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Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate it :)

Congratulations to the winners! Top 3 were well deserved.

Wow, thanks for the well written feedback! I really appreciate it! :) 

It was insightful to hear you explain why you liked certain aspects of the game like the money puzzle and boss strategies since it contrasts with what I received from other people. So now I have a clearer picture seeing both perspectives.

Thank you for the playthrough and the feedback! :) I learned a lot from watching her play.

So I beat your game within around 35 minutes. I've taken a lot of notes so I hope this provides you better insight on areas you can improve on. I will be completely honest so I hope you don't take things personally.

• I like the custom battle art and portrait art. I looked at your other games and I see some improvement. So if you keep this up, I can see you making quality artwork within a few years.
• The free healing at anytime is a good addition. It saves the hassle; especially for shorter games.
• The first cutscene ends too quickly. I was expecting to take control until the screen faded and jumped to another cutscene. I think you could either remove that portion or at least give the player a better tease of what's to come. I felt that there was a missed potential there.
• Lance's death means nothing to the player because there was no character development for Garret. We don't know who Garret is nor how great of a brother Lance was.
• If you're going to use text to label buildings (Divine Blades Guild), it should be consistent with every other building like the shops.
• The whole "You shouldn't enter someone's home without permission" discourages players from exploring. You can be a bit more creative. For example, in Earthbound, you can't enter some buildings but they have fun dialogue regardless (like XXXsterday referencing the Beatles).
• For the dialogue, you need to do a bit more "show" rather than "tell". If you study how movies do cutscenes, you'll have a better understanding of what I mean.
• I think the dialogue sounds unnatural in certain parts of the script. Think about how conversations happen in real life. Do people always point out the obvious? When they do, it's usually a joke ("No sh*t Sherlock"). In your game, however, it's taken seriously.
• It would help if the monsters on the map have a visual indicator when you're spotted like an exclamation mark.
• On maps, the corridors need to be expanded or the monster's field of vision needs to be narrower. It feels like encounters are unavoidable.
• The maps are like a long maze sometimes. You can definitely cut down on the length of some paths. In older games, they did this because of random encounters and artificially increasing playtime.
• The battles seemed a bit too easy for me. I'm playing on normal difficulty and I was holding the confirm key and attacking to win (I beat the first 2 bosses by attacking only). It wasn't until the Volcanic area's boss where I needed to use Reflect to avoid getting 1 shotted.
• For the last crystal, I think you should have allowed the player to interact an event to start the cutscene rather than having it autostart. I usually enter the room and save before the boss fight but for this one, Damin attacked me and I had no chance to save.
• Ravager is way too broken because it kills 3 party members, it can't be reflected and there's no signal to indicate that Erriga going to use it so I don't know when to guard. When I restarted the fight, that was the first thing she used and it was really annoying. The only reason I won is because I was lucky enough to have one battle where she didn't use it.
• The reveal that Damin is Garret's brother was unexpected, but it doesn't really make sense. So who's Lance then? This basically makes the first cutscene a waste of time.
• I felt like the only person who had a slight bit of character development was Garret. The other party members felt like they were just there for the sake of having support in battle.

So the biggest thing I noticed is that you're lacking a novelty for your game. What makes your game special compared to other games? Is it a fresh and interesting story? The stylish graphics? The fun and unique gameplay mechanic? It's this missing piece that can cause your game to get overlooked because it feels generic.

If you want to become a better storyteller, I highly recommend studying the Hero's Journey. It provides a good structure for story arcs and character development. You should also learn the different archetypes for characters. Usually there's a hero and a villain but there's also the messenger, mentor, shapeshifter, etc.

I hope this provided you good feedback to learn from. Goodluck with your future projects!

Thanks for playing and for the feedback! :)

I appreciate that you took the time to play this cause I agree, it's a bit rough. I consider this my first real attempt at a platformer game so a lot of mistakes were made.

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

Thanks for playing! The video was insightful. I've noticed a few players who didn't realize they can use stronger skills using stars so the UI could use some improvement.

This is a hidden gem. You did a great job with the gameplay! The controls felt good, there was a progression in difficulty, and learning new skills throughout the adventure made it refreshing. Also,  I loved the dialogue between other bugs and animals.

