Oh man, this looks like fun, but I'm unable to play it. After Utar spoke (in the same scene shown in this game's screenshot) and the message box closed, I couldn't move anymore. I couldn't get any buttons to work. Clicking on the screen to recapture focus in case I'd lost it didn't help, either. Please help!
Overall Fun: My favorite thing about this game is being a braggadocious, glory-seeking hero. :D Plus, the mythical ancient Greek setting is fun, and so is the dialogue. Unfortunately, I'm finding it difficult to progress through this game due to balance issues and level design bugs. (My current status: doing a second go-around for the sake of level grinding, but now stuck because it seems the button that opened the route deeper, also closed off part of the loop.) If those issues were fixed, Overall Fun could easily be a 5 out of 5. But as it is, I didn't get the chance to experience much of the game. It's a shame, because it seems to have much to offer.
Art/Graphics: I love the retro look, and the enemy art and character portraits are great! I agree with others' comments that making the bright grass green less saturated (maybe aim for a light spring green instead of the current neon green) would be an improvement. Redrawing the hero so they don't look quite so flat from the side would be good, too.
Controls/UI: The UI basically does what it needs to. My biggest ask would be for a quicksave: not for save scumming purposes, but so that I can save my progress and exit the game mid-dungeon when I have to go do something out-of-game.
The item descriptions are informative and often funny. They could benefit from giving more details on some things: how much magic or life an item heals (even if it's vague like "a little" or "a lot"), seeing a more complete breakdown of which stats a weapon or armor increases before buying, etc.
Sound/Music: Fits well with the aesthetic, and some of the tunes are quite catchy! My favorite music so far is Thebes, and the slime dungeon. My one complaint is that the music and sounds aren't all matched for volume. For instance, Thebes' music is quieter than most other sounds and music, and some spells and buffs are too loud. I had to adjust my volume between areas so that I could hear the town music, and not have my ears ringing from some in-battle sounds.
Overall, this has the makings of an excellent game, and just needs some rough spots smoothed out. I'm glad I got a chance to play, and hope to play again next version. :)
This is probably a stupid question, but what does Goo do? I've gotten a lot of it from Slimes, and it shows as if it's supposed to be usable both in and out of battle, but it doesn't do anything in either case. I was hoping if I knew what it was for, it would help me in the forest where I'm finding it; I'm struggling here.
Yeah, I first approached that guy from the north, because I'd emerged from the great big basement area where I defeated the slime boss, then up through the dungeon, through the palace, etc.
I was having fun! I'd just defeated a certain very stinky boss, and was on my way back from the north side of Thebes, when I talked to a guy who was standing on a bridge, and suggested he go west. And now my character can't move. I can't open my menu either. Please help!
It's very generous of you to offer! I wasn't going to ask for financial support until I launch the game's Kickstarter campaign later this year, but since you're offering, I've updated my Ko-fi page for the purpose. If you wish to donate, I'll put the money to good use on the game. https://ko-fi.com/mckathlin
I definitely plan on changing up teammate counts and join conditions by Alpha 5. Your battle UI suggestions are good ideas as well; I'm considering them. Thank you so much for the feedback!
Thanks for the tech support! I ran dxdiag and found out my computer has DirectX 12.
In my experience so far, Windows 11 runs basically everything that Windows 10 runs, but I suppose there could be some exceptions. If we're out of ideas for further troubleshooting, I'd better thank you for your time and let you go. I appreciate your help!
I copied in the Saved folder in the place given in the directions of the fix you sent over. Unfortunately, the screen is still black, as before. Do I need to install DirectX?
Update: I used dxdiag and found out that my computer is running DirectX version 12. I hope this helps.
Thanks for the reply! I downloaded Brave x Valor 2.1.1. I'm using Windows 11, and I have Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2013 installed on it. I don't see any installation of DirectX on my computer. What version of DirectX, if any, should I make sure I have?
Hi Anigames Project! I installed the Brave X Valor demo and started it up, but the only things from the game I could actually see were the language selection flags, and the disclaimer text. After those were done showing, everything was pitched black and remained that way for several minutes until I gave up. I heard the game's music (which sounds amazing!) and could tell that my laptop was heating up and working very hard, but I saw nothing.
I suspect that this is a graphics card issue. My laptop is only a couple years old and its graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. I hope I'll get a chance to try out this game; if you get another build ready for me to try, please reply to let me know. Thank you!
I've tried playing again since your updates, and I can play in an area now without lock-ups. I also noticed that the options have graphics settings; I turned mine down to Good. I appreciate your attention to getting the game to work for lesser machines like mine. :D
The game looks fantastic all around, and the music enhances the experience nicely as well. The HUD gave me enough to go by to open the options screen and see the controls; I appreciate that. I knew which key to use to salvage, but... I didn't know where to go or what to look for to find salvage. I headed toward a frame of cubes with pipes in them, looked around and on them, inside the pipes, but my oxygen was down at emergency levels and I'd still found nothing that responded to my attempts to salvage. I'm going to have to say it: your game needs a tutorial.
Another little question: in the area selection screen, money steadily counts down. I can only guess this is a deliberate gameplay mechanic, but my question is, why?
Anyway, more important thing is I don't know how to salvage, I don't know how to learn how to salvage, so once again, it feels like a game I want to play is evading my attempts to play it. Please help when you can. Thanks!
I just checked, and my computer seems to have two installed: AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. I'm not sure which is actually doing the work, but the NVIDIA one has a more recent install date, so I'm going to guess that one.
The juxtaposition of single-color pixel art and use of parallax motion for backgrounds is trippy; I like it!
