MV - Fidel & The Pauper's Paradox (Sean Murray)

• Players can experience the story, beginning from the prologue.
• Players can interact with the town, including:
  • Shopping
  • Upgrading Fidel and her skills.
  • The various systems and mechanics that tie into the Community system.
  • Meeting the towns people.
  • Giving gifts to the towns people.
• Players can complete 2 levels in full.
  • The Seas level is fully accessible.
  • The Cave level is fully accessible. (The previous test only allowed access to half of this level)
• There is of course a lot you can't do since it's not finished. I'll go over some of the major things:

• You can't beat the game.
• You can't do the Forest level.
• You can't complete many townsfolk vignettes.
• There is no pixel movement
• There is also a variety of missing things from animations, sound effects, action sequences, etc.

The conclusion I came to was what I call the RANK system.
Earning new ranks is not much different than a regular leveling system - kill things, get exp. But unlike leveling, ranking up DOES NOT increase your stats.
However, ranking up does increase the enemy difficulty. This does not necessarily mean just giving a stat boost to enemies (though sometimes it does). It also includes enemies unlocking new skills, having more aggressive AI, among other things to ramp up the challenge.

The system is constantly trying to push you, the player, into taking on harder and harder challenges. However, at the very core of Fidel & The Pauper's Paradox is the ability to play how you want.

By going to Truette, the town priest, the player is able to set their rank to any previously unlocked rank.
For a small donation the player can RANK down if they want to reduce the difficulty, or for an even smaller donation, the player rank RANK up to return to the highest rank they previously achieved. (See, constantly trying to push you towards harder challenges.)

Oh, but what if a player gets locked into a challenge soft-lock; too high of a rank to defeat the enemies, but too broke to lower their rank?
Well, being defeated in combat will lower your RP (rank points - basically exp). If you are defeated enough times, you will rank down.

I'll start with some of the stuff I loved. The maps are lovely, Fidel is adorable in both her art and her characterization, and while there wasn't a lot of plot revealed while I was playing the bits that I saw were intriguing. I did enjoy exploring the areas, though Fidel's walk speed is painfully slow so being able to move faster would have improved that a bunch. Each NPC felt distinct, and I was looking forward to getting to know them more (though they didn't seem to have anything else to say after their introduction cutscenes).

That said, this is very clearly still early in development. The concepts are there and there are glimmers of a great game, but it needs a lot more tweaking and polishing to really make for a fun game to play. The cutscenes are interesting, but they are quite long. Especially in the start of the game, it feels like it will focus on character interactions before all that gets tossed aside to go explore dungeons and face off against monsters. I think the two parts need to be better connected in the start to make it all more cohesive, maybe a weak enemy troop enters into town right before the player gets control so Fidel has to fight and the NPCs can comment on Fidel being able to help out their situation (or comment on how a little girl shouldn't have to deal with the adults' problems). That would help make it feel like Fidel beating the dungeons is focusing on helping solve the town's problems instead of how it currently feels like Fidel just wanders around and happens to help.

Battles are where this game really suffers, and it unfortunately drags the whole experience down. Even the intro battle with the Maker dragged on for way too long, and while it was nice to get to play around with all my skills I wish the Maker had talked during the battle so that I knew it wasn't one I was ever meant to win. Once I finished exploring the town I started out in the Seas area, and the battles felt unbalanced instantly. I mostly fought troops with three or four enemies, and each enemy needed at least four attacks to be killed. Add in the fact I needed to gain ConP to do real damage, and it felt like I was spending 5+ minutes in each mob fight... All to be rewarded with a handful of Notes, which weren't enough to buy any new weapons or accessories. I kept doing every battle I saw because I wanted to try out another weapon, but by the time I finally gathered enough I had defeated the fish boss and didn't really have a reason to stay in the Seas area except for exploration.

The fact that I lost a lot of the skills I had during the Maker fight also hurt. I had enjoyed using Double Stack (even though it has some problems), and being limited to only one move per turn just made each battle drag on and on. If there were less enemies in each fight or if I kept the ability to attack twice a turn it would have made combat a lot swifter and more enjoyable.

