This game flows really well. There was this one snake lady I couldn't beat, but I had fun playing this. Great work!

WHAT I ENJOYED:

- The battle mechanics. It seems a bit basic to start off with, but what I really enjoy is that you have a great gameplay loop with really solid mechanics. Everything makes a lot of sense, and is incredibly intuitive. I especially like the Save the Spire-esque telegraphing of the next move. It allowed me to feel very smart when tackling Revenants and especially the boss. 
- The story. Even though the player is in the dark for maybe a bit too long a time at the beginning, both in relation to the characters and the world at large, I can assume this is a byproduct of the demo nature of it. And when given the story, oh man, I LOVE this concept. Perfect mystery, and problem that the player can really get behind.
- The polish. See, I have less to say generally about this game because it just fits together so well. Nothing seemed extraneous or out of place, everything was really nicely balanced, and I felt myself no longer taking notes because I just wanted to play the game! So well done on the immersion and making the player feel comfortable and in control.

WHAT I DIDN'T:

- The dungeons. Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff you put in there. The traps, the Revenants, everything - nothing inside the dungeons were poor additions. But because of the nature of your game, you run into the big problem of everything looking very samey, which would be a shame, because you have a great story and the battles are really really fun. But corridors being a tile wide, enemies walking randomly in square rooms... I know this is a failing of the plugin, having used it myself in the past, but should you continue on with this project, the first thing I think you should focus on is trying to find ways to game the system and not have what are essentially the same floors. From something as simple as different tints and putting some tree events in there, to even enlisting the help of a coder to tweak the plugin so rooms can vary in shapes aside from squares and widening the corridors. Yeah, it's just the product of it being a month-long prototype and there not being many options for in-engine generators (though there is a Spelunky-style one for RMVXA that I WISH someone had the time/knowledge to translate). Just something to keep in mind moving forward.

TL;DR:

A really fun rogue-like with a fun gameplay loop and an intriguing mystery to get you excited to explore. The dungeons you do explore could do with some variety, however, especially as you're asking for a looping, tower-dungeon gameplay style.

Thank you for showing off your game, hadecyn! You've made a incredibly fun game with a lot of potential. Best of luck in IGMC2018!

- Caleb

Review for Abyss of Oblivion

We are quickly drawn in by the beautiful custom title screen and music. I noticed that there is no options command in the menu, I hope this won't bring any problems later on. The idea to put credits into the beginning sequence was good and very well done. Already I can feel like playing a professional game.

However, due to the fact that there was no option menu in the title, I ran into an issue right after beginning. As I'm writing this review (with the menu screen open) I can see that the game runs on over 60 FPS, which leads in the play time to increase faster than in seconds. This is a recurring issue with projects without Yanfly's Synch Monitor FPS plugin when they are played on a monitor with higher frame rates than 60Hz (I'm playing on a 144Hz gaming monitor). Because the FPS is so high, most animations run too fast. There's even more of a reason to do so in this entry as there is a 30-minute timer each time you enter the Abyss. The time counter runs faster than normal due to a single frame being less than 1/60th of a second. This is easily fixed by applying the plugin, though, so I sincerely hope you consider this.

As I mentioned the menu, I must say I really dig how clear and intuitive it seems to be. I also like that you include a reference for important things, such as status conditions, over there.

After some time spent playing, we learn that the story has us trying to resolve a curse which makes no one remember us. Although the setting is pretty general, it is well played out and the silent moments in our flashbacks put more emphasis on the feelings you're trying to convey.

The combat flow feels natural and it is executed brilliantly. The basic rock-paper-scissors weakness element feels good and somewhat prevents 'press attack to win' situations. Since MP is so important in combat, I liked how you are able to choose what bonuses you gain after battle, however I mostly set it to recover MP and left it there.

There are little to no errors in the game. Brilliant work! The only typo I found was that both blessings of life and mana had the same description when selected after you have obtained four blessings and must use or discard one. The typo was not present (at least I didn't notice it) when using the blessing in battle.

I played the game for two runs of levels 1 - 10. The difficulty felt rather good, although after learning on how to play, I felt like it was a bit on the easy side. I guess I lucked out on the RNG as I got Rain of Pain (the AoE arrow attack) rather early on in both runs (I only learned that you lose unlevelled skills after beating level 10) and most normal combats changed to "take hits, use skill and win, recover HP and MP as result" after that. The bosses were a tad different, but the patterns were a bit too predictable. However, it's all good as this allows for more newcomers to pick up your game and not suffer with balancing issues.

I really enjoyed this game, and for me personally it is already a winner. (although I said the same about LuizCubas' game last year) Great job, hadecynn, and thanks for making this!

Very nice - I really enjoyed this game. 

The tutorials were nicely done, showing all the important mechanics without dragging on.  I do wish there had been a small buffer between the end of the tutorials and the beginning of the timed levels, but like you've explained in other comments, it's a result of the game jam time limit. 

The battle system was interesting and innovative, but quickly felt natural and easy to use.  The weakness flowchart in the corner was a big help.  It was nice to be rewarded for using the correct skill types rather than just spamming attack.  The replay feature was a nice touch too - I wouldn't have enjoyed this game at all if dying meant game over.  That game timer was nerve-racking, but it set up a nice conflict between finishing the level and gathering everything on the floor.

The story setup was nothing new, but I think it worked fairly well.  A complex story on top on all of the new gameplay mechanics would have felt overwhelming to me.  I liked being able to focus on playing, with bits of story in between.  It's just enough to make me want to go a few more levels and find out what's going on.

The graphics and dungeon design were well done, but fairly bland.  The music was nice, and fit the mood of the timed dungeons.  The user interface was great - everything was easy to understand and navigate.

I definitely plan to keep an eye on game's progress.   I'm looking forward to the finished version!