I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy the game as I hoped others would, but like they say - to each their own.
I do have some friendly advice for you to keep in mind when providing feedback to others. Try not to use words like "hated." Game jams are supposed to fun and a way to improve your own skills. You may discourage others who put in a lot of effort into their game by using negative terms. Personally, I try to structure my feedback into two parts: 1) What I liked and 2) Suggestions/Improvements/Questions. I'll translate your feedback into how I usually provide feedback:
What I Liked
- I had fun with the combat system
- I enjoyed the short story.
Suggestions/Improvements/Questions
- Interacting with objects wasn't very intuitive. I think you should make it clearer that you need to be holding the direction towards the object that you want to interact with or make it so that you don't have to do that at all.
- Movement seems a bit slower than I think it should be. If you continue working on this project, I would look into increasing the speed between tile movement and possibly make the changes I mentioned in my previous point.
- I'm having trouble seeing where the theme fits into this game. Would you mind clarifying how the theme fits?
You don't have to follow this format, but I personally find it helpful in providing feedback as a player in a constructive way that doesn't come off as demeaning. We're all here to have fun, challenge ourselves, and help each other think about their player's experience as developers.
After translating your feedback, here's my response:
- Character Movement - The general consensus is that, yeah, the player movement is a bit slow. Personally, I think if it was an animated sprite (2 to 4 frames) instead of a single sprite, the movement wouldn't feel as slow as does, but in it's current state, it does feel a big slow and sluggish.
- Interaction with objects - I agree that it's not very clear and others have made the comment that it took them a moment to figure it out. As a developer I made the assumption that it wouldn't be a huge issue and that it would only take mere seconds to realize that they needed to hold the direction while pressing the interact button. I was wrong in that respect and its something I need to keep in mind in the future.
- Theme integration - The theme threw me for a loop and I had trouble thinking of something that I would enjoy working on. So interpreted "loop" as repetitive. RPG's are repetitive in the sense that you continuously fight battles to level up to be able to progress as the difficulty scales. Also, the story ends with the King's heirloom being stolen the very next day.
I'm a huge fan of RPG's ever since I played Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior on the NES. One of my goals has been to create the bare minimum to see if I could replicate that. It's very limited and there are plenty of systems that were left out like selling items and including a system to buy equipment like weapons and armor, but I did accomplish much of what I set out to do. I will definitely use this experience in the future and keep everyone's feedback in mind.