I did like the action sequences and edited side view battlers - very nice touches! Unfortunately, I didn't like much else about the game. Fun fact: the VisuStella Options Core plugin comes with a setting for random encounters! I turned off the random encounters and went through the game and still found the game rather grindy (I fought all of the on-screen encounters) and the end boss was impossible. Others have already said this, but just to reinforce the point: the cutscenes are too long, regardless of whether the game is a demo or a full release.

Since this is supposed to be a battle-oriented game, a lot of work needs to be done to get the game feeling right. I recommend stripping down the cutscenes and add in more playable sections. Battle balance also needs to be reviewed, since it takes 2 full turns from the player characters to defeat a zombie in the best of circumstances, while the zombies can defeat a player character in 2 hits. While this may sound equal at first, trust me, it's not; the zombies are taking 8 hits to be defeated, while the players are only taking 2 hits. It's not balanced. Also, the end boss is a total bullet sponge and needs to be redesigned completely. There are better ways to design an end boss besides giving them maximum HP and defense.

Game jams are all about learning, so I hope you find the feedback here enlightening. I think you can make an excellent game, just keep improving your skills!

There was clearly a tonnnn of work and creativity thrown into this game. Lots to love about it:

-Action sequencing was very creative. I saw you make use of jumps, rotations, multiple motions, multiple action effects and animations. You clearly worked hard on those! (come join my server - we work on action sequences in there a lot :) )

-Edited battlers with their gun idle motions . . . amazing and suuuuuper cool looking (particularly Juvia's Dual P90 Idle pose. Very nice touch)

-Progression system with gear, weapons, upgrades

-TP = ammo system

I thought it was very fun getting geared up and strong enough to oneshot zombies. I think a lot of people may struggle with many aspects though.

- Storytelling has rough English, which isn't a huge deal, but there is waaaaaaaayyyyy too much text. Even if the writing was spectacular, no one wants to read for 15 minutes for a game jam game.

The ending scenes with a million different characters didn't really make sense to me, and I admit I lost patience and just sped through all the dialog.

-Pacing: It takes much too long to get into the action. Players should be given control very quickly in a jam game, like within 1-3 minutes.

-Combat balance: So you need many allies to stand a chance against zombies, but it takes a long time to get them, and there are random encounters throughout. I imagine lot of players would just say this is too hard a game and give up early. Even after finding allies, running out of ammo makes players useless (unless they have awesome machetes), so if a player isn't situated to buy ammo, they will be in trouble.

Further, the Anomaly boss is impossible to beat under normal circumstances. You can all characters at maximum gear, and still lose. The only winning strategy is to grind money and buy lots of ammo and life up supplies. This is not a good boss design.

Given that you oneshot zombies, then can't beat the boss - this is a recipe for frustration.

I did enjoy the game. It just needs a bit of polish, particularly in writing and combat balance. But the bones are there for a super fun zombie hunting rpg.

I had some fun with this, however, I think it’s a bit too long for a game jam. I totally understand the difficulties with English as a second language, but it can mess up immersion with a lot of grammatical errors.

The story was enticing, but the grammar got in the way. The music at points didn’t make sense, as it was more fantasy-themed than a dystopia. I thought the combat system was cool, with ammo being tied to the weapons, but I did NOT enjoy the fact that I couldn’t do a basic attack when I ran out of ammo.

Too early into my battles I ran out of ammo and had half my party just sitting there and blocking. A lot of thought went into the item system, and I like it, but I think maybe make things a bit cheaper, or healing a bit more would help a lot. It’s also a lot for a game jam where the game is supposed to be under 30 minutes.

Final critique is that the anomaly is WAY too hard. I mean I barely did 5% damage on him, using healing items, reloading ammo etc… and that’s with my playtime being over 30 minutes.

Solid effort and I think with some work done to the dialogue you’ll have a really solid game. I’d definitely do some tweaking to the difficulty, or at the very least tweak it for a game jam designed for 30 minute play time.

Very cool game! Challenging and fun.

I loved the deep variety of items and equipment you put together here, and the weapon upgrade option was a nice touch. I liked that it had a chance of failing (and that it did on one attempt, though luckily not on the 5K sniper rifle lol). 

It took me a couple hours, but finally on my third attempt, after some grinding and fully upgrading all gear and my weapons to the top category, and giving the squishier toons the Zabel Gabriel Serum:

That Anomoly is tough as nails! 

It was longer than I'd expect for a Jam game, but captured my attention enough that I wanted to see it through.

The battle animations were tons of fun too, I especially liked the Suplex :)

Nice job, I'll keep an eye out for the full version so I can dive in again!

I really enjoyed this game and was impressed with how long and intricate it is. I would suggest tho that some of the intro be a bit more condensed or have a little bit more player interaction (there are four scene changes and quite a bit of dialogue before the player can do anything at all). Also, I would suggest using a spell-checker and grammar checker - of which you can find many online - to help with the text in the game. I could usually parse what you were going for, but it really hurt the emotional impact of some scenes. I also thought the beginning was a bit confusing because there's a lot of talk of terrorists but then it's zombies. It was also a bit difficult to figure out how to get into the hospital. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not but it almost seems like you climb a ladder on the ground...? Overall, tho, this was a fun and intricate game that was surprising as a game jam game just for how long and involved it is.

I like the Idea that mana is ammo, but I would change the color of it. It was fun to run around the hospital and fight the "anomaly". Some areas looks pretty large and empty,  but all in all it's nice game.