Other than that, this game is porbably the most peak thing I've seen in a long while. The sound effects and music (the beeping kinda add to the stress of the timer- perhaps that's intentional) are so awesome, the color palettes are cute (my fav's the third one and my sibling the second one), the story was adorable with a nicely wrapped theme, the characters are extremely fun, and top it all off the actual game mechanics itself.
Also extremely cool detail of the one-eyed dicesmith becoming a one-eyed hammer as well. I thought the hammer was just that way at first when first introduced to the hammer but then the backstory showing why was so cool. Additionally, how all the backstories in the paintings and the drawing? on the collector weaving the entire storyline together is probably the coolest thing ever. (i think i said that about a lot of stuff of this game already- everything is just so thought out and awesome)
Although the tutorial felt just a teensy eensy bit slow at first.
Also also, theory on the dice of dusk! Since the dice are created by the thoughts of the dice creature, and the dice of dusk directly led to the dice creature, does that mean the dice creature wanted someone to find them?! From what I interpret in this very direct story, the dice creature felt overwhelmed by the problems of the world and thus created the box and the manor to hide themself in, but they also called for help through the creation of the dice of dusk.
Questions tho to this theory. Dusk said that they found the dice of dusk (okay more like 'stole' but how exactly did they steal it?? (like does dice just appear around the dice creature or like in a general radius or just wherever) from whom did they steal it from??) AND THEN the dice manor popped up in the forest. So maybe the dice of dusk was just the dice creature wanting to find some friends? so that it'll lead someone to them?
Also also also, the collector knowing the dice creature was a dice creature implies that there's like, also other dice creatures in the world. I mean i guess they would know about the existence of dice creatures since they're a collector of dice. Hmm.. idk what worldbuilding lore this bodes.
Personal exp rant about how tf my lil sibling is better at this game than me >:( : currently my record on the endless is a 48 63(it's called getting as many mysteries as possible with little generosities- honestly it's not the puzzle itself that's time consuming.. it's the placing of allll the dice!). my sibling is soooo much better at this game than me honestly T-T I was stuck on the second corridor, and when I showed it to them, they cleared it the first time (WITH ZERO TUTORIAL BTW i explained it to them as they first played the second corridor- obv I helped them out too by pointing to some cases where a dead end two HAD to be sucked up by the generosity dice) and they also cleared the third corridor for me on their very first time. they're currently away and isn't invested in the story as much (i 100% the game) andddd I cant wait for them to play around with the funky new dice i discovered plus get a really high score on the endless mode
oh yeah, that's why i was asking for replayability on the painting puzzles! they personally dont feel like playing dice of dusk on their own itch.io account and wanna play it on mine cuz sibling exp or whatever
edit: ALSO ALSO the duck song reference?!??!?! the grape dice being found next to a lemonade stand? also forgot to mention that ALL the dialogue in this game is amazing and really funny; the names of the different dice are also quite cute
*insert the thing where you wave both hands up and down in excitement
i'm really excited and hype for the reworks for episode 1 and 2 and also it's fine if it takes ages since each episode is always am amazing treat anyways and i personally dont mind replaying them; also helps in remembering what happened lol (also closer to the finale?? T-T)
can't wait for episode 4!! the sprites rework look sick!
also regarding the kickstarter thing, personally i dont have the funds to support my fav creators but maybe you can see how well the zine did as a prediction?? (granted the kickstarter will be including a lot more things and also i have no exp regarding market projection or whatever the skill is called)
am squealing on the inside with the new alle's ending (there was just multitudes of paintings of rutile! definitely not replaying just for the hug cutscene omgg- and then the consensual toxicness <insert the chef hand waving things when the food is good>(it was written that way, rightt, im not reading too much into it?))
calcite's ending add so much lore to rutile's backstory tho, i really love how the whole burial = respect thing gets tied back becuz rutile in the beginning was like, im too poor for that and calcite was like i gotchu dw and then u know, she dead
i always thought the og endings were ever so slightly unsatisfactory like i thought the ball ending was a bit extreme for rutile (maybe it just didnt read to me that she was that motivated but the motives were completely understandable- just reread the first devlog and noticed the detail that this was from alle's pov lmao) and the dead ending was well, she died; i felt like the updated endings and plot was really good though!
