itch.io

Full disclosure: I also have an entry in the game jam.

Interesting game.  Some really great looking maps (I will definitely be hunting down those tilesets). I liked all the flavor text that rewarded the player for exploring (At least on the early maps. Later maps were not as 'flavorful'.)

I didn't see anything in the rules about making changes to a submitted game before the deadline. Hopefully, you will find the following observations useful and can use them to improve the game before the deadline. 

With any luck, your game will attract non-RPGM devs on Itch.io.  To shorten their learning curve, consider a brief tutorial on the controls at the start. Include that the books are save points.  Alternatively, you could turn AutoSave on (System1 tab) so that the game autosaves every map change. 

I'm still trying to master parallax lighting myself so know it's not the easiest to implement. However, the lit areas are too circular and don't account for things like walls that would occlude the light. 

The two sets of stairs leading to the landing with the first mob appears to have a passability issue. Only the side with the blue stripe is passable.  

It was not obvious where all the doors were since they were obscured by the walls and banisters. Perhaps place the events below the player and set them to player touch instead of action button.  That way the text window automatically pops up when they approach a door.  Also include the name of the map or room the door goes to in the text window (e.g., "The [room name] door is locked. I'll need to find a key."

Consider using the TinyGetInfoWndMZ.js plugin that comes with MZ to popup a window whenever the player gains a key.  After the 3rd key, I had to keep opening the Items menu to see which key I had found so I knew where to go.

Oftentimes, I didn't know where to go to find the door a newly found key went to. Perhaps give Reid an inner monologue to help guide the player along. "Hmm, a [room name] key. I recall seeing that door near the [landmark/point of interest]. " Reid also witnesses some unusual things that would surely give him something to think about. 

Slow the speed for the credits scrolling text. I'm a fast reader but I had to reload my last save to catch everything. 

Good luck!

Neuralsplyce

After playing for 3 hours I can say you have a solid game here that just needs some polish.

I defeated 2 bosses and used 3 elemental maps with a party of five: 4 characters levels 11 - 13 and a level 30 Golden Bat.

The game gets grindy fast. I suggest working on the narrative - give the player a reason to grind or at least make them believe the grind is accomplishing something worthwhile. I think you could start by adding a mentor/trainer/talent agent to give the player a tour and explain the game mechanics and a short backstory for the tower. If you want non-RPG Maker devs or diehard RPGM game fans to play this game, I suggest creating a brief tutorial to explain the  basic controls (navigating menus is where people get the most confused: Escape >click Items > clicks Armor > click the armor item > Escape> Escape to back out, etc.)

I found the start of the game very confusing, First, I don't think there was enough information about the different characters to choose from.  When I was teleported to the main map I wasn't sure which direction I was supposed to go or what the different vendors do (shards? mysterious potions for sale with no description).  I made the mistake of heading straight for the mobs and nearly getting killed by level 6 mobs because I had no weapons or armor.  Perhaps the player should be teleported to the HQ in order to open the chest to get their starting gear. 

I liked the upgradeable HQ mechanic. I'm not sure if the basement is supposed to do anything after the first visit, however.  There's potential to do more story telling at the HQ and develop the character of the party members to make them memorable.

Not sure why, but until I defeated the first mob I was unable to save or interact with any shop vendors.

As I mentioned above, the staple consumables have no description text so require some trial and error to figure out what they do. 

I'm not sure where the Bestiary draws it's information from. None of the mobs I faced ever had HP levels that low (Are the entries based on a level 1 mob?)

Given how much of the game is spent in battle, perhaps create a Common Event that randomizes the BGM selected for each battle. After 30+ battles hearing the same BGM, I turned the BGM volume off. 

The two boss battles were a bit of a challenge, especially since I was below the recommended levels.  The rewards were very disappointing though. I'd received more XP and more and better rewards in other battles. Other than the monster shard, I'm not sure what is the point of those battles?  Given the game title and title screen, I was expecting something like Aincrad in Sword Art Online where defeating a boss took me to another level or advanced a storyline.

