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:
Ah, Endless Quest XII. I must say up front that I really do love roguelike deck building games so it's a surprise that this one fell a bit flat for me, despite having some indications that it's in the genre that I like.Firstly, I should start with some positives. There's *clearly* quite a bit of thought and effort and time put into the art of this piece, along with some programming that would have been required to make the sections that probably requires a lot of skill. I need to give you your props on that, because it's worthwhile to mention.
There's a lot that seems to have been done customly here, and I think that's very admirable.
That said, my experience with the gameplay of this game was rather mixed, bordering on the frustration side of things.
There is a base level of skill required to make and event a game like this, particularly the card minigame, that is worth considering. It is difficult to make a system like this. It's just that the balance of the card game, I felt, was difficult to strategise around when so many of the cards revolved around mixing up the entirety of both hands. So I couldn't really feel to strategise in any perceivable way, unless I was okay with that strategy just disapearing the next moment because of a shuffling card. The battles also took a really, really long time oftentimes, which made them feel like a slog.
Maybe in the first 5-10 minutes, I was engaged in how the story and the gameplay was being introduced, but over time, the storytelling, narrative beats, characters and such just became more and more scattershot and my attention span waned. Particularly due to the long battles, the oftentimes edgy dialogue and events that I personally felt didn't have enough heft behind them.
Battlers, portraits and pictures were actually very cool. However, oftentimes maps had sprites that had mismatched pixel resolutions. The battle scene itself also contained a lot of really cool art, but the way that cards moved around and their logos and such sometimes felt quite plain and difficult to understand.
I can see this game being polished and improved upon until it becomes a great experience, for sure. There's clearly a lot of effort put into the art of this game in particular, and I think that is commendable.
Keep making awesome games, and I thank you for the time and effort you've spent to create this game for us and the world.
Every game's a gift. Cheers.