I registered to comment on this game, I really enjoyed it. Despite (or strangely, because?) combat damage was a bit swingy at times, I found the combat engine to be pretty solid and elaborate at the same time. Unlike the majority of rpgmaker games, the number techniques and the difficulty of the enemies motivated me to think about battle strategies ahead and also pay a lot of attention moment by moment in order to make it through. I don’t recall seeing as many by the skin of my teeth victory moments before, which I liked (this was from playing Normal mode). The enemy battles tended to take a little bit longer than I’m accustomed to, but because of the tactical decisions the combat forced me to make- it rarely seemed like a slog. I tended to hoard alchemical ingredients towards the end to make sure I could get all I wanted, but I appreciated having the full list of what you could make from the get-go in order to plan what to make.
Character wise, I felt like all the playable characters contributed at times, both mechanically and story wise. There was a little overlap between Aurelie and Chisa b/c of their lack of confidence, but their reasons for feeling self-doubt were very different (the former a lack of confidence in her moral goodness whereas the latter questioning her ability). Otherwise, the characters were very distinct from each other. Mechanically- the characters were all distinct too- Karuna was the best team buffer; Chisa was the healer and physical damage tank with her Heroic Drive and drain Impulse moves; Merel was the best elemental and mass damage dealer and refiller of the group’s MP, Lynette was a good combo mage/warrior debuffer, and Aurelie had an interesting self damage/massive darkness damage dealing mechanical going on.
Flavor wise, the game seemed to have a bit of dark tone but not really grim or gritty- the characters are always heroes and there’s not a massive body count of innocent bystanders- you get the feeling the heroes are always struggling against the darkness mostly on their own. I appreciated the moments of whimsy- the third king and his good-natured rambling tangents was a favorite. The fairy sidequest was also a nice change of pace- the options of freeing the trapped fairies vs. avoiding enemies felt like a meaningful one. After going through the long final dungeon, the detailed ending felt like the perfect way to top off the game.
Anyway, thanks for making this game. I got the impression there a lot of effort put into designing and play-testing it.