Play fish
Nitori Pro Dungeon's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #2 | 4.375 | 4.375 |
| Concept | #2 | 4.275 | 4.275 |
| Story / Writing | #3 | 4.350 | 4.350 |
| Visuals | #4 | 4.725 | 4.725 |
| Overall | #11 | 3.875 | 3.875 |
| Use of LGBT Themes | #13 | 3.650 | 3.650 |
| Challenge | #14 | 3.350 | 3.350 |
| Gameplay | #14 | 3.275 | 3.275 |
Ranked from 40 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
pontifus, otoutochan
Streaming Permission
Yes
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Comments
Got dang, this is just a full game isn't it? I played the postjam version since I missed the voting period anyway, and from what I heard it sounds like that added a lot to the experience. Lovely art, and the dialogue was unexpectedly funny and genuine. Although it got a bit lengthy for me, I appreciate the iterative nature to scaling the tower, getting stronger each time and hoping you've got enough resources to
bomb the hell out ofproperly defeat the current boss. Also, just, the whole basis of the game... what sparks that idea? It's beautiful, stuff like Yukari's design is a blessinglol as far as where the idea comes from, we've both spent a lot of time around southern US cultural garbage. Big Mouth Billy Bass is always close to the surface. Though it was also just a good excuse to make up some cryptid OCs for the enemy sprites.
Understandable... the Billy was not lost on me. Half expected to see Yukari show up rocking a Salt Life sticker
i BEAT MOMIji!!!!!
i played both the jam version and the post jam update and I have to say the post jam version feels way more fun to play! I actually feel the multiple loops of fish pro pyramid making me stronger. I'll definitely will come back to this game!!!
When I first played the game, I also struggled a lot. I just couldn’t beat Momiji after several attempts, the game felt too difficult (in terms of encounters, money earned, losing half your money and all your consumables on death), and the walk back to the boss was very frustrating. It really was a shame, because everything else looked great. But now, the post-jam update (and a change of mindset) have solved all of these frustrations. So great job there.
Regarding the update, the balancing is very welcome and the game’s difficulty is more manageable now. I can only add that there were a couple of skills I didn’t use, and I ended up using only a few items from Kosuzu (mostly bombs), but they were very situational.
Regarding the mindset, thanks to the comments here and the discussion in the server, I realized that I had the wrong approach. I was just too used to grindy turn-based RPGs. Instead, this is a game where you should use your resources liberally, and you have to be smart about which skills you use. The resource management and lack of grinding make combat more engaging, because you have to be more careful, and with the update, it didn’t get to a point where it felt too repetitive or difficult.
The rest of the content, is, of course, fantastic. The music is very cool. The writing is funny and it has great lines -- Hina’s stand out in particular. I loved those little moments between Hina and Nitori, and Yukari’s cryptic words. The art style, sprites, and character and enemy designs are unique and varied. Sanae with sneakers and Hatate with pants are awesome choices. I hadn’t heard of the Memphis pyramid (non-American here) but the way it was handled was very funny and not once did it feel out of place.
With the update, this is a game that anyone can enjoy to its fullest, and it really deserves it.
This is probably my favorite of the jam games. I played the jam version and even with some of the jank had a ton of fun.
The genre is a dungeon-crawling RPG, but there are no levels so the only "grinding" is in getting upgrades to equipment, new abilities, and MP boosts. Overall the gameplay was good, although a lot of skills I didn't have a good use for.
The concept is hilarious and I love the constant jokes throughout the game.
The visuals were very good, I loved the pixel art and character portraits. The mouths moving during dialogue were a polished touch I wouldn't expect from a game jam. The enemy sprites were also great. I think my favorite was the Fiery.
The music was great, but it did get kind of repetitive due to how much you hear the battle music. That's a problem I had with a lot of RPGs. I recommend turning the music off when grinding and listening to something else, and turning it back on when you go to make progress.
The writing was very good, and overall had a comedic tone that managed to almost make me laugh (it's very rare for me to laugh at something that's intended to be funny) at points.
The weakest point of the game was the challenge. Most bosses were impossible until I got the upgrades for the floors I was on, then they became trivial. The strategy I settled on for most bosses was to inflict the blind status with Extending Arm, then use the dodge moves to reduce my chance to get hit. If you grind some of the secret enemies (hint: check the fishing spots), you can get equipment that completely destroys the game. This is a point in favor of the game, I totally love RPGs with broken items. It did get a tad bit repetitive to farm upgrade items, though.
The relationship of Hina and Nitori was handled in a way I liked. It also was incorporated into the game mechanics, as they become stronger as their love for each other grows. I kind of wish there was something that showed them being close at the end, but I guess the ending fits with the comedic tone of the game.
Overall, this would definitely be my favorite of the games with a bit more polish.
Just finished the game. Incredible. Are you sure you made this in just two weeks? Because it felt like one of those passion projects that developers spend years to make!
