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Vesuvius-Dev1 year ago

Sorry for the delay, I usually review in reverse popularity order:

- please name your demo in files, folders and exe

- I don't play a lot of vn, but pressing esc to accept your name seems very strange, add an "accept/finish" button, since ideally you wanna make your game enjoyable with mouse only

- clicking npc feet to select them is not good, but I understand it's a tile problem. 

- liked the videos a lot

- very good to have not enough swagger to do a special in your first atk

- tutorial laptophead is fine, but in combat it talks too much

- 6-7 turns to kill the second mob of the game is not fun

- I like a lot 'optimize' equip

- open chest sprite is not open enough

- it's funny when you are confused the rifle gfx turns against you

- bug: if you are on the little island where you talk with little girl about fishes, you can walk on water and bypass the ladder 

Game is really depressing, so gj. great atmophere, sounds, gfx, everything.

imo your game is prone to too much softlock: 

You are not very powerful, but you can't run away from most combat

some enemies can twoshot you

some enemies get stuck in travel points (little island with ladder point) so you are fucked

resources are super limited, and there is no indication of low lv mobs; so you can't farm

I have confused messages of what I should do as a player, should I farm or avoid enemies? This is a bad middle ground. Or you make a silent hill experience where you can avoid most combat because everything is very dangerous, and you fight only when you must; or you make a classic jrpg.

A simple solution to solve this first location with grandma at the center would be to place a restore point at grandma house, but ofc it would ruin the atmophere

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horbror1 year ago (1 edit)


- please name your demo in files, folders and exe

Sure thing.

- I don't play a lot of vn, but pressing esc to accept your name seems very strange, add an "accept/finish" button, since ideally you wanna make your game enjoyable with mouse only. 

You press enter to accept it, there is a message there. Escape must work as well then. 

- clicking npc feet to select them is not good, but I understand it's a tile problem. 

This is a problem with the mouse controls which does not happen when you play keyboard only. I am considering removing them altogether as another dev suggested instead of trying to mitigate the problem more. 

- liked the videos a lot

Thanks mang!

- very good to have not enough swagger to do a special in your first atk

How the swagger system actually operates becomes much clearer later in game. Some abilities more or less work as swagger-engines, fueling your move economy. 

- tutorial laptophead is fine, but in combat it talks too much

I have been asked to include it more to explain things further so I am not sure about that one. 

- 6-7 turns to kill the second mob of the game is not fun

Depends on you item setup, if you equip the card you have just gotten from the chest next to them those encounters become a breeze. Managing your equipment is essential to the combat system, switching between moods and cards is a part of the general strategy. Most cards that are introduced have a function that makes a problem nearby easier, giving the player a hint on how to use them. 

- it's funny when you are confused the rifle gfx turns against you

Yeah, I kind of like the jank. 

- bug: if you are on the little island where you talk with little girl about fishes, you can walk on water and bypass the ladder 

This has been pointed out to me before but I forgot to fix it, thanks for reminding me. 

imo your game is prone to too much softlock: 

You are not very powerful, but you can't run away from most combat. some enemies can twoshot you some enemies get stuck in travel points (little island with ladder point) so you are fucked

The early game encounters are there to teach you how to use the moods and cards. It is a game that requires attentiveness to make combat easier but blowing through the enemies is quite possible. This is probably not something everyone will like. Grinding is optional, it makes the difficulty a lot easier but is in no way required to actually progress until act 3. I have not properly balanced everything there yet so I am unsure if this is true in the latest additions. Gaslighting counters a lot of abilities, curse acts as a boss-killer, different moods grant you immunity to different status effects etc. 

resources are super limited, and there is no indication of low lv mobs; so you can't farm

Depends, xp is actually set up so that without grinding you will naturally get full heals along the way until a resting spot can be found. Your introspection healing is usable outside of combat, this is mentioned in the tutorial. The items are mostly unnecessary in act 1. 

I have confused messages of what I should do as a player, should I farm or avoid enemies? This is a bad middle ground. Or you make a silent hill experience where you can avoid most combat because everything is very dangerous, and you fight only when you must; or you make a classic jrpg.

