when extracting the zip i got several messages bout images with same name trying to replace eachother... ﾕｽｶｷﾍｷﾏ・.png_ in img/valdungeon (dont know how this will affect the gameplay later on)
and an audio loading error upon starting the game.
the jam version being unplayable is unfortunate. usually i would give that the lowest score.
but since this jam supports a charity i'll give you the chance and rate the fixed version.
have to substract a point for this though.
good things first :
- nice graphics for the monsters.
- the audio is nice (but can get a bit repetitive especially the one in the village if you stay too long).
- the gameplay is quite intuitive and easy to understand.
- the game concept is quite different from what im used to with RPG Maker games so that is quite refreshing.
a few suggestions for improvement:
- when exchanging ore and herbs in the tavern it would be nice if the amount you have would be shown during the confirmation.
- during monster fusion it would be nice if the resulting monster would be shown for example above the ok/cancel buttons because as soon as you click ok to see the result you cant go back. while some fusion results are known beforehand through the tutorial image, if you havent done that fusion yet and dont know the resulting monster it might be a bit disappointing (losing an ice demon aura and a goddess pandora to just receive a dream slime stung quite a bit...) showing off what you would get before confirming the fusion would be a VERY welcome addition. do you know the shin megami tensei game series? there you can see the fusion result before the fusion as well.
- a monster compendium with all the monsters you have owned so far would be nice. with information on how to get them (which dungeon and/or what to fuse to get it) would be absolutely amazing.
- the chests in a dungeon dont show anything when you use a key. is it just to get points or do they give any loot? would be great if the loot you got from a chest would be listed after opening it.
things im a bit split about and bugs encountered:
- you get quite a lot of full potions. i easily reached the max amount in just a few minutes. one COULD argue that it makes the game too easy. BUT: since you cant use potions during the battle and once a monster you own is defeated it is gone for good (which could be seen as quite harsh) so that balances out the challenge factor. that you can easily lose monsters for good made me really worried about the ice demon and yggdrasil that you start with since i didnt know how to get them again through fusion or in dungeon. then i encountered 2 ice demons in quick succession... that calmed down the worries i had.
- the attack "Moon" says it hits all enemies but it only hits the one targeted enemy. needs to be fixed. either the description to not say "all enemies" anymore or the effect to ACTUALLY hit all enemies instead of one.
- the difficulty spike on the final boss was extreme. when he had like 1/3 of his hp left he spammed an AoE instakill attack EVERY. SINGLE. Turn which even my "strongest" monster the valkyrie that is shown as final fusion in the fusion tutorial (still weaker in defense than yggdrasil and weaker in both atk and defense than ice demon aura) couldnt even tank even with defense buff... i thought i was going to lose right before the end when almost all my strong monsters were dying off each round with some not even able to attack before dying due to low speed... barely managed to win with the last like 3 of my medium strong units but only due to atk buffs from the fencer... lost like 80 monsters in that fight. maybe debuff the AoE attack a bit so the strongest monster with def&mdef buff can survive one hit at least... and maybe make it so it doesnt use it EVERY turn so you can actually set up some buffs to actually do some dmg to him even with medium strong monsters...
- the monsters have weapon and armor slots and the inventory has weapon and armor categories but there wasnt a single type of equipment in the game. was a bit weird.
would give it 5 stars but since the jam version is unplayable i gotta do 4.