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Recently came back to this game, and it’s still as amazing as I remembered!

There were a few things that I wanted to note / ask from my playthroughs:

• I feel like clairvoyance potions should counteract the vision-reducing effects of fog.
• Why can’t I get “Something toxic” from fiend’s powderbox mushrooms? Given their effects in-game, I would think they would be a potent source of it.
• Some way to “unequip” potions from the throw action would be nice. I’ve lost a game due to an errant mouse wheel and 2 fireball potions, so it would be nice to have some way to prevent that. If a way does exist right now, I think it should be indicated better.
• After a while, the list of locations you can visit becomes rather crowded. I think it would be useful if there were some way to remove locations from the list once you no longer intend to visit them.

I also have a couple of suggestions for the game, though obviously you shouldn’t feel compelled to add them. I’m mostly just throwing around ideas I had while playing:

• I feel like all the mid-game research is all bunched up on the third row of the tech tree, and it would be better (both for readability and progression) if the third row were split into 2 rows, resulting in 2 rows for early-game research, 2 for mid-game, and 2 for late-game.
• I think it would be interesting if there was some way to “transmute” one alchemical ingredient into another. Perhaps tempering “Something to burn” into “Something volatile”, or vice-versa. Or maybe condensing “Something metallic” into “Something that glitters”.

All in all, keep up the great work, and I look forward to the upcoming Steam release! Don’t feel pressured to rush on the update, your health & personal life is more important than getting an update out sooner.

(Note: This requires purchasing at least 1 extra water jug, and assumes that you’re getting water & firewood the day before. Also, I assume you’re not using magic, as magic trivialises the chores.)

In order:

1. Clean the cauldron.
2. Clean the room.
3. Dust the room.
4. Wash rags & clothes.
5. Go outside.
6. Hang laundry.
7. Go to town.
8. Purchase all the things you need.
9. Return to the house.
10. Go inside.
11. Start fire.
12. Chop meat & veg.
13. Start the stew.
14. Sweep up.
15. Go outside.
16. Take in & fold laundry.
17. Pump water.
18. Chop firewood.

That should finish everything in time.

I absolutely love this game. Just all of it. The whole thing. The story is amazing, the time-management is a challenging optimisation puzzle without being frustrating, and the transformation progress is really well paced.

I did find a typo. In the item description for the succubus’s phylactery the game spells it “pallactary”, but all other locations in the game that mention that item spell it “phallatcary”.

I love this game so much, and now that I’ve finally completed all the research, I feel that I can give my thoughts on it.

Firstly, the praise:

• The alchemy system is really well done. I like how it actually feels like I’m putting together a complex concoction out of different components, rather than just clicking around a gui. It also avoids being so complex that it’s hard to use. Brilliantly done.
• The overworld art style, despite being taken from google IIRC, is very cohesive and sells the atmosphere of the game really well. Nothing feels out of place.
• There are certain situations, specifically in the destroyed mage’s house mission, where the game really throws a excellently timed emotional punch. The little note at once you’ve travelled there; about how nobody is visiting anymore, or how the forest would be beautiful if not for the nearby tragedy; hit harder when you remember that these people aren’t really all that different from the protagonist, and he’s probably feeling some level of kinship with them at that moment.
• The game is very fair. Even the snakes, as complained about as they are, aren’t that bad, and normally just require some careful navigation to get around. I do have my criticisms of them, but 99% of the time, when you die it feels like it’s your fault. The game as a whole falls squarely into the hard but fair category.

Secondly, things that I noted while playing, but don’t feel are strictly good or bad things:

• The homeward crystal is, objectively, the best item in the game. I’m guessing that the delay was to stop you from using it to run from a fight, but that only works if you’re being swarmed. It’s easy to run around for 20 turns and avoid, for instance, the lich, and then come back and explore around elsewhere in the level. I’m not sure whether this is intentional, or even a bad thing, as too long a delay would be even worse. However, I feel that it bears noting.
• There are a large amount of resources which only have a sorting or grinding recipe, and no others. I’m not sure if you’re planning on giving them more recipes, or just leaving them as something to immediately be converted into essences.
• Why can you push stuff around? This isn’t a problem with the game, it’s just something I’ve never used, and I kind of want to know why it was added.

Thirdly, criticism and feature requests:

• Let’s get this one out of the way first: Snakes. I know that in your latest devlog you mention that you are going to make them less likely to move towards the player, which I think is a great change. My problem with them, however, is that semi frequently they will “chase” me, repeatedly moving towards my character. I’m not sure how this specifically could be fixed, but it’s somewhat annoying.
• This one’s more of a quality of life tweak, but could you change it so that you treat bats like passive animals while the character is holding a light source? Please? It gets somewhat annoying to go into my settings and turn on “ignore hostiles” whenever I want to move halfway across a dungeon without clicking a million times.
• I would like to see more uses for ecclesiastical knowledge, but you shouldn’t feel pressured to add it. This isn’t a big deal at all.

That’s about it. Sorry for writing an essay, but I have a lot of thoughts on this game.