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Horns and Grace's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Community's Voice | #19 | 3.875 | 3.875 |
Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Creative Vision / Rationale / How Did You Incorporate the Theme
While designing Horns and Grace, I wanted to implement Generosity not through superficial rewards or points, but as a core character and gameplay mechanic, built into both the narrative and the player's strategic decisions. For example: the player is presented as a demon-like swordsman on a path toward redemption. Throughout their journey, they encounter strangers in need. Every encounter like this presents the player a choice. Either be generous and help them, sacrificing cards. Or, walk away to preserve strength (deck) but deepen the character's inner Oni nature. The cards are themed around the player character's negative traits. And by helping people and removing these cards, the player character is removing those negative traits as well. It's displaying a change in the player character over time.
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Comments
I really enjoyed playing this game, and having to change my strategy as my cards changed through the path of redemption felt really good. I was able to make it all the way to the end, and was pleased by the difficulty level with the redemption cards! Not too difficult, but enough of a challenge to keep me on my toes.
Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed it.
I'm very impressed by the depth of thought behind this game! Introducing generosity as a core mechanic in a combat-based game; where if you choose kindness, you lose high-damage cards feels like a trade-off rooted in reality. I kept choosing kindness simply because I was curious how far I could go - and I was pleasantly surprised to find cards like: Humble offering, Redemption Slash, Pure Intent - cards that could still be strategically used to win. I did perish soon enough; and I think I will only be able to grasp a deeper glimpse of the core system design based on multiple attempts. But the conflict is well-executed!
The shadowy figure NPC is also a good narrative touch!
Like the other commentators, I did wish I got more feedback on enemy behaviour - I felt like I couldn't strategise as much as I wanted to. (It could also be that I'm not used to games like this - the closest I have heard of is 'Slay the Spire'.)
Well done, you should be so proud!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Yeah I wish I incorporated more feedback to make it easier for players. Definitely a lesson learned.
btw I really wanted to ask: have you watched Samurai X/Rurouni Kenshin? Your premise reminded me of it!
Yeah, I actually took some inspiration from Rurouni Kenshin. Also Blade of the Immortal especially for the color pallette and the bloom effect.
Lovelyyy
Once I got a hang of the battle mechanics, I had a lot of fun with this game!The artstyle and music are top notch and go perfectly with the atmosphere. I do wish there was some sort of tutorial at the start explaining how to play. Also echoing what Brontosaurus said, I think it would be nice to include more grey scenarios rather than each choice just being black and white. Some ways in, the game did bug out for me after interacting with the shadow figure — the dialogue disappeared and I couldn’t click to progress or get out of the scene. But aside from that, I really enjoyed it, great work!
Thank you for playing! Sorry about the issues. I'm glad you enjoyed it though!
Audio and visuals provide an exceptional atmosphere. I just wish you could somehow read enemy intentions or get hints at what they'll do... unless that's what the numbers above the cards meant.
Dialogue is also good to read. The tradeoff between battle power and doing good deeds is really cool. I do wish there were some grey area scenarios as well.
Yeah the enemy intents are the numbers above the card zones. I definitley shoud've added in a tutorial at the beginning. Appreciate the feedback!
The audio provides a juicy experience, and good deeds heightening difficulty as a mechanic is a most excellent metaphor. Perhaps if the cards were visible as they were triggered it may better solidify their purpose in the player's mind.
Thank you! You're definitley right, that would be a good idea.
I have an issue with the "Start" button, where the mouse pointer needs to be exactly over the word for it to work. If I move the mouse slightly down, it automatically switches to the "Options" button. I think it would be better to expand the clickable area to avoid this confusion and improve the user experience.
Also, when a cutscene is active, all buttons should be disabled.
Overall, the game is really great, and I enjoyed it a lot—I can play it multiple times
Appreciate the feedback! Yeah I'll definitely have to fix that after the jam. Glad you liked it though.
Very chill game. I liked the vibes and certainly cruised through the card games. It's one of those "feel good" games as I go around and help people :) I like how you implemented the combat with the "blink and you'll miss it anime style". Good job!
Thank you! One of the inspirations for this game was from an anime, so that's awesome you caught that 😄
Great concept that if you do good, you lose cards to attack, visually the game looks nice and very good to play with cards.
Appreciate the feedback!