Hello from tonight's stream!
When I started this up and realized it was a Oracles-inspired game, I was excited! I'm a massive Zelda fan and this got me revved up! The way things controlled was so great. It really did feel like playing a GBC Zelda.
However, I also found it ran into many issues: points where it misses the mark for Zelda inspired, let alone Oracles inspired. To quote someone from the stream "It definitely feels like this captured the GBC-era Zelda aesthetic and mimicked some gameplay concepts but didn't really understand a big part of the formula."
As such, I wish to cover all of this with you to try and solve as many as possible. Now before it's said that this is a demo, I believe this demo is meant to be a current live build. In other words, this demo as it is is intended to be the full game, just with features missing. My basis is how blacksmiths and another shop make note of only being available in the full version despite existing there. If this was a demo but wasn't connected to the final build, it wouldn't include those yet.
First, the map layout. Every area is a 4x4 grid. Every screen within that 4x4 grid can connect to any squares directly beside them. but only have one way out to the next area. This design gets very repetitive and dull. It offers no variety or even world building at the basic level. I would highly recommend making the areas not work like this. Make some areas big and some small. Make there be specific paths to take within a single area. There's such a thing as too open.
Second, houses and identical dialogue. Every area has multiple houses. One is always a shop of some kind, sometimes two, and the rest are residences. Most of the dialogue used in the game is just copied over and over. If something names a location or item, that's the only change between other versions. This is just not a good idea. Instead, you would be better off consolidating most of the houses AND shops to a single area as a town. You can then put occasional shops around as well as occasional residences. This way, you don't need multiple people saying the same thing; it can now be just one in the town.
Third, enemies. In the field and in caves, it's either tons of enemies or no enemies. This becomes very repetitive and time consuming. While on my search for the first dungeon, I went across so much of the field and into so many caves that I had seen more than enough action for the entire length of a game like this yet I had made NO progress. The way dungeons are done is far more accurate, and I would recommend doing that more often in caves and on the field. It's okay to sometimes do lots of enemies, but it shouldn't be all the time. Also, enemies should sometimes be on screens where houses exist! It's all about making each area its own unique challenge rather than the same thing over and over.
Fourth, identical looking caves. Honestly, this would likely be dealt with mostly by the enemies fix. That said, the caves all just look and feel the same. This is because they also play very similarly; about the same length, the same number of "puzzles" and similar design in screens. The caves need more randomization if the look isn't going to change. At minimum, you can at least change the colours to give more variety,
Fifth, music. This could be a demo thing, I know. Needs more variety in music. This would also help with a lot of the "sameiness" that this game exhibits.
These are what I think need to be done first. If you want, I'd be happy to test your development further and provide feedback (but without streaming, so things don't get spoiled). I want to see this succeed.