• The fly obstacles were well done and enjoyable. Some of them were difficult but I'm glad you made them optional.
• The Beetle boss fight was challenging. Sometimes it felt a little unfair because the projectiles didn't aim properly and if it went near me, I would have to move away from the button.
• I think the obstacle in the entrance to Yamakuu Mountain needs to be a more clear. You had one tile where the player was supposed to jump on and it could be easily missed. I almost thought that was the end of the game.
• You should remove the dialogue/cutscenes if you've already seen it and died.
  
• The Slug boss fight was too difficult. I think you should have given the player at least 1 more HP or lower the amount of hits to kill it. I kept dying when it turned red because I have little time to react when it charges and it moves incredibly fast. Also, since the spider's only attack is to use projectiles from the enemies, it can backfire when the slug moves around and you have to let go; giving it a chance to hit you while you're dodging the slug.

This is one of those games where I overlook the RTP graphics because you've done a great job with the gameplay.  Easily one of the best games I've played so far.

No worries, I'll just follow you for the post jam version :)

Btw, I really like the aesthetics of your game. If you're open to collaborating on a game together, let me know.

You did a phenomenal job with the game design! The levels were well constructed, the graphics worked well with the music and to top it off, it had an interesting story about squirrels. I also liked how you added acorns in every map to challenge the player.

Unfortunately, there's one big issue I had: the controls. Judging this as an RPG Maker game, it's neat but as a platformer game, it's terrible. There were certain parts in the game where I had to jump onto the platform, and it bounced me right back because it collided with the wall. You should seriously consider programming a platformer framework with pixel based movement.

I gotta admit, it was a little rough trying to play this one. The story wasn't exactly compelling and I had a lot of issues with the gameplay.

• There's too much dialogue to access the shop. At most, you should have one line. Instead of using a choice selection to categorize the shop, just show everything or program the category into the shop menu.
• The portrait art is nice. Not sure if you made them but good job if you did
• If you're going to break the fourth wall, try to do it less frequently and deliver the line organically. Seeing it used multiple times within the first 5 minutes already got old
• I think I read in the tutorial that ultimates show up without notice? If that's the case, it's a bad game design. Look at any modern AAA RPG and the developers made any ultimate move noticeable because they want the player to use them to feel strong
• If a Slingshot attack does 0 damage or misses, you should stop the animation. It frustrated me because not only did the attacks do 0 damage, but I also had to wait through a long animation.
• Battles are way too easy. I literally held the Confirm key for every battle and won with the occasional switching to hit void side enemies.
• The encounter rate is way too high. I got old school Pokemon cave vibes everytime I took a step in the cave.
• You should have given Nara some of Nol's skills. Nara needs the utility as the weakest character. You should also allow her to switch without taking a turn.
• Salve is useless. Only 100 HP for 100 c?
• In the dialogue before you fight Hydra Liks, it states that you could always run away if it's too hard. But when you fight it, you can't escape

There's a lot of room for improvement and I hope you take the feedback everyone gave you and learn from it.

So I finally got around to playing your game again with the missing files. Unfortunately, after the cutscene, it fades into a black screen and nothing happens. I waited for about 20 seconds, then I opened up the menu and tried moving around but it stays as a black screen. 

Here's a gif to show what happens:

Thanks for the compliments and the feedback! As the human who runs the RM tester server, it means a lot that you enjoyed playing it :)

The game looks great and I enjoyed the music. If you told me this was an RPG Maker game, I would have never known. Now for the feedback:

• Even though you were focused on gameplay, I wish you went for a different story instead of going meta with making a game for a game jam. There's so much creativity in the game that something simple like the story stands out as being so uncreative
• The survey questions that influence which trait you get is nice but since it directly affects gameplay, I felt that you should have given the player a choice. Now if I'm unhappy with what I got, I need to restart the game
  
• The fairy sprite felt off compared to the rest of the graphics. It's the only pixel art in the game
• The tutorial was too long and it did not do a good job explaining how to play. This game requires a huge learning curve which will turn off a lot of people unless you properly introduce the mechanics to the player. I think you've given the player way too many choices in the 20 turn stage. You could have easily divided that into smaller chunks and gradually gave a new set of emotions each time so that the player understands the importance and also keep the gameplay fresh as you continue to play. Instead, you chose one huge map to reinforce a poorly written story.
• The controls were weird. You stated in the title screen that there's no mouse support but there is. Try hovering over a command during battle or in the name entering scene. I'm not sure why you went with PS5 button graphics if the player doesn't have a PS5 controller attached. You could have designed it where it automatically swaps between controller / keyboard input graphics depending on which button / key was most recently pressed
• I think there needs to be side objectives on the board. Maybe a treasure chest with emotions so the player could restock

As someone who's not concerned about getting a high score, in my perspective, the whole point of the game is to go from point A to Point B using RNG. It's one of the issues that I had while playing Mario Party Advance. Anyway, good job on the entry and goodluck with your future endeavors!

Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the game :)

Thanks for playing and providing feedback!

In response to no menu: I didn't have enough time to program it. RMMZ's systems don't scale well at low resolutions (the game's base resolution is 320x180, which is smaller than RM2k3) so I couldn't use the default one.

Thanks for the feedback and catching those bugs! I appreciate it :)

I read your post a few times so that I could digest it properly. Based on your response, I see a lot of improvements that can be made. Thank you for the detailed feedback! I really appreciate that you took the time to write this. I don't have much to say other than I still have a lot to learn and your feedback gave me a new perspective.

Thanks for playing and providing feedback! I appreciate it.

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it

Thanks for playing my game! :) I appreciate the feedback regarding the difficulty. I didn't have enough time to balance out the battles because originally, I wasn't sure if I was gonna complete the second world. I'm glad you enjoyed it regardless!

I see that you added a patch for your game so I'll give it another try!

You're supposed to use counter because it ignores defense.

You're right though. I could have added dialogue saying how difficult it was to attack it so the player took another approach to try to defeat it.

The long battles are a result of the mechanics. Gradually building up AP takes more turns than your average RM game but that's why I made the battle flow quicker and there's an option to speed up battle by holding the confirm key. Due to this, I opted for a less amount but longer battles approach, which naturally changed the level system to permanent stat boost so there's still a sense of progression for a short game. But from what you said, it seems like it backfired.

I agree and appreciate your feedback. Thanks for playing my game! :)

I agree. That's a good idea, especially since stances do help for battles later in the game.

Thanks for playing and providing feedback! :)

I played through your game and here's some comments and feedback:

• Giant enemy crabs? Sony needs to fund this project for the PS5
• Custom artwork was nice and well made!
• The star puzzle was relatively easy. If it reset when the player made a mistake, it would have been better as a short memory game
• I like the diversity in the cast and how unique they look. Unfortunately, that's also a weakness because I feel like there are too many characters to develop them all within a short playthrough would be difficult
• One huge problem: I can't go past Cell Block 2 because my party wasn't fully healed. So with Natsumi dead and my other 2 party members with only 4 HP each, there's literally no way to beat the two Alien Guards. Unfortunately, with my save file leading to the same cutscene, this is where I had to stop playing.

Good job with the game!

I played through your whole game. It was an interesting story and I enjoyed the small puzzles you made. I'm a bit disappointed that there was only one battle though after going through so much dialogue. Some feedback:

• Few graphical bugs like layering on the school desk and the monster being visible on the top left corner of the rotation puzzle
• There's a tile collision bug on the rocks. It allows me to walk on tiles that should be blocked.
• I like the foreshadowing of Leo during the class session. It reminds me of how Persona does this during the classroom cutscenes
• On the rotation puzzle, I think it would be nice if you made a square outline cursor to hover over the pieces because it's somewhat hard to see when the character is directly on top
  
• The first battle was difficult for a first battle. If you didn't make the right choices quickly, you could have easily died
• I think Lucretia's remarks about Marion's crossdressing comes off a little offensive. It makes her look like a rude person asking that to a total stranger. Without any relevance to the plot, it seems like it was thrown in there as a bad joke

Overall, good job on your game! Since this is only chapter 1, I hope you continue to work on this and further develop the story!

I tried to play your game but I kept getting missing file errors. Since the presentation looked great, I tried to replace them with dummy images. This fixed the errors in the main menu but as soon as I got another cutscene, the error popped up again and I didn't feel confident that I could continue doing this. The game looks great and it's a shame that this happened. Hope you continue to work on it after the jam ends!

