Hi there!
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:
Well, well, well. This is a really funny game XD It's very surprising. It's clever in its surprises. The entire game seems to be foucssed on bucking of expectations. This seems to be one of the purer "Beyond Expectations" thematic entries (which I loved), because the whole game is about subverting whatever you expect - including the code on the title page seemingly having very little to do with the game itself. I dunno, it might. You be the judge. (Wait, I'm the judge. What?)
Anyway! The entire concept of the game is to set your character up on an epic journey with LOTS and LOTS of fights that... honestly don't have much strategy (there IS strategy)... but that's the joke! And it's a very funny joke. And there's actually a lot of seeming polish behind the scenes to make this joke work. It's snappy, and despite the joke being to overstay the player's welcome, it's actually not THAT annoying. It's pretty funny throughout. There's gags about bats that come out on the battlefield... during the day, though? Isn't that when they sleep? There's the gag about the "Regular-Sized Bee" which is a tiny, tiny bee on this huge battlefield.
And then there's recurring gag about how you're essentially murdering things for points and how you have to make amends with that. Not that this game really tries to make you feel good about anything that's happening. But it's very funny and polished and moves along like a breeze.
Even if a lot of the standard maps were a bit too spacious and bare (that being part of the point of the joke), it worked for what it was. I will say though, that what it is is certainly aiming to be a certain kind of thing. And that thing is a type of project that I might recommend to my friends, while not necessarily thinking this is indicative of all the aspects of what make a contest winner.
Usually even in spite of a premise of a game that is intentionally sparse, self-deprecating and frustrating to a point, while it achieves its own aims, it sort of lacks in the usual contest guidelines of "excelling in every aspect of the game". To the point where the judges of a contest like this would usually end up picking a game that has great gameplay, story, graphics and everything like that, all excelling in their fields.
This game excels in a field a LOT. Well, it excels first in a field, then in a desert, then at the Evil Lord's castle. But if there is any flaw to this, it's simply that it's not quite a *contest winner type of game*. It doesn't necessarily display the most "winning" of the developer's qualities, to a point where the judges can possibly say "This! This is the best out of ALL of them! This is the pinnacle of gaming! Huzzah! Put this game on a pedestal and shower this developer with money!"
Except to say that even though this game might not have ALL the aspects of gamemaking traditionally honed to a T, it is fun enough to recommend to your friend as a prank. And very funny and indicative of a developer who can certainly achieve much more "traditionally expected" contest winner fodder than this. And yet, in spite of that fact, I still think this game is worth playing, worth making... I feel like I've been pranked in a great way.
Thank you for making this game! It's funny, well-produced and slick, except maybe it lacks in certain things like a traditionally good gameplay loop, traditionally gripping story, and traditionally polished visuals (except the UI and so on, the basic things that aren't "trolling" are pretty good nonetheless). And even in the lack of a traditionally "gripping" story, it's still hilarious, the dialogue is snappy and witty, and it's clear there is a talented developer (or developers) behind the wheel, that just are bound to make something exceptional (that is not just this one). Keep making games! You're awesome.