The gameplay is really well made! I played the jam version, which is rather grindy at the beginning, but once you get a good weapon and good armour it quickly becomes balanced. Overall, I found the fight difficulty and amount of money you get from each encounter to be measured well: you never find yourself with too much money to spend, and you have to think carefully of what you're buying. The only thing I'd change is the spawn rate of good gear in chests to be more generous, as it makes a huge difference. I saw from your comments that you made the game a bit easier in the latest version, which I'm sure will make the experience more enjoyable.
The puzzles are all accessible. Even though they weren't that hard, I never found myself bored thanks to the mechanics that you introduced with every new area. I found a couple of inconsistencies in the jam version (some random creatures would get stuck as they followed their scripted path, and on some floors the random creatures would disappear as I touched them instead of triggering an encounter), but as far as I know they could have already been fixed.
The artstyle is AMAZING! Every character oozes personality and they all look so cute! Your version of Hina was my favourite. 😊️ Even the monsters you find in random encounters look gorgeous! I can't get enough of your style! 🥺
The music is really impressive, as well. You managed to make several completely different tracks for the game areas, merchants, and fights, and they all sound so professional! I especially liked the book merchant's theme, I listened through it all even if I didn't really need to spend much time at her shop because I liked it so much!
The game is narrated in a very enjoyable way, I definitely liked the banter between the two main characters, and the humour was spot on! I expected a bit more from the finale, but maybe there are multiple endings depending on your choices? I was expecting some "next big step" for Hina and Nitori's relationship, but I only got a couple of lines about food instead.
I can see that you put a ton of effort into developing this game, and it really shows! Kudos to both of you!
Hella fun. Though I broke the game, there's an specific chest on the second floor that has infinite stuff in it. You might wanna check that out.
Still, both the dungeon and the battles were so much fun, farming juice and money to get bombs is a viable option to cross the game, and thanks to the save option, little can be risked.
I lost my stuff several times, but still, it was kinda nice that equipment and MP didn't, so the risk-benefit is quite satisfactory, also, NitoHina is quite nice too.
The only thing I didn't get was, "how is that the floors get bigger, the more you advance, you said to be wanting to reach the top of the pyramid, but it had to be inverted for that to make sense or you actually start on the top (?
PD: Rip Wakasagi and Iku, you were delicious.
Phew I'm done playing the Jam version. I did not expect a 2-week game to last 6 hours. Despite of this game length, the game seems to be designed and balanced well enough, so special congrats for that!
It's high quality on the sprites and music. I like the variety and creativity of the enemies!
The gameplay itself is fine I guess. Since the main feature of the game is to have the player redo some floors to get better equipped, I think the first boss, Momiji is actually a pretty good way to convey that.
After Momiji, I wasn't compelled as much to restart from F0 (which is personally more of my style). Though I did avoid enemies because the gear upgrades is a bit non-conventional lol - I went 80% of the game with Hina stuck on an early-game weapon lol.
I actually really like that there's no dedicated resting spot. I actually felt like the consumables were actually meant to be used. So Marisa was a great friend during the ascension.
Eventually I beat the penultimate boss and I still wanted to fight the Optional Super Boss™ so I had to bail out to restock on major recovery items.
The story is captivating enough, it's lighthearted but it knows which direction it goes. It's fun to see all the dialogues, and seeing Nitori and Hina talk to eachother as they climb the dungeon really shows these tasty-looking breadcrumbs yum
There's a lot of content and some of us may not spend enough time completing the game and seeing everything to rate it, so I've done a video (of the Jam version) that condenses my experience. Now you can easily access the story~
Oh hot damn, it took me 6 days to play the entire thing then making this video. I better get to the remaining games of the Jam now lol
Appreciate and am kind of in awe of the effort here, damn lol ... we didn't hit VN-level word counts or anything, but there's like 5k words in there and I'm glad there's a way for people to see them in the jam version without needing to do the grind themselves.
Everyone else has already talked about how I feel about the gameplay, but still, top scores for every aspect of the presentation at least
Edit: Went back and finished the game. Took 6 hours to beat it. Also did the optional boss (Reimu).
While there are some tuning issues as noted by other comments, I think the game's compelling. In some ways it feels more like a puzzle game than an RPG, albeit with more RNG than your typical puzzle game. Art, music and writing are all strong points as well.
The mid-late game actually felt way more forgiving and balanced than the early game. I beat all the Moriya bosses, as well as Reimu, on the first attempt. Final boss took 2 tries. The funny thing is that I forgot to heal Hina and she dropped dead on the first turn, so I beat him with just Nitori. Sidenote: Hina-spin absolutely wrecks multi-attackers. I enjoy this.
The only major pain point is having to scale the tower multiple times to open enough equipment chests to get sufficiently strong items to beat bosses. This involves forced encounters with the same enemies, which gets repetitive and makes the game take too long for a jam entry.
Bombs also didn't feel useful for the most part, but I suspect specific status ailments are particularly strong against specific bosses - I didn't end up experimenting with that.
