I really like the concept! The idea of a combat system that's more about how you input your damage rotation rather than focusing on testing your reflexes or dodging skills like most other action combat systems appeals to me. Once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed the way I could use my charge to gather whichever resource I needed the most of at the time. My only criticism is that it felt like the game wouldn't let me change direction sometimes. I assume it's something to do with the game trying to read if I'm doing an input. I really hope you expand on this system in the future!
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Prystalia: Sentinel of Spessartite's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality/Creativity | #2 | 4.429 | 4.429 |
| Graphics, Audio, and Polish | #5 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall | #6 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
| Overall | #9 | 3.571 | 3.571 |
| Magical Girl Design | #10 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
| Engagement/Fun | #12 | 3.143 | 3.143 |
Ranked from 7 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the Magical Girl genre?
The main character can use magic
Which theme(s) do you pick?
[Embodiment] of Scarlet Devil
How does your game fit the themes above?
Embodiment of Crystal
Are all your graphics assets made by yourself during the duration of the jam?
Yes
all of it were made during the jam period
Are all your audio assets made by yourself during the duration of the jam?
No
they were created from before the jam or purchased
Comments
I was worried that, perhaps, the system would be too arbitrarily convoluted that no one would understand it. So, I was relieved and glad that not only can you understand the mechanics but also able to recognize the intention behind it.
I still need to work on the input system to find the root cause of the issues. Anyway, thank you for the feedback, really appreciate it.
This one has a cool and unique visual style! I like the direction you went with the graphics. The audio works fairly well.
The actual game play seems like it could use a little more... something. I notice you mentioned Odin Sphere as an influence, which I've played and beaten. I think jumping was a thing in that one... I think even adding that in might improve the feel of the movement.
The attack controls were a bit confusing... the guide on the page does give a lot of info, but I also only skimmed it and hoped I could just jump in and play.
I eventually found the best strategy was to spam buttons like crazy, and I could usually plow through the enemies.
Despite my critiques, I think this is a pretty cool entry with plenty of potential if you keep developing it. Nice work!
Submitted
June Mejos and the Moonlit CurseI'm glad that you enjoy the graphics.
Actually, jumping (more like a teleport) was implemented but then I removed it because it kind of makes the combat not the way I wanted it to be.
After reading the 'jump in and play', I realized that having to go through a wall of text just to beat a 5 minutes game is a bit... I guess you could say that it wasn't worth the time investment.
I liked the aesthetic and design of the main character. It's unique and unexpected, and the graphics are nice and visually pleasing. It's a little different from the "norm" of this jam but I really liked it. The sound effects made from broken glass also worked very well.
The gameplay just didn't do it for me at all, though. I found it incredibly confusing and very tedious. The explanations on the game page didn't match what was happening on screen. The only thing that seemed to work was hammering U, which does damage but takes forever to kill enemies (and sometimes seems to fail for some reason). I was also able to sometimes dash with O, but I didn't find it useful. The red bar I understood as health, the blue as stamina, but I still don't know what the orange bar or the bar above my character really mean. The unusual controls were also a little awkward at first but I did get used to them.
I totally understand starting out with a very different, much bigger concept and having to rework and cut it down partway through, though.
Submitted
In The Middle Of The NightThank you for the feedback. I updated the description and also uploaded a video demonstrating the intended experience.
Admittedly, I made a big mistake putting in unclear and even downright wrong instructions.
The orange bar below the blue MP bar is a charge gauge. Some of the attacks required charges to use. The player can gain charges from attacking. Once the player gain at least 25% charges, the "charge mode" can be activated by pressing the "I" button, the charge gauge will turn to green as an indicator. Press "I" again to deactivate the mode. The purple color indicator was added so that the player could use their peripheral. During the "charge mode" if regular attack command is pressed e.g. D+U, then 25% of the charge gauge will deplete, and the player will execute a more powerful version of that regular attack. Another note is that the MP regeneration rate will drop drastically if the charge gauge is high.
The yellow bar above the player's head is a heat gauge which will increase the damage output up to x1.5. The player can gain heat gauge from attacking and will deplete as the player idle.
The reason enemies have quite a lot of health is to make up for the potential damage multiplier which gradually increases up to x1.5 if the player can maintain the heat gauge. So, it is possible that the player could finish the game within 90 seconds or less as presented in the video.
Again, sorry for the unpleasant experience, I should have put more time in explaining the mechanics and added a show casing video before submitting the game. Though, I would be really grateful if you could watch the video and perhaps give me another chance and provide feedback based on the video or even another play-through if you would like to.
So I got further this time and I still have mixed feelings on the combat. I think it's interesting and I think that maybe it could work, but as it stands it's very unintuitive and confusing to play.
I figured out that the reason why I usually wasn't attacking is because I had to hit a movement key and the attack key. I find this awkward and confusing because it doesn't really act as a combo- you just move and also attack. I think with better feedback and some tweaking to the mechanics (maybe a pause or hesitation in the movement?) this could be really fun, but as it stands it just feels kind of janky.
That it requires a paragraph to explain how charge mode works says a lot in and of itself. I know some people prefer that kind of complexity but I'm not a fan; I've never been good at fighting games because I have no idea what the combos are for instance. I was able to get the charge mode to work a few times, but I also tried and failed a few times and I had no idea why it sometimes worked and sometimes didn't.
I think at one point the game actually glitched out and wouldn't let me attack but I wasn't sure because the interface frankly does a very poor job of telling you what's going on. The gauges at least need labels and some prompts would help a lot as well.
If there's one way to improve this game it would definitely be the feedback. Give the player a better idea of what they can do at any given point in time and how they can do it. I realize that's something that's going to typically be left until the end and maybe left by the wayside on a jam game but I think it's really critical for a game like this.
I think you're right about the input registering system that it might need to be a bit more patient. For instance, instead of executing a 'walk' command immediately right after the input, the game could wait for, say, 5 frames then decide to 'walk' or to 'attack', etc.
I have theory that the game wouldn't let you do a regular attack or attack in charge mode because you ran out of MP which I think I could add something to alert the player about that.
I liked the idea of crystal magical girl, but the controls were a bit clunky and could be better explained, like how it took me 2-3mins before i realized i could spam moves as long as they were different moves and werent currently happening.
Also, the keybindings mentioned on the page are mixed :p
the enemies felt like they had too much hp before i got annoyed at how they werent dying, specially the boss, i got him to half hp and he started his 2nd phase by moving faster, i didnt had enough patience of to safely kill him at that point...
Submitted
Mahou Shoujo Sherry!Thank you for playing. I updated the description and also uploaded a video demonstrating the intended experience.
Yes, I made a huge mistake putting in unclear and even downright wrong instructions. The reason enemies have quite a lot of health is to make up for the potential damage multiplier which gradually increases up to x1.5 if the player can maintain the heat gauge above the player. As a result, it is possible that the player could finish the game within 90 seconds or less as presented in the video.
I would be really happy if you could watch the video and perhaps give me another chance and provide feedback based on the video or even another play-through if you wish.
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