Although much of this is placeholders, I'm still glad it got released, as it's nice to see more aro/ace plotlines. Also, I thought the anonymity censor bars labeled [PLACEHOLDER] and lines like "oat-based danmaku" were really funny.
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[Unfinished] Ducks 'n Aro's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Use of LGBT Themes | #19 | 3.425 | 4.158 |
| Audio | #23 | 2.948 | 3.579 |
| Story / Writing | #23 | 2.645 | 3.211 |
| Challenge | #27 | 2.124 | 2.579 |
| Gameplay | #27 | 2.124 | 2.579 |
| Concept | #27 | 2.818 | 3.421 |
| Visuals | #28 | 1.778 | 2.158 |
| Overall | #29 | 2.254 | 2.737 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
PatchMixolydic
Streaming Permission
Yes
Comments
I understand this is an unfinished project, so I just cannot judge the gameplay or the assets as a whole, since obviously it's unfinished, so I'll give my opinion only based on the story and it's placement.
I don't like that the story interrupts the gameplay so often, specially if said story is quite long as this one, I felt like the gameplay itself was replaced with a vn (or maybe it felt a lot longer due the text on screen was larger than usual), for a touhou like game, the story tends to be really dense and hard to understand where is it going, simpler could be better, just saying.
Thanks for playing! I think the reasons behind the dialogue density are twofold. First, since I didn't trust myself to be able to do anything too big in the first place, I only scoped for one stage with a fairly decent amount of dialogue. Typically, I'd try to spread the dialogue out a bit more, maybe even across stages. However, considering the fact that I didn't have much time and still managed to have to squeeze a lot into post-jam updates, the only thing I could've done here is cut down on some of the dialogue (or just scrap the danmaku half of the game entirely, but I wanted to have some sort of substance for those who don't really care for the story).
This leads to the second reason: unfortunately, because of Junko's semi-archaic, overdramatic way of speaking, her dialogue is almost damned to be too complicated. This makes for a wonderful foil to Hecatia's more casual diction, but can be rather painful to squeeze into such a short game. It might've been better if I had Hecatia talk more often thank Junko, though their personalities seem to lend themselves better to the arrangement seen in-game. Fortunately, I can probably fix this easily for future games by using characters that are a little less talkative.
I played version 0.2.0 (and haven't tried the newer version yet). I wish I could find an access to the very first build for the sake of rating for the Jam - from my understanding, the updates bring some substantial changes. Oh well, I'll speak my mind on v0.2.0 anyway.
The gameplay itself needs some more work. I can see the basis of a SHMUP were implemented, so now it could use a visible hitbox (for when focusing), a boss indicator (yknow, this sign at the bottom of the screen), maybe a power system with more visible effects (I couldn't tell mid-gameplay that my shots were indeed getting stronger) - and of course, proper enemy attacks (all the bullet patterns I've seen are too easy, even if I were a novice - it was extremely mild for Normal mode).
Two other things:
- I've noticed this small character icon that follows you at the bottom of screen. I'm assuming it's part of some character switch system but I've been wondering (all the way from start and finish) what you could do with this mechanic. I couldn't pick up on anything that makes this relevant.
- The dialogues felt like intrusive text dumps. There are convos that last an entire minute in the middle of gameplay, and imo that does a good job at breaking the flow. The convo before the boss lasted for 3 whole minutes, and I think that's quite overkill considering the two previous convos. The topics are far from uninteresting though, especially the last one about the different kinds of love. If only there was a more organic way to introduce these dialogs...
One thing I liked though, the soundtrack. Gotta love this arrange of Complete Darkness!
EDIT: Oh yeah, I'm also curious about how you chose the game's name. What even is an Aro?
