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Twigs and Scales's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| People's Choice Vote | #173 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
Vemund Ytrehus
Engine
RPG Maker MV
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Comments
Oh dear...
This game has a decent concept with the language parameter and the vigor parameter. Both are very neat additions that stand out in the game as stated by the previous comments. I enjoyed some of the music with this game (the battle theme against the 4 assassins is pretty awesome). Sadly, that is where the positives end.
Mapping is very lackluster in terms of both the over-world and the dungeons. The dungeons have a high encounter rate which is made increasingly aggravating when I do not have the option to run from battles. This game has a slight difficulty curve when you enter the first dungeon due to the enemies being able to thrash you rather easily (especially the wandering souls). Thankfully, with a bit of luck, I managed to be able to grind a bit (due to the frequent inescapable encounters) and make to the end of said dungeon. At that point, the game became a breeze since most encounters were pretty basic and I had the better stats (with 2 new party members to aid me). Then, the 4 assassins nearly ended me. I feel as though that they all have a bit too much health since the fight drags on for seemingly a long time and that they have a healer that could potentially prolong the fight even more (I managed to kill the healer off quickly, thank goodness). Outside of the battles and mapping, the dialogue is odd. There is odd indents in the text and the name of the character could be displayed through the means of the Message Core plug-in from Yanfly (though if that is your style then so be it, just a minor gripe I must mention). Do not forget item descriptions! Some are there, but many are missing. A revival item would be great to have at the shop since I have no other way to revive a fallen ally.
I do not mind the story too much, but when the mage was suddenly slaughtered after JUST joining the party, I could not bring myself to care. She barely had time to make a decent impression on me (this is definitely subjective, however).
Overall, the concept and effort is there but the battles need tweaking and mapping needs work. There is little to no polish in this game.
I wish you the best of luck for this game. You have something good to build on, no doubt. Keep at it!
Thank you for the feedback!
I have already dealt with some of the things you mention; In my working version, The encounter rate has been drastically reduced. I have made the first few fights a little bit easier. Also, the starting will be a lot easier now, as I have changed it so that you always start combat with full HP (unless KO'd).
You are right that the dialogues are a little oddly shaped; I run all text through a separate translation function, in which I did not have the time to perfect before the due date for the IGMC. I am aware of the indent that happens as a result of that function, and I will be fixing it shortly. As for the names: I was split as to whether or not to use Yanfly's message core or not for displaying the names. I like my own way too, and left it like that because I didn'thave enough time for it. I will probably change to the Yanfly plugin way of doing it, simply because having the name displayed in the message leaves too little space for the message.
As for revival items: I have intentionally left them out of the shops, because I want them to be rare, and valuable for that reason, and transitively to make KO more of a dangerous state. At the moment, there is only one revival item in the game.
As for item descriptions: Actually, most things have descriptions. All equipment has, but not 3 of the 4 usable items. Considering there is only 1 of the last item, effectively you are right that most items lack descriptions. I have added descriptions to said items now.
You are right that the mage is killed off a bit too quick. Her death has important meaning for the underlying story, and I wanted to squeeze it in. If not for the play time being supposed to be around 1 hour, I would have had that happen at a slightly later point.
Then, after the first dungeon is completed, the shop should have second grade potion that can heal a little more than the normal one. At that point, going in to the second dungeon, I had 99 potions that only helped but so much. Especially, when the second boss rolled around.
The equipment have descriptions, which is why I specifically said that most items have none.
Well, I have nothing else that can be said in terms of feedback since you seemed to worked most of that out. So I suppose I'll leave off with this...
Astrid is best girl. No question. Again, best of luck for your game.
Hmm, you are right that the potions grow rather irrelevant a bit quickly, enough to warrant making a new potion for the second dungeon. That is a good point, actually. I will look into that.
You are right that there are not enough NPCs. I simply did not have enough time to add more than there are before the release date. Most buildings are also left unenterable, and most enemies have a quite empty attack pattern for the exact same reason. I have already added more in the working version.
That being said, considering that the map is as small as it currently is; I wouldn't agree that the number of NPCs are a big issue when it comes to the language in this game. After all, you can at any time refill your Mead of Poetry. It stands to reason that the language will be more pronounced the further you move away from the point where you fill up on the Mead, but the game is simply not long enough yet for that.
That being said: there should be more NPCs than there are. But not because of the language, just because it would fill up the world more.
Also, thank you for going through the game. I will be fixing the bugs that I see happened in your playthrough.
What's the name of the city theme? It's been past some days but the sound doesn't go out of my brain.
If you mean the music in Himinbjorg, the starting city in Aasgard, that is just called Theme3, from bitter sweet entertainment's Light Novel Standard Music.
Oh yes, Thanks.
I love the concept. Unfortunately the linux version broke with "Reference Error mes is not defined" when going to the other world.
Thank you. By that error message what breaks it is the javascript function for translating a text into a language. It works fine in windows, and I had assumed it would not cause a problem in linux as the code itself is quite straightforward. But of course the programming gods do not always agree. I will see if I can locate the issue.
Found, and fixed the error in the linux version. I can't upload the fix before the end of IGMC'18, though.
The concept of the languages is pretty original and interesting. It is what sets this game apart. I got to say however, that the encounter rate is far too high and the maps in general feel a little barebones. While I liked the party you get, the enemies themselves don't seem all that varied, with pretty much all of them only using the basic attack
Keep working on integrating the language concept as well as the norse mythology, rework the maps, add more interesting enemies and you will end up with a very solid and unique game!
Thank you. I ran quite short of time near the end, which is why the maps are a little bare, and enemies a little simple. I am already in the process of reworking them.
I will try to see if I can find a more reasonable encounter rate, and work it into the next update!
Awesome. I will be looking forward to it. If you have the time, please check out my submission as well. I would really appreciate it!
I'll post this here just in case:
Concept: Travel into another world, based on Norse Mythology. Learn the local language as you go along.
The game is a jrpg in a setting of Norse mythology. A big part of the game is learning the language of the world you travel to, which has implications both for understanding what people say but also for combat, as learning a characters language gives them a cooperative benefit.
Key features:
Player has a language value which goes down as time passes, which can be recharged.
Player also has a comprehension level for each language they understand, denoting in percentage the minimum amount of understanding they can have when talking to people speaking that language. At the moment the only language working is the Aesir language, although another language is programmatically implemented (and more are intended).
Player gets weaker as he performs actions (at the moment the only action in question is movement). Player needs to rest at an inn or elsewhere to recuperate to maximum performance.
Let me know if you find any bugs, or if you have any opinions of what should be or shouldn't be in the game, as well as clear imbalances in the game!