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Hi!

I thoroughly enjoyed this entry. It's well executed, has some deep systems at play here and although I generally dislike first person view battles, this one is handled nicely and I had no qualms with it.

The graphics are nice, mapping is nice although I do think the dungeons could use a little more personality. I'm not too sure if they are being randomly generated or not and whether it's even possible or not but a little more decoration/things to see would be nice :)

The menu and overall UI looks good and is intuitive, the icons are clean and easy to get information from. Overall the aesthetic is pleasing :D

In terms of mechanics there are lots of systems at play here, very much a deep game and I can really appreciate that. I did find that the introduction of many of them so fast was a little hard to digest for me personally BUT I understand you want this information out there so the player can get on a see the potential of the game. Highlights of the mechanics for me were:-

1) the Weakness system, easy to remember and stops you from spamming the same moves making combat much more tactical. 

2) The blind state-  very cool (don't want to elaborate in case of spoilers)

3) Speed tier list - again, very nice addition that adds much more tactical combat

The other systems, like XP and skill collection are handled well and all come together to make it fun to play and quite addictive.

From what I played I didn't see too much of the story but it seemed intriguing. Writing was fine and delivered what it needed to.

There is only one thing I didn't really like in their current state and they were the traps. I felt these were quite overpowering, especially the HP/MP ones. Quite often these would knock me down to very little HP and MP and I would end up dying in the next battle. Think these could be tweaked or at least, a different system put in place to either make traps more avoidable ala perhaps a quick time event or dice roll to either avoid the trap or mitigate some of the effect.

Also, would have been nice to have some battle music for the mob encounters, I know it's not much but I missed it :'(

Overall though, a solid prototype that I can see much potential in. Executed well and I had a lot of fun playing it, great job :D

PS: Obviously the battle animations are top notch, but that goes without saying ;)

Hi beenbaba,

Thank you for the praise and I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the experience and even found it addicting! xD

To comment on a few points you raised:

1. The floors in the Abyss are in fact procedurally generated. Having said that, I definitely agree that they could use more decorations. In fact, it was in the original spec, but because it was lower on the priority list, it got cut as the deadline drew near.

2. You are absolutely correct in assessing that there's way too much information way too fast, as well as the fact that this was a deliberate choice because I wanted to demonstrate the game's potential. In a full/normal release the introduction of mechanics and their tutorials would be spaced out MUCH farther apart so players will have time to learn and familiarize the previous thing before I throw the next one at them.

3. In regards to traps, I agree that there needs to be some rebalancing, but the idea that traps + encounters can KO you if you aren't carefully managing Level Ups, Blessings, HP/MP, and Chain Bonuses is intentional. To explain the reasoning, a key distinguishing feature of this game is that there is no real "game over" state. Being KOed in battle only creates some light penalties, and unlike roguelikes, players keep most of their progress. So I wanted to have KOs to actually be a part of the experience as players travel in the Abyss (if they're not being hyper vigilant). It's there to create a certain level of tension ("I don't want to lose EXP", "I don't want to lose that Tier 3 Ability I just got", "Let me just make it to the next Light of Reprieve so I can cash in on my EXP and permanently keep Ability X"), while not being unforgivingly punishing by sending you back to the title screen and erasing your progress for the last 30 minutes.

4. As far as battle BGM goes, the choice to have only Remnant and Boss battles have real battle BGMs was to emphasize them when players do hear them. I feel like normal encounters are so short (and designed to be short, especially if you activate High-Speed Mode) that the constant transitioning between map and battle music would be jarring, but I will take a look into it to see if there are any alternatives. I did actually try a system where the battle music "remembers" where it stopped between battles, but even then the changes were too abrupt and frequent.

Thanks again for playing and providing such valuable feedback!
Andy

Ah so they are procedurally generated and I agree that it does make sense to cut the 'fluff' so to speak like decorations to get a working prototype up and running.

I very much understand the tension aspect you are describing, as I felt it quite a few times. I got a Siphon Edge which I LOVED using but I lost it :'( and the battles leading up to my demise were tense!

That's a fair point on the traps too and as noted above my tension level did rise! It was maybe the combination of them being invisible (unless you have focus on) + possibly a bit too much damage seeming a little bit on the harsh side but these things, especially difficulty and challenge, are hard to balance as you can never please everyone (maybe I'm too soft XD)

What you've noted about the battle bgm I can definitely understand and in actual fact, I did take notice of the music change much more with Remnant and Boss Encounters than I would have usually if it wasn't for the absence of music in mob battles. Just, you know, I like battle music XD

Again, though, great prototype and really had a good time playing it. I may revisit it once I get through some more entries/get some more time/finish fixing bugs with our game as it was a nice polished experience :D