Thanks, glad you liked it. And yes, I practically whole-sale copied Metal Gear's UI. It was supposed to be place-holder, but became less-so the closer the dead-line grew.
This was quite a poetic one to end on, since it did some of the gameplay stuff I wanted to do, and very well! It took me a while to get through the final gauntlet, but I have several excuses:
I'm so used to Q/E being turn, not strafe, and in a game that's so reflex dependent, I was really struggling to hit the right movement buttons.
Earlier in the playthrough I'm trying and failing to destroy an unalerted robot, so I get the idea in my head that enemies can't take damage unless they're alerted. (I get wise to this not being the case eventually.)
I don't realize that enemies are respawning because the doors are closing for a while, and assumed they just kept coming. The timer was low, so I start trying to brute force dash my way to the end. (This too, I get wise to.)
Eventually I realize slow and steady wins the race. And you know what, it was fun getting there even with my troubles. (At least it had checkpoints.) Great entry!
This is a really cool concept! The only time I've seen something similar to this is UnMetal, a Metal Gear Solid spoof game framed as a shaggy dog story. where you could pick responses to alter the gameplay of a section. Often unwittingly.
I only got the good ending where I buy an equal boat and die happy. I tried one more time, and might have tried again, but I knackered my wrist digging for treasure. And pulled my back, That was probably bad ergonomics on my part.
The writing was pretty good, but the text was way too slow, and I kept getting stuck in doorways, so I gave up on beating it. Here's my first run all the same.
I don't think I can say anything that hasn't already. Funny writing, good execution of the theme with the combat, but repetitive scenarios. The writing really holds everything up though. Great entry!
Here's my playthrough. (The last area was a little hard to navigate and I think I went out of bounds at one point.)
The box was a little small and couldn't be resized. I had to change my display settings to make it a bit more readable. And I couldn't tell if my Keyboard wasn't able to register multiple arrow keys at once, which may be a hardware limitation for some people. And I got booted out of the last Boss for some reason.
Other than that, really enjoyed this. Dungeon was a little tricky, but not too tricky to navigate. You could usually see where you haven't explored based on the presence of living foxes.
And the foxes were well paced in difficulty, even if Normal mode wasn't too difficult. Not sure if all the foxes had music based on something, but Grey Fox definitely felt like a riff on Mortal Kombat.
I somehow managed to get 3 RPG Maker games in almost a row, and the format was starting to wane on me.
That aside, this is a really weird entry to review. Mostly the art assets felt kind of discordant. The story was kinda half epic, half silly. I did get some chuckles out of the dialogue and that one ending. (I think the options are the wrong way round.)
And I'm not sure I got out of the barn properly at the beginning. I couldn't beat the farmer, so I kept hitting forward so I got outside before the scene transition... I think. I'm really not sure. Sometimes I spawned in the Goddess void, and others in the Pier Village.
And that section with the long ramps. I suppose it did make the island feel more grand.
All things said, the last Boss was well done. Very cool and climactic, even if I did cheese it. Seems like I could survive at 0 HP, then I used bread and pearls to buff back up. Couldn't see the health bar through, so I'm just glad I had enough resources to muscle through.
The body swapping and skill tree system was interesting as a concept, even if I only used 2 vessels. I'm unsure if I could have used more by going back to the Goddess Domain.
Pretty fun level design. Actually, the battles got to be a bit of a pain while I was trying to beat the block-sliding puzzles. And the ending was pretty funny too.
I didn't realize it was step based, not time based. And since I kept pressing turn too early, I kept rushing and talking sub-optimal routes. But I did beat it in the end. I was so confused, because I really felt like I was too slow on the winning run.
It felt a bit slow and samey at first, but once it became clear how careful you actually had to be to win, it was more engaging. I think getting a good mask is vital to surviving the game.
When I got one, it provide a lot of relief from the tension. Which was bad, because it made the game easy afterwards, meaning I wasn't as locked in, but also good, because it was short, I wanted to beat it, and it gave me a whole lot of juxtaposition gratification.
I had some trouble getting this one running, but I'm glad I finally did because it was a good one. It does a lot of the stuff I wanted to (and did not) do with my game.
The art style, writing and voice acting all worked perfectly to set the self-aware noir tone. The auto-cover worked well. The aiming was sometimes a little tricky to be quick on, but it did lend more tension to the encounters, and I got through in the end, so all good. Though I did cheese a few guys by sniping them. (The sound and feel of the actual shooting felt great too.)
All in all, terrific entry!
Here's my playthrough. For various reasons it's a little stapled together.
Reasons: I started out recording at a smaller size by zooming out of the web page, which made the UI clearer, but made the aiming very slow and awkward since I kept Left and Right Clicking out of the game.
On my second record, I skipped the intro, so that needed to be rerecorded, and cuz I didn't notice I could use F to open doors until the very end, I had a bit of a farewell tour thinking I had to find more eggs to end the game. which I sped up.
