overall, an impressively well executed story that perfectly builds on the world and characters established in facets.
if i'm to be a bit of a stickler (which i am), i have to say that the action scenes felt a bit off (although the magic system was very well done), especially the final one that i felt dragged on for too long. i also felt that mana burning wasn't given nearly as much weight as it should have. and as much as i like the idea of the scene, the confrontation in chapter 27 felt a bit melodramatic. i wanted to like it but the dialogue just didn't resonate with me.
but look, it obviously can't have been that bad seeing as i read the entire thing in one sitting, glued to my screen. for every little problem i just nitpicked, there were a couple of moments that i had to stop and take them in because they were just perfect. the sequence in chapters 22-25 was particularly striking and i'm definitely going to remember it for a long time. besides that, slow burn romance is my kryptonite and i found the setting and characters very interesting.
again, thank you for making this. you should be proud.
a phenomenal game. there are very few RPGs that have combat that i enjoy, but this is one of them. the mechanics and skills are incredibly simple but have a strong amount of depth, and crucially, the encounters all thoughtful and don't waste your time. i also really enjoyed the narrative. the premise is compelling and the execution is to match. like the rest of the game, it's compact, but what's there is of extremely high quality.
the only problems this game has are the production limitations (art, general rpg maker jank), and item management. i love that you have to carefully manage your resources, but realizing that you don't have enough potions to get through an encounter (as i did), and having to go back to an earlier part of the game to clear things more efficiently is just... not ideal. i think maybe something like an estus flask style system where potions refill after each facet defeated would have been much better.
all that said though, i still really do love this game. i like that i needed to attempt some bosses 10+ times, consult the maps to navigate the obtuse areas, and struggle. precisely in line with the narrative, this game does not want you to beat it. and i like the heart. i didn't quite cry at the end but i was close, and this will definitely stick with me for a very long time.
heya, i'm a little late to the party but i wanted to weigh in a bit. i think the art style, music, and overall design are very solid with the main weakness being the gameplay / feel. so i'm going to be a negative nancy and focus on that (sorry!).
the movement is okay. it's certainly on the floater side, which isn't necessarily bad, but i feel it's a bit sluggish. i think ways to move faster in both axises would be good. maybe being able to fast fall by holding down in the air, and some sort of way to travel faster on the ground like a dash or run, or even even just a small lurch forward when you attack as an extra movement option.
also, maybe consider extending the jump buffer. might just be a skill issue but it felt like the game was dropping some jump inputs at times.
EDIT: i noticed after writing this there's a dash in the trailer, good!!!!!!!!!!!!
i think the combat plays pretty good and i enjoyed the worm boss, but it feels a bit weightless. i can't quite put my finger on it, but compared to hollow knight which has similar combat, the hits don't feel nearly as powerful. i think some combination of adjustments to sound effects, particles, and hit stop could help with this.
while i think it's good for the first area, the combat is rather simple and i think it would really need to ramp up in complexity for future areas. if there's only a moderate amount of development throughout the game, i think i would get bored of it.
the seed system is a really cool idea, but i feel in the game currently the execution isn't that great. the effects don't feel game changing enough to really affect how you play that much. i think making them more impactful, with perhaps even some modification to the basic movement / sword strikes depending on what seed you have might be good.
also, i feel it might be good to provide an incentive to switch seeds, such as perhaps limited uses, or maybe when you drop one it's destroyed and unleashes a powerful attack. when i played, i kinda just found one i liked and stuck with it, which isn't ideal
i think botanica has a lot of potential, it just feels a bit one-note. but despite that, i enjoyed playing it overall (the orchestra in the silk woods was <3), and i'm looking forward to the final game.
i hope the best for you and second fiddle, genuinely :)
i haven't played MUCH but here's my quick little review
- i really like the music
- the art style is really pretty, but the visual clarity suffers. (especially when using hyper). maybe consider making the player's bullets less pronounced?
- i like how the game encourages speed / aggression with bullet spread encouraging you to get in close and rewards for quickly killing enemies. it adds a lot of depth for experienced players without overly punishing those who are more cautious and just wanna hang back
- the randomized enemies are cool, but currently they all kinda blend together for me, both aesthetically and mechanically. if you compare it to satryn's cast of foes, the possibility space is a lot lower - but i'm sure it'll get better with more variation in bullet patterns and the like.
overall, really nice lil' project. i'll be keeping my eye on it :)
the whole theming for this game was really creative and i liked it a lot even if i don't understand music theory and how it translates into the enemies and weapons in the game.
the presentation was really good to, all the enemies looked really animated and expressive (although as others have mentioned, the blur effect is a bit extreme). the music and sound effects were also really nice and i loved how they were incorporated into the game's theme.
i also enjoyed the constantly switching weapons. though i honestly didn't notice a difference for most of the modifiers, maybe they could have been made more extreme. i also found it hard to aim, i think due to the perspective and the really long cursor. maybe it would be better if instead of a cursor, there was a glowing circle on the ground that shows where you're shooting.
i like the double jump mechanic, and i think there's potential for some really cool gameplay where you launch yourself really fast
that said, the game was kind of hard to play. i'm not 100% sure if it was due to lag, or a motion blur, but turning the camera kind of made my head hurt. i also found the movement sort of unreliable, sometimes i would just launch almost straight up, i wish you had more control over the angle. maybe it's just skill issue though
having you're actions on dice and strategizing around which set of dice to use is a really interesting concept. also the casino looks pretty nice.
i did find the game hard to understand. you can't see how much health cards have (unless you're doing an attack that targets a specific card), or how much damage they do, or how much health you have. i also felt that none of the battles really forced you to change your strategy since all the enemies were very similar. i kinda just clicked on the two dice i thought were the best over and over.
that said, i really like this concept for the battle system, and would love to see it expanded.
though, i wish the negative objects for low rolls were more impactful. on my first run, i was purposely trying to go for low rolls because i didn't read the instructions and thought high rolls were bad. despite this, i still survived until turn ~380 because even the stones really aren't that bad unless you let them accumulate for literally hundreds of turns. also minor bug: i'm pretty sure when you roll a die right, it rolls as if you had turned it left
still, i really like this concept even if i had problems with the implementation. i'd love to see it fleshed out more. good job :)
very cool game. i would suggest making the timer larger and clearer though, i spent like a minute not understanding why i was dying because i didn't see it. but i had a lot of fun, nice job
i've been using this for my game, very nice program. i really like how it you can have two tools selected at the same time with the left and right mouse buttons. i do have some suggestions however:
it would be really nice to be able to click and drag frames around on the timeline (even better if you could also select multiple frames by shift clicking). working with animations longer a few frames feels quite unwieldy right now.
i wish there was an option to sync options between both the left and right tools (mirroring, pixel perfect, size, etc).
it would be useful if the pixel indicator was mirrored so you can get a better sense of the symmetry
also, is there some sort of development timeline somewhere for future planned features?
