Indrah is back, stronger than ever!
The gameplay starts very addicting, the pokémon formula is a winning formula all the time. In the first sections of the game, I really wanted to enter every encounter to see which spirits were available for capture - I was very engaged with the entire game loop, it worked wonderfully.
Unfortunately after the initial wonder the gameplay started losing momentum, and random battles don't matter as much: capturing new monsters is not really that incentivized if not for the random moves that they can get. Switching to a new spirit is hardly an option, since (leaving aside the exp bug in the merging) I didn't see any benefit in doing so: they all have the seemingly similar stats and same moves (there are some differences in moveset, but at that point I already settled with the first spirit with good moves I found), so it all comes down to who I like more.
The battle system in itself also is pretty unique and gets some strength in the customisation that you can do, even if I didn't feel like there was a lot of strategy involved, and you can just use your strongest moves. Also the ability to move around the battlefield didn't feel useful - I never used it.
The exploration is simple but pretty satisfying to do, since there's a lot of items laying around, and later with the unlock of new abilities I felt incentivized at backtracking to find even more stuff. I didn't really had a use for money though, since I didn't use any item.
I especially appreciated the artstyle, a pretty good choice for the theme of the game. the maps look all different and well decorated. I liked the exploration part a lot.
The story was simple but nice, mostly because of the different personality of every character and the worldbuilding. I personally really appreciated the master, since it really gave some sort of final challenge vibes. Though I gotta say the dialogues, even if sweeten up by the characters personality, I felt were too long than necessary.
After all, despite all the problems (both gameplay-wise and bugs) I enjoyed the experience. For me it started to get a little repetitive after a while - there was nothing that "freshened up" the experience - , but the pokémon formula and the exploration helped to keep that curiosity and interest just a little longer.
Also, what the hell? How long did you manage to make a game in a single month? Wow. Truly beyond expectations.
Here's the VOD: