The title implies some connection with Magical but that doesn't seem to be the case from what I can tell.

This one gave me a pretty good initial impression, but I ultimately never finished the game (though looking at other comments it seems I got close).

The custom art is really, really nice. The character busts are amazing, the designs are neat, and the animated battlers look great. If there's one thing that stands out about the game it's this. I'm not sure what style this is called, but I like it.

On the other hand, the stock RPG Maker assets are just whatever. They're not bad, but they're pretty same-old at this point.  The world design is decent, it has some visual weirdness and the layout of the facility is odd, but the level of detail is appreciated. I do wish there was more variety in the music even if that just meant pulling tracks from OpenGameArt or Incompetech.

Love the Ririka cameo. I thought she'd be in more games to be honest.

The writing is a bit awkward at times, and the lines are clearly sized for a smaller window. However, the story is intriguing. It's not perfect; I wish there was more background to set up the world and the premise is quite frankly a case of "the science makes no sense", but it does a good job of establishing tension early on and pushing you to move forward.

I'm not sure why some characters have prompts over their head and others don't, and I'm not sure why some characters are wearing weird masks. Also, the directions you're given to the cafeteria are wrong; it's east, not north.

I liked the basement (side?) quest. It was a good introduction to the mechanics. I really like that there are no random encounters, but I do wish enemies had proper world sprites.

I really liked the battles at first. They were satisfying and enjoyable, and had just enough complexity to make you feel smart getting through them. The fantastic art was fun to look at. I thought with every battle I was progressing a little through the game.

Unfortunately, the more I played the less I enjoyed them. Things just got very repetitive and tedious after a certain point. Use effective attack, wash, rinse, repeat.

It wasn't clear what the purple burst meant; eventually I figured out that it means you get to attack again. It's still not clear why. It looks almost like it's set up for side view battlers but just doesn't have sprites for the protagonists. Some elements are more effective against some enemies, but it seems pretty arbitrary, and the physical/melee attack seems pretty useless.

There's definitely some stuff that I either misunderstood, wasn't explained, or doesn't work. It's not clear what the dropped energy shards are for; I thought we needed to collect them to fix the sun for a while. Enemies seem to respawn, which really threw me because I thought we needed to kill all of them. I thought magic was supposed to recharge after every battle based on a line from the Director, but this doesn't actually seem to happen.

The difficulty is all over the place. It was relatively easy at first, which I liked for a jam game. But then the demon/fairy battle gets thrown at you and it's quite hard. Doable, but far more difficult than I'd expected. The devil battle is so ridiculously unbalanced I legitimately though it was not supposed to be winnable; I'd be defeated, there'd be a cutscene, and the story would move forward. Asia went down the first turn, I managed to land an attack that did almost no damage with Alicia, then Alicia went down the second turn.

Reading some reviews, it seems the battle is winnable and it is the final boss, but requires grinding levels and/or getting lucky with the RNG and given how tedious the game has become by that point I just have zero inclination to do so.

One specific thing I found annoying: Asia is a glass cannon and I found myself burning through all my items and mana just to keep her from dying.

I think it actually would have been better to shorten the game up, at least for this jam. If there were fewer battles and no requirement for grinding, then we'd be through the game before the battles got old or the flaws started to become apparent.

I get a black screen after losing a boss fight where the characters are visible and I can walk around but I can't do anything. This seems like a glitch.

Are the enemies from mythology? It seems almost like it, though they're not familiar to me.

I like the concept of this game, and I can't say enough positive things about the art. It's the repetitive battles and weird difficulty that ultimately brought it down in my eyes. It's an interesting game with a really strong beginning but in the end it was definitely a case of "I really want to see the story end" versus "this is really unfun to grind through".

This was a pretty fun game.  I really love the character artwork and the story. I also like that there are no random encounters!  The spam-attack battle system can be a little monotonous, but the dialogue that happens during some of them is a really nice touch.  Overall it was a great experience, and I'm looking forward to playing more.

Thoughts recorded during my playthrough

+ = I liked it

- = I didn't like it

* = Comment/neutral

====================

+ Beautiful bust art!

- There are grammar issues and the occasional typo, but nothing that makes the story difficult to understand.

- If a thing is not alive, how do you kill it?

+ Cool monster art. It's custom and animated!

+ On screen encounters. Nice!

- No battle back. Boo.

- Battle system is a simple spam-attack system. There aren't any special skills to play with.

* I'm not clear about why I sometimes see  a purple glow when I attack.

- OK, now I get it: the purple glow allows the character to attack again.

- Basement battles are boring. There's nothing more to them than just spamming "attack."

