itch.io

Thanks for playing!

I'm glad you had fun playing it! Honeynut's art is amazing, it really lifted this game to another level. :) As for the Options menu having non-used options, I did want to remove them but time management failed me again so I decided to ignore that problem and fix an issue with switching rooms... Probably was the smart choice, but I do want to go back and clean the Options menu up some more.

I swear there are other routes! I don't know why the drowned route is so heavily weighted, in theory each has a 1 in 3 chance of happening, but somewhere I must've messed with the code. If you want to see the others, there is a new game+ option that lets you skip the intro and start in the bathroom. You should have more of a chance to get the other routes after finishing the drowned route, but I clearly need to double-check the codes and variables when I update this.

Thanks for playing!

Multiple endings and different endings were in our rough plans, but clearly time got away from us so we had to cut things. If we do come back and fill this game out adding some more details and fun to the endings. As for the mystery being easy, I agree but it turned out that setting up enough red herrings and lies was too much work in the limited time. There were 40+ pieces of clues total and a lot of them connected and evolved when you asked the right suspect about them, so by the time I made 'enough' clues going into more detail wasn't possible. 

Also, I didn't expect Hawk to solve things since he overthinks, so I tweaked it to be more obvious even with the red herrings and lowered the necessary correct clues to win. Making a murder mystery was a lot of fun, so I may make another in the future with a lot more challenging clues and suspects. :)

Thanks for playing!

Honeynut did an amazing job with all the art, all credit to her! I'm glad you had an 'ah-ha!' moment, I tried to build up to that but it's hard to judge if players will experience that since I knew everything about each murder.

I considered having a more serious murder at first, but felt that other devs would be able to do a story like that way better than I could, so I went with my favorite game genre: comedy. :)

Thanks for playing!

I wanted to include a lot of clues because I hoped it would confuse Hawk and make him overthink things, though I should have considered that other players may not enjoy it. I had a few ideas on how to display the clues in a better fashion, but time got away from me so we were left with the default item menu... If I make a game like this in the future, having the clues organized and easy to look through will be the first thing I focus on.

Thanks for playing!

I know the characters were a lot to deal with right away, but since it was sorta a sequel to Honeynut's first psychemis game I didn't want to spend too long introducing everyone. I also wrote a lot of it banking on the fact that Hawk would remember the characters at least a little (this whole game was made to make Hawk laugh and groan) so I skipped over a lot of the character development.

I'm glad you enjoyed the dialogue and investigating the bookstore, it was my first time making a point-and-click so I wasn't sure if it would really work or not.

Thanks for playing! I agree that there wasn't much to do in the game, unfortunately time really got away from me so a lot of the ideas I wanted to add just didn't make it in.

There are clues that giving the villagers produce isn't a good idea, but after watching Hawk play I realized that a lot of players weren't picking up on them so I'll need to rework them to make them a bit clearer. :) I wanted to approach the theme in a different way so the demons weren't the main source of horror, but I get how that doesn't help the theme really stand out especially in this rushed version.

Thanks for your comment, Human! I agree with your thoughts, I was aiming for that harvest moon feel but was hoping to break it up with some more character personalities and some nightmare scenes, which is one reason the advanced crops had longer growth periods. Ideally the nightmares would've made taking more time to 'win' the game more dangerous, and while I got those mechanics working I ran out of time to get it polished enough to actually include it in the jam version. I almost lowered the growth periods, but was worried that it would break something that I wouldn't have time to fix so I left them as-is.

I'm happy to hear that you thought it had fun parts even if it's pretty rough, hopefully you'll give the game another try once I get more of it finished. :)

I'm glad you went straight for the final gift, it seems like quite a few players tried to avoid it!

