MZ - Re Dreams Demo now available

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Started by Kes 69 posts Page 4 of 4 View original ↗
  1. every-meeting.gif

    Review time!

    Spoiler
    -I'm sure this was placeholder, but the first splash screen needs to be fixed
    -The options menu was bit difficult to navigate.
    -I have a bit of a rant about the game's sound.

    For the most part, it's good. I like a lot of the music, it's nice and quiet and fits the maps. The audio design for background noise is also really good. I like that the water sounds louder the closer you are to it. That's all great.

    There's a lack of sound sometimes that can be weird. For example, when introducing the new characters, it feels like there should be a little flourish or something, considering the art. There were a few cutscenes that could have used some different music as well.

    I also found the UI sound effects to be frustratingly off. Like they felt every so slightly too late after you selected something.
    The RTP sound effects in battle were a bit disappointing as well, specifically the monster death noise.

    -I thought the maps were really well done, and looked great
    -UI was fine. Sometimes it felt a little overwhelming, but otherwise fine.
    -The character art for the faces was really good. If you did get full body art for characters, I would suggest not just using the face box, and use busts. That's a personal pet peeve, but I do think busts look better unless it's pixel art.
    -Personally, I find Simon's green jumpsuit to be a bit loud and out of place in the medieval setting.
    -I'm not a fan of the tall sprites with RTP heads. I don't think it really fits the mood and other art in the game. Also, Simon and Emma's sprites were really hard to tell apart.
    -The rabbits in the forest seem to change color randomly
    -The paragraph formatting in message boxes doesn't always look right. I think it's a VS issue, I've had the same issue in my game.
    -I know it's a little thing, but I really like how the doors work in your game. They felt way more natural.
    -You can walk over the trees in the main town.
    -The world map was a bit confusing. There were a few invisible walls and it took a while to find the forest.
    -The combat was fine. I'm not sure what the purpose of the lower AGI skill was, as they went last anyway or would die that turn. Also, it's a small thing, but it's kind of weird that the huge tree monster was weaker than like two rabbits.
    -Exploration was great, and the balance of items and such felt good.
    -I'm not sure what the purpose of the save demon NPC was. You could save anyway, and she doesn't heal you, so...
    -I stopped playing after dying in the bar fight with the thieves. I reloaded my save, and went back to the main town to complete the scholar quest. When I entered the town, it played the quest end cutscene twice and than froze.
    -The story was okay. It felt like it moved a bit too fast, and I didn't get a real sense of the world I was in.
    -I did like your main party though. Simon was bit generic, but the other two were great. I'm glad you didn't go with the usual band of tropey teens.
    -The little bits of dialogue was cool, and I like the idea, but maybe make it a popup window, as not to get in the way of combat?
    -It's a bit weird that you can barge into random people's houses, and sometimes they sort of react to it, but not in a way that feels natural. I would stick with either not addressing it entirely, or make it more realistic.
  2. @TRIDIUM You're the second person I've seen mention the rabbits, but failed to notice that it's part of their act. They're white and peaceful when you're staring at them, but turn black and aggressive when you look away. Essentially a color changing version of a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who.
  3. @TRIDIUM Thank you for such a comprehensive review. I'll just pick up on a few of your points.
    The rabbits changing colour is not random. If you go to Langley Farm before going to the Woods (recommended because you get a quest) he tells you that to your face the rabbits are soft and fluffy, but behind your back it's quite different. This is actually a small Easter Egg referring to the Weeping Angel statue who creeps up on you when you're not looking but goes still if you turn and look at it. A couple of people have mentioned the randomness thing, so maybe it's too obscure and I shall need to cut it.

    The Save Demon has a small part to play in the plot unfolding. In addition, for people playing Veteran mode there will be places where the Demon is your only way to save, and I need to be sure that the player knows exactly what she's for.

    Can I ask when you downloaded the demo, as the bug with entering the town was fixed (I hope) a couple of days ago. If it's still causing problems I shall have to have another major go at it. Actually, now I think about it, you must be playing an older version as the tree passability was also sorted out a week or so ago.

    Thanks for reminding me about the music for when the party members join. I knew there was something I'd forgotten.

    You mentioned tall sprites with RTP heads. Can you remember where you saw them, as none of them should be like that.

    Once again, thanks for taking the time and trouble to do a review.

    EDIT
    While I was typing this Sword_of_Dusk posted about the rabbits as well.
  4. Kes said:
    @Sword_of_Dusk I have uploaded a fix (I hope) for the re-entry into Silverley. If you still have your save file from before then, you could try and finish the demo if you want to.

