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That's so helpful, thank you :D
And yeah it is technically possible to do every fight without the "intended Relic combo" (Besides Chimes currently) but that one is especially hard since you'd need to keep up health and MP and chunk in damage when it's safe.
If you have some improved Relics that gel well with the encounter, that allows for a bit more wiggle room.

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to get so far into the demo and provide all of this feedback! I haven’t played the games you mentioned (the equipment system in RoA is mainly inspired by level 1 Dark Souls runs and Monster Hunter) but I’ll be sure to check them out, thanks for the suggestion.

I’ve gotten some feedback on the intro with the car and all of that, I totally agree. It’s very much a placeholder. That’s also a good point about the controls. I personally play mouse only or with a controller (and occasionally use the spacebar and ESC) so it was not as front of mind as it could have been.

I believe RPG Maker does support italicized text, I’ve been bouncing around with a few ways to show things happening in text. It’s definitely not final state. Some pieces are slowly being brought up in terms of polish while others are being completely reworked. Briarbat Estate Ruins was probably the worst dungeon in the game for example but now it’s my favorite since I’ve been able to give more attention to fix how weak it was.

I really appreciate the positive feedback on the flavor text! I honestly aim to pump this up a ton because I believe that’s where the heart of this game is: learning about a fantasy world and the people who are a part of it to be able to make your way through it and hopefully feel more immersed and absorbed in it along the way. This does bring in the immersion break of Lucant’s hat vs standard RPG rules of “grab everything nailed down”. The hat being behind the grave is intended to show it had belonged to Lucant’s husband who passed away. Makoto will play by RPG rules but also has some personality to him that is empathetic to others. I absolutely can convey this better and have been tweaking it. It used to be a “Silver Sword” in the chest prior but that elicited a more frustrated emotion for some players when Makoto refused to take it.

Love the idea to prompt a save at the statues. It’s something I’ve been considering but haven’t pulled the trigger on yet. The inns and the statues absolutely cannibalize each other atm due to the current size of the outdoor maps. I plan to remake and expand them once I settle on a more permanent tileset.

As for the bosses, I totally agree about being able to guarantee escape, it just hasn’t been implemented yet. I definitely see your point about the reuse of bosses in different locations but seeing as the game is non-linear, the intent of their reuses is to provide easily recognizable “gates” you can unlock with the same “key” similar to the style of a metroidvania. I figured, worst case scenario, you fight them again but with perhaps an even better version of your initial set up and get to enjoy completely dominating the fight.

I agree with the variance being an issue as well but I don’t want to completely eliminate it because I feel it does add some excitement and makes fights feel less formulaic. I’ve been slowly lowering it to give a better feel (while adjusting other aspects) so the Relic combos still work as intended. The Awkward Headband recently was nerfed but I believe it’s still in a good place when used with HGS (but without the Barbarian Garb). I’m still carefully playing with buffs and nerfs to better balance the feel of encounters. Sandasteron and Majesta are intended to be extremely evasive enemies (Majesta’s worst nightmare is the Crystal Dagger btw).

 I really appreciate your honesty and constructive criticism. To be honest, “winning the fight on the equipment screen” is sort of the initial prototype for this game. It leans much toward being an autobattler in this sense but I understand that the way this is currently implemented isn’t as compelling as it could be. I’ve been working on expanding Makoto’s moveset (with more magical attack options especially) to get out of the “hold attack” spam, but just trying to do so cautiously to avoid borking the rest of the progression.

I’d say currently that due to having random encounters in the game, the encounters aren’t optional but the choice to grind is. It’s not a proportional reward atm but I do plan to add an optional end game dungeon that will require improved Relics and reward players who chose to prioritize getting the mats for them. Guaranteeing essence drops in place of money is something I’ve considered but I do want the rare fragments to be useful as clues to which monster drops what / provide the excitement rare drops tend to. I don’t believe essence is in short supply just that there isn’t much to spend money on which is definitely on my radar.

Cards on the table, my main priority atm (since everything could be improved but is working decently enough imo) is the story and planning the cutscenes and triggers. With the game being non-linear, I’m attempting to account for a lot of approaches and orders to things happening. There is next to zero required story in the game with Louis and Rel’s sidequest chains being the only story in the game currently but I’d like to change that.

Thanks for screenshotting typos, I’m really trying to get on top of them. If you’d like, you could send them to helloplexicraft@gmail.com but rest assured, I’m doing what I can to scan for em myself as I playtest haha 

 I’m curious, did you end up beating the demo? How long have you played it? You seem to have gotten quite far. Did you enjoy doing any of the side quests?

Either way, thanks again for taking the time to help make this project better. I really appreciate it :)

Imagine triple checking your spelling for "various" when using it to describe how many spelling fixes you made ;)

I'll def take a look as soon as I can find some time!
One thing that stood out to me when first playing a while back was that I quickly had access to attacks (and battles in general) that I as a player didn't know all of the basic rules for. You have neat in game/aesthetically sound names for status effects and the like but I think I got a bit overloaded with the info and wasn't able to battle as efficiently as expected compared to the challenge that was presented in the battle.
Maybe this has been tweaked since but I figure some tutorials/education weaved in there early on could help :)

It's really inspiring to see these chunky updates coming through. I'm stoked to check all of this out!

the latest one should work well :)

Demo .90

Thank you so much for the kind words!

I've added a bit more story to the opening area in the new .76 version of the demo to help set up the characters, world, and stakes a bit better.

I aim to polish some of the battling to make Relic choices the focus but still spice up the encounters once you've decided what to equip!

Next thing I'll likely add is a bit more lore sprinkled into the notes and bookshelves. I'd love to spend more time on additional side quests but I want to focus on getting the starting area as smooth as possible. :D

Hey, thanks so much for the kind feedback!

I’ll absolutely use it to improve the game.

To address some of the dislikes:

I should point out that the story is likely the last piece I’ll look to add and polish while I continue to balance the systems. Atm, it’s simply an intro, 2 side quests, and whatever the NPCs say as a one off. 

I will begin to sprinkle some lore into the bookcases (to give Artyr, Renault, and Aurelia in general some more history and context) and letters from NPCs on their desks will continue to be used for world building.

When it comes to the “escape” strategy, I totally see where you’re coming from. Without the incentive for exp, when you don’t need the loot or money, and with it so easy to escape, the choice to escape is an easy (and sadly uninteresting) one to make.

I’ll absolutely look to balance this aspect in further iterations by adjusting the trade offs.

As for the balance of the Relics and clues, I believe I have  not sign posted or tutorialized this aspect very effectively yet. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

As a work around for now: The black stones will give you clues about what Relics do and the white stones will give you clues to strengths and weaknesses of enemies that can block your path.

Once you read a stone, you will be able to reread the clue it gives you by checking for it in your Key Items.

The Rusty Ring clue is next to the cave where you start the game and the Brittle Axe clue is found in the Mountain Pass area.

Looks like you overcame the Slime Army before getting the Brittle Axe clue so congrats on the sequence break! I’ve seen people use the Rusty Ring + Barb Garb to get past them which uh… was not intended so it’s always cool to see what “Keys” people come up with (as long as the challenge still feels rewarding, that is)!

BTW, have you completed both of Rel’s side quests? I’m curious as to what your thoughts are on that aspect.

Either way, thank you so much for trying out the demo and giving your feedback. :)