I think this game has a lot of potential once it manages to fine-tune various combat aspects. I was digging the straightforward school arena premise, the letter system is cool for moving along the "story" of what is mainly a combat-focused game, the art stands out and knocking out people through pain feels very satisfying. I look forward to more weapon/skill variety that is built around that meter rather than HP loss.
That being said, there's something that really isn't working with the Action Points. I tried a run avoiding the use of Beg beyond just using at as a debuff (my Edith doesn't grovel!), but I can see why it's currently so overpowered by allowing you to to avoid relying on MP. Given how several enemy attacks often reduce yours, the optimal strategy so far seems always being on the offensive (crippling the enemy with status effect stacks by doing so) until you run out, pausing to rest only when the enemy can't act so you can sneak in an extra attack. No point in hoarding them if they get chipped away.
The "Back Away" mechanics are really punishing, and once you run out of MP it's really not fun having to wait 2+ turns not doing anything. I wouldn't mind it being so severe if I didn't feel incentivized to go full cavewoman/unable to ration MP effectively, and if it wasn't a situation that seems to inevitably happen every fight regardless of how it's going.
All that being said, I'm looking forward to any future work on this, seeing how it will continue to shape up.
I really appreciate the encouragement, and I'll look into improving the effectiveness of backing away, on top of dropping in items that make MP drain less. I also plan on adding charisma based skills that aren't so meek, such as insults, and maybe chants. Sorry about not checking up on things, I'm play testing the new "fix" for what's currently here. Thank you a whole bunch!
I like the concept of the school becoming a gladiator arena, and I appreciate the effort that went into both the custom assets and the battle system. Very much enjoyed those aspects of the game! That having been said, I don't think I ever really understood how battles work: because the player's options are very limited, winning or losing is a bit on the RNG side of things. I found that begging was generally the best option, since you could defeat your enemies without needing to spend MP. Also, since backing away sometimes fails to do anything, and can also occasionally recover as little as 1 or 2 MP, all the more reason to avoid relying on MP entirely. As for the items, equipment, etc. that can be purchased, I understand not necessarily wanting to add descriptions in order to keep things interesting, but because they cost so much it's difficult for the player to experiment with them. Ultimately, I wasn't able to defeat a sophomore enemy that kept appearing and couldn't clear the game.
I do like what's here, I think it's really interesting and with a bit more polish and a bit more clarity as to what does what it could be an even better game. I also got a huge kick out of the little details, like the progression of the MC's reaction to the post-battle healing, the notes left for her, anti-depressants showing up in the store for an exorbitant price, etc. I hope you continue to work on this game so we can see it at its best.
I didn't mean for begging to be so overpowered, and I'll probably gear it and later charisma based actions to take up MP. Had it take up none originally because realistically, speaking takes up no energy compared to throwing a punch. As for fighting, backing away also helps manage pain on top of morale, so in situations where pain or morale is getting sticky, you should rely on backing away to keep from getting knocked out. You can unga at the very beginning, and it's easy to get used to, but later, when you have a bunch of items stored up from scrapping, you can sell those for bandaids, which give about 20% of your health back.
I know the beginning fights are a bit misleading in their pacing, but I intend to fix that, and it is mostly my fault for neglecting playtesting. I just want to do it appropriately, so that it's not as brutal as it gets later, but still difficult. Weapons and whatnot in the shop will get letters describing them later and after they come out, but also remember that they are mostly there to show what you can get, and you can much more easily pick them up after a won fight. Also fights are supposed to lean a little to RNG, but when I add custom stats, you as the player will get to play off of that too.
I'll get to fixing these things sometime soon, as I really want to see what comes of this. Unfortunately due to some issues with the plugin that lets me have those two extra health bars, I'm having trouble scaling as the game goes on. The health bars very rarely disappear, and I even had to tweak guarding, because it would make the user completely invincible for the entire fight. I also cannot fatten the hp bars any, so that has forced me to dump grotesque amounts of willpower into later enemies to avoid them surrendering from high pain when their pain is only at 50%.
I will do my best to cover all of these asap, but due to certain things I'm not sure when "asap" will be. I'm just really happy that someone enjoyed my game, even if just for a bit.
