Hey Gab & Nic. Longtime Paper Mario (N64 and TTYD) and hardcore turn-based JRPG fan here. I just filled out your Google Form for feedback, but I wanted to post here too because after playing this fantastic demo for over 6 hours, I've got some major suggestions and thoughts. Also, as a fellow Canadian in Ontario, I need to support this game, because just like with Bug Fables, this is the only way to keep classic Paper Mario alive for decades into the future (since obviously Kensuke Tanabe refuses to listen).
Before I start posting all of my thoughts, I should mention a few things. First, I highly recommend doing a KickStarter or IndieGoGo to help fund your development of Born of Bread, similar to what Jose did with developing Bug Fables. I would gladly donate and I'm sure many others would as well, especially if it meant our suggestions/changes were 100% guaranteed to be implemented into the final product. Second, this game NEEDS to be on the Nintendo Switch. Having it on Steam is great, but putting it on the consoles (specifically the Switch) was when it really took off with Bug Fables in terms of sales. And third, just to keep my thoughts organized for you, I'm going to separate them into different sections here, to make it easier to read through.
Also, I'm probably going to upload a playthrough of the demo to my YouTube channel, just because of how awesome it is, so I want this game to get as much exposure as possible.
Oh, and these are the computer specs I was using with the demo: Intel Core i7 960 3.20 GHz, 12 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 5970, Windows 10 Pro. Strangely enough, Task Manager always shows the game running at around 23% CPU, 49% Memory, and the Power Usage being "High".
PART 1 - POSITIVES
- Graphics are amazing!
- Music is highly addictive, especially that battle theme in the Badger Mines. There are times when I'll just sit on the battle screen humming to the battle theme for 5-10 minutes as it endlessly loops. Even the Lapwing Village theme reminds me of a cross between Petalburg in TTYD and Flipside in Super Paper Mario. I hope you tell Robert that he's an amazing composer and he definitely knows what he's doing.
- Battle system concept. Despite the bugs and glitches with the battle system in the demo, these mechanics are EXACTLY what classic Paper Mario fans have been asking for the last 16 years.
- Story and writing. The puns are funny, writing is brilliantly executed, and the boss battle implies a dark sinister theme, similar to the Shadow Queen in TTYD. Based off that element alone, it tells me the story has depth and complexity, which is already miles above Sticker Star, Color Splash and Origami King.
PART 2 - BUGS / GLITCHES
I'm not going to go through every single bug/glitch because there are too many to name, but I'll post the major ones I've noticed. Some of them have already been pointed out by other people though.
- As words are being displayed in the text bubbles, there's an issue with line breaks, where it'll start displaying a word, but then in the middle of displaying it, the word will instantly be pushed down to the next line. It should be fixed so that the word just starts to appear on the next line automatically, if there's not enough room in the current line for it.
- Sometimes the pointer arrow at the bottom of a text bubble is not pointing to the character that's currently talking.
- Certain resolutions in windowed mode often results in some parts of the screen being cut off. I had to run it in 1280x720 in order to have everything displayed correctly.
- When you bring up the Options screen in the menu, it often freezes the game. I was using a keyboard and the only way to unfreeze it was to press Escape, which would then allow me to move the cursor around and change pages in the menu again.
- If you're at full HP/WP with the HP Up and WP Up badges equipped, and then you unequip those badges, your HP/WP are above maximum, like 35/32 for example.
- You're actually able to buy multiple copies of the same badge from the Shady Guy near the mine. I had 2 copies of "Life Thief" and "HP Sight" in my badge inventory, even though it would only let me equip one of each.
- Lint was able to use Happy Ending without even having purchased the badge.
- Camera angle during the Shadow Boss fight made it very difficult to perform certain Action Commands (Pickaxe, Axe of the Log). Also, the HP bars and Weaknesses/Resistances of enemies overlapped each other, and there was even an extra HP bar on the far middle-right of the screen for some odd unknown reason.
- Trying to press "A" to block the Shadow Boss's Hand-Slap attack results in the battle menu not appearing on the next turn, meaning you're unable to do anything and have to restart the program.
