Thanks! Heh, yeah, those horses hit hard. Glad you liked the gameplay, and the UI too; personally, it was my first time making a UI for a non-pixel art game!

For a long time now, I’ve wished that ZUN would add a 2-player option to the Touhou games, like most arcade shmups already do. Nice work.

Thanks for your comment! Oh yes, I really had to explain things better, haha. Skills are activated randomly (so that’s why sometimes the healer doesn’t do anything), and they have different activation rates and AoEs. I had added a file in the game page to explain that further, in case you are interested, as we ran out of time to include it in the game.

I think 17 turns sounds good. I haven’t checked the minimum number of turns, but yeah, it can probably be lower. Thanks for playing all those runs!

I will definitely review the orbling’s AI because it ended up more random than I wanted. Making the AI was fun though and I could explore those tactics you mention. I want to build up to more challenging and puzzle-like battles to make encounters more exciting!

Wow, a new entry! Stellar writing as expected from Aeon. I haven’t read Jojo so it was a bit hard to follow at first, but not too hard (Jojo has been in my backlog since forever, and I’ve only read part of Part 1). The two leads were quickly likeable. I absolutely adore (and admire) the setup behind your Hakurei character (and her design too), and the way you made Gensokyo’s magic and the character’s motives fit so well into Jojo’s worldview. It’s also very cool when people explore Gensokyo’s early years and Reimu’s ancestors. And the ending… it’s surprisingly grounded. Not everyone can be the hero and have a glorious end. I’ve thought a lot about stories like that and it’s refreshing to see someone pull it off so well.

When I first played the game, I also struggled a lot. I just couldn’t beat Momiji after several attempts, the game felt too difficult (in terms of encounters, money earned, losing half your money and all your consumables on death), and the walk back to the boss was very frustrating. It really was a shame, because everything else looked great. But now, the post-jam update (and a change of mindset) have solved all of these frustrations. So great job there.

Regarding the update, the balancing is very welcome and the game’s difficulty is more manageable now. I can only add that there were a couple of skills I didn’t use, and I ended up using only a few items from Kosuzu (mostly bombs), but they were very situational.

Regarding the mindset, thanks to the comments here and the discussion in the server, I realized that I had the wrong approach. I was just too used to grindy turn-based RPGs. Instead, this is a game where you should use your resources liberally, and you have to be smart about which skills you use. The resource management and lack of grinding make combat more engaging, because you have to be more careful, and with the update, it didn’t get to a point where it felt too repetitive or difficult.

The rest of the content, is, of course, fantastic. The music is very cool. The writing is funny and it has great lines -- Hina’s stand out in particular. I loved those little moments between Hina and Nitori, and Yukari’s cryptic words. The art style, sprites, and character and enemy designs are unique and varied. Sanae with sneakers and Hatate with pants are awesome choices. I hadn’t heard of the Memphis pyramid (non-American here) but the way it was handled was very funny and not once did it feel out of place.

With the update, this is a game that anyone can enjoy to its fullest, and it really deserves it.

Hi, thanks for playing! Yeah, I completely underestimated how much explaining the game would need. I’ll take your comments into account to try to improve the tutorial and the information given to the player. And yeah, we ran out of time to incorporate the theme properly… anyway, glad you gave it another chance. I’m sure Panchamon and Saishoo appreciate your comment too.

Fantastic, high quality work as usual! I loved the puzzles and the varied challenges and mechanics. Some puzzles took me a while, and that’s a good thing. New elements were introduced gently, and that’s the kind of thing I also want to attain in my own games. All the art is great, from font choice to lights to sprites, and I adore the bouncy sprites and animations. I’m taking notes here. And dynamic music? Yes please. Finally, I’m glad Reisen and Youmu were able to sort things out! That was cute.

Thank you for your comment Megapig! I’m glad to hear that about the concept, after a short brainstorming session we landed on the Animal Realm concept and Manwad did a great job setting it up.

Thank you! I wanted to implement even more mechanics, but I had to stop myself, ahaha. I’m happy you liked the gameplay. The original game did something really unique, and it left a void when it shut down. We are excited to bring it back!

