itch.io

I forgot to check the Windows box when uploading a previous build. Easy fix / already done! Incidentally, good tip about the itch client as well.

Have you tried the Butler tool?  I find it very helpful for dealing with uploads, and it also enables auto-patching for the client.

Things do open up a bit later, though I'd say the first act is fairly linear. One compromise I've considered is to allow players to step into the Chapter 2 / 3 dungeons as soon as they access the world map, though it would require arbitrarily blocking off the critical story sections until they are intended to be explored (E.G. the old "guards blocking the rest of the dungeon" trope). Some players may find this less fulfilling than simply not being able to go to those locations, so I'll need to weigh the options.

One thing that I would have liked in chapter 2 that would help here would be the option to continue playing each sub-chapter after defeating the boss.  It could end after returning to rebel HQ, with an option after the boss to return there immediately or stay put.  This would allow time to collect any remaining treasures or poke around the world map before moving on, if desired.

Not defaulting to a selection for certain menus was intentional to prevent overzealous mashing, but I can see the inconsistency being more annoying than just having to be more careful in the menu. Will ponder that further.

To me it feels like a bug, but that might just be me; in Unity or Godot, having no GUI element focused would just break the menu navigation, but I can see that that's not a problem in RPG Maker.  What I typically do is just highlight the "cancel" option by default, though I have also seen games grey out the selections for a second or two when popping up a selection box (although, I think that's OK for warning/tutorial type boxes, but probably more annoying than helpful for gameplay selections).

The party does move around somewhat frequently, though I think it is only implied once or twice from some of Estelle's dialog. While some NPCs reference the southern half of the continent being dangerous / inhabited by powerful monsters, that may seem more like a warning to the player rather than a justification for the party avoiding the region. Noted!

Yeah - I would definitely expect them to be moving around, and I don't think that needs to be made explicit, but with how cautious Estelle has apparently been playing things, moving to the forest in the castle's back yard seems like a riskier move than she would want to make.  It's not a big deal, really, it just stuck out to me a bit.  In my head I just hand-waved it as RPG logic, and of course time and distance are kind of abstracted away on an RPG world map.

I can see why that shift to blaming the Empire by name might seem jarring. From the characters' perspectives, there was always suspicion of an external force behind the coup, but I don't think that was explicitly stated. So that's something I can foreshadow better.

I don't recall if that was mentioned prior to that point or not, but it was definitely made clear that the invaders had a lot of intel that they shouldn't.  This was implied at the end of chapter 2 to have come from Roderick, who I believe was the commander they were looking for during the prologue, and who had apparently been identified as the traitor at some point between then and now.  So, if I understand correctly:

• The main characters suspect an external force, but do not know about the Empire specifically.
• Discovery of the information at the mayor's house confirms these suspicions and lays the blame on the Empire (I can't recall if those specific dots were connected there, sorry).
• The people of the continent in general also do not know about the Empire.  Aside from simply not being mentioned, this is probably most strongly implied by Ellory's comment about the "people at the castle" leaving the villagers to fend for themselves, though it isn't clear here whether they meant the royal army or the invaders (this may have been intentionally ambiguous).
• The rebels may or may not know about the Empire already.  This isn't stated one way or another, but they definitely know about it by the time the party meets with them (presumably informed by Franco if they didn't already know).
• With new information, the Empire is now known to the entire cast as the foreign power behind the coup.

Do I have that right?  If so, it's mainly the last two points that are glossed over.  The impression that I got overall was that the Empire was already well-known to everyone except the player, but that the protagonists were surprised that the Empire had an army, which doesn't make sense.  I don't think this necessarily needs more foreshadowing, but maybe a line or two after the harpy fight and/or when meeting Stefan would clarify where everyone stands.

This reminds me of one other thing, which is that I believe Darren reported that the Empire had already been to the ruins north of town before he got there.  Was there a clue that I missed or am not remembering where he discovered that?

(Apologies if some of this really should have been obvious, there was just a fair bit to absorb and of course, I can't easily reread it to see if I overlooked things.)

I forgot to mention that when I launch the game, I get this error very briefly.  It disappears immediately when the game finishes launching and doesn't seem to cause a problem, but I don't know what it means or if it's a problem on my end.

(EDIT: I've been told that this is just a thing that RPG Maker does.)