Thank you for playing! The reason v0.1.0 is inaccessible is because it's absolute garbage (and probably crashes on Windows anyway). The stage on v0.2.0 and below was actually recycled from a previous fangame, which had a much smaller playfield, so it's not entirely surprising that the patterns are too easy. This also means it wasn't designed to fit around the dialogue, so the pacing is completely off the walls. v0.3.0 replaced the stage with an original one. While it's still fairly easy, it should at least feel more like a ~stage 2 rather than a tutorial level and should have slightly better pacing.
The hitbox display and boss tracker are just things I haven't gotten enough time to implement yet. Shot types are far from final; both Hecatia and Junko currently have the same shot type, but they should have a narrow and broad shot, respectively. This should add at least a little more depth to the switching mechanic, though it's still crying out for a more involved gimmick. I'll try to find one for the full version.
I'm glad you liked the soundtrack! As you might be able to tell, that was where all the (time) budget went ^^;. As for the name, it stems from a terrible pun. "Aro" is a common clipping of "aromantic", so the main characters of this game happens to be sagacious spirit, ducks, 'n aro. It also vaguely sounds like the idiom "[have one's] ducks in a row" (be well prepared/organized, which is quite ironic in hindsight).
Playing Version 0.3.1. Really nice aesthetic-- I dig PC98 stuff. Though, why do you switch between Meiling and PC98 Reimu when using a bomb? I liked the ghostie attacks, and the final pattern from Orange-Duck-Alice. Though I'm assuming Orange-Marisa's patterns aren't finished, since she's defeated in like 5 seconds. Music is awesome too, and befitting of the vibe.
The writing is fun, and I liked the way it approaches the discussion of aromanticism-- at least until the boss, it's more about explaining romance than explaining aro-ness, and that's kinda the reverse of what I expected. Though, the part with Marisa felt a little silly. Dunno exactly what it is, but while the banter itself was well-written, the role of "bossfight who assumes romantic love is the only kind of love" seems like it might work better for another character. On another note, I really like the character profiles in the readme, and the comments in the music room.
In short, 'twas ducking awesome (im sorry)
Thank you for playing! The PC-98 aesthetic unfortunately wasn't intentional; most of the playfield sprites were placeholders from a previous fangame. To wit, Meiling and Reimu are supposed to be Hecatia and Junko. Switching characters when bombing is part of a team mechanic ripped off borrowed-for-life from Len'en Reiretsuden ~ Reactivate Majestical Imperial. The character you choose (the active character) starts as the character you play as, while the other (the passive character) follows you below the playfield, scooping up items. You can swap between the two by bombing or dying. While point items collected by the passive character only give a minimal amount of points, power items collected by the passive character give double power. Unfortunately, there's nothing more to the system than that since I didn't have time to expand it. I probably should've put this in the readme in the first place ^^;
I have noticed that Marisa's patterns are a bit too easy (especially her spell cards), so I'll try to buff her a bit. I do agree that it seems weird for Marisa to confuse love-in-general and romance, as her infamous "love sign" series of spells would imply that she's an expert on the subject. I probably should've swapped Reimu and Marisa's roles, but at this point, it's probably too late to change it. That's what I get for writing the story at the last second ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Regardless, I'm glad it wasn't too ducked up!
oh hey its devils emergence guy from devils emergence, a game i have heard a lot about but have not played. looks cool
is this the same engine? from what i can tell its pretty thoroughly custom which is neat
i picked lunatic but my wager is that the difficulties are the same due to the prevalent incompletion
but whatever its funny
junko shot type concept is interesting, it seems to deal more damage (or at least hit more frequently) away from the center so you gotta position yourself to the side of the boss, or shotgun but that isnt really viable in these patterns
good luck finishing it
Submitted
The Endless and KotohimeThank you! Both games use the same custom engine. The stage does change with respect to difficulty, but only because the stage design was recycled (planning to fix that today or tomorrow ^^;). I think Junko and Hecatia actually have the same shot type right now (both being Meiling's shot type from Devil's Emergence), which is also slated to change.
Genuinely love the writing and music! I look forward to playing the finished version!
Submitted
Frog Quest
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