- I really don't like it when I'm presented with a choice that I obviously won't say "no" to. Just let the thing happen when I interact with it! I'm specifically thinking of the keycard to the basement and the green glow in the basement.

+ Moving battle back is trippy, but not too distracting.

- Boss double-hits for massive damage. Seem kinda cheap.

+ I love the in-battle dialog in the boss battle and that there are dialog choices

+ I love the custom animated boss

- Besides their elements, I'm not sure what the difference is between the different charges. For example, why would I use a fire charge instead of an electric charge?

+ That's a unique way to handle a "game over." While it is not the best in it's current form (basically just a cutscene), I'm feeling a bit inspired by it.

- I have to backtrack through the dungeon after defeating the boss. Realistic? Yes. Annoying? Yes. Unnecessary? Totally. Just teleport me out or leave something in the dungeon that makes the backtracking worthwhile.

- It's also weird that I'm facing the same direction when I exit a door. Be sure to use the "Direction" option when transferring a player to another map!

+ Cool transformation sequence

- I don't see Asia until after the transformation sequence? Why not before?

+ I like that I now have more skills in the second mission. It makes battles more interesting.

- I still don't know how the elements relate to the enemies.

* HP bars for enemies would have been nice to better gauge how well I am doing in battle.

* I did eventually figure out that certain enemies are weak against certain elements.

- The second boss can sometimes get a second "purple glow" turn. This means I can go from full health to 0 health in a single turn. It's unbalanced.

Summary

My biggest problem with this game is its battle design. To be fair, this is one of the hardest parts of RPG design, but having a boss that can hit a total of 4 times (2 x normal attack + a second set of attacks from purple glow) with massive damage is completely unfair. That's not to say that I disliked everything about the battles; the in-battle dialog was a nice touch, and the animated custom enemies are top-notch. I even applaud the attempt to do something unique with the boss attack mechanics; it just needs more refinement or a different approach. Keep experimenting!

The game is otherwise straightforward, and I loved the custom art. I'm also a RPG Maker user and enjoy seeing what other people make with the engine. I hope you continue to improve your skills!

Very cute sfx and love how u made ur own art into rpg maker. Great character designs, music and story. Love to play more. The boss is so scary. The most annoying thing is I have to download the game lol.

A nicely polished RPG maker game with a good balance between story and gameplay. The current state of the game is promising enough as an introductory game (chapter 0) and the ending leaves a lot of room for story progression if the developer does decide to continue development.

Magical Girl Concept: The entire game is based on the Magical girl concept where you play as a Magical Girl and is sent out on a task while battling against monsters of varying types using a handful of magic spells. The protag magical girl in the game have a transformation sequence.

Mechanics: Since the game is made from RPG maker MV, I will mentioned the plugins used in the game. So the combinations of plugin used is pretty good since the selection creates a complete gameplay experience with lots of functionality you would expect in a proper JRPG front view battler. In other words, a lot of thought must have been put into choosing this design and setup which feels like a reasonably good combination for the best gameplay. No notable mechanics to be mentioned, since it is setup to be a traditional JRPG style game.

Visual: The original character and enemy (bosses) sprites is really well done with good effort being put especially into the two magical girl design. The art quality for the characters are really decent for an introductory game and can be improved on a lot further with more solid lineart and slightly complex dress/uniform designs. In the battlers, the enemies are animated which gives the game a nice feel during the battle. Since a lot of art used here came from RPGMakerMV, then I would say the selections of background tiles and art gives the game a good sci-fi like vibe while the enemy sprites have that magical fantasy look. It is mentioned some of the backgrounds are made by the developer but I find it a little hard to differentiate between the original one and the stock assets. The title screen is a straight forward white text on black background which tells a lot about what it is but since the story isn't a complete one I think it can be designed a lot unique with some added graphics. Say instead of a straight line for the sides of the word "End", draw thorn vines instead to give it a much edgier feel to what the story is depicting.

UI: The UI layout uses the stock RPGMakerMV setup but with some customization made to the in-game menu.

Audio: The music selection is pretty good and is typical for a JRPG style game. I can't comment much except that the super short title screen music track gives that dreaded vibe which compliments the meaning behind the title screen. The sound effects used are in the right place and didn't feel distracting at all.

Theme: The game definitely conforms to the Magical Girl theme since the Magical Girls are dressed like one and the magic ability reflect their magical girl nature. Besides that, the side theme the developer picked is conservation of energy and in every instances when an enemy is killed, the MP gets replenish which does represent the theme really well. Since MP is expanded through the use of magic and is recovered from killing magical enemies, that alone interprets conservation really well. However, the idea of recovering and turning enemy crystals into items isn't really about conservation, rather it more relevant to one of the law of thermodynamics instead.

