Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
(+1)

Hi, I checked out your demo for a bit and I'm enjoying it so far (I made it to finding the first party member).  I liked the action and questions raised by the introduction, which was also just long enough to serve as a tutorial without dragging out.  I liked the tactical combat, and I liked that once the game starts, it was left up to me to explore, interact with things, and figure out how to progress.  Some enemies were too strong to defeat and will have to be fought later, which is something I always enjoy seeing.  I am going to play more tomorrow.

One thing that I would have liked is a faster run speed; running is barely faster than walking.  There was also something that confused me, which is that at one point I was not able to attack the back column of green thorn beetles until they moved up one column, but in the next combat, that wasn't the case.  Not sure if there was a buff or debuff that had that effect (I didn't notice yet that you could mouse over them for help).  I also had trouble remembering the terminology of rank vs. flank; I kept thinking of them as rows and columns, but that might just be a language difference.

Also, I was not able to install the game through the Itch client; I think you need to specify Windows as the platform for the download in order for this to work (I actually could not even search for the game in the client, which may be for the same reason).  I would actually recommend Itch's butler tool for uploads; I personally find it more convenient, and it also enables improved patching and auto-updates for client users.

(1 edit) (+1)

I finished the demo and overall had a lot of fun.  It's already very polished and blends elements of different styles of RPGs pretty well.  I found a lot of areas that were blocked off in the demo, so I'm guessing the final version will have even more side paths to explore.  My total play time was about 1:25.

One small thing that bothered me about combat was movement; having to keep fidgeting my characters to get them lined up for an attack seemed a bit unnecessary, especially since it wasn't clear if the enemies were even bound by the same rules.  I usually just lined everyone up in the same row to focus damage on one enemy, since there didn't seem to be any disadvantage to doing so.

A few more small issues I encountered:

  • In the warden's house, Hazel goes to stand in a corner, but Jack continues to follow you.  Not sure if this is intended, but it's kind of odd.
  • The "chat" option with the shopkeeper doesn't seem to do anything.
  • When leaving the house, the party order gets scrambled - it would be good if this stayed consistent unless the party is actually changed.
  • I kept running into the weird issue I mentioned where party members just couldn't attack on certain turns, even if they were lined up with an enemy.  I never figured out why this was happening.  
  • There's no quit option on the main menu, so I had to alt-F4 to quit.
  • The quest journal doesn't seem to update as expected.  As of right now, having completed the demo, The Mines quest has no objectives checked, The Boat has only "assess the boat's damage" checked and shows the wrong number of wood items collected, and "A Troll and His Bridge" is not completed and has no objectives checked.  "Boarded" shows as completed, but has no objectives checked (not sure if intended).
(+1)

Thank you so much for the detailed review! A lot of the things mention are just stuff I haven’t finished polishing yet, but I’m still working out exactly what I want the combat system to entail. If any space can attack any other space then there’s not much of a point to the grid system, but I also don’t want it to be too constrained, because that’s annoying. I’ll look into it!