As far as pure enjoyment goes, I feel like this game gets top, top marks. From the get-go, the open ended exploration, Legend of Zelda style overworld, dungeons and gameplay, combat, and meaningful choices all made me really intrigued and excited for each additional step. Typically I'd say an open world jam game is a bad idea, but you somehow mastered the scope, and there was not a moment I found myself feeling my time was wasted. 

Combat felt like there was a best strategy of tanking some hits, then unleashing devastating bursts of damage. This basically "solved" all the bosses in my experience. However, this was still really satisfying every time, and figuring out the battle system (never played Bravely Default or Octopath) was a big part of the fun. 

Story struck me as bleak and serious, and yet you also managed some funny lines and references while avoiding breaking the overall feel. The Visual style was quite a treat too, and I'm sure players will enjoy it, even without knowing the inspirations.

Super fun game, and one I'll be adding to my "revisit this after the jam for sure" list!

I like the off hands approach this game has with you, it gives you just enough information to get started and leaves the rest to your own pace and sense of discovery. I felt that respected the adventurer in me to go as I pleased with the non-linearity of the design.

Probably one of my favourite entries due to the unique approach and LOTZ style it has going for it, which is unlike other entries. Battle mechanics and system had thought into it and wasn’t just pure attack mashing.

All the music and sfx was deliberate and well scored, whether it was custom or not it absolutely fit the aesthetic and vibe. I have not seen a tile set like this used often before so it was refreshing visually and auditory.

The whole thing had a dark brooding vibe going to the world but I would have liked a bigger hook in the story to make the overall game more compelling.

Games a bit on the long side so I have unfortunately not finished it, but have enjoyed my time with it, there’s a lot of effort and love that has gone into multiple facets of this entry and you can see it.

Very well done!

Haven't finished yet but I do want to get some words out. I was pretty scared of this one as a potential front-runner and what I've played so far absolutely proves it.

Excellence: Just a genuinely well-designed game. There were some snags here and there including instances where I couldn't attack in the overworld, but outside of that this is just a genuine cut above the rest. It feels so much more substantial than most of the other entries in this jam.

Combat: Amazing for a jam game. Loved all the unique battle mechanics and how well they were described in the manual. Boss fights were challenging too!

Comedy: Not a ton that I've noticed, but I really loved the twist on the "It's dangerous to go alone" guy.

Sound: Custom music lent itself well to a very Final Fantasy feel.

Visuals: Repurposed RM 2003 graphics look amazing and fit the SNES/Zelda vibe super well.

Story: Mysterious, classic, and does well to service the game. I feel especially bad rating this the way I have considering I'm not done; there could be a fantatstic plot twist I'm missing out on.

Top 2 game along with Re:PUNCH and I haven't even finished it yet. Fantastic work!

Man, this entry was such a mixed bag for me. On one hand, I absolutely loved the oldschool zelda vibe (and references) it had going, but on the other, I ran into a few bugs that were pretty bad. Here’s some feedback on my playthrough experience:

• Major bug #1, which based on communication with others, you’re already aware of but just to cover it anyway: After fighting Marsha and seeing the cutscene, harold was stuck in transparent mode, and had I not console’d him out of it, that would’ve probably been as far as I went in the game.
• (Semi?) Major bug #2: The item upgrade harpy only seemed to want to do business with me once, so I only ever managed to upgrade one thing with her. After that, either option would just terminate the event processing so I was probably playing at a handicap for most of the game.
• This game’s combat mostly just felt like a drainspam tug-of-war. I do get that its hard to make single-actor combat sequences interesting, and the clutch multi-cast system did add an extra layer of complexity to help with that, but overall I still felt like every fight had the same basic strategy to it: “If hp can benefit from drain, use drain, else try to conserve mp/gain tp so you can drain. If situation is desperate, use clutch multicast thing to get your head back above water”
• This game would’ve definitely benefited from post-battle hp/mp recovery to save players from running back to the healing harpy every few fights.

I really enjoyed this game! Battling was fun (although I sucked at initiating it properly), visuals were great and when the story started I enjoyed it. It took me until the second dungeon to realise I needed to go through the locked gates xD

Minor nitpick: while I enjoyed the slow start of the title screen when I first booted up the game, it was a bit annoying whenever I got a game over and wanted to get back into the game asap.

I adore the classic Legend of Zelda tribute. I grew up putting dozens of hours into Link to the Past, as well as the OG Legend of Zelda on NES, so the limited map size and the overall "tone" of the game - guideless exploration, dungeons and puzzles, overworld enemy behaviour - felt a bit like an old friend.  The music especially, there's nothing quite like that old-school sound font.

I enjoyed the Brave system and appreciate the difficulty options. I think this was  good marriage of Zelda overworld gameplay with RPG combat included.

This is one of the longer ones, but so good. Deep mechanics, choices that affect the story, and all presented in a consistent retro aesthetic. I also appreciate the non-linearity of the design. One of my favorites from this jam for sure!

I like how you used the Legend of Zelda method of discovery and trial and error teaching strategy to make the player learn the game on their own. I can tell you are well versed in teaching players invisibly. Although the lack of a story hook minus Harold's dark nature and seeking the villain wasn't enough to stay invested. I will say, this is a pretty well-put-together game and the puzzles were fun.

It didn't take until reading the in-game guide book did I actually had started understanding the game. Once I got past that, I started to really understand the strategic depth and I can see this scoring pretty high with battles. I didn't get to figure out how to beat the final boss though even when I only just figured out that I can stun monsters on the overworld. 

The choice of Rm2k3 graphics were really interesting and I swore they looked a lot better when I was a kid. They had this sharp contrast between dark fantasy monster sprites and cartoony background tiles. Definitely had the feel of a mishmash of aesthetics thrown together from those early days of Rpgmaker.

Still, nice to see a Zelda-esque game making it past the finish line

I really enjoyed finding all the equipment upgrades and finding those secret treasure rooms on the map. The combat is great! Satisfying to wail at an enemy with my sacred sword multipe times. Nice Zelda references :D

I'd actually pay money for this.  

Great entry dude, didn't actually find time to finish it but loving it so far.   This will be near the top for sure dude.

Great entry.  I really enjoyed this one.  Areas were big enough to enjoy without dragging on forever.  
I can't say that I ever actually understood how to take advantage of the special battle system points, but I still enjoyed it and never felt like "ugh, another battle".

I like the mash up of Zelda turned into an RPG that you did here. Good job!