The magic attacks also suffered heavily in battle, and I ended up pretty much only using Butane Lighter since it cost 5 ConP compared to the others' 6, and had the chance to do 1 HP damage each turn. The magic skills were supposed to be a big part of combat since you could stack and do more damage depending on what state the enemy had, but the actual probability of inflicting a state was so low that I rarely saw it more than once a battle. Since I couldn't consistently inflict a state, I just used the skill that cost the least amount of ConP and did more damage than the default Attack. Speaking of ConP, it was also a pain that Fidel didn't start with any. I can understand not giving the player a full bar at the start of a battle, but a random amount between 4-7 would jumpstart the whole battle and give the player more choices from the start instead of having to wait a few turns to use a skill.

In battle I found myself rarely using items, except for the boss fight, because enemies did so little damage that I could safely use Poise for a few turns in a row to gain enough ConP to heal. The idea behind the items and having items found in Presents that could be instead given to NPCs is neat, but since I so rarely went back into town due to not having many Notes I found myself opening all the Presents for some instant goodies. While I know you plan on adding more to the gift-giving system, the game's current state just doesn't make it feel worthwhile.

I do want to touch on the meta bits of the game, since there's something cool there. The intro starts the player in a very 'gamedev test room' type place, so I was looking forward to seeing more of that scattered around the game to hint at even more secrets and story beats. But for the most part I didn't get to see anything else fun. The teleportation pads invoked the same sterile white of the intro and the touch with opening a menu to click 'transfer' is great and got my mind overanalyzing what it could all mean. But for the most part that was the only place the meta parts would pop back up, and it would have been way more interesting to see it in NPC cutscenes (such as having a choice when responding where one option is clearly terrible, and the cutscene 'restarts' if it's chosen) and in battles (maybe one skill could scramble the enemy and makes it an error instead of a normal confusion state). If you want there to be a meta story beyond the main story, then you really need to weave it through more of the gameplay and maps. If you just want a few points where it's a nod to other devs or just to look cool, then I'd consider cutting it out entirely and focusing on Fidel's story in the world.

All that said, I do want to make sure it's clear that I enjoyed the concept behind this game and want to play more! It's just that the main points of gameplay need more work and sour the whole thing at the moment. :rswt

tldr, here are the "things that must be fixed" highlights:

• Cutscenes need tightened up, characterization is good but they just take too long
• Movement speed needs upped
• Battles need to lose a few enemies per troop, lower the HP of everyone, start Fidel with some ConP, and give more Notes as a reward
• If you want to lean into the meta effects, then really go for it. Otherwise ditch it entirely

With all that out of the way, I'm gonna stick some of the dev-heavy things like passability issues and oddities in another spoiler.
And yeah, that's about it. I stopped after defeating the Seas fish boss, but mostly because I ran out of time this week. I'll probably play more later, but wanted to get some of my thoughts out so you can start making changes. :)

Music and Sound

I wanted start with this because it was probably my favorite part!

Music was very good, as was to be expected. Well looped, balanced, yada yada.

Sound design went above and beyond. I loved all the little flourishes when you performed actions. It really helped integrate the music theme.

Graphics/UI
A lot of stuff was unfinished, so I don't have a lot to say, but Fidel's sprite was super cute, and the shop UI was awesome.

Mapping and areas also looked gorgeous.

Story

I'm not really a fan of meta stories. For me, it breaks my suspension of belief when characters are acknowledging their in a game, and I've never really seen it used in an interesting way. I don't think I got far enough to really say anything specific, but I wasn't exactly drawn in.

The dialogue was okay, but there was sooooo much. I ended up avoiding most NPC encounters because conversations went on for so long.

I also felt that some of the jokes were run into the ground a bit too much.
Fidel getting words mixed up was cute, but I wish it was used in more clever ways.
I felt this most with the librarian NPC.

Gameplay

My #1 issue is the walk speed. I'm honestly curious as to why that decision was made. IMO, there's no reason to limit the player's movement that much in a game like this. It made exploration and progression a chore, and was one of the reasons I quit.

The combat system has a great concept. I like the idea of keeping an enemy alive to sap their ConP. The issue was that every enemy encounter played out the same way. Poise for a turn or two to get enough ConP to use the wind skill. Hope and pray it applies the state. Wait for your ConP to recharge. Use the wind skill...etc etc.