I'm surprised that no one voted for your game yet.  It was a lovely short experience! Very clean pixel art and presentation is really great. I got stuck on the part where you align the dots. I'm not quite sure how the puzzle is solved but I'm assuming it has something to with Ursa Minor? I think you should at least give a brief tutorial. Some more minor feedback:

• Increase the dot size and make it a color that contrasts so it's easier to see
• Allow the player to rotate in any direction
• Highlight which part of the piece moves when the player hovers over (I accidentally misclicked many times)

Btw, the music box melody is peaceful and well made! Good job on the game!

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate it.

The game design is excellent and I enjoyed the visuals, music and story! I also like the inspiration you took from Kirby and Zelda Minish Cap. Some minor feedback: the bosses were a bit too easy and I felt that they had too much HP. The multiple endings was a nice addition too. Great job with the game!

The music was great. It felt very fitting as a dreamlike trance. Here's some feedback:

• Honestly, premise of the story is interesting but the implementation is a bit weak. The sandman chooses this random sick boy as his successor, but then needs to test him? Also what makes Bruadair so special?
• There's a bug after the transformation cutscene. You can step on the "waning moon" and he'll scold you even though that part is over
• The 30 second search minigame in the child's room was interesting but I felt that it rushed me. Maybe consider taking out the timer and just talk to the sandman whenever they're ready?

Overall, good job with the game!

The visuals are really amazing and polished! I love it so much! It's hard to believe you made this on RPG Maker because it doesn't feel like a typical RPG Maker game. Some feedback:

• Hazards and attacks don't feel consistent because some things damage you while others don't. Btw, the hazard in the second boss fight was unfair. I felt that it moved too fast for me to avoid it.
• The controls are hard to get used to. I don't normally play games that use Up to jump. I think you could benefit from having an input displayed on the screen
• I couldn't beat the second boss and the control issue kept me from trying. It felt like I was spamming buttons hoping for something to work

Great job with the game! I hope you continue to develop it with platform levels in addition to the boss fights.

The visuals are stunning! Great job with it! The story is quite charming too. Here's some feedback:

• There's quite a bit of typos. I saw "strength" and "who" mispelled
• I said no to being partners but the response seems like I said yes
• The battle difficulty spikes very quickly after breaking the first rock to the new area. Unfortunately, I don't have enough resources to actually beat the game. The carrot is too expensive and the monsters don't drop enough Xu in order for me to farm money

I'm a fan of the magical girl tropes. The beginning cutscene was fun and entertaining! Here's some feedback:

• Have an outline for the player when they walk behind a foreground.
• Battles are way too easy. I quickly realized that the Brave mechanic is unbalanced since I can spam skills 4 times on each character giving me a chance to kill the enemy before they even take action.
• Autosave popping up in the corner after every map transfer kills the immersion for the cutscenes.
• Typo during the interrogation cutscene. "rumors are true, that they're just lying low" It should say laying
• I'm not sure how deep you're trying to go with the story but it could use some work. The sequence of events seem too convenient to the plot. I also had a dejavu moment when the girls united during school and then reunited less than 10 minutes later after Louise is able to transform again

It was a cute game. I enjoyed it! Also good job with the graphics! I love it when people put effort into making their own custom art.

Thank you for playing! :D

Oof, I can't believe I overlooked that boundary bug. I'm glad it's not game breaking. What was the wording choice issue you had?

I'm sorry to hear about the situation! Clearly, there was a lot of work put into this :(
Here's some minor feedback based on the short length of the game:

• The sound effects during dialogue are a little annoying rather than enjoyable compared to something like Animal Crossing. I think with some tweaking, it could sound better
• The text speed is slow. It would be nice if the player had more control over that
• You should increase the width of the message box. It feels very squished with the overall presentation of the game

Hope to see a really polished release post jam!

Interesting game! I played for about 30 minutes and I could tell you put a lot of effort into it. The beginning cutscene was amazing and well done! And I like the monster catching mechanic. I could see potential ways to add depth into it. Btw, there seems to be no cap on how much you can pet your monsters. Not sure if that's intended. The map design could be a bit better. I felt that some of them were unnecessarily big and the diagonal paths are annoying to go through because there is no diagonal movement. I feel like you should introduce more smaller cutscenes to add to the story or lore while you're navigating the first area. I'm not fully invested in the story and the barriers make it hard to continue. It feels like an bad design choice since the battle system encourages the use of recruiting stronger monsters relying less on the player to grind. So the only reason you would block the player from progressing is to waste their time. Overall, great job on the game! I hope you continue to develop it!