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I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks for the gift! Admittedly it really confused me and I think it broke several times, but I'm pretty sure that was mostly intentional. Definitely the most surprising gift I could have received for Christmas!

Really liked the choice of a fixed camera style horror game! Especially since it has a Fatal Frame-style twist to it!

The blocky aesthetics were well put together and the audio was suitably creepy, but I did find that it playing so consistently was giving me a slight headache. That and the doors didn't seem to work properly at times, requiring me to click several times across different parts of them before I could transition to the next room. 

There was enough build up that seeing the creature felt like a big event, and I especially liked the unsettling undercurrent that this creature could be standing right in front of the player without them realizing. Great work!

Review: An excellent game jam entry that emulates the aesthetic and design of a full release! It has an Undertale-like charm which keeps the story upbeat while adding a dose of surrealist foreboding. The turn based combat has solid depth as well!

This felt like a crpg translated into an rpg maker format, which I think can work! Unfortunately, the time limit seemed overly strict in such a way that undermined the game's balance. Trying to even be in the right place at the right time for certain jobs could prove annoyingly finicky which also made affording any of the equipment or training doubly so. 

The overall world-building and quest progression were very interesting! Releasing Psela involved some fun if brief problem solving and the fact that it was optional lent it the unique feeling of customizing my own playthrough! As a game jam entry, it feels like it holds a lot of promise, though as a complete game in itself it feels a bit too rough to fully enjoy. Great artwork and atmosphere though!

This is a strange one, since I like it yet mostly found it upsetting to play through. The "exceed/excess" system always makes me feel like I'm on the back foot whenever I need to make progress and like I'm at risk of expending something I'll never be able to recover. The concept of cutting ugly deals in order to manage this system is frustratingly tragic and leads to a feeling that a "good" ending is only possible on a second run with foreknowledge of how to traverse an area. 

That said, that is what helps make it interesting as a surrealist morality test. The game mostly made me feel bad and frustrated, but in such a way that was interesting! I haven't played through Pathologic 2 yet, but I have played the "Marble Nest" dlc which feels somewhat similar. It feels like the game is designed to induce bad feelings through the persistent pressure and obfuscation of correct answers, which is clever design in a strange way given how unappealing it is on the face of it.

I will say that the game did frustrate me a bit too much at times from what I've played of it and that the presence of some typos did pull me out of the experience somewhat, but it is a great concept with a very solid visual execution--especially with the 8-way character animations and unique sprinting sprites. Great work!

This is a cool concept which unfortunately ran a bit slow on my laptop, making the play feel like more of a slog than it maybe should have. I do think the isometric camera angle is great and adds some added depth to the game of keep away when it comes to avoiding enemies! I also think the aesthetic overall is pretty solid, though the edges of the screen tended to blur in such a way that was somewhat nauseating to look at.

It feels classic as a dungeon crawler, but could definitely benefit from more depth and some extra elements. Still, a cool concept to see in an rpg maker jam!

The implication of the larger world beyond the game's story was interesting! The characters and their dialogue were fun in how snarky they were, and the overall humor of the game was on point. I really enjoyed how checking the fridge for diet tea even had some gags associated with it!

I do think combat was a bit too simplistic, however, despite also being technically fairly complicated by virtue of the formation system. I never chose any formation other than A because ammo always lasted for the full encounter and could be easily replenished afterward. Rogue's "Fanning" skill was also absurdly powerful, so I relied largely on her in every fight with little fear of enemies actually managing to take down a party member. Still, the hide-and-seek element offered some nice context to the battles and the enemy designs were excellent!

I think the game's combat could be readjusted to be more like the standard full turn system, but with more skills and tradeoffs (hit chance, status ailments, etc) included, since I'm unsure the formation system has much utility as it is currently implemented. I'll also add that the ending's fourth wall break felt somewhat limp--like it was meant to be unsettling but mostly came off as a superfluous twist. That said, I think the intro's setup for the fourth wall break managed to both effectively creepily and funny enough to be worth it. 

Aside from those critiques and the recurring typos, this game is really cool! The structure was straightforward enough to see it to the end with minimal issues and while the gameplay was simple, it still offered an enjoyable hunting mentality which fit well with the narrative! Solid work!

