Phew played up to the Shrine, more to play. Here are my thoughts so far.
Likes.
- I really like Ryders' character.
- I like Arwen too.
The intro was fantastic.
- Mapping moves between 8/10 and 15/10. It's stunningly beautiful at times except the Inn in the city, the carpet there is weird.
- The anime-style intro is really nice (though zoomed-in face sets look pixely).
- The pacing is pretty nice.
- I like the classic RPG feel to the mayor losing the pass so I have to go questing to get it, nice little late 90's vibe.
- Green enemies giving half XP and red 1.5 is a nice touch to stop the player from becoming over levelled (with an upcoming caveat)
- The map outside the shrine is one of the nicest maps I've ever seen in an RPG, just stunning.
- The scene with the
Spoiler
astral wolf faking a boss fight
- The party banter is really fun.
Dislikes.
So first off I understand the game isn't really geared around combat and combat is kind of just there but that's a big stumbling block for me.
- The time attack feature feels punishing for a game that's not about skilled combat, personally, I would a; bin it completely or b; make it harder to succeed. Instead of scaling values below 1, I'd have it start at full damage, be more difficult and scale to 1.5 damage. This way it rewards the player for good use, instead of punishing the player for poor use. Much more synergetic with your game so far.
- Enemy numbers are a little all over the place, for example, fighting 2 purple slimes at level 4 earns half XP and they are quite tanky, but fighting 3 wolves earns a ton more and I can kill the 3 wolves much quicker.
- It's very hard to see the level requirement on the skill tree when it's grey. I had to look a couple of times to see why I could learn certain skills.
- Had a couple of bugs like Elizars' cabin door ending the quest multiple times if I choose not to enter, slime walking on the mountain on the map where Ryder washes up.
- I found the searching box when checking chests and barrels a little redundant.
- The message box consistently had like one word on the top line and then used as normal was kind of strange to read.
- Almost forgot: I really wanted to swat that fairy right outta the sky.
All in all dude, I really enjoyed it, top 10% of RPG-maker games I've played and with a little love for the combat and some polish would be up there with the best. Personally, I think slightly tweak some combat numbers, bin the timed attacks and fix those message boxes and you'd be golden.
You're onto a winner here.
On the SG fighting the boss alone, I almost made the same mistake despite the warning. I'm the type that gets a sidequest and immediately goes and does it to get it out of the way, so I have a suggestion if you're patching the game.
Arwen leaves the party as soon as we enter town, so what I'd do is have Elizars wife give that spiel but not grant the quest. Have her say strongly imply that having a party would allow the quest and then turn the quest availability on once Arwen is in the party or when the game hits whatever switch or variable when she joins.
Its quite easy to click through a dialogue box without reading if in a hurry or if you have a text to answer or email etc... and the thing with quest journals and descriptions is never expect the player to read them, especially if it involves scrolling down or putting effort in.
That last bit applies to everything really, if there's one thing I've learned from rm streamers it's they'll find a way to ignore something, and then complain when things go wrong but I genuinely think it's on us developers to prevent that.
