MV - MARGO - On the Brink [DEMO LIVE!]

+ Breathtaking title screen and music, especially with how it continues when you press New Game.

+ The game does not let up with how gorgeous it is, ranging from the expressive overworld sprites, full screen animated CGs and the full-bodied animated sprites for characters in combat. It is easily the best part of this game, and barring the little RPG Maker icons you’d probably never tell this was made in MV. Very good work.

+ I’m really digging this cybermaze aesthetic. Reminds me of Digimon.

+ I do like that for as much as the game is chock full of lore (EG. The Source, the fact these little computer faeries can be used as weapons and spells, etc.), the game doesn’t shove it down your throat for the entire experience. You’re kind of expected to piece it together yourself, which is far more preferable.

+ It helps that the actual writing helps make the characters very charming (like my boy Bulwark, what a chad + the shy computer that makes blushy faces at you)

+ Despite the fact our main character girl doesn’t speak, her sprites make her very emotive and that’s more than enough to win me over. In fact, there’s so many little touches (ex. Casting a shadow when against a door, sitting down on the ground to listen to the computer, etc.)

+ The save room where our little gal and the computer faeries are sitting resting on a bench is so adorable.

+ This has to be one of the most unique menus I’ve ever seen in RPG Maker. It’s so slick and cool-looking, especially the card stuff. However...

+ I do like that the enemies are patrolling the overworld so you’re not just ambushed by random encounters. Very nice.

+ This card gameplay is genuinely addicting. Like it’s luck-dependent due to being a roguelite deck-building game (read below for my issues with that), but it turns this otherwise simple battle system into something I can see people sinking tons of hours into.

Especially given how the effects of your little computer faeries activates immediately when you select them.

Running into those card caches gives me the same dopamine as gacha hunting, I’m not joking.

+ Oh interesting. The floors are randomized, since the floor I started on in my next attempt wasn't the same as the last time.

= The enemies say “Subjucation” in cutscenes, which I’m pretty sure is supposed to be Subjugation instead.

= Oh hey, I use this Gradient Wipe plugin. It’s pretty handy for animating text boxes.

= I do think how the game is packaged is very interesting. It’s the entire game, but without any of the usual folders. How did you do that?

- Oh no... you have all of this custom art yet you stuck to default RTP sound effects...

Okay, but in all seriousness, you really need to commit to find more SFX that’s unique to your game since it’s a bit uncanny to see a default light sparkle animation with Bulwark or Lullaby when the game is otherwise so polished.

- No keyboard rebinding. Please install Yanfly Keyboard Config or have your coder create a custom version that fits your game.

- Super-not-a-fan of hiding the Options Menu and the Quit Game button inside of the “Main Menu” section. I know, that sounds weird, but when players press X to access the menu, seeing the Options and Quit selections THERE instead of inside of a submenu feels more natural. (I genuinely thought the options menu didn’t exist because of this, for reference). Likewise, you should have the options menu at the title screen, so players can choose if they want the game to be windowed or not.

- The forced full screen is very annoying without the ability to toggle it on or off.

- (!!) The game seems quite resource intensive for my laptop. I also saw characters flicker when making new expressions and frames, which tends to happen due to how RPG Maker MV handles multi-frame characters.

- A typo or two: “What’s luck!” when you get a Life Crystal from the treasure cache should be “What luck!”, removing the “s” since it’s not necessary.

- So my issue with this combat is that, while you can apply the effects of your little computer faerie friends on top of your normal attack, it’s also very easy to run out of options or get blindsided. For example:
* You can’t retreat if you know you can’t win (There’s no “run” option)
* Once a card is used up, you have to find a data cache to get new cards since you’d be out of options otherwise.
* You can only really hit one enemy at a time, there’s not really any AOE skills.
* While I do like that the two starter orb enemies die in one hit no matter what, the one that has more HP and can stun you out of the blue is a huge issue.

- There's also not much tutorialization on how the cards work, nor does it ever really tell you about the "barrier gauge" that nullifies 1 hit for every filled pip you have. That seems like it would reduce confusion on how your game's mechanics work.

Here's the thing. It's one of the best looking RPG Maker games I've seen come out of anybody who frequents our forum - which is no small feat, given how much effort I've seen people put into their games.

The roguelite deck-building element is very addictive and incentivizes the player to explore and fight however they want, and the base gameplay isn't too complicated. The game also has a ton of cute little moments that made me want to see how our Main Gal (I don't know if she's Margo, so I never call her that) tries to save the world because she's so cute.

But when luck is no longer in your favor, the game spirals out of control almost immediately. I know that's kind of the conceit with these kinds of games, but in this one it stings because you're given just enough to make it feel like when you go down it's your fault.

The awkward placing of the options didn't help much either, since the game starting in full screen and having no way to change it or my keybinds actively hindered me when I was trying to write my thoughts down.

I dunno. All I can say is that I am very excited to see what comes out of this game, because it's clear that there's an incredible amount of love and attention put into it.