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Castle of the Stolen Stars's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fan Favorite | #24 | 3.833 | 3.833 |
Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Very intriguing take on Rogue-likes in general. Death has no negative effects, so I quickly learned to not care if I was about to die. However, until you get all three party members it is VERY difficult. And even when you have a full party the game is still rather tough. I liked it, but felt it was a bit too repetitive.
Suggestion: Make it slightly easier for gold/sellable items to drop so you can buy restorative items more readily. Or start the player off with a small supply pack of their choosing.
Thanks for the feedback and judging!
I just tried it out, but couldn't get past the first boss. (I should note I'm not super good at these)
I picked Yvellin, because I had read the witch was too hard, but even as the knight dying was often. (Poison and Bleeding states contributed greatly to that.) It took quite a long time for me to find money to buy something, same with AP.
I often resetted right away if the first event was negative (and it was 60% of the time). It felt like at the beginning there were so many negative events, that I stopped trying at some points. I bought an item that had a 50% chance of curing of some (all) states. It of course didn't work and I wasted pretty much 50% of my money on it. Considering you can't enter a fight without getting poisoned or wounded, I would suggest to leave the chance out of it and to let me cure these.
Anyway that said, I really liked the artwork you did for this. And the concept is super cool too. :)
Thanks for playing. The first boss is definitely a bit of a gate check. I am planning to tweak the success/failure formula significantly to feel less random, since getting constant negative results is frustrating (I also saw a playthrough, were they kept getting all successes, so a bit too much RNG). There are other items that will cure each status effect, and they should drop pretty regularly from monsters who deal it, but again RNG, so I'll look into that. Money is pretty slow coming early on, and I think I should just have all traders allow you to sell, since it's mostly just annoying to find a trader and not have enough to purchase anything.
In any case, thanks for the feedback!
Please see Teal's play-through video, as well as her review of the game in the video description:
Awesome, thank you for streaming it, wish I could've caught it live, but I've been out of internet range the past week! :(
Nice title art and opening scene, I like the custom show picture event sequencing. It's a simple beginning that I can appreciate. Very interesting gameplay, you get to decide how to interact based on your gameplay preferences. If you like combat you can choose to go in guns blazing, however if you want to adventure through a map and maybe engage in dialog, you can go that route.
The idea of dying over and over but losing nothing is better than dying over and over and having to load the game, but still, dying over and over isn't a ton of fun. I do like the gameplay but it seems like every story fight that I encounter I just immediately die.
Pretty much every single random world event that I get turns out negative. -50% exp until your next rest being the worst. I seem to get this every time, usually three steps from the campsite. Then shortly after, I get the trap sprung which starts the bleeding that never stops until you die, along with some damage. This game is so trolly. Nearly every random event is a negative one. Like I totally get that there has to be some negative world events, but why do 80-90% of the events have to be negative?
The "Mighty Mace" skill is bullshit. This NPC straight up stun locked the party for like 15 rounds. Reduce the chance of it landing the stun?
Money is too hard to come by. I encounter the wandering merchant but he won't buy anything and I can never even afford a single item.
The "Don't forget to learn new abilities with your AP" reminders are good. I actually forgot about the system, (even though I didn't have enough AP to learn anything new) it was good to remember it's there.
The dark slime dealt 11,355 damage of my 375 max hp. There's something wrong here...
The random encounters seem alright with a few exceptions. The Gas Cloud move is an AOE Poison and Blind. It just seems unfair, especially since these debuffs persist after combat... I would have all the debuffs with only a few exceptions be removed at the end of combat.
All the healing items are just too weak. They don't give enough. 15% is mighty stingy. In fact the game is stingy in many departments. It's too oppressive for a game jam game.
Every now and then an enemy will just deal like thousands of damage. I'm not sure if this is a super critical strike or what causes it, but there's some odd math happening every now and then. Max hps are in the 300-500s and some hits are dealing 5-digits in damage.
