itch.io

Thanks! I definitely wanted to give some reasons to revisit the game, and I thought that would be a good solution. Also, it lets me ramp up difficulty or complexity. When I demoed an earlier version of the game in person, a lot of people picked the Drunk, which I really wouldn't suggest as a first class.

Thanks again, and also for taking the time to write a review!

No problem, thank you again! There should be a key arriving in your inbox.

Awesome, there should be a key in your inbox! Thank you again.

So in the intervening time (looks like 111 days according to the time stamp), I did some more updates and ended up bringing Dream Warrior to Steam. It's launching there on the 8th (and re-launching here as a premium title on the same day). As thanks for the excellent feedback on multiple versions of the game, I would like to send you a key.

Would you be interested in that, and if so what's a good way to get it to you?

Hello! I used a lot of these songs in my game Dream Warrior, both here on Itch and on Steam. It's releasing on the 8th of August, and you're in the credits.

I would love to give you a key for the game. Is that something you would like, and if so is the email address in the download's pdf a good one to use?

Thank you for making these songs available, they fit amazingly well.

Hello! I used a few of the sound effects here in Dream Warrior, both on Itch and Steam. It's releasing on the 8th of August, and you're in the credits.

I would love to send you a free key. Is that something you would like, and if so is the email in the download a good one to use for it?

Thanks again for putting this asset pack up.

Thanks for checking it out again! A lot of those changes were absolutely a result of your feedback from the previous jam :)

Earlier, some people reported having their inventories filled with weapon drops. I went ahead and both added new weapon drops to a few enemies, and added the Lady of the Lake as an alternative use for those drops, rather than selling for a pittance. I went back and forth between requiring 5 and 6 weapon offerings before the reward. It's at 6 now, but I might scale it back down. There's this disgustingly, game-breakingly powerful build with a Cleric, the skill Dreams of Gold, and the Miserhammer; the Lady of the Lake makes it a bit easy to complete that build. Maybe I'll find an alternative way around that and lower the number of offerings.

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

I know exactly what you're talking about with the bottom of the screen being cut off. Some of my other games shipped via nw.js, which is similar to Electron, which the itch.io app uses. Long story short, device scaling throws a wrench in resolution. It's fairly easy to disable, but if I'm honest I didn't think about this game ever running via Electron! I'll see about putting some guards against that in, thanks.

I also see what you mean about the pacing. I had intended for the run-up to the bosses to be a bit of an endurance challenge. The Goth can probably go forever though, provided you find a way to occasionally recover MP (like the Swamp Blessing). I do promise it's not a troll though. But given the tone of the game, I totally see how someone could think that! The endgame should trigger at around 330 exp. 

Thanks again for playing! At some point I may take another look at the pacing, especially in the run-up to the endgame. You know, amusingly, I was actually worried it was too short and have been trying to think of ways to go beyond level 5 without breaking things. I guess I read that one wrong.

Thank you for playing, and for the feedback! I also apologize for taking so long to get back to you, things got a bit busy on my end.

I'm definitely glad to hear that you got to the end! I've gotten very little post-win feedback so far. Eviction ending, or did you get one of the rarer ones? I've had a few wins with the Cleric, but I usually had to abuse The Bomb to clear the Golem. Did you have any trouble with that encounter? And yeah, the Demon Lord is sort of a victory lap for the Cleric. I figured that if someone was able to get to the end with the lowest damage class, the rest should be fairly academic.

I absolutely hear you on the enemy variety. That's something I've been thinking about. I agree that there does need to be more diversity in encounters, but I've not had a lot of success in thinking about what that would look like while keeping true to the NES-era of JRPG. I'm thinking a damage over time enemy, which would give more value to using Herb (even for the Cleric). But beyond that, I'm drawing a bit of a blank.

I'm also kind of interested in the fact that you kept seeing the grass and forest. That's definitely a bug, but I can't seem to reproduce it. What should be happening is grass and forest at the start, later with hills mixed in, and finally a mix of only desert and swamp  during the final stretch. I'll keep looking for the problem, and maybe also increase the speed at which that transition happens.

Thank you again for the feedback!

Thank you so much for playing! I meant to get back to this earlier, but I got a bit busy and kind of forgot. Mea culpa.

You are absolutely, 100% correct about that rest/peace/nothing node. It is easily my least favorite part of the game, and I'll see if I can't add a little more quest content in a patch soon so that it is less common. There actually is a rare reward on "nothing" (the common reward is 1 gold) but it might be too rare for that matter.

I'll also take a look at saving a click for "continue." Honestly, that's there because this game is using an engine I made for a somewhat different type of game. It is kind of out of place here now that you mention it. I've just worked in this engine too long at this point that I didn't noticed. Thanks for pointing it out!

Thanks again for playing, and I am glad you enjoyed the writing! The Goth is probably my favorite class; writing the text for that one was pretty enjoyable.

