Congrats on finishing the jam! This was a fun little game. I went with an attack-only build.
I liked the music - it was very fitting and the art for the enemies and player/etc was pretty solid.
Some feedback:
- The art in the battle has two different pixel resolutions with the characters and the grass blobs. Would recommend they be the same. It'll also add a level of polish if the UI is similar resolution.
- I think that for the stats and skills you really need tool tips to help explain what everything is used for. Some things like attack, defence, speed, are pretty obvious but constitution not so much.
- To get people to assign points to other categories they need to feel like it would benefit them. So for example when you are levelling up in Dark Souls/Souls-likes you assign points according to your build you are playing and where you feel you are lacking. In DS you may find that you run out of mana when that's how you attack so you would assign a point there. However you may start to feel squishy so you would assign to health. etc.
- Not assigning points at the end of a turn should be an option - you may not feel a squeeze with the fight you just did but you may after the next.
- Bulbapedia has algorithms for the Pokemon battle system if you are interested in following more "Pokemon-like" stats and abilities you can look there. Otherwise I would recommend following Paper Mario (Thousand Year Door) Style where each point has a noticeable effect because it uses a smaller point scale.
- Because you are using turn order and turn order manipulation I would recommend looking into the Break System in Octopath Traveller
- The cutscene at the beginning was cute and easy to understand however I felt it went by a little too fast - maybe slow it down or allow the player to advance it themselves
- If you add more character classes I think that having them have preset balances for the attributes and attributes that they work well for is key
- Enemy engagements need to be balanced in such a way that strength-based stat distribution is discouraged. I.e. might makes right is wrong
- Each enemy needs a gimmick of some sort (ex sweeper, healer, tank, etc.) that encourages different strategies of engagement. Would recommend looking into the Pokemon PVP scene because they have these terminologies and strategies well documented. For other examples you could look at Undertale and how the Pacifist route has different patterns and strategies for interacting with each enemy.
- I didn't feel like "defend" option was a good use of a turn - not sure if it lasts a few turns or would be better suited for telegraphing a strong attack and readying it
- Don't know how I feel about losing a turn to using an item - it might be ok but since I don't a party a heal item will get used and then after an attack it's a net zero experience.
Great job!