While the jumping was a little rough, the game itself was amazingly well done. The art direction was also impeccable, and I had a LOT of fun playing it, and wanting to know more about the game and the world's lore and especially about Arp. Very nicely done.

Suggestion: I got soft locked by exploring the level, thinking I was going to find a secret. It was also a little hard to figure out what to do next at times, especially since I didn’t realize I could go in a direction I didn’t until later.

PLEASE CONTINUE THIS!

I have finished this game now, and this is what I think about it:

The graphics are fantastics, and the game design too. I liked the mechanic of eat an acorn to jump highter, but I didn't like that it wasn't used in the temple. I think that it's really hard to make a side-scroller in Rpg Maker MZ whit only using events, and you did an amazing work about it! There are some bugs with jumps, but honesly, thy didn't bother me much. Finally, I thinkt hat this is a very well-done game!

Right out the gate you hear some amazing chip-tune 8-bit crunchy goodness. The title art is also fantastic. There are a few good options and sound controls, also I like the font, it feels very retro. 

The maps and character sprites are super adorable and the whole thing is very pleasing to look at. The menu is simplified and the story is pretty bare bones, but that's enough for what this game is actually  trying to do. 

This is a really wonderful start, but as soon as you get to moving the main character around, the game goes a bit sour. It's really hard to actually control your character(Quisk, the squirrel). Jumping gives you no control and once you hit that jump button, you're locked into that animation and movement pattern, so you better be sure which buttons to press and when. 

The game doesn't limit your playthrough with an arbitrary number of lives which is the way it should be, good thinking. Let the player trial and error their way through it as many times as it takes. Some people will catch onto the movements quick, some slower, and some will never be able to play this game as it's got a rough learning curve given it's limitations in movement. 

I keep trying to run-jump off ledges which causes me to fall to my death more than I think it should, but like I said it's a steep learning curve(no pun intended). You basically have to move slowly to the edge then press the jump button without holding any direction. 

As much as I love RPG Maker, and I do absolutely LOVE RPG Maker... I feel like this game shouldn't have been made on it. You should have tried this on GMS2, or Godot if you can handle node based engines. 

The tile/grid movement of this game can be very frustrating. Pixel movement kind of goes synonymously with platformers and the lack of it is very much noticed.

If you can get over those issues, the controls make sense for the most part. Pressing 'down' will let fall below some platforms to perform a drop down like it should. Pressing the action button will initiate a jump(even though it locks you in a set pattern), the up key will let you jump straight up, it's mostly all predictable. (as it should be) 

The enemies look like enemies and not powerups, which is where I've seen some games like this fail in the past. The backgrounds and foregrounds are all very well done, good job making everything look great. Quisk does kind of look like Tails from the Sonic games (Sega) especially when 'climbing' the ladders.

I think instead of the throat clearing sound effects, the "hmns", "eh?", "wow", etc... You should have made text SFX. Like a 'voice' SFX that plays when the text is scrolling, instead. It doesn't need voice acting(VA), while it could benefit from some good VA, it would suffer if the VA wasn't up to par with the rest of the assets. I believe Visustella actually has a plugin that does that(text SFX) so you could just pick the sounds you want it to play and it will loop that sound with variance. It's all setup in the plugin parameters. Maybe add a different one for each character talking and then swap between the voice SFX. (Message me on discord if I haven't been clear enough to describe what I'm talking about.)

Not being able to turn around to jump back on some areas is maddening. If you want to face a direction you literally have to move in that direction. This is another area that the control scheme falls flat. It makes for tedious movements that are not fun (to me at least), and results in several situations where you feel like the game 'jipped' you by your inputs not resulting in the desired outcome.

While I think the level design is very well done in most areas, there are a few spots that I think are just mean. For example after the falling star cutscene,(nice cutscene btw) you have to catch a fly on a map. On that first map it looks like you can walk farther than the game lets you. The branch extends farther than the collision map does. So you literally fall 'through' the branch. Not a big deal right? But these events keep adding up until the player gets frustrated enough and quits playing the game.

Once you trade the fly to the frog and find the piece of wood, then have your squirrel friend chew on it... I'm at a loss on what to do next. None of the NPCs seem interested in any of the items I have and I'm just backtracking on the maps again. 

