I wasn't able to finish this game by the rating deadline, but so far I'm really impressed! Will leave another comment later on the main page to help boost the game
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The Butcher of The Castle Black's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Overall | #2 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
Game Narrative! | #2 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
Community: Game Design! | #3 | 3.600 | 3.600 |
Community: Game Fun Factor! | #4 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
Challenge Balance! | #5 | 2.800 | 2.800 |
Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Engine used?
RPG in a Box
Comments
One of my favorite entries: it looked polished and I like the story. Everything looked cohesive and assets where well used. The first scene already set the tone and I thought it looked cool.
The balance in battle was a little off imo, though. If you would slightly improve on that it would elevate the entire experience.
Can’t wait to play more games by you in the future. :D
A nice atmospheric and cinematic action-adventure that sadly got a bit dragged down by the combat turning into a potion chugger. With a bit more work on that system, this could be a truly great experience! I'd say it showcases in a nice way what the RPG in a Box engine was made for! I did get a few errors in the console while playing, I think they were triggered by collision with enemies in their death state. Bu I'm sure that is easy to fix should you wish to do so.
A nice atmospheric and cinematic action-adventure that sadly got a bit dragged down by the combat turning into a potion chugger. With a bit more work on that system, this could be a truly great experience! I'd say it showcases in a nice way what the RPG in a Box engine was made for!
Presentation: 10/10. I think the graphics in this are frankly amazing for the engine, let alone a Game Jam entry. As someone who works with this engine there are certain assets and effects that genuinely took me awhile to figure out how you achieved them. There is truly nothing to critique here. Wonderful job. Music is fitting but it didn't really stand out to me much, which isn't a bad thing, as I'd rather have inoffensive background music then something that actively pierces my ears. The animations are also spectactular and really ooze style. In summary you make me envious of your graphical capability.
Gameplay: 6/10. I really wish I could rate this higher but frankly there are a few things that drag down a really great system. The small health pool and high damage really makes combat frantic and not in the way I was hoping for, this in combination with potions being so plentiful, but healing so little meant that combat devolved very quickly into spamming potions and desperately trying to think of which attack is most ideal (which in most cases was the fireball). I do think this could be changed rather easily by making the player's health pool larger, but making potions more rare and heal more. I also felt a lot of the utility spells got thrown by the wayside due to how frantic everything becomes.
Story: 7/10. I like the overall idea of the plot but I think it rushes forward so quickly I was often lost as to what I was doing and why in the world I was doing it. Perhaps some more filler dialog to help establish things might aid in this as really you only talk with one other character for the majority of the experience. When I was able to comprehend what was happening I thought it was quite cool and I was able to immerse myself in the game's scenaro.
Overall I think this is an already great game that could easily be made even better with an update or two.
Thank you very much for the comment and for the detailed feedback. I am very glad that you liked the game.
I admit, I didn't have time to pay enough attention to the balance. The idea was to encourage the player to use additional spells (ironically, the result is the opposite). So by binding warriors with branches and freezing mages and crossbowmen, you can complete the game with minimal damage. It was an idea that I didn't have time to test on anyone except myself, which, of course, is biased.
I plan to fix the game after the jam is over, I will try to change the balance according to your feedback. I think, indeed, the gameplay should be slowed down. I will also think about how to expand the dialogues to create a more complete picture of what is happening.
Thanks again so much for the feedback, I was very pleased to read such a detailed comment!
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