I didn't manage my time well, so the game really was mostly the mechanics being shown off instead of the full story I wanted to tell. I do want to expand on this and give Pete and everyone actual personalities and finished cutscenes, so hopefully I'll have some updates sooner rather than later. :)

Thanks, I'm happy to hear you liked my game! I am going to do some more thinking about continuing it. There's a lot I'd like to do with this idea so turning it into a full game would be nice, even if it will take a while. Just got to decide what a farming game really needs to include and figure out how to twist it a bit for this game...

I wasn't able to finish the game, though I think that was due to my own confusion than a problem with the game itself. But what I did see was pretty interesting, I died multiple times and kept wanting to find new ways to die so that was fun! The maps felt a bit large, but all the blood and skeletons did create a creepy setting.

I did run into a bug in the repeating hallway, I had the crystal but I tried to leave through the right door instead of going left and that triggered the repeating without letting the crystal do its thing. I did save right before entering though, so at least I didn't lose any progress.

Short and sweet, I feel like I really got a look at Hawk's writing process.

You had a lot of cool ideas for this game, but unfortunately I think it was hampered by some clunky mechanics. Attacking was difficult, while the sword slash animation looks neat it wasn't very accurate so I had trouble figuring out exactly where my enemy needed to be to hit them.

I did get some 'aha!' moments while playing, but for quite a few of the puzzles I did need the library books to tell me what to do and I still had some issues. A bit more polish would really take this game to the next level.

Interesting take on the theme, playing as a cat is always a positive in my books. Though why didn't you go with a black cat for maximum 'evil cat'-ness?

I did have some trouble making my way around the maps because of the angle of the camera I kept accidentally walking into enemies. But it did up my fear levels since I didn't want to restart the level again. I also managed to jump from a roof walkway into one of the areas behind a blue fence and trap myself there, was there a way to get out or did I go somewhere I wasn't supposed to?

Great job with all the art! The story was told in an interesting way, and having a time limit for the night did make me think before bursting into one of the kids' rooms.

I do wish the evidence screen was a little more intuitive, maybe some names over the boys would help there, and being able to pull it up anywhere in the house could have saved a bit of backtracking. But overall it worked well, and if you had a little more time for the endings I'm sure it would have blown me away so good job!

I don't know what I was expecting from a game titled Toiletisia vs Evil, but it had me laughing the whole time so that's a good sign! You know the gameplay is a bit clunky, but it's still impressive that you got it working in rpg maker.

The normal enemies didn't seem to damage me often, they would run into me and then just turn around. I ended up stuck at the goat boss because my reaction speed is bad and I couldn't line Toiletisia up properly to avoid death... But that's more of a me problem than the game's issue.

A lot of fun to play and gorgeous to look at. I got the bad ending because I was curious what would happen, and the ending didn't disappoint! Great job on this game.

I had a little trouble finding the right spot to make the salt circle, mostly because I was looking for the arrow markers like are used elsewhere. But luckily there was only so many places I had to click to find it.

It's pretty clear that you weren't giving this game your full focus, but it was still well put together all things considered! It was fun to see some of my battlers in action, and I did like how the battles had some challenge without being overwhelming.

I also have to second the dislike of the mazes. Those would have been better off as simpler rooms that you decorated with spooky tiles and made some of the items rewards for combat instead of the tiny hallways on each map.

Lots of entertaining comments from Tymvaul and the options for killing did make me think and search for the creative options. Definitely a lot of creepy moments in the game, so good job bringing the horror!

I did have a minor issue with the flickering lights, they set off my headaches. Weakening them so they only slightly tint the screen or having them happen less often may help with that if other people have the same problem.

Interesting gameplay and story, though I did wonder how challenging battles could be because I tried to avoid them as much as possible. Didn't finish it when I was playing, but I think I must've been close so I'll try to finish it later.

I'm glad you picked up on the poisonous plants! I didn't want them to be very obvious (besides the mushroom) but I wasn't sure if they were too subtle.

Thanks for your comment, I'm happy to hear that you liked the game! There are more bad endings than good ones, though unfortunately I ran out of time to actually give each ending the work they deserve. ^^; There are two 'good' endings possible, though neither is very exciting since they were also rushed.