Challenge / Engagement: The game is quite challenging with the over the top boss fights since the bosses use way more magic abilities and number of attack turns the two Magical Girls can output. I manage to beat the game in 3 hr (game time) with both girls at level 13. There are many times the final boss would KO all the girls in the first turn (4 hits), so the initial attack phase could have been adjusted a lot better. Apparently no new abilities were given after level 10. (Spoiler Alert! Start) Even though the game feels quite balanced and requires a few extra levels of grinding to be able to overcome the first set of bosses since they require certain magic attack they are weak against that are only available after level 7. Besides that the final boss is easily beaten by taking advantage of one of his magic element weakness, so a element magic attack (from spells and item) + guard combo on each turn, while from time to time reviving, and using the special abilities seems to be the best strategy (Spoiler Alert! End). As for engagement, I find that the game got me hooked to its compelling and mystery story which at this time feels incomplete but good in a way that I wanted to know more beyond chapter 0. Since the game play is a complete JRPG, I find that the game isn't limiting in any way when I played it. However at late game, it would be nice to be able to buy weapons, armor, or accessories from the shop or introduce new items to buy after level 10.

Originality / Creativity: The story is unique in its own way since the ending gave it several possible directions where this can go into. The story idea is creative since its about saving the sun but I think the writing could use a lot more creativity since it is written a little conservative at the moment.

Story: I really like the initial story here in the game and would like to know more if the game gets developed. Since English isn't the developer native language, I did expect a few issues with the text script but the story is understandable even with the issues. One thing I want to point out is that the ending dialogs (after final boss fight) feels a little confusing since a lot of the context is missing from the game and could have been improved with a lot more backstory and world lore. (Spoiler Alert! Start) From what I currently understand, I can tell based on the ending that there is a greater evil organization that is planning to do something much sinister and the mystery about how Magical Girls are created raises the mystery bar a lot higher. Also, extra points for the mystery lady in the afterlife scene each time the game fails (Spoiler Alert! End). The side characters in the cafeteria did provide some small amount of lore but it wasn't enough to compliment the entire main story. Something to mentions here is that, I like the game jam mascot cameo in the game, she looks familiar but wasn't obvious from the start until the name is mentioned.

Overall: Its a really decent RPG maker game with a good mix of gameplay and balance to the story. I think the point forward with this game is that it needs a lot of story development and a ton of additional stuff like the items selections, magic abilities, and definitely more magical girls. The main focus for most RPG maker games is the story in itself but since battler game mechanics are in, then that aspect of item, ability, and enemy variety will also need to be taken into consideration for future development.

Magical Girl Concept (4 /5)

- you don't really see stuff like this nowaday's in english outside of Japan and without the "adult tags"

and even then they're mostly CG. Here it feels like a proper game and not some event driven Visual Novel

Engagement/Fun. (4/5)

As above the game actually has meaningful content other than just going from one event to the next like those pumped out VN Games. actually has RPG elements

Originality/Creativity (3/5)

Unfortuntely i couldn't give it full marks simply because their other RPG maker games out there with the same theme. even if there more CG and Visual Novel

Graphics, Audio, and Polish (3/5)

You used "what you had availible" enough said. Not everyone can create their tilesets. you were honest and said "some of them were purchased." there use  in the game and the maps  were pretty good however.  Would've been 4/5 but theres a few games out there using the same assets.

Theme Interpretation (4/5)

Summary.

- You don't really see stuff like this outside of Japan.

- Has meaningful content and actual has RPG elements unlike equivilant games. abet the rng could be better. you could also include areas that a player could "level" in so they don't hit the "Oh **** Wall when they party gets wiped out.

- the Graphics you did actually do was pretty Good.

if it was given a bit time and development it could be a great Game.

if your gonna keep developing this, i  would love to play it though

This is probably my favorite game so far.

I think you really nailed the JRPG style. Combat is fun, even though it doesn't have a lot of depth. Artstyle is very good (I am surprised you managed to do it in only a month).

It seems to me, that the game might feel a bit unintuitive for people unfamiliar with the genre. (And for ones familiar as well. It took me some time to realize that you can open crates, for example). This is probably the only serious nitpick I have.

Other than that, this is a very well-made game. I hope you will continue working on it.

The artstyle is beautiful and the setting is neat, the only thing is the big monster is frustrating to fight against since it feels heavily rng dependent. I had to hope the weak mobs would drop potions and that this big monster's level was low. 

Really liked the artwork for this game. It's pretty amazing you did all of it during the time of the game jam. There's a lot of polish to the game as well. I reached the first big monster and died. Am I supposed to save somewhere because it just started me at the beginning again.