Finally capture the final boss! It took me what, 2 hours? That's the longest I've ever spent in a jam game. But hey your game is very good! I love it very much! It also came as a total surprise to me as the game in fact a puzzle game rather than a turn base RPG, which I really like. The art in the game is cute, the vibe is good, the music is nice, the text is funny too. Great game!

Sooo, nitpicks. Firstly and importantly it would be really helpful if I can preview what each attack cost without putting the tubes into the machine. I was spending most of my time finding which attack would be useful, and not having to drag it will give player a easier time making decisions. Secondly, it would be nice to have some animations for the attacks, and a pause between turns. Currently it's not too obvious what has happened during turns, and whenever the enemy's turn has ended. (I admit I've accidentally skip a turn way too many times).

But anyway, this is a very good game! Nice work!

I enjoyed playing this game! It's a really creative take on monster catching RPGs. I love the art, music, and story overall. The strategy in this game is really neat. Some of the later fights were a really great challenge! 

Here's some more feedback for if you continue to update the game:

• I was confused after I got the worm since there were still worms moving around. I thought I had to do something there to clear them out. Eventually it clicked that I'm just taking away the shadow after I left and began exploring/doing other fights, so there wasn't anything else I needed to do there.
• There seems to be a bug if you interact with an object and then touch a shadow creature while you're still interacting with the object. It doesn't enter the battle after I stop interacting, and then I can't seem to enter a battle after. I walked around and eventually went back into my house, and then I got a black screen. I restarted the game after and was sad I didn't keep my progress :(. I learned that I could respawn in the pause menu, but it seems like when I did that I still couldn't continue entering battles. I was able to get this bug consistently if I picked up the pebble near the snails or a book near the fish. Once I knew about the bug I just avoided triggering it :)
•  I think others mentioned these two: I was lost after the cat (sounded like the ending sequence didn't work), and then my game kept freezing when talking to mom, couldn't get around it. 
• It took me a little long to figure out that I 'equip' the captured shadows. I thought I had to use them for crafting because of what all those flasks and whatnot looked like in that menu. I actually accidentally left one equipped when I left the menu, so I then realized on the subsequent battle how that worked. I think that would be one place where I wish I had a tutorial too (but pretty much everything else had a very solid tutorial for me, so well done on that!).
• One thing that was tough for me to learn was how the multi-turn attacks work. I sometimes would get confused about when elements would or wouldn't show up on the side as a result (e.g., 'huh, where did I get this from'). Eventually I realized it was from an earlier effect, that sometimes they'd have delays, and that they need to deal damage. 

Overall, amazing job! It's a very fun game :)

Wow! this game is huge!

Great presentation. The graphics are nice, the music is a good background, and boy the tutorials. I love that this game really takes its time to guide you through the complicated (and stylish) interface. I love that there is no buttons with text, instead, everything is themed to the jam and I love that.

The overworld: There are so many systems here that give this game a really nice appearance. The character has a looking direction, moving around is confortable and the animations of Clint are cute. The books giving exposure to the world and story are so cool, interacting with them is easy and satisfactory. I wouldn't have thought a jam game would have so many features, like fast traveling, an overworld map, an interactive tutorial that lets you know the correct area where to be, depending on the acquired spells. Traveling the world by itself is already a great experience.

The battles: I really like the way elements combine into more difficult combinations and the increasing difficulty of creatures. The interface is awesome and, once I got it, it was really easy to tinker around with different spells. I like that creatures cannot be defeated so easily and you actually have to be thinking of the "resonances", it took me a while to figure it out but it's totally worth it.

I love that the actual focus of the game is not to kill the creatures (nothing against that, but at the same time we have 30 years of game development focusing on violent combat) so I really like that here you need to actually focus on the "right" attacks instead of the most powerful ones, like a book I found somewhere pointed out.

The graphics are so cute and the game systems are just solid.

Mixing the potions in the obelisk to prepare for different encounters was very interesting and, did I mention that I love that this game has an overworld map? I like the little details, like the camera is zoomed in when first at the house but then further away when in the world, or the boxes blocking the second floor of the house. These really sell the idea that there is a world beyond what is presented in the game, and I love it.

