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Genso Battle's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Concept | #7 | 4.065 | 4.065 |
| Challenge | #8 | 3.581 | 3.581 |
| Gameplay | #11 | 3.677 | 3.677 |
| Visuals | #12 | 3.839 | 3.839 |
| Audio | #15 | 3.323 | 3.323 |
| Overall | #15 | 3.581 | 3.581 |
| Story / Writing | #20 | 2.935 | 2.935 |
| Use of LGBT Themes | #26 | 1.871 | 1.871 |
Ranked from 31 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
Manwad, Panchamon, Saishoo, illusorybread
Streaming Permission
Yes
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Comments
The haniwa horses... my mortal enemy...
I unfortunately got stuck on this rather early on account of never quite understanding how the rules worked (should have read the comments, whoops!), but I'm definitely a fan of this sort of... weapon triangle line-up grid tactics gameplay, very unique. Pretty polished visually too, the UI especially felt clear and informative.
Thanks! Heh, yeah, those horses hit hard. Glad you liked the gameplay, and the UI too; personally, it was my first time making a UI for a non-pixel art game!
Not what I was expecting from the screenshot, but interesting concept, played two runs then checked out the tutorial then did like 3 more runs after but still feels like I'm not understanding what people do and stuff, like the healer, sometimes it's an aoe but other times its a line and sometimes it doesn't heal(It is lined up). Think the tutorial is fine, as it gets the basic mechanics through, but what the characters actual do needs better explanation.
The pushing mechanic is nice, since its on a short timer, it's great to risk pulling off a big turn.
Think the game is quite easy, last run took 17 turns, think it can be 12 and lower if optimized. Since everything is like one shot, can easily take out two a turn, and some enemies has 2 or 3 turn cooldowns on them, can clear them all without having them move. Cause of it, didn't really need to mess with the healer nor the classes advantages. If you just line your people up, it's pretty straight forward, the horse does make things a bit more interesting.
It would be nice if the AI is more optimized, like the horses, checking if it could hit multiple targets and prioritizing lower health or class advantaged enemies. Which in turn will make you think about your own turn more.
Thanks for your comment! Oh yes, I really had to explain things better, haha. Skills are activated randomly (so that’s why sometimes the healer doesn’t do anything), and they have different activation rates and AoEs. I had added a file in the game page to explain that further, in case you are interested, as we ran out of time to include it in the game.
I think 17 turns sounds good. I haven’t checked the minimum number of turns, but yeah, it can probably be lower. Thanks for playing all those runs!
I will definitely review the orbling’s AI because it ended up more random than I wanted. Making the AI was fun though and I could explore those tactics you mention. I want to build up to more challenging and puzzle-like battles to make encounters more exciting!
I like the character art in this the most. The music is also very good. However, the game is extremely challenging and the in-game tutorial and game page do not do near enough explaining it. It felt like half the time when I moved units to "pincer" enemies, nothing happened or a unit I wasn't expecting attacked. I barely won, only by repeatedly trying until I got lucky and trying to spam the heal move with the otter spirit. The LGBT themes are also very light in this game. I assume they would become more prominent later in the story.
Hi, thanks for playing! Yeah, I completely underestimated how much explaining the game would need. I’ll take your comments into account to try to improve the tutorial and the information given to the player. And yeah, we ran out of time to incorporate the theme properly… anyway, glad you gave it another chance. I’m sure Panchamon and Saishoo appreciate your comment too.
Never played Terra Battle, but that was very cool! The story set-up also lends itself well to the concept. Unlocated Hell is a jam.
Thank you for your comment Megapig! I’m glad to hear that about the concept, after a short brainstorming session we landed on the Animal Realm concept and Manwad did a great job setting it up.
This is quite a comprehensive list of game mechanics to implement. I haven't played the game that this was based on, but from first impressions, I dig the combination of time-based precision movement with puzzle elements. Was fun!
Thank you! I wanted to implement even more mechanics, but I had to stop myself, ahaha. I’m happy you liked the gameplay. The original game did something really unique, and it left a void when it shut down. We are excited to bring it back!
A really fun game! Once you understand the mechanics and controls, it's not as difficult as it seems at first, but challenging nonetheless. Very nice visual style and music. Hope to see this continued in the future!
Thanks for playing! Yeah, we were talking about this in the server, but I should have done a better job at explaining the mechanics. I also just uploaded a file with some unit and skill info that should have been in-game. Thanks again! It will definitely be continued.
Greetings, fellow Animal Realm enthusiast. Gameplay feels really good once you grok the mechanics, there's a lot of 'juice' in the implementation. Also digging the character art, fits well and packs a lot of personality. A shame there isn't more, would be interesting to see where you're going with this.
Greetings, and thank you! I’m glad to hear that.
Panchamon did a great job with the character art, it’s really authentic to the original game. Please stay tuned for more later on.
The visuals are good and the beast realm setting makes a lot of sense. I wish there was more!
I found it a bit difficult to understand the game. Being in a straight line with the pincering units to me reads like "being on the straight line passing through both pincering units", but it seems like it's enough if they are in a straight line to any of the two pincering units? Or even any units participating in the attack? (Not just the pincering units?) I accidentally activated like half my arm one turn. and I have no idea how that happened. Are straight diagonals also straight lines?
