(I don't know if this will post to the game's main page, but spoilers ahead if so.)
This was a really fun game with some interesting puzzles and a solid tutorial! I actually hadn't known about Nurikabe puzzles beforehand, so that was a fun introduction, and I liked the solution of going back to the inn for a bottle of sake. Overall, an awesome experience!
I do think the way that the puzzles are ordered can somewhat mislead the player, though . In particular, when I solved the shrine puzzle and the priest told me that one of the kappa's weaknesses was that it likes cucumbers, I thought that meant I needed to find a cucumber before luring the kappa out of the river, so I wasted some time trying to find a way around the river before luring the kappa out of it, because I needed to get across the river to find a cucumber! It also didn't help that one of the earlier puzzles you can solve essentially tells you where to get a cucumber, which implies that you'll need it soon. TL;DR is that you just find a lot of information way before you actually need to use it, which can lead to players following the wrong threads. I would have avoided telling players about the logic puzzle or anything related to cucumbers until after they deal with the kappa; that way, it's clear when you're ready to lure out the kappa and you have a solid idea of what to do afterward.
That's a lot of writing for what was overall a really minor hiccup, though, so I want to reiterate that I had a lovely time and I hope more people play this!
Thanks for the (very spoilery) feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
The game is fairly linear until you've finished the tutorial. Once you leave the town, the game opens up and you can do lots of things in any order. This part of the game is essentially an information gathering exercise and you can gather that information in any order. You may have found some information earlier than expected, but that doesn't matter. You still need to find all the information and work out what to do with it, which you apparently did in the long run.
Comments
(I don't know if this will post to the game's main page, but spoilers ahead if so.)
This was a really fun game with some interesting puzzles and a solid tutorial! I actually hadn't known about Nurikabe puzzles beforehand, so that was a fun introduction, and I liked the solution of going back to the inn for a bottle of sake. Overall, an awesome experience!
I do think the way that the puzzles are ordered can somewhat mislead the player, though . In particular, when I solved the shrine puzzle and the priest told me that one of the kappa's weaknesses was that it likes cucumbers, I thought that meant I needed to find a cucumber before luring the kappa out of the river, so I wasted some time trying to find a way around the river before luring the kappa out of it, because I needed to get across the river to find a cucumber! It also didn't help that one of the earlier puzzles you can solve essentially tells you where to get a cucumber, which implies that you'll need it soon. TL;DR is that you just find a lot of information way before you actually need to use it, which can lead to players following the wrong threads. I would have avoided telling players about the logic puzzle or anything related to cucumbers until after they deal with the kappa; that way, it's clear when you're ready to lure out the kappa and you have a solid idea of what to do afterward.
That's a lot of writing for what was overall a really minor hiccup, though, so I want to reiterate that I had a lovely time and I hope more people play this!
Thanks for the (very spoilery) feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
The game is fairly linear until you've finished the tutorial. Once you leave the town, the game opens up and you can do lots of things in any order. This part of the game is essentially an information gathering exercise and you can gather that information in any order. You may have found some information earlier than expected, but that doesn't matter. You still need to find all the information and work out what to do with it, which you apparently did in the long run.