Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad it was still fun despite the difficulty level.
For the little game over nuisance it can be helpful to know that RPG Maker games have a built in reset button, so if you accidentally hit "new game" you can press F12 or Alt+F12 to reset back to the title screen.
I don't have an ETA at this time as I've been focusing on a smaller project to practice some mechanics for later parts of Almari and finally get some old ideas out of the oven, but I'm really glad my work brought you joy!!
Just finished the demo and I think this has a lot of potential!
I got stuck in the sunshine room too until I checked the comments, aside from that room I didn't have any trouble with the puzzles.
First things first, I like the old net vibe a lot and and the windows-based textboxes are cute! The character designs are also really nice, I love the way you do the eyes on your characters' overworld sprites! I also thought the swap in graphics from RTP to custom was used really thoughtfully!
My gripes stem more from the narrative being a little hard to follow with Arlen at first (though from the nature of RPG Maker horror games I know better than to trust her farther than I can throw her). If there was maybe more of a primer on their relationship during the beginning that could help set the stage (though it's possible something was in Melrose's room that I simply didn't check). However this can be a stylistic choice, it really depends on how clear you want it to be and if you don't want to give away too much off the bat (which I understand).
On the same note I have a small gripe with the tea party scene, not that it was a bad scene, but it would benefit from letting the game wait 3-5 seconds after the fade to black before resuming with the gameplay, just to allow the scene to set in for your player. It ended nicely but I was given control back so quickly I thought it was jarring! Cutscenes are your player's rewards in these types of puzzle grindy games, so take extra care there! (at least, that's my view. don't let my thoughts go against your vision!)
My remaining thoughts are more event coding polish. Like it would be nice if teleporting to a new map didn't place you right on the tile you'd need to step on to go back, since on the odd occasion I entered a room by mistake, it was cumbersome to take a step forward then back to leave, especially because of Melrose's slow walk speed (plus her dash isn't much better) and already getting a little sick of pressing enter to go into more rooms than I would have liked.
However personally I wouldn't increase her movespeed too much, or maybe make her dash her default speed instead if possible. Usually my issue with dash buttons in RPG Maker is that it's so fast I have no reason not to use it, I think you made a good call making the dash only a little better so it's used more thoughtfully (like during the spike puzzles). But in keeping it as is, I'd adjust your level design to be more accommodating to it or just make those teleport tiles less cumbersome lol. It really wore me down on a long playthrough.
Other notes are the ball of yarn reappearing after I took it if I left the cat map and came back before solving the puzzle (found this because I didn't realize I was supposed to talk to the cat that was hurting me, I mean why would I? A good visual indicator for it would be maybe to set it so it faces the player after you take the yarn so I can tell something's up. Though if it does and I missed it my b lol). I could tell the name of the game was check things twice and I believe the game even states this pretty early on but little cues and reminders can go a long way.
On damage, sometimes it felt a little defanged, especially if a puzzle damaged as a punishment while a rose was literally 3 tiles away (the quiz being the biggest offender). You could start the player with more HP but less healing spots to make it more meaningful, or just drop the punishment on spots where it just has no bite whatsoever. But that really depends on how challenging or thoughtful you want the HP to be.
I also didn't find the atmosphere to be... too creepy? But I do tend to write it off as myself having a fairly high resistance to it (especially having played Ib, Yume Nikki, Witch's House, etc in my teens). I'm not sure how eerie you want the game to be, some aspects come off more as campy to me ("having fun yet?" comes to mind). Where to go with it though depends on your vision.
Overall, I'm interested in where this goes and how it might be polished over time. I think you have a great setting and a ton of potential at your fingertips it's just a matter of carving it out. The puzzles are serviceable and some tweaks to the atmosphere or maybe some more visual spice on the maps could do a lot! I always recommend the opening for the anime .hack//sign and Mamoru Hosoda's work on Digimon (particularly Our War Game aka the first major arc of the Digimon Movie) and Summer Wars when it comes to netcore stuff. But that's not necessarily the MS Paint core you're going for and could be more adjacent than helpful.
I hope my thoughts are helpful in fulfilling your vision and good luck in your endeavors! Making games is a pain in the ass!
Kicked on the Zero Escape music and had a blast! Only got out of the first room because I got up early today to do homework not play escape rooms LOL but definitely gonna come back to this one!
I'm honestly not certain on transferring a save from the 2020 demo to the full version. ^^; I've made some balance changes between this demo and the final demo I'd like to release, but not too many event flags were added between the current demo (2020) and the final so I'd say your save will probably transfer well enough as long as you don't retread too much of Bravery. (I think the worst case scenario is some flags on meeting Siza were altered a bit)
Transferring saves is something I'm being very mindful of while working on the final demo. My intention is to have saves in that demo be able to transfer to the full version seamlessly.
I did design the segment of Bravery in 2020's Demo to be easily replayed once the player knows where everything is in the event that that area would need to be replayed upon the full release, but I'd definitely prefer to have a save from that transfer as well as it can!
I'd definitely look around for some more Words, even just one can make a big difference! Though I can't deny the game is also just plain old hard because I based the difficulty curve around old games I love that used to (and sometimes still do) kick my butt. Namely Digimon World 3 and SaGa Frontier, haha...
Glad you think the game's cool so far regardless, and thanks for letting me know how your playthrough is going! ^^
Copper Odyssey is a totally sick name! I can see it as a series even if the games have little in common (I mean so many Final Fantasys are pretty different from each other anyway! Minus reoccurring enemies of course)
Super excited for this by the way, Cam! :D Every now and then the sentence "You are the Monitor!" pops into my head because I just think it sounds cool.
It's not the "ending" I put in, but it is technically the end of the main gameplay. The temple is not solvable this build unfortunately, but it will be in the full game!
On the combat, I'm a bit relieved to see I was able to hit the "tough but rewarding" sweet spot, that was the intention and I'm glad the positive note on the balance made it out of just the testing circle.
Also funny you mention Nocturne, that one had the most influence on me of the SMTs lol.
Oh wow! Thank you!! It really made my night to see your response and video (I could hear you just fine btw)! It was amazing to see all the left field jokes land and the things that were supposed to be strange leaving you a bit unsettled, it was super reassuring that I'm on the right track.
I hope the rest of the game is just as enjoyable and you have a grand time! And good luck with your channel!
############################################################################################ FATAL ERROR in action number 1 of Step Event0 for object obj_enat_axe_summon:
Unable to find any instance for object index '82' name 'obj_player_battle' at gml_Object_obj_enat_axe_summon_Step_0 ############################################################################################
thankfully i saved nearby so i didn't lose much.
EDIT:
Another one, trying to alt-enter to full screen right after selecting a file resulted in a crash
___________________________________________ ############################################################################################ ERROR in action number 1 of Draw Event for object obj_file_select:
Trying to use non-existing surface. at gml_Script_scr_shader_wave_draw ############################################################################################ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- stack frame is gml_Script_scr_shader_wave_draw (line 0) gml_Object_obj_file_select_Draw_0
