Hi there, PhoenixGirl1!
I'm Cash, one of the judges for the RPG Maker MZ Jam, and I received your game to judge for Round 1.
Since Round 1 is finished, I am giving a review of each game without scores. The below is my review of your game without a score. :)
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REVIEW DISCLAIMER
Dear developer! Thank you for making this game :) Here's my disclaimer I'm placing before all my reviews - I appreciate all games, and I consider every creative work a gift from the artist to the audience. The very fact that you made something is worth celebrating! Being a judge of this game, as was stipulated in the rules, I had to play at least up to the first existing hour of every entry and judge the game on that alone - no more than that! If any gamebreaking bugs were found, the game would be disqualified, and I was to judge the game based on the submitted entry by the deadline - without any additional notes. Here is my overall impressions of the game. Again - thanks for creating it! I appreciate every entry, that you gave it your all, and I encourage you to do what you love - if that means making more games, then please do so! Don't let my (admittedly sometimes too brutal) feedback deter you from making future games - I really want you to succeed! Much love, Cash <3
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CASH REVIEWS: "Cavilance" by PhoenixGirl1
My first impression of the game was that it used a lot of standard RPG Maker graphics. It did look quite cosy, though. The main character, Cavilance, looked quite cool with those glasses.
There were some quite humorous descriptions, without full stops at the end, and some lines that seemed like references to jokes but that I couldn't understand, but they were quite funny anyway. I did find myself laughing near the beginning. :)
This game did have quite a few nicely mapped interiors that looked quiet lush.
There were some funny dialogue pieces as well. I just wish that there were full stops after sentences XD
There were a lot of lines that didn't seem to amount to much story-wise, and although it's light in tone, I still expected a little bit more. There was a repeated joke in every shop about closets being scandalous and getting caught looking in closets and it got quite repetitive :)
There were a lot of dialogue, for example the shopkeeper, that didn't seem necessary at all. I didn't understand the plot with goblins and stuff. Maybe I didn't get far enough into the game to know what was going on in the story but I struggled to understand what was going on. The pig in the shop was cute, though.
In my opinion, the game spent too much time dilly dallying around in the first town. I wanted to know what the story was! But anyway, sometimes a linear RPG is nice.
Most of the battles were just about spamming attack, since there was nothing else to use.
There were some plots with Cadence and a tree monster and stuff that I didn't quite understand. Mostly, the story was quite incomprehensible. There was a bit of meta humour but I don't think it contributed to the story that much.
I could see these characters being in a better story where they serve as buddy cops, maybe? But there needs to be a series of events that I can follow, where I understand the mission, and I know what each character wants and why. I didn't quite know exactly what was going on.
There was a funny little game show segment that was quite fun! This was the kind of off-the-wall stuff that was quite hilarious and well-done. I wish I would have stayed in that funny part for much longer, or even made it the entire game! An adventure in a vegas-style world filled with vapid game show hosts and liars.
The game show asked questions about the story but I forgot what the brother's name was because I have ADHD and the details just went straight past my brain XD
However, I got stuck in a particular town for a very, very long time and then I didn't know how to progress. The music repeated over and over again and I didn't yet get to the point where I could continue.
It was at this point that I just went around and around in circles and didn't realise where I had to go. I felt like I was going a bit silly in the head.
I ended up spending the final 15 minutes of the game just going around and around in circles and getting frustrated. T_T
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
My overall thoughts about the game was that if this was a first game, it was a really nice first game! Keep going. It's very important in games to properly signal where the player should go. To design it in a way where it's obvious how to progress. There are flashes of promise here, however I couldn't help but feel that I was getting claustrophobic! Hoping that in future, you will create more and more amazing games in your journey <3