This one I disagree with. Clearing it without any grinding at all is not easy but it is completely doable if you take the time to prepare for encounters. Autosave in every area does make trial and error less punishing. This is a matter of taste and not right or wrong. 

A simple solution to solve this first location with grandma at the center would be to place a restore point at grandma house, but ofc it would ruin the atmophere

You can unlock two different kinds of restore points in that very house, there are some story-related hints dropped on how to do so. 

Thanks for playing it! Act 1 overall acts as a tutorial even if you do not choose to enable the tutorial options. It does take some dedication to understand as it is intentionally obtuse. I think there is an audience for that kind of experience and further on it will become apparent how it reflects the story. I do not think it is for everyone however. I loved the first fear and hunger game which is a much more punishing experience, if you want something to compare the difficulty level too that would be it. This shit is way more lenient and obvious though. 

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Vesuvius-Dev1 year ago

Every dev knows his game best, but I'll pressure you this time since you are in an hard spot:

The early game encounters are there to teach you how to use the moods and cards. It is a game that requires attentiveness to make combat easier but blowing through the enemies is quite possible. This is probably not something everyone will like

I went in full tutorial, exploring every room and picking up every chest (minus one protected by the red female ghost). combat is gets more difficult room by room. At grandma house I have bone ghost in north that does a double atk every turn and kills me in 3 turns; or south with fish ppl that have a waterfall atk that hits for nerarly half health. bone ghost can be escaped, fish ppl cannot. In these encounters I need 6-7 atks to win if I don't get a lucky crit. In the mist of this, I have not a recharge station. Items are limited and once they are gone they are done. So or your autoequip dosen't work as intended (Iclicked it after every pick up) or something else is wrong. Maybe the difference of power between some moods you choose from is fucked. I've not played fear & hunger, but I'm not new at jrpgs. 

Clearing it without any grinding at all is not easy but it is completely doable if you take the time to prepare for encounters. Autosave in every area does make trial and error less punishing. This is a matter of taste and not right or wrong. 

If you think your balance is fine, then your tutorials in my case have failed. I suggest you to see every streamer that has played your game, and check if everything is as it should be. Maybe my experience was just an unlucky one.

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horbror1 year ago


You are the first one to get the boneghost I think, its triggered by your hatevalue which is connected to some of the choices you are making. It is impossible to defeat at any point but moves incredibly slowly. Optimize is a bit tricky and not to be relied on, you need to switch between different things to manage different encounters. Jack of traitors gives more attacks to all of your attack moves meaning that an attack that hits thrice will hit four to five times instead. It does not raise power however and will not be triggered by the optimize if you have something else that will. 

Jack of the suffering increases both evaporation and phantasm, more or less meaning health and magic. Taking the sidepath by the crowlady gives you Gaslighting for free. It counters a lot of attacks, turning them back upon the enemy making them damage themselves. You can progress without ever using it or grinding however.

Jack of the torpid is all purpose but does cancel paralysis, making the euthanasia fight a breeze. 

It's not really about optimizing, it's about adapting to different encounters. You can heal with your skills outside of combat. Interacting with the scarecrow will either give you the mood certainty which counters confusion or another one which adds a possible confusion effect to your attack-moves.  Confusion is really the killer stat the fishboys can apply. 

Plenty of people have gotten through this, I have done it with minimum required encounters, meaning avoiding everything that is not forced upon you and reaching level 5 once you hit the last boss of act 1.  You can reach level five way earlier however. The curse guys in the first combat zone are easy, kill both of them, a gundeer and the ghost deer and you will be at level three, take out the double encounters with bullet spray which hits both enemies and you can easily reach level four before hitting the lake. You manage your equipment and you manage what moves you choose. Hit a couple of the fishboys and you are at level 5 early where the real good stuff starts to unlock. 


Clearing it without any grinding at all is not easy but it is completely doable if you take the time to prepare for encounters. Autosave in every area does make trial and error less punishing. This is a matter of taste and not right or wrong. 

Some people have had this reaction, but I have had a lot of feedback at this point. It's not that its just me who are able to do it. Dev on break did a real good job of understanding everything if you want an example, otherwise there are plenty of comments at my page. 

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