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Rivals Beyond's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| People's Choice | #52 | 3.462 | 3.462 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Rivals Beyond
by PsiSteve
Hey there PsiSteve, thanks for submitting a project to the 2022 IGMC. I was asked to judge your game in round three of the IGMC 2022 game jam. Here's some feedback about your project.
Since you're using MV you might want to consider using a monitor sync plugin for people with higher Hz monitor refresh rate. The engine has some issue with running at the correct framerate under some circumstances. You could possible add a few more various options.
I really like the big bubbly font, it's very easy to read.
The writing is pretty decent with a few minor grammar issues.
I think that you've done a great job in simplifying the main menu down to just what needs to be there. I do believe that you should've added the 'Items' scene to the 'Bag menu' instead of 'Skills' scene though.
The tileset is very unique and has it's own style. The sprites looked very basic but they work just fine for a tech demo or game jam version.
The battle system is very basic. A 'hit them with their weakness' system is employed here which most RPG fans will very quickly understand. Although it felt like I was spamming basic attack and healing mint through-out most of the fights.
It can be confusing when you take an enemies HP down just to see it fill all the way back up though. Maybe explain that system. (In as few words as possible)
Good idea on sequencing new enemies joining the fight in some battles to spice it up. I liked the in-combat banter. As long as it stays to a minimum it's a nice touch.
However, the battle with the flying bird is not balanced because you have a pair of lemon drops join the fight and it becomes too hard. Might I suggest making it so that only a single lemon drops joins in that particular fight. I get that you're supposed to lightning hit the lemon heads immediately, but if you do anything else besides that, well you're gunna die.
If you would have put in some time to make or find custom animations you could've improved the feel of your combat scene ten-fold. The default sounds and animations are very boring and I've seen them a million times. Too many skills and attacks simply have no animation and/or SFX. I suggest adding custom animation/SFX for each skill and ability that's used in the game.
I don't understand the reasoning in making it so you can't use your restoration items outside of combat. Why add this unnecessary restriction on the player? You're inflating the difficulty at the cost of adding frustration and you're not getting any benefit out of this.
I feel like the player is 'missing' too much personally. A higher accuracy would feel more satisfying.
When an enemy has 1 HP it seems to round the HP bar to look like it has 0% HP remaining. I would try my best attempt at making that HP bar show a sliver of HP until the enemy actually has zero HP.
The healing moves and items don't restore enough HP once you get passed round 1 and the game becomes a grindy slog. Without touching on the previous points that I've already made, I'd like to emphasize that it's probably better to make a game that falls on the easier or less grindy side for a game jam or tech demo. Save that difficulty for the end game of the final release.
Good victory music is hard to find especially when you need it to fit a niche, but you could have made another small improvement if you'd found the right BGM for that instead of leaving it silent.
While I think that you have the makings of a really decent title here, I also think it's missing quite a few things and needs some redesign in certain areas. Congratulations on making it to round three of the IGMC 2022 and I look forward to your next project.
-Drifty
Thank you for the very detailed review! I understand most of your complaints except you saying I should have added healing out of battle. You get fully healed after every battle, so I found no use to add healing items outside.
Did you notice the other healing spells you got at the start of every dungeon? There was a message that said you earned it at the start. If you were only using the mint heal, that would definitely be rough lol.
I worked very hard on creating my own music and graphics, so the time for sfx \ custom animations was running very thin. I can see how that was a bummer. This was simply due to the nature of the contest and being a one man team haha.
Thank you again for the review, I appreciate all of your feedback and hope you had fun playing my weird game!
Disclaimer: I helped playtest this game. And it is developed by my brother.
There is nothing out there that is like Rival's Beyond. Much like all of PSISteve's work, it is an ode to the magic of his childhood. The game is like one of those classic cartoons from the 90s, but it also has this sadness behind it all. But it is done in a way where the player is meant to simply have fun, not get depressed from it all.
How to describe it? It's like a turn-based RPG version of Punchout, but based off this weird limbo after life where you fight these charming cartoon critters.
