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A jam submission

Melancholy and Bliss: Shadow WorldView game page

Short Tactical 2D RPG inspired by classic JRPG and TBS games for the IGMC 2018.
Submitted by Gameisfun — 1 day, 3 hours before the deadline
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Play MaB: Shadow World

Melancholy and Bliss: Shadow World's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
People's Choice Vote#1412.3572.357

Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Team Members
Adventurer_inc
gameisfun

Engine
RPG Maker MV

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

This was too hard to beat.
Developer(+1)

Hey, thanks for playing our game!

I am thrilled to see a lets play of our game. I hope you enjoyed playing it as much as I enjoyed watching it! 

Submitted

Really love a lot of factors here - the characters have strong chemistry and the combat has a lot of neat ideas - but I couldn't beat the Harold fight. I got -very- close, but lost the battle of attrition when it was down to just me and one other enemy. (the fact they kept on healing Harold did not help!)

I think some extra balancing, or maybe just a better tutorial on how to take down enemy shields or why even at 0 shield enemies can still guard all the damage, would be beneficial.

I wanted to know more about these girls! (who have great designs btw) and I'm a bit sad the combat system provided such a large spike in difficulty right then. It doesn't look like I can backtrack to grind for healing potions either.

The AP for both combat and movement system was unique and I liked it a lot. I also like the fact that you can equip things to your items (like equiping counter to a weapon). Steal having a proper function alongside stealing items was also cool. And gotta love a mage tank!

Anyway, great concepts! Would love to play a version where you have more time for polish or expanded tutorials.

Congrats on submitting your game!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing!

We will definitely work on a more proper tutorial next time and thanks for the feedback! 

*SPOILER*

If I may give hints, the game itself may not explain explicitly how some of the hidden mechanics work within this prototype and seeing how you were able to defeat the previous battle against Oreh and Alice, the battle against Harold and his party may prove difficult! However don't let that discourage you. What the previous team have that team Harold lacks is a proper mage! Use that to your advantage! I would recommend using Aloia to pull enmity from Harold's entire team using her use of evasion. Her evasion stacks depending on her movements. I would recommend getting her evasion as high as possible to allow her to 'tank' the team!

The shield allows the user to block oncoming physical attacks from the front by reducing AP. This meant it can only be used from the front where the character is facing!

Again, thanks for playing! I hope you may give our game another shot!

Submitted(+1)

Oh interesting. I didn't realize Aloia had some system for tanking; I was using Mai to tank and her shield was going down crazy fast. The battle against Oreh and Alice I won by the skin of my teeth (Aloia was dead and Mai had like 12HP left hahaha) Curious to see how Aloia stacks up as a swift tank. Thanks for the tip!

btw I didn't mention - but I love the art on the title screen a lot :> The angle of the art is challenging, but it was pulled off well!

Developer

Thanks! That means a lot! 

Submitted(+1)

Good battle system! Nice art, too.
I can tell the developers are way better at these types of games than I am. :p

The actual combat is fun and easy to learn. This is a proper strategy game with nuance. 
The Tactical Mode is a cool addition as well, it highlights how enjoyable the gameplay is
on its own merits. However,  the challenge is an acquired taste. It's hard!

I stopped where we battle a certain familiar hero and his entourage.
Before that, I barely survived each time. I know of the Assist Mode  version,
but since what's presented here is going to be the main difficulty,
I should chip in that it's like the hardest setting of an already hard game!
These feel like endgame battles where your character gets creamed in two hits.
Enemies can heal, counter and do other nasty tricks while your moveset is limited.
The game does not care if you are, as 2004 would say, a n00b.  
One wrong move and the enemy will flex you out and call your bike lame.

TOTAL PLAYTIME: 30+ MINUTES (Double that if you include losses.)

FINAL VERDICT: My bike's not lame! Your bike is just super awesome!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing! 

I enjoyed reading your post and feedback! 

The battle system seems to pause an awful lot. Also, I don't see any indication for why characters sometimes get to go twice.

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Where does it pause? 

Turn order is determined by AP. I believe for that case what happened was an enemy had more AP for next turn, allowing that enemy to go first. 

Thanks for the feedback! 

Perhaps "pause" isn't the right word. It takes a long time for the ai to take its turn, more so than the animations take.

(2 edits)

Battle System Designer here: The Ai taking a long time to perform a turn is probably because the original Ai was designed to "think" once per turn. The new system causes the Ai to think three times making it three times as long to perform a turn. The reason for this is because after each action the Ai takes, it has to re-search the battleground, from the perspective of its new position to allies and enemy and its AP, and decides if it should end its turn. Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into possible future solution.

(+1)

I like the battle system! But a good tutorial would be helpful.

Developer

Thanks for playing and feedback! 

I really wanted to like this game but there's hardly any exposition and there's mostly combat which felt a bit tedious. I love the art and custom work and the battle system does have really good potential but it just feels so tedious rn especially the beginning fight with the knight and the squire. 

Developer

Thank you for giving this game a go!

I appreciate feedback, I try my best on the art!

Submitted

Hey so idk if it's just me but the first battle is a little too hard. will try again later but am i missing something? i'm not dealing any damage to the knight at all.

Developer

Thank you for playing our game!

I will take your feedback into consideration!

Submitted(+1)

I figured it out with the tech skills lol x)