Super cool! Would love to know how you did the battle QTE's. 

I love the use of the monster capture plugin and the vibes here. 

Having colored icons next to the basically monochrome aesthetic was pretty jarring.

I also didn't realize I had to do the QTE to raise expectations.

Otherwise a lovely title that takes the Beyond Expectations theme quite literally. Awesome job.

Cool aesthetic and the Pokemon-inspired gameplay is compelling!

A pet peeve of mine is that the original GameBoy aesthetic doesn't feel fully committed to. It seems like there are too many different color values per sprite than the original GameBoy would allow, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but does cause the game's style to fall short of fully evoking the feel of the hardware it's referencing. I think it might benefit from either reducing number of color values, or embracing a GBC or GBA style.

Otherwise, I think the gameplay works solidly well, though I do feel that the QTEs become disruptive of the game flow after a certain point. I've also noticed some sprites in the world aren't on the correct layer, with my player character being able to walk under a fountain that was supposed to be level with them.

I think the collect and battle rpg approach is almost always fun, so tapping into that gameplay for this jam was a good move! Incorporating the theme directly into the gameplay was a clever choice as well! 

Hello! I streamed the game just today, so here's the opinions I gave on the game summarized:

The pokémon format is really powerful, since with it you made the gameplay easily recognizable and increased the engagement. Unfortunately it also comes with a lot of "expectations" (i said it!)

The musical triangle of weaknesses is a very smart choice, since helps a lot distinguish the monsters and creates some matchups. Though after putting a supereffective monster against the opponent, the battle is already won, since you just use some skills, charge the bar, and do even more damage. And if your monster falls low on hp or mp, you just use an item and they're back to full. I felt that the challenge was almost absent.

I think that part of it is due to the skills you can use: all of them are a variation of "do damage and charge the bar", so there's not a lot of variety, both for you and the enemy - that's why the enemy will never have a chance against the player: they'll lose since they can't switch and can't use items.
The combo of buttons to press for the skill seemed kinda pointless, since didn't contribute to the battle mechanics at all, and after the first battles it started becoming repetitive.

I don't have much to say about the story, since it's simple even in pokémon games, but could've been a nice opportunity to try something less standard.

The pokémon formula though had a positive effect in the game: you can consider this a pocket Pokémon. It still was an enjoyable experience, but the problems made it become repetitive after the first half. Yet it's impressive for the work of one month.
VOD: 

This was a fun game. I loved the quick time events incorporated in the battle system because it makes sense with the musical theming. Also, the way that 'Expectations' were used in the game was pretty creative. One thing I wish was also in the game was some form of evolution(since its a pokemon like game) and I wasn't the biggest fan of the mostly black and white color scheme. Over all, I ranked the game an overall 4/5 and enjoyed really enjoyed it.