At the time I'm writting this, I still havent defeated the dogs and cats, but seems that it will take me a bit more time to figure it out, and there is so much in this game that I wanted to write this review before I get back to capturing them.

I think this has all the marks of a commercial product, starting from the very friendly, very clear tutorials, to the completeness of the theme. One thing I find confusing, is that when attacking with a salt spell, the remainders are the base things I used, instead of "salt" ones. I was worried that the second attack that would form the celestial part (for example, when fighting the dog) wasn't going to register, but it does without a problem so it's only an informative detail that would have made it clearer for me.

Congratulations on this really great game! Now... I'm back to capturing that crafty dog.

Right off the bat, lovely title screen music and cool menu sound effects with really pretty art!

The menu animations are a super cool touch, and you guys even made a loading system! A shame that itch butchered it, but it was really thoughtful. Also, the arrow pointing where you're walking was a very smart move. 

The transition of the overworld music to the battle music was sick! That bass reminds me a lot of Mega Drive games!

The enemy designs are also really fun, well made and super detailed! I like the fact that the shadow has a wave effect and that the entire table shakes when you take damage! 

It's awesome how you guys implemented the alchemy aspect in the gameplay. It really gives the feeling that I'm an alchemist with complex alchemy blueprints and complex alchemy knowledge, having all those different mixes and transformations of materials. And the strategizing part that comes with it for each enemy is awesome!

Completely honest, haven't managed to capture the final boss yet, but I intend to come back and take another shot at it for sure. It's a gameplay mechanic with crazy potential and I had a lot of fun trying to figure out to capture that shadow.

Super cool game!

I really liked this game, it was fun to play against all the shadows. I don’t know if you can capture the last shadow but I just spammed 1 dog attack after I got beat the 1st time only to finish the game.

I felt the tutorial was explaining a lot and got a bit lost, I don’t know if it’s because I’m tired but after playing the 2 starting fights I understood, until the game introduced the residual elements and got lost again, until I fought the snail because I understood what the game wanted to explain.

I liked the music, the chill version and how it turns into a more dynamic one when you enter the fight. I like that kind of arrangement. The shadows and how they are displayed, for some reason, reminds me a bit of OFF, more the last battle, which I love, I think it’s what I liked most from the visuals, the shadows. (Also, you can pet the dog and I find it funny how close it looks in battle.)

The gameplay it’s fun and I really want to play more, though I felt the hardest battle was the dog. I like the menu where you can put the captured shadows but I don’t know if it’s only visual but I can’t put anything in the water that looks a bit rainbow-ish, which felt a bit strange at the start because I think I have 1 slot more but I don't.

As other people said, after beating the cat, I didn’t know what to do, but I read I had to come back home for the final boss and the cat duplicated when I beat it. Also, whenever you win or lose you get the finish message which made me think I wouldn’t be able to fight the final boss again when I lost the 1st time but you can. And talking to mom at the end freezes the game until you press escape a few times or that worked for me.

1 thing I didn’t like much was the basement, only because I felt I could walk around more but there are invisible restraints that look off since it gives the feeling you can walk more in the area. I know there are boxes blocking a few parts but not everything.

Oh, and when you are reading the books that you find in the overworld, it can be interrupted by a battle which I didn’t like. But I liked the little lore in the books.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game and I would like to see more!

I love this game so much. Art style and animations, especially the animals are soul meltingly cute. So much charm and personality masterfully drawn in just a few frames. So looking forward to the full release!

I absolute see this game going for a steam final release, great job! A little too complicated and slow for my personal taste, but its a fun combat experience.

The amount of content and gameplay on offer here is quite staggering.

I'll admit I wasn't immediately drawn in by the game the premise and graphics seemed quite simple at first but as I got down into the cellar and picked got into the first fight the game jumped to an entirely new level.

The tutorial was kinda confusing to be honest but a little trial and error it turned out to be much easier than I thought. I really loved the resonance system and having to find the best combos to capture the shadows as you went through the game. As they got more complicated it took a bunch more thought to plan out my attacks. The dog was the hardest battle in my opinion.

I think my game bugged or something cos after I beat the cat I didn't really know where to go so I retraced my steps and found my shadow in the basement. It beat me the first time and I got the "thank you" message when i died. I went back and kicked his *** though and properly finished things.

