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A jam submission

A Fateful ChoiceView game page

Fight the curse or embrace it
Submitted by KV_Kingdom (@KV_Kingdom) — 14 hours, 34 minutes before the deadline
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A Fateful Choice's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Therese Award for Strength: Combat#43.7963.895
Harold Award for Excellence#123.3863.474
Marsha Award for Music: Sound#162.9753.053
Hrld Award for Graphics: Visuals#173.0783.158
Oldhar Award for Literature: Story#192.7702.842
Lucius Award for Laughs: Comedy#292.0522.105

Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

Gameplay: The save or spare system was a cool core gameplay mechanic. I'm pretty sure sacrificed one person, thought about another, and saved everyone else. I'm going to have to give this one another try to see if there are multiple endings.

Combat: Loved the combat in this game! I'm especially a fan of how many different elements you fit into the battle system without making it overwhelming. Being able to hover over enemies and see their weaknesses was very much welcomed. Buffing took some time to understand but was well worth it. Everything really came into play during the final battle which was a great way to wrap it up. Love seeing the different combat systems you all came up with!

Comedy: Loved Lucius's keymashing dialogue and the piano player. I had to spare him.

Sound: Default/official music worked well enough and fit every situation. Some real bangers in there.

Visuals: RTP is RTP. Worked well enough, but I think you missed a huge opportunity to use Nowis's OESU overworld sprites.

Story: Thought it worked well enough and liked the morality choices throughout.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the review, DJ!

I’m so happy you figured out the battle system despite the lack of tutorials & guidance. I really tried to make it fun with some strategic depth, so I’m glad that came through.

I did include Nowis’ overworld sprites, but they don’t show up because the intro got skipped. I think you would have gotten a kick out of something I did for the piano player too. If you do decide to replay the game (yes, there are multiple endings), I highly recommend waiting until I get my post-jam update up since it will fix a bunch of things.

Submitted

This nice, short sequence of battles and story snippets felt just the right size for a jam game. Some thoughts:

  • The lack of an intro was a bit jarring. Like I was just dropped into a room with some dude.
  • The side-room transitions weren’t immediately obvious, and I missed saving the people in them even though I saved everyone else.
  • Elemental system felt kind of tacked on and I pretty much just ignored it since I wasn’t quite sure what it was supposed to be about.
  • Battle system seemed weird overall, like I was one character with innate 4x multicast and a bunch of job commands rather than an actual party.

At some point, I do intend to replay it with a “save everyone” run.

Developer

Be sure to wait on that "save everyone" run for after the jam so I can stick the intro back in! I swear that mistake is gonna haunt me and this game forever...

I might also work on adding some more tutorials to the battles so it's clearer how everything is supposed to work.

Thanks for playing and giving feedback!

Submitted

All right, will do. And hey, at least your intro bug wasn’t gamebreaking like the crap in mine. :D

Submitted

Such a shame about the missing intro. I was very confused when the game started without any cutscene and then when I got into battle I was Oldhar all of a sudden. Without an intro I didn't want to save or sacrifice any of the NPCs, so I only fought the demons which still ended up giving me the dark end.

I concur with bg that a short battle tutorial would have been cool as I only figured it out about halfway through my first battle. I did really enjoy the battle system.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback, Slim! I'm glad you enjoyed the battle system once you got into it.

Submitted

the battle system was cool

Developer(+1)

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback, Wrath.

Submitted

I like how you have simplified the battle system. Just the limited skills for each member, no mp to worry about etc I think it works really well for the context of a short jam game.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback, Nowis. I’m glad you enjoyed the battle system. 😃

Overall a well done entry. I do wish there had been some training on the battle system as it took me a couple of minutes to realize I could switch between party members. But once I got that figured out I managed just fine.

Developer

Excellent feedback, thanks BG!

I’m glad you had a good time once you figured out how the battle system works. 🙂

Submitted

Hey KV! Awesome work overall!  I had a ton of fun with this battle system.  You did a lot of cool things with it and It has a great pace, so much so that I can see this system being a strong candidate for a larger project! 

Developer(+1)

Thanks, Loch! I’m definitely considering fleshing this system out for a future project. A recurring theme for me in this jam was “this battle system is so cool, I wish I had more time to explore it.” 😁

HostSubmitted

KV! I think I enjoyed the battle system in this more than almost any jam game I've played. The FTB system was well thought out and I enjoyed exploiting weaknesses. Attacks were fast and punchy (you matched my tastes in action sequences perfectly somehow!?) and battles didn't over stay their welcome. There was enough variety in this short game that I felt good playing twice. 

I am confused by why you didn't use the Oldhar map sprite! I like how you snuck in a couple jokes here and there. Oh that Harold. When will he learn? One of the more enjoyable jam games I've played so far!

Developer

Oops, it seems in my last patch I forgot to put the player event back on the starting map, so you all won’t be seeing the intro or the OESU gang on the map. 😞 A very Harold happenstance.

I’ll fix it when I’m allowed to upload again.

Developer

Glad you enjoyed it in spite of the error! Thanks for the feedback. 😃

Submitted

Short entry which drops you right in the middle of it.

As someone not familiar with some of the plugins used, it took a little while to understand i could swap between party members and how to empower skills.

A note on the controls or a mini tutorial would have gone a long way.

Short enough to not overstay its welcome but good all the same.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Good point about the battle tutorial, I wish I had thought to include that. I’m glad you were able to figure it out and have a good time in spite of it. 🙂 Thanks for playing and giving feedback!

HostSubmitted(+1)

Oh.  . . yeah I only got it because I used that plugin for a previous game, so a tutorial is a great suggestion. A short explanation would have helped a ton! As simple as "you can freely choose your character's actions. Each action uses a certain amount of AP."

Submitted

Short, fun, a solid entry. I would have liked some aspects to be fleshed out more but it was brief and engaging enough for me to complete both paths.

Developer

Thanks, Moogle! Glad you enjoyed it.