Very fun puzzle game. I played it yesterday and I just had to play the story again today. Lunatic was too much for me, but the story mode difficulty was just fine.

Regarding the blocks, I agree with Fiore; I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I kind of feel that the icons are too big or the colors are too saturated, so the board looks a bit noisy, visually speaking. This is compounded when the blocks reach the top of the screen and they get crushed.

The UI is pretty neat. And great choice of music, I wouldn’t have guessed that the songs were from Nicovideo Commons. All of them fit the game very well.

What a cute game. Art, sprites, UI, sound and music are really polished and cohesive. The boss battle was a nice twist and it made the gameplay much more dynamic. The style for the portraits is simply adorable. I loved Kasen here and Suika’s personality, and the ending was very heartwarming. I want to play more!

Incredible pixel art, fun and bouncy chiptune music. The music and the saturated palette remind me of the better GBA games, in the best way possible. This feels like it could have been an unreleased KogaNue platformer for that handheld. Nice work with the tree animations (I guess that was a shader?).

Moving and attacking feels pretty good. I have tried to make platformers before, but I always struggle with making the movement feel good; you must have put a lot of work into it. Only after beating the game and reading the comments did I realize that I could air dash, but things went fine without it. Lack of checkpoints and healing items hurt a bit, but it was manageable. I too was surprised that the fans hurt Kogasa. I think you were only missing a sound effect for when Kogasa was hit, but other than that the sound effects were all good. Reactive dialogue was a nice touch.

I would love to see this explored further with tighter level design and more enemy variety, but as it is right now, great job.

Fantastic tactics game. I confess I had a terrible approach at first. I lost my first attempt in the first level, and afterwards I was finishing all the levels with only 1-2 units left. I felt like starting again but I wanted to see how far I could get. I finished the first cycle with only Tewi and a breacher left, trusty Inaba-06, who, naturally, grew very fond of the commander. I lost my first medic. I had to play it really safe, baiting the enemy and rushing only when I had the upper hand. At one point the pathfinding was almost stuck, but she made it through. I made it to the last battle with only five units, so I had to be extra careful, but by then, my little squad had been through so much that their bonds had only grown stronger.

Overall, a really polished experience, and in 3D to boot. I especially commend you for the movement and shooting mechanics, and the YURI mechanic helped even out my losses, which made the game feel more fair.

Edit: Wording.

And while I'm on it, nice work with the levels too. wareya's tool looks pretty neat.

Finally. More Futo and Ichirin. I love these two together.

The episodic format with minigames is a great match. And of course having an opening is wild. I really liked the first episode because I have made my own dark chocolate recipes before, so it brought back good memories. I found the second one hilarious because I’ve heard from a couple of Futo fans now of how much better she would look without her hat. It had a lovely resolution too. I liked the third one for the setup and the gameplay, but I think that Futo’s dialogue could use some work there (unironically, Shakespeare is a good reference for Futo’s manner of speech). That aside, the Uno gameplay was my favorite part and it was funny to see Futo so riled up. I also want to highlight the portraits and expressions, they were really cute.

Once again Megapig great job coordinating such a large team and congratulations to all the team members.

A fun, fast-paced FPS with high replay value. I’ve played a few times now, but could only make to wave 8 at best; I really wanted to see that boss that was mentioned in another comment.

Movement and dashing feels good, and I know it would work great in larger stages with more variety. I agree with Luyuu that it’s too easy to lose your health very quickly, but at least the drops are generous. I have also noticed that the yin-yang enemy can home in on you and end your run too quickly. Finally, I think the last weapon could use some homing, or some other kind of buff. I ended up preferring the machine gun most of the time.

Sound effects are on point. The music is badass and fits the mood. The story art in a 1-bit palette looked great. Needs some tweaks, but overall it’s pretty solid, and it's good to see a Touhou FPS, because they are not very common.

Thanks for playing! Yeah, we were talking about this in the server, but I should have done a better job at explaining the mechanics. I also just uploaded a file with some unit and skill info that should have been in-game. Thanks again! It will definitely be continued.

