Hey PVGames! Thanks for the very detailed review. It certainly helps me to polish the game further.
I probably should add more options to the introduction slogfest (proving your worth) as it is really railroaded right now. Your point on the ridiculous quest stands, but I have to note that the dungeons are planned to be displayed in first person 3D view, so finding that scroll might not be that straightforward in the future. The fact that the cellars are safe is intentional, novices (starting class) aren't supposed to be able to fight.
Speaking of fighting... I admit that the battle balance is a mess. Sorry about that. That's probably one of the first things I'm going to fix after the contest. And those combat choice windows. I'm eventually going to scrap the tiny text and replace them with icons, but my first few attempts resulted in errors (I may have to take another course in JavaScript) but rest assured, they won't stay for long. As for what comes to the loot dropping, I admit I went overboard with the drop rates. Eventually monsters will stop dropping money and drop materials for unlockable items in the shop instead. (That is, you trade your drops to the blacksmith, a new item unlocks in the shop and you get a freebie). But that's something for the future.
Also concerning encounter rate... I might lessen the rate somewhat, but during my own tests they weren't that much of an issue. I think it was about on par with the default RPG Maker MV's encounter rate, but considering it was evented completely, it isn't hard to fix. I will also implement items to increase or to decrease encounter rates for a number of steps, but I didn't have the time to fit it in this version.
The mines are somewhat difficult to navigate in, but that too will (hopefully) be fixed when I implement a minimap function in the future. The game draws much inspiration from the Etrian Odyssey series on the Nintendo DS and 3DS, but unlike those games I won't be implementing a map drawing function. Instead the game will map the visited spots in the dungeons automatically.
I'm happy to hear that there were no real grammatical errors. Much of the dialogue was written in the latter half of the month, and although revised several times, errors can happen.
Finally, concerning the custom art... Well I'm planning to bugger Punamaagi for custom pictures for building interiors in the future.
I'm planning to build far more onto this game, but it takes time. Maybe I can ask you for another review at a later date when these issues are sorted out? I'd really like it.
Once again, thank you very much for your review. Best of luck to you in the contest as well.
Zelgadis85