itch.io

Taking some time to think through all the potential here after skimming the pdf and listening to the play example that dropped on public FATT, but short story is I am seriously digging it!

Next time I try doing something Kill Six Billion Demons inspired, I feel like the whole "chiseling your identity into something narrow but profoundly effective" and lack of dicerolling filler will be very resonant.

Very much appreciate the callout that Realis prizes "passivity" at the beginning and the mention that there are ways besides Retiring that a character can die, that addresses the mechanical incentives I was most initially concerned about. I appreciate the mention that players might choose not to Realize their Primed Sentences at all.

Though I typically gravitate towards whatever the wizard is in a TRPG, my favorite initial brainstorm for +3 variants on a class sentence suite was turning the Peregrine into a necromancer with extremely Elden Ring vibes:

- When I face a living foe, I always brandish the Wraith Blade I used to slay my master.

- When I whisper to the corpse-ashes I carry, I can always demand a favor from my bound ghosts.

- If my bound ghosts have a grudge for me to settle, I always have the determination to fight for it.

- If I am certain my doom is near, I always flee atop a wispy conjured steed.

Oh hey, I remember this. It was really cool, and a big inspiration when I was making my own RPGM projects. Thanks!

Oh hey, this looks neat! You're the same people who made Faylinn's Quest, right? Hmm, looks like that isn't on itch.io anymore. That's a shame. Ah well, will certainly make a note to keep an eye out for the next kickstarter!

Sounds like you've been pretty busy, best wishes with the new projects! As someone who likes playing RPG Maker stuff, Silk Sails was a very charming game. I'm looking forward to seeing how what you learn in the other games might change your approach if you do end up trying a sequel in the future.

If you are interested in ship combat minigames, you might wanna give Horizon's Gate and Pillars of Eternity 2 a look if you haven't already. Both of them did some interesting stuff. 

Thanks for the clarification! Yeah, I had no idea there was a difference between "Alert" and "Not Alert" as far as their defenses went. I did have some success knocking them down, but they always popped up again and grabbed me when I approached me. After the 3rd failure to attack a downed enemy, I figured that enemies were invincible while knocked down.

There were at least two areas where combat was required. 1 was the save point that appears when you kill early bats, and 2 was the lizardman you need to kill to make the chest magically appear. I remember trying to sneak past him a bunch of times, but finding nothing. It took me about 20 tries to defeat that enemy once I gave up on conserving items.

The most frustrating part of the game was how projectiles could fly through walls, though.  After spending 2-3 hours exploring that second forest temple area (I kept trying to slash through the vines on the moving platform instead of jumping), I got to these narrow catacomb tunnels with patrolling zombies. I was having great difficulty avoiding alerting them, but when I finally did started making progress on my 5th or 6th try I suddenly got sniped with a dragon-fireball through the north wall. I'm guessing the dragon was in another room further up, but had a detection radius big enough to sense me and attack from offscreen.

I will definitely be looking forward to your next demo. The pixel art in this is amazing, I would like to see those city areas or that spooky ship. I just do not have what it takes to deal with those ninja zombies right now.

This game looks really promising, but the combat is deeply unsatisfying. Feels like the enemies get invincibility frames but you do not. When the dragon fireballs and bomb spikes can pass through walls and hit you even when the enemies aren't on screen, it's hard not to just put the game down. The... ?knife mario guys? kept getting up from being knocked prone, phasing through my flurry of slashes, and grappling me. I couldn't really see any way of avoiding it. It feels like you should have way better hitstun on your attacks. Fighting multiple enemies would still be a challenge, but if I'm doing a sword combo on a basic enemy it feels kind of ridiculous that I can't get a whole combo in when I am aggressively spending my limited combat stamina.

I see a new demo got uploaded today. Did those errors when killing or dying to enemies have anything to do with how easy it would be to combo slash them?