Hi there!

This post might come as a surprise to you but I'm fulfilling my obligation of writing a review for every entry I played in the RPG Maker Game Jam 2025 and haven't had the time and motivation combo until now. Apologies for the wait.

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:

Having been a sokoban game developer myself, I am both enamoured by the genre and also have high standards for it. That said, I love this game quite a bit. I think it's very well made, and it explores some central mechanics very adroitly. I'm very happy you made a puzzle game for this jam, even if puzzle games are not necessarily usually the ones that judges glom onto, because they have a high probability of frustration in judges. But here, I very much adore it, so you've found the good judge in me for this genre in particular.

Theme

There were very many mechanics and systems that exceeded expectations. They oftentimes played with expectations. The duo did a ritual but the result of the ritual was an unexpected result. There are several unexpected elements to this game, both gameplay and story, so I think this adherence to theme is a strength, even if I'm not sure the game absolutely OBVIOUS in the way it tried to attempt the theme, I think the results are inherently beyond expectations.

Gameplay

The puzzle mechanics are quite well-programmed, and there are a lot of them. They are structured in a way where the sokoban puzzle elements react consistently regardless of their place in the world. However, the complexity of the elements would need further polishing in the conveyance department to convey elements of the puzzles to make them more simply understood. e.g. visual elements to indicate objects in the other parallel world, more clarity around where objects are, more clarity about placement of laptop and other things when switching between worlds. Just generally creating QoL elements in the gameplay to make the lives of players easier, because trying to understand everything that's going on is just a little bit too confusing. But it's ambitious and i like that. And I think it requires a lot of talent to do what the developer/s did. Additionally, some controls felt wonky, particularly the pulling box mechanism. I think maybe it's just a bit weird, and if you can't figure it out from the single line they instructed you, the game doesn't make it absolutely clear how to progress. Maybe including a single level simply dedicated to teaching the mechanism that prevents the player from progressing if they don't understand it, and then painting the solution clearly on the wall or something, will get it through the player's heads, because otherwise the player could easily miss an instruction.

Engagement

Story was fairly good. It was a story about emo people (sorry if that's not how the developer would refer to them) and one of them saving the other from a puzzle realm full of strange creatures and objects, only for the saved one to state that they loved the realm the entire time. I think it's a fun little story that highlights the power of friendship and doesn't necessarily make "evil" the elements one might think are evil, which is a neat subversion. It's a light story, I don't think it grips me in a major way but it doesn't have to because the gameplay carries. As a puzzle person myself, particularly a Sokoban nerd, the puzzles were decent, mostly because of the escalating complexity of the elements of the puzzle involved, but puzzles could be simplified in concept sometimes to avoid unnecessary red herrings and inefficiency of the puzzle layouts involved. But this is a minor gripe. It's mostly quite welldone.

Presentation

Decent graphics. Cool tilesets and visual palette. Oftentimes fonts would appear difficult to read over the top of tilesets, mostly due to being thin and the window being small and yeah, just lack of readability. But the visuals and sound were overall pretty cool and add a layer of character to the game.

Polish

Maybe it's something I missed, but after the first couple maps, I couldn't read notes on the ground.

Overall, thank you for making this game! You're awesome. Keep making games. Every game's a gift <3

Hey merrygold,

I streamed my playthrough of your game (the video has chapters). Check it out:

This game is anything but lamezors! The music (especially for the hidden realm) is soooo good. The art is fantastic and the purple and green colour palettes look great. I wish the game could go full screen, I know it won't look as good but at least from an accessibility standpoint it should be an option. Switching between worlds, reading diary notes and placing the mirror just right make this game so much fun. Excellent work and all the best with your future projects!

I have created a Discord as a space for game devs to talk about their experiences and share their games. Would love to have you join!

https://discord.gg/TWHwqQuRrx