Genuinely had a blast with this game! Every time I thought "Hmm... wish the game had this option available", the next scene introduced those very mechanics lol! Happened with
- Rock, paper, scissor mechanics
- Dragging Emblems to the frontline vs constantly clicking between them & the enemy
The overall pacing of Battle, Difficulty, & Mechanics was ON-POINT, but it did have me questioning why Enemies aren't affected by environmental modifiers...! Visually, the Emblems cracking/breaking was extremely satisfying!
I was pleasantly surprised with the Visual Novel portions of the game, too. The characters & dialogue all felt very natural.
A couple things to improve:
- For me, it was difficult to remember the difference between the Level & the Health number. The Level is highlighted as the most important number (it's bigger, it's shinier, and it's front & center), while Health - in comparison - is tiny. Visually, I'd want something that helps keep mindful of it... maybe using a red meter around the Emblem (similar to the XP meter, but with line breaks to visualize the number of HP left?)
Not quite sure how to have Health be more visually appealing like the Critical Hits are (like the shield buff) - I wasn't fond of the targeting system angling THROUGH other Emblems. For the visually impaired (or those streaming for 24hrs lol), it makes more sense for the line to be pointing straight to the enemy.
- Sound Design. I loved the occasional voice lines from the characters! For a more immersive experience, I'd love if we could hear footsteps, clothes rustling... things of that sort during scenes!
- Throughout the playthrough, I encountered an overabundance of highlighted text. I feel like I was spoiled with the Highlighted Text that had Information Tooltips because when I encountered just regularly colored text, it left me wondering... well, why is that important? (I recall Spirit saying something like "One last detail..." & wondering "why emphasize that at all?", for example).
So, I do think the amount of colored text should be pulled back: to emphasize Gameplay Mechanics or Tooltip important information about the world/language. - I do wish that we had fuller art for the Choice sections of the games!
I was at my wits end since this was the final game during my 24hr Charity Stream, but it was a pleasure having you pop by! (I also JUST noticed the Streamer Thank You's at the end. We love to see it!)
You can find my VOD here. Timestamps available: