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ISOLATED's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Presentation | #46 | 4.167 | 4.167 |
| Theme | #49 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Overall | #52 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Engagement | #58 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Gameplay | #63 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I really enjoyed this one! the uncovering the story was very neat especially with how it makes little twists and turns on how things are narrated. i like the survival horror aspect of the game as well where you had to scavenge for stuff and fights are optional. this game is very Resident evil coded and i really enjoyed that about the game!
aside from small nitpicks, the one major comment i would say is that, the map definitely needed any sort of ambiance when travelling around. i get the intention of keeping the game with as minimum sound to keep things tense, but the silence was too deafening it broke my immersion at times. a simple wind howling would sell the atmosphere of the game tenfold.
other than that good job! one of my favorite games this jam! (also streamed it a bit here)
I love the art style! And the overall idea for game is very interesting! Great work!
Nice presentation and atmosphere. The fact that almost all enemies moved at the same speed than you and you could evade them took out the fear factor a bit. Also in the battles the evasion increase was quite powerful, I could defeat the monsters just by always keeping my evade up and beating them for many turns. You were maybe hit 1-2 times in the process. That was maybe even better strategy (though tedious) than firing your gun a couple of times and taking damage in between. I can understand why there's no sprint, but if I had to backtrack it became quite tedious. I like that the area was large, but at the same time I'm horrible at remembering locations. In the end it appears I was missing some item when the timer appeared.
After getting (possibly) both endings I feel like I can confidently talk about the game. I really really love the game graphically. The enemy sprites, the blinding white snow with a slight tint to it, the falling snow, it puts me in a place that feels so isolating and quiet. But I do feel like it's a little too quiet. I feel like it would do some good to add some ambience or footstep sound to the game to fill in the dead space. Especially with how slow the character moves.
I like the animations and sounds of the combat but sometimes it can feel a little clunky. . I never died but I found some of the skills kind of useless. Because it uses an active turn battle system, parry is kind of tricky to pull off for 2 reasons. I was never really sure when the enemy was going to attack because the enemy is slower than you and even if you learn the timing the enemy may or may not use Enrage, preventing parry from ever taking effect. I feel like waiting should give more TP than guarding because of how open it leaves the player. Most battles last 2-3 turns and never really require you to use skills once you get a weapon. A lot of these aspects only become more prominent in the second ending when you fight the boss. I know it's meant to be survival horror inspired so you're not supposed to exactly throw down with every enemy and it's supposed to not be super reliable since most enemies can be ignored but i feel like it could be more engaging.
I'll finish with some good stuff. I love all the set pieces, the church, the small houses, the dead landscape, the roaming enemies. It paints such a vivid picture considering the limitations of using the engine. I love the smooth camera movement and I really love that the objectives you're given can be tackled in any order and you're never forced to do them in any order. You've done a good job differentiating yourself from games using RPGmaker. I feel like it had some ambience this game could definitely do this game some good. Overall I do love this game. Great work.
Thanks for the feedback. It's always awesome to hear from all of your opinions. Initially, the game was going to have sprint but I felt like it effected the game's runtime but now I'm starting to regret that decision 😅, no biggy. After the game jam, I'm thinking about updating my game to fix it's flaws.
also, I wasn't intending to make the combat inspired by survival horror, but more of Dark Souls' combat.
The atmosphere and art style are both strong, but I did find the game's overall pace to be a bit too aimless and slow. Recollecting memories after a crash in a snow storm is a very compelling way to frame the story, but looking for anything relevant in a wide area with only the standard walking speed chipped away at my patience after a while.
I like the way the narrative built up! It felt like a slow burn that led to some creepy reveals. I did find one of the scenes inadvertently funny, however. The police calling the main character late at night then describing to her the grizzly details of her brother's murder over a phone call felt a bit silly in how quickly it happened, but apart from that the tone felt consistently serious and foreboding.
I'll also say that it would have been nice if music had been included, but that the lack of music does add to the eerie atmosphere in some ways too. I think the creepiness lends the game a slight Yume Nikki vibe, which is a nice tone to set.
thanks for the feedback.
Very interesting game! Love the graphics, both the pixel art on the map and the hand drawn elements in battle. Really interesting mood and creepy mysterious vibe. I quite enjoyed it (although I was killed by the first Red teetth :_)