My thoughts while playing the game.
+ = I liked it
- = I didn't like it
* = Neutral/suggestion
---
+ Custom cursor looks slick.
+ I've seen some of the art on Discord already, but it's just as lovely to look at again.
+ I like how you made the pictures move around on the intro to the title screen.
- Auto-advancing text makes it hard to read the story
* To be fair, I did set the text speed to maximum, but it's still generally an unwise practice to feature auto-advancing text because you don't know how fast your audience will read.
- Showing your player "when you see this icon it means click to advance the text" then auto-advancing the text confuses the message
+ I'm liking the tutorial so far. You're describing all the tools slowly in detail and the first puzzle is not timed.
- I wish there was a sound when I clicked an object. Those little bits of feedback are helpful.
* Animations and changing the color of found objects would also help
* Not sure why I would want to hide the object tray at this point.
- I restarted and slowed down the text speed because I couldn't read the text. Too much auto-advance!
+ I want to point out how lovely the font is. It's fancy but readable.
+ Even the window skin looks beautiful. I rarely see this level of visual quality in a RM game.
* There's an awful lot of empty space in the middle of the text boxes. Is that intentional? It seems like some text goes to a new line needlessly.
* I can see why I would want to hide the tool tray now. Some objects can be covered by it. That said, perhaps in the future you could design around the tool tray always being visible?
- You were doing great introducing each new element as it appeared but then suddenly there's a QTE with no warning? To be fair, it's not hard and I remember you talking about it on Discord, but you should have said something in the game since it pretty dramatically departs from the game loop that has been established thus far.
+ Oh cool, there's a bonus ending!
* This one is challenging.
- Why a save prompt just before "the end?"
---
Summary
While it's not flawlessly executed, there is much to appreciate about this game. The visuals are so customized and the game loop is so vastly different from a top-down turn-based RPG that I occasionally forgot that this was made in RPG Maker. The puzzles are challenging to complete and the story is portrayed well. No on-map player movement keeps the game on track and focused, while having the cutscenes acted out gives the story substance and impact. There are some rough edges on the user experience front, particularly with information presentation and feedback - I really did not like the auto-advancing text, and the lack of feedback when clicking items made the experience feel a little hollow.
I like that you took a risk and stepped outside of the traditional RM game types, and I think overall you succeeded. With a little more polish, I could see this being a whole series of games. Well done!