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This is no exaggeration to say. But SWEET MOTHER OF BARNACLES AND TARTAR SAUCE, WAS THIS MADE IN A MONTH?!!! Holy tsunami captain this game. This game... This game.......... This game should be a commercial game. This isn't meant to be a product for a game jam entry. The scope is FAR FAAAARRRRRR too large. This is a 4+ hour non-human JRPG holy macaroni. (Technically this could be reduced to a 2.5-3 hours if you don't get sidetracked/grind (or if you're searching for the currency for unlocking team attacks) like me but regardless this game is still very very long.)
You actually bamboozled me with this entry. The screenshots, descriptions and everything from the page actually LIED to you.
Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much for making this game. This game is, in my personal tastes and opinion, one of the greatest RPG Maker games I have played. And this is no exaggeration to say because I rarely say this to any game. This is my favourite game in all the entries I have played including games outside of the jam.
That being said, this game isn't a perfect 10/10. But honestly I only give 9+/10 to only the greatest of RPG Maker games that I cherish with all my heart. And I gave this a 9.2/10. My highest rpg maker game I've played and ranked in my lifetime is 8.8-9.1 at best. So take this with the biggest badge of honor you will receive because I am granting you the greatest kudos I can give you. Let me give you a full checklist as to why I grant this honor to this game first before I describe the critical parts of this game that could be problems.
- You fulfilled my tastes and interests with the characters being non-humans for the most part, since this is mostly an animal-centric game.
- Top notch animation for all the characters, enemies or otherwise.
- High quality sprite work from start to end.
- The character designs. They're up my alley even more so than ever before.
- The plot twists in this game, which I will not spoil for the benefit of players to play for themselves.
- The characters are endearing enough for me to not lose attention span for more than 1 hour.
- Genuinely funny, dramatic, sad, happy, tense moments that made me emotional through the entire journey.
- You have characters that don't fit the mold of stereotypes and managed to make them into genuine fleshed out characters in the moments they are around.
- Didn't completely rely on the meta or lean too heavily into the horror genre to wow me.
- The soundtrack. The freaking. soundtrack.
- The map design actually looks like there's a decent amount of effort made into it.
- Puzzles that aren't too difficult in some (there is one exception which I will get to in the critical points later) and most of them don't require high IQ critical thinking to get around.
- The battles (if you actually follow through the routes proper and don't stray off like me) are actually fun and require some modicum of thinking instead of mashing attack mindlessly (at least up till a certain point where once you obtain the last character all balance gets thrown off the window with their "unique multi target skills").
- Team attacks. They exist in this game.
- Every orifice of art made for the characters.
- Crabs. Rats. A lot more characters.
- The aquatic/beach like setting is something I cherish most since I live around that area these days. I find it somewhat endearing that it takes place in an oceanic tropical backdrop.
- The ambiance, the overlays, the dungeon design.
- A healer protagonist. (And yes, I know what I'm saying here.)
- Brando actually looks like Mao Mao from Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart.
Honestly, these are cliff notes. I literally could have more things to say about this game. I spent so much time traversing through it and while I am physically fatigued, my soul is incredibly happy that I experienced every last orifice of this game's world to its fullest. Now let's get to the bullet point of things I didn't like or critical points.
- The maps tend to drag itself for far longer than it should. Honestly some dungeons are paced decently enough while others require a bit of battle/traversal to get around.
- There's one puzzle. A 4 monument puzzle where you have to pick the right colors to proceed to earn the final party member. Now I may have missed the clue on how to solve this at some point. However, this puzzle is a guesswork type of game since no clue can be found on the place of puzzle. Even before, I don't remember if there's a hint before that. Unfortunately, not everyone can be attentive to everything.
- It would be nice to have a peanut tracker to keep track of where the purple chests are at some point. Because you can miss it if you don't look hard enough.
- Some sprites get cut off like one "giant bot" enemy in the oceanic dungeon.
- The battles themselves are fine. By the time you get the last party member, all balance is thrown out the window due to the character either having high ATK or ignores defense more than the other party members who doesn't have such luxury with their equipment. You can argue this is a good sign that you're stronger and too easy is far more favorable than being too hard. But personally toning down a bit while still making the character powerful could help to scale things better for endgame. However, this is less a knockoff or a plea to nerf. And personally I don't mind if its kept that way.
- Some skill effects don't match what they're saying. Ex. There's a skill where you should add HP and Defense to all parties. Instead it adds MP and defense. (which honestly is better for me as a player since you need the MP more than the HP in this case. Especially when you are hardcapped to 999).
- There's an overlay issue where if you go to the final battle and you would go back to the "town", the overlay still exists.
- There's a crab skill that keeps flashing lights. That flash of light tends to be too strong that I had to look away. My eyes are still okay. But other people might not feel comfortable with the blinking flash effects.
And these are my points that I can give you. At least the spoiler free version (and this is straining for me to do in order to not give away as much as I can. Because I want people to play this blind and judge for themselves).
Honestly, if I had money, I'd donate to this game. This game is THAT good for me.
Once again, you have made me the happiest person alive with this game. I humbly appreciate this masterpiece of a contribution you gave to this jam and to me. I'm so glad I get to experience this in my lifetime. I will definitely support this game with a commemoration fanart if I ever get the opportunity.
Thank you very much. Truly. You are a magnificent developer. Good bizzle to you as well.