I couldn't get too far in my first hour everything just kept beating me down. I did like it when I got another party member as that helped with the difficulty level quite a bit. Maybe in a future version you can start the player with a party of three or four. I feel like it would improve the gameplay.
Overall, I appreciate what you've tried to do with this project, it was very unique and it kind of reminds me of a D&D adventure on some level. I do like this style of game, but this one needs some more attention. You've done a good job of putting out a project in a short period of time so congratulations. I look forward to your next game, best of luck in the future! :)
Thanks for the extensive comments! Most of this I definitely agree with and needs tweaked balanced. Especially the success rates on skill use, it's too low.
A couple of notes just to clarify mechanics. The damage spikes are due to your characters will being low. If it gets down to zero the formula spikes (semi-intentionally) causing massive damage, and will pretty much lead to anything one-shotting the player. As long as you have more than 0 will, it won't spike so ridiculously, but it will still be significantly higher damage. I definitely needed to do a better job communicating the will mechanic, since no one seemed to understand it in their streams.
In any case, super helpful feedback, thanks for playing/judging.
Hi there! Here's a video of me playing through this entry, and I'm going to release my full opinions of each after the results for the first round have been published. Until then I won't let on my judging score or overall review, but you can still watch my playthrough if you'd like! Cheers. :)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1106584620
Thanks so much for streaming it (and judging in general, quite a task)! It's very helpful to see what you liked and didn't, and what mechanics were confusing. There's a number of suggestions you make that I'm definitely going to incorporate into later version (customizing stats was in my original plan, but didn't have time to implement - thus the goofy tutorial note you'll level up automatically from exp haha). Look forward to seeing your full review once the round is over.
(ps: I'm really intrigued by your description of the game you're working on "Disco Elysium filtered through eternal sunshine and blue valentine," definitely keeping an eye on that!)
edit: (pps: oh and it was supposed to be Lantern Star, for some reason I forgot how to spell it about 50% of the time in the text :\ )
Oh good, that's great that you're going to improve on those things. I loved the concept overall. Thank you for being interested in my game <3
Anyway, here's my review for your game! Now that Round 1 is finished, I am giving a review of each game without scores. The below is my review of your game without a score. :)
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REVIEW DISCLAIMER
Dear developer! Thank you for making this game :) Here's my disclaimer I'm placing before all my reviews - I appreciate all games, and I consider every creative work a gift from the artist to the audience. The very fact that you made something is worth celebrating! Being a judge of this game, as was stipulated in the rules, I had to play at least up to the first existing hour of every entry and judge the game on that alone - no more than that! If any gamebreaking bugs were found, the game would be disqualified, and I was to judge the game based on the submitted entry by the deadline - without any additional notes. Here is my overall impressions of the game. Again - thanks for creating it! I appreciate every entry, that you gave it your all, and I encourage you to do what you love - if that means making more games, then please do so! Don't let my (admittedly sometimes too brutal) feedback deter you from making future games - I really want you to succeed! Much love, Cash <3
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CASH REVIEWS: "Castle of the Stolen Stars" by Rubescen
I really liked that it used the pre-rendered Western style of graphics. The graphics were a bit dark, and I'm not sure I like the logo... the font isn't one that looks pleasing to the eye for me. However, in the title, I did like the visual of them sitting in a rubble area around a campfire.
"Once the world was balanced, but one by one, the stars began to disappear from the skies."
You are given a decision to choose between Callum the Orphan Blade, Irinna the Lamp Witch, and Yvellin the Robin Knight. I didn't get the chance to try all 3 of them, so I just chose. I liked the look of Yvellin, so I chose them.
I didn't like that the full stops in the window skin were so low below the rest of the font in the tutorial. It looked a bit weird.
I did like that the game stated that death would be common going forward.
