Yes, I will now manually fetch them (itch.io doesn't DELETE the comments you had when you switch from 'Single Comment Thread' mode to 'Forums' mode, but it does hide them until you switch back).
Here's all of them in one big blob:
Hi Tabula Rasa Games. Just wanted to thank you for advertising on reddit otherwise I never would have found this. I've only put about an hour into this game, but I'm absolutely loving it so far.
As a fan of all things lovecraftian this is basically my dream game. I love the premise of being able to switch between the different characters on death. And I appreciate that you provided two different character options for each archetype, both with slightly different backstories despite having the same equipment and statistics.
I'll try and leave a more detailed review up once I've got more of the game explored. But if you're on the fence about trying this, give it a shot.
It's name your own price so there's nothing to lose if you want to try it out before donating.
Tabula Rasa Games
9 days ago
Hey Zutsu! Thanks so much for playing and for your early thoughts. I think you might be my very first player. So very eager for your feedback as you proceed (the game gets pretty tough pretty fast, I think, in various compounding ways, once you're past the first couple hours, so where the difficulty curve is at is definitely one thing I need more data points on). Which subreddit did you see EREWHON on? I posted to a few.
Considering I worked on this more or less full time since early November of last year through about three weeks ago (~40 hours a week, discounting for May through July when I had a huge Crohn's flareup and was too ill to do anything), I really, really, really should be advertising it more. The cost sunk into development really demands I put more effort into promotion.
It's just that I LOVE making things only slightly more than I hate trying to sell the things I made, the former gives me pure joy and the latter undiluted anxiety. It is frankly ridiculous that I've been talking about this online for about 40 days now since the alpha launched and unless there's something I've missed you're the first human I've managed to persuade to play it. There are simply too many indiegames on the market, a market with nearly 0 entry barriers that's very crowded with both a lot of low-effort dross and a lot of great, creative, impressive stuff, and too few human eyeballs for even 10% of them to find an audience. Oh well, I need to advertise more, and I will advertise more, and finally getting some player engagement is great motivation. Please do keep going, and thanks again (didn't mean to vent at you, the main thing is, thanks for trying the game and your kind words).
zutsu13
9 days ago
(edited)
No worries! I think it was one of the call of cthulhu oriented subreddits, but I can't remember for sure .
It's honestly a crime that more people haven't played this. I left a review but I'm not sure they're posted publicly? The atmosphere and world building are very well done, and the difficulty reminds me a bit of Fear & Hunger, which I love.
I got out of the hotel into the asylum with both the psychologist and the occultist, but the difficulty bump is a bit insane with that one section, as it's possible to go in without weapons, up against some tough enemies.
I think there was a funny bug with the agents, when you get to the exit of the hotel there is no option to leave and if you go backwards you end up in a black void unable to move, so I purposefully reloaded a save and got myself killed.
However, when I switched characters one of the agents showed up in my party as a third character (Occultist, Agent, Rogue). There was also a test message I found in the asylum after I helped break the doctor out, but I died after running into three or four groups of cultists as I ran out of resources.
I still have the save if you'd like me to send it to you.
I love that you can customize characters by learning new skills with AP. There are still some mechanics I'm not sure about (crafting, how to learn new spells, and what the exact limit is for reincarnating - past a certain point it doesn't let you do anything but load a save when you die. I think after 5 spirals?) but overall I'm enjoying it a lot.
I'm planning to play a bit more of it when I have time and try out other characters that I haven't gotten far with, and see how investigation B compares to A.
If you'd like to pick my brain more I can send you my discord info.
*Update*:
Got quite a bit farther in Investigation B in the graveyard. It definitely seems to be a bit easier than the second half of investigation A. Will try and advance some more when I have additional time.
The door at the bishop's house which the butler answers keeps opening up a prompt to use it even though there is conversation occurring after the butler retreats inside. May be because I was clicking on the door itself to try and advance conversation. I eventually got past it and was able to get quite a bit further.
Tabula Rasa Games
8 days ago(edited)
Thanks for the detailed feedback! Absolutely love to see it. Some kind souls, absolute saints (perhaps you're one of them) bought the game for a generous donation which is fantastic, but you're the first person engaging with it which is what I really need (if I can pick up momentum, I can swing my focus back to EREWHON and off of the new, TTRPG stuff I've been working on). I'll definitely work on talking about the game more places this week.
Anyway, I pretty deliberately left in the option to disarm (or not disarm) during the first chapter of Investigation A as kind of a teachable moment: yes, it is VERY hard (not impossible) to survive there if you decide to have your investigators surrender their weapons, it's kind of meant to teach that this is a world where you uh... don't want to be trusting enough to do that. (There is a moment MUCH later in that Investigation that kind of tests if you learned this lesson the first time around lol.)
I think I agree with your assessment that Investigation B is a bit easier on the whole. Certainly, more of your problems are solvable by standard physical violence/explosives than during Investigation A, where you are constantly stalked by an enemy that is immune to physical attacks and weapons. As for Investigation A, the Occultist really is kind of the "easy" mode to the Academic's "hard mode". While somewhat fragile to physical attacks, the Occultist starts with a very robust toolset for confronting the unnatural. Including a shotgun, which kicks ass as a starting weapon.