I'm hoping to work more on the game soon, either to get it to a more finished stage or revamp things to be more in line with what I was hoping it could be. I may wait to see some more comments and then decide if a revamped version is worth it or to just steal the fun mechanics I figured out and make a non-horror game out of them. :)

Oh shoot, thanks for letting me know. It had been working, but I then tried to 'improve' things so something must've been cursed... I'm glad the autosave came in handy and that you like the game's concept even if it is rough. :)

Hey there MissingSeven and CrawlingChaox, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. The top-down presentation with limited colors was a brilliant move, both making your game stand out and making it easier to choose what skill to use in battle to deal the most damage to foes! I did wish that the question marks were a bit more distinct when it came to what was an item and what would move the story along, but that's a minor nitpick.

Gaining new skills thanks to equipment was a cool idea and complimented the time mechanics well, but I feel like there was a ton going on for a contest with a time limit. I wanted to take my time and explore different combinations, but since I could only play for an hour I had to keep rushing to see more of the game before time was up.

I accidentally started the golem fight right away (I ran up instead of down, whoops), so I had to brute-force my way to victory. I'm glad you did make that fight winnable even if the player didn't properly weaken it, but having a moment where the golem appears on the map before the player can move again would've stopped me from totally missing the intended way to do things. Possibly because I spent so long on that fight, I didn't actually finish the game in an hour so I have no idea how things end. It felt like there was a ton of story and dungeon to explore left after that, so it's a shame that I missed out on it.

Overall, I can see why you placed first in the People's Choice, this is a well-polished game! You clearly had a vision when you started this game and you succeeded, so good job!

Hey there Grimmy Nocturne, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. It took a while to load, long enough that I was wondering if something was wrong. That was probably due to a plugin you used and I'm not sure how long it took other people to load, but you may want to double-check that and see if there's a fix to shorten it. You nailed the dark and spooky vibes right away, setting the mood for the rest of the game. The mapping was nice, but most of the areas felt a bit too big considering there was little to look at besides a bat here and there. The story felt rushed at moments, which I'm sure is from trying to finish in time.

Dashing into bats to become stronger was a silly idea, so I loved it and spent way too long hunting down every bat. Unfortunately I'm not sure how much of a difference that made to my actual strength, since the battles felt difficult even with my bat-powered self. The enemies just seemed to have so much health that it took ages to kill them, and I often lost a teammate during the battle (including Sesily in the first fight!), but luckily that didn't matter as long as I won overall. I tried to mix up which skills I was using, but didn't find any amazing synergy moves between skills beyond hitting hard and healing when my health was low. So including some other moves like roots that would bind a foe or blind them with a bunch of leaves would've been cool.

Overall, congrats on making a game with such strong environments! With a bit more time and polish, I know this could be an even more incredible game.

Hey there MirageV, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. Using visual novel style cutscenes was a great idea since you have gorgeous art, though the story itself felt long compared to the time spent exploring the node maps. Speaking of maps, using nodes instead of full maps was a brilliant move! I wish there were more places to explore, but I'm sure you limited it because of the contest deadline.

Battles showed the time and effort you put into them, even when I was getting thrashed by a boss it didn't feel unfair. I just wanted to reload my save and jump right back into the fight to try out a different idea. Great job making combat fun and engaging.

Overall, this is a well done demo that leaves the player wanting more. It does need some more time and polish to truly shine, but it sounds like you're planning on that already so good luck!

Hey there WyldFire Games, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. I love your use of music and Rinober's art, it felt perfect for your sci-fi story. The cutscenes were well done and told the story without dragging on too long, which was great because I was ready to jump into the puzzles!

The puzzles themselves all showed the time you put into them. None of them felt too unfair, and I was really happy with myself when I'd figure one of them out. I'm really glad that you gave an option to skip puzzles if I was having too much trouble. I had to use that out to get past the turrets since I just couldn't get the timing right, and the timing of the offer was perfect because I was just reaching the moment where the fun challenge was turning into a chore.