Here are some bugs/typos I encountered:

Shop map typo: Summon Master and Golden Master - Any monster shards to 'exchance' 

Item: Aracne Wise Jade Axe.  Is this supposed to be Arcane or Arachnid?

Credits: Failed to load BGM/CreditTune.ogg

              Failed to load image title1/Island.png and plain.png

Did I miss the credits entry for Kadokawa and Degica Games?

Keep up the good work. 

Congratulations on finishing your first game and with custom assets too!

I like the title and the play of words on REM.  

I really appreciate the flavor text on objects in the house. 

Nice job making the generic students use the same sprite so players know which NPCs are worth talking to. 

Bug? After completing the sequence for the math test and the presentation at work, when you try to eat lunch in school cafeteria again it still says you forgot your calculator.

 I went back to the second floor and got stuck in the same game loop. When I went back to give the speech again I was stuck on the message about my clothing. I went back to the boss, exited his office into my house, left the bedroom and couldn't get back in and couldn't leave the house  so I quit at that point.

In future games, consider a short tutorial for players who may not have played RPG Maker games - how to interact with objects, enter and exit menus. Early on, I also like to use the twinkle sprite (!Flame in MV???)  on objects to let the player know objects can be interacted with. 

FYI. Blow1.ogg  is missing in the demo (error when fighting the Gnomes).

I am so glad I took a break from my project to browse for plugins on Itch.io. This plugin will save me a few hours tonight from making custom sprites. And I can change the hues! Many thanks.

The changes look great.

Glad I could help. I like to make edutainment games in RPG Maker as well and I know how hard it is to get people to play them. I feel like I have to work twice as hard to make the games rewarding.  I'll download the updated version and go through it.

A few comments and suggestions if you are still maintaining this game. 

I have played, and created, numerous RPG Maker games, but even I was unsure what to do for the first 5 - 10 minutes. Offering a basic tutorial and emergent tips will reduce this confusion. You can make emergent tips by placing transparent events over some of the items on the first floor with text messages so that players learn that they can interact with objects in the game. I make a couple of events near the starting location that trigger on Player Touch. As the player moves around and learns to click on the screen, the other objects trigger on Action Button. For example, the big red box near the front door. What is it for? Even if it is only decoration, it should have a text message letting the player know if it is important later in the game or not at all:  "You don't know how to open this, yet." 

Likewise, the door exit event should have an event page at the start of the game that explains why the player can't/won't leave the house (perhaps also add a Movement Route to have the player take one step backward).

Consider making a Player Manual.  Create a key item called Player Manual and add to party inventory at start of game. The key Item triggers a Common Event called Player Manual with 4 Choices - Movement, Combat, Main Menu, Items/Weapons/Armor - that lead to a series of text messages explaining the basics of playing an RPG Maker game.

bug fixes

On the second floor, the wall tile to the right of the Automaton mirror is still set to passthrough which makes it possible for the party to walk inside the walls. If you remove the recess in the wall here and make the wall flush, that will fix it instead of modifying the tileset.

After speaking to any of the NPCs for the first time, when I talk to them again they repeat the same dialogue. Seems you are missing a self-switch or variable setting in these events to trigger the next event page. 

Are the random encounters necessary?  At the very least, reduce how frequently they trigger.  I keep triggering random encounters every 5 - 10 steps.  I started escaping every encounter so I could continue playing the story.  They became so frequent that I finally quit the game.

Everything worked. I finished the game and watched until the final fadeout. 

I'll try to play it again tomorrow.

I'm with you, I prefer downloadable games. When I was getting ready to submit this game I was told by a Jam veteran to submit it as a browser-based game to ensure the widest audience. 