The farthest I got before making this comment was Level 2. I go all over the level tracking down four switches, then face a boss I don't know how to fight yet, and when I lose... I'd have to do all of that over again? That's very true to how games of the 80s were, but I'm not sure I like it. haha XD
Sound nitpick: the hearts and switches could use some little sound effects. Other than that, the music and sound are great, very appropriate for the aesthetic.
I went to one submission's Itch page to download and rate it (as it has no ratings yet), but it seems the only way to get it is to pay money. Is it still a valid entry in FeedbackFest, or should I report it?
This game is looking promising! I know you're quick to explain that the visuals are in an early state, and most textures are plain for now, but what's done so far is done well! The models have pleasing shapes and an appropriate level of detail, and the lighting for each area sets the mood. The music sounds great, too; compliments to your composer.
The first few minutes of play are vital to a first impression; I feel that this game could do well to give the player some action or at least some visuals sooner. I walked through several dark scenes, reading backstory that I hadn't yet seen a world or other characters to contextualize. Once I woke up into the world, an NPC gave me a large menu of information to read up on, but when I saw the battle in front of me, I wanted to know what button I could use to fight, to join one of the many skirmishes I saw to help my side, but I couldn't find that in the menu. I eventually gave up and walked on. (My guess, looking back, is that no battle opportunity for the player is intended here. But I didn't know that at the time.)
To be honest, with all the walking I'd done, and all the information I had access to, I still didn't know what sort of battle format to expect: whether this was an action RPG with on-map battles, or a turn-based RPG with a separate battle scene, or something else. Once the with an Archdemon started, that answered that question for me. Though there were many menu options, they were easy to navigate, and the tooltips explaining the various skills helped me understand exactly what I'd get from using them. The Archdemon's challenge level was appropriate: there was room to make mistakes without being wiped out by them, and enough time that I could see the effects of buffs the characters cast, try different skills' effectiveness, etc. The battles are solid.
I have a few nitpicks on out-of-battle UI aesthetics:
The font used for most of the text is very square; it seems like it would be more at home in a blocky-looking or futuristic game; I'm not sure it's a good fit for your game, given its classic fantasy setting and objects with more-or-less organic silhouettes. I'd probably pick a serif font that has a little bit of character but is still highly readable.
The "confirm" sound effect strikes me as too "extra" for something that the player hears with every button click. I'd advise picking a more subdued sound effect for ordinary selection-making, and repurpose the current confirm sound for something more special, such as accepting a quest or receiving an item.
I felt like the info NPC's menu could have required much less scrolling if vertical space were managed differently, such as by letting longer lists of choices appear to the side in a taller window, or letting choice buttons be arranged in more than one column, or simply by shortening the button heights and vertical space between buttons a bit.
Thanks for letting me try out your game. Though I've barely scratched the surface, I can tell the game offers rich gameplay and story. I hope my feedback will help you see it from the eyes of a player who's just getting started, so that you can make the best first impression possible.
This game is clearly in very early development; I see potential.
I appreciate that each level has its own unique appearance and background music. (The background music sounds good; unfortunately, it cuts off after only a few seconds into the level.) The new type of enemy added with each subsequent level is a nice challenge progression, but I found some things about the levels confusing. Due to the difference in appearance between the fully rendered 3-D zombies and the tiny red sprites, it took me a few sudden deaths before I realized that the tiny red sprites are also enemies. Another thing I was never able to get past was that after I killed all the enemies, I was teleported to a different part of the level, sometimes I couldn't move, and I soon lost without knowing what was happening. Sometimes I could see a floating box with a glowing square on it; other times I had no idea what hit me. Was this some sort of boss enemy? Perhaps more is needed to help orient the player.
I experienced several issues with the user interface:
When I start moving around in the 3-D world after having been in a menu, I can't use my mouse to turn until I've clicked at least once.
I also have a mouse issue inside menus: the first click doesn't seem to do anything. Both this and the problem above seem to be a matter of screen state changes interrupting mouse capture.
Minor nitpick, but I felt like the distance I needed to be to a door in order to open it was unnecessarily close.
Several menu items are misspelled. Please let me know if you'd like detailed corrections; with a bit of time, I can provide them.
If you'd like help with English proofreading or further usability testing, please let me know. I'd be happy to help.
I didn't end up having long to spend on it, but I noticed the game has more than one background music now. Is the first battle harder than I remember, or is that just me? Learning new spells is exciting and definitely adds variety to gameplay!
This game's concept sounds like something I'd love to try out, and the visuals I got the chance to see looked good. The map for picking an area was pleasant to browse. Unfortunately, as soon as I entered an area (I picked Fortress, the newb area in the middle), my game froze up. I opened the Task Manager, but then I couldn't get a response from anything I clicked on, not in game, not in the Task Manager, nothing on my computer would respond to clicks. I had to restart my computer. My laptop is only a couple years old and doesn't normally act like this, so I'd suggest looking into these possible issues in the game:
The game's graphics may place a high demand on the computer's graphics card; this could cause the game to freeze up on a computer that doesn't have a high-end graphics card.
The game may be failing to release mouse capture when it's out of focus (e.g. when the player tabs out to another program or opens Task Manager).
Another important usability issue to be aware of: the sound effects and music are very loud. I had to crank my volume down to half its usual level to listen comfortably.
I want to try out this game, but it feels like it doesn't want me to try it out just yet! LOL
If you'd like to have me playtest the game for the bugfixes above or (once I actually can play) for anything else, let me know; I'd love to give it another try when it'll let me. :D
