Well presented and original, with a degree of attention to detail that I'm already coming to expect out of Boneyard Productions™
Aesthetically - the game is designed well. Starting with a blood rain that gives an eerie intro befitting the plot, and the environment gives off a special atmosphere as well. It feels like you're lost somewhere dangerous. Even death animation has you "return to the soil" (I wonder if the forest was alive?). The boss track is short and loops quickly, but turned out oddly addictive.
Gameplay-wise - it didn't resonate with me so strongly. For the first boss in particular - limited camera angles and slower than the boss speed for the player (even with dash) made it really awkward to anticipate the boar's moves. It felt like you either had to facetank to deal damage at a swift pace (trying not to get yeeted in the process), or chip away very slowly and keep running/jumping around to avoid taking hits. Lack of immediate defensive/movement abilities encouraged running away from bosses rather than proactively seeking opportunities to attack.
For both bosses, I couldn't utilize some of the weapons fully - the crossbow was really awkward to aim, and the sweeping attack of the Bone™ couldn't hit the second boss while grounded. The long wind-ups of some weapons also made it impossible to deal hits while being able to dodge the quick fly demons. All in all, both bosses turned into battles of attrition for me, so I didn't enjoy the combat aspect much.
It's a shame that you've had to spend so much time dealing with IRL stuff. I think the game could turn a lot more fun with more development time, more player responsiveness, and perhaps some extra abilties beyond walk, run, attack and jump. With how the player can climb and jump off of trees I assume there were thoughts to incorporate it into combat somehow? Or maybe there's already some kind of mechanic/game changing strategy I didn't discover?
Overall - solid foundation for an atmospheric deforestation and de-demonization sim. I'd totally hire Mortilla to chop some trees and demon limbs. Combat system may need more attention. Oh, and a crouch button please, so I can feel a sense of accomplishment after beating a difficult boss.
Viewing post in Arms Sacrifice: Aku no Mori jam comments
ty aru, i appreciate the effort from one of my esteemed colleagues 😤
the aesthetics were kinda what i was hoping would carry the lack of polish we were able to bring with this one, it all runs and everything but as you've gathered, it needs some improvements LOL. the story is very likely that a war was fought there a long time ago, and countless people died on the battlefield, their blood and rage contaminating the soil, which caused creatures in the forest to become demons. like a boar that found a slain king's cape and became consumed by its ambition, and (even though cello didn't actually consult me when sneaking in the flies boss) the flies that consumed the corpses of soldiers learning bloodthirst. when slain, their blood again floods the forest, and their souls are laid to rest, or at least so the arms demon tells you. she actually lives in the blood of rage, bathes in and drinks of it, and lives to provide arms that keep battles going. but mortilla was born of that lingering hope that those arms would forever be lain to rest, the hearts that sank into the earth that yearned for a better future, and so secretly pursues slaying her. "mortilla," evoking a "small death," acknowledging the minimum amount of violence for peace. ripping off the arm that feeds if it causes you to bleed. that was the initial plan.
the game started out with a bunch of soulsborne players designing it, including myself, but none of us wanted it to just be a soulslike. so i emphasized verticality and aggression by a lot, but there are still similar elements that don't seem obvious. like for instance, you can sprint and not outrun the boar, of course, but to avoid its attacks you must jump a lot. the character is crouched and low to the ground to imply that springiness, and is very roughly frog-themed if you squint. so the equivalent to the grounded dodge roll is to sprint and then jump, which does give you a boost that is enough to avoid attacks if you travel laterally to the boar's charge, and unlike in souls, you can attack out of it as well while being close enough to follow up. when the boar charges you, you are supposed to charge a jump in anticipation, so the boar will slip under you and you can counterattack. i made it very jump-oriented, but i couldn't really communicate its design ethos haha. people seem to have wildly varying times with it contingent on whether they're spamming jump attacks and constantly moving very fast or not, so i tried to make the game more conducive to frantically running and sprinting at and around the boss so you're not wasting time getting back to it. if you're knocked away, there's a built-in slingshot if you immediately charge a jump slide to re-engage.
