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A jam submission

Ethereal FrequenciesView game page

Embrace the static. Unveil the mysteries. Find your place in the dream realm.
Submitted by Arixsu, Ferboto2314, IREZ0I — 6 minutes, 37 seconds before the deadline
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Ethereal Frequencies's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Sensory#173.4293.429
Metroidvania#203.1433.143
Relevance to the theme picked#213.7143.714
Overall#213.0713.071
Enjoyment#232.6432.643
Execution#302.4292.429

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

Theme Chosen
The year is 20xx and Recurring dream

Engine
Unity

Team/Developer
Music Composer @Rosendo311204 on Ig, main Pixel Art Artists: @lesflaya​ on Twt ​and @pixelcrustpunk​ on Twt ​ Main 2D Artist @cafeverdoso​ on Twt, UI Artist @Christofer_ReZo on Twt, Main programmer @Arixsu_ on Twt, Level desinger and programmer @@MrFerboto on Twt

Prizes eligibility
Best Soundtrack

Reference info
Arixsu (@arixsu) on discord, Arixsu_ on twt

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Comments

Submitted

Okay, so, I kinda really wanted to love this game, but sadly I can't all that much...
Like, I can FEEL all the love and passion that was put into this, I really can, but there are a lot of tiny things that kinda add up and makes things less enjoyable sadly.
I still had a fun time with it tho, even if pretty short. The TV Npcs are actually really charming and funni to have around, And I also really like Elina as a character, both design and personality wise (Altought honestly, cute anime witch is definitelly my weak point, I am just fully unable to not love any character of that kind)
all the character designs in general are extremelly cool honestly, I really love how this hoster looks, specially on the dialogue portraits, but the actual sprites aren't anything bad either, even thought a few enemy animations look very iffy I must admit.
I'm really sad that the main character isn't an original asset tho. Like, I wouldn't mind if it at least looked like the character I'm playing as, but man, that's clearly not Lumina lol (I would probably not even realize it was an external asset if it wasn't by you guys showing Lumina's design actually, I only know it is borrowed from somewhere else because other people pointed it out)

The music is also really good, and I really appreciate the addition of a music player lmao, as unecessary as that might sound xD
I would actually love having that main theme (Ethereal Frequencies) posted somewhere like youtube or such, it's really that good. Only complaint I have here is that the music in-game doesn't have a smooth loop, it kinda just stops awkwardly before restarting, but oh well, not the end of the world.

Now to some actual nitpicks tho, the level design is really rought as it is right now. There's just a lot of big rooms that feels pretty empty and with huge blind jumps with spikes on the bottom. Try making every room to have at least a little bit of "regular platformer game level design" instead of making "big open explorable squares", if you even understand what I mean that is, I really don't know how to explain it properly.
Combat also feels very aimless as of now, since it's just spamming attack button inside the enemies and they die, witouth real knockback or any kind of impact at all on hit, and the enemies's attack animations also feel very weird for having no real windup or telegraph before coming, and also have no impact on hit (IF I got hit by someone at all that is, I genuinelly don't know since combat REALLY lacks feedback and polish)
The first boss also felt really weird as, he didn't really attack me at all? I'm not sure if he even has any attack already programmed but on my fight he just wobbled back and forth and let me just slice him up for free.

Also more of a weird thing to complain about, but the first dialogue between Lumina and Elina feels very awkward lol. Like, it really lacks some naturality I think, I don't really know how to explain. Perhaps having more portraits to better convey different expressions for the characters would have been nice, but considering how high quality those are I assume you just wouldn't have had the time to do it unfortunatelly. At least Elina got very likeable afterwards tho, at least for me, but I'm probably biased xD (Lumina not so much tbh, she felt kinda awkward during the entire game, altought that might also be side effect of both not having multiple portraits and also not having an actual in-game sprite, so she really felt like she wasn't really part of the world you know.)

And I guess that's it, sorry for the essay lol. I'm definitelly keeping an eye on this if you go for smvm tho, I Need more of Elina. I also recorded my playthrought altought I don't think anything interesting happened on it, but if you wanna see it anyway then just hit me up.

HostSubmitted

Was looking forward to playing this one! The art is gorgeous and consistent, except for the player sprites that are not mentionned in the external assets field. The music was super cool to listen to, I think this games really nails the sensory criteria. The bow felt a bit weird to me for a couple reasons: you can walk faster than the arrows, and pressing the bow key while unable to use it delayed it to until you could, which led to some pretty weird interactions. Apart from that, it was a pretty nice entry!

