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(+1)

A nicely polished RPG maker game with a good balance between story and gameplay. The current state of the game is promising enough as an introductory game (chapter 0) and the ending leaves a lot of room for story progression if the developer does decide to continue development.

Magical Girl Concept: The entire game is based on the Magical girl concept where you play as a Magical Girl and is sent out on a task while battling against monsters of varying types using a handful of magic spells. The protag magical girl in the game have a transformation sequence.

Mechanics: Since the game is made from RPG maker MV, I will mentioned the plugins used in the game. So the combinations of plugin used is pretty good since the selection creates a complete gameplay experience with lots of functionality you would expect in a proper JRPG front view battler. In other words, a lot of thought must have been put into choosing this design and setup which feels like a reasonably good combination for the best gameplay. No notable mechanics to be mentioned, since it is setup to be a traditional JRPG style game.

Visual: The original character and enemy (bosses) sprites is really well done with good effort being put especially into the two magical girl design. The art quality for the characters are really decent for an introductory game and can be improved on a lot further with more solid lineart and slightly complex dress/uniform designs. In the battlers, the enemies are animated which gives the game a nice feel during the battle. Since a lot of art used here came from RPGMakerMV, then I would say the selections of background tiles and art gives the game a good sci-fi like vibe while the enemy sprites have that magical fantasy look. It is mentioned some of the backgrounds are made by the developer but I find it a little hard to differentiate between the original one and the stock assets. The title screen is a straight forward white text on black background which tells a lot about what it is but since the story isn't a complete one I think it can be designed a lot unique with some added graphics. Say instead of a straight line for the sides of the word "End", draw thorn vines instead to give it a much edgier feel to what the story is depicting.

UI: The UI layout uses the stock RPGMakerMV setup but with some customization made to the in-game menu.

Audio: The music selection is pretty good and is typical for a JRPG style game. I can't comment much except that the super short title screen music track gives that dreaded vibe which compliments the meaning behind the title screen. The sound effects used are in the right place and didn't feel distracting at all.

Theme: The game definitely conforms to the Magical Girl theme since the Magical Girls are dressed like one and the magic ability reflect their magical girl nature. Besides that, the side theme the developer picked is conservation of energy and in every instances when an enemy is killed, the MP gets replenish which does represent the theme really well. Since MP is expanded through the use of magic and is recovered from killing magical enemies, that alone interprets conservation really well. However, the idea of recovering and turning enemy crystals into items isn't really about conservation, rather it more relevant to one of the law of thermodynamics instead.

Challenge / Engagement: The game is quite challenging with the over the top boss fights since the bosses use way more magic abilities and number of attack turns the two Magical Girls can output. I manage to beat the game in 3 hr (game time) with both girls at level 13. There are many times the final boss would KO all the girls in the first turn (4 hits), so the initial attack phase could have been adjusted a lot better. Apparently no new abilities were given after level 10. (Spoiler Alert! Start) Even though the game feels quite balanced and requires a few extra levels of grinding to be able to overcome the first set of bosses since they require certain magic attack they are weak against that are only available after level 7. Besides that the final boss is easily beaten by taking advantage of one of his magic element weakness, so a element magic attack (from spells and item) + guard combo on each turn, while from time to time reviving, and using the special abilities seems to be the best strategy (Spoiler Alert! End). As for engagement, I find that the game got me hooked to its compelling and mystery story which at this time feels incomplete but good in a way that I wanted to know more beyond chapter 0. Since the game play is a complete JRPG, I find that the game isn't limiting in any way when I played it. However at late game, it would be nice to be able to buy weapons, armor, or accessories from the shop or introduce new items to buy after level 10.

Originality / Creativity: The story is unique in its own way since the ending gave it several possible directions where this can go into. The story idea is creative since its about saving the sun but I think the writing could use a lot more creativity since it is written a little conservative at the moment.

Story: I really like the initial story here in the game and would like to know more if the game gets developed. Since English isn't the developer native language, I did expect a few issues with the text script but the story is understandable even with the issues. One thing I want to point out is that the ending dialogs (after final boss fight) feels a little confusing since a lot of the context is missing from the game and could have been improved with a lot more backstory and world lore. (Spoiler Alert! Start) From what I currently understand, I can tell based on the ending that there is a greater evil organization that is planning to do something much sinister and the mystery about how Magical Girls are created raises the mystery bar a lot higher. Also, extra points for the mystery lady in the afterlife scene each time the game fails (Spoiler Alert! End). The side characters in the cafeteria did provide some small amount of lore but it wasn't enough to compliment the entire main story. Something to mentions here is that, I like the game jam mascot cameo in the game, she looks familiar but wasn't obvious from the start until the name is mentioned.

Overall: Its a really decent RPG maker game with a good mix of gameplay and balance to the story. I think the point forward with this game is that it needs a lot of story development and a ton of additional stuff like the items selections, magic abilities, and definitely more magical girls. The main focus for most RPG maker games is the story in itself but since battler game mechanics are in, then that aspect of item, ability, and enemy variety will also need to be taken into consideration for future development.

(+1)

Thank you so much for playing the game and for this lengthy review! ^^

Nice catch about the  law of thermodynamics! My bad there. That is gonna be an important part of the game so It's being reworked and the little guy is getting it's own room and sprite! 

I agree about the armor and accessories, they weren't put due to time and balacing issues but the plan for them is to have a big impact on how you will use them when approaching certain bosses or enemies. 

And, of course, the story is not over yet! 

it's a big world out there~