Comments
I think this game has a lot of potential once it manages to fine-tune various combat aspects. I was digging the straightforward school arena premise, the letter system is cool for moving along the "story" of what is mainly a combat-focused game, the art stands out and knocking out people through pain feels very satisfying. I look forward to more weapon/skill variety that is built around that meter rather than HP loss.
That being said, there's something that really isn't working with the Action Points. I tried a run avoiding the use of Beg beyond just using at as a debuff (my Edith doesn't grovel!), but I can see why it's currently so overpowered by allowing you to to avoid relying on MP. Given how several enemy attacks often reduce yours, the optimal strategy so far seems always being on the offensive (crippling the enemy with status effect stacks by doing so) until you run out, pausing to rest only when the enemy can't act so you can sneak in an extra attack. No point in hoarding them if they get chipped away.
The "Back Away" mechanics are really punishing, and once you run out of MP it's really not fun having to wait 2+ turns not doing anything. I wouldn't mind it being so severe if I didn't feel incentivized to go full cavewoman/unable to ration MP effectively, and if it wasn't a situation that seems to inevitably happen every fight regardless of how it's going.
All that being said, I'm looking forward to any future work on this, seeing how it will continue to shape up.
I really appreciate the encouragement, and I'll look into improving the effectiveness of backing away, on top of dropping in items that make MP drain less. I also plan on adding charisma based skills that aren't so meek, such as insults, and maybe chants. Sorry about not checking up on things, I'm play testing the new "fix" for what's currently here.
Thank you a whole bunch!
I like the concept of the school becoming a gladiator arena, and I appreciate the effort that went into both the custom assets and the battle system. Very much enjoyed those aspects of the game! That having been said, I don't think I ever really understood how battles work: because the player's options are very limited, winning or losing is a bit on the RNG side of things. I found that begging was generally the best option, since you could defeat your enemies without needing to spend MP. Also, since backing away sometimes fails to do anything, and can also occasionally recover as little as 1 or 2 MP, all the more reason to avoid relying on MP entirely. As for the items, equipment, etc. that can be purchased, I understand not necessarily wanting to add descriptions in order to keep things interesting, but because they cost so much it's difficult for the player to experiment with them. Ultimately, I wasn't able to defeat a sophomore enemy that kept appearing and couldn't clear the game.
I do like what's here, I think it's really interesting and with a bit more polish and a bit more clarity as to what does what it could be an even better game. I also got a huge kick out of the little details, like the progression of the MC's reaction to the post-battle healing, the notes left for her, anti-depressants showing up in the store for an exorbitant price, etc. I hope you continue to work on this game so we can see it at its best.
Thank you so much!
I didn't mean for begging to be so overpowered, and I'll probably gear it and later charisma based actions to take up MP. Had it take up none originally because realistically, speaking takes up no energy compared to throwing a punch. As for fighting, backing away also helps manage pain on top of morale, so in situations where pain or morale is getting sticky, you should rely on backing away to keep from getting knocked out. You can unga at the very beginning, and it's easy to get used to, but later, when you have a bunch of items stored up from scrapping, you can sell those for bandaids, which give about 20% of your health back.
I know the beginning fights are a bit misleading in their pacing, but I intend to fix that, and it is mostly my fault for neglecting playtesting. I just want to do it appropriately, so that it's not as brutal as it gets later, but still difficult. Weapons and whatnot in the shop will get letters describing them later and after they come out, but also remember that they are mostly there to show what you can get, and you can much more easily pick them up after a won fight. Also fights are supposed to lean a little to RNG, but when I add custom stats, you as the player will get to play off of that too.
I'll get to fixing these things sometime soon, as I really want to see what comes of this. Unfortunately due to some issues with the plugin that lets me have those two extra health bars, I'm having trouble scaling as the game goes on. The health bars very rarely disappear, and I even had to tweak guarding, because it would make the user completely invincible for the entire fight. I also cannot fatten the hp bars any, so that has forced me to dump grotesque amounts of willpower into later enemies to avoid them surrendering from high pain when their pain is only at 50%.
I will do my best to cover all of these asap, but due to certain things I'm not sure when "asap" will be. I'm just really happy that someone enjoyed my game, even if just for a bit.