- Not sure if this was a bug, but the Shadow Boss is weak to Psychic, yet also resistant to Sword Slashes. I would've thought since the Indigo Gladius is one of the rarer weapons in the demo (since you have to take the time to find all 3 spirits), that it'd be super-effective on the boss, but because of that resistance, it barely does any damage at all.
- If you resume the game after saving, it should start immediately at the Save point, exactly at the spot where Dub is located.
- If you resume the game after saving, all of your Weapons and Badges are unequipped. Also, any Quests you previously accepted but didn't fully complete are removed from your Quest Log.
PART 3 - SUGGESTIONS / RECOMMENDATIONS
As experts of TTYD yourself, some of these were probably intentionally left out, but I wanted to mention them anyway. I'll apologize upfront if you're already aware of some of these things.
*Battles and Battle Screen*
- First Strike/Enemy Struck First. In the Overworld, you need to be able to do a First Strike on an enemy. Likewise, the enemy should be able to do a First Strike on you. In both cases, there should be an initial music cue to indicate First Strike/Enemy Struck First, maybe also with text saying "First Strike" or "Enemy Struck First" appearing on the screen too, before the main battle music starts playing. Also, once the battle begins, Action Commands should immediately apply like in TTYD. For example, let's say Loaf's basic attack is the Ladle. If you hit an enemy in the overworld with the Ladle to initiate a First Strike, as soon as the battle starts, it should automatically begin with Loaf moving toward the enemy, bringing out the Ladle and prompting you to press 'A' for the Action Command timing, and then after that, Loaf would immediately begin his first official turn. Similarly, if the enemy strikes first, as soon as the battle starts, it should automatically begin with the enemy moving towards Loaf/Lint, prompting you with the visual cues for pressing 'A' to defend.
- Enemy Names. After selecting an attack in battle, when the cursor appears over the enemy's head, it should also display the name of the enemy being targeted. Or in the case of an attack hitting multiple enemies, it should say "All Enemies". For an attack that hits only one enemy, but the target depends on how you perform the Action Command, like with the Pickaxe or the Axe of the Log, it should says "Any Enemy".
- HP Bars. It's hard to see Enemy HP in battle after they've taken damage, because it's White Numbers on a Light-Gray bar background.
- EXP Battle Indicator. The EXP indicator at the bottom-right corner should always be displayed, and it should always show your current EXP amount. There should be small stars under that, or another indicator, to show points currently obtained from defeated enemies that haven't yet been applied to your current EXP amount. Right now, the EXP indicator doesn't appear until you've defeated at least one enemy, and then it only shows how much you got from that enemy, not how much EXP you currently have.
- Tattle. Lint needs an option like Goombario or Goombella to Tattle (0 WP) an enemy in order to permanently display its HP bar (not just in that battle, but also in any other battle where that same enemy appears as well). This is in case you don't have the "HP Sight" badge, or you obtained it but you don't have it currently equipped.
- Tactics Card. The battle menu is missing a Strategy/Tactics card for options like "Do Nothing" and "Change Party Member".
- WP Usage Prompt. Right now the WP icon in battle only changes color and flashes after you have selected which attack to use. This should be changed so that the icon flashes as soon as you hover the cursor over any attack which requires WP, before you actually select it. Also, 0 WP attacks like the Ladle should not cause the WP icon to flash at all.
- RP Usage Prompt. The RP icon in battle doesn't flash at all to indicate usage. It should be changed to the same thing I mentioned above for WP Usage.
- Character Positioning. You should be able to switch the positions of Loaf and his ally during battle, so if you prefer, you can have the party member upfront to take damage instead of Loaf himself.
- Defend Use. When you defend with Loaf, all of the enemies then attack immediately (before Lint's turn). This should be changed so that the enemies only attack after Loaf and the party member have both finished their turns. Otherwise the enemies are attacking you twice per turn.
- Targeting. Some attacks/weapons should only be able to target the first enemy in the line of enemies, instead of giving you the option to always pick who to attack. Think of Mario only being able to use the Hammer on the first enemy, but being able to Jump in order to target enemies behind it. And then you have the Pickaxe or the Axe of the Log as the "Hammer Throw", if you did want to use a Hammer on enemies other than the first one in the lineup.