Greetings, and thank you! I’m glad to hear that.

Panchamon did a great job with the character art, it’s really authentic to the original game. Please stay tuned for more later on.

Thank you! Making a sequel for a previous jam game is really cool. I am interested in both, I'll check them out! The art for your cyberpunk VN looks sweet.

I said it in the server; if your writing makes me cry, consider it a win...

You give, and then you take away... and then you give again! Seeing Renko and Maribel’s journey gave me a new perspective, and I enjoyed seeing them so happy together, and so comfortable and open with each other. Story-wise, I think you could have slowed down the pace a bit in the time between the forest and the ending, just to make the ending much stronger when it actually comes, but that’s just a minor thing. The ending was very hopeful and heartwarming, and I had a huge smile when I returned to the title screen. The music was pretty nice, I loved the art’s unique and bold style, and the CGs were beautiful and hit at all the right moments. The flower field was amazing too, I wanna be there. Great job.

Okay, the song is actually catchy. It’s so frantic. I love the title as well. Reimumania? Powerful.

I had fun while playing. For your first game, and game jam, you did a good job. I was able to beat Yukari, but I was sad to see that there was nothing more at the end. Regardless, you have a clear gameplay loop, and having a boss fight is a good achievement as well.

You also have some nice details like Reimu getting sad on low health, her eyes looking at the direction you are aiming at, and Flandre floating around when she defends you. Speaking of which, having her around was cute. Once again good job and keep making games!

I like the concept! It’s unfortunate that the first session didn’t work out for Koishi. Leaving her there after she prepared everything makes me feel bad, haha. Kanako’s and Suwako’s portraits were funny and they fit well, honestly. Plus simply Sanae and her two moms is always great. I really liked the intro and the mood it set, especially with what it had to say about Satori. I hope Koishi gets to help out her sister later on. I shall look forward to the rest.

I know you were really worried Kit, but this is great. Very neat sprites, nice music, good and funny writing, and fun patterns. You did great combining the characters’ danmaku and their unique styles. That’s something that even the official games could explore further. Wriggle’s bullets shining in the darkness was a neat detail. I appreciate having spell practice. I don’t think I could 1CC it, but I went back to capture every spell card after beating it the first time. I hope to see you participate in future jams as well.

Fun, solid shmup. Every shmup should have a time slowdown mechanic. And given that mechanic, I think you could have done more difficult patterns! I also liked the magnetize mechanic and the partner switching (in summary, the whole game). The reason these two had to partner together was funny. And it was a classic "shoot first, ask questions later" Touhou moment, heh. Extra points for arranging one of Yuuka’s PC-98 themes.

Hi! Thanks for playing. Your comments are indeed very helpful to understand how a new player views the game. I will take them into account in order to improve the tutorial and provide more feedback to the player in other areas.

Regarding the chain, yes, it’s enough for a unit to be aligned in a straight line with any of the two pincering units, with no enemies in between. Diagonals don’t count. Wellll, every time I write about it, I find it hard to explain. It’s something that should be better explained with images or in-game.

When performing an attack, both pincering and chained units activate their skills randomly, buuut I didn’t animate or otherwise highlight the units that participated in the attack but did not activate their skills, so there’s something missing there. I also planned to show the player which skills each unit has and their activation chance... but I couldn’t make that screen on time (it’s the disabled “view” button in the squad menu).

Yeah, the main strategy in the game is trying to get the upper hand in your turn before the enemy has a chance to act. The original game has more variety with some telegraphed skills and bosses that follow specific patterns, for example.

All in all, I think you understood the game quite well! But the game didn’t provide adequate feedback. As mentioned, I’ll try to improve that.

I'm happy you liked the visuals and the setting. Thanks again!

This is really solid. Gameplay is good, Parsee’s regular shot is fast and effective, movement is fluid. Yuugi has a lot of patterns! The difficulty is fair. And wow, you got a lot of sprites for Parsee, and what’s more, dialogue, cutscenes, and a bullet patterns system already. You got a very good foundation here! I am definitely hoping to see more soon.

