I was one of the official judges this year, and now that the results have been made public, and I'm free to do so, here is my score and thoughts on this title:

Overall score: 9

Excellent little sci-fi/horror themed game! Great use of assets and a, surprisingly, very complete game. My only real complaints are the art assets (custom) don't really match the rest of the game assets, and there was not actual ending so to speak. It just abruptly goes to credits. Otherwise, a really good entry.

Hey there Starmage, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. The story seemed interesting, playing as a journalist in the middle of a 'zombie' attack was cool. It's a shame that him being a journalist didn't really come into play once he got a gun. The art you chose and made was nice, and fit the game well. I enjoyed the astral projection segments, though if I was caught by a ghost is was pretty much game over since it could damage me over and over instead of moving off of my tile. But since I could just hop back into it it wasn't a huge issue.

Battles were a mixed bag for me. I liked the different weaknesses and strategy that was needed for each battle, but the sudden jump in difficulty in the second area made them unenjoyable. And it could just be my bad luck, but the random battles happened often and my multi-hit attacks often missed one or two hits which caused me to lose a few times to normal foes... I also wasn't able to beat the game due to getting killed repeatedly by the final (at least I hope it was the final) boss battle. I'm not sure if you wanted me to grind more or to figure out a specific strategy, but I kept getting smashed by the big demon and trying to revive my K.O.ed party members just wasn't working since they'd get taken out pretty much right away.

Overall, it's clear that you know what you're doing when it comes to making battles more than just 'spam attack'. Unfortunately the jump in battle difficulty, especially at the end, soured the whole experience for me. I do hope you spend a bit more time balancing this game since the idea and systems are good, it just needs a bit more polish.

I got this game for judging in round 2. First, congrats on getting to round 2! Here are my thoughts on this game.

This game tells a solid tale and is well made story wise. My only grip is battle balance felt a little off in the second zone as the sudden jump in difficulty there resulted in a total party wipe for me on the first random battle as I got that battle before even getting to the vending machines to buy the better equipment I needed to survive. I'd suggest maybe using regions to block off the zone up to the machines so the player doesn't get wiped before getting the equipment they need to survive.

Even after getting the equipment though I found random battles just too long and too likely to wipe out my party that I just ran from them all and instead just fought the bosses. I kinda felt like I was expected to grind somewhere before the first boss battle due to the sudden jump in difficulty after defeating it, but with only an hour to judge the entire game I really couldn't stop to grind if I wanted to finish it in time.

Also I do wonder why you had on map encounters in the first area then went to random afterwards? It really took me offguard the first random battle due to that as I was now expecting on map encounters. I'd suggest being consistent here. 

Outside of that though I felt the game was well done. I did beat the final boss with almost no time left in my hour to judge. I hope you do expand on this more and I can tell I need to check out your other games sometime.

I really like the settings and the story, you did a good job! I immediately felt involved thanks to the main characters: you don't have the classic hero full of courage but a journalist who tries to survive. :D I found the game very balanced: the ether-physical-tech weakness triangle works and I always appreciate when the abilities are contextualized with the characters. Keep it up!