I was worried that when I opened the game, it would be a pure Yume Nikki-like. That wouldn't have been a bad thing, it just would've made it difficult to judge since games that are similarly abstract and cryptic usually are too nebulous to ever really understand. Then the game crashed to desktop, and it all made far more sense.

Approaching the game as a "found footage" type of experience helped contextualize gameplay as being about mystery solving rather than traipsing through mazes. I really appreciated the chat logs as well! It was extremely interesting piecing together who the protagonist *really* was and what drove them (though I'm still not entirely sure what happened). The animations and illustrations were stunning too!

This was a beautiful game that definitely messed with my expectations more than once! Great work!

Playing through what is ostensibly a book in RPG Maker was pretty compelling! I like the ways the engine was used to set certain scenes and bring the player into the moment, even if the moment wasn't inherently enjoyable, like needing to carry water from a well or feed a cow some hay. The dialogue did well to maintain the setting and had some inadvertently comedic moments, if only because of how much it either juxtaposes or reflects the modern day. Characters are complaining about becoming spinsters at the age of twenty, meanwhile I'm approaching thirty thinking about the exact same thing.

There are some issues with the tileset layering and collision which do deter from the immersion. After finishing a dialogue with a character nearby a tree, Marilla walked upward to the roots of it which were incorrectly layered to appear over her head.  I just imagined her saying "Yes, that's nice dear, but hold a moment--I'm about to become a tree."

I'll also add that this game's style might be more strongly hit-or-miss for most people. I was interested in the narrative-driven experience--especially since interacting with people in town seemed to yield quite a few responses--but I imagine others might need more visual flourishes or choices to find it compelling. Character portraits and/or a visual novel structure might create a punchier visual impression which could help others in seeing it through, though I do like the way the story was formatted here as well. Great work!

The slightly isometric view and the battle screen make the presentation really striking! The stealth gameplay felt somewhat unpredictable, but also acted as a nice alternative to conventional battling. Using the throw mechanic also created some nice instances of puzzle solving!

Unfortunately, the game's short length does make it difficult to comment on much else beyond those elements. The plot setup does seem interesting and the intro sequence was effectively stylish, though I think it could benefit from greater elaboration early on. It does work to effectively bring the player quickly into the gameplay though, so that exposition can understandably come later in the plot if a more substantial build is produced.

This is a great framework to build on!

Cool aesthetic and the Pokemon-inspired gameplay is compelling!

A pet peeve of mine is that the original GameBoy aesthetic doesn't feel fully committed to. It seems like there are too many different color values per sprite than the original GameBoy would allow, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but does cause the game's style to fall short of fully evoking the feel of the hardware it's referencing. I think it might benefit from either reducing number of color values, or embracing a GBC or GBA style.

Otherwise, I think the gameplay works solidly well, though I do feel that the QTEs become disruptive of the game flow after a certain point. I've also noticed some sprites in the world aren't on the correct layer, with my player character being able to walk under a fountain that was supposed to be level with them.

I think the collect and battle rpg approach is almost always fun, so tapping into that gameplay for this jam was a good move! Incorporating the theme directly into the gameplay was a clever choice as well! 

Really enjoyed playing through a classic drpg with a unique twist. The first person perspective's obfuscation of elements that would be easy to spot from a top down perspective helped add a sense of mystery and discovery to the exploration. The evolving narrative was handled excellently as well.

I will say that the equipment crafting system felt somewhat superfluous, since most of the materials I found for it came after I'd regained the broken 1HP build. Still, it was a nice inclusion and proved that even in this subversive battle system there can be different approaches.

Also, as someone who defeated Soulcage from FF9 in a single turn, I really appreciated the inclusion of HP restoratives dealing damage to undead. The whole premise of the game's combat was clever in that way, and I found the final battle to be especially effective as well! Great entry!

The opening subversion of recruiting the beast rather than slaying it was a great twist and set up the future gameplay systems well! All of the character designs are expressively cartoony and their personalities lent them a fun amount of liveliness. The characters having preexisting relationships which are casually incorporated into their dialogue helped bring the city to life!

I also found the gameplay to be very solid, though with the caveat that I think it may have benefited from a Shin Megami Tensei party building approach rather than a roguelite approach. Slaying monsters repeatedly to build up the levels of the team I'd managed to keep alive felt like the most natural gameflow, with the instances of swapping them out creating this worrying sunk cost fallacy for having invested into that beast which was lost. That might just be me needing to unlearn certain predispositions, however. This system could work well as a mandatory nuzlocke, though in that instance I feel the overall party size would need to be expanded to about 6 or 8.

