Oh this was a cool rpg demo

My question is did you make this demo for the game jam or did you crop up your main game and then submit it? Besides that, I do have some criticisms and some praises. I'd like to start with criticisms usually because I dont want to end this review on a sour note. Firstly, I want to say the mapping is pretty nice but there were alot of huge empty spaces that could be filled up with maybe fences, fountains, or other buildings to create a better atmosphere. If your unsure what to do, What I usual do is look at sample maps and maps from other games I like. The characters were really cool but I feel like I never truly understood them much. I think It's more of a "show don't tell" thing where I'd rather like to know these characters based on what they do, how they act, and their mannerisms rather then have them tell me. I know that doesnt usually make sense but I dont know how else to phrase it. I also feel like the same went for the story where even with the exposition I didn't really understand and its much more preferred by players to have the characters imply whats going on rather then have scrolling text. The music was a bit overwhelming and played alot. Also the dogs non-stop chasing was a bit tiring

Ok onto what I liked. Firstly, even if its rtp, the character face sprites were really nice and stylistic. The main three have alot of personality from the faces alone and I like that. I also found those three to be quite charming and interesting characters. I think it'd be a bit better to have expressive face sprites, though. Which can be well achieved with little photo editing knowledge in a program like paint by just drawing on different mouth's and eyebrow's for different expressions. The combat was very cool and had some interesting mechanics I liked. The characters have some funny dynamics and the battles were well thought out. Also, the cutscenes were very lively and interesting. The mapping was nice and I liked the cohesive look of the area and the tutorials explained the gameplay very well. If you don't have any artists, note that there is alot of free rpgmaker assests made by other users incase you wanted to add a bit more to your maps. And using some plugins to change the UI around + free artwork and patterns from online could add an extra pop to your visuals. An extra sprinkle of visual is lighting plugins but thats about it. The game was pretty fun even though its short and I thought it was pretty interesting

2 for theme because I dont think it conveyed the theme of the jam and the story wasnt all that understandable, a 4 in gameplay for the excellent and unique battle experience, engagement gets a four because for rpg fans this gameplay could be very fun to play with, and a three for presentation because it was just RTP but it was nice visually.  I hope the full project goes smoothly for you and your game comes out well. Have a good day and good luck in the jam