Overall, great job making challenging puzzles without stressing out your players! Some of the puzzles may benefit from some extra tweaking to make them easier on players who have terrible reaction time, but that doesn't take away from the fun.

Hey there slimmmeiske2, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. I was in love with the artstyle you chose from the first moment, and getting to play as a cat was fun! Not knowing exactly what the kids were saying made sense since I was a cat, but I know kid reactions well enough to be able to guess what the girl said when she saw the cat. Finding the balls of yarn rewarded my exploration, and actually pushed me to do more QTEs (and fail once they got too fast) which was a clever move of your part.

I do wish the QTEs were a bit more varied though. Even if you stuck with the bar QTE, having the start point be different could have made things more interesting. Like when jumping up a cliff the pointer would start at the bottom instead of always at the top. I ended up abusing the night vision to get through the fog mazes since I was running out of time, but I did like that they could be solved with just time and exploration. 

Varying the QTE speed a bit more could also be a neat idea. After a few successful QTEs I would fail on purpose just to slow it down again, but if it the speed was a bit more random I may have tried harder to succeed since there would be a chance that the QTE still felt doable. That would have taken some time to get working right though, and with the contest deadline I totally understand why something like that wouldn't be possible.

Overall, great job! If you had more time I'm sure you could fixed up some of the minor issues, but they didn't distract too much from how enjoyable this game was.

Hey there ladybug_games, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. Good use of custom art, and I love the idea of using paintbrushes to bring color back to the maps.  Drifty has already shared a lot of the same issues I had with gameplay, so I'll try not to repeat it. White words on a white background made dialogue hard to read, I wish you had either made the message windows darker or switched the words to black instead. 

I'm sure the deadline kept you from adding more items and enemy types, but if you keep working on this project I hope you add some more. An item where you throw paint instead of a rock could offer up some new ways to solve puzzles, and maybe a leech that doesn't attack but instead searches the map to remove color could force players to defeat it before they can focus on the color map.

Overall, congrats on making a interesting puzzle game! There are places that could use some more time and polish, but the puzzles themselves are fun and rewarding to solve.

Hey there Melon Kid, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. You made some excellent choices for artstyle and story, making this game stand out even against other battle-heavy contestants. Each character is unique but still reminded me of the character tropes they were inspired by.

The battles were a lot of fun and had me planning moves ahead to get that needed MP. For the most part, however, I stuck to the same strategy and I wish the battles pushed me more to experiment each time. The opponents all looked different, but in general defeating them was the same: hit them as hard as possible. I wish some of them forced you to mix up your moves more often, but I'm sure the contest deadline made you cut some combat ideas.

Overall, good job making a battle rush game that's inviting even to people who normally avoid battle-focused games! With a bit more time and polish this could be an unforgettable experience.

Hey there Alice Gristle, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. The art, music, and story intro told me all I needed to know about this game: it was gonna be tough so I best save often. And save often I did, which was good because I saw the game over screen over, and over, and over. RNG is rarely my friend, and this game definitely reminded me of that fact. But because battles were so short, I didn't mind having to retry them repeatedly. I do wish you had found a way to send me back to the save menu right away when I got a game over instead of back to the title screen though. While the title screen was pretty, it was tiring seeing it so often.

Combat was great, having to do something like sob or nag to make it easier to hit the demons was a good choice. Though I wasn't positive which option to use on each demon, since for the most part it seemed like they responded the same no matter what they looked like.

The writing was good, and I was looking forward to the yells about me making flowers all over the place. I actually ended up fighting more battles than I originally planned just so I could plant more flowers. I'm not sure if there was a real reward to doing that or not though, since I had to stop and finish the game in the time limit.

Overall, great job creating a unique experience. The RNG killed some of my enthusiasm, but if you adjusted it or made jumping back into the game easier then I think this game would be amazing.