there was an initial design process where i wanted to communicate that some weapons are simply worse at engaging bosses than others, and initially i wanted it to be that the weapons distributed on the battlefield corresponded to the weapons that were worse against the boss. like "these were the weapons that fail to kill them." until the last ten minutes, the Burning Splinter (the long-ass sword) could not be used against the flies grounded either, and it was horrible to fight them with that weapon. but i relented and increased its vertical grounded hitbox and it trivialized the fight a lot, i feel like i should've kept it LOL.
i actually wanted the dragonbreath moves on the bone to be highly effective on the flies by making the flies disperse based on how many times they're hit rather than how much damage they take, which a constant flaming hitbox would be naturally better at doing. but the strong grounded tail attack can actually hit the fly, which also trivializes the fight 😩 and i believe the bone's strong tail attacks also heal you significantly on a hit. i was going to make tree-specific moves as well as dash-jump specific light and heavy attacks, but the mechanic was a little too specific to tweak with the time we had, so i made it so you can easily jump off them or attack while on the trees. the projectile weapons tended to be really powerful grounded and let you engage from a distance if you say, tree jumped really far away, so the long windup was intentional. what wasn't intentional though is that the projectiles heal you based on a hit, and you heal when you hit trees, so the gun and crossbow heal you massively just by shooting randomly into the forest. >:'3 all the bosses i had planned involved heavy use of trees, including the boar's ability to break them. can't say i could add a crouch button though, since mortilla crouches by default anyway 😞 a taunt move is a great idea though since i wanted the character to feel feral.
Okay, you sold me - I'm definitely hiring Mortilla to chop trees, slay demons, and bring world peace with minimum violence. Do you think they've got a spot in their schedule for me?
I tried playing again, this time managed to beat 2 loops (not cheesing the boar with the bug) before dying. I've been meaning to write how the jump doesn't feel like a true alternative to dodge rolling, because of how long you spend in the air and how little player control you have while airborne. Then I rolled the axe which turned out to be a gun? and you can spam it in the air to stay airborne forever?? and it turned out to be the most fun thing ever???? ...I guess my gripe now is "why did other weapons feel inferior to the point that beating a boss - without being a facetanking jackass - takes forever?"
I suppose it's a matter of being used to one type of gameplay or the other. 3d Souls-likes never resonated with me, but similar action games like Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Metal Gear Rising and Furi I enjoyed a lot. All of them give you either a dodge ability with invulnerability frames, a type of parry, or both, along with other special attacks and moves. Rather than limit the player's abilities (I tried dark souls once and it felt like the player was a lead balloon), they keep the degree of freedom high while making enemies and bosses harder and less predictable to compensate. With Aku no Mori, it felt like you had to know always when you can be around the boss and when you cannot. The jumps' timing and required force (for the boar fight) are precise. Jump too soon or too low and the boar will hit you before you can charge another jump. Jump too late and too high - you'll miss the opportunity to strike efficiently, so you'll either have to deal less damage and run away asap, or stay and endure one of its instant attacks. For the fly, it depends on your weapon (and gets really awkward with a melee one), but as you'll either have to use an accurate mid-air attack or a ground attack with wind-up that has enough reach, it really comes down to knowledge once again. There weren't many times when there was an attack coming at me which I didn't expect, and I had enough time to use my abilities to evade while still being able to damage the boss. Again, I assume it's the default for souls games where you have to know what the boss does firsthand and make precise inputs based on specific telegraphs, rather than be able to experiment and trust your gut.
Oh, and you've mentioned the bone's flame attack so I tried it against the fly. It worked, despite me losing most of hp in the process. Crossbow - I've managed to beat Boar with it without cheese, aiming still awkward but it's not terrible (and I never noticed the heal off of trees mechanic lol, idk if it matters since you stay away from the boar and never take damage anyhow). Didn't use it against the second boss, but if neither shooting it on the ground nor the sweeping attack hit the fly then it's going to be way too painful to fight. So yeah, it's not skill issue that led me to all the feedback so far, I hope!
(really sleepy so dunno how readable or objective this WoT is, but I couldn't stand to delete it all either. Anyway, as with other such texts, take what feedback you need and discard the rest)