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

Spirit and essence of Harold:  Harold is the hero and leader of the party. 
Fun:  Potential is there.
Creativity:  Really well crafted game world by someone with  significant experience with RMMV and plugins. 
General Comments:  Unfortunately, it felt like I was dropped into the hollowed shell of another game.  The game world is massive. I sailed all over the place and visited dozens of towns and dungeons.  I ran into half a dozen NPCs who knew Harold and wanted to join the party although they had never been encountered before.   I was never given any sidequests so wandered aimlessly. Traveling on the overworld turned in to a chore because random encounters seemed to happen every 10 steps. Combat was imbalanced, fortunately in favor of the party. We made quick work of the mobs, but there were hundreds of them due to the high encounter rate.  I liked the Dictate book, but discovered it has a limit of ~50 entries.  When I tried to find the dialogue from the early game, I only found the quips from the last dozen battles.  I had no idea what I was supposed to be looking for and after an hour and a half, I forgot what the quest was and stopped playing.

I got to Michael and right as the battle was about to start, the game crashed with this error:

TypeError: undefined is not a constructor
at Particle_Layer.addEmitter()
at Game_Event.createPageEmitter()
at Game_Event.setupPage()
at Game_Event.refresh()
at
at Array.forEach()
at Game_Map.refresh
at Game_Map.refreshIfNeeded()
at Game_Interpreter.command205()
at Game_Interpreter.execuite.Command()

It works now. 

 A few issues that, hopefully, can be fixed before the deadline. The primary issue is the ladder at the end of the first level doesn't go anywhere. I was able to walk on the top of the dungeon walls, thinking I would trigger something or gain access to a walled off area.  I traced the entire map twice trying to finding a switch or alternate exit (I reached level 8 from the random encounters)  Ice Fang skill and many of the care package items have no description. 

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

Spirit and essence of Harold:  Harold is the hero.
Fun:  Too frustrating. 
Creativity:  A lot of work was done to customize the game.  I like the ideas of the ballista and catapult.
General Comments:  It's too bad there isn't enough time left to fix this game. It appears a lot of time and effort was put into making the game but not enough into play testing. There are numerous small typos throughout.  Why does Harold take damage while collecting potions but not while swimming?  Why does Harold get teleported after finding the dog? Returning to that map to find the hidden items unnecessarily consumed a lot of time. Instead of making the player consume the candies that increase Harold's stats, why not make that happen when they are found and have a popup message inform the player.  After failing to win 4 times, I stopped playing.  The first playthrough, I was able to trigger the ballista, but missed because I could not aim at a dragon I could not see. The catapult only worked for me on one playthrough even though I had the mudball.  Apparently, if you try to catch the cat neither the ballista nor the catapult will activate. I failed on the 4th attempt because the exit at the gate wouldn't trigger to allow me to fight the dragon (I'm guessing one of the side quests I skipped to save time triggers the exit).

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

Spirit and essence of Harold:  Hrld was the hero and leader
Fun:  Goofy fun
Creativity:  Although the custom graphics are crude, the battle animations are pretty good. 
General Comments:  My battles ended too soon to hit 100 TP. The Legendary Sword was too OP to really see it shine. Perhaps could have added some minions to the final boss fight. 

Unfortunately, I was unable to get this to run. The error the executable gives is "Your browser does not support WebGL' 

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

Spirit and essence of Harold:  Harold is the center of attention
Fun:  Great game. It was entertaining and had a lesson to it.
Creativity:  Good use of plugins and custom graphics
General Comments:  If you have time to tweak the game before the deadline, I think the combat would feel more enticing if the mobs dropped some kind of loot - or increase the drop rate of of medicinal cordials. Also, consider healing the entire party when they arrive at the pirate island. RNGeezus was not kind and my party was already around 50% HP when they arrived and out of medicinal cordials. I barely survived the final battle - where they drop a ton of health items that were no longer useful.  Otherwise, very well crafted game.