Out of curiosity, which agent wound up in your party? Was it a named agent (Wintersen, you'll meet him later on in Investigation A...probably, it is possible to miss him if you have learned and cast a summon spell by that point, and happen to have a summon in your party as you pass through the area where he can be found, but that's generally an edge case) or one of the default PC agents? I have never seen this particular bug myself, and I'll try to follow your steps to reproduce it. (The potential for stuff like this is exactly why I'm so in need of playtesters. I am sure this game is bugged in a hundred ways I haven't personally seen yet. It is a borderline-absurdly complex game for a solo developer and has reached an epic scope in spite of being only about 50% content-complete overall.)
QUICK EDIT (missed this!): "The door at the bishop's house which the butler answers keeps opening up a prompt to use it even though there is conversation occurring after the butler retreats inside. May be because I was clicking on the door itself to try and advance conversation. I eventually got past it and was able to get quite a bit further. "
Yes, this is unfortunately a known issue with the plugin that I use to make on-screen pictures that RPG Maker can display "clickable" which unfortunately isn't a native feature to the engine (in general, I've had to jump through several hoops to achieve the point-and-click functionality I do have in the game). This plugin can't seem to recognize that other event code is running when it checks to see if a picture is being clicked, and it's also a bit overzealous in its efforts to identify the latter so yeah, what I do playtesting that specific bit is click the door once, put my mouse way out of the way, and let the scene play out. Sorry about that, but this one is currently flagged as "known about but idk how 2 fix".
zutsu13
8 days ago
(edited)
It's Quentin. After I had died on the agents, Quentin started in my party from the beginning of the cycle in the hotel. He was in the second party slot. Ryoko, Quentin, Vivienne.
I'll try to reproduce if I have time, but this was after three or four deaths and I had played the occultist once without Quentin being there.
I think my party choices went something like Occultist (Died to minotaur) -> Academic (Died to cultists) -> Agent (Purposefully died after getting stuck with no exit to hotel parking lot) -> Occultist.
I had just played the agents previously (female agent), died in combat because I couldn't get to the parking lot and going back into the hotel caused a black screen.
If the save file would help, I can upload it somewhere for you to nab.
zutsu13
7 days ago(edited)
Is Chapter 3.(B) a dead end at this point in the alpha? I got the chapter title to display but can't seem to do anything except go one screen forward and fight the Lamprey once I go into the Warrens. At that point I appear to stuck as there is no exit or way to backtrack.
Anecdotally there were a lot less bugs that I encountered in Investigation B so far. Everything seemed well polished and laid out with a nice assortment of supplies that kept my party going before I could get back to the hotel.
I really liked the themes here and the enemy variety. Combat felt tense and very resource draining, but not insurmountable with the shotgun and a later secret weapon you pick up from a certain room. I may just be bad at building the Rogue, but it felt like her knife skills really couldn't keep up in damage with basic attacks from other characters. This was ok, because she definitely had other benefits. The amount of extra items you can acquire with Vivienne in your party is great, so she doesn't need to excel at everything.
I finally got to try out a little bit of the crafting system. It worked well, and molotov cocktails are a bit OP if the initial hit doesn't miss. They definitely saved my investigators more than a few times.
The boss fight here was great, and I enjoyed the world building with how Vivienne knew who this guy was. He also seemingly comes back at some point, but I ran away before seeing if it would trigger another fight.
The amount of keys you pick up was a bit confusing at first, but since you can brute force what door they go to by looking for the icon change, finding my way around was manageable.
Loved all the 'evidence' you collect to bust the family running the graveyard, but haven't figured out if there's anything else you can do with it.
Overall, really loving my time with this game, and it's clear you put a lot of work and love into it. I'll definitely revisit Investigation A and see if I can make my past the problem spots with a bit more planning.
I'm also a huge fan of the music! Very darksynth and gets your blood pumping for combat, with old timey creepy pieces mixed in for exploration. I think it works great together but I have strange musical tastes according to my friends.
Tabula Rasa Games
6 days ago
Chapter 3: The Burrows Beneath is indeed where Investigation B ends in the current build. Content beyond that has not yet been created. Investigation A is complete and can be finished as both the Academic and the Occultist, with each having multiple endings. Thank you for following through with this excellent and useful and encouraging feedback. I'll have some more detailed thoughts later and edit this comment or make a new one. I'm multitasking hardcore right now.
