itch.io

Hi there, Nowis-337!

I'm Cash, one of the judges for the RPG Maker MZ Jam, and I received your game to judge for Round 1. 

Since Round 1 is finished, I am giving a review of each game without scores. The below is my review of your game without a score. :)

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REVIEW DISCLAIMER

Dear developer! Thank you for making this game :) Here's my disclaimer I'm placing before all my reviews - I appreciate all games, and I consider every creative work a gift from the artist to the audience. The very fact that you made something is worth celebrating! Being a judge of this game, as was stipulated in the rules, I had to play at least up to the first existing hour of every entry and judge the game on that alone - no more than that! If any gamebreaking bugs were found, the game would be disqualified, and I was to judge the game based on the submitted entry by the deadline - without any additional notes. Here is my overall impressions of the game. Again - thanks for creating it! I appreciate every entry, that you gave it your all, and I encourage you to do what you love - if that means making more games, then please do so! Don't let my (admittedly sometimes too brutal) feedback deter you from making future games - I really want you to succeed! Much love, Cash <3

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CASH REVIEWS: "Buffet Knight" by Nowis-337

This game started with a really nice and colourful title screen, truly playful. A fork and a knife with a plate. The pixel art is immaculate.

I really do appreciate that it's very user-friendly, and it has wonderful graphics and beautiful music.

I think that the faceset for the buffet knight themselves was very cute, with  a little tongue curling around.

Story-wise, the dialogue was cute and serviceable.

I don't think I've seen RPG Maker menus that feel as good as this game's did.

The mechanic for swallowing food was quite innovative-feeling! You hold "Space" to inhale objects, and press "X" to swallow your food to recover a heart.

The technical achievement was genuinely impressive and all of the graphics felt part and parcel of the entire package, fitting in well with the resolution of the game. The User Interface was really cute, the fruits and vegetables looked truly delicious.

Gourmet Town is counting on you!

There is also a brilliant ending concerning the Scarlet Witch east of town that had me buckling in laughter.

There were some progression bugs where, depending on the order that you acquire the keys, you can break the progression of the game. I did this and had to start again.

The gameplay is innovative within the engine, however, it was quite easy and didn't require too much skill to actually complete. It was a really nice story game, but the bosses always shot forwards in triplets of three, but you could simply just lie outside of their vertical range and easily win that way. It's well-polished. The graphical feat is impressive.

Perhaps the thing I found most unsatisfying about the game was the lack of length, and the general lack of interesting gameplay in the game. It would be nice if there was some danger that you have, and some testing of skills that is more interesting.

It coasted on the overall presentation and cuteness - it is very, very cute and comedic! and gorgeous - but if you were to create a bigger game, then I would encourage looking into utilising difficulty to make interesting decisions and conflicts within the game.

There was a part where you had to walk in a tunnel to get a shard, but it looked like you could walk right through and I assumed that it was broken. But you just had to walk right.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

This is quite a cute game, and looks gorgeous. The balance of the game is on the easy side, which stops it from achieving its full potential, but if the developer/s worked on this game to improve its mechanics and gameplay to be more challenging, then it would be an even better game. As it is, I was laughing and enjoying myself throughout, so it wasn't too offensive! Very cute, inoffensive and featuring a wacky and lovely sense of humour that I enjoyed.

Thank you for this game, Nowis-337! <3