itch.io

I just played the latest demo, the gameplay feels more polished than the previous iterations. I'm interested to follow further development and want to offer some feedback that might be of use.

First off, the UI:
The current UI might be just a placeholder, but I want to express my opinion on the current UI nonetheless.

The UI overall should have a more natural readability. Currently all the important information is locked to the corner of the screen. But since you will be focusing on the character in the middle of the screen, it can be a bit distracting having to look to the corner to check the information.

Let's start with the stamina. It needs to be more visually apparent what the current state of the stamina is. A stamina bar underneath or next to the character (maybe similar to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) could help. Just a stamina bar in general would make the information much more readable than percentages.

I like that it is displayed how many of the sanity collectibles are still missing compared to what you currently have. Here it would also be useful if the display would be more in the center of the screen, either at the top or the bottom.

Same with the timer, It would be much more apparent if it were more in the center of the screen. As of now, I rarely even noticed how much time was left, which loses you the part of giving you a sense of urgency.

Also the markings for turning the camera. Maybe put the arrows pointing to the left or the right underneath the character to make it more apparent when this featuer can be used. Otherwise it might be confusing to understand when you are able to use this feature.

The mini-map was fine where it is in my opinion.


Overall feel of the gameplay:

The first thing that seemed somewhat redundant to me was the stamina system. You never had a situation where it really mattered as it regenerated rather quickly and didn't really deplete that much in the first place.
It wasn't until the chase scene, at the end, where it's implementation really added a lot to the desperate escape. You had to be careful and take small rest while being chased, this made the chase way more thrilling.
The game overall needs more such moments, situations where managing your stamina should be crucial.

A thing that comes to mind might be that if the stamina is fully depleted the player experiences a small state of exhaustion were movement is slowed down and jumping becomes impossible. So the player would be punished for depleting stamina too carelessly.
Faster stamina depletion and faster generation would make the stamina a more interesting gameplay component.
Maybe it could be more interactive, like crouching increasing the stamina generation, so you'd have to manage it more actively.

the problem stamina currently faces is, that it seems obsolete in the puzzle sections, but very good for the chase sequences. It will be hard to balance it so it feels just right for both of these things.
The mechanic could become too interupting for the puzzle sections if it depletes frequently, but also too boring if it doesn't really do anything of notice.
Maybe stamina should only be applied when it could be important. For example, having no stamina meter in just puzzle/walking rooms and only coming into play when active threats like enemies/traps are present.


Next I want to talk about the sanity orb collectibles:
I overall enjoy the implemantation of collecting these and getting a reward in the form of the memories at certain points.
But I don't really like that you lose some when you make a mistake.
The problem is, that if you make one misstep you might lose a big chunk of your collection without any way to get them back but to restart the entire level.
I get that they add replayability to a level, so that you might want to replay the level and try to keep enough of them to unlock a special scene and I'm not entirely against it, as it can add an extra challenge to a level. But I had some moments were the process of trying to collect new orbs lost me more than I got in the end and it can feel a bit frustrating sometimes.


This brings me to the current defeat mechanic.
The punishment mini-game is fun and well implemented in my opinion. the differences between the scenes, depending on the trap/enemy you got caught by, kept them fresh and interesting. 
Maybe making the mini-game itself different depending on the punishment could make it even more enticing, than every punishment mini-game being the same button presses. 
Implementing more different button presses than just left and right to the punishment-mini-games could make them more interesting in the long run.
I really liked the visuals and the randomness of the rope-trap mini-game for example, it was very well visually presented what you had to press.
I would like something similar for the punishment mini-games, making the button presses more unpridictable. Maybe also bringing different buttons and correct timing into play. correctly timing pressing jump or crouch in some mini-game would be an example.

The negative side for me was always respawning at the beginning of the room when you got caught. Sometimes you just make a bad move right at the end of a room and it brings you all the way back to the beginning, it can be a bit frustrating. Maybe something like a life mechanic could give a small buffer to that? Like enduring a punishment correctly only loses you some life but resets you where you were and losing the punishment loses you more life and only when the life is depleted you are send back to the entrance of the room. This could also include not losing you sanity orbs when you still have life remaining and would be a bit more forgiving over all for the player.


Overall the movement feels good. I like the moveset of just hopping, jumping or crouching. It is supposed to feel a bit restrictive and it does it in just the right amount in my opinion. My one complaint would be that if you hold down the button to walk when in front of a retractable wall, you don't automatically keep moving when it retracts and you have to let go of the button and press it again. You get used to it after a while, but it would be more convenient if you kept moving after it retracts.


I'm really pleased with the visual design so far the different art and the hieroglyphs look really nice and give a good athmosphere.
A small problem was that some rooms could be a bit confusing if they had multiple doorways. With every wall looking the same it can be hard to remember which way you came from and where you had to go after you rotated the camera a few times. Maybe the different doorways or walls could be a bit more visually distinct in such rooms.

I was very surprised to hear the entire Demo being voiced. The voice acting was very fitting for the most part, but some lines can seem a bit off. It was mainly Yui the protagonist, that had some dialogue that seemed a bit to casual or relaxed for the situation she was in. She should sound a bit more distressed in my opinion.


Thank you for reading my feedback this far. I just want to thank you for creating such an interesting game, I very much appreciate it and look forward to future updates.
I hope my criticism doesn't come off as too harsh or demanding. I don't want to tell you what you should do, it's your game and only your decisions that should count. I just wanted to offer my perspective on how I see certain things. I personally don't have any expierience in game development, so I can't imagine how hard it is to develop a game, but I wish you the best for the future development and for other future projects.

Have a nice day!