itch.io

Assuming you're stuck where I think you are, have you tried exploring the starting room with the UV Light on?

...the installer appears to only contain 4 pieces of music, and not the actual game?

Okay, I pushed an update that should (hopefully) make the part that I think you're stuck on a bit clearer (among other fixes). Also, since multiple people seem to be getting stuck/lost, I added a separate guide pdf available for download (there was already a puzzle solutions file in the downloadable version, but this will hopefully help people playing the browser version who don't want to download the whole game).

....yeah, it's definitely bugged, but it's an easy fix (it's just a variable not getting reset). It should be fixed in the update I'm planning to put out later today. Thanks for the report.

This Tomb of Ours by GrandPiekron, Wisteria Sakana (itch.io)

This Tomb of Ours by GrandPiekron, Wisteria Sakana (itch.io)

Gameplay - It seems like a reasonable foundation but there's not a lot to do because it's so short. 3

Story - Interesting hook, but unfinished. 3

Presentation - The art style is excellent. 4

Creativity - The dialogue in particular is very fun, and the premise is definitely not something you see everyday. 5

Horror - Most of the horror is atmospheric or implied, unfortunately. 2

Theme - The cursed jewel is literally the main character. 5

Honestly, most of these would almost certainly be higher for the full game but it's such a short demo. It definetly left me looking forward to more, I hope you continue this.

The gameplay is functional but fairly generic. No real puzzles or anything to speak of and the combat is just mashing the attack button. It feels like the skeleton of what could be an interesting horror game - what meat is there gets the job done, but there's not a lot of it. The pacing is good though, other than the battles dragging on a bit longer than they should. Unfortunately, the theme feels underutilized - there is indeed a "jewel", but there isn't really a "curse" to it other than "people are greedy". Numerically, I think it's a 2 all around (except a 1 for Theme). Not excellent but I think it could be good with more polish and fleshing out.

Gameplay - I really want to rate this higher, but it's just too messy. I couldn't even finish because I couldn't figure out how to get out of the throne room with the ring and emerald, and it's hard to justify continuing to look for a solution when there's a door on the left that just doesn't work and I can't decide if the puzzle is even possible or not. 1

Story - There's barely anything, just a basic premise. 1

Presentation - I think the art style is great and I like the map style and design, even if it can be hard to tell where the path to other maps is. 3

Creativity - There's definitely something here, and the wine puzzle is creative. 3

Horror - There's very little horror besides the atmosphere and the shadow butterfly that's extremely easy to avoid. 2

Theme - There are plenty of jewels but none of theme are explicitly cursed as far as I could find. There are curses though at least. 2

If this game is updated to fix the various issues (and perhaps just include a quick guide like Three Yellow Quartzes so people can more easily identify if they're stuck because they could't solve the puzzle or stuck because the game broke) I will absolutely play it again, but as is I can't spend any more time on it.

Gameplay - Very standard visual novel with a few quick and simple RPG maker sections. I do like that all of the choices felt meaningful though even if the correct choice for the good ending is always extremely obvious. 4

Story - I think it's a bit cliche, and the characters are a bit trope-heavy, but it works overall. 4

Presentation - I'm not a huge fan of the character designs (except Hades and Psychemis) but that's more of a personal taste thing. The overall presentation is great though and shows a lot of effort. 5

Creativity - It is self-admittedly just a retelling of a bunch of greek myths, but the execution is interesting enough. I also appreciate that each "trial" was unique and stood out from the others even if they were pretty simple. 4

Horror - It's not particularly horrifying though, although I'll give points for the surprisingly gruesome disarming. 2

Theme - The theme was present via the midas ring but it wasn't at all a central focus of the narrative, it was just kind of there. 2

It's a fun little game with a simple but heartwarming story. I haven't gotten every ending yet but it's definitely something I might play again sometime.

Gameplay - Mostly just walking around except for the final chase, but it also all works (albeit only because of post-launch updates if the changelogs are to be believed). I don't really mind the final chase all that much like some did, although the player slowing down when their candy bar gets too low makes one particular ending very frustrating to get. Overall it's nothing outstanding but it's perfectly serviceable. 3

Story - A bit confusing but it comes together well enough with all the endings. I do wish there was a bit more though, and look forward to the promised follow-up. 3

Presentation - The house is put together well, the music fits, and I love the arachne art. The drawn out vomiting sound effect in ending 1 is also excellent. 4

Creativity - While the execution can be confusing, I think the story is pretty creative. 4

Horror - It's very dark and there are some fun elements of psychological horror. 4

Theme - The stone is both present as the core narrative device and very "monkey's paw" in its wish interpretation, and the "candy" also works as a pretty terrible curse. 4

There are some elements that drag it down but it's still a fun time, especially given the shorter time frame it was made in. As mentioned before, I look forward to the follow-up game.

Gameplay - Probably my favorite chase scenes in the jam and some interesting puzzles to boot. 5

Story - It was a bit predictable and the endings were pretty abrupt, but I think it worked well. 4

Presentation - The maps are very fun, the indicators as to what you can and can't interact with are very useful, the sprites are very over-the-top but good, the sound design worked quite well. 4

Creativity - A very fun spin on Pinnochio with excellent puzzles. 5

Horror - The death scenes were both graphic and creative and the overall atmosphere was pretty effective. 4

Theme - The cursed jewel was the focal point of the storyline and the curse was very clear. 4

A very solid game and perhaps the most emblematic of "rpg maker horror" out of everything I played for this jam.