The art is all hand-drawn and it is all so well done. I don't think anything else looks like this. PSISteve is really talented at making his own style and having it catch the eye. Every single enemy/character have so much personality oozing from them.
The goal of the game is to explore and find your opponents. Then you fight them. Each fight is refereed and you must pay attention to what your opponent does. If your opponent becomes too fast on their feet, you can devastate this with an attack of your own. They can also make YOU too fast on your feet and they can devastate you. It's very satisfying punishing your opponent when they think they have the advantage. There are a handful of other states like this, such as when they fly/grow defensive/think too hard.
PSISteve also composes his own music. Every song is moody and quirky and adds to the atmosphere quite a bit. As usual, one of my favorite aspects of his games.
The world is very creative. Each area feels like a different alien planet.
The story is purposely vague. It starts you off with a heavy mood but then instantly lets you just enjoy the fun/cartoony world of it all. So even though it's fun, there is something sad lurking behind it all.
The ending was particularly good in my opinion. Without spoiling, it was very simple and effective.
The game felt complete. Which is hard to do in the limits IGMC sets.
This game is very good, but I am also biased alas. I still would bet on this game being a treat for most who play.
"Rivals Beyond" is a graphically pleasing game, draped in greens, pinks, and also in an unusual grey combination that evokes a certain mood, and has smooth lines like a Flash game, reminding me of such titles as "Fancy Pants Adventures" and "Fancy Pants Adventures: World 2". It's smooth and well-presented, and has lovely pacing to start.
You get plopped into a world where a dog with a moustache might just help you out, in a contest that you've found yourself a part of, to win your life back. Yes, win your life back.
Our voiceless protagonist finds themselves in a world snowing with Mint, where you win battles against winged creatures to gain points and progress to the Next Round. But before you progress, you will need to win a boss battle.
Battles are reffed by a squeaky little dude who counts you into duels with monsters that are resolved by selecting the right elemented attack. Indeed, many battles can just be won if you know what the opponent is weak to.
While it made sense to find the elemental weaknesses of each enemy, I struggled to find layers of strategy beyond that. Most times, I found myself experimenting with moves to find which one had the highest damage number, and then spam that one until the enemy died. If I got low on health, I'd use the highest HP heal - that was about it. Sometimes they'd kill me, but I'd come back and try again and, depending on RNG, I'd either lose or win.
Indeed, perhaps my biggest point of struggle I found with the game was that I felt much of the battle relied on RNG, whether I'd win or lose. There are a few moves that the enemy can make that seem to do nothing, and depending on whether they roll these attacks, would dictate usually whether I win or lose. So it seemed like the battles were largely reliant on RNG.
I feel like if the enemies' attacks were more consistently strong, or if there were more layers of strategy the player could use to counter these attacks, then it would have made for an overall more consistently entertaining battle experience for me.
However, despite the RNG, the battles were easy enough and spaced at a pace that was quick enough that I didn't get too frustrated. The enemies were cutely designed, and the environments are imaginative and easy to walk through.
As for the story, there is one! Although it took me a while to get the "central piece" to the story that made me feel things, the ending in particular is the moment that made me actually care about the protagonists, because the way that the scenario was constructed made me pity them, and pity can often be an entryway to relatability. However, it was a little late in the piece, so I felt like I wanted to get a story hook earlier in the story, rather than nearly at the end.
However, I overall actually liked this game, mostly because of its charming presentation, its smooth and well-polished graphics, its lovely, well-placed music and cute assembly of characters, which were well-employed to the point that it made me have an overall pleasant experience despite what I perceived to be its flaws.
Overall, its world, its audio, and its imagination are its strong points, along with the end of its story really tugging on the heart strings.
Thank you for making this game, Steve. I really enjoyed playing it and I appreciate that you made it for us. <3
This has a really unique and aesthetically pleasing art style. It's really coherent and consistent throughout the entire game. I know this is such a random thing -- but I also really enjoyed your font choice for this. Overall, a really solid entry! :)
Cute character designs. I really enjoyed the overall look of the game. The story is okay. The battles are alright albeit a bit on the harder side of things.