(also the art for the cutscenes are all so impeccable)
(also idk if gabriel was written to be punchable (just from my pov) but damn his characterization is just so good as well)
(also also tiny thingg: apparently you can walk out during the winter part of the game and outside is still showing to be fall, with pumpkin and cow there (also also also i love how you get to pet the cats!!!))
just figured out how the spirits worked thought they were just kinda useless, but the negative times the negative like, counteracts each other to be positive i realized!
some improvements if the game is still in development:
- the player should be able to see what cards they have left in their deck when playing (to help them better strategize) and also when creating their custom card after the boss battles (because i keep forgetting which card i really want to hunt for lol) (unless no-peeking-at-deck was intended)
- the player should also be able to remove the cards that are not in their deck (during shop), maybe they can just trash it or sell it for 5 coins because for me it just takes up space whenever I want to swap out cards (not that big of a deal, but as a way to declutter)
- very tiny thing: i was really confused how to see the rest of my deck collection in shop until i realized you have to click and drag the collection up and down; idk, my first thought was to scroll
- during in shop and in play, players can hover over the symbols and see what they do; will be helpful for first time players (like the first time in shop i didn't know what certain symbols meant because i haven't encountered them when picking a card after a level)
- also during shop, the little circle thingies under the upgrade I assume would be how many turns (of 3 levels? i think?) the upgrades last for; it would be nice if there is an explanation to what the little circle with a 1 or 3 next to it means
- during play the cards that are already clicked can't be retracted :( dunno if that's intentional
- kind of a bug: when you select a not-in-deck card, exit the menu, and return back to the collection, you can't click on a not-in-deck card; instead, you have to click a in-deck card, click X (and by the way the card on the left is empty, like the card -> card ui, - haven't tried out what that would mean if i clicked the checkmark because i didn't want to lose my good cards), and then you can click on a not-in-deck card to swap again
ye :D
p.s. the average game session is described as "a few minutes"; like wdym a few minutes; a session took me like an hour 😭 (ofc of course a varies a lot between players and different sessions but i kinda laughed when i went to click the dropdown for more info loll)
One of them is from the free balloon crates (i think you need to get a certain amount of those), and the other one you get when you collect all the balloons.
very cool but somehow my eyes start to hurt by the end of the game; maybe since it flashes white everytime you take a picture? i don't know how i would fix that though
This game is super awesome!! I really like how you have to manage your fatigue, your money, and mostly at the end, finding out which combinations of genre, theme, and focuses to choose on. (the management of this game is sooo cool)
Even though it's pretty confusing at first, the tutorial did an amazing job, and it takes like two rounds or so to get the hang of it.
I wish there was an indicator for when you choose the correct plot, climax, or ending. Is the bigger the number on the top left the indicator? Because I mostly base it off of that.
yoooo, i completed the demo!! with slightly under less than 20 hours.... and lvl 29 hero
although i did use a cheat/bug...
1) go to the recruit screen, then exit game 2) no matter how u get back in, either thru recruit, item cache, or 25% exp, you will get ONE EXTRA CHARACTER; however, the characters will not be the preset ones as determined by the recruit screen, it will just be a mixture of squires and archers
and so i defeated the games with my hero, one cleric, two knights, and three fighters (who are insanely op once leveled up to five) choosing the 25% exp route
ooh, i didn't know about the early units leveling up tip thanks for that :D my current strat is to have two knights in the front, then two fighters at mid (they do good damage), and then my character and the healer at back
(oh wait nvm i didn't read the description clearer enough- mann, cows should spawn more or smth [just a tiny comment it's ok if the spawn rates dont change])
There's a glitch (i think) where I get killed by the tree (sorry for the spoilers) and when it grabbed me, I immediately tried to move and go to another room, and then I can't seem to die.
haven't finished playing yet but, is one of the quotes by the sprite in one of the houses in the town "you've met a terrible fate, haven't you?" a reference to legend of zelda majora's mask mask salesman?!?!
