legit, whole hearted critique: I hate how there's only one right way to do things in what appears to be a dungeon crawler/roguelite style game. This looks like fun, but it feels like there should be more than one path ahead. Puzzles are good, but there should be more right answers. for example,
(spoiler for the right answer)
instead of getting bimbofied to use the dragon (because realistically, no one is using the bimbonomicon unless the walk through tells you) there should be more paths to make the ice elemental fight easier. Additionally, there should also be another way to get the kraken hydrated. the cowbell room seems like the perfect solution to that problem! All I suggest is making branching decisions to get the right outcome, as no good puzzle game has exclusively one right answer. This has potential, but the rail road is limiting. There must also surely be plans in the future to do classes like there were in one potion please. There would surely be things only a fighter could do that a mage and rogue couldn't, thus making adventuring forward very limiting.
I appreciate the honest critique! You are not the first to suggest multiple solutions, and it is something I am considering (albeit with a certain amount of hesitation. Gets difficult to code.). At minimum, perhaps I made some elements too difficult.
I will argue against the idea of “no good puzzle game has exclusively one right answer” though. Portal 2, the puzzle half of Resident Evil games, and the VAST majority of point-and-click-adventure games have singular solutions to their puzzles.
Current plan is for the other classes to provide cosmetic changes only.
I think… biggest thing I need to do is somehow change peoples’ expectations of the game. Because it certainly LOOKS like a rogue-like, but it simply isn’t. It’s a puzzle. And so people coming in expecting a rogue-like are getting disappointed. Not sure how to fix that though…
Ah, that's all fair then! and good point with portal, been a long while since portal has been on my brain.
If multiple routes would be beyond the scope of code difficulties, then perhaps the puzzles would need a difficulty tweak. My previous statement about the bimbonomicon feels valid still. I feel like it'd need a hint over the dialogue option, something like "I'd have to be stupid to try this..." which would at least allude to what the player would need to do. I also couldn't reach the kraken prior to getting the dragon, so being able to reach the goal should also be put into consideration for the future.
The only reason I assumed it to be a rogue-like would be due to the map lay out. It gives off vibes like slay the spire's mapping. Perhaps a map lay out like how darkest dungeon 1 (still sorta a rogue-like) would fix the rogue-like appeal, because the inability to backtrack does heavy mileage in building the rogue-like vibes. I do really love how this looks! I hope to see more from this, keep it up dude!