Hey, Grove Devs! I'm a long-time fan and (albeit stumped, very content) completionist who just played through the recent public release build for the first time since 2021 (I'm pretty sure it's been that long, lol) and I just wanted to give a little bit of end-of-game feedback.
First of all, you guys never fail to disappoint!! Not once!! Even for as unfinished as the current release is, story-wise and feature-wise rn, Grove is definitely one of my top 3 NSFW games of all time and you guys, your storytelling, and game design will always hold a spot in my heart until the end of time.
Besides me being a kiss-ass, I did want to let you guys know about some stuff that other people probably already told you about or suggested, though I'll run through it real quick just to be sure.
I think I did find a few bugs, none of which game-breaking: I noticed that in the combat scenes with the moth dude there's a somewhat-noticeable sprite issue with Grove's bondage mitts, that being Grove's left hand phasing through the mitt sprite while he's still wearing them. I'm sure a ton of people already said something about it though due to how visible it was lol and another thing that I noticed (that was probably user-error) was that after one of the auxiliary missions, a few text boxes say something to the tune of 'since you did more than the bare minimum, make sure to talk to the desert dragon (whose name escapes me as I write all this) to get a bonus'. As a bit of a dimwit, I probably misinterpreted what they meant or collected the bonus and didn't notice but I had interacted with the aforementioned dragon every possible interval after I got those notices and as far as I'm aware I didn't get whatever bonus it was talking about. Could definitely be user-error or miscommunication but better I make a note of it and potentially have it cleared up than let it get forgotten and have it be a problem that nobody saw, y'know? Just in case. Lastly, I had a consistent issue with the gallery that I'll expound more on when I leave some smooth-brain suggestions later. The meat of the issue, though, was that I went through the game on a grand total of 17 different saves, saving every few minutes (probably not the best idea for stability, though I had NO idea there'd be a gallery at all waiting for me at the end so I used the saves to bookmark oame overs that were unique lol and also I'm a total save-scummer) and upon reaching the end and entering the gallery, I was locked out of a lot of content I was SURE I had seen before. Unluckily for myself, I didn't save before a few of the encounters I had been mistakenly locked out of too so I suppose the only way to see 'em would be to play through again lol (not that I'm complaining, just wish I could use the whole gallery at once since I finished, y'know? Kinda nitpicky but could also be bug-related so I figured I should touch on it even if I could see what I missed by going thru again). More on that with suggestions.
Now I'm no game developer and I'm certainly not anybody important but I've been through Grove twice over the span of 3 years and I figure if I don't toss some suggestions at you guys then I wouldn't forgive myself. Take these at face value and know I'm just tryna give some insight, not demand anything like a douche; whether you guys even think about them is up to you and considering you guys are actual game devs you definitely know if these are plausible, worth considering/adding at all, or if they defeat the point of other mechanics. Anyway:
- A quit button on the title screen. Pretty self-explanatory but I always feel like I'm gonna brick a save if I alt+f4 out of the game whether I'm in combat or somewhere completely normal to exit lol. Just quality of life/paranoia stuff. Also I, as someone who gets game overs a lot, really appreciate the f5 functionality. That knocks time out of skipping through accidental game overs with esc way more bearable.
- More oddities? I only found I think 2 as far as I remember: the obvious latex underwear and the slave garb (and I know I missed something slime-related one thanks to the gallery but I don't know where it was! Grrr...). I think it'd make for a lot of cool scenes with the wizard and Grove himself and could give a bit of life to some one-time-visit areas or backtrack factor for areas you've already been to. Not to mention it wouldn't take a ton of asset work considering it would never need to be any more than a sprite or two, some dialogue, and maybe some cutscenes? Just padding, I guess but considering I MISSED one I'm definitely not one to say anything about padding a game with missable content lmao.
- I saw someone a few days ago say something about a chapter select, and while that idea isn't the worst in the world (just pretty hard to integrate as an immersive-friendly option), I think a good addition would be a cheat menu that the player could access through the gallery after the story has been completed or with a code, in the options menu on the title screen, etc. Obviously this would function better as a dev tool but the player could select the start of a "chapter", give Grove any gear be it wearable, key items, consumables, weapons, etc. (even when/where they aren't supposed to have them) and enter encounters as if it were the first time again. This could also be used to unlock any parts of the gallery that bugs potentially lock the player out of (or, alternatively, could be used to go back to the parts of the game that the player missed to complete an unfinished gallery thanks to save issues or just having missed them by user error to view that scene and unlock it in the gallery). Obviously this would make a TON of bugs, errors, etc. so it should only be used as a last resort for completionism regarding stuff the player had missed due to game issues, for game-breaking/testing purposes, or just for fun with great care taken to not save a broken state. Just standard "use at your own risk" stuff lol, not for standard playthroughs. A trimmed-down version of such a cheat menu is already sort-of integrated in the form of the little stone dragon head delivered to Grove by the mailman that's stored in the pocket space, though it's obviously just to restore any exp gain lost by upgrading to a newer version. Just a thought that might make seeing everything easier, and since the gallery doesn't disclose when locked events take place, making it impossible to pinpoint when to go back to in your *vast library of saves* (and there's no wiki), we could at least either cheat our way back in time or just unlock the scenes if we're impatient, horny, or curious.
- As opposed to the cheat menu, and perhaps this already exists and mine was just bugged, but a gallery that sources unlocked events from all saves like a checklist that once an event is marked as completed, you can view it even if the save is overwrote, bugged, or otherwise deleted. Like a file separate from your saves that just keeps track if stuff was unlocked for the purpose of the gallery that can't be deleted with the saves. Idk, as someone who doesn't understand game design and game engines (this is clearly rpgmaker but I'm also not very knowledgeable on all that at all rip), this just seems like something easy that would make repeat playthroughs and even potentially switches to newer builds easier. Maybe a file you can drag to newer versions of the game that brings your data over? Now i'm just rambling abt stuff that might not even be possible lol. Either way I personally like the cheat menu idea better tbh cus then the player could put themselves exactly where they were with exactly what gear they had, money, etc. by opening both verisons side by side and just matching their data up.
- Last one I can think of, sort of related to the oddities one, anti-gear. Stuff that you could potentially equip that makes it really easy to lose encounters but could show unique scenes and game overs, give the player extra xp and gold, and maybe even spark some special scenes with non-combative npcs that don't get a lot of screen-time (like the baker, blacksmith's apprentice [my dumbass missed the other blacksmith scene too btw and now im locked out cus idk where it was lmao], guy you save when going looking for oranges, the wizard, etc.). This could be anything from consumables that give you a unique status effect, weapons that have averse effects on Grove, tomes that do similar, and wearables that "modify" Grove in different ways lol. Definitely stuff for future builds and maybe even potential for new game+
I'm sure I could dream up another bunch of garbage to spitball at you guys but I've definitely dropped a big enough wall of text already. However you guys feel about any of the jargon I've said is perfectly fine and I'm happy enough that you read it! I'm just glad I got to play your AMAZING game and hope I've contributed something back, lol! I'm excited as hell for whatever comes next and wish everyone involved with this game's development the absolute best!!!
tl;dr I LOVE THIS GAME GRAAAH he is literally me