Hi there!

I'm one of the 6 judges for this RPG Maker Game Jam 2025. I was one of the 2 judges assigned to your game, and we have been assigned to rate your games according to each metric highlighted on the game's main jam page, and submit these ratings to the organisers, who will then appropriate what happens with that. Please contact them in the Q&A if you have any further questions about the judging process. The judges will work on different time schedules, so even if I may have finished playing your game, the entire process might not be finished as of yet. Many of these reviews I am posting while still judging.

All that aside, I'd like to share my VOD of me playing your game, which contains up to an hour of gameplay, and some final thoughts at the end! Depending on whether I stopped the VOD early or not, it will also contain many of the thoughts that I say to you below, which may cause repetition. So just be aware of that.

I will also attach a review below this VOD. I will not disclose my ratings for each category as of yet, but those will be revealed in due time. Not all judges are required to post a review or VOD to each game, but many will do so even if it's optional, including myself.

Here's the VOD:

Firstly, I should start with some positives. There's *clearly* quite a bit of thought and effort and time put into the art of this piece, along with some programming that would have been required to make the sections that probably requires a lot of skill. I need to give you your props on that, because it's worthwhile to mention.

There's a lot that seems to have been done customly here, and I think that's very admirable.

That said, my experience with the gameplay of this game was rather mixed, bordering on the frustration side of things.

There is a base level of skill required to make and event a game like this, particularly the card minigame, that is worth considering. It is difficult to make a system like this. It's just that the balance of the card game, I felt, was difficult to strategise around when so many of the cards revolved around mixing up the entirety of both hands. So I couldn't really feel to strategise in any perceivable way, unless I was okay with that strategy just disapearing the next moment because of a shuffling card. The battles also took a really, really long time oftentimes, which made them feel like a slog.

Maybe in the first 5-10 minutes, I was engaged in how the story and the gameplay was being introduced, but over time, the storytelling, narrative beats, characters and such just became more and more scattershot and my attention span waned. Particularly due to the long battles, the oftentimes edgy dialogue and events that I personally felt didn't have enough heft behind them. 

Battlers, portraits and pictures were actually very cool. However, oftentimes maps had sprites that had mismatched pixel resolutions. The battle scene itself also contained a lot of really cool art, but the way that cards moved around and their logos and such sometimes felt quite plain and difficult to understand.

I can see this game being polished and improved upon until it becomes a great experience, for sure. There's clearly a lot of effort put into the art of this game in particular, and I think that is commendable.

Keep making awesome games, and I thank you for the time and effort you've spent to create this game for us and the world.

Every game's a gift. Cheers.

All I have to say is. Wow. So cool.

The character designs are so... unique and fitting of the theme. I really like them. Especially some of the enemy character designs whoa.. Just a lot of whoa.

Now as for the combat. I'm a bit ambivalent on this. On one hand, the card combat can be quite interesting using colored affinites akin to water/grass/fire using the colored triangle, circles and squares. And effects do change the outcome of the battle in some ways than others. But card games like this, with certain elements, you're at the mercy of the card pool you got at the start. If you don't get lucky or the enemy has cards you're weak against, you're at the mercy of getting curb stomped. Some of the ways the shuffling mechanics do can shift the odds in your favor but its very RNG dependent. The second battle is egregious in particular because of the poison card, which gradually poisons you and lose your damage. I think this issue is something that's a lot harder to resolve on account of card games being very RNG oriented to begin with. Trust me, I tried to create the card idea too for my game as the initial base concept and dropped it on account of the RNG factor to it all. 

UI wise, the way you interact feels a little clunky. Its kinda hard to select the cards proper because the way you select the cards, the phase changes and the UX feels off? I know how hard it is to make something of this nature. Especially with all the randomized factors at play so I can't really put a negative critique on that or a more clearer description of how it felt off to me. Its more of a gut feeling on my end.

The story itself seems to be hinting at some demonic/eldritchian event happening. And our "hero" may not be the benevolent character we perceive, subverting our expectations.

Some spelling issues wise (unless they were intentional), this game certainly is intriguing and Act 4 might take us to interesting places too. Ultimately, I liked the character design and the story more than the gameplay with this one. Hopefully you'll get to continue through this adventure and complete the story you wish to tell with this. 

The art style is really good. I love this old style rpg, as i rpg lover i reallt connected to this title. I love the fact that the ost are handmade and not generated or royalty free. Hope to hear some more comment about it 'cause it really got me thinking. Good job