Hey there Daybloom Project, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. The cute artstyle and music choices were smart, though the busts seemed a bit odd since they were an entirely different style.

The selection of puzzles was nice, but I wish you had chosen just a few to really focus on. The boulder pushing puzzle, for example, was more of a time-waster than a brainteaser. It can be a great feeling for your players to take knowledge from an easier puzzle to solve a challenging one, but since each puzzle was different there was never a chance for that. 

The battles were fine, though only the final battle really felt like a challenge. I decided to go for the Wholesome ending, and was pleasantly surprised to find that sparing the bees did reward me in the end. I'm not sure how different things play out with the violent ending since I ran out of time to replay it, but I'm hoping that the battle against toxiqs is  a lot more challenging because of the lack of pollinator power.

There were some visual and dialogue issues that need addressed. Going through the story and fixing the grammar would definitely help get the emotions you were intending across. You also need to adjust the options you included thanks to a plugin, since if you change the touch UI location it will move some of the windows and end up covering the submenus, making it hard to tell what you're doing. I didn't spend much time in the menus, luckily, so it wasn't a big issue but it's something to keep in mind.

Overall, there's a lot to like about this little game, it just needs some extra time and polish to truly shine.

Hey there TeiRaven, Ji Tealeaf & thepumpkinsnake, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. Y'all made some great choices when it came to artsyle, gameplay, and story, which made for a really enjoyable game.

Now, I'm not sure if I missed a comment or just had a brain fart, but I didn't realize that I had to buy the feather duster and broom in the manager office. Because everything else had its own graphic, I spent quite a while wandering the rooms searching for a physical broom... I didn't have trouble finding anything else, so it could just be a me-issue but I wish there was a different way to buy/find those items (maybe a salesperson shows up once Hestia starts clearing her to-do list?). I was also disappointed I couldn't bring the adorable fire sprite to light my way in the basement, though I understand that using a normal candle does make more sense.

There were minor tile passability issues, such as the right wall in the tea room appearing above Hestia when I went behind the bar, but I'm sure those are easy fixes that you just missed due to the contest deadline. Some of the events, like the planters outside, required me to be standing in a specific spot when I thought I could reach from its other side, but that wasn't a major problem.

Overall, good job with this game! There are minor things that need tweaked or fixed, but it sounds like you are already planning an updated version so good luck with it!

Hey there Rubescen, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. I wasn't sure what type of game this was when it started, but you introduced the different puzzles well, and the story meshed well with the art and gameplay. The outdoor maps felt a bit too large and empty to me, but they weren't large enough to mess with my mood.

While the puzzles were clever, I do think they could have used a bit more time and polish. The moving platforms were neat, but having a choice box appear instead of just stopping the platform meant that I would miss the right spot a few times while getting used to it. Instead of having the option to stop or move the platform in the opposite direction, I wish the lever would just stop the platform and then I could interact with it again to choose which way it should move. As for the pushing box puzzles, there was a sudden jump in difficulty from the intro of pushing things to having a bunch of boxes to work with. I've made similar puzzles so I know how difficult it is to set them up and make them solvable, but it felt like there were certain moves you wanted the player to do to solve the puzzles and not everyone will think the same way you do. They can be solved with trial and error, but I wish there were hints given if you had to reset the puzzles a bunch of times.

Overall, this was a unique game that suffered slightly from the contest deadline. But you clearly have the skills needed to make a great game, so if you feel like spending a bit more time with this game I'm sure you can take it to the next level.

Hey there SeaPhoenix, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. As a fan of sims I was looking forward to this game, and it didn't disappoint! The art and music worked well with the gameplay, and the story itself was fun. The comedic writing was great, and I'm gonna need a whole game about a rat circus with rat pyramids now! You clearly spent a lot of time polishing this game, and that effort shows.

