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Stardander Revenant's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Score | #25 | 4.750 | 4.750 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Log Line
Griselda and Dianthus are both students at Stardander School for Witches, but they could not be more different. When Griselda nearly dies during a fae attack and Dianthus retreats into isolation, their lives - and fates - become entwined.
Content Warnings
Themes: Death, Grief.
Creepy / grotesque imagery (during final battle).
Team Members
Story, Art Direction, CG Illustrations - Natalie Maletz
Code, Game Design, Directing - David Maletz
Music - Chase Bethea
Character & Creature Art - ToriYaki
Background Art - Laura Onderwater
Title Screen Art - Ire Ao
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Comments
Oh my gosh, this is AMAZING. You made this in a month? Wow. The artwork is top-notch, yes, and the writing is excellent, but what’s blowing me away is the sheer depth of the thing. Turn-based combat with fully implemented mechanics? Leveling up individual skills? Multiple stat systems, not only for mana and health but also learning and relationship-building? Check, check, check.
Both main characters’ personalities are really coming through in the writing, and Dianthus reminds me of Lysithea from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, a game I’ve spent an embarassing amount of time playing. I do have a small gripe with the battle balancing. Maybe I’m just missing something obvious, but damn, these battles are hard. It feels like there’s exactly one sequence of winning moves, which may make sense from a story perspective but isn’t as much fun as having a bit more strategic space.
Still, wow. Just, wow.
I'm glad you enjoyed everything so much! We had a bit of an advantage with the battle system - the core system was completed for the main game before the jam started, but we got permission from Nai to use it in the jam. But the enemies are all new, and obviously the story, characters, battle dialogue, etc.
I should probably write a battle guide for the game, as it's a little complex especially since you're thrown into the game with two older witches who already know many spells (instead of unlocking a them slowly). Each enemy has multiple winning strategies, but only one strategy is hinted at by the battle dialogue in game. I did have the feedback that the game was too hard from testers back when only what is now called Hard mode existed, so I added Normal mode - but perhaps I need an easy mode too XD.
I should probably start off by saying I'm pretty far from your target audience >.< I love VNs and I love RPGs with turn-based battles, but I love them separately, haha. I'm not a fan of VNs that have heavy features like battle systems and stuff just because the main reason I play VNs in the first place is to read a story, so I feel like non-story stuff gets in the way of me just reading through and being immersed in the tale x3 On top of that, while I do love magic and the fantasy genre in general, one of my most hated settings for any story is a school just because I've read so many school stories now that I'm growing tired of them. I'm sorry my preferences are that way T_T
However, I'm trying to play through all of the jam games to at least 1 ending while I have the time, and the art in this looked so gorgeous so I wasn't gonna allow my personal preferences to prevent me from checking it out!
The title screen is absolutely gorgeous, as is every aspect of the art throughout ^-^ Absolutely beautiful visuals! And I love all the little animations! They're so flashy.
The only visual element I wasn't so keen on was the text boxes for dialogue. I quite liked the narration text box up at the top, but the constant movement of the speech boxes slightly irritated me, but then again, that's just another really personal thing, haha.
And even though I'm not keen on battle systems in VNs, I still gave the tutorial battle a go and thought that it was a pretty well-crafted system! I also loved the ability to tame because I'm a sucker for that in RPGs x3 I will always pick some form of summoner or tamer class if it's available, and I know it's not quite the same here, but I still appreciate the taming feature! The rest of the battles I just ran from like a coward x3
I'll put the rest under...
SPOILERS
That creature at the end was gnarly! Really love me some creepy creatures so the design of that had me staring at the screen for a little while before actually taking any action, haha. And I chose the hug option at the end and thought the CG was adorable ^-^
I'm glad you enjoyed the game, and tried the tutorial battle even if battles aren't your thing haha. Limbo Line's been on our list to play for a bit, so I'll bump it up on my list from the jam and try it next!