashback + the imagery of displaced people traveling to it + it being linked to a healing factor purgatory-like environment with disfigured creatures in it + the viking helmet and moth duo. I wouldn't call it a ripoff, and it's probably just a coincidence, but it took me out of the story a bit during an important moment.
Nice! I'll check it out tomorrow.
I managed to get to the end message with the new build. Pretty neat ending. I don't know how the battles earlier on have changed recently, but the encounter design has a lot better in the latter parts of the game. I hope to see more games from you in the future, as this one was very soulful.
Thank you for playing!
I personally think the game gets incrementally more fun past level 5 as a combination of having more levels to distribute and less safe enemy designs. The issue is that it's hard to get into the mentality of someone who just picked up the game which is one of the reasons why feedback, such as yours, is so important.
Getting more used to the combat, a lot of improvements over the last i played, along with fantastic world building and great characters.
Keep it up!
Thank you for the kind comment.
I've been wondering if I should make more games set in the same universe. I wasn't planning on that but I have a lot of lore I wrote for consistency's sake already.
Interesting take on turn-based combat. Haven't played too long but what I played seemed fairly well thought out. Curious to see where this game will be once it's done.
Thank you for playing.
It's really just a variation of ATB combat that I partially stole from Medarot. Combat gets more complex and dangerous later on, although I feel like I could have made it more varied.
greetings!
upon defeating the 2nd fight of the 2nd to last level (with peter and ermine against true harmony) the game softlocks after the first 2 dialogs - you are stuck on the battlefield instead of transitioning to the next screen.
I have bad news and good news.
The bad news is that I could recreate the issue, but I'm not sure what is causing it.
The good news is that the game seems to save your progress normally so restarting the game should allow you to keep going regardless. Please try that if you can.
Good job on beating Harmony by the way, that's a side objective.
i'll try it out tomorrow morning and i'll report back. another bug for the bug mines!
Nevermind, I fixed it.
The mine is closed for the day.
argh, i have been blueballed to the highest degree! the final fight won't begin - clicking the object i wont specify due to spoilers doesn't start the fight. even after saving and restarting, same thing. i sit here at the last hallowed ground waiting for one more hotfix. afterwards i'll post my full feedback
I'm so sorry, the game worked perfectly fine during testing, but it seems like the exported version doesn't run properly. While this had never happened to me before, the root cause of this is probably that a path somewhere isn't loading correctly.
In this case, it was the corpses! For some reason some of them aren't working and disabling them for the time being is a compromise I can live with.
Thank you a lot for your patience. The latest update should work properly.
no need to apologize, this is what DD is for. i'll download the latest update and report back
What's new since last Demo Days:
A lot of really bad, gamebreaking issues fixed and new capsule art.
https://bakar.itch.io/afterlife-gladiator/devlog/694146/devlog-25-the-devil-is-i...
Significant refactoring of the dialogue system and some new assets.
https://bakar.itch.io/afterlife-gladiator/devlog/702815/devlog-26-emotionally-ch...
2 new levels, bringing the total to 22/22.
https://bakar.itch.io/afterlife-gladiator/devlog/724940/devlog-27-day-587