My main problem with the game was the length. I know that it was to make sure people could finish the game in the time limit, but a week didn't feel long enough since I wanted to see more interactions between the mayor and the villagers. Even just a few more days so I was there for 10 days instead of just a week would have been fun. I also wish there were more options for items to give to the farmer, so that he could start growing some strange things like mandrakes or man-eating plants instead of normal veggies. But those are just nitpicks, I know there was a deadline and I had a lot of fun with the game as-is.

Overall, this is a short and silly game that has a lot of potential if you feel like expanding on it. :)

Hey there Ronove, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. The lovely artstyle you chose caught my attention right away, and set the mood for the entire game. The story itself was told well and gave enough clues for the player without totally spelling things out for them, though I do wish there were more flashbacks to show the necromancer's experiences with the skeletons instead of just being told about it. I wish there were more chances to affect the story besides when talking to the water nymph, since I picked up on the relationship issues quickly and wanted to get our poor boy someone safe as soon as possible! But I understand that with the contest deadline you needed to keep things streamlined to make sure it all worked well.

I did have a problem finding the cryptic notes, they were too well hidden! Maybe it was because I wanted to finish the game before time was up, but I only found the 'don't go to sleep' note in the library even though I was trying to interact with anything that caught my eye. While having them shine or sparkle would make finding them too easy, it would have been nice if there was something a bit more obvious. After playing I saw your reply that mentioned the hidden notes on trees, and I would never have spotted that! There was just so much other pretty stuff to look at on the maps and the one tree I tried interacting with did nothing, so my eyes skipped right over that. Maybe clues like spilled ink in the castle or a knife in/against the carved trees would have made spotting it easier.

Overall, the love and care you put into this short game is obvious, and I enjoyed the time I spent with it. Great job!

Hey there Starmage, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. The story seemed interesting, playing as a journalist in the middle of a 'zombie' attack was cool. It's a shame that him being a journalist didn't really come into play once he got a gun. The art you chose and made was nice, and fit the game well. I enjoyed the astral projection segments, though if I was caught by a ghost is was pretty much game over since it could damage me over and over instead of moving off of my tile. But since I could just hop back into it it wasn't a huge issue.

Battles were a mixed bag for me. I liked the different weaknesses and strategy that was needed for each battle, but the sudden jump in difficulty in the second area made them unenjoyable. And it could just be my bad luck, but the random battles happened often and my multi-hit attacks often missed one or two hits which caused me to lose a few times to normal foes... I also wasn't able to beat the game due to getting killed repeatedly by the final (at least I hope it was the final) boss battle. I'm not sure if you wanted me to grind more or to figure out a specific strategy, but I kept getting smashed by the big demon and trying to revive my K.O.ed party members just wasn't working since they'd get taken out pretty much right away.

Overall, it's clear that you know what you're doing when it comes to making battles more than just 'spam attack'. Unfortunately the jump in battle difficulty, especially at the end, soured the whole experience for me. I do hope you spend a bit more time balancing this game since the idea and systems are good, it just needs a bit more polish.

Hey there Wumbohek , I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. Your excellent art choice made the game really stand out, and playing as a dinosaur made it even better! The story itself worked, though I was disappointed in the ending and wish I had a choice in it (maybe a battle scene when the player could decide whether to attack or guard?). I know you probably ran out of time, but the ending felt rushed.

Battles were awesome to look at since you obviously put time and love into the animations, but I did wish the enemies were a bit more varied. They only shot at me, and since battles always had multiple enemies I ended up just using Tail Sweep and focused on upgrading it. I never guarded since battles didn't last long enough to feel like it was worthwhile, and while Scream was useful at first I found only dealing damage to usually be the best option. 

I did feel like the maps were too large, much of my time was spent running up and down hallways when I really would've preferred focusing on the puzzles and battles. Running back to the healing station after a few battles really slowed the whole game down, so I wish the halls weren't so long.