Gameplay - The combat is the core of the gameplay here and it's just too slow. The boss fights actually sort of work although they're definitely on the difficult side (Stun doesn't seem to do all that much, Luna's heal is worthless compared to High Potions, and Double Attack hits a bit too hard - even at level 7 the final boss can one-round a character if both hits land on them) but you have to grind first and the grinding is very bland. You very quickly hit a point where normal enemies do 0 damage, which combines with the slow ATB to drag out guaranteed victories and make them feel like a waste of time. At least you can auto-battle. 2 (but would be a 3 with some rebalancing and faster ATB)

Story - The basic plot is very generic but the character backstories are interesting enough and their banter is okay. There's not a lot that really jumps out at me, it's basically the character introductions at the beginning of a movie without the rest of the movie. 2

Presentation - The maps are fine although I'm fairly sure some are autogenerated. Pretty sure the enemies are just RTP recolors but the character designs are neat, and I like the music. 3

Creativity - Again, mostly generic besides the characters themselves, who I feel were the focus of development. 3

Horror - There's zombies and a netherworld but it's not particularly scary or atmospheric. 1

Theme - There is a jewel and it does seem to have some kind of curse, but it's not really elaborated on and seems to be the Not All that Glitters implementation as well, which is a bit underwhelming. 3

The credits mention we might see more adventures with Lune and Sol, and I would definitely be interested if you decide to follow through on that, but the game itself is just okay (and I can see where some people would get extremely frustrated with the slow grind and very RNG heavy final battle).

Gameplay - An excellent RPG Maker puzzle game, and with a full guide included for if players get stuck. 5

Story - A very fun story with likeable characters that handles the slow revelation of its characters' pasts very well. It does get a bit confusing in places though and the grammar can be a bit off at times. 4

Presentation - The map is excellent, the monochrome style suits it very well, and I love the characters. 5

Creativity - Every aspect of the game had me 100% engaged. 5

Horror - Much more subtle than the other games, but it was also the only game in the jam that managed to successfully jumpscare me when the upper floor presence came back after I thought it was gone. 4

Theme - The jewels in question are central to the plot, and while the curse never impacts the player it is very much present in the story. 5

My favorite game of the jam overall, and one I definitely recommend to anyone who happens to read this.

Gameplay - Mostly just a walking simulator except for the confrontations with Acmon which are very simplistic but functional. 3

Story - Interesting hook, but unfinished. 3

Presentation - The music was alright, the atmosphere sufficiently dark, and the voice acting was a nice touch. 4

Creativity - Quite a bit of optional worldbuilding through those two books at the back. 4

Horror - Mostly atmospheric but the unhinged voice acting rant at the end does help, and there's a lot of implied casual death and horror in the world itself. 3

Theme - The skull is there and does appear to have some curse to it but we don't really see it in action. 2

I enjoyed it overall, it's not my favorite but I'd definitely play it again if you add more to it later.

I did find a major bug though - after the flashback scene when it tells you to visit Franz, if you try to leave the map outside the MC's house through the south exit (heading towards the church), the game crashes with the following error:

Script 'crash's crashsteps' line 162: NoMethodError occured.

undefined method '[]' for nil:NilClass

Gameplay - Mostly walking around with a few simple chases, but it's polished and didn't break/bug/crash at all. 3

Story - I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of Ju-On/Ringu style "unwinnable" horror but I think it's very solidly written. 5

Presentation - The characters and monster are well-drawn and the final walk with various graphic fates is quite unsettling. 4

Creativity - A definite standout, with the odd and unsettling creature design and death scenes. 5

Horror - It genuinely feels like a short horror film in video game form. 5

Theme - The gem was very present in the story but it did also end up being a red herring/hope spot to trick the victim. 4

Amazing. Definitely the most horrific entry I've rated, and overall just a well-crafted horror short.

Done. I think.

Doomstone by GrandPiekron (itch.io)

This is a pretty good RPG Maker game - the combat is solid if a little easy late game, and the map design is good especially in the final dungeon. The custom art is excellent and plentiful, the story is reasonably well-written from a technical standpoint, and it's very polished and generally free of major bugs or typos. Overall a pretty enjoyable RPG if you like or can set aside the tone.

That said, the tone's a pretty big thing to set aside, especially since it's an Eroge that chooses to emphasize and occasionally revel in its dark moments rather than handwaving them. The story overall is pretty dark but not (usually) unbearably so, and there are plenty of lighter or more hopeful moments too, especially in the mid-to-late game, which gives the impression that it's leading towards an "earn your happy ending" moment. Unfortunately the final dungeon doesn't deliver on this, whiplashing back so hard it actually surpasses the second chapter's already very dark tone and ends way too abruptly with little-to-no payoff for anything other than the immediate conflict. 

The whole point of the true route is the protagonist putting aside her selfish desires to get bad-ended to focus on saving people, but whether you can actually do so in any given case is also wildly inconsistent - I don't want to get into spoilery specifics on the game's main page though, maybe I'll use the email mentioned in the credits. With little indication as to which events or contracts your actions can actually matter in, I often found myself more annoyed with a decision or event I found stupid because in a different (better) contract or sidequest I might have actually had a choice instead of getting railroaded.

Thankfully, the game's still in development, although the focus is currently on fleshing out the vampire route, so I have hope that the ending may eventually get expanded and that some of the plot and tone inconsistencies can get smoothed out. Even with these issues, it's still one of the best overall RPG Maker games I've played, and one of the few long-running RPG Maker TF games that's actually finished its main story which is a feat worth congratulating.