Oops! yeah I tend to make a lot of typos, and yeah One of the main reasons I enjoy making games is because it gives me a way to put my settings I write into a more tangible form, so I'm glad you found it enjoyable.
I made this game easier since my first game was way too hard, but thank you for the input on that since its really hard to gauge those kind of things.
I appreciate your feedback!
Presentation:6/10. I do like what's here but goodness is the presentation a bit jumbled, the graphics switch from a lovely PS1 aesthetic to hand drawn, to 16 bit, to modern pixel art. It's a bit of a mess and makes the game feel strange. That being said each asset individually is nice. I do feel the same about the music as the styles switch so dramatically its hard for me to determine what the overall mood of the game is supposed to be, is it whimsy and mysterious? Is it dark and foreboding? or is it light hearted and fun? These were the kind of questions I kept asking myself.
Gameplay: 3/10. I am sorry if this is mean but genuinely I could not get very far at all in this game because of its difficulty, and I tried for several hours. Now I'm no stranger to JRPG difficulty (I've played and beaten a lot of the famous and difficult 8 Bit RPG's), but this was on a level I had never experienced before. I must've tried 3 seperate times to simply grind in the opening area, or at least progress, but the bulb enemies kept absolutely destroying me with their massive health pools compared to the party. I really tried maximizing my strategy with the really cool large pool of abilities and interesting spells but nothing seemed to be able to counter the absolute beefy bois I was fighting. I do think this game has some interesting mechanics, but I wish I could explore them.
Story: 8/10. From what I was able to play I really loved the world you've built here, every piece of dialog kept me wanting to find another thing the characters can interact with so I can learn more about this very strange world. The characters were distinct and the dialog was well written. I don't really have anything beyond nitpicks to complain about, so I wont.
Overall I think this could be a really fun and interesting game, but unfortunately I am unable to find that out for myself because of the insane difficulty, if I am simply being dumb and there is something obvious I'm missing then please let me know because I'd be perfectly willing to admit that. But for now that's where my review sits.
Presentation: 7/10. Despite the simplistic style I feel like the overall design of the graphics carries the presentation overall. I loved how unique and stylish the characters and enemies were. It provided motivation to progress since I never knew what kind of unique creature I was going to find. Sound was fine, didn't really notice it. The only issue I have with the presentation is what I kept calling "UI hell", as the HUD elements often wouldn't close when they were supposed to or would display the elements for the wrong character which was very confusing.
Gameplay: 6/10.I love some of the mechanics here, especially the gems that you can combine with weapons, and like I said the party members look unique, but they don't feel very unique as they are all middle of the line fighters. I would've loved to see more distinct party variety like having soldier be a very fast but fragile assassin, and the red guy who's name is eluding me having his fireballs actually be ranged attacks.
Another aspect of the gameplay that is both good but needs some work in my opinion is the loot and exploration. Since most rooms are empty and the only objects are chest's, I feel it discourages exploration which is a huge pillar of dungeon crawling games. Perhaps adding some objects that have other uses (Statues that give XP once, healing fountains, etc), may really enhance the feeling of discovery. Overall I still enjoyed the gameplay, it just needs some refinement.
Story: 5/10. This isn't a game you play for its plot obviously, but some lore explaining who our characters are in a bit more depth and some general fleshing out of the narrative would go a long way to increase player interest, and I say that because I do enjoy what's already here, there just isn't enough of it.
Overall I really enjoyed this game! it was undeniably a tad rough around the edges but I really had fun with my time here. I think you have a lot of potential as a game dev.
For the first point which I believe is about soul of mourning, as the sign says you can hit enemies by facing them and pressing E, However I believe(?) there is a way to fix this using custom collision meshes, and if there is I will have that patched this next update. If it works then it will be a lot easier to click on enemies.
The issue with the shooter is a little harder to fix since rpgiab games have a lot of issue with alternate models and equip slots, but I will see if I can replicate and fix this issue. I apologize for the issues. Shooters in this engine are really cool but are still what I would refer to as "experimental", so there are some issues.
I'm glad you could find some enjoyment in my little game!
Presentation: 10/10. I think the graphics in this are frankly amazing for the engine, let alone a Game Jam entry. As someone who works with this engine there are certain assets and effects that genuinely took me awhile to figure out how you achieved them. There is truly nothing to critique here. Wonderful job. Music is fitting but it didn't really stand out to me much, which isn't a bad thing, as I'd rather have inoffensive background music then something that actively pierces my ears. The animations are also spectactular and really ooze style. In summary you make me envious of your graphical capability.
Gameplay: 6/10. I really wish I could rate this higher but frankly there are a few things that drag down a really great system. The small health pool and high damage really makes combat frantic and not in the way I was hoping for, this in combination with potions being so plentiful, but healing so little meant that combat devolved very quickly into spamming potions and desperately trying to think of which attack is most ideal (which in most cases was the fireball). I do think this could be changed rather easily by making the player's health pool larger, but making potions more rare and heal more. I also felt a lot of the utility spells got thrown by the wayside due to how frantic everything becomes.
Story: 7/10. I like the overall idea of the plot but I think it rushes forward so quickly I was often lost as to what I was doing and why in the world I was doing it. Perhaps some more filler dialog to help establish things might aid in this as really you only talk with one other character for the majority of the experience. When I was able to comprehend what was happening I thought it was quite cool and I was able to immerse myself in the game's scenaro.
Overall I think this is an already great game that could easily be made even better with an update or two.
Thank you so much for your kind words! I will look into the issue with OMM, how it's supposed to work is walking over the key activates. Was OMM the second or first game you played in that playthrough?
The original inspiration for the game was a lack of "haunted emulators" because I thought the concept could make for a lot of spooky variety.
I had a great time and enjoyed the theme a lot but noticed a ton of confusion over the definition of "monster mash", so next time it may be better to have a theme that's a little more concrete.
Time wise I think a week is perfect honestly, enough to make a fully fleshed game (given the concept is narrow enough), and short enough not to feel like a massive commitment.
