I was one of the official judges this year, and now that the results have been made public, and I'm free to do so, here is my score and thoughts on this title:

Overall score: 6.5

Cute little pet raising sim. I really wish there was some more meat to it, however. It just drops you into the world and says 'RAISE THIS EGG' and you do, but there's no way to see what sort of progress you're making or have made, nor what sort of other kaiju you could get by different food combos (if any). The bit at the end was fun, but confusing at first as nothing was explained.

Out of the two projects that WrathOfWood submitted, this is my preferred one, for several reasons.

1. It's a 3D game that doesn't use the first-person perspective, and thus didn't give me motion sickness.

2. It has more mechanics that it can explore, and more content in general to explore.

3. The visual style is incredibly appealing. I liked it a lot, and it oozes a lot of personality.

In "Pocket Kaiju", you name your Kaiju friend, and the game offers a tutorial to you to help you understand. It explains that if you pet your kaiju, it'll be happy, but if it's unhappy, it'll return to an egg.

You plant seeds to grow plants there, but there's only 2 plots, so you basically just choose what seeds go in at any one time. It's very likely you're going to have a LOT of seeds when playing.

The seeds grow into fruit which you can feed to your Kaiju.

What I didn't know was that the Kaiju have a branch of monster evolutions that they can do, but only if you feed them specific foods. So it just so happened that I was feeding a Kaiju for a long time, but I was unaware that what I was feeding them was not going to do anything. It was just going to feed them forever, unless I fed them the specific thing - at least that's what I understood. I think that there's branching Kaiju that can occur, but only if you feed them the same thing the whole time? For example, if you feed them yellow fruit, you have to feed them yellow fruit the whole time. If I misunderstood this, please let me know, but that's how it ended up coming across, because what I was feeding them wasn't doing anything after a while.

A possible solution to this could be having lots of different branching Kaiju based on fruit? That's just a possibility.

In fact, there's a lot of room for expansion in this framework. The developer, WrathOfWood, could definitely expand on this incredibly sound framework to produce something that lasts hours, even, and keeps on being addicting and fun, if they tune the gameplay mechanics just right. There's room for expanding and unlocking new areas, implementing sowing of farm plots, and visualising things like the time system and Kaiju tree and so on.

I don't usually mention solutions to issues in my critiques, because I prefer to just explain what I'm feeling and stop there, but in this case, I feel it's important to recognise that there is just SO MUCH POTENTIAL here. It can be expanded in so many different directions, at least I feel so.

The flavour of the game is really cute, and I like the general feel of the retro graphics and style.

All in all, this is a cute raising game where you have plenty of mechanics that could be expanded, but even as is, provide a good amount of gameplay. It's a concept that definitely is promising, for sure. I keep looking forward to future WrathOfWood projects.

Well done on this game, WrathOfWood. Thank you for making it for us. It's a true pleasure to be able to play your game.

A neat little concept, proving that there are even more facets to RPG Maker development. It's short and sweet, but I feel like it's supposed to be somewhat experimental. Good job with all the MV/MZ3D stuff :) 

A 3D virtual pet with a unique art style that truly cannot be replicated. Grow all the pizza you can! Really enjoyed playing this one and having a break from the traditional narrative-driven game. :D

Cool little virtual pet game! Feels like raising a digimon haha. I like the novelty of the ending.

This is a clever little virtual pet game made with MV3D.

My highlights:

+ Simple box area makes it hard to get lost

+ Game loop is pretty simple too

+ Interesting change of mechanics on the end game that reminds me of Buffet Knight

+ Harold

Criticisms:

- Lots of waiting around makes for a kinda boring experience

- I'm still not 100% on how the main loop works - I guess you fill up your kaiju multiple times until it evolves? Is there a reason to use foods other than the one you just received that round?

- While the end game is fairly straightforward, the lack of tutorial didn't sit well with me. I think I did it right but it would have been nice to know what I was actually supposed to be doing.

All in all it's another Wrath of Wood classic that breaks the RM mold and features MV3D. A little rough around the edges, but enjoyable nonetheless.

I feel like the game would be so much fun if the time it took to raise a Kaiju were to be about a third of the length, after figuring out the core mechanics it becomes a grind.

The payoff at the end is interesting though! Dunno why my per Kaiju (that I named Harold) was the size of planets but I'll take it