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: 9.5

Very nice, but almost too easy, game. I love the way it was put together, but I felt the talent system could use a little tweaking. It felt more like a juggling act than an enhancement to having equipment on your character. Also, the game was maybe a touch too easy? I felt there wasn't really much of a challenge, but it was also a really good feeling as there was only ONE character to play with, and losing would mean game over. Nice addition to the main game's lore and character backstory, and well done all around.

Hi FevorCraft,

I liked playing it. It was short, yes, but the somewhat unusual main character and the little backstory about her, was really fun.

I hope to see more of her soon.

Regeneratio Venae

by FervorCraft

Hey there FervorCraft, thanks for submitting a project to the 2022 IGMC. I'm Drifty and I was asked to judge your game in round four of the IGMC 2022 game jam. Here's some feedback about your project.

I would prefer if the game had not been packaged into an installer, but instead a simple .exe that would run the game. See the review I gave on Resurrection Rancher if you need more reasons why I think that this is a bad idea.

I like the quick intro.

Very nice looking menu with a generous amount of starter potions.

The battle system seems well thought out and polished. It's a decent little CTB system with some customization.

It would be cool if you could update the skill learn system display page to let you know how many SP you need without having to click on it. I feel like the current layout has the player doing more menu-ing than they need to be doing.

I enjoy the lighting that has been applied to the maps. It really adds to the atmosphere.

There is a decent selection of ambient tracks that works well overall.

The level of fog is very subtle and I found it to be just right. Nice job on not overdoing it.

I appreciate the amount of effort that went into selecting custom animations for the skills and items.

The puzzles are very simple, but that's a good thing. I say keep this method as there are very few things more frustrating than liking a game just to be slapped with a hard puzzle that you can't figure out. So I like that all of the puzzles I encountered were pretty simple in this game.

The bosses were a little bit too easy, but it's probably better if you go with too easy rather than too hard for a game jam. That way more people will be able to get through your game. So not a big deal.

I love to open chests and get that sweet loot but I feel like you put too many chests in some of the puzzle areas. There's such a thing called analysis overload and some people may experience that by the end. Too many new items too quick. But that being said, you've managed to put together a nice selection of equipment and relics to upgrade in the short period that was designed for this quick game jam version.

The storyline is very vague and not really that interesting, but the game makes up for it with several really interesting progression systems and overall I really enjoyed this entry. 

Great job with presenting a project for the IGMC 2022, it was fun and I look forward to seeing your next projects.

-Drifty

Hey there FervorCraft, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. Your mapping showed right away that you know what you're doing, and that skill also shown in the battles with interesting skills and different enemy weaknesses. The story was interesting, but it felt like this was a small side story from a much larger game. Which sounds like it may be the case, but for a contest it would have been nice to have some more answers given, like why our adorable mage was doing all this in the first place (all I gathered from the game was that she had to/was told to).

Showing enemy weaknesses in-battle was a great way to make me try out different skills, but I think you went overboard will all of the skills and passive abilities. I did level up my skills, but pretty much ignored Nihil Vortex and healing since once I powered up my elemental skills battles didn't last long enough to worry about my health. In a longer game with other party members I could see these skills being useful, but for this short contest game? It felt like overkill. Once I learned Archmagic and AP Costs -50%, I was unstoppable. Even the final boss was no match for me, which was a shame since it almost felt like another normal battle instead of the final fight. 

Overall, your development skills shine in this short game, so great job! I do think there was a bit too much going on with Talents and Action levelling for such a short game, but it didn't take away from the clear love and care you put into this game.

I got assigned this game for judging in round 3. First, congrats on getting to round 3! Here are my thoughts on it.

Overall I felt this was a nice short game. My only quibble was I wished for more time to be gradually introduced to the battle system, but once I got the hang of it, everything was fine. The skill learn system for upgrading skills was a nice touch too, and I do like I had the option to grind.

Overall though I feel this was well done. Again, congrats on getting to round 3!

Cool Game, i like the skill lerning system.

Hi I streamed your game on my twitch so here's my impressions :)

Very polished. I was super impressed that you made this with an older engine like XP. It honestly was so clean looking with recent animation DLCs and scripts for things like Octopath weaknesses and such. You really kept XP up-to-date and modernized and that takes work.

Deep systems and a lot of skills to play with. Perhaps a tad to many combat options from the get go but better too many than none for sure.

Gorgeous mapping with great touches like the stone structure giving way to natural cave!

Puzzles aren't my thing but they seemed fine.

A very strong entry overall.

Very polished entry showcasing the cool systems I assume is part of the the main game. I played around with the talent learning system which seems to work well.  The battles are straight forward enough once you find the enemie's weaknesses. Cool entry!

You have a lot of complex systems here that show your attention to detail with this project -- and your main project through extension. I found this game to be overall enjoyable, but there was nothing that really stood out with the "wow" factor, if that makes sense? I'm interested in seeing more of this, though, and will be checking out how it fits into your main project!

I wanted to like this game more than I did. The presentation is good and clean and it has no glaring errors, but it lacks a wow factor. Nothing in it grabbed me. I finished it on stream, but had it been longer I probably would not have had the patience for it.

As I understand it, this is an offshoot of a main project, and it kind of shows. A lot of the systems that I assume are a part of the main game are here too, and just don't feel necessary: I never needed to check for weaknesses, I never had to level my skills, and I never needed to shuffle my talents. The last boss was fairly dull and easy, and there was no way to do worse, since the good equipment is in the rooms you have to do by force, turning the final boss into a sponge that couldn't do much to me.

In general the vibe we got during the stream is that you have a good understanding of how RPG maker works, and just need to develop the skill on how to pace and deliver the story (or whatever the core of the game is meant to be) within that structure. 
(Maki ninja'd me on my point, blast it XD)

Watched a friend play this! I was excited to see a lead character who doesn't fit into the usual model for main characters, so thanks for that! She's very cute, especially in the last illustration.

As for the game itself, I wanted to enjoy it more than I did. It's clear you have a very strong grasp on how RPGmaker works and how to build the structure of a game - presentation was good, everything worked, the graphics matched, the mapping was nice - but the story delivery was missing a strong hook to really hold the player's (and viewers!) attention.

All in all though, good work. It's a cut above a lot of the other games I've seen and it's a shame it doesn't have more comments or attention. Keep up the good work and really focus on pacing, story delivery, and character going forward.