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(1 edit)

I don't have much to say on some of the topics, so I'll just talk about things I noticed specifically:

Gameplay - It's a bit frustrating navigating around the map, I couldn't tell which tiles were and were not walkable, and often NPCs walking along the path would block me entirely. I think that could have been part of the point, from what I could understand from the dialogue? That these characters were plunged into a strange new... reality? Where physics and the like didn't apply in the normal way it's supposed to. There may have been more to explore in the house, but with how vague some of the dialogue was (even arguing whether or not the building, or even the ground was even real) I'm not even sure if there was or not? I was convinced that there might have been a key in one of the chests, but due to the difficulty navigating the map I don't think I was able to reach them all, so I gave up.

Story - The story was fine, I think it was trying to display a horror that was difficult to capture though, and I'm not sure the game conveyed it well. Most of the NPCs are dazed at being transported to this place, and I think possibly put into new forms as well. Some mention that they maybe were doctors or psychologists once, others possibly astronauts, or even aliens? A lot of them express a kind of vague horror at being unable to comprehend their situation, but their motivations and the way they speak is so similar that I didn't realize they were meant to represent different people until I went back and talked to them after fighting this tall guy, and they had different dialogue. It's not a bad premise but everything felt very confusing... I thought it was meant to be at first, until I talked to one pig looking guy way up top and the player characters started giving their own, vaguely philosophical opinions on the house and I realized that even they had a better idea of what was going on than I was. So I don't know.

Horror - The game talks about other people's horror a lot, so there's that. I think it's also trying to capture a horror that may be difficult to convey... The mechanics themselves played more like an adventure game than a horror one? I noticed that a lot of the menus and even the items you can get, and that one "boss battle" you can fight contributed to this. I know the menus probably took some time to set up, so I'm wondering if this was meant to have more of those aspects?

Theme - I think at one point some dialogue mentions something beneath the earth, but then contradicts itself but arguing whether or not it even exists... It's not bad in terms of the horror the game is trying to convey, but I'm not sure how well it fits with the theme of this jam.


Good work, it would be interesting to see how the game would be with a bit more polish. I do think there is some great horror potential here, even in subverting the typical rpg adventure format in order to reveal a greater cosmic or existential horror, if indeed that is what you were going for.

I'll also say that this is based on as much as I could find to play, so for sure there could be more things that I am missing!

The labyrinth comes after the gloomy house... door is opened by finding two items in the void (stick to the corners)… what aspects do you mean, and why do you reckon they all sounded the same? I mean, obviously, the difficulty is that one person is writing all characters, but they were all in a sort of similar situation, which is how presumably they end up similarly... were you not interested in the writing? I tried to convey a sense of the ethereal, which is why it all sounded vague... it's what I imagined a limbo would feel like.

Hmm... in terms of the dialogue, it's not always necessary for the NPCs to have distinct voices in RPGs, just there at least two or three of them all seemed preoccupied with identity (who is me and am I you or myself sort of thing) and a lot of them were interested in the environment but specifically how, nonsensical it was? I think that for me was what felt a little same-y, or, not that they are preoccupied by the same thing but that they do it in the same way. Nobody is like, "oh this HAS to be a dream", or someone else thinking it's like, a trick or a punishment. I mean again, it's not strictly necessary, but besides the guy who tries to fight you it feels like everyone is more thinking about what's going on than anything else, and in general people will have pretty different reactions to things, even similar things. Even things like crying, or going silent, or asking for help. Just my opinion though.

Well, mostly I think the feeling of same-iness could be more the way the dialogue is conveyed rather than the language itself. I think because it's all typed in with minimal pauses, it feels clunky even when it doesn't need to be. And often it makes their dialogue feel more similar than it is, even when some people use longer sentences and some more fragments. I think some use of a message plugin which pauses during a passage, or even just spacing out some of the lines would help with the impact if that makes sense. The dialogue does have a good rhythm, but it's paragraph-like format kind of hides this. For example:

"It is... by no means... a physical house, but... are we? Are you? What is physical? Is it thought? Is it the void? Is it the soulful tune of despair? I do not even know who I happen to be, and yet I feel, emanating, pulsating, this... this..."

This passage includes a lot of sentence fragments, which actually is a very fitting style for this game! However, I think it works better when spaced out more like poetry, but it doesn't even need to be that much. For example:

"Is it... by no means... a physical house."

"But... are we? Are you?"

"What is physical? Is it thought? Is it the void? Is it the soulful tune of despair?"

"I do not even know who I happen to be, and yet I feel, emanating, pulsating, this... this..."

Not that exactly, but I feel like it reads a little better? Especially in an RPG format where the text boxes tend to be smaller anyways.

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anyways, sorry for the long comments! I hope they're able to be helpful at least. Thank you for letting me know about sticking to the edges, I'll try to make my way into the house and possibly comment about it if I'm able to get in and see anything new.

Do you think, then, each text window should have two lines, or so? As, funnily enough, I'm trying out bitsy and I have the opposite problem there... default window is already very small, so two lines is the maximum (at least until I figure out which plugin extends it), and some people actually were annoyed that they had to keep pressing a button after a few words...

Did you find the items? I probably shouldn't have made such a vague kind of quest, but I thought it would sort of impart more of the void's atmosphere... if that's possible in such a 2D game...

Yeah I mean you don't have to take my suggestion too seriously, I wasn't sure it would work well or not myself. I think it's a tricky thing to balance unfortunately, having too much or too little dialogue and putting it in a format that is fitting but not frustrating. I'm also surprised to hear you got complaints like that on your bitsy game! From the ones I've played, they tend to be more narrative-focused due to their limited features, so constant dialogue was more the expectation. I guess every game is different depending on what you're trying to convey, or even the person playing it!

Unfortunately I'm still having trouble trying to reach the chest next to the building? I'm wondering if the NPC in the very upper left corner is blocking the path for me, or if I'm just missing another path I could be taking. I managed to get the potion and the armor, but I have no idea how to use them haha.