Story:

I didn't see a lot of story, but what was there was pretty interesting. There seems to be some lore behind this world and it's beastmen and their hunters, and it felt almost a bit unique that the main character already seemed to know more about what was going on than the player did. I didn't get very far in this game, which is too bad because I'm interested to see where the story goes!

Gameplay:

I have to be upfront and say that turn-based battles just aren't my thing. With that said, I feel like their use here was a little weak. I think in regards to the RPGMaker system it was properly implemented, but for some reason it always felt like there wasn't enough healing items and the enemies hit way too hard.

I also felt like Sidney possibly could have had more skills, I fell into a pattern of either "attack" or "heal" which didn't feel as engaging as it could have been. Still, it felt like maybe there was some attempts to balance the enemies which I appreciated- each type had unique abilities, some which would damage less or apply damage over time, which was a relief in many times when Sidney was low and I needed to use a healing item instead of attacking. It also helped the battles to feel less repetitive, for a little while at least. I think the idea behind the battles, like in other survival horror games, is to keep the player in tension about whether or not they have enough healing items, whether or not this will be the killing blow, which enemy they'll run into, etc. I can see this game attempting that, but I think the difficulty is just a bit too high.

Besides the bandages, many of the other items simply don't heal enough. This kind of makes them useless or even a waste of a turn, especially in battle when an enemy will hit you for maybe 5x that a candy or other healing item will heal you. As well, you rarely find healing items except in chests or from enemy drops. I think I only ever got an enemy drop maybe once or twice? But this was after maybe 8 or so battles.

I think either lowering the damage, increasing the number or healing items/healing efficiency, or simply lowering the amount of battles could help make the game feel more balanced. I also figured out a way to avoid some battles, but still it felt like way too many of them of them were unavoidable. This combined with the maze-like patterns of the map made the game feel more frustrating that frightening, given that I also wasn't sure which was the right way to go.

Presentation:

The pixel art is gorgeous! I also appreciate how base tiles were recolored and reused to create a unique look, as well as making things more visually distinct (such as some interactable items being red).

I will say that there seemed like a couple visual glitches here and there? Particularly before she picks up the flashlight, Sidney's sprite seems to have some black lines on top when you walk in certain directions. Also during battles there's an empty name box, not sure if that was intentional or not. Nothing too bad, just things which could be easily polished up during a bug fix.

Creativity:

Though monster-hunters aren't a new premise, the lore behind the game and the way it was portrayed was pretty interesting.

Horror:

The first real scare was pretty impressive! I also appreciate the background music when walking around, and of course the character sprites were spooky as well. Unfortunately, some of the horror felt undercut by the battles. The base battle music felt a bit too upbeat for the rest of the game and the length and repetition battles also lessened the sense of horror. There's a good potential here though.

Overall:

Given the nature of the randomization of the RPGMaker battle system, I could have just been having bad luck. I may try this game again sometime to see if I can get a bit farther. For now though, I think it's an interesting game with lovely art, but probably tweaking the battles could help make it into a better game. I'll also say, it's pretty hard to balance turn-battle systems and make them feel fair and interesting, especially with RNG involved. All things considered, it's one of the better turn-based games I've played without having a professional ton of beta-testing, so good job :)

This game was wonderful! I'm looking forward to more after this- it seems like a really interesting premise!

I love the original artwork, very scary and I love the variety of different entities you can run into! For me, maybe I'm bad at rationing my supplies (I AM), but I felt myself at the mercy of some entities a few runs, due to lack of healing items and the inability to run from enemies ;w; I do like the challenge of that aspect, though!

I love finding the different (and gross, haha!) items throughout the cave! One thing; if you leave and come back, enemies are in their location again (unless this was a design choice, in which case, pls disregard!).

Doubly exciting for me to hear another dev use music by Filmy Ghost- I feel their music really fits with this narrative especially! Only other thing I could recommend would be to maybe consider lowering the default sfx in the engine (lowering it myself in the options, even to 20% still felt a bit loud;;), in particular, the winning sfx, but that's just a personal suggestion! 

Wonderful entry, and your artwork is really cool and expressive!! <3

Good Game, i likes it.