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

Spirit and essence of Harold: Harold is front and center
Fun:  Interesting story but without many opportunities for player choice and frequent narrator control over Harold, it felt like a bit like a visual novel.
Creativity:  Numerous good ideas executed in this game. Lots of custom art and music. Great use of plugins.
General Comments:  I played the Game Jam version which may explain why the conclusion of the story was abrupt. Many of the large maps felt empty. Without a border, it was never clear where there were exits to another map and where there were dead ends.
FYI, you can significantly reduce the size of the .zip file by selecting 'Exclude unused files' during deployment. This will ensure only files used within the game are copied into the deployment folder (Most of the file size comes from the very full BGM folder)

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

Spirit and essence of Harold: Harold is the most Harold he can be

Fun:  Interesting game

Creativity:  Unique idea to build a game within the game. This could be built upon to create tutorials. Glad to see someone else incorporating Text-To-Speech for narration.

General Comments:  A couple of typos and grammatical errors but otherwise well-crafted. It wasn't quite clear what happened the first time the game looped. Maybe add a comment in the first time loop about going back in time or being given another chance. 

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

Spirit and essence of Harold:  It's Harold  (just equipped with some non-standard accessories)
Fun:  Entertaining little game
Creativity:  Great use of parallax.  Loved the rotation of skills and animations in battle
General comments:  Solid game with good mechanics. Would be funny if the boss dropped teeth as loot and Harold had a one-liner about the dentist or his dental hygiene.  FYI, if you click on 'Exclude unused files' during deployment, you can significantly reduce the size of the game package by removing unused RTP music, sounds, and pictures. 

Have seen the Slurm episode of Futurama? I was just thinking it would be funny if the party collected up all the slime corpses and made them into a signature drink at their inn.

This is only my second jam and I wasn't sure myself if bug fixes and updates were allowed once a game has been submitted. I don't see anything in rules that say you can't.  Maybe ask the sponsor for clarification.  I would not be opposed to anyone making updates or bug fixes.

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

Spirit and essence of Harold:  Harold was in it
Fun:  Too many minor bugs to have fun. The ending was abrupt and anti-climactic.
Creativity:   Some good puzzle concepts. Nice to see a non-RMMV game.  Good music.
General comments:   Interacting with the popup windows is difficult. If I had not read a comment, I would not have guessed to use X to close the windows. Sometimes I had to press X twice. The longer dialogue windows did not show all the text (it was truncated or missing). I noticed that nothing on the map has collision set and I could walk over trees, water, and buildings. There are two paths that go offscreen but they do not appear to lead to other maps. I walked off the screen and had some difficulty returning.  I noticed the fox turns into two sprites when running.

Seeing a game project to completion is an accomplishment that is often reward enough. Most people do not realize how much time and effort goes into making something creative. What takes them a minute to experience can require an hour or more of development work.

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

Spirit and essence of Harold:  It's definitely Harold (and company)
Fun: Fun little adventure. 
Creativity:  Great use of custom graphics and RMMV functions.  Nice move route work with the slimes. Good dialogue that felt believable.
General comments:  The boss battle made me miss the enemy HP bar many RPG (non-RMMV) games have. It would have been nice if the boss dropped some loot or there was something to loot from his throne room.  The party could have used the loot to fund their business venture.

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

I like the graphical gameplay tutorials. 
Very cool game. Great use of custom art and tilesets. 
Imaginative puzzles. I was hoping the books and photo albums would show pictures of Harold and friends.

Full Disclosure: I have an entry in the Jam.

Nice simple game. A few typos and grammatical errors but mechanically sound.
Is the combat supposed to be so easy? I noticed Harold never seemed to take damage. When I used the Normal Punch I would hit for no damage but the monsters died anyway.
Nice battle animations. 
On the side path near Harold's home, I was hoping to find an Easter egg, secret room, or interesting character. (I did find the two hidden events in the woods. Nice pathing.)