Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Theme 

  Abyssal's theme is weird and hard to pin down. It's about some water god getting pissed and has been causing shipwrecks. You lost some important artifact and…You also meet an Abyssal. And that’s all I can garner from it.

  Gameplay

  I have a ton of issues with its gameplay.

  • I played this game on normal mode with the recommendation of 40 steps for encounter. I felt like this was a massive mistake. Encounter rate is broken. This is even more obvious during the driftwood pushing area where I was forced to change the encounter rate to 90. Just after a battle and moving to a small current, I encountered an enemy immediately!

  • A ton of distractions during puzzle solving segments was frustrating and can cause an insane amount of time remembering where you just went to.
  • You get some equipment items but you get so many “increases MDF or AGI” items that you don’t feel compelled to adjust your equipment.
  • You should give a free revival item at the beginning just because on how expensive it is and how fast Anwar can die.
  • The fights aren’t very engaging. The bosses and normal encounters are so samey that your strategy doesn’t ever change.
  • It wasn’t exactly clear what Leylines or Leypoints do at the beginning until you get some skills later. It just came off as confusing.
  • The totem item you pick is unclear and buggy. I didn't know what it does until another judge points it out and it even activated onto the next battle when the previous match died a lot earlier than expected.

  Presentation

  • The intro was very weird. Fighting the same mook sea goop and presenting it as if it’s a scary boss at the edge of the ship was underwhelming. Evander also falling during the shaking screen on this part was confusing, what exactly happened?
  • Maps are OK but the Music choice was really bad. Some examples:
    • That looping music during the intro with Riya overstaying its welcome.
    • The music during the islets part are so repetitive after enough backtracking due to encounter rates and problem solving.
  • The facesets have inconsistent details that are a bit of an odd choice. Is there a reason that the Stella had to have a very detailed choker? It’s as if that’s her defining character. It's also very hard to gather their age based on this.
  • There are also some writing issues that I  have to mention:
    • Evander falling in love with Riya within one week is just crazy.
    • Uua’s speech is really irritating to read. It would’ve been better that she speaks exactly like Yoda instead of budget Yoda.
    • Bonus point that Riya isn’t a female protagonist with a rage boner and 0 tact. I actually like her. Evander and Anwar were charming for the most part until they act like teenagers. Stella can dive off a cliff and I wouldn't miss her.

  • The turn order obstructs parts of the battle log if the line is long enough.
  • I think better icons for Leypoints and Leyline would’ve been better. I wasn’t exactly sure if the – sign was a negative or positive.
  • The windowskin borders are not very good.

  Engagement 

  I have a lot of issues with this game that detracted a lot from my total enjoyment.

  Total – 50/80

• PRESENTATION
  

  Graphics are a mix of different packs but all work well together. The mapping is very good and the environment is interesting and detailed.

  The sound is quite well done, with most music fitting the scenes it's played in quite well. Sound effects are scattered through-out the game and attention was given in some areas to atmospheric sounds, which is always a nice touch.

  The writing has a few minor technical issues in spelling/word cutoff and very minor grammar. Otherwise it presents the story and characters quite well. The characterisation is good and the characters are all likeable and interesting in their own ways, though sometimes they can come off a little cliche.

  I did notice a bit of style clash with parts of the facesets being custom and others being generator.

  GAMEPLAY
  Gameplay consists of typical jRPG fare - battles, environment/event interactions and the like.

  Items are found via looking for floating arrows when you get close enough to a hidden item for it to show. Most of the found stuff is either healing items or money.

  Battles consist of beating up enemies in the usual way. Each character has a type of skill that suits their class. Some enemies also have armour which is basically a different HP pool. Some skills can bypass the armour to hit their typical HP (which, if it falls to 0, causes death, even if the secondary pool/armour is still full).

  Skills are learned by finding scrolls or unlocked by battling optional enemies. Armour and weapons can be gotten the same way. You can also purchase some skills.

  Puzzles are interesting, though they can get a bit repetitive after a while. The puzzle with the driftwood was pretty good.
  

  There is an option to change your encounter rate and game difficulty, but the encounter part is broken which means it doesn't matter what you pick in that aspect, you're going to get encounters and you better like them because good luck running from them!
  
  

  ENGAGEMENT
  The game is pretty fun. There's something about it that feels like I've played it before but the battles are fun and fast, the search for items is interesting and while I got sick of the encounter rate, zooming around on water streams was a nice way to travel, even if it got rather repetitive after a while. I liked the characters well enough, and the visual aspects were fresh.

  THEME
  The theme was handled well - the mechanics were explained well and made sense for the most part (the leylines were a little iffy but eh) and the story presented certain aspects quite well too.

  65/80

• 60/80

  Stella's victory graphic tears. What can be stolen with Stella isn't easy to figure out as some bosses seem to not allow stealing, but some common enemies can be stolen from. Mandrake is near impossible to catch with mouse or touch controls. Sea Witch quest, the drink it should be they drink it. With all 3 color gems, entering the caves with them equipped turns the light a different color. An item gives the shark hunter MP, but she doesn't seem to use MP at that point of the game.  When you upgrade the shark necklace, it is unequipped. Also, the description for at least one upgrade says ALL x/8, but that description is probably meant for the 8/8 upgrade.
  

  While there are a few areas where it feels like the story isn't really that well developed, overall, the story is well rounded and at least enjoyable to read. Not perfect, but sound is used well and graphics are used well. Could potentially do with a bit of fixing to make it more friendly for those with accessibility issues.

  Has several issues such as a lack of a minimap, excessively large maps, excessively high encounter rates,  and battles that are fairly tedious once trying to one shot the enemies becomes the standard tactic. The encounter rate changer seems to be rather pointless. Why is it that the characters feel like they are just being forced to do certain things instead of it being natural? The omg, I fell in love at first sight trope again?

• There was a lot of content in this one, pretty impressive. I enjoyed the battles thanks to the interesting skills (especially the Spell stealing one, that was fun). However, they can get grueling when you’re wandering around an enormous map trying to solve a puzzle. It was easy to lose track of where you are with the frequent interruptions. The character art was cute even if the characters themselves are pretty one-note, most of their interactions had the same general rhythm. The environments are very cool looking, especially the underwater sections. Very enjoyable overall.

  Score: 57/80