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(1 edit) (+2)

I decided to revisit this game recently after playing it many months ago. There's a lot of praise I have for this, and some constructive criticism from the point of balanced game design to help with possible future ventures.

First the pros: (spoiler free of course for those reading)

The game is beautifully unique in story, visuals, and in the realm of some audio design too.

Lots of replay value

Artistically it's charming and excellently well done

The game's battle system is visually appealing

Character and enemy sprites are something to be seen as a standard for any indie dev wanting to make a game similar to this in regards to quality

The main character's personal arc alongside the secondary character's personal arc is not just something that you can relate to, but it's something that's genuinely touching

On top of it all, this game just has so much personality oozing from it. To the point where I feel bad for not paying for this originally due to this game's quality. Not the best thing I've played, but definitely paid money to play worse games, and I wouldn't have minded paying around $5 initially to play this as long as some things were patched up.

Now the cons:

The battle system is very imbalanced, and very grindy to progress at times. And makes it feel like that you're dealing with artificial length in the game itself.

Not everything is clear cut enough to follow along at some points. Mostly either with how some puzzle segments are conveyed due to the will of the player possibly being the player's downfall on more than one occasion for myself.

Healing items can feel overly scarce, or at other points getting the money for getting yourself healed was a difficult task in of itself, and there was a lot of potential back tracking for those trying to find easier or better means of trying to get from point A to point B without having to deal with a lot of damage.

But the more major thing is power imbalances that're easy to encounter mid to late game. In fact, during the last quarter of one of the endings, which I assume isn't supposed to be a harder or a more difficult one to get, battles felt like even when you had a plan it could be just left up to the toss of the coin with how the AI would react at certain points. (again I'm keeping this as spoiler free as I can for people so, sorry if this is a little vague).


Easy ways to fix these kinds of problems would be to either have the EXP obtained earlier on be substantial enough for new players to get things done later with some difficulty, but albeit not something that feels like that you're constantly on the edge or brink of potentially dying or game overing so easily. Or potentially getting useful equipment early enough to mitigate these kinds of issues. As an example, your tutorial fight, and fights early game to give you enough money to get that immediately if need be.

If you don't want to have that, at least have skippable cutscenes or faster or possible fast travel options to make it more player friendly. All of these suggestions may not be perfect, but I hope that you know that this comes from a place of someone who genuinely enjoyed what the game provided.

Anyways, I loved the story. I loved the characters. And I genuinely loved the various endings that were thrown in. A not necessary but genuinely appreciated thing that was put in. Alongside the final portion of the game and having as much interesting stuff that you didn't need to share, but I loved reading and looking at nonetheless. Thank you for putting in so much love, care and effort into a lovely game like this. And I hope you release more in the future, and I can support you on further ventures in game development Z.

(+3)

Hello and thank you so much for your message. 

Firstly, let me say that it truly does mean alot to me that you did like the game, even with the flaws that it does have, and second, I truly do appreciate you going into depths with the issues the game does have. I more than understand the battle system in particular having issues and this is completely my fault for being inexperienced with it when making this game, It was my first time trying to make one and I understand if it did not go the way I had planned.
I really do appreciate you going into detail on why things had fallen flat or did not go well as they do help me understand what I can improve on so I can make my future projects more enjoyable. 

Thank you so much again for your message and thank you for playing Mare, I really do appreciate your support and I really do hope that you will look forward to what I create in the future. -Z

(+2)

Hey it's not a problem! I really appreciated the game as a whole, and honestly I really do look forward to seeing more projects from you in the future. I'll gladly pay money next time for it too if you feel that's the best choice as well! And thanks for taking the feedback as well as you did. I really appreciated the love and care you put into Mare, and I would love to see another thing like it refined in a way to see things or maybe even Mare itself refined in a way that makes this game more mainstream. It's honestly a wonderfully put together game that I wish I can recommend to more people. Hell I'd even be down to speedrun it at some point in the future as that's how much I appreciate the game and its style. But yeah, other than that, when I have some money I'll fork over some cash to show my appreciation when I get the chance. Don't stop creating Z. Love your work! <3 <3 <3

(+2)

Hello, I am sorry for the late reply, I have had quite a bit going on.

I really do appreciate it and if you do decide to speedrun it one day in the future, I would be curious to know how fast you were able to get through it. And as for donating money, please only do it if you feel comfortable to and are financially able to. ;v;

-Z