I think the final scene bugged though cos when your mum comes back if you try to talk to her nothing happens. The game just hangs. You can press escape to leave what I assume is a bugged conversation but it made me kinda sad to not see the resolution of the game. (The thank you message was nice though).

Okay let's talk about the art. It feels kinda all over the place to be honest. The character and environments feel like multiple styles/skillsets mushed together (correct me if I'm wrong) but then when you get into battle. WOW the battle sprites are absolutely fantastic they are full of so much design/style and humour. The chicken having a t-rex shadow and the dog being right up in your face. 10/10 design choices absolutely loved it. 

The audio is great throughout no complaints at all.

I wish there was a way to flee from a fight when you already know you aren't gonna win and I wish I could look at the resonance chart outside of fights but otherwise the game was great.

I wish there was more use for the inventory screen because it was really cute and I feel like people might miss it.

Overall a fantastic game that is a little rough in some areas but the highs of the game waaay outmatch the lows. The battle system and it's art are absolutely brilliant and had me hooked from beginning to end. I just wish I knew what the last conversation with mum was!

I played till I captured the cat shadow, but was unsure of where to go from there. It seems there's more content past that that I missed from looking at the comments. Oops!

I think the idea of working a child's imagination into the world is a lot of fun. Seeing the different shadows each animal held within was very cute. I very much enjoyed how the dog was portrayed.

Good job with the game mechanics. I think combining elements in order to capture animal shadows turns what otherwise could be just creature battles into a series of interesting puzzles instead.

Impressive what you were able to accomplish in 2 weeks for the game jam! Great job! (The only bug I encountered was being able to win on the same turn I died and then die in the next fight I went into.)

when i saw turn based rpg as a game jam game I squealed! (I'm an rpg guy)

The battle mechanics were such an interesting concept. they were really confusing at first, but i quickly grasped the concept and understood it. I wish it were a little simpler to better fit the game jam format but for an actual game this level of complexity, with it having more room to flesh out, is what I would expect.

the art-style and how the menus blended with the rest of the game really added to the overall feel. gave off earthboundy vibes with its battle visuals.

one thing i was kinda confused about was the worms. i beat one shadow worm and then spend a while trying to figure out how to kill the others because mom wanted them all dead, this is just a text issue nothing major however. 

absolutely fantastic job. keep up the great work

I really enjoy the unique take on combat! The music was nice to listen to and I loved the feel of the art and animations. The tutorial during combat felt a little overwhelming with it coming at you one long note after the other but it was pretty easy to understand and get right into the action

Really love the art style and especially the battle mechanic. Hitting the creatures with the right element to capture them is really neat and opens a lot of complexity, on top of the complexity of the moves system itself. Btw, is capturing every shadow the only way to finish the game for now ? If so, i think adding a sort of "genocide route" where you kill all the creatures instead of capturing them could be a neat idea for an update. 

This has such a silly style. I love it.

Polished and professional, an overall excellent game. I love the pokemon vibes and the art is really charming and well made. Integrating all these mechanics, plus a story, plus all the art and music, must have been a heck of a challenge. Great job to your whole team!

The battle scene looks really great. Feels like it is inspired by earthbound. However, i really couldn't figure out the battle mechanics, so i didn't make it through the first battle. too much information thrown at the player at once. 

The loading screens were also super long for me?

Still though, really good job! If you manage to communicate everything to the player effectively you're gonna have a really nice game here! and again the battle scene really looks great! keep making games!

I waited your release since you posted at discord! :D It comes even better than expected. I like the lore and combat! Aaand cute puppy! <3 Great job!

Wonderful art and tutorial. Feels like a complete game! Great job!

I like the game, it was fun, but I felt lost when it came to combat.

The intro had too much text for me. After 2/3 I clicked through and then got stuck on how to cast the blob combined stuff. :P

Interesting concept though, and I found the interactive world-embedded controls interesting.

Excellent game! I like that the combat UI is a table with items. I really like the art style. It was a small thing, but I appreciate the controls being written on the walls at the start. :D I really enjoyed everything. If I had any notes, it's maybe that the walking speed felt a bit slow. Overall a fantastic game! You've earned a follow from me!