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: 8.5

Loved the artwork and custom assets of the game! It was a bit ham-fisted in the story-telling, but it got the point across more or less. I think going over it all and making the writing more personable would do a world of good. The only really negative thing I have to say about the game is the combat. It has an interesting mechanic, but doesn't feel balanced. I only won by the skin of my teeth and luck, and it didn't feel like a good win. There needs to either be heals between fights, or ways to heal outside of combat and generated items, both HP and MP.

This is quite a fun game -- and I absolutely adore all of the custom art you did for it; it's beautiful! 

I'm a big fan of games that tackle heavy themes, especially equality, but oof did Dan cross some lines. 

The early battles were quite challenging, but I'm sure that was a jam time constraint thing. I liked that you're able to retry the battle, though it would've been nice if maybe it healed them before restarting? I also like that even if a character was down at the end of battle, they still got experience. That was definitely a saving grace for me going through.

I loved Irene's list of interests.

I'm also glad Finn spoke up against Faye, finally. I was worried Faye was going to be Dan, but from the opposite side for a minute. 

Overall, I really, really liked this one and can't wait to see the post-jam version! :)

What I like:

+ Characters have clear personalities and serve the story

+ Clear, beautiful not-default art

+ The battle system has some strategic depth to it

Criticisms:

- Battles are unforgiving 

- Story takes up so much time that there isn’t much time to see the combat

Summary:

It’s difficult to deliver a jam game that provides a complete RPG experience, and this game is just shy of hitting the mark. With a game this story-focused it might have been better to have gone with a shorter, simpler battle system (though still have some strategy involved) or shorten the story bits down to showcase the battles more.

All that said, it is impressive how much original art is present in the game - I know that side view battle sprites alone are very time consuming to make, so the fact that virtually everything, including the battlers, are custom is commendable.

I also enjoyed the story. The characters feel real and even the good characters have clear flaws to overcome without being unlikable. There also is a lot of mystery built up during the story, which has me interested in seeing the whole story some day. Note: I didn’t play the game to the end so I don’t know if it gets wrapped up in this game or not.

Overall, a noteworthy entry. Good job!

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

The idea of the game and game world is neat. Magical girls who fight off invading aliens and save the population. I feel the story is presented well too. 

However I do feel your battle balance needs an overhaul. I lost the first fight due to a bad miss. I lost the second fight on my first two attempts due to my ultimate ice spell missing both times. Skills that cost me MP should never miss unless I'm inflicted with an ailment or the monster has a buff, neither of which applied here. Also why are there no HP or MP restore items except the one I get to start the game? I was constantly running around with 1 or 2 girls at 1 HP and 0 MP and hoping the rest of the team could carry me forward to the full restore point so I could finally heal. 

As it is I ran out of time as I got one hour to judge it, and the hour was up before I could see this through to the end. I probably would have finished if I hadn't died so often and had to retry battles and hope for good RNG for my attacks to actually land though. I do hope you really consider making it so that skills that cost MP never miss if you are going to have HP/MP restore items so rare, as otherwise bad RNG can put you in a spiral of doom, especially before the first chance to save as there is no way to go back and try to do better in those first three fights.

One other suggestion I do have: The healing regen spell is a nice idea but it doesn't continue after battle so it feels almost useless as I often get it up too late to matter. Maybe either let it carry over after the battle, or make it a straight up healing spell with some regen? 

Overall I feel you have a solid idea for the story, but do need to overhaul the battles especially early game. Remember the player is still figuring out the game. But I do hope you expand on this and fix it up as it could be a really solid game in the end.

I played this game last night with my partner and we had a good time with it. We both very much appreciated the visuals and the overarching story. The whole 'MRA' thing is a neat idea, and I enjoyed the commentary around themes of equality. 

I thought battles were visually impressive and enjoyable, though a little too difficult at the beginning. The first couple of battles should be a breeze when easing players into fights, and I felt they were a bit tricky - especially with not many items to heal with (though I understand you do have the skills you can generate). I think battles just needed some further balancing - that's all!

All in all, we enjoyed it, and I think you had a personal and important story to tell... So I really hope you keep going :)

Awesome! Nice idea, grat graphics, only problem is that there are few useful items and no consumables (there are also no MP items at all) at the only shop... if I did not miss something, and this made the game a bit difficult. Anyway I WANT a sequel involving also the "friend" and the MRA.

Holy crap this game is good!!! I'm really surprised it hasn't gotten more attention! :DDD

Absolutely loved this!!! It's got a ton of stuff I enjoy in it, including magical girls, angels, weird aliens, grappling with gender identity, bombastic battles, awesome trans lady teammate,  and just the sort of vibe you don't get with most RPGs!

The battle system is really good, and using skills to generate items than can be chained into dual attacks is SUCH an awesome idea!!! The setting is so cool! The characters, art, and world are all custom and look amazing, really adding to the experience and making you feel there in the world!

I really enjoyed this one! I'm so glad I gave it a try! :DDD

My only real nitpicks are very small:

• I kind of fooled around during the first battle to get a hang of things, but wasted so much MP it made the next battle pretty rough, and I ended up restarting the game, and since there's no Save Points early on, had to do the whole thing over. A heal spot after that first fight would fix all that tho, in case the player was dumb like me XD
• Some skills that require multiple items to use can still miss, which can be frustrating, seeing as you can spend several turns making the items you need. The first time I used Ars Arcangelus it missed the target, and I found that pretty disappointing. I still managed to beat the final battle, which was awesome, but I thought I'd bring it up.

All in all, such a great game! I give it 5 stars! I'm really looking forward to This is Not My Final Form, and if you decide to continue making this game sometime in the future, I will 1000% play it! :DDDDD

I loved the blend of a sci-fi setting with magical girls. I'll be looking forward for a extended version if you decide to continue it.

This is easily one of my favorite IGMC entries! As someone who is also working on a very queer magical girl RPG, this resonated with me a lot haha.

Even if you don't end up finishing this, I'm interested to see what kind of longform project you end up working on in the future. I also have half the mind to pick your brain about this game as well but that's probably getting ahead of myself ;j

The hand-drawn artstyle is really good and I like it a lot! The atmosphere and music is also really fitting.

I rarely see such an incredible artstyle and attention to graphic detail in one RPG Maker game. Everywhere you look in the game you find amazing sights, both from maps and characters/interface.

Still, the game is mostly atmospheric, with a plot that stays still for almost the entire game. I really struggle with "atmospheric-walking games", so sadly I didn't really like it.

You still are really good at making art and atmospherics, so I'm sure there will be a lot of other people loving your game! <3

Gotta say, despite the battles being a bit on the harder side at first, this game is surprisingly engaging. It deals with some heavy topics regarding sexual/gender identities and society's perceptions of such things in this world. Alongside the racial segregation between the different factions. One with fantastic racism on the dot and might be setting up for some hard knocks for the team later down the line.

The writing and the story definitely took a turn I was somewhat surprised by. And adding that magical girl genre flair while also deconstructing its cast's normalized standards (at least half the cast anyways) of what makes a "magical girl" really is brought into question. The ending intrigues me a lot in more than one way.

You can argue it is an intentional design for it to be hard, I'd argue the difficulty and leniency could be toned down a bit at the beginning or be provided more options of recovery to prevent backtracking and annoying grinding. Otherwise, I'd say this entry is pretty up there on my investment list from all the other entries I've played so far.

The art style is also very aesthetically pleasing on the eyes, with design and layering the likes of which I am impressed by and I am intrigued at seeing what the story has to offer next.

Well done, you have made me invested in your entry. I hope this project will continue if you ever get back to this.