    If you do, could you let me know what happens?

    btw, those passive skills should now be invisible in battle.
    So, the good news is that I was able to get back into town and progress. The bad news is that when I attempt to enter the Abandoned Fort, I get the following happening:
    1735423055786.png
    If there's any more content in the fort, the game just doesn't want me seeing it.
  5. Sword_of_Dusk said:
    @TRIDIUM You're the second person I've seen mention the rabbits, but failed to notice that it's part of their act. They're white and peaceful when you're staring at them, but turn black and aggressive when you look away. Essentially a color changing version of a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who
    Oh, that's cool, I guess I was paying enough attention to notice the color change, but not enough to see why.

    Kes said:
    Can I ask when you downloaded the demo, as the bug with entering the town was fixed (I hope) a couple of days ago. If it's still causing problems I shall have to have another major go at it. Actually, now I think about it, you must be playing an older version as the tree passability was also sorted out a week or so ago.
    I downloaded the demo a while ago. Definitely before Christmas.

    Kes said:
    You mentioned tall sprites with RTP heads. Can you remember where you saw them, as none of them should be like that.
    Hm, I'm pretty sure all the characters are like that. Are they not RTP? That might have been my mistake.
  6. @Sword_of_Dusk I'm glad to hear that the town bug is sorted. You can't get into the Abandoned Fort, it's not included in the demo. Now I just need to work out why the regions blocking your access didn't keep you from trying to go there.

    @TRIDIUM None of the heads are RTP. They are not, it is true, as well proportioned as Wayward Martian, but their sprites are a lot taller even than these, so it is easier for the head to look better. btw, I forgot to mention in reply to your suggestion that I fix the splash screen, as you could see that it is a placeholder I'm not sure that it's 'fixable' until the screen is finalised. And the other thing - I thoroughly dislike busts for dialogue because if you have a cut scene where things are happening, and people are moving about, then the busts cover that up. I suppose it makes less difference if it's just static talking, but even then, a lot of details on the maps are covered up. Personal preferences here for both of us.
  7. I played the demo and I'm already in love with the game!

    First things first, the bugs: I notice somethings off, like Emma dissapearing when receiving necklace from Conrad.

    A Missing Banner that supposed to be there in the first town.

    Roberts dialogue about giving Sylvias the money she needed despite after completing Sylvias Quest.

    Emma's skill: Tendon Slash giving double TP when its supposed to be 15.

    Thats all the bugs I founded.

    Secondly the crashes, because of these crashes, my playtime was cut short.

    The first crash was entering the abandoned Fortress

    The Second Crash killed my playthrough, happened at the 2nd city.


    Now with that outta the way, now I can talk about what I loved about the game!

    First of all: The Characters!

    The characters are well made, Robert's dialogue made me laugh ALOT!

    Second: The World!

    I spent almost half of my playthrough just exploring the world you built, found 3 Secret rooms!

    Third: The small talks!

    The rambling between Emma and Robert were just funny, especially the ones when against certain enemies.


    With that concludes my review!

    My rating: 10/10

    I know I'm gonna buy your game when it comes out.

    :rheh:
  8. @Silver_Crusader Thank you for taking the time and trouble to write your review.

    Just to deal with one crash you reported. You aren't supposed to be able to get into the Abandoned Fort or the second town. They are not part of the demo and all maps for them are excluded from it. The real bug is that the block which should have prevented you getting to them must have gaps in it!
    Thank you for pointing out the others, I'll get them fixed.
    I'm glad you liked the characters and the exploration.
  9. Just finished playing your game, and I've gotta say of all the RPG Maker games I've played recently, this was definitely one of the better ones.

    I really appreciated the effort you put into systems. The quest log was a great inclusion (Though I'll admit, I wish there was a mini-map or compass. There was one point I spent over 20 minutes trying to find Wulstan again after forgetting where he was).

    The dialog system was solid. There weren't any choices, but the writing itself was actually quite decent, and a far cry from the low-effort jokes or filler I've seen otherwise.

    The UI was also excellent. I don't say that lightly. Clean, readable and fit the atmosphere perfectly. Loved it.

    The battle system was fun, too. I liked that agility actually mattered in turn order. I'm still using default turn-based in my own project, so it was refreshing to see something more dynamic.

    Just as a side note: I found the bandit battles a bit too difficult. I think they do too much damage each. I had to go back to the forest and grind for XP before returning to battle the bandits. Even at the lowest difficulty, took me about 15+ tries to beat them.

    The loot system was also great. I liked how items were visually placed in the world instead of just coming from chests or monster drops. Though admittedly, the loot felt mostly like junk? Useful for selling, but with no crafting or secondary purpose (yet?).

    The stat upgrade system (collecting orbs) was awesome and I hope you do more of it The small pop-up messages whenever I picked up loot were a nice bit of polish.

    But the best thing I liked was that the fact that your characters actually comment on the battles. Fighting treants or rabbits, they always had something to say. That really kept me engaged.

    Maybe for the future, you can also add some random dialog lines, so that the players don't always say the same thing for each battle. Just a suggestion. :)

    Keep it up, and looking forward to the next release.