Salutations!
Let me say that I was surprised by how much of the story you've managed to fit into the game, truly impressive.
The open world map was also a novelty. Really immersive and fun.
I've played for a long time, and I don't even know if I saw everything that I could see.
Also I didn't think there would be a Magical Girl Transformation, which was totally a plus!
The story is interesting and engaging. At the end of my playthrough, I was invested in the mystery, and even though I could not solve it, I had fun gathering intel from all the characters.
The Ship section before the Tree Town was fun, and I was kinda expecting it to reappear at some point.
I couldn't find anything else to do after showing every character the scale and asking about the mines. I got the key, but I couldn't find where to use it, I think because there are no mines in the game.
The character model for the protagonist, I can see is detailed, and it was made with passion and love for the project.
And the overall aesthetic made me feel like I was playing a Demo for an upcoming Xbox Classic game that was on an Xbox Magazine Demo Disc.
And of course, I have some notes about my experience:
- The open world controls are a bit stiff, and trying to jump when walking got me stuck most of the time. Even after getting the Magical Powers, I had a hard time getting into the floating island where the Scale was.
- On the other hand, the ship controls were slippery. In those types of sections, a more precise and accurate movement makes it more appealing for the player. I had no problem in that section, but still.
- Wish there were some sort of way to see previous dialogue. I found myself forgetting the instructions, but when talking again with the characters, there would be no dialogue at all.
- Music and Sound effects were disabled by default, and when trying to adjust them in the main menu, but once in, game, they were too low, and I couldn't find a pause menu or adjust them once the story started.
- And lastly, I think some sort of indicator of where to go in the UI would absolutely help a lot. I got lost and disoriented while searching for characters. Being the map the size it is, an arrow or a pointer that the player can see through walls that indicates where to go next would be nice.
My final thoughts are that:
This is truly wonderful. The atmosphere, the world building, the dialogue. As someone who likes to explore and interact with everything I can in-game, I really appreciate that you've gone through the effort of making dialogue for most of the NPCs in town. Even if it was brief, it helped the game feel more alive.
If you happen to revisit this, as the Mayor's Dialogue implies, I will be happy to play it again.
Great Job! ^^