Final note: How the heck do you catch that damn golden fish? Even with Miko's ribbon and the strongest armor, at 37 speed, I still can't get the first attack before it runs away. Maybe it comes down to luck.
Haha, thanks for grinding through the whole jam version ... the updated version takes 3-4 hours, which maybe still would've been too long for a jam game, but I think feels about how we wanted it to pacing-wise. I'm glad it is in fact possible to finish in its initial state, though lol
Yeah, bombs aren't really worth the cost in the jam version, though status effects are pretty useful vs. the bosses. The gold fish is always faster than you and was set to run way too often, so you basically never get a chance to attack it.
I'm obsessed with the presentation of all of this. Incredible music, fantastic art, and it's an RPG! I agree with the comments about balancing: It's unfortunately incredibly difficult to make any progress. Some balancing changes would help make this game probably one of my favorites of the bunch: again, I can't sing the praises high enough for how well everything fits together into one cohesive game.
I can't get past Momiji. Nitori deals 2 damage and is basically only good for using items to keep Hina alive. Tube Yogurt and MP items are useless at this point since nothing inflicts status ailments and none of my attacks use mana, so all I can do is pray that I get healing items. The fish fillet increases my max MP, which is again useless; the golden fish just runs away. I haven't gotten any gear upgrades in many runs and I thought the game finally activated some "a lot of money" cheat mode for me, but it's probably just trying to print more decimals than it can fit.
I really wanted to get further to see if I would get to see Wakasagihime in your art style (which, rocks by the way), but I can't take this anymore.
I loved this game, I was blown away by how in depth it was, and really enjoyed the story
the kanako boss kicked the carp outa me tho.
Wow, this game was pretty good! Right until the very end, where the grinding got really damn tedious. I ended up hacking in a 500 ATK weapon just to see the end. But the plot, music, and visual style were amazing!
like, Im torn. The game looks nice, it sounds nice. The writing, I like the writing, but the gameplay... it's hard to find a place to start. just to be clear, I didnt finish the game, I made it to hatate, but... I wasnt going to go through another 30 runs of the the section, trying to get good equipment rolls and hoping rng blesses me with good item and enemy encounters for that run. I guess this is a case of making sure you properly test your game which as the jam page itself states, was not something that really happened. Regardless, might as well sum up my thoughts.
The game goes hard into making every equipment you pick up, every item you grab, rng, rolled from a table, which, by itself, isnt bad, it could work, much harder to balance and tailor an experience to but workable, HOWEVER when the game lacks enough ways to get stronger *outside* of rolling equipment, well, you're just trying to redo floors until you get good equipment, went soooo long before nitori started having damage numbers above 1 or 2 and from my friend who was also trying it it seems my experience was not solitary in that regard. There doesnt appear to be any leveling so the *only* reason you'd want to fight enemies is for money or for the fishing drops, however you lose half your money when you die so its not very reliable. A response might be just "dont die", but past the first floor, the RVs dont backtrap to the lobby, the only place you can heal, you dont get another heal point ever and aint no one climbing down the whole tower just so they dont eat a death which will likely come anyway with the amount of encounters you get climbing down, better to just climb upwards and take the death when it hits you and hope the RV checkpoints will be enough. Now, one might think you can circumvent this rng slightly by stockpiling items. Youd be wrong, all items that arent equipment are taken from you on death / lobby visit so you better rely on whatever the rng table blesses you with. This and the fact that enemy encounters vary so wildly difficulty wise and are also so rng dependent means that just making it to a boss fight isnt enough, you have to make it to a boss with GOOD rng otherwise you'll just die because you lack the hp and or items for the fight. Just the act of placing a healing fountain before each boss would help soooo much to make it so less painful, hell even just allowing hina's heal to be used outside of battle would be a blessing.
Now, there are other things I could get into like how speed affecting accuracy fucks over encounters like the hoop snake (because again, speed is an equipment stat and even then it might not be enough), or how it's possible to get your money to glitch to "a lot of money" and you never know the money you have again, etc etc, however Id rather return to my opening train of thought. If the game wasnt so heavily rng focused, it would be a much better game and its frustrating that a game who excels in every other aspect is held back by its gameplay. I may try again at a later point save scumming every encounter and chest for a good run just to finish since I feel I was so close and if I do that I may edit my post, but for now I hope my words are sufficient.
Yeah, suspected some of these things would be issues and just, you know, ran out of time to try to mitigate them. Eternally failing the don't overscope for a game jam challenge. Character power growth needs to be less rng-dependent, and healing before bosses is a good idea given that the challenge is really just supposed to be bringing the right tools to the fight...at one point Reimu was going to heal you but we didn't end up putting that in for some reason. Appreciate the feedback.
Yeah... sorry if I was too harsh, just, it's so close to being amazing because of everything else that its frustrating that it didnt hit that for me. The overscope problem with jams is definitely something I myself am still struggling Ill admit and I dont really have a good answer to it...
Bass pro fishing pyramid? The 7th wonder of the world?
Sign me the hell up