Ultimately, this has some of the most solid rpg combat gameplay of the jam games I've played so far! It's great to see that you were able to have the story and gameplay play off of each other!

Beautiful presentation and a nice, visual novel approach to exploration and progression! This game's style reminds of the time I tried using RPG Maker 2003 to make a point and click as well (Justice and Inquiry), though you using a Maker with actual mouse control options helped it turn out much better than what I'd made!

The story became involving very quickly. Reimah is extremely likeable as a protagonist, especially with her beleaguered attitude and frustration with overwork. Seeing her story through was motivating enough for me to finish the surgery puzzle, which is the type of puzzle I'm usually too squeamish to look at.

I was concerned that the minimal amount of conventional gameplay elements would cause the game to become tiresome, but I actually became thankful for how it allowed the story to flow with minimal interruption. I do feel the game might benefit from some adventure game puzzles in the normal environment (like needing to have a proper sequence of events before progressing, such as dressing Reimah before she can leave or packing the meds into the briefcase herself), but I can see how that might lead to unfortunate "needle in a haystack" scenarios of clicking randomly in hopes of finding an obscure object. As it is, the point and click gameplay works well.

I enjoyed it as a visual novel with a relatable protagonist and fun yet gruesome twist! 

The idea of relying on dice rolls for a battle system with an emphasis on closeup portraits made for striking visual and gameplay styles, though I found the act of playing the game a bit confusing and tiring. The dice roll system doesn't appear to have much feedback with regard to how it calculates its outcomes and feels lacking in communication in general.

That said, while I found the dialogue difficult to follow due to its grammatical errors, I think the story's events were interesting and had decent build up, though I felt I had to guess what the true context was much of the time. I also feel the current implementation of the combat system could largely be done away with as well unless the visual and audio feedback were to be improved.

I do find the ambition of this game's story impressive, even if I felt I couldn't become truly invested due to the above issues. As something experimental, I think it acts as a good foothold for discovering what elements in a dice-based, story-heavy rpg should be polished or reevaluated.

This was impressively compelling! Initially, I was worried the game's default walking speed and lack of combat gameplay would slow the experience into a slog, but the areas were condensed enough to largely prevent that issue. Moreover, the writing and artwork were genuinely immersive and made good on the "Dark Souls" portion of the "Dark Souls meets Disco Elysium."

I do think the gameplay around character discussions doesn't truly reach Disco Elysium's standard since the game lacks dice rolls and meaningful character customization, but it does fit well as a standard adventure game with interesting dialogue trees.

Ultimately, I was taken aback by how effective the foreboding atmosphere and ambiguous writing were! They largely plastered over some of the lacking elements such as the simplistic combat and the standard UI and battle animations. I'll also add that the ending twist felt somewhat silly as a "gotcha!" moment, since the rest of the writing felt so ominous and dense by contrast. It did match the theme of the jam well though, which proved important since until that point I was unsure how exactly the game would fit into the jam's theme requirement.

This was a beautiful little adventure game with a great, Souls-like atmosphere! Great work!

Great pairing of survival mechanics and rpg mechanics, though I did find its muted palette and straightforward narrative to become a bit tiring before the end.

The main track has a great verve to it! The drums add greatly to the aesthetic. Unfortunately, I feel that they become overwhelming after a certain point. Eventually, it began to give me a light headache after looping several times, so I think it may have been best to choose a slower paced track for the overworld exploration.

The core concept is enjoyably solid and leans into a different type of mechanical mastery that conventional rpgs typically don't dip into. Being able to increase mastery over the world through the creation of villages and save points offers some great progression, though I think the relative slowness of the walking speed hampered some of that progression's enjoyment.

I did enjoy the way that the aesthetic and design elements matched, with even the text being a cartoony custom font, and I also liked the Pikmin-esque setup of receiving help from another planet's followers. It came together well as an interesting survival rpg!

Excellent visuals! They definitely steal the show! The gameplay is enjoyably subversive as well, especially since I had to fight against my own instinct of wanting to fight a conventional battle.  The writing was fun, though I did notice a few typos which brought me out of the experience somewhat. 

Something funny to note is that it seems like there is an autosave already in the downloadable game folder. It takes the player immediately to the end credits, so I guess I can boast that I technically beat the game in about 2 seconds!

