I don't have anything to add that hasn't already been covered by other commenters, but good job completing this demo!

Hi!

I enjoyed this game and think it has potential to be developed further given the time. I'll break it down into the different things that I was looking at whilst playing and say what I liked and hopefully provide some feedback that might be helpful XD.

1) Story - Started with an interesting hook, I always like to have something unusual that isn't fully explained and kind of gives you a 'you have to play to find out' feeling, keeps me intrigued. Ended with a nice little twist which is always welcome. Overall I can't fault the main story.

2) Characters - I liked the different personalities you were able to show off in a short amount of time. I'm sure you'll be able to expand them even more if developed further.

3) Graphics - The mapping was good making use of the assets available well. Some of the assets looked like they were upscaled making them stand out from the rest a little though. I'm sure you can sort this given more time in development though, so it's a minor issue. There were some passibility issues, like that in the cave whereby the cracks allowed you to walk on water. Again, a minor issue. Some the houses felt a bit big however and I'm finicky when it comes to door entrance scale. So if a door is one tile on the outside, it should be 1 on the inside but that's personal preference above anything, feel free to disregard that! The only other thing that struck me as odd was the church map, you enter by going up but inside you exit by going right. This felt a little weird for me.

4) Music - was pleasant for the most part although I'm not sure the battle music goes with the environment too well imo :( sounds a bit too futuristic for the more medieval vibe you've got going on. Easily fixed though :)

5) Fast Travel Map - I LOVED this (did you make the map yourself?) It was a really nice way to get around and to see what potential areas were around you lending itself to make you feel like the world is massive without actually having to travel from place to place.

6) Battle System - I know the system well in all honesty so I know that it's great and I know it takes a little while to really get into the many advanced strategies you can deploy. What was shown makes good use of it for the beginning of a game. It didn't feel unbalanced or unfair and had enough skills for you to get a good feel for it within the short time frame. So yeah, it's good :D

7) Tutorials - These were fine and explained the system well. One thing you could add is the ability to skip them (for those like me, who know the system already XD)

8) UI - Customised nicely. Gives it a fresh look and feel. Nothing to fault there.

9) Opening - LOVED that you had voice acting (and a nice voice too, whoevers it is <3). It could do with subtitles/captions though (I like to read along XD). And although I liked the custscene style pictures, it would be nice in the future to maybe have the actual events being played out on screen? Kind of like narrating a movie. Again, I liked it as is too but I think that would make it easier to follow along with what was being told to you, as it's quite a fast introduction to a new world, lore and story all at once.

10) General Pace - Overall it was fine. I'd like to see the tutorial stuff worked into the story perhaps though, maybe something along the lines of having to travel with Owin to find the cave and on that path you get introduced to the various fighting mechanics and maybe have to camp out the night and cook some food or something, introducing the cooking mechanic too. I know tutorials are usually the last thing to do though, especially with a timed competition (I know that well, considering ours were done at 2hrs before the deadline XD). But the tutorials worked fine overall. I think I read a comment saying you're reworking that section anyway, so this point may be moot and feel free to ignore it!

11) Size of game - think you could strip out some files to make it smaller (audio or images you're not using) cos just under 1GB is quite a lot. I know it's a bit laborious to get this done though (especially as the 'remove unused assets' thing built in can sometimes get rid of things you need that custom plugins using, if they haven't been written with that mind). It's a small issue but one to consider going forwards.

Overall: Lots of potential, especially with the story and characters, the stand out component of this game for me :D

This game is a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the battles, and story. The only thing that I noticed was I ran out of MP, and couldn't stay at the inn, the shop was closed, and I couldn't find any MP healing items. Other than that this game is a lot of fun, and good. Keep up the good work.

ok let’s break this mother down...

1. I disagree with the last dude. Maps were solid. Brought me back to the old school jrpg days and I guess if you are looking for that well you got that. I like it but I get it’s an opinion. I wouldn’t add more to them though. Some I feel can seem a bit cluttered but I think it fits the whole feel well, but like I said I get this is opinion based. 

2. I personally wasn’t a fan of all the music. I like the town stuff... that city what was is flathiseaus? Sorry spelling... anyway I like the music there. Wasn’t a fan of the battle music in the training area. Seemed a bit too futeristic. 

3. Story was solid. Abh... main girl, sorry some of your names are hard to spell. Like them but god are they difficult... yeah so main girl liked her a lot. Owin was an ass but I think that’s what you were going for. Ellysa, well I didn’t get an enough of a feel for her yet but I like what I see so far.  I’m interested to see which direction you take after that cliffhanger at the end.

4. Like the battle system. I think it shakes up the old school jrpg feel enough to make it seem unique and not boring. Seems like it could get super complicated really quickly though so interested to see how you build on this. 

5. I know this is probably going to be controversial but I’m actually not a fan of the menu. It’s nicely designed but I feel I’m certain areas it can be a bit cluncky at times like no need for the character status in the menu when you have a character book... imo. 

Aside from all that the game was really enjoyable. Felt sad when it ended but I know it was just a demo. Story got me hooked and I wanna know who that evil looking dude is at the end! 

hey a chick making a game! Nice nice... sorry that was probably insensitive lol. Great game though. Killer story... some of the best writing I’ve seen in a game. Some maps were a little lackluster but it is a demo so I won’t cite ya on it ;) lol. Nah jk, most of the maps were good just some like the training area I think could have used a bit more. Music was nice and fit all the areas appropriately. Loved loved loved the fighting system. And I definitely echo the previous comment about reminding me of suikoden. I look forward to recruiting all those characters. Overall a solid 4.5/5. Looking forward to seeing the  finished product. 

Very good, well done! The visuals are amazing, you have a great combat system that I can tell will require a lot of in-depth strategy as the game expands, and I am intrigued by the story and excited to play more! I am especially excited for this base system - that, and the 50 recruitable characters, reminds me of the Suikoden games which are among my favorite so I'm going to love seeing that come to life! I hope you do well and are able to get a final product out ASAP!

Cute game!

Great job Tara! 

Very well thought out. An amazing first shot at a game! Can't wait to play the full thing.

This story is amazing so far. Can't wait till the full thing.

i would put scrolling text or subtitles on the intro. i can't really make out what the VA was saying