Anyway, let's talk about practicality here. While most RPG Maker users will admit that making a platformer using this engine is an impressive feat, the end user/steam consumer won't really care what engine you used. All they will think about it is how bad the controls are and probably leave a negative review. I say this because it will be placed next to other platformers that have pixel perfect movement and stellar graphics(Look at Ori and the Blind Forest). No matter how pretty this game is, the controls are not good enough to compete with games in the same lane. 

This is a great submission to the game jam and thank you for participating. I think you've accomplished quite a bit and to be honest I think you should take these art and sound assets and remake the game with an engine that is specifically designed for platformers. You might even be able to sell it for a decent price, if you can nail down the controls. Good luck in the future! :)

I'm getting a lot of sonic vibes from this and that's great! Cause it's super developed. But uh... I think I found a bug and got stuck when jumping in an area.  I stood on the small log platform and jumped straight up after collecting all the acorns, but the little squirrel went past the platform and I think is stuck in the ceiling? XD I'm playing this on the itch page btw, and I think the game froze but the music is playing. Just a bug I wanted to point out.

I adore everything about this game!!! The art, the music, the sound, the aesthetic, everything was spot on! 

Out of all the other entries, this one is by far my absolute favorite. This is the game that is going to win for sure. I’m calling it right now! 

This game was absolutely magical and captured  my attention and would not let it go. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My only piece of advice is to add a floating “Z” key over the signs that give you important info about the mechanics and controls and as others said, make it to where you can move and jump at the same time. 

Definitely has a lot of issues. You can't move while jumping unlike most platformers, it is hard to control your rolling jump (which seems to have at least two different height settings depending on your movement. That or it is just glitchy.)

The controls and hit detection are just really weird because the enemies aren't necessarily where they are visually and that makes timing much more difficult.

Managed to freeze the game by jumping up onto the next screen instead of into the ladder, which caused me to change screens and then freeze.

Lots of weird collision issues with terrain and enemies. It feels like you are more reliant on luck than skill.

There are signs all over, but it doesn't look like you can interact with them.

If you talk to the bunny with the rune, she will repeat the text about the rune if you show it to her again instead of learning the first time. This feels a bit odd.

Some parts are not clear what is solid and what isn't (especially where the fly is and on the eagle map).

The acorns respawn on returning and not sure what they even do.

That last eagle on that one map is effectively impossible to get past. It is too high to kill and it is a game of luck to try to time it.

The quit button in options quits the game, not the options menu.

Very nice work here! I found the controls to be a bit wonky, but game is charming and looks amazing. I make a lot more comments/you can watch me struggle to play in this first impressions video I finally got uploaded: https://youtu.be/s50C5GXeQl4?t=964

I have never enjoyed a platformer game or ABS game in rpg maker, the engine it is just not meant for it. B  U  T  W  O  W! I really enjoyed yours. While it still has some problems with collision and stuff(the engine is hard for those type of games) everything else I loved, the sprites looks so nice, cute and fluid. Your maps are great visually and in design. Music and SFX are great too. I strongly recommend to switch engines, since everything else it is just waaaaayy to good.

Congratulations on your entry, an impressive one for sure =)

One of the best game i ever played on this site

I share the same sentiments with Beregon on this game's gameplay and visual presentation. I do hope this would be rectified in either another engine or find a way to circumvent the issue in the engine itself. I really enjoyed the game as it is and would love to see more of what you can offer. Clearly the visuals are a high point of this game and I am in awe of such breathtaking detailed spritework.

From the presentation point of view, this game is incredible, the art style superb and the dialogue and music fit together perfectly. It also does a lot of things right when it comes to the rest of its parts, for example, the levels flow together nicely and you can figure out what to do next naturally on your own.

However, the gameplay has some problems. A lot of it seem like bugs that could be fixed. The worst of all is hit detection. When you jump on enemies, it's really a gamble as to whether you will actually hit them, die or fall through them without being hurt at all. Those birds in the last area are the worst in that capacity. When I finally got through it, it was because this time I glitched through the last bird and fell through it. Sometimes, you can just walk through enemies without being hurt, not sure why. I first noticed it with those ants in the temple.

As for other gameplay aspects, well, the movement seems to be tile-based, but you can also walk off ledges, which gets somewhat annoying after a while. There are also some 1 tile wide parts where it might be nice to be able to change direction you are facing without moving.

Still, nice and enjoyable game. Really focus on fixing the bugs and polishing the gameplay and you can have something truly great in your hands!