I will mention that I would have liked more control over when I could save, though I do realize it isn't that difficult to make up lost time by simply holding Enter to speed through repeated text. Overall, it was a solid entry!

During my first play session, I found it surprising how quickly I came to regard the game as a complete release rather than a jam entry. The visuals, narrative, and gameplay systems are as fleshed out as I would expect in a full release. The charming yet foreboding undertones gave the game an Undertale-like appeal, which paired well with the cartoony visuals.

The amount of variety in the visuals is extremely impressive for jam entry as well! The character portraits adopting different poses depending on their attack or status was an excellent touch! I especially liked Brando's knocked out sprite.

Some issues are unfortunately persistent, however. The earlier game areas are loaded with explorable areas which began to feel like they were detracting rather than adding. It became difficult to progress in the plot at times since it was difficult to know if an area would lead to progress or another item pickup. The added exploration is a positive overall, but I feel it could have been curtailed somewhat in order to sustain a brisker pace.

One major frustration I had was the crab rave attack's sudden and harsh visuals. I understand that they're meant to overwhelming, but I was genuinely concerned that the game might require a photosensitivity warning after shielding my eyes from it for the third time (I don't suffer from epilepsy as far as I know. It just made my eyes hurt).

Apart from those negatives, this game has enough charm and depth that I'd genuinely expect to find it as a complete, paid for release. If the exploration aspects could be reeled in somewhat and the visuals could be better tested to prevent instances of eye strain, I think the game could be even better! Excellent overall!

Thanks! The story was a major focus for me, so I'm glad it paid off! I do tend to use these jams to see what new projects I might expand on later, so I might return to this one for a full release once I'm done with my main project.

That was great! The character portraits and their variety of expressions lent some real gravitas to the story. I also enjoyed how the game managed to involve horror and a heavy emphasis on storytelling, while still being a genuine rpg with combat mechanics and varied dungeon designs.

I also enjoyed being able to grind out a few encounters early on to receive the magic spells. By the end, I was leveled and equipped enough to take out the final boss with relative ease, which was a nice payoff to that earlier preparing. The narrative being about Lyra's growth in ability and skill matched that rise to power well.

Great entry all around!

I like how the game played with my expectations! The red paint on Alle's apron especially made for good foreshadowing/misdirection. 

I did find the final parts a bit goofy in how swiftly they seem to take a dark turn, especially one of the final zingers of dialogue. I think it's because Rutile is such an unassuming character. If someone accuses her of being something terrible, my gut reaction is to say "no, she's just a nervous maid." I did enjoy the final narrative payoff, however, and the build up was fun to keep up with!

The pixel art for the tileset and portraits are striking, but the seemingly resized character sprites did irk me as someone who regularly does pixel art. Upon seeing them, I had the strong urge to open aseprite and clean them up. However, those were the only real weak link in the presentation.

It was fun, morbid, and surprisingly cute story to play through! 

The atmosphere and art style are both strong, but I did find the game's overall pace to be a bit too aimless and slow. Recollecting memories after a crash in a snow storm is a very compelling way to frame the story, but looking for anything relevant in a wide area with only the standard walking speed chipped away at my patience after a while.

I like the way the narrative built up! It felt like a slow burn that led to some creepy reveals. I did find one of the scenes inadvertently funny, however. The police calling the main character late at night then describing to her the grizzly details of her brother's murder over a phone call felt a bit silly in how quickly it happened, but apart from that the tone felt consistently serious and foreboding.

I'll also say that it would have been nice if music had been included, but that the lack of music does add to the eerie atmosphere in some ways too. I think the creepiness lends the game a slight Yume Nikki vibe, which is a nice tone to set.

Just as a heads up for anyone else checking out this game: since it's made in RPG Maker 2k3, you can press F5 and toggle "Allow uneven pixel sizes" to enable pixel stretch widescreen.

I really love the art style and gameplay concept. Unfortunately, that SSD crash you mentioned seemed to prevent as much content and polish from reaching this release, so it's a bit too clunky for much of its gameplay to be enjoyable. I did enjoy the library minigame though!

I would suggest not implementing any reflex-based minigames in the more complete release, since the engine doesn't seem to respond well to those challenges. The running physicality minigame might be better handled as just a dice roll with a nice animation alongside it.