Overall, this was an interesting game with good, straightforward, puzzles, but suffered a bit from the contest deadline. I hope you spend some more time with this game to really bring out its potential.

Hey there Fomar0153 and Indrah LadyPotato , I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. Y'all made some excellent choices when it came to skill systems and battles, and the artstyle worked well with the story. I wasn't able to finish the game, but did have fun with what I did play.

Battles went quickly once I got the hang of each party member, and choosing different skill trees to focus on was a neat way to give more control to players. The number of items I could find felt around the elevator like too many at first, but once I realized it was helping to keep me from having to trudge back to the rest point over and over I understood what you were going for. All of the cutscenes showing what Ezra was up to while I fought was a great touch, since it really made me want to reach her instead of knowing nothing about her and just trying to save her because the game told me to.

Overall, bravo for making an enjoyable and polished game! I'm sure you wanted to tell a full story, but unfortunately the hour time limit for judging did the game a disservice since I wasn't able to complete it. In the future you may want to tighten up the story and maps just so judges are able to finish, but that doesn't take away from the fact a lot of effort went into this game. :)

Hey there RetroKiwiDad, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. Collecting enemies to become your battle companions is a great idea and I loved their unique designs, though I wish that creativity went into the mapping as well. I ended up on the cave ceiling a few times due to tileset passability errors, which didn't ruin the game but took me out of the moment.

I wasn't able to finish the game before the time limit (reached the second floor of the mansion) because it took me a little while to get a handle on the systems, so I wish there had been a short tutorial. Instead I learned through trial and error, which worked okay but did leave me sticking to a battle style that mostly relied on putting the enemies to sleep and defeating them one-by-one. All of the different statuses left me confused, since while the icons looked nice I wasn't sure what most of them meant. So again I learned through trial and error, which also caused me to lose my full teams a few times... I really have to second everyone else that a tutorial and some explanation at the start is needed.

I only got Karma from a battle once, because getting 1 per battle just didn't seem worth it when I could devour instead. I didn't use items often since I'd just run to the healing water after battles, but if you want to make items more useful then giving Karma after every battle (with the option to increase it by releasing the enemy) would be good.

Overall, this was a very clever idea that suffered from having to stick to the contest deadline. I do hope you continue this project though or let the concept evolve into something new because a great game idea is there, it just needs more time and polish.

Hey there Ramose Tsimbina, I got your game for judging so here are some of my thoughts. The mostly black and white artstyle you chose was a great choice, though I wish you had stuck with it in the menu and battle background as well. Leaving just a few things as the color red like Duncan's eye would really make it stand out. The story was mysterious, but gave enough for me to follow along. That said, I do wish more was explained. Maybe the skeletons scattered across the maps could've shared more clues.

Battles worked well, though as an absorber I was hoping to gain strength and skills from being attacked. So only getting new skills at shrines was disappointing, though I'm sure you chose to do it that way due to the contest deadline. Like everyone else, I found the slimes to be annoy to battle. Poison was taking so much of my health each turn that I was better off avoiding as many slimes as possible. If Duncan could learn poison resistance, or if slimes dropped Antidotes, those battles would have felt more worthwhile.

The ancient demon battle was pretty anti-climatic, since I could use Big Smash every other turn to keep him from hurting me and then Toxic Laugh to poison him to cause tons of damage. I'm not sure if you meant for it to be easy, but after fighting for my life against the slimes the ancient demon just felt like a step backwards combat-wise.

The shadowy pasts were where the game really fails in my opinion. I understand what you were going for, but since I never really found out about Duncan's past it felt more like a punishment for those who can't react quickly. I almost got stuck at the same point as bgillisp, but luckily realized the trick to going to one side. Instead of just getting sent back to the start, it would have been interesting if getting hit triggered a cutscene from the past or a battle against your past self (maybe you're supposed to run, but winning would share some more backstory).

Overall, you had some interesting ideas for this game, but it felt like it just needed a bit more development time to really reach its full potential.