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A jam submission

The Magical Star GuardiansView game page

A Magical Girl Puzzle RPG
Submitted by slimmmeiske2 — 13 hours, 18 minutes before the deadline
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The Magical Star Guardians's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Fan Favorite#303.6673.667

Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

(+1)

I really liked the setup and how everything was labeled. It made getting around easier. I also really liked the inclusion of the gender-fluid character, but Leo can miss me with that TERF poop. Hopefully she learns the errors of her ways ;P Still, a fun little setup for a magical girl tale that has me curious what will happen next.

Suggestion: It kinda takes a while to get to the really cool stuff, so maybe speed it up a bit.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for your feedback, Hawk! It's funny you liked that everything was labeled, as Benny said it really took him out of the game xD I added it mostly, because I wanted it to make it as easy as possible for the judges to complete the game. (So I might remove it and make it optional instead.)

I have "fixed" that scene, so Leo's comment can't be misinterpreted anymore (...at least I hope so). 

I'm still thinking about how to best fix the slow start issue. It will be fixed though, since this was the number 1 complaint. 

Thank you again :)

(+1)

It's a nice intro and I think it deserves to become a full fledged game.

I have to admit I found the campus quite big but hey, I guess a lot of the main story will happen there. I stumbled upon a few spots where tiles seem to be misconfigured (overlay or passability) but the overall composition of the maps was good.

The story was nice and the dialogue well written, character design is also quite good.

Thumbs up for this one.

Developer

Thanks ElCheffe! Glad you enjoyed it. :D

The actual campus is going to be even bigger in the full game, but I totally understand that its current size is pretty daunting compared to the gameplay so far. 

Submitted(+1)

A nice introduction to an interesting plot to a magical girl story. I particularly like the sprites and battlers! The maps are quite pretty too! 

The beginning does feel a slightly a bit slow-paced with the cafeteria sequence (which does seem like you can skip) and walking around trying out all the doors in the school just to find the right classroom at first, then having to repeat the walk again at night.

The fun does pick up with the jumping over lava sequence and the lion head puzzle. The enemy fight does have some cool sequences with that over the top finisher "Starlit Sky of the Magic Circus" - what an awesome skill name. Would be cool to see what the original plan for a match-3 puzzle would be like!

The game ends in a nice conclusion with the introduction of the villains behind the scenes. Nice touch with pet snake... or could it be the mastermind behind all along?

Developer

Thanks for playing, Nowis! Glad you like the sprites and battlers :D

Yeah, the cafeteria scenes are optional. You can go to class without having breakfast. The game does mention what classroom you need to go to at night. I'll probably either be adding a simple quest journal or have a hint item, so the player immediately knows where to go.

Aah, I'm happy you liked the OTT finisher; I had so much fun coming up with that name. I'm probably going to do the Match 3 concept for another game, preferably while not getting stressed by a deadline.

Now, now I don't want to spoil, so you'll just have to play the next installments ;)

(+1)

I really like the cute walking sprites, however with the maps, there are plenty of locations that you need to check the pass-ability settings on. If you find yourself overwhelmed with the tileset options just add a region restriction plugin (I'd recommend VS Events Move Core) and manually set a region number in the params to be not walkable(It's in the region rulings section of the params). Then quickly paint the troublesome areas with that region. 

The songs that were picked have all fit well and sound great. The menu is simplified and pretty, but kind of missing any real substance.

All the NPCs have their own show text, but it's all pretty bland and pointless dialog. 

I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to be doing at some points in the game. 

Some of the maps are okay, I like the watchtower building, and the mistress's throne.

Once you figure out where you're supposed to go, the next part the game has an interesting turn. You encounter some timed attack puzzles which I found to be quite a nice change of pace. Much appreciated here.

I liked the part where you rearrange the lion puzzle and she goes super sajajin (sayin). I couldn't help be say "KAAAA MAAAA HAAAA MAAAA HAAA!!"

There's some basic action sequencing here and some voice acting, however if you're not spamming your heal ability you may die in this battle. You might want to adjust the numbers a little bit.

The character's real names and powers are named after the star constellations. I like what you did here, very on brand. :)

You're basically a power ranger in this game. Except instead of getting your powers from dinosaurs it's powers granted from the star constellations.

I feel like this game is too wordy, it has too many cutscenes and not enough action. It would benefit from more gameplay and less story telling. The gameplay you get is actually good, but there's not enough of it. Overall not a bad entry into the game jam, it could be expanded upon into a bigger game for sure. Nice job! 

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for the feedback, Drifty! I really appreciate it. I'll make sure to fix (most of) these issues in the updated version. As I mentioned in Discord, I'm planning on continuing the story. Chapter 2 will have the gameplay more spread out, so it's not only cutscenes at the start.

(Since you mentioned the menu, the game wasn't supposed to be a RPG, but a full on puzzle game. That's why so many commands are missing from the menu. However I couldn't get the last puzzle "battle" working in time, so I switched it to a normal battle instead. I'm going to keep going with a normal battle system though.)

