I suppose I'll write up my personal thoughts now. Was going to wait a bit longer so as not to bias anyone reading, but I don't want to forget.
If we exclude Alexander from the discussion (otherwise he wins for me overall, given that I really enjoy both tanks and mage knights, and also, he's definitely deliberately very good as the required use character), I think the best is Ariadne. She's my go-to for destroying large packs with spread Burning stacks, but she also has good focus damage with Incinerate, and I think her overall kit is just very nicely cohesive.
Ironically, Ligaea and Calysia are probably tied for second strongest to me. Ligaea can just delete enemies if properly setup, and overall her single target output is just extremely high. Since the game definitely has a lot of priority targets to kill, that has a lot of utility. Honestly, it's only how many things resist ranged physical that keeps her from breaking the game. XD Especially now that she has Barrage. But she has a very high skill floor for effective use, so I see why it would be easy to feel like she's weak. It's very in character for her, though, haha. As for Calysia, her single target output is actually quite strong as well, especially for someone who's mainly a healer. If you need heals, she gives you heals. XD Lorena's healing is workable, but definitely not on the same level. But mainly, I think she's very strong in that she does her main job very well while having decently good ability to do other things too.
Weakest really is hard for me to say. Before the recent rework, definitely would've been Sindarion. After the rework, I lean toward Cynthia by a tiny margin, mainly because there can be some awkwardness in properly building/using Fury for her (something I want to adjust in the future). Plus, while she's extremely tanky if played defensively, that does cripple her damage output, while her damage is pretty high in Blood Oath but at the cost of putting her at dangerously low HP sometimes. None of that makes her *bad*, but I do feel like she's the least good by a tiny margin, at least for how I tend to play.
I believe it's possible. According to someone else who played it with that, you may need to deactivate cheats. See this thread: https://itch.io/t/3203309/need-some-help
This is something I'm not certain of, honestly. It's possible it will be available later into the game, but I haven't decided for sure. There will definitely be chances to revisit old places, and some freedom in the order of doing it, but I'm less certain how much sense it would make to fully open up that way just given the overall nature of the passage of time is handled. So, will see.
It was just sort of a softlock. There was a scene with an adult version and a non-adult version in different places. If you went top the dungeon with adult content on after doing the normal version, it would trigger the adult version too, but without all the hook-ins afterward since you already did that.
Thanks to the impressive work of StormyAngel, we have a pretty solid start on it as well, including a walkthrough that covers up through the end of the current public version! Contributions in general are always welcome, but also the walkthrough should be complete enough to be of help if you know anyone who would rather play with it to guide them.
This is primarily a fan project, not one I'm running, so I'm not the one to direct general questions/comments to (though, feel free to comment on this post if you like), but I thought it deserved some publicity here on Steam. I did help a little with the layout, so if you have suggestions on that, can direct those to me as well.
The game does not include grinding in general. That said, the passage of time isn't really a management factor either. Rather, time passes when you advance the story, so you have as much time as you need to find all the events available in a given section before moving on. So, while there are no unlimited sources of variables, the game is also balanced around the number available before that point (and, on balance, I prefer to err on the side of avoiding frustration).
1). There are variables for rulership outcomes, but they're raised through things like doing sidequests or your choices in the story. Their effects are also mainly on story factors (as an example, if you're given the option to deploy your army to fight corruption, how well it does may be related to your Army Quality value). They aren't character attributes ala Persona.
2. No, the romance of the game is currently focused on the three main characters in a developing menage-a-trois type FFM three way-romance, one which may potentially include a few more girls later on. In the future, I do plan to have some side romances between other pairs of characters (though no one who Alexander has any chemistry with himself).
Just wanted to make a few notes about bug reporting. If you encounter a crash to desktop with a popup saying to check the console for more information, the game should create an error_log.txt in the game directory. If you could include the contents of this file in any crash reports, it would be greatly appreciated. Fixing crashes is a high priority, and I'll try to get a new version out ASAP.
For other bugs, a description of how you encountered it and, if applicable, a screenshot is appreciated. Feel free to post any issue in its own thread for easy visibility. If you prefer, you can also post your issues on the comments section of the game site.
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with joiplay. Looking it up, it seems to be an emulator for mobile? In that case, it seems like the issue is that one of my scripts is adjusting keys and the emulator can't recognize that correctly. Unfortunately, while I have some scripting knowledge, this might be outside my realm of expertise to fix. Do you know of anywhere I might be able to find support on compatibility with this emulator?
I definitely would like to have art one day. Sadly, it is beyond my budget at the present time (and, as a creator myself, I don't consider AI art ethical, beyond issues like it being not copyrightable and the fact that it could be ruled to be infringing on copyright itself in the future). If the game is successful, I'd definitely like to add CGs one day, both for intimate moments and key plot scenes.
I'm glad you've been enjoying the game so far, though!
Thank you very much! I'm happy to hear you've been enjoying it! While I can't take credit for making any of the art resources, I was very happy with the ones I found for the characters, so I'm glad you liked them as well! Yep, Celestials (Hysperia) and Demons (Velestia). Mapping might be one of my favorite parts of game design! So I'm definitely happy to hear you enjoyed... So much detail work on Liore Palace XD
Of course, my other favorite part is coming up with combat systems and unique character mechanics, haha. Given the scope of the contest game, I'm afraid you've found all the characters in this game already, but in future games I definitely intend to pursue other atypical designs like that. I have another longer-running RPG at the blog in my profile link with unusual character designs too, though it's NSFW. But if that's not your thing, I definitely intend to do more all-ages projects like Empyreal Wings in the future as well. Overall, glad to hear you enjoyed it. and thanks a lot for the comment!
