Alright, this is an amazing entry. There are some caveats and I hope players read these comments BEFORE getting frustrated, as I was a bit tilted before figuring things out myself.
Gear: "Harriet" won't be able to tank in Clothes. Go buy real armor and equip it. For everyone.
Encounters: Turn off encounters. Just do it. When you've geared up and want to learn a few skills, turn them on, farm for a bit, then turn them off. I don't know WHY random battles are more difficult than half the bosses, but it's a jam game so I am just gonna roll with it.
Good stuff:
- So much depth for a jam game in terms of combat.
- Presentation of most maps, world events, and such was good to great. I mean, layer lighting and whatnot - pretty nice!
- Skill learning system is neat. I wish there was a progress bar (it doesn't have to say WHAT you're learning).
- Boss battles were interesting and took some strategy.
I totally get and agree that the difficulty is off-putting, and the lack of mechanics explanations resulted in a steep learning curve. But honestly I've never seen a jam game throw in Reflect strats in the first combat, so I knew I was there for it.
Final boss has one super cheap move that is a near-guaranteed Phoenix Down use (good thing you get like 100 of them!) but is otherwise reasonable IMO.
So yeah it's tough, and too tough for a jam really, but not insurmountable as long as you have some foreknowledge. Once you can get in this game's groove, it's a heck of a ride.