(+1)

Pretty well polished game with a fun variety of gameplay aspects. Writing was good, story was cool, and it ended at a natural place for a jam game. In general, I like when a jam game has a beginning and end, and isn't just the first part of something larger, but I think this is the next best thing. I was looking forward to more combat and cool moves though! I seriously thought I was going to be looking for 12 shadow monsters, which I wondered how you'd fit into a jam game.

A few issues made me confused - I turned on instant text, and I think perhaps I made the text move too quickly when Lucretia goes into the empty classroom after school. The movement route froze her in place after that and I had to restart and be more patient (thank you autosave). I also completed the tile puzzle, but the solution didn't trigger until I rotated one of the tiles 360 degrees. I'd also suggest you make the player semi-transparent while they are turning the tiles, since I had to step off a lot in order to see if it lined up (EDIT I saw you have another solution in mind already, which looks good to me). Lastly Lucretia's "kick" wasn't quite a kick. As always, I'd love to see some cool action sequences in there for moves.

Hope to see some more chapters, and well done jam entry!

Developer

Thanks for playing and the feedback, Human! I'm glad you liked the writing and story.

Hmm, I've never played on Instant text. I'll check it out and see if I can replicate the issue with that scene. 

Regarding, the tile are you sure you rotated it 360 degrees? There's one tile that looks like it's correct, but isn't. (I always forgot that one when I was testing.) It's the tile on the second row, second column (starting from the top). If it wasn't that one giving you issues, do you happen to remember which one? 

Haha, yeah. I realize I could have renamed it Magic Punch, but I want her to be a kicker. I was planning on changing her SV battler to accommadate that actually, but is there a way with Action Sequences instead? I'm not familiar with them and since a normal battle was a last minute desiscion I didn't have much time to check out all AS could do. (To be honest, this is the first time I ever even used the battle system ^^;)

(+1)

I swear I rotated a tile 4 more times and it "clicked," but maybe I'm just a goof. As far as AS for a kick, I don't know what that character sheet looks like, but you could do something silly like having the battler jump onto the target and kind of flip off. That would be kind of kick like. Or if there are any frames that look kick-y, it's super easy to select those for motions. Let me know in the server if you ever want to get fancy with attacks!

Submitted(+1)

So some passability issues, such as with desks and diagonal movement. The double lava portions are a bit weird since you end up jumping through the lava.

Cafeteria is spelled Cafetaria in the game?

Cafeteria has no bottom area so it looks odd.

The two characters passing through your characters seems kind of odd when you can't pass through them. Maybe there could be some sort of event there to make all the sprites move?

Stairs have major passability issues.

The puzzle is nice looking, but a bit annoying because you are standing on the tile you are moving so you hide what that tile looks like.

The repeated line about being able to do it all day seems kind of pointless to repeat.

The voice acting was a nice touch, though a bit weird given the lack of voice acting until that point.

Developer

Hi Sin, thanks for playing and the feedback. I'm aware of most of the issues you've mentioned.

Regarding the cafeteria, I didn't want to waste more time by mapping it all out, but I'll definitely have the full map available in the update. I'll see if I can make the transition between the characters in those scenes look smoother as well :)

I'm sorry you had repeat lines. I set it up in battle to have four different lines that could be spoken, but I did set it to random. I'll tweak that for the future.

I think it's fine for a game to have battle voices (especially in this genre), without full voice acting, though I get it could be seen as odd. 

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I much appreciate it!

Submitted(+1)

I loved the humor and overall dialogue on this.  The sprites did a great job telling me a bit about each character aswell. The little VA bits at times made me laugh (in a good way) "kick kick" xD

Some passability issues already mentioned by others.

All in all a sweet little game with a lot of character and those fan of sailor moon get added value :)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing, Finnuval! I'm glad you liked it. She actually says "Magic kick", not "kick kick" xD

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Very good composition work despite some small graphic layer bugs (many of which have already been explained by other players). It would have been interesting to add some narrative elements in the many objects placed here and there in the corridors (books, symbols, etc.), to know more about the context of the game and the world (what is this school, where is it, what are the "factions", etc.) But the interactions with the NPCs are numerous and sometimes funny, so it makes up for it in a way. I also find that it lacks a bit of action, because finally everything is concentrated in the same place and all in a row (puzzles, fights). Integrating them gradually could have given another rhythm to the storytelling. But it's only the first chapter, and for me it achieves its goal: to launch the story so that you want more.

In any case, a game to keep an eye on to discover what would be next.

Developer

Thank you for playing. I'm glad it got you interested in the continuation.

The updated chapter 1 will definitely have interactable objects. I'm not 100% sure if there's much I can add to spread the gameplay a bit more in this chapter, but going forward the other chapters will definitely have it all more spread out. 

Thanks again!

Submitted(+1)

Fun little adventure! Loved the dialogue between the characters. Also that Leonidas/Leonis gag was great. As others said, some adjustment to the puzzle would be nice to make it easier to see (maybe lower char opacity when over standing on it). Few minor tile issues (the bottom wall bookshelves need a star) and typos as mentioned below. Good times!

Developer

Thanks Rubescen, I'm glad you liked it! :)

Submitted(+2)

This game was a lot fun! As a fan of Sailor Moon, I highly recommend you finish it.  The only issue I ran into was a I could walk on the wall of the Leo Puzzle room. I really love the voice acting too.

