itch.io

!! :D

10/10, thank you for making this + i cannot believe you ALSO made seedship, i played that game a few years back and loved it

i'm absolutely inconsolable right now and it is ENTIRELY your fault

all jokes aside though, this is genuinely a masterpiece! i completed all 15 endings on normal in 6 hours (as well as got every achievement bar the hardmode one, entire-game ones, talk option one, and kill option ones), and it was an absolute blast the entire time. i'm gonna finish up the last achievements someday, but reading 200k+ words is a lot so i think i'll maybe update this one last time with that when it happens :P

my one regret is that i got ending 12 first - it naturally feels like it's supposed to be an out of the way one, but i'm a naturally stubborn and determined person so it ended up being the first one i got. i'm absolutely certain that if i'd walked through all of them sequentially, i'd have probably genuinely cried at the end (and i'm chronically emotionally constipated- that's a real feat.)

another game i love (metaware high school (demo)) has one true ending whose impact is fulfilled much more by the generally-fluffy sub-endings alongside it, and while i know that having ending 12 be inaccessible unless all others were completed would be a HUGE drag... hey, i wouldn't be complaining if there was another one added :P!

every ending seems genuinely fulfilling, though, and that's incredibly impressive. not only are they all somewhat hopeful, the message of the game speaks to the never-ending spirit of life (human or otherwise): no matter which ending you get, the plot feels like it's resolved properly. that's really hard to do, from what i can tell, and it's really refreshing when sometimes there's VNs or interactive fiction games whose endings tend towards being "whatever immediately makes sense" - they can be great fun with fluffy stuff, but tend to lose out a bit on the nuance. this game DOESN'T do that, and it's extremely coherent as a result, i think! 

plus, you've done an excellent job with every emotional beat - it's only due to meta knowledge that i was able to avoid a likely Bad End in the Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss section, and it was still a crapshoot if i'll be honest. and the description of reactions to traumatic events, emotional digestion, and coping mechanisms is extremely on point with how i'd react personally - i might actually take inspiration or reference for my own writing because it's sorta sparked some ideas in my head.

also trigaea is just incredibly technically impressive - i'm starting out with twine (or i was a few months ago) and i genuinely couldn't imagine how to format most of the things you've done - let alone implement them in a way which is even remotely optimized or reasonable for a janky 2012 laptop to run. 

genuinely one of the best games i've played, on top with hacknet and MWHS(D). kudos to your technical skill with coding, game design, and emotional storytelling; your mechanical skill with art, graphic design, and writing, and your empowering model of the world's core issues. you have at least one machine believing in you now!

glad to be of any help! i'll certainly join the discord when i can - this is a really fun and intuitive game while still retaining a lot of challenge!

i'd also like to note that teleportation is extremely busted in certain room configurations - i was able to teleport into an area that was entirely blocked on all sides by walls  with my low health ninja and use them as a farm for energy, which synergized nicely with my soldier's extreme tank build (multiple kitchen sinks, cover, passive damage). it was really satisfying to pull off, but i'm not sure that's intentional (certainly not as OP overall, but still)

another few things: 

• the ninja's bleed stacking upgrade is a LITTLE op, as it effectively means infinite damage on all enemies if you play your cards right and get a little lucky (the only difference being that it's slow and takes skill to avoid death with)
• i may be playing things wrong, but credits and the shop in general feel a little bit underutilized/underpowered - the amount of investment you need to take (possibly eschewing upgrades or events for credits that will get you only a maybe-good item) isn't always the best in reference to the stuff gained. shops have saved a few runs, but they haven't exactly MADE them - just gave me a bunch of rolls to get a game winning card or upgrade. i rarely get enough credits to buy anything more than one card/upgrade that matters, and i'm not sure that's intentional (given that you need to sacrifice at minimum two card rolls or get lucky with events to buy anything)

as a sidenote, i'm not quite sure how to loop - was that feature removed?

it may be prudent to nerf the 3PW "all cards are free" card for the ninja - using it in conjunction with the 1PW increasing damage card means one turn kills on whoever is within range regardless of hp, and it's not hard at all to get 3 power if you play things right

depends on your vision of the game, but this seems a litttle too OP (or i might have just gotten REALLY lucky)