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Takuma Gao3 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you for the feedback!

The game actually has a ton more foreshadowing than you even noticed (for example, everyone's accessories are further hints), so I definitely expected, and kind of wanted people to figure out the plot twist before it was revealed. The main aim of the twist wasn't really supposed to be a "who" situation, but a "how" and "why" situation. I kind of wanted to tell a story where, if you played it a second time and paid attention to the dialog, with the knowledge of what happens at the end, that things would be a lore more clear.

For example,  Felix will say something, and he will be immediately shot down. And then Kia will then make the exact same request that Felix did, and be immediately approved. This is why the dialog is so repetitive and it seems like characters just monologue on and on about the same things - because I wanted to really drive across the point that the characters were not in control of their own actions. For example, every time Kia reminds Felix about what they need to do, it isn't just about me dumping exposition, it's about her reinforcing her commands.

As for the final battle... Well, I don't mean to sound rude or anything, really, but... you were kind of playing the game wrong XD (I watched your stream of it)

Each of the characters comes with several skills and/or magic, and I didn't just arbitrarily add them for no reason - every character, and every skill serves a specific purpose in battle, and the game is balanced around you utilizing them to their fullest extent. For example, I don't think you noticed that all of Rose's attacks don't only apply status ailments (which each have a roughly 50% chance of being inflicted), but they also have a 100% chance to inflict a given debuff. So when fighting the final boss, you should be utilizing those debuffs to reduce her magic attack power (since all of her attacks are magic) to prevent her from nuking you with her super move. I also gave Felix his Taunt skill specifically to divert the final boss's confusion and instant death attacks away from the party members who's survival are more important. So... I don't really think the final boss was too hard - I just think you weren't properly utilizing your party member's abilities. :)

Also, I feel like both you and some of the people in your chat felt that the ending was a bit dumb, or even confusing as to why it happened. While I'm not gonna say that you're wrong in your opinion or anything like that... I would like to clarify precisely why I chose that ending. Alathamaskia subjects Felix to a "fate worse than death" - she even says so herself. She does to him what she feels would be the thing he would hate the most. And so... To get back at her, he does the exact same thing to her. He gives her a "fate worse than death", the thing that she would hate the most. So, as someone in your chat had mentioned, it would be morally better for them to just have killed her... but I feel that this was an appropriate end to a character who did some pretty horrific things!

But I definitely do appreciate the feedback! Really!  And I hope to make a better game next time!

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HawkZombie3 years ago (1 edit)

The thing about making a game around a specific strategy, is did you give the player all the information and knowledge to actually USE that strat, or did you just assume they would read it themselves?

Sometimes, even in difficult games, you need to sort of 'spoonfeed' your players certain mechanics or guide them towards the information. Then, the errors lie on them, not your design. But, IMO, I still won...so was it truly 'wrong'? ;P

Just some advice. I also didn't think the ending was 'dumb' per say, but it does raise some interesting moral gray areas. Even some potential dangers. Does it make him evil to strip her of herself? What if she regains her memories? Etc.

It also really does kind of feel like the start to some bigger, interesting story if it dives into those ideas.

I like the concept and would love to see it expanded upon!

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Takuma Gao3 years ago(+1)

Thanks for the extra feedback!

Well, it's not so much that I expected that everyone use a very specific strategy, but the tools to make the fight considerably easier are definitely accessible by the player, is what I'm trying to say.  All of the skills do say precisely which effects they have though, so I would hope that most players would, y'know, give a closer look at what each of their skills do.

Well no, you weren't wrong - maybe that was just a poor choice of words on my part. But I felt like you became frustrated with the final battle, and I just feel that you would have been less frustrated if you used all of the skills available to you. That's part of why I gave the player access to all of the party's skills from the start, after all. 

Actually, the moral grey area was definitely intended. In general, I like telling stories where characters - both heroes and villains - may not be entirely black or white. Sometimes good guys do bad things, and sometimes bad guys have secret noble goals. Of course, Alathamaskia was plainly evil, but while Felix comes off as being a generic spunky heroic protagonist... remember, he's under Alathamaskia's control the entire game, so do we even REALLY know what Felix is capable of, in terms of his morality?  But even that aside, I really just wanted to tell a story where the main characters - and the player, were forced to do things against their will/logic, and for the villain to REALLY get what was coming to them.

And as you say, this story was originally going to be something much bigger! My original plan was to actually begin Felix and Kia's journey in the ruins of their hometown, just after the demon attack. Then the two of them would travel around the world, doing various things - but rather than just making a wish on a magical item to bring about the near-end of the world, it would be about Kia making Felix escort her around the world, doing something (I didn't really figure out the precise details of what exactly) that would restore her to her full power, which the player and Felix are now unaware has been sealed away by Felix himself. Essentially, she forces him to unlock the locks that he put on her true power and form, while making him and the rest of the party believe that what they're really doing is saving the world from further disaster - and of course, they would only be leading it further towards disaster, as Kia becomes more and more powerful.

Buuut then the game jam happened, and I was like "Well, I want to submit something... so what if I repurpose that plot into something I can stuff into an hour?" ...and that'd how Wish Upon The Star Shard came to be :P

As for what I'm working on in the future... Here's a little teaser of my next project that I'm working on! :)


In this game - which would be a fair bit longer than WUTSS, every single map is only as big as the minimum map size for VX Ace. The whole game is meant to feel like a grand RPG... scaled down to it's most simple form. I hope that when I finish it, you'll try it out!

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HawkZombie3 years ago

I would love to try it out! 

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Takuma Gao3 years ago(+1)

Well, you're following me, right? So once it's done... you'll be among the first to know! :)

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