There were common "D&D-style checks" that happened as you went through a non-linear graph of connected nodes. I liked the idea of risk and reward in the checks, but I didn't have a sense by the end that I was able to control whether or not the outcome would be beneficial to me. Whenever I tested a particular trait, it would have been nice to have a custom UI to see the traits, and then make an informed judgement on whether to use a trait for a particular action. In the end, it just seemed a bit arbitrary to me, and there are particular ways to make this information more well-conveyed to the player. I'd consider pursuing these in future :)
The feelings of the maps were quite nice and atmospheric, but over time, I got the sense, for instance, that the mansion was somewhat useless. Maybe it would have become more useful over time, but in my 1-hour playthrough, it wasn't made clear to me.
I really did enjoy when the new party member entered the fray. I do usually enjoy when more than one party member is in a party in an RPG. It usually allows for more dynamic party responsibilities than to have a single solo player.
Although there was some sense of non-linearity in the overall map, by the end of the game, I didn't really get a sense of how to play in a way that was strategic outside of battles. I just randomly chose choices of which trait to use and hoped for the best. This kind of system is used well in games like "Disco Elysium" where the traits are communicated well, and the chance of succeeding at an action is represented by a percentage chance of success. If I was given a percentage chance of success, and I had a better knowledge of what would happen upon success and/or failure, then I think that skill checks like this would be useful. As such, I think that the central mechanic of the game would need a little bit more reworking in order to make it interesting and accommodate strategy. As it is, I don't think I use any strategy when navigating the overworld other than trying to go down routes that will be more likely to have shops, if I recall correctly.
Within battles, they were a little bit one-note, but given the style of game, I was kind of okay with it. I would have liked to have a little bit more variety in battle, though.
Also, I think that there should have been an item to revive dead characters, maybe. Because Callum kept dying and then I was alone to just... die to the boss XD So yeah, I think that a few more "helpful things" in this regard would help make my experience less repetitious and more varied and strategy-filled.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
The thing I liked best about this game was the unconventional and interesting graphical presentation, the flavour and the emphasis on innovative overworld mechanics! I did like what I think you tried to go for. With a bit more work, I think you could implement an overworld system with more information given to the player, and more variation to allow for interesting gameplay. As it is, the overworld has the biggest possibility for improvement, along with some quality-of-life improvements to make battles a little more interesting.
Thanks for making this game! <3
Started off as the witch even knowing that it would probably be the hardest (due to MP and most RPG maker games). This seems to have proven true.
The house music/sound effect is really annoying when it plays for the smith and witch. It sounds like a horror monster encounter where the monster has found you and it is kind of irritating to hear, especially after a few times.
Poison and Bleed are super annoying. Even at level 6 (and levels take a long time to grind in this game), I'm still getting hit by those often from events. And that is with all three upgraded books equipped. It is to the point that if I encounter a poison/wound event, I reset.
The encounters can be a little annoying to the point that I started doing: reset, leave, encounter first event, reset. Fast AP that way.
Whether or not stats have an effect on events, a lot of the events really don't feel like stats give benefit.
For all encounters, it seems that combat is really the only useful choice. It feels like everything else just starts combat without a bonus even with stats in the 50+.
Aside from the weird balancing, I don't think I found any real bugs so far. I think I'm close to finish the first part of the storylines for two party members.
I definitely feel like this game could have done with some rebalancing so that the grind feels smoother.
Thanks for playing! You did pick the hardest character, but not necessarily because of MP issues -- as I mentioned below, I missed her basic attack upgrade when I was tweaking damage last minute, oops! Her regular attack will be in line with the other characters in the future. This mostly matters early game, but it does make her a bit of a grind.
In any case your feedback is helpful, other than the Witch Music - I love that track ;). I'm contemplating how to adjust randomness. It's currently pure random d100, which means if your stats are 50, still only 50/50 chance. I was playing a lot of call of cthulu while working on this, so I stuck with that -- but it probably needs to be skewed a bit in the player's favor, so that combat doesn't feel inevitable (i.e. so that you can actually feel like the abilities do something: stealing from enemies grants gold on success; negotiating can result in heal/posion and would clear, etc.). I also plan to make it more transparent.
In terms of difficulty/attrition, I'm pretty happy with the levels myself, but your feedback helps me see how others are experiencing it. So thanks again for playing and your critique.