"I may just be bad at building the Rogue, but it felt like her knife skills really couldn't keep up in damage with basic attacks from other characters. This was ok, because she definitely had other benefits. The amount of extra items you can acquire with Vivienne in your party is great, so she doesn't need to excel at everything. "
If you give Vivienne/Jack something like a rapier (shortsword might be the best you can do in the early game), estoc, wakizashi (the Twins, specifically Cassilda, almost always drop one) and devote a decent amount (30-50%) of AP to their Dexterity, she actually hits the hardest out of ANY character class, particularly with "Twin Strike" (hamstring cut's damage is underwhelming, vein slit is highly effective against creatures that care about keeping their delicious red blood inside their bodies, but super ineffective against creatures that don't have normal blood). Spec'd this way, the Rogue actually deals so much melee damage that it outpaces the Detectives' damage with the higher end firearms in the game! Of course, the Rogue can also use pistols out the gate, and can buy Rifle Proficiency, so that's another way to go.
zutsu13
6 days ago
Aha, I knew the skills I was picking for her probably contributed to part of her low damage.
That makes a lot of sense. I'll keep an eye out for those better melee weapons next time, though I think I'll try and get through Investigation A with the Academic first.
Tabula Rasa Games
6 days ago
oh man, this is so unprofessional of me, but I must ask:
a) did I have the (extremely extremely extremely partial, it's only the Concierge in the initial Parlour scenes) voice acting turned on for this release? I honestly cannot remember.
b) was it unbearable?
zutsu13
6 days ago(edited)
You did! I actually enjoyed it. Helped set the atmosphere. Was a very pleasant surprise as I wasn't expecting any voice acting at all.
Tabula Rasa Games
4 days ago
very happy to hear it. even in the absence of any other voice actors/voice acting, in the final game, The Concierge and Stanislaw Grabinski will each be voiced by yours truly.
zutsu13
5 days ago
The basement in investigation A as the academic is absolutely killing me.
I got past the amoeba easily enough after one retry.
I even spent some time farming levels / skills on the upper levels once I got access to the hotel. But it seems like everything has far more health down there - even though I have my academic set up with decent dex / int and supporting skills like bless weapon, a rapier, and decent equipment on my other two characters - we just take too long to kill things. Using therapy in combat to try and stave it off really just makes the death spiral start sooner.
My in combat sanity restoration items are limited enough that I can never end the fights before someone goes insane, and the permanent sanity reduction makes the loop even more punishing.
I may need to just farm money and buy a bunch of alcohol at the hotel to be able to continue. Items seem a lot more scarce in the asylum compared to the amount of things you find in Investigation B.
Tabula Rasa Games
4 days ago(edited)
Yeah the uh...the Asylum basement is kinda fucking brutal, a real trial by fire. Especially for the academic. This isn't at all you needing to get gud, the game definitely need rebalancing, I just need some more data points before diving in. I know it needs to be tuned down, I just can't tell how much from a single data point. Okay, you specified the academic so I gotta make sure my advice for the CURRENT build is directed towards that:
If the core issue is taking too long to kill shit and thus going crazy in battle, DO NOT DRINK THE ALCOHOL YOU BUY, USE IT TO MAKE MOLOTOVS (perhaps this advice is also applicable to real life? lmfao).
(IIRC even if the Academic can't get the Incendiarism skill that lets you build molotovs, either Detective can.)
Your priority in the basement, unless you're against one of the encounters down there that is truly underwhelming (such as a single Reanimated, where you can save resources and just shoot/stab it) is to NUKE EVERYTHING. Molotovs are the cheapest way to burn everything in your path down there, but if you have the money or are willing to farm it (once you 've gained enough levels/gear that they become mostly a non-threat, the Pig Butchers/Porkies generally have the most lucrative drops, with a high tendency to drop cleavers, masks, and even leather trenchcoats) then the janitor can and will sell you an unlimited amount of dynamite and/or grenades. (I actually removed Molotovs from all in-game stores in a balancing pass because I could not find any price point for them where you couldn't break the game by buying a shit ton, which was one of the reasons, but not the only reason, I made them craftable (and craftable only). rather than buyable).
Do not attempt psych triage in combat. Keep throwing bombs as long as you're able, and patch up your SAN and Health between encounters.
To save money on booze+bandages for making molotovs and dynamite/grenades: the double-barreled shotgun is your friend, as long as you don't forge to reload it. It's cheap, either detective can rock it, and while it's not quite as good in the context of this game as Doom II's super shotgun...it comes close.
ALTERNATE APPROACH: not sure if you got past the Basement as the Occultist or not, but the Occultist has access to both Wheel of Eibon and the ability to make Ointment of Suleiman, which can both prevent non-boss encounters while exploring, which is extremely helpful. The academic can also find some Ointments, but is unlikely to find any before the basement, barring a very lucky random loot drop (most of the lootable objects are in fact giving random drops from an extensive leveled table, though some are fixed).
Spot check (and I've decided even if for a while my only playtester is just you, I'm sitll goingt o start a proper forum on this page and create dedicated playtesting threads there with relevant info, as you've been incredibly dilligent and I'm extremely grateful) what is your Permanent Insanity level at? If you have Level 4 or higher permanent madness, your best option is to visit Egypt ASAP and seek out Bastet even if it means intentionally dying and reincarnating into Investigation B. 4 or higher levels of permanent or crazy makes it VERY difficult to keep your MC (Immortal Shadow/yourname) functional unless you invest very heavily in boosting their Resolve through both AP spends and equipment choices.