My thoughts while playing the game.
+ = I liked it
- = I didn't like it
* = Neutral/suggestion
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+ Nice big, readable font
* Sprite style is not default, but not sure I like it.
- The choice of confirm SE is throwing me off. You're using what is normally "cancel."
* Not sure if I should be exploring or heading out of the cave.
+ First impression of the encounter system is that it may be direction-based. Cool little touch if so.
+ On-map encounters are good too. I have some measure of control over the battles I get into.
* No tutorial about what any of my skills do, so it's trial-and-error time!
- I almost died on my first encounter.
+ But it looks like escape rate is 100%
* Enemies disappear if you escape. A good thing in my case, but I can see this being exploitable.
- I could really go for a full heal location
* I did find a spirit essence location. Not quite as good, but it will do.
+ Oh, so there's an item shop outside the cave
- I wish that had been clear from the beginning
+ The water is the full heal location!
- I wish that had been mentioned at the beginning
- Nothing really ties it to the story - you just get a "you are rejuvenated" message
* Enemies respawn upon reentry; maybe even when you go outside a certain range
+ I get to choose what happens to a spirit after I defeat an enemy
- Why am I choosing one or another? What is the benefit/drawback?
+ Stella is cute
* Gonna give you the benefit of the doubt but I'm currently not sure what this is all about
* I just noticed that there are no energy resources like MP or TP; instead, there are cooldowns
+ Oh wow, if one of your minions dies, it's permadead! That makes for some interesting strategy & tense situations
- Again, I had no idea this was a thing until I experienced it
+ Minion nicknames are cute
+ Battle BGM is a bop
+ I like that there are HP bars for the enemies
* Not sure if I like the choice of colors and lack of outline - it makes them a little hard to see against the backgrounds. I still could see them, though.
* I just barely managed to destroy a statue and released a frog. O...K....?
* Apparently the frog is just as confused as I am
+ Frog sprite looks good though
- Minor thing: I can see a little bit of stray pixels when the frog is moving left
- I have 0 Karma. How do I get Karma?
* Took on a statue that I wasn't prepared enough for. At least there doesn't seem to be a penalty for dying!
- It's a small thing, but having the power up animation play on all party members means it can get pretty loud when there are 3 or more party members. Probably would have been better to have it be a single animation that targets the center of the screen.
* Oh, releasing a spirit into the Aether gives Karma.
- I used stealth but an enemy ran into me anyway
+ I must say, I do like the low numbers. Makes it easier to understand what's going on in battle.
+ Took down another statue. Cool house building animation!
- The large doors don't stay open while Gerard walks through them. Looks weird.
+ I may not be terribly into the main character's overworld walk sprite, the battler images are growing on me.
- There seems to be oddly large impassible spaces on some tiles
- Not sure what the point of having a shop with the exact same items on the other side of the river is.
* Oh, I see, it's so you don't have to go to the other side of the map. It's OK I guess?
- The lack of sound when opening a door is kinda disappointing. It's minor, but I keep running into it.
- The bird got in my way when crossing the bridge. Consider using region restrictions to prevent players from getting stuck.
+ The introduction of Frost Moss is the way every concept of the game should have been introduced: An in-universe explanation of what it does along with the mechanics of how to obtain it ("come see me if you use the one you have").
+ I like how you used a carpet tile to indicate a door along a wall.
- I'm starting to get a bit fatigued by all the statue destroying. I think this is too long.
+ Hey, it's the Looker! Looks good.
- The overlapping HP bars looks a little sloppy and hard to read.
- Selecting the eyes goes in the opposite order of what I would expect
* And it's over
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Summary
It seems that in your efforts to avoid the info dumps that so many RM games fall prey to you instead went too far in the opposite direction. I may not need to know the full history of the gods and their politics and yada yada yada, but I need to know the rules of the game and why my character is doing what he is doing.
It's otherwise an OK game, if a bit repetitive. There are a good variety of enemy types, skills, and even some cool mechanical ideas like the devour/recruit/release system.
I'm glad you made this entry and hope you keep improving.