- Action Command Wording. I think when you nail an Action Command perfectly, it should display "Excellent", instead of just "Great", because "Great" sounds like you could've performed it better.
- Action Command Text. For some moves like Giant Ring, the action command text at the bottom of the screen shows the green 'A' button icon or the Control Stick icon, but for other attacks like the Ladle, Tail Whack or Brainstorm, it only says "Press 'A' at the right time" or "Hold the left stick." It's a bit of a consistency issue, but it should always display the button icon, instead of just plain text.
- Attack Menu Order. You should be able to re-order attacks in the battle menu. Right now, the only way to do this is by equipping the weapons in the Overworld menu in the same order that you want them to be displayed in the battle menu itself.
*Overworld*
- When you pick up any item in the Overworld, it should immediately display a text prompt indicating what you just picked up. Right now, this only applies to Key Items, but it should apply to all Items, including Badges.
- When you pick up a Badge, it should display the name of it.
- Tutorials. Leveling up can be confusing, because only 1 Stamp is required to increase HP, WP and RP, but 3 Stamps are required for a Weapon Slot and 2 Stamps for a Badge Slot, so this needs to be explained to players beforehand. Likewise, there needs to be a Tutorial for how weakness and resistance works. It can be hard to understand that weapons have both an Elemental Type and a Damage Type, so for example, people might get confused if they use a Grass attack, expecting super-effective damage, but it only does regular damage since the enemy is also resistant to sword-slashes.
- You should be able to press a button to display the HUD outside of battle. This should also display your current level (which is nowhere to be found at the moment) and your current EXP.
- When you bring up the Menu, it should show the titles of all the pages at the top to make it easier to know which page you want to find, without having to manually flip through them one at a time until you find what you're looking for.
- You should be able to Sort Items by name or type, similarly to how you're able to sort badges.
- When you complete a quest, there should immediately be wording on the screen that says "Quest Complete" to make it more obvious.
*Other Suggestions*
These are just some other things I was thinking about out loud while playing the game.
- Super Blocks / Shine Sprites to power up Party Members and teach them new attacks.
- I like the idea of Dub being the way to Save the game, but I still kind of feel like it would be better to hit a Save Block instead. Sometimes people will avoid talking to every NPC they see, and it's more obvious (especially for new players) when you have a Block/Crystal that stands out amongst everything else on the screen, specifically for saving.
- Maybe Heart Blocks and Inns to heal your stats. Maybe have some Heart Blocks cost Clovers to use instead of being free.
- I think there should be a negative effect applied by the Battle Broadcast, especially if you constantly miss Action Commands. Think of the audience in TTYD throwing rocks to hurt you every so often.
- This would probably be too complicated to implement, but if possible, Area Effects during battle, like a random bucket dropping on your head, or a wall falling down and you have to use 'A' at the right time to defend, again like in TTYD.
- It'd be great if you could press a button in the Overworld to get Lint to Tattle and give a sassy comment on the area you're in.
- Inventory Limit. Maybe start the game being able to only carry up to 10 items, and then having to complete quests to get Key Items like a larger Item Bag for instance.
- Honestly, I think you should just call them Badges instead of Boons.
- This could just be my nostalgia kicking in, but I miss being able to upgrade BP when leveling up. I see what you're trying to do with the Badge Slots, but I still think it would allow for more customization if you just implemented the BP system like Bug Fables and TTYD. For instance, when leveling up, give the option of increasing HP, WP or BP. Then keep the Weapon Slot stamp card and maybe replace the Boon Slot one with Item Slot (like how I mentioned above, starting with a bag limit of 10 items, and completing the stamp card increases your item bag capacity). And for RP, either have badges that'll increase it, or just make it a special Star Power kind of thing, where you get more automatically after defeating major and optional bosses.
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Anyways, I hope all of this helps. Really exciting demo so far and can't wait for more!
~DialgaChampion (Scott)