Tried the game, it was interesting. A unusual combat system and story, surely. It’s surely refreshing seeing an entry like this. I’d liked a better explaination for the enemies since…they are not normal failed experiments.

Nice work! And thanks for the map, that helped me navigate better xD

I love the look and feel of this game, and I can't wait to see more! I got held up in some of the same areas mentioned by others here - I am TERRIBLE at sliding puzzles and always have been, so I wouldn't necessarily say it's a game flaw, but a me flaw! XD I skipped the phoenix puzzle and then wasn't able to get past King Glitch. I'm not sure if I should have cleared all of the other glitches first for experience/leveling before skipping the phoenix puzzle and being cut off from that area? But overall this game is really enjoyable so far, and I'm just impressed that my friend can build a game like this in a short amount of time, like what am I doing with my life?

I think I accidentally posted my comment in the wrong section, but anyways I love this game! Really great animations and love the writing! One of my favorite entries awesome job! :)

I love the plot that is presented that gives a sense of mystery of what exactly they are experimenting in the lab. The mapping for the lab is quite well done along with a nice touch of the decontamination area.

I think most of the other comments ave mentioned about controls of the puzzles. One thing I found it hard to see in the phoenix puzzle was seeing where the empty square actually was since everyhthing was just black and white.

The battles had a cool QTE mechanics that kept me on my toes. I was hoping to see some grotesque failed experimental bird creatures in the basement! I couldn't get past the glitch king boss, maybe my character was too underlevelled.

A little rough in some aspects due to time constraints, but overall good job!

What can I say, you've made the idea of working in this research center perfectly! The settings and palette choice is very inspired and I really liked how the game started. In my opinion the game would be good even on puzzles alone, despite the fact that there were some interesting ideas in the battle system. Overall I think you did a good job, well done! :)

I got this one for judging in round one, so here are my thoughts:

I like the idea of this game. It feels like an adventure game more than an RPG, which is a nice change of pace. There weren't many battles except for when I had to go into the basement to get supplies, and those I handled just fine. Though I never did get any attack but my default one to work well. Also if you are going to have a timing gauge I have to use on attacks, I really shouldn't miss on a perfect still. May want to adjust that some. 

However I hit a glaring issue in Chapter 2. The sliding phoenix puzzle. The key to reset showed up as a blank key and the key to give up said Shift + Give up as your give up text covered up what key I was supposed to hit. I tried every Shift + key on my keyboard and none of them worked. In the end I spent my entire hour judging on that puzzle and didn't manage to solve it, so that was as far as I got.

I do think you got a decent idea, and with some fixing of that Chapter 2 puzzle it could be a really good game though.

Ok. I won't cover later chapters past ch.2 since those are spoilery in nature but I'll cover the general gist. So this game's strong point is definitely the atmosphere and intrigue over the phoenix project and the inner workings of the scientists' work on it. That being said, this game's puzzles are unforgiving. I can argue its not for me but the fact that there's a 4 x 4 slide puzzle and you have to move each piece to get the lock right is not only unfun for me but a massive chore. This honestly turns me off a lot to what your game has to offer despite the give up sign shown right there.  The 3x3 panel light up puzzle is annoying but that one is more on me for just being impatient and couldn't figure out the right way to solve it. Also I don't think that panel light up puzzle has a reset button like the 4x4 slide ones do.

The animations looks cool, the characters are.. interesting but not engaging, which gives me little room for a resonant emotional bond with the character. By Chapter 2 we switch to a new character who speaks less, and was abruptly introduced, leaving me with a sense of mystery but also confusion. 

The battles do use the undertale/shadow hearts like input timing system and overall its fine. Granted, you do get thrust into it rapidly so accustoming to it can be difficult. But other than that, its not exactly the most engaging combat system nor does it tie in well with the aesthetics and design of the game. At least on an impression basis.

This game gives me mixed emotions. On one hand, it definitely tries to sell you on the ethics/grounded society of what the idea of soldiers being used for way without worrying about human casualties due to loopholes of them not being "human". And the different factions trying to confirm the fact of all the actions the project entails. On the other hand, the combat and gameplay does need to be a lot less painful for me to fully immerse myself to the experience. Though that is more for me and not necessarily for everyone else.

