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(2 edits) (+1)

Alright, I've played the game all the way through and saw all of the endings (I think anyway).

So, here's my review, SPOILERS:

Gameplay:

It's mostly a somewhat traditional RPG Maker Horror Game, starts off fairly linear (with one early branching path that leads to an early ending). Then it opens up and there's a lot of different endings to archieve, even if half of them aren't that much different in outcome.

One thing that would be easily fixeable are the character transfer events. Lots of people do it the same way as you, where they teleport the player to the same tile with the transfer event, so if they immediately want to go back, they have to move away from it and back on it again. I think it's a mistake to do it like this. It's better to either teleport the player in front of the transfer tile or just have the actual transfer event in a wall and set it up so that it activates on event/player touch (I think you need to set up Priority to Same as Player for that).

I would've probably rated it 1 Star more if there were less "gotcha" moments. Ideally, with every death you should have the player be able to look back at it later and says: "Oh wait, that actually makes sense, it was 100% my fault, what was I thinking!"

So, final rating for Gameplay is 3 Stars.

Story:

It was overall great! Truly a great horror story! You do well to avoid explaining everything in a horror game, but there were certain parts that could benefit from more of an explanation. Such as why the antagonist waited 18 years to hunt Alesa again (even as something like "time flows differently in his realm" would've sufficed) and why he let Alesa go the first time. Maybe there was some explanation for that and I missed it.

One particularly disappoiting part was the videotape. It's just Alesa standing in front of her house with one line about how she wants a new house and family because her parents are always fighting. It would be better if we saw or atleast heard her parents fighting for a moment before Alesa went outside and said that. And maybe have Alesa talk some more about what life with her parents was like. Maybe even have it be a reason why she became a Social Worker, so that she can help kids in the same situation she was in.

Still, it was a great story for a game jam game, so: 4 Stars

Presentation:

Ok, I have no real complaints here. Everything was great and truly horrifying. The music especially fit so well. There's one scene where a sound effect seems to be missing (the one where Alesa falls from the window), but that's honestly not a big deal.

5 Stars!

Creativity:

Well, there were was great creativity in the visual style and with the situations the player character can find herself in. Overall, I'd say it scores highly in this category.

4 Stars!

Horror:

I think the game nailed this category perfectly.

5 Stars!

Theme:

The theme was Family Secret, you implemented all of the bonus challenges as well. It had a family with plenty horrific secrets. That said, it could've focused more on that in the main story, the horrific family seemed more like a sideshow to the main story between Alesa and Mr. Bob at times.

So, 4 Stars.

Overall, I'm not sure if this or There's Something in the Anderghast Mine is your best game yet. I think it's tied. Looking forward to what game you'll create next!

(+1)

Thank you so much Beregon, amazing feedback! Very helpful! That character transfer event tip is great, I'll use it for my next Rpg Maker Horror game! And I definitely need to stop making trial and error deaths haha!