I finished the entire demo after about 2 hours of playing. I think this game is the most fun one I've played and one of my favorites. It's clear there's still a lot of work to do, but I have enjoyed what I've seen so far. I've also encountered a few bugs, some minor and some major. I'll leave the feedback in a somewhat chronological order - I haven't read any other comment so I will most likely reiterate a lot.
>New game gives an Are You Sure prompt, when this is my first time playing. Probably dont need that until there is at least 1 saved game
>Clicking the Dino makes a sound. Kino.
>The face portraits are EXCELLENT. Don't like the dino one as much but the other two characters rule. Finnegan looks like he has malformed legs in the battle screen, though.
>Clicked the how-to and encyclopedia to learn a bit. How-to is fine, no issues there. Encyclopedia needs to turn down the shine effect when mousing over a card, it's way too fast. It also need to register clicks instead of only mouse overs. I'd like to click a card, then move the mouse away somewhere else while I read.
>2 minor bugs with Encyclopedia. Can scroll all the way to the bottom to se one of the final 3 enemies (the jaguar) with details, but his name is "???". Second bug is on goon jellyfish, saying "Skill A: Skill A: -skill details-"
>Fire crackling/snapping sound much louder than other sounds
>First foray into fighting could be less confusing. Main issue stem from UI + communication. Unclear how much damage things do and how much they cost. More details could be great. Also perhaps an enemy health bar display when selecting a spell, instead of having to mouse over enemies one by one
>So far, the story is interesting and more importantly it's ENGAGING. You have a good hook, likable characters and an interesting premise. I *want* to know what will happen next. Can't say that about many other games, mine included. Well done.
>More UI confusion with Stats/Perks. How do perks work? Can I get a perk now? I attempted to figure things out myself without consulting any help, and I managed it on the next levelup. Some 'error' tooltips, such as "cant get a perk now, wait til level 2" would be helpful here.
Maybe this is on me since I don't play this genre often and I don't know what the inspiration-game is like.
>Hard to tell which perks I can select (and when). Figured it out later, but it shouldn't be so confusing at the start. As before, a tooltip or error pop up should fix this all right up.
>Stats are clear, but the HP/Mana benefits should show on the portrait (in the stats page) as soon as I add a point. As it is, upgraded values only show up on refresh.
>Incorrect tooltip when trying to proceed without leveling - "Dino has unspent skill points". Who's Dino? Of course I know, but they never refer to him that way otherwise.
>The story still is a lot of fun. The conversations feel good and varied. I like the tidbits of information I learn from the world and the character dynamic. The little soundeffect grunts are cute too.
Now onto the Big Arena level. This one was tough due to difficulty spikes and a nasty bug. The first thing I'll mention is that I'm able to clear the road leading up to the boss with minimum effort and barely any damage received. But that boss fight is HARD. While I don't think my build is optimal, I've defeated everything else super easily. The bosses absolutely destroy me in 3 turns without any trouble. So I died, and got kicked back to the menu. Continue doesn't work - no big deal, I restart the game and it works now; I'm back to the textbox cutscene before the boss battle. Attempt #2, same thing. They absolutely destroy me. Well shit. Restart and back to the resting zone to check on my stats. Clicking continue there sends you back to the arena! Oops, but whatever. Except the cutscene never triggers, and the area where the boss is (which should be in color to indicate I can move there) is now greyed out. Well shit. I resign and do the gauntlet over again, then.
Doing it all again means I now have 2 extra levels and one extra perk. Even so, the boss battle is still HARD. I ended up winning, but it felt like I won because the enemy waited often, while in the previous attempts they would try and focus fire my weakest guys and get them dead in 2-3 turns.
This time I manage to kill the Angel on the other team, and she immediately respawns? What? I kill the jaguar next, and get a prompt the angel used a ceasefire ability. I figure this is intentional but very, very confusing. The cutscene triggers and the demo ends. At this point I feel like I either won by luck (AI didn't do well), cheated somehow, or the game bugged out. Since I was able to reach the ending I assume it was sheer luck, but I'd handle this whole end fight into a cutscene thing differently if possible.
Very cool cutscene. I'm HOOKED. Wish there was more content afterwards.
Despite the bugs, everything else is great. Cool story and characters, interesting combat, fun gameplay. Only needs more UI work and ideally more abilities. It feels a bit lame that our abilities are always 1 Offensive and 1 Defensive. I think it would be better if we had 3-4. if that's too many, perhaps a loadout feature of some sorts?
Either way, well done. I had a blast playing and I'll be on the lookout for more.
