Song of the Bereaved
by Dragon Emperors (@dragonemperorss)
and Black Mage (@black_mage_jbwk)
Hey there Dragon Emperors and Black Mage, thanks for submitting a project to the 2022 IGMC. I'm Drifty and I was asked to judge your game in round two of the IGMC 2022 game jam. Here's some feedback about your project.
I like the title screen it seems like a FF style with the gradient/embossed logo image with text on it. It works well.
The first scene of the game I have some nitpicks. The name chat box gets cut off by the top of the screen. It's not a big deal just something I noticed and would polish if you plan to keep working on this title.
After the black screen and text we're greeted with an interesting scene that's got some custom art in a sci-fi setting that immediately gets ruined by a mismatching default Lucius sprite. It sticks out like a soar thumb and really break the immersion. For future versions swap these as soon as you can.
The main menu looks really cool, good job with the layout but it feels unpolished. This is mostly because you're missing sound effects all over the place. Take advantage of audio to captivate your players. The other issue I have with it is that the thing that is selected is grey and everything else is highlighted. Personally I would reverse this.
The ATB charge gauge is so slow that the combat feels boring. The default sound effects here only compounds the fact that sound design is severely lacking in this project.
The player gets an attack command but it's unable and you're forced to use a skill. Maybe remove the command if it's not going to be selectable.
The enemies hit way too hard and the combat doesn't feel very balanced. Guarding is supposed to recover HP, but it recovers hardly anything. In fact you'll end up taking more damage than recovering when guarding. It's a complete waste of your turn.
Consider providing people with a starting amount of healing potions just to make that initial experience a little less oppressive. Also, in fights that you're supposed to lose in, make the fight end quicker. Don't lead a player on when you know they're supposed to lose.
For people using a controller it would be a good idea to bind the 'Q' and 'E' buttons to the bumper buttons on the controller. This way you're not forcing your players who are trying to kick back and enjoy your game with a controller to have to sit up and press buttons on their keyboard.
You should let the player save anywhere, especially in your tech demo/game jam version. Also consider adding a sound effect when a game is saved.
The AI on the enemies is really bad. They aim at rows that have nothing on them.
Upon the force lose situations you're subjected to backtracking over the same maps, but I appreciate the attempted fast travel at the stone.
I think that you have some interesting ideas here, but they need more work put in for a showcase or tech demo. It's too early for this project to show it off yet.
Thank you for submitting your project, I hope that you've had fun and learned some new things with this process. Keep making games and we'll see you in the next one.
-Drifty