The music/sound I am talking about is the sound that plays once and sounds like game over or bad encounter music or w/e whenever you enter the house. I think it plays whenever you enter the house regardless of what event.
So finished the game and the mirror witch seems a bit too hard with instant kills and being able to attack again before the revived character can be properly healed (or simply doing so much damage that the revived character just dies again). This was with having the ghost bear and level cap and the best gear money can buy.
One of my viewers just absolutely hates the suspense sound when you enter the blacksmith/witch rooms. I kind of have to agree that the sound would probably be better for the bloody room or for the special enemies like ann_ or the killer. Right now, it is like Link's fairy. "Hey, Listen!"
The -25% damage seems basically mandatory for the mirror witch fight.
The witch's cleanse/buff was pretty annoying to deal with.
Do we get another ending or is it really just "world resets again"?
Sorry for the delay, I've been off the grid the past week. Thanks for playing all the way through! Did you have a full party of 3 when you fought her. 2 vs her is pretty challenging, 3 vs her, my couple playtesters usually managed after a fail or two, but there's a lot of tweaking still needed for sure on all the encounters.
Currently no other ending, but after the jam finishes, I have some more content to add, in addition to make some changes based on all the feedback so far.
I did 3 against her, but honestly, it might have been easier to just not revive the fallen characters and stuck with the tank. I don't think I failed against her though. It was just abnormally difficult.
I absolutely love the idea behind this game. The art style is wonderful. The atmosphere is outstanding. So it's a shame that the game is so brutally difficult. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it's a part of its charm, but I feel like you went a bit too far in that direction. I played as the witch and I died 4 times in under 10 minutes. I will likely go back and die some more, because I'm a little in love with this game, but it's blatantly bullying the player. I don't think unavoidable poison at random should be a thing, the same way a random bandit attacking first for 200 damage shouldn't be one. I was forced to use the "super powerful last resort ability" almost right away, because even a little spider took 1/10th of my entire health in one hit. With no feasible option for healing, all I can do is hope that the RNG is nice to me. I hope that you work on it some more, because it has immense potential. I also hope you win some sort of prize in the contest, because this is very creative.
Hey, Glad you sorta enjoyed it at least! ;) The witch is a bit broken early game, I thought I had uploaded a version where her base attack is improved in line with the other characters, but turns out I didn't, so she's definitely the hardest to play right now at least until she gets a few levels. If you're really struggling, the best for the current version is to play as the rogue probably (you can still pick up the witch later too). In any case, thanks for the feedback, definitely taking your recommendations into account since I plan on continuing to develop it.
I didn't sorta enjoy it, I enjoyed it a lot. I love this game. I will definitely try out the other characters and see what else can happen. I just hope to see it a little less cruel in the future.
A nice dramatic and animated start to a hard-hitting title card. Music is on point with the theme.
Different choices on who to play? Nice! I myself, like to play Yvellin cos he's a knight-class type of guy. In fact, this reminds me of Dark Souls, which I think is probably the biggest inspiration with the campfire system and chalky and dystopian art style. I like how you included unique battling actor animations and chalky character faces to each. Enemies look cool as well with the consistent art style. The soundtracks add a lot to the atmosphere which is enjoyable to listen to and playthrough. I liked how you also included lore parts when exploring which allows the player to understand what the world is like. Exploring many routes and having different encounters is well appreciated and fun so it doesn't become stale after a while, being a rogue-lite.
My feedback is to add more to the combat system, although this is quite vague. I feel like there's something missing at the start. Maybe dodge, guard or some risk-reward type of thing. I would love to also know more about the world, so adding more exploration areas and interactions would be a killer.
My rating for this game will be 4/5. Great effort and strong imagination to a brilliant game. Will look forward to more of this.
Thanks for playing and glad you enjoyed it! Definitely want to incorporate more story/character/world building interactions into the game. Also will have to think more about how to make combat stay fresh. Thanks again!