WOW! What an amazing game! I almost skipped this one since I'm not a huge fan of horror games and this looked like one, but I'm so glad I didn't, because this is a ridiculously well put together game - maybe the best I've seen from the entire jam, and that's saying something. I have some notes, but it's mostly just me gushing about how polished and well-thought-out everything is:
- The artwork is all absolutely incredible! The backgrounds are gorgeous, they look like paintings, the animal portraits are SUPER well-done, even the logo is super cool and striking with that bright red against all the greens and blues and blacks of the background (not to mention just how cool it looks!).
- The opening "cutscene" is simple yet super effective, I love the text crawl, the fades are clean, everything is well-positioned and the information is all succinct - it's ridiculously good! All I can say is maybe save the "choose four animals to accompany you" bit until after the crawl, since it's gameplay information and not story information?
- Each animal seems really interesting and unique! Each and every one seems valuable. The Cow seems like maybe the best of all, with that attack bonus being SUPER helpful and its deliciousness being so high, but then is it worth it to sacrifice the cow and lose all that damage? Each and every one seems valuable. I'm an absolute sucker for RPGs where you build your own party, and this REALLY scratched that itch. The only ability that kind of felt awkward was the dog's Bouncing Jump - given it's more of an attacker than a tank, redirecting attacks to itself usually felt like a bad call in the long run (especially with how precious HP is). It's a great idea, it just feels like one that doesn't make much sense on the dog specifically.
- The party selection screen is REALLY well put together in general, the colors are nice, everything is informative, it's relatively easy and intuitive to navigate... my only complaint is that some ability names don't have all their words capitalized properly,there's one typo I found (the Lizard's regrow tail ability says "Tale" instead of "tail"), and some ability names are just a bit awkward ("Grows a tail" could be "Tail Grow" or something, and "Lays an egg" could be "Egg Lay" or even just "Lay Egg"). But those are SUPER minor nitpicks -the screen as a whole is ridiculously well put together, and so is the roster.
- Being able to name your animals is a super nice touch! Really makes it that much harder to sacrifice them.
- The battle system is basic but really, really good. Stacking buffs and debuffs feels valuable since health is so precious, and the enemies feel threatening but still surmountable (at least with the cow). You really do feel like you're getting worn down over time!
- I do think the stun is a BIT frustrating, but it does make slower animals like the cow feel a bit more balanced - maybe it could be used a bit less often, but overall I think it's a strong inclusion.
- The zombies increasing in number (at least for the later nights) if you take too long makes sense in that it makes things more difficult and adds a feeling of dread, really making things more challenging if you don't finish them quickly enough, but it also feels like it can really just make things impossible to control if you're not doing well enough by that point, in a way that feels sort of frustrating. My last animal ended up getting literally stunlocked and couldn't do anything as the zombies kept coming, which felt fitting in a way but also kind of disappointing. Perhaps if it was just a lower chance, or if the stun didn't happen so often?
- I love the limited uses of each move, it really forced me to think twice about every action and avoid overusing moves that would have otherwise saved me - it was a really strong balancing factor, and really added an element of strategy I never would have considered, making the later rounds feel really stressful.
- Sacrificing an animal to eat is a BRILLIANT way to introduce insane risk - losing an animal is HUGE, especially when a single animal can hardly stand on its own (and two animals can't do much better), but it's the only way to really restore much health and keep your other animals alive, especially after a particularly rough battle. Maybe the most ingenious mechanic in this already amazing game, and that's saying something.
- That said, honestly, most of the other night-time abilities don't feel quite valuable enough to only be able to use one a night - the stat buffs all feel pretty small in the long run even if you have 10 of them over the course of a run, and treating an animal even if they have super high friendliness is still kind of underwhelming. Maybe I just wasn't using it enough, and I assume this could get SUPER out of hand if left alone, but I have to wonder if allowing the player to use two night-time actions (perhaps at a cost, or as the ability of a specific animal) would be okay.
- The audio is SO GOOD. The music is all fun and haunting in all the right places, all the sound effects are well-placed, well-balanced, and fitting, and the "eating an animal" sequence is both haunting and darkly hilarious in a way with how the food appears so well-prepared. I love it so much.
- The battle UI is really nice for the most part - seeing which animal each zombie is targeting adds another layer of strategy without feeling too powerful, and being able to see the turn order is nice. That said, being able to hover over the status icons would be nice to be able to tell what each one does, since some of the icons are a bit vague (namely the attack up/down one).
- The game over sequence is a bit underwhelming, but it gets the job done well enough. I can't thank you enough for skipping the intro cutscene when you play the second time, though - that's super thoughtful and really makes playing again that much more appealing!
In my run, I used the Dog, Cow, Chicken, and Cat, hoping to stack attack/health buffs at night, use the cow as a free heal, and use the chicken to spawn more allies, but the cow ended up being so valuable that I sacrificed the chicken early instead (since it was almost dead). I figured out a bit too late just how powerful attack drops were, and playing conservatively with my limited-use moves early on helped me later, but it also did force me to play with only three animals for most of the game. Ultimately, I delayed sacrificing another animal to heal the rest of my team on night 8, which led to me losing on day 9 when my animals finally got overwhelmed even with all the buff-stacking, but I feel like if I just played a little bit better of got three-zombie fights just a bit less I could have gone all the way... it's frustrating and difficult, but also addicting. This is a ridiculously well-polished game, super well-balanced and engaging, and I'm honestly shocked it's free, something that was made in a week, and only has 3 ratings so far. This is absolutely incredible, and I'm definitely coming back to play again (and spreading the word while I'm at it). Great job!