This might be the most promising game of this genre I’ve played! The first thing that stands out is the great artstyle. I would expect this quality from a game with a full studio behind it, not from a sole developer. Given the type of game you’re developing, good art is immensely important and your game nails it.
The story-setup is classical, but it works. The prologue does just what it needs to do: It sets up a foil for the protagonist in Mari and an antagonist in Lodina, the protagonist’s powers and motivation are explained, we get the first of hopefully many dolls and a cool boss fight to cap off the first release. I’m glad that the story is more than just an excuse for hypnosis/sex scenes and I’m looking forward to seeing more of it.
On the gameplay side: I like that the different weapons each try to do their own thing, but I think knuckles and magic end up outclassing swords and daggers by a lot. The def buff that swords provide is an interesting idea in theory but in practice it’s hardly consequential because enemies don’t hit very hard in this game (so far at least). Daggers scaling off Agility opens up some combo potential with Agi buffs and the Agi animus but it’s faster to cast spells or hit the attack button with knuckles and the warrior animus equipped. On the topic of knuckles, I’m not sure if Wild Strike is worth it. It certainly hits harder than regular attacks but given the accuracy, it probably breaks even with normal attacks over the course of a boss fight. Wild Strike being a gamble is part of its design so I wouldn’t change the accuracy rate but maybe 8MP is a bit costly (depending on how much MP you get later on, this might become an early-game exclusive issue though). Having it both be high risk and high cost might make the skill less useful. There’s also an argument to be made that regular attacks hitting twice and having two chances to crit just makes it better than Wild Strike too.
Leaving that tangent aside, I love the way the first boss was designed. A boss that scales its damage is great because the fight can’t drag out and it keeps the tension throughout the battle. You also gave enough items to account for bad RNG: Glass Pinion is there to save you if your first few turns didn’t go well and you can always pre-emptively use an Undying Charm if you let the boss’ buff get too out of hand. Moreover, while the dialogue suggests a certain playstyle (magic) you can totally ignore that advice, spam attacks with Leather Knuckles and win anyway and I appreciate that. The visuals of the boss are also well done. I like that his in combat sprite is so huge, it reminds me of Octopath Traveller and that design decision helps reinforce bosses as bigger threats in the player’s mind.
Lastly on the gameplay side: It was a good idea to tie a big TP bonus to the defend command. I end up not using the defend in most RPGs because enemies either don’t hit hard enough or you can save more HP by killing them faster but here it’s useful to activate Full Control early or get a high TP cost skill on Jou activated.
The writing is good but I noticed a few grammatical errors here and there. It doesn’t impede the game experience and as such it’s not a high priority at all, but it might be worth it to iron out those mistakes in a later release. I’m not opposed to sending you the lines where I found mistakes if you want me to.
This review is long enough already so just some quick thoughts related to Jou since I kinda ignored her up until now: The maid outfit is cute, the same goes for the “yes Master” phrases in combat, I like that the mantra skill actually has her recite a mantra in battle, and the full control eye transition is great. I think her personality works perfect for the first doll you get.
Overall, awesome work! I’m eagerly looking forward to the next update.