Time constraints are a factor to this, and I understand that. But based on what I was given, I wasn't fully into the intrigue unfortunately. The effort is commendable at least.

I am admittedly terrible at these kinds of games! But it was done well overall and I do feel you should be proud of it. Being able to press PageUp for help was great and the battle system was unique!

"The Phoenix Project" is a game by my friend erin foster, who I really appreciate and have been wanting to experience them telling a story for som etime.

There is a great promise in erin's work. Every time a cutscene is on screen, it drew me into the world that was being presented. There is clearly so much thought put into the happenings of the story, the characters, the conflicts, the ideas at play - this is a very DENSE political work. And it serves best, I feel, as a narrative-based game, with gameplay yet to be expanded upon.

Even as some cutscenes do feel like sometimes a LOT at once, it is information that drew me IN to the world at play, immersing me into what is happening. I feel like there was a lot of thought put into the conflicts at play, and it's suspenseful when it needs to be.

And so the narrative is the part of the game that really shines here, despite me having a few issues with puzzle presentation and gameplay balancing - which are mostly because the developer ran out of time :) I know that behind the scenes, there was a lot of time crunch here, resulting in some systems that were less-than-finished. The cursor in the puzzles became obtrusive, the sliding puzzle felt like an RPG Maker sin being committed against me, perhaps even more than ice sliding puzzles and boulder pushing puzzles combined (XD) but I know that erin will gladly remove that puzzle from the game for me LOOOOOOL :P

I want to focus on the strengths - the story crafting draws you in, the atmosphere is thick, and the feeling is there. The conversations hold great weight, and I feel that it when it is at its best. I do feel as if the details of the larger narrative, particularly with the girl, did become a little confusing, but I can see they could become clear very soon so that my understanding can be tracked along with it.

All in all, thank you erin for providing a fantastic entry to this jam. I loved playing it and I hope to enjoy more fantastic erin content in future :)

(Here's me playing it)

Really enjoyed the game and surprised it's pretty long for a game jam entry. The storyline and atmosphere is very cool. There's some little bugs or glitches but nothing too major (I defeated everything in the basement but the one scientist never gave me anything, there's a few places where things are overhead that should be same as character, things like that). Overall tho, really impressive showing.

Incredible atmosphere and I love the usage of the RPG Maker XP sprites! Feels unique amongst its IGMC peers and offers a lot of content I hope to see developed further. :)

The setting of this game is atmospheric and sinister yet realistic and grounded. I loved all the world building about the bureaucracy of the dark experiments being conducted.  

Mapping was great, really immersive, only broken by a few passability issues.

And it has combat! With fun little mini games that add extra interactivity! The monster sprites are too adorable.

I wasn't too great at the puzzles but that's par for the course for me ;)

Overall: a wonderfully impressive project to be proud of!

Ok, I just finished playing this game. The atmosphere is the selling point of this game. The dev succeeded in giving that dark sci-fi vibe. Really like it. My stupid brain got me to spend good 30m trying to make the machine work though lol! This is just me, of course. :D

Some things I've taken note of while playing the game.

• Try adding/changing some sound effects during battles. I imagine the game to be more engaging if the battle has the same level of atmosphere given to the exploration and maps.
• I was dealing 0 damage to the boss and I saved right beside it. There was no way for me grind and gainsome level so I had to restart my game.
• Last, I saw a non game breaking bug, but thought you might want to know. I was able to walk on the  walls on this map.

Other than those, very nice game. As I have said, the atmosphere of the game is really good. Thank you for the experience! :)

EDITED: typos :3

A moody and unsettling atmosphere nailed with some well-crafted mapping, carefully-lit scenes and a story that delves deep into science and controversial experimentations. An eerie, almost paranormal vibe follows in the second half. Tough puzzles - but offered the option to skip and progress which was a nice touch. Look forward to seeing more.