(edited for clarity and a few typos)
Hi knightmarish_Games, first time forum poster, I was very excited to see this project come up - and have played up to and just past the Tunlan character quest. I know this is a bug-reporting forum, but I hope you don't mind a bit of wider feedback/review as part of this.
(Spoilers for story and gameplay up to mid-late game?)
What I love:
- The passion behind this, seriously, there's an excellent foundation here, and your additions felt in the spirit of Breath of Fire (added scene where Mina's coach is attacked, inner thoughts of the Capitan well monster, emerging lore around the 'role' of the Highland kingdom were nice touches). Loved that Yua has more of a place alongside the adventure - surprised you didn't opt to integrate her as a character (as opposed to Mixie).
- Added cross-party character dialogue. Great concept - I wonder if there could be a future 'lore/story' section that saves these little 'achievements'. When I switched areas (moving across buildings/zones) I found I accidentally cancelled some and thus missed a number of these.
- That you are planning to expand on story aspects. I felt I progressed through sections of the game relatively quickly (dungeons are shorter: Nimfu's tower/Simafort). I remember Taga Woods begin quite the new-player's gauntlet, and in my playthrough, I accidentally skipped it. Script is refreshed, but overall experience is shorter. To balance this, I love the fact that you coded a more open experience, with the tease of multiple endings - and thus, the quest system is great.
A couple bugs or beginner hiccups that I experienced, that are hopefully suggestions for next update (because the core concept is wonderful).
- Glad to see StasisCell87 identify Ryu's Attack issue - same happened here, (had two Attack commands, then non) but I wasn't sure what the trigger point was. I thought it was a consequence of upgrading the DragonBrood or WrymGuard Skill trees and I am reassured that progress in one tree, isn't meant to lock you out of another.
- Should I have access to three carpenters, or just two (brickhome & arabic)? I couldn't enter the treehouse at Capitan, and the other carpenters did not provide explanation on what their style offered. Afterwards, the 'carpenter' home/hub in township is also locked and I cannot enter it (Arabic township style option) <-- I'm guessing this is a work in progress?
- A number of pathways have invisible walls/barriers, and you need to find ways to 'walk through walls', or at least take unintuitive routes in order to gain access to loot/npcs. For example, Holy Shaman in Tunlan is located at the Inn, but reaching her is a puzzle. I kept coming back here trying to access her (top right by the beds). First I managed to walk west through walls, travel north through the black, then east, and then stuck. Second, I went west, then south, then east, then back up north through the wall to reach her. Another example is the loot at Rand's home town (top right building).
- Soft-lock: I went for Mina/Nina's Windia Great bird quest. Mina joined after dialogue with King. Instead of going into what looks like portal in Mina's recruitment room, I went exploring and accidentally triggered Mina's transformation scene in the south west tower (Opps!?) Autosave triggered immediately upon entering the room - so I was committed to this choice. The problem is, for whatever reason, I now have Mina as a playable character, but cannot transform into the Great Bird. I can trigger Jean's Frog and Rand's ball... but cannot find the keyboard or gamepad input to turn into the great bird.
- Hard-lock: tried to revert back to an earlier save to test the Mina/Nina event. My game hard-locked on the in-game character menu screen when trying to look at Aspara's equipment (Loading... error cannot load: ryu.img). I closed the game, and when I tried to 'continue' and re-load my save game from start menu, it attempts to load the autosave by default and encounters the same hard-lock (Loading... error cannot load: ryu.img). So, at this point, I think I have to start a new game, or maybe even re-download/re-install the game?
- Readme. file - can we have one?
- Could there be a 'beginners' file that helps to explain some of your vision and guide here? Explain the button/keyboard commands for abilities (which might help to identity if something has been locked?). I wasn't aware that I needed to 'use' monster spoils/loot for it to appear as a cooking ingredient until far later. Maybe this could be achieved via in-game prompts when new features/events are triggered (like a quest update that records some of these major developments and acts as a tutorial bank), or a .ini file that also allows us to identify/change keybindings?
- Combat Balance:
- Encounter rate for hybrid playstyle (on-map and random encounters) is a bit hyperactive. Should new players avoid this and focus on on-map encounters only? Early game random encounters was a bit wild and affected the pacing. Difficulty was initially high for the Ryu/Bow story segment as I was getting used to the combat systems and Mt Fuji encounters were constant. By the harpy boss fight - difficulty was straightforward, by giant cockroach and minions, a breeze. At Colosseum, Ryu felt pretty unstoppable. The township recruit with muscles was a nice feature to offer the option to turn encounters off, but its effect wasn't always consistent, or at least, by that point - I was at Level 70+ around Simafort).
- Level progression (got to level 115 before soft-lock). Should a level cap be introduced, so that players lean more on gems/crests/etc. to get stronger in the late game? Perhaps leveling could be linked to the quest system?
- Equipping Sana (Fire shaman) to Ryu turned him into something godly. Lin caught up to with Devil Shaman and they just tear things up (trivialising the difficulty). Nina had a mid-game section where her Kirin was boosted to clean up anything. I realise I have to 'self-regulate' the boosts I give, but I'm not sure how best to do this without understanding or overcooking the progression system. I think the rewards/gains associated with gems and Shamans could be: reduced, removed, or maybe locked behind a late game progression event.
- Groups of regular mobs tend to be more challenging than boss fights. Lin (Devil shaman) or Ryu (Fire shaman) can chip away in a few hits.
- All the above is very tricky stuff to get right, so I still had fun, despite these swings. I guess I would want to know more about the 'intended' way to play this, according to your vision/progression.
- Character roster - I wanted to experiment more with the cast of characters, but with 10 characters and a huge range of equipment load-outs now, it feels like a bit of a crowded house. Personally, Aspara is 'always' in my party because I am trying to ensure I don't miss any of the lore abilities. In fact, I accidentally got her early on (before Capitan), thanks to Ryu equipped with Fire (Sana) Shaman. Would love to experiment more with characters with purposes/balances I don't quite understand (Mixie - Hex? , Bleu - small skill roster, and Rand occasional menu-based healer). Typically, Ryu - Lin - Aspara - Nina/Sten are my go-to party for fast nuking of mobs.
- I love the idea of Ryu's skill tree. Is there an opportunity to expand this for the other characters? Maybe completed quests give skill tree rewards instead of the dragon statue? (for managed progression).
Again, this experience was a joy of nostalgia that I didn't realise I needed. So thank you. I'm very keen to see how this project develops further and thank you for making it publicly available.