Nice game! Played until the boss in the bones section. It killed me many times and I eventually lost my way forever. I might play again later on, because I am curious about what comes next, but for now I will leave it at that

I loved the whole aesthetic of the game. It felt brooding and engaging. The storytelling was top notch while keeping it simple. If anything, this is what is going to make me come back to the game

I had a hard time with the battles. So much in fact that I just started skipping them altogether. Maybe it was just me being bad, but perhaps there is a balancing issue there. I feel this has a lot of potential. Keep up the good work!

Just finished playing this! It's really fantastic! I'm sad to see there's no comments on this yet.

I'm not sure how much of the graphics are custom, but I love the tilesets! Especially the scarlet forest. The tilesets really enhance the overall atmosphere of the game and greatly support the storytelling as well. I'm curious how much going down other paths would have changed the narrative and look of the game. (for reference, I went to the bone land and then the scarlet forest)

There were a few design choices that I wasn't too fond of. The biggest one being that enemies respawned. Combat didn't offer much other than posing an obstacle and hurting your resources - so having to repeat fights if you wanted to backtrack, ended up being more annoying than anything. The few drops you get from a fight often not outweighing the cost of items you used. (plus the game gives you so many items that the enemy drops don't mean much.)

I was also not a fan of the non-consumable attack items being in the inventory. The fact they have a quantity made me think they were a one time use item for a while. Later in the game, having to find them amid all the healing items was a bit of a pain. It would be nice to see them sorted into their own menu in battle. Especially since (at least on my path) you can't see to lose them. This is a rather minor thing, however.

My other concern is that it's not always easy to distinguish the save point characters from the regular NPCs. Again, pretty minor. (I also question hiding the first save point on an off road path behind an enemy. But that enemy was easy to sneak past.)

Anyway, I feel that this game has a lot to say - be it about the evolution of these souls, or the journey people take in life. My final battle felt especially poignant - giving up VS pushing forward. Sometimes the dialogue was a little heavy handed and pretentious, but most of it was very thoughtful and good.

Thank you for sharing this game, and congrats on uploading it for the contest!

I hope more people give it a shot.