Submitted

This has a lovely aesthetic, with creative character designs (I especially like the TV headed enemies, they remind me of Prince Robot from the comic Saga) and a really evocative environment. The polish on the dialogue system and scene transitions is also incredibly high. I would recommend refining your character controller, though. As it is, the jump is a little too floaty, and the horizontal movement feels too fast, I think having a smoother acceleration/deceleration to your top move speed would make it feel a little nicer. Lastly, I think you can work on tightening up the level design. There aren't a lot of clear indicators on where to go, or land marks to differentiate the various rooms. But overall, this is a great start, and I am excited to see how it turns out when it is finished!

Submitted

I really enjoyed the environment in this one. The rainy city environment and TV/broadcast equipment theme was nice and consistent. The character designs and portraits are fantastic. I liked the music, but the way the overworld theme was looped was pretty jarring.

The first boss seems bugged, it did not attack me at all, and I was able to just stand on a platform and hit it until it died.

Submitted

A lot to like about this, 

The graphics are lovely the game is short.. but pretty sweet, as others have said the intro is a little overly long, but I liked all the dialog and looked to find more characters to press 'C'  on to see what they said to me


I think being able to use the bow midair might be a good addition. And the Boss could do with having an additional state or 2 to make the fight a little more interesting..

But overall a great start, really interested to see where it goes (are you planning on continuing with it for SMVM?)

Submitted

A lot to lie about this, 

The graphics are lovely the game is short.. but pretty sweet, as others have said the intro is a little overly long, but I liked all the dialog and looked to find more characters to press 'C'  on to see what they said to me


I think being able to use the bow midair might be a good addition. And the Boss could do with having an additional state or 2 to make the fight a little more interesting..

But overall a great start, really interested to see where it goes (are you planning on continuing with it for SMVM?)

Submitted(+1)

Pretty nice. The art is great and the atmosphere works well. I wonder if the intro is a bit too long for the current game scope? Maybe once it's longer it'll fit together better. Or maybe you could shift the long dialogue a little bit later in the game, once the player has gotten a little taste.  

Overall, it's definitely worth continuing!

Developer

Thank you very much for your opinion! The intro was initially planned for a version of the game that would be three times longer, but in the end, we couldn't add the other two zones.

After the Jam ends, we plan to refine it a bit, so your feedback on the intro is very valuable to us. We're glad you enjoyed it. Thank you so much!

Submitted

Art is absolutely stunning and easily the most consistent part of this game, though it's weird that the protagonist's sprite doesn't match her dialogue art.

Writing is honestly terrible and there's far too much of it. Intro could maybe be half as long and still get the point across, and needs to stop explicitly stating the mood it's going for - trust in your descriptions to create those feelings, otherwise it sounds incredibly awkward. Once actual dialogue begins the characters just act completely nonsensical; I don't know if this was intentional to try to give things a more dreamlike feel but it just didn't land for me.

Gameplay also felt a little off, mostly because of the player moving faster in the air than on the ground, though I also had some issues with the camera lagging behind and not letting me see where I was going, particularly when going downwards. Would also be nice if the bow was a bit faster or didn't stop you while using it. Bossfight was lame but that's forgivable for a jam game.

Basically: kudos to the artists, gameplay needs some polish but is ok, writing needs a lot more work.

Developer

Thanks for your feedback!

We appreciate your compliments on the game's art and apologize for any inconvenience caused by the unfinished protagonist sprite.

Regarding the writing, we understand your concerns about the excessive dialogue. We will work on making the intro more concise and improving the coherence of character interactions.

In terms of gameplay, we acknowledge your observations on movement mechanics and camera visibility. We'll address these issues to enhance the overall experience.

Thanks for understanding the limitations of a jam game. Your feedback is valuable, and we appreciate it!

Developer

Hey all! If you are going to try the game pls try the dowloable version first pls! Tysm

Submitted

After jumping down from the first area my player was spawned in the walls... Kinda neat? Not what you intended I'm sure though.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for your feedback! I didn't know that error was still present in the game. I will fix it in today's patch. Thank you very much! I hope you can give it another chance once the error is corrected.