Please tell me no frogs were harmed during the intro…!

Fun game, and although I found Cirno’s bullets a tad too small and three lives (just two hits, really) on the unforgiving side, I persevered and I was able to beat Clownpiece! 2:47, 1 heart penalty, score: 933. The patterns were very well done and they combined in unexpected ways that kept me engaged. I also tried the secret mode, but as expected, I couldn’t get far.

Regarding the story, I was a bit confused, and I wasn’t sure if they were in hell, or in space, close to the Hakurei shrine, or by the Misty Lake. That said I also liked the intro background, those 3D shapes are rather unsettling. The ending CG was a good reward. The music is quite good, and the sprites are cute.

Thanks for your comment! Heh, yeah, it’s funny we had two Animal Gangs-related tactics games this jam. I’m glad you had no trouble understanding the mechanics. Yes, drag units around as much as you need!

Glad you liked the colors; while normally red is reserved for enemies (and it's that way in the original game), in this case you aren’t exactly playing as the good guys. Saishoo was a great help with that last-minute theme arrangement.

We had a change of plans and we’ll work on the rest of the content after the voting period (it’s only fair to the other participants), but thank you, we will work hard on it.

I can relate to Ringo (I almost type “Dango”, heh) in a way. It’s interesting how many variations of the topic you could come up with, all under very different routes! Having 12 endings is impressive. I tried to get them in order. I was surprised at how some of the other routes linked with the fourth one. I know you posted screenshots of the twine branches in the server and some of the jumps looked wild. The inventory system was a good addition.

I liked the first ending the most, because the journey to the shrine and the lake reminded me of other hikes I’ve done (but maybe not as impressive as that one!), and it set up the mood for the rest of the game.

Ahh! Just like Chimata said, I wish it could have lasted longer. I was hoping the story would take us with Chimata and Takane (what an unexpected pairing!) while we explored this new currency. Just like Medal, I really liked the piano arrangement of Megumu’s theme. The art was simple but expressive. Nice job. I can’t really read Japanese, but kudos on translating your game to another language.

It’s neat danmaku, but the patterns were too dense for me; then again, I just play Easy mode nowadays, haha. I got 200+ hits despite trying to dodge, so I appreciate having infinite lives. The setup was cool, I liked how Youmu’s ghost half was independent and probably truer to her own feelings... that’s something that could be explored further in fanwork in general. And the pairing is novel to me, but quite good. The music is pretty good, but when I first started the game it had no sound, so I had to restart it after checking that you indeed had Tami in the credits!

And of course, I appreciate the Kana and Reisen continuity from your Kotohimegame.

Hopefully Youmu can get many apricots from now on.

Edit: Forgot to mention, but having only close-range attacks was certainly a challenge. I wish it had a bit more range, but I liked it.

Edit ][: Extra props for arranging TD's stage 1 theme for Yuyuko! Underrated theme.

This was a fun read. The writing was pretty good, and I loved the humor. I’ll be honest, I’ve read a few Seija fics by now and personally I’ve kind of had had enough of the beaten and eternally difficult Seija, but I liked how she had moments to shine and redeem herself here, in her own unique way. The other characters were well developed too. The true ending **SPOILERS** was a bold move and not usually the kind we get, but hey, sometimes things turn out that way, and it was very strong emotionally speaking.

I really enjoyed the music. DDC has the best intro theme. The CGs and portraits were great. Neat use of sound effects.

It took me until I read the README to realize the Tsukihime inspiration (besides the Raiko school parts, which gave me Fate vibes). Nice job.

I went in mixing and exploring different conversation topics, and despite there being many options, almost all of them flow very naturally in this way, and everything that Mokou and Reisen have to say is very interesting. They each have their own unique lives. Music and art is nice and sets the mood well. Having a song with vocals for a jam game is impressive.

Reading about Reisen’s worries and difficulties was tough, but I’m happy she found a loving and understanding partner in Youmu.