The tutorial doesn't really teach you what constitutes a turn, since there is no enemy movement to break up your turns. I thought I might be able to move all my units until I ran out of meter, but you can only move one unless you use the swap mechanics?
This is the first game like this that I've played where the path you drag your units between the initial and final square matter, so that's interesting.
Since I have no idea how the enemy will move, it's hard to have any long-term strategic goals. I can only think about the current turn since I have no idea what the board state will be after the enemy moves.
Despite not understanding the game, I won, so it was a bit unsatisfying. I probably learned more about the game by writing this and reflecting on my experience than by actually playing.
It probably is a polished experience if you're already familiar with terra battle, which seems like a sensible thing to priority if you're a terra battle player yourself. Hopefully my comments can help you understand how the game might feel for a new player. Good luck with further developments!
Hi! Thanks for playing. Your comments are indeed very helpful to understand how a new player views the game. I will take them into account in order to improve the tutorial and provide more feedback to the player in other areas.
Regarding the chain, yes, it’s enough for a unit to be aligned in a straight line with any of the two pincering units, with no enemies in between. Diagonals don’t count. Wellll, every time I write about it, I find it hard to explain. It’s something that should be better explained with images or in-game.
When performing an attack, both pincering and chained units activate their skills randomly, buuut I didn’t animate or otherwise highlight the units that participated in the attack but did not activate their skills, so there’s something missing there. I also planned to show the player which skills each unit has and their activation chance... but I couldn’t make that screen on time (it’s the disabled “view” button in the squad menu).
Yeah, the main strategy in the game is trying to get the upper hand in your turn before the enemy has a chance to act. The original game has more variety with some telegraphed skills and bosses that follow specific patterns, for example.
All in all, I think you understood the game quite well! But the game didn’t provide adequate feedback. As mentioned, I’ll try to improve that.
I'm happy you liked the visuals and the setting. Thanks again!
So funny thing here. I'm going through this Jam's games in submission order, and the previous game I tried is that other tactics game involving the Animal Gangs. Just the funniest coincidence of the day.
Anyway I didn't know about the game's inspiration, Terra Battle, but its mechanics are so simple to understand, and pretty rad at that. I had great fun in dragging my units around, kinda makes me want to see how many drags I can make within each turn! I really like the somber red/pale aesthetics and the "Unlocated Hell" arrange too.
I'm now looking forward to how the story continues.
Thanks for your comment! Heh, yeah, it’s funny we had two Animal Gangs-related tactics games this jam. I’m glad you had no trouble understanding the mechanics. Yes, drag units around as much as you need!
Glad you liked the colors; while normally red is reserved for enemies (and it's that way in the original game), in this case you aren’t exactly playing as the good guys. Saishoo was a great help with that last-minute theme arrangement.
We had a change of plans and we’ll work on the rest of the content after the voting period (it’s only fair to the other participants), but thank you, we will work hard on it.
Okay! The game is super fun once you figure out what exactly 'pincering' means, it's a nice strategy/puzzle game. The tutorial could use some work, as in existing, but overall, it's a pretty neat game.
Thanks! I hadn’t realized that the tutorial button was broken. Thank you and Unit for letting me know. I fixed it shortly after your comment, but it’s pretty simple anyway. I’m glad you found the game fun.
Gonna be honest didn't have the patience to continue after one game, but that's more of a me thing, not the game.
Anyways, I think the concept of the way you need to pincer enemies to attack is cool, but this really struggles without a tutorial, which seems to be broken in this version. Sometimes I am confused by how some enemies are able to do things while I am barely managing my own.
Presentation wise, I think it's lacking a bit. I liked the little drawings for the unit icons, they're cute. But I think some variety in animations could work well, especially with different unit types so when my gun unit attacks someone, it doesn't play knife sound effects (but i feel like I'm getting too nit picky.)
Anyways, as for writing, there is definitely a lack of LGBT themes, which is something that confuses me since this was part of a pride month jam. But again, I couldn't get past the first level so maybe I missed out on sloppy makeouts at the end. /lh
Overall a decent game that needs some tweaking to help others get accustomed to how it works for it to be more enjoyable.
Thanks for your comment. Don’t worry, there’s only one battle right now.
My apologies, I didn’t take the time to explain the mechanics properly, even though I knew the game really needed that. The key to line up your attacks is to push your units around using the unit that you are dragging with the mouse. I hadn’t realized that the tutorial was broken either... I was adding a short explanation in the game’s page just as you posted your comment, and fixed the tutorial button as well. I also just uploaded a new build with a new tutorial section. If possible, please give it another try.
Having different sound effects for different weapon types is a good idea, thanks. I went ahead and implemented that. Hopefully that also helps the player know which weapon types they are attacking with.
We planned (or plan) to have the player choose a “support” conversation after important battles where you had to pick between two of the three leads (Yachie, Saki and Yuuma), and we would develop the theme that way, but unfortunately it couldn’t be done on time… it’s a shame really, we hope to rectify that soon, because it’s what the jam stands for.