I liked this game a lot more than I thought I would. To be honest
I've played a lot of RPG Maker games and they usually fall into the same
pattern and just don't do it for me. Storylines loaded with tropes I don't
like, boring environments, and grindey battles. There are definitely some
standouts, but I typically go in with low expectations.
I played what I
think is most of R's story- ending just after the boss battle with the puppet
lady- and a tiny bit of Sappheira's story.
I think what really
makes this one so compelling is how it doesn't take itself too seriously and
how self-aware it is. Seriously, the humour really makes this game. The
characters have great chemistry and banter and the way it pokes fun at
conventions and tropes is brilliant.
The mechanics are
pretty standard, but they're mostly well executed. With support powers and
elemental advantages it's complex enough to be interesting but it's not
overwhelming. I did find the balance slightly off with some enemies being
unexpectedly OP and elemental advantages not quite working as expected. The use
of scripted events mid-battle is done well, and there are enough battles to be
fun but not so many that the game becomes grindey or tedious.
I really do like
that there aren't any sections with a random encounter every two steps. Those
are one of my biggest pet peeves.
It's definitely
still rough in a few spots. Placeholder art that doesn't quite fit, as you've
mentioned. Text boxes sometimes appear differently and I'm not sure if this is
deliberate or not. Following characters don't actually show up in the overworld
(is this by design or a bug?). The music choices are good, but some tracks are
noticeably better in audio quality than others.
I think the only
thing that really didn't do it for me was the environment design. The level design- layout and flow- was decent to
good and got better as the game went on. But the environment
design- appearance and interactions- I wasn't a fan of. There are a lot of drab
mazes with nothing between the scripted set pieces. I'd really like to see more
detailed, more interactive environments.
When I get the
chance, I'll jump back in and try to finish Sappheira's story, and I'm looking
forward to where you take this.
There's definitely a lot of stuff we have to polish up and some of these issues are remedied more or less in the current build that's not quite ready yet, but I'm really glad the characters and writing landed for you, as that was definitely one of the key focuses. I totally also share that pet peeve of random encounters and grind, so we've definitely focused on trying to give the player agency in choosing when to initiate battle!
As it stands yeah, there's def a lack of consistency in terms of assets, both musical and even in terms of sprites. We've even been working on overhauling the battlers to better represent the characters' designs. Though, with the textboxes some were intended to represent character thoughts rather than speech, but I wouldn't be remotely surprised if I accidentally used the wrong one in places here and there. Also I really wanted to have the characters follow on the map but it actually could adversely affect certain mechanics. Later on in the game we started adding cutscenes where they would show up, though, we still have to go back and make those consistent.
As far the overworld mazes and dungeons, what do you feel would make them more fulfilling? Are there any additions you'd personally like to see? I was a bit worried about overloading the player with dialogue at a few points so I had wanted to give them freedom of exploration between set pieces, but it's probably a lot less engaging than the scripted segments because there's not really a ton of great incentive to explore and the mechanics are pretty simple. I would love to add more action oriented segments or even minigame type events, but neither Momo nor myself are really programmers! Though, eventually we would love to make our own tilesets from scratch, it'll probably be a while.
But in any case, thanks again for playing and for giving such thought to your review! We both really appreciate it!
Mostly the environments just seemed very sparse- there were a lot of rooms that were basically empty boxes with maybe one or two non-interactable props. I'm not an expert on RPG Maker mapping, but I think there needs to be more furniture and other objects in those rooms, maybe some stuff on the walls. My personal philosophy is to build realistic maps- as in spaces that people would live and work in with all the things they'd need to do so- but not everyone approaches it this way and that's fine. I'd also like to see more interactive objects, not necessarily forced scripted events but optional stuff like the crack in the wall.
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I liked this game a lot more than I thought I would. To be honest I've played a lot of RPG Maker games and they usually fall into the same pattern and just don't do it for me. Storylines loaded with tropes I don't like, boring environments, and grindey battles. There are definitely some standouts, but I typically go in with low expectations.
I played what I think is most of R's story- ending just after the boss battle with the puppet lady- and a tiny bit of Sappheira's story.
I think what really makes this one so compelling is how it doesn't take itself too seriously and how self-aware it is. Seriously, the humour really makes this game. The characters have great chemistry and banter and the way it pokes fun at conventions and tropes is brilliant.
The mechanics are pretty standard, but they're mostly well executed. With support powers and elemental advantages it's complex enough to be interesting but it's not overwhelming. I did find the balance slightly off with some enemies being unexpectedly OP and elemental advantages not quite working as expected. The use of scripted events mid-battle is done well, and there are enough battles to be fun but not so many that the game becomes grindey or tedious.
I really do like that there aren't any sections with a random encounter every two steps. Those are one of my biggest pet peeves.
It's definitely still rough in a few spots. Placeholder art that doesn't quite fit, as you've mentioned. Text boxes sometimes appear differently and I'm not sure if this is deliberate or not. Following characters don't actually show up in the overworld (is this by design or a bug?). The music choices are good, but some tracks are noticeably better in audio quality than others.
I think the only thing that really didn't do it for me was the environment design. The level design- layout and flow- was decent to good and got better as the game went on. But the environment design- appearance and interactions- I wasn't a fan of. There are a lot of drab mazes with nothing between the scripted set pieces. I'd really like to see more detailed, more interactive environments.
When I get the chance, I'll jump back in and try to finish Sappheira's story, and I'm looking forward to where you take this.
Wow, thanks so much for the in-depth feedback!
There's definitely a lot of stuff we have to polish up and some of these issues are remedied more or less in the current build that's not quite ready yet, but I'm really glad the characters and writing landed for you, as that was definitely one of the key focuses. I totally also share that pet peeve of random encounters and grind, so we've definitely focused on trying to give the player agency in choosing when to initiate battle!
As it stands yeah, there's def a lack of consistency in terms of assets, both musical and even in terms of sprites. We've even been working on overhauling the battlers to better represent the characters' designs. Though, with the textboxes some were intended to represent character thoughts rather than speech, but I wouldn't be remotely surprised if I accidentally used the wrong one in places here and there. Also I really wanted to have the characters follow on the map but it actually could adversely affect certain mechanics. Later on in the game we started adding cutscenes where they would show up, though, we still have to go back and make those consistent.
As far the overworld mazes and dungeons, what do you feel would make them more fulfilling? Are there any additions you'd personally like to see? I was a bit worried about overloading the player with dialogue at a few points so I had wanted to give them freedom of exploration between set pieces, but it's probably a lot less engaging than the scripted segments because there's not really a ton of great incentive to explore and the mechanics are pretty simple. I would love to add more action oriented segments or even minigame type events, but neither Momo nor myself are really programmers! Though, eventually we would love to make our own tilesets from scratch, it'll probably be a while.
But in any case, thanks again for playing and for giving such thought to your review! We both really appreciate it!
-meido
I'm looking forward to seeing those changes!
Mostly the environments just seemed very sparse- there were a lot of rooms that were basically empty boxes with maybe one or two non-interactable props. I'm not an expert on RPG Maker mapping, but I think there needs to be more furniture and other objects in those rooms, maybe some stuff on the walls. My personal philosophy is to build realistic maps- as in spaces that people would live and work in with all the things they'd need to do so- but not everyone approaches it this way and that's fine. I'd also like to see more interactive objects, not necessarily forced scripted events but optional stuff like the crack in the wall.
10/10