Played it on Tabletop Simulator as I mentioned on the server. Normal difficulty. I hadn’t played a board game in a long time so I had to reread the rules several times and it was hard to keep track of everything at first (but that’s just me). I wrote down every move. It's embarrassing, but after my playthrough I realized that I was adding the influence markers the wrong way (I was adding them to the result and not the die roll)… haha. I can’t really post my score because of that. But I had fun while playing. Megumu went dateless for six months while building wealth and Momoyo-maxxing, then leveled up the other relationships, and made some moves the last two months to buy more stocks and improve the final score.

I noticed that there are no ways to decrease Tsukasa’s relationship score. Is that something you plan to explore? I can imagine something like, if you don’t date her two months in a row, her relationship decreases because she requires more attention. Just an idea though, I couldn't tell if that would work for the harder difficulties. That aside, having to balance your relationships while picking your actions properly in order to earn more money or stocks was a good challenge.

Although not as convenient to play as other kinds of games (in terms of, having to use external tools or pen and paper), I value having more jam games in different formats like this one.

A nice & short “how we started dating” story. I do agree that the font was hard to read, and more so as it’s white text over black, in my opinion. There’s also some things about the text and dialogue that the other commenters already mentioned, but nothing game-breaking. I’d like to highlight the exchange at the end about what Patchouli did the last hundred years and what she’d do the next. She had the perfect reply.

Adorable. As a Kutaka fan, I approve of this game. The way you set up Kyouko’s relationship with Kutaka (a simple morning echo) and built from there was very well done. The writing is so full and expressive. Loved reading all the details about chickens.

The ending was very emotional. Not to speak of the part before that. So yeah, you had two climaxes. Wow.

Music, visuals, backgrounds and animations are pretty nice. I finished reading with a big smile.

Well hello there, fellow jammer with an Animal Realm-adjacent tactics game 🍺. Short and sweet. The mechanics are delivered effectively. Each stage offered different challenges, and they were fun to figure out. I wouldn't mind seeing more! Stage 2-4 was too tough, but Rosedelio generously gave me a hint on the discord server and I was able to beat it after changing my approach.

Okuu is very cute here and I appreciate exploring new interactions like the ones between these two. I like how you took an almost throwaway line from the games and made a story out of it.

Overall the music, sound effects and graphics give me a nice retro vibe.

Thanks! I hadn’t realized that the tutorial button was broken. Thank you and Unit for letting me know. I fixed it shortly after your comment, but it’s pretty simple anyway. I’m glad you found the game fun.

Thanks for your comment. Don’t worry, there’s only one battle right now. 

My apologies, I didn’t take the time to explain the mechanics properly, even though I knew the game really needed that. The key to line up your attacks is to push your units around using the unit that you are dragging with the mouse. I hadn’t realized that the tutorial was broken either... I was adding a short explanation in the game’s page just as you posted your comment, and fixed the tutorial button as well. I also just uploaded a new build with a new tutorial section. If possible, please give it another try. 

Having different sound effects for different weapon types is a good idea, thanks. I went ahead and implemented that. Hopefully that also helps the player know which weapon types they are attacking with.

We planned (or plan) to have the player choose a “support” conversation after important battles where you had to pick between two of the three leads (Yachie, Saki and Yuuma), and we would develop the theme that way, but unfortunately it couldn’t be done on time… it’s a shame really, we hope to rectify that soon, because it’s what the jam stands for.

It took me so long to realize that I could eat snowballs to recover my health, lol. It was hard to tell when snowmen hit you, but other than that, it was a fun experience. I'm used to playing FPS games without crosshairs (for ~immersion~), so no problem there (but I understand some people prefer them, of course). The snowball mechanic is pretty sweet, and nice detail with the horns (it helps with immersion, hahah).

Also, maybe it was just a browser thing, but on Firefox the camera starts moving slowly to the right as soon as I start moving. I had to play on Edge instead.

I was honestly expecting to have to solve some really obscure puzzle, as I am used to with PS1 games, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that that's not the case. The camera angles are neatly done. I agree with junejijo that this game evokes a feeling particularly well, like coldness and emptiness, and I'd add danger too, but also the safety of a warm place.