I would have liked enemies to be more unique. Maybe an enemy that saps your ConP, or is only vulnerable to lightning damage.

It's also frustrating, because while there are no random encounters, you can't get past enemies without them attacking you. They also respawn every time you enter a new room.
Also, since you don't really get anything from beating enemies aside from some notes, progression doesn't speed up like they normally do in RPG's.

Also, on that note (see what I did there?), I fought a ton of enemies and was only able to afford one ring (the ConP restoring one). I even started opening all the presents after I got the first upgrade from the fish statue.

The dungeon I played was fine. I don't like puzzles, but they weren't horrible.
I ended up getting the tools and than...I don't know. There was so much stuff to keep track of, I couldn't figure out where I needed to go next. Found a gate, but it needed a key that I didn't have.

I feel a similar way about some Zelda dungeons, but at least those have maps that make it a bit easier to navigate.

In the end, being lost in the dungeon, moving super slowly, having to fight every enemy in my way...I just lost interest. I made my way back to the town and decided to wander into the forest for kicks, but I quit after trying to reach a resource in the dark red puddle that make you walk even slower.

Bugs/Polish
Encountered a few bugs.

-The game in general does not run super well. The menu specifically takes a bit to load. Could be my computer, because I have a pretty lousy CPU.
-Not sure if this was intentional, but there was a random chicken sprite in some rooms?
-The battle you mentioned would crash, did not actually crash. Better get that fixed :stickytongue:
-If you try to throw the fish into the lava before the tutorial, it doesn't work.
-Lots of items can be used in the menu that should not be (Ie, the rope)
-During one of the puzzles, when you can look around, you can get stuck in wall.
-Changing the BGM volume just won't work sometimes.

It might really not be my place to say some of these things given I've made similar mistakes but...
I'll go through each "story" segment, instead of separating it by gameplay, story and all of that.

• Intro
  • Explanations are a bit long. I, by myself, I'm not bothered by this because I like to spend the effort to actually play the game, instead of just going "Nope, this is too long". However, these long explanations, along with the white theme and the font's greyish color make it a bit hard to read, and this might lead players away.
  • Battles are unclear, a lot, to be honest. I got the first 2 of the crystal, then that Maker comes and, I'm like, well... This guy is holding out a lot, Am I meant to win this? I might have held out almost an hour because I'm that stubborn but that battle was one of the most confusing ones I have fought.
  • The mechanics are nice, but the the way they're presented and the battle itself make it fall into the RPG Maker Battle system pitfall: "Guard, wait until your energy is full, spam". And this, in a turn based battle system, makes it really uncomfortable. It might work on some more mobile battle systems (ABS, LMBS, and the like) but here it just drags the game. Then again, it might just be me though.
• The Commune
  • The mapping here is beautifully done. I kinda walked through it just to admire it.
  • The movement is really slow, I took it like it was normal in the intro, but how is it possible I can't dash?!
  • There's no clear objective here. I got past this because i talked to everyone, which many people would not do sometimes.
• Fire Dungeon?
  
  • There's a bug on the upper floor of the second stage in the fire dungeon, the gravel mound in front of Fidel can be walked upon, and it allows to float over the lava. And that's weird.
    
  • The teleporting, and fish mechanics are very interesting, and unique.

This is where I stopped. I will definitely play the rest of the game to see all what has to offer, but due to time constraints it wasn't possible to continue beyond this point for me.

• Overall
  • Music is awesome. It brings the game a few levels up!
  • I feel grateful for the fact that for the first time i playstested another game, the main character had at least some skills.
  • The combat loop mentioned above, is draining. I was vibing to the music, tho.
  • No pointers as to where to go. Based on my reconaissance, I might have gone to the wrong dungeon first.
  • No way to recover ConP (beyond Poise, I might have not noticed the recovery of the other skills) [Maybe restoring 2 or so ConP after defeating an enemy?]
  • I found myself laughing at some of the dialogue. It's good writing! Specially the librarian.
  • I also concur with hiddenone on some of her described aspects to fix.