Does this run on Firefox? It fails to start for me with the following error:

Error

The following features required to run Godot projects on the Web are missing:

Cross Origin Isolation - Check web server configuration (send correct headers)

SharedArrayBuffer - Check web server configuration (send correct headers)

I am perhaps not the target audience for an otome isekai game, but I do have a weakness for narrative games that play with self-referential themes and multiple layers of reality. Also, having been there, I always respect those that produce multi-thousand word games in a month.

The game did sell the idea of impending death very well. The sketches that the PC remembered from the game sort of called to mind Long Live the Queen for me, so I was fully expecting the worst and trying to figure out how it would go down. I was definitely surprised, I'll leave it at that!

In terms of things that didn't quite work for me, the meta content was a bit less than subtle than I prefer. Of course, that's probably part of me not being the target audience, which is totally fine.

Anyway, it is a nice VN. I played through for both endings. I'm frankly kind of surprised that there were no ratings or comments for it on this jam.

Obviously early days still, but this does look promising! With the whole roguelite idea, I can see future things like meta-progression giving more options when customizing the ship at the start, and all that. The bones are definitely good.

I'm pretty bad at controlling the ship though, and as such died quickly and often. I actually wasn't getting kills at the start until I tried the shotgun, then realized that the enemies just needed quite a few hits to go down. It also took me a surprising amount of time to work out that the bar in the top left was my health, but I'm sure when the placeholder assets are replaced that will be more clear.

Either way, good work on this!

Yeah, that was a terrible bug actually haha. I sort of changed the secret, bad end right before the deadline, and the quick test I ran didn't reveal the issue. That encounter wasn't meant to be part of the random pool! It should be a little bit tricky to kill landlords (unfortunately?).

Thanks for the report and the kind words. It should be fixed. If you'd like to see more of the game, it should work now! Man, that's embarrassing. Thanks again for the report!

Thank you! I was really hoping someone would appreciate the texts. I definitely had fun with some of them.

That's really good feedback about the item drops. I thought about doing that but didn't. I probably should have ensured that the game was more clear that items were being added occasionally. Especially with the mushrooms that drop herbs, that could be very important to know! Also with the wizard, the Demon Lord is an endless bag of MP for you to Mindsteal. It can be a bit touch and go burning him down before your healing items run out though, especially with silence on the table. My highest win rate thus far has been with the wizard.

Anyway, thank you very much for checking it out!

As it should be.

(TBH I thought about nerfing the MP a bit so it would require wearing weird equipment to one-shot both bosses, but I kind of like having some classes be stronger and other weaker.)

Thanks, and thanks for playing!

Thanks! It may be a little bit before the next one. 3 games in 3 months was took a bit of doing honestly, but rest assured some things are coming!

I definitely know what you mean though. The early game does drag a bit tbh. If I had more time to do some balancing I would definitely have taken a crack at that.

Thank you very much! That's quite kind to say. Despite the material, I tried to be a bit cheeky with it and was a little concerned about how that would land. I'm glad you appreciated it.

I also very much appreciate the feedback. I'll see about making a little patch, probably early in December. Things got unexpectedly busy.

Originally, I did lock any options for which the associated stat was already in shambles. As I quickly found out however, that made it very easy to soft lock; my very first full playthrough resulted in finding myself unable to take either choice, as they were both in shambles. I have a solution actually, but it wasn't quite ready before the jam ended.

Thank you again.

I love the honesty of the title. It's exactly what it says on the tin, and I, for one, can appreciate that.

On the first playthrough I found it a bit jarring how slowly things moved. That the last ten seconds lasted ten minutes was explained via the narrative in the full course of things, however. That was a clever way to handle allowing that much dialog to happen during the event.

Well done! I think describing it as a "meditation on endings and beginnings" is very apt.

I do like the way in which the medium supported the narrative on this one. Working on fitness sometimes does feel a rather lot like rapidly hammering the D key for a few years to only incremental improvement. It was also inspiring the character refused to go back, despite my best efforts. I personally am more susceptible to the pernicious influence of the A key, to my great shame.

Also, I had envisioned a different promise. That took me by surprise.

Well done!

Absolutely nailed the PS1 aesthetic here. I definitely remember countless hours playing games that looked like this and being blown away at how realistic the visuals were.  I miss the late 90s some times.

Also I tried to engage the hydra in heroic combat but instead fell into oblivion.

Very well done. The start screen showing, and allowing testing of, controls is a great touch. Also, that's a lot to fit in a 5MB download!

I still don't know what a limpet is though tbh.

I've got a big weakness for proc gen.  Awesome to have a Mystery Dungeon style action-roguelike in just a few days time.

Thanks! That's ultimately a big part of what interests me in interactive dialog in the first place, and something I hope to include in most of what I do.

Thanks! I did skip a bit of sleep to get it out the door. I only wish I could have got a little more done before the deadline.

Rebellion stirs in the Northern Provinces... rebellion led by you!

Liberation Army is a brief interactive narrative experience that culminates in a large scale battle in the style of Suikoden 1.  It was made for a PS1-themed game jam and was released today, for free!  If that sounds interesting to you, please check it out here: https://high-tower-games.itch.io/liberation-army.