The dialogue is very charming! As someone who is experiencing the misery of dating apps right now, I found a lot of the lines about not getting romance extremely relatable.

I'll also add that I'm very glad to see 2k3 representation in the jam. That's been my go to choice of RPG Maker for a long while, so I'm happy to see its pixel art aesthetic and "Show Picture" command strengths being shown off here.

Reviewing this after getting ending 3. 

The art style here is truly stunning! I'm extremely impressed with how you managed to create such clear and elegant character designs without relying on outlines and while using relatively minimalist color choices. As someone who does pixel art more often in a top-down aesthetic rather than full portraits or landscapes, I found the illustrations to be disarmingly excellent. I think the only part of the art style which threw me was the incorporation of pixelated real photos, but it was easy to adjust to it before long.

I will say that without conventional gameplay elements like trackers or meters, it's difficult to tell which ending a playthrough is really headed toward. I received ending 3 without really knowing what exactly led me there, which wasn't a terrible surprise since the ending itself was enjoyably tragic yet optimistic, but still left me in the dark about what I could have done differently for another ending. That surprise is some of the fun, though.

Overall, this was short but high quality visual novel. If there was a fuller version of this concept with more onscreen characters and more art style-consistent backgrounds, I imagine it could be a solid full release. Also, I thought the music was great too! Did you make the vocal tracks, or are they from a music pack?

I think including fairly quiet, non-intrusive sounds that can play repeatedly are a good fit. I believe the Touhou bullet hell games would be a good example to check out since they have persistent sound effects which don't typically interfere with the music.

The visuals and audio are extremely atmospheric. The minimalist style and straight to the point writing help propel the plot forward in a way that doesn't feel overly slow or tedious. 

An issue that was pretty persistent were grammatical errors and typos. The writing itself was interesting, but its presentation felt hamstrung by those consistent errors.

Otherwise, it was a very cool game! I took every chance I could early on to be difficult by not answering the phone and being rude to people, just to see what would happen. Ultimately, I landed the Kaiju Empire ending, which is probably appropriate for someone who is deliberately unhelpful during a kaiju apocalypse.

I really like the setup to this game. If I woke and saw a kaiju outside my door, I'd probably feel the same way. 

The gameplay was simple, but had a nice "one more try" type of appeal. The  aesthetics were also solid, though I am a bit of a stickler against different sprite resolutions being used on the same screen. Apart from that, I think the game came together very well!

Great pixel art aesthetic and fun retro shooter gameplay! I think the audioscape was a bit lacking due to the lack of sound effects, but the music itself had a great upbeat tempo and lent itself well to the visuals. The simple bullet hell-lite gameplay worked well and I liked finding the narrow paths between bullets.

It took me a little while to realize it was unfinished after most of the cards didn't seem to work. After that, I finally scrolled down and read the description. 

Even if it's unfinished, I think the UI and pixel aesthetic have a very polished look to them! If it was a bit more functional, I think it could work as an rts-idle game hybrid.

Sorry, I'm using rpg maker 2k3 which doesn't export html5 for web integration. 

Really rad design! I feel like it'd fit perfectly as the title screen background for a GB pirate game!

As someone who regularly makes rpg assets for game jams, I'm really jealous of how good this looks. Excellent work!

Jeez this is impressive!  I really like how the outlines of the prisms helped give them a luminous glow!

Cool concept! Though I have to admit that I was pretty thoroughly confused for a little while. I didn't even realize there was a tutorial until I hovered over the computer monitor, so I largely had to get by on guesswork at the beginning. Still, it was a clever concept!

I think the overworld-to-bullet hell aspect is very interesting and works well conceptually. However, I had a pretty hard time with the moment to moment gameplay of navigating in the bullet hell environment while accounting for drift and avoiding shooting the keys I was attempting to collect. I realize that type of difficulty was intended, I just think it went a little overboard. Otherwise, it felt pretty solid!

I always enjoy playing these low poly shooters! The gameplay was solid and responsive with good level design to support it. The movement speed was a bit slow, though others have ready pointed that out. Overall, the shooting felt good and offered some surprising weapon variety, which is a hallmark of those low poly shooters it harkens back to.

Thank you! I tend to start most of my projects with a Scrivener file rather than a gameplay sheet, so I'm happy that the story emphasis could be felt!

Thanks! I did take some time off work to make this so I'm glad it paid off!