[RMMV] Dungeon Rummage - Tiqee's Escape

Beginning
The dairy is certainly an interesting way of introducing the backstory only to those who feels like reading it. I didn't want to read all of it immediately, so I figured I'll just read one part every time I come into to town. That plan didn't end up working very well :p

When getting supplies, for some reason I interacted with everything other than the actual wooden trash piles. This lead to me trying to leave town, only to learn to "I need to build a friend", and then trying to figure out what to interact with to start the building. While this was mostly a me problem, changing that message to "I must gather some more materials" when you don't have enough would make it clearer.

The early game fights were a bit boring. They were interesting at first, but only until I fell into the pattern of "Focus fire-Cripple-keep using Attack and Focus fire when available-restore bot HP and ammo after combat", which was rather quick.
To be fair, "early combat is too boring" is a criticism I have for most turn-based RPGs, and yours is still better than most, so make of that what you will.

The samurai was nice with slightly breaking things up, i.e. start by using focus fire on the second turn.

I didn't notice the hidden room where the plans for the second robot were the first two times I passed by it. I eventually did, so it wasn't a problem, but I wonder what happens to players who just never notice it xD

I thought that getting the second bot would change things, but it really didn't. It just meant the other two bots were hit less often, allowing me to continue with the same strategy as before.


Now, while the fights were a bit boring, the progression was a bit scary. You need to spend a lot of scrap to keep progressing (by blowing up walls), and there's only a finite amount in each area. Some enemies drop it, but they don't respawn either [I later learned that they do, but it seems like only over a rather long time]. So it seemed very much possible to craft too many things / use up too much scrap on refilling parts and not be able to progress.
That fear waned as I gathered up more materials and gold, but it was definitely there at the start. I was dodging all enemies I could for a while because I didn't want to waste any more resources than strictly necessary.

The boss of the first area was a really cool fight! I had to actually think during this one ;)
Keeping the bots reasonably topped up but without wasting any healing, trying to fill up their ammo when it's as low as possible but before it hits 0, all while trying to make sure I still use Focus fire on every turn I can was really interesting.

I was a bit weird from a narrative standpoint, since it looks a lot like the big robot from earlier. My first thought when I saw him was: well, I haven't really gotten any stronger since last time, so that's probably not going to go very well. Only to notice that it definitely has a lot less health than last time.
It would have been since to have some narrative explanation for it. Maybe change the sprite to be more battered, like it got damaged in a rockslide. Or to Tiqee some agency, maybe even rework the sequence to have the boss visibly standing ahead, and have her cause a rockslide to damage it.

And speaking of mild narrative dissonance, how is she crafting all those clearly metallic contraptions from piles of wood anyway? I think it would have felt much better to replace the wood piles with something more metalic-looking (and maybe rename from "piles of junk" to "scrap piles").

Second area

I think I got a bit trolled by the bot names. After I reached the green area and found some stronger enemies, I thought about getting a third bot. Specifically, how I got the "alpha" and "gamma" blueprints, but not "beta". I figured I probably missed another destructible wall, so I went back to all previous areas, double-checked everything twice, and while I did actually find a wall I missed (next to the mimic), I didn't find the "beta" bot. So I went back to the forest area, and it was behind the very first destructible wall.

Also Tiqee getting weaker seems to have actually been a buff? Or it might have been because I levelled up the turret bot, it was about the same time. But when before using Focus Fire would tell the bot what should it do on its own turn, now the bot acts first (using a regular attack), and then uses Focus Fire. So being slower than it seems much better.

Or if that is actually an effect of levelling up, it would be nice to actually see what levelling up each bot will do.
Actually, it would probably be nice either way.

The same NPCs having a shop in a different place is always a funny gag, but it would have been nice to have that acknowledged somehow. Like Tiqee reacting to this. In any way at all.

Actually, it would be nice to use the inn as a bit of a break, and a chance to have some dialogue. You could ask them how they're handing the logistics of being in multiple places at once, and maybe have some conversations about things that would bring up Tiqee's backstory. It would have been useful if, say, somebody decided to only read one part of the a diary at a time, thinking that the town will probably be a hub of sorts he'll get to regularly come back to ;)


The support bot is really annoying. Tiqee's health is rarely an issue in combat, but it keeps trying to heal her no matter what. Even if her health is full. It just seems like a waste to use the ammo refill ability on it, if it's just going to use that up in 5 turns. In a sense that does add to the challenge of making use of that 2-action buff, but it sure is annoying if a bot could be greatly improved by stopping it from taking any actions.

Not being able to direct who the turret shoots at is mildly annoying, but understandable. Especially since I do have a skill for directing it.
[Though only now, with some amusement I've realised that this skills doesn't really direct anything, does it? Since the turret still takes it's own action, it basically functions as Tiqee's attack that costs bot ammo. But it still felt like I was directing the bot, which is probably what mattered more]
But the support bot using 20% of its ammo each turn to do nothing is just plain annoying.

So, the second area's boss fight. It was cool! Those are definitely where the game shines for me, and resource management becomes a lot more important. I initially tried to keep the support bot stocked up so that I can keep getting that double-action buff, but eventually figured out that since I have to use two actions to get it (one to restock, another for the command), it's probably better to simply stop restocking or repairing the support bot at all. It's also less bots to repair that way, and the other two actually do something useful :p
That decision was likely right, especially since I didn't need to heal Tiqee even once in that fight.

I've looted everything else before the portal. Did I mention I enjoy the looting? ... apparently not. I do enjoy being a pesky little goblin running around and looting everything, while occasionally running away from enemies. Often while still looting things along the way.

Anyway, I've looted everything until the portal, went through, fought some slimes, fought the mimick, and got a thing that might make the support bot useful and heal other bots!
It does seem to use it primarily on bots that are already at full health. I think it might not like me either.

This is as far as I've played, and I might continue it later. I wanted to write down all the feedback in time for the Festival though :p

Misc things
I tried taking a steam screenshot at one point (by pressing F12) and it opened DevTools. I don't think that's meant to happen :p

Thought while we're at it, it seems like you got an error (this is repeated many many times). You might want to fix the brackets in that skill require eval - it should be if (statement || statement), not if (statement) || (statement).

(to be clear, I only found that from opening DevTools - it doesn't seem to break anything gameplay wise)

That wall looks really weird.



And as for volume options: I appreciate the default volume not being 100%.
But while I do, most people don't know what BGM, BGS, ME and SE stand for.

Overall
I generally quite enjoyed the game. It had some boring parts, like combat in the early zones, and re-tracking in search of hidden walls (though that second one was admittedly a bit self-inflicted). But the whole bot-management system was very interesting, especially in boss fights, and the looting was just plain fun, which mode than made up for it.

I hope you find this feedback useful :)