I was very impressed with this one. I really liked the tactical battle system and for the most part the game was enjoyable. But there were a few negatives I found off-putting. I want to get those out of the way first, then I'll move on to the positives.
- I will say that I spent a few times resetting my save file because the monsters were randomly given to you and I kept getting trash. I got that rock thing given to you at the beginning not once but twice. Spent 150G to get 3 rocks. After resetting, I realized that I couldn't save right before I accessed the machine. Ouch. I really wish I was able to do this. This is a game I would prefer to have autosave turned off.
- At first I used the 3 rocks in the tournament and did fine. I won the first battle and finally got a new mon. I won the second battle. Then I faced Hunter and boy did I want to OWN him! Sadly, Hunter's ONE creature completely demolished my team. I did like 2 damage and then got dealt back 10 damage. At this point I reset the save file and started over.
- This next playthrough I realized that I could trade and battle the other characters. Why was this not brought up at the beginning? I saw that if you talk to the other characters in that first map before ending the day that they mention it but I was following robot guy's instructions and I didn't dilly dally too much. I spent about another 30-45 minutes grinding to get a creature I could use to KICK HUNTER'S BUTT! Alas, I had trouble accomplishing this task.
- I finally gave up and sadly couldn't get past Hunter.
Now I know this sounds discouraging but there are a lot of positives about this one too.
+ Good use of assets. The tiles, characters, and music flow really well.
+ The battle system was fun and easy to understand.
+ The characters and dialogue are well written and each character had different personalities. I especially liked you made a character like Hunter. I don't think I've ever wanted to punch a fictional videogame character more in my life.
+ The designs of the monsters were cute and funny.
+ I think you incorporated the theme really well.
Overall, I did enjoy this game but do think it needs more balancing and I think given the randomness of the machine, I think it needs a way to turn off autosave. (There actually might be a way in options but I didn't think to look...) Lastly I think it needs more direction. Like I mentioned, I didn't know you could trade and battle to get gold so at first I thought I was just stuck with what I got and had to use those in the tournament.
I think you did a great job on this. You worked hard to make something unique and it shows. Thank you for making this. :D