Developer(+1)

Thanks Rose, I'm glad you liked it. :D

And I'm glad you liked the voice acting. I've never done that before, so I wasn't sure if people would like it or not.

Submitted(+1)

Cute game and intriguing - makes you wonder who the villains are. I thought some of the things the NPCs said were really funny (Harold!). The mini-games were interesting too - I thought the invisible path was neat, I liked how the puzzle with the flames became more difficult (though I tried playing with the mouse first and then realized clicking didn't work), and the lion puzzle was cool. But it was difficult to see the piece one was adjusting because the player was standing right on top of it - I think it'd be easier if the player adjusted the piece in front of them.

I enjoyed talking to the NPCs, but felt like it would have been more fun if you could examine items as well (or pick them up) especially since there were all these different dorms to go to (oh, and I think "Cafeteria" was misspelled).  I thought the battler sprite was really cute, by the way!

A couple bugs: I was able to walk on the ceiling near one of the stairs (i think it was the stairs up to the 2nd floor in the school) and on the north-facing cabinet in one of the rooms (sorry, don't remember which one).

Developer

Thanks for playing, SeaPhoenix! I'm glad you liked it.

I always play with the keyboard, so I didn't think about players who use the mouse. I'll see if there's a possibility to make the fire puzzle work with mouse input as well. For the lion puzzle, I'll be changing it so you're controlling a cursor while Lucretia watches from the sideways. Hopefully that will make it easier to see.

I didn't have time to add in interactable items, but it's definitely planned for the updated version. You're right, I used the Dutch spelling for Cafeteria. Fixed that, thanks. I'll try and find those other bugs as well.

Thanks again :)

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

This was cute! It was cool seeing someone else's take on the magical girl formula. I found it interesting that we both went with constellation themes. :)

The story so far is definitely engaging, if not a little swift in sequence of events (something my game also suffers from).

  • I also found a few passability bugs, particular the desk at the bottom of the dorm.
  • Lucretia's walking graphic hair colour doesn't match her faceset.
  • It's really difficult to tell where Minnie is in the classroom; I ended up talking randomly to a bunch of people before I found her. Maybe put an arrow above her head or something?
  • I second Elijah's recommendation for an outline cursor on the tile puzzle.
  • I also second Elijah's comment about the dialogue with Marion
  • I don't think the battle was necessarily *too hard*, but Purr healing the enemies to full was definitely frustrating, especially considering you only have two skills until you can use the finisher and one of them is often mandatory because of how much damage you're taking.

Overall a really solid effort! I look forward to seeing how it develops in the future.

Developer(+2)

Thanks Trihan. I'm glad that you liked it. You know what they say, great minds think alike ;)

Yeah, I'm planning on having an extra section somewhere in between class and the evening section and some/one sidequests. I'll be giving those as well as main quest progress an icon above their heads, so that should fix the Minnie issue. It just felt a little odd to add it now, since that would be the only time it was used in this demo.

I'll fix the Purr skill, so it doesn't completely heal them.


"Lucretia's walking graphic hair colour doesn't match her faceset."

Do you know how much time I spend working on having the other students facesets match their hair colour to then just completely forgot I needed to do this to my MC as well? xD I can't decide what colourway looks nicer though.

Thank you for playing again :D

Submitted(+1)

I played through your whole game. It was an interesting story and I enjoyed the small puzzles you made. I'm a bit disappointed that there was only one battle though after going through so much dialogue. Some feedback:

  • Few graphical bugs like layering on the school desk and the monster being visible on the top left corner of the rotation puzzle
  • There's a tile collision bug on the rocks. It allows me to walk on tiles that should be blocked.
  • I like the foreshadowing of Leo during the class session. It reminds me of how Persona does this during the classroom cutscenes
  • On the rotation puzzle, I think it would be nice if you made a square outline cursor to hover over the pieces because it's somewhat hard to see when the character is directly on top
  • The first battle was difficult for a first battle. If you didn't make the right choices quickly, you could have easily died
  • I think Lucretia's remarks about Marion's crossdressing comes off a little offensive. It makes her look like a rude person asking that to a total stranger. Without any relevance to the plot, it seems like it was thrown in there as a bad joke

Overall, good job on your game! Since this is only chapter 1, I hope you continue to work on this and further develop the story!

Developer

Thank you so much for playing!

I really like that cursor idea for the rotation puzzle. Thanks for the tip.
I'm sorry you had a hard time with the battle. It was my first time actually creating one and I had a hard time trying to make it not too easy, but also not too hard. (The battle was also Plan B, since Plan A, a match 3 game, didn't work out)
As for the remarks, I can see why you say that, but they aren't total strangers. They've been attending the same classes and sleeping in the same dorm for teh past two months. Lucretia is just rubbish at remembering anyone's name that's not her friends'. So that's why she's a bit upset at first and she's not able to immediately let it go. I should probably rewrite it a little to make that a bit clearer.

Thank you! I'm definitely planning on continuing this. Chapter 2 is completely written and I have the broad plot points written for chapter 3.