I only add this context since there are a few jump cuts, and I start the game with a bit of confidence going into the first building.
I was enjoying it quite a bit, but I suspect I'm hard-locked from not being able to collect the Skeleton's item. I think I've checked everywhere else, and can't find Green Level access.
It was a lot of fun finding my way about while it lasted, finding locked off areas and finding the right keys. Only criticism is that Life Support should be auto pinged when you access the wall device, rather than selecting it, being thrown out, then having to access again to save.
The town's well setup layout wise. It pairs well with a grid. And there's quite a bit of Character Dialogue, though the trigger I could see it coming along well with more time.
Given easy the ghosts are to fight (and that I'm firing eggs from a chicken's bum), I'm impressed by how tense some of thee tight corners and surprises were. And you mixed the FPS mechanics in quite well too. Nice job!
Maybe the Chicken could switch sides if you hover over the outer quarters of the view, since it did block a lot of the right side of the screen.
I dig the adherence to the retro look, but man I was lost. I just didn't have the wherewithal to find my way about and always managed to find myself going in endless circles. I can't imagine this is gonna be fun to watch:
It looks nice and the movement is smooth yet snappy. but to be honest, even after reading the game page I found the combat really confusing. There just doesn't seem to be any feedback letting me know if I'm doing anything, and then I die.
The movement is way too slow, but I like how weird it is. For some reason it kept cutting to black before I could reach the end, but I watched BoneBrahs video. The ending was weird also.
That was pretty fun. I like the cute approach to the SFX. Turning sound like you've just made a whoosh sound with your mouth, and then the little ending ditty too. =D BTW, I think you can still use potions when the count is at 0, since I used a few when I didn't have any on screen, then when I collected some the HUD didn't show up.
That was very fun! The door transitions were great. Vintage survival horror technique. And I had fun going for a loot, even if the controls for collecting things are a bit awkward.
(Like, I don't think the inventory had to pop open every time I collected something, and it was a minor pain to close it. Also, sometimes the retical would get stuck on red for whatever reason.)
Only thing it's desperately missing is some spooky sound design.
It looks quite nice and the turns and steps all work well. It was difficult to keep track of where I was in the dungeon because there weren't any notable anchor points. Didn't manage to find much before the end. Just some chicken and quite a lot of swords. Here's my playthrough. The first two minutes are before I read the game page:
My speakers were so low I didn't even realize there was a beat until I read the game page. (A recurring issue on my part.)
Once I knew what to do the game was fun enough. The outline for everything is there, and it was pretty satisfying to activate the consoles and purify the area.
I'm not ssure if I would have beat the game in 5 minutes unless I knew exactly where to go, Thankfully, the timer funning over didn't trigger a fail-state, and I got to the end.
Here's my playthrough. I cut out most of the floundering.
Great job setting a vibe. The dungeon entrance unfurling was an impressive touch of flair.
I'm not sure the card acquisition/upgrade system is well tilted in the player's favour. I beat the game, but only on my third playthrough, knowing ahead of time what I was in for, and with some lucky pulls early on.
It seems like you need to keep upgrading your damage to keep pace with the enemies, since specing into healing or shielding early on isn't a reliable way to end fights quickly and with no damage.
And given you die when you run out of cards, and enemies can heal, you were incentivized to pour most of your upgrades into one card, so you could reliably deal a killing blow. If the enemy heals and I know I don't have the collective damage to get them back down, I'm just a dead man walking.
Acquiring new cares is useful sometimes; if you pull a Damage 3, a Heal or a Shield 4, since it allows you to skip a few upgrades, and actually gives you a chance to heal without making a net loss. But if you don't land those valuable cards, you've wasted an upgrade opportunity.
This is also to say I never used the remove option, given how vital the arms race was against the ever strengthening enemies.
All that to say, it was a short enough game that it didn't really piss me off. I was actually pretty close on my first run. And the surprise dash out of the dungeon got me pretty engaged. Mostly because I thought the timer said 12 seconds, not 1 minute 12. 😅
Awesome! Nice to get the odd game with audio narration. Graphics and movement were all perfect. Treasure Hunting puzzles were well-executed.
At first I wasn't sure about the Genre Fusion aspect. Like it was fine, but a bit toothless. But once you started introducing different enemy types, and the rougelike upgrades it got really fun.
(Not sure if in the final encounter I had to avoid the holes in the floor, or if that was just how they looked.)
The UI was misaligned for me, and I couldn't find my fourth party member by the docks. When I was flat broke, I decided to call it. The visuals are very nice though. Lots of assets. And the writing was alright too.
I love the look and feel of the game. (Metal walkways above a darknened drop is my jam.) And I appreciate how the item locations are somewhat randomized so you can't just make a B-line for them on death.
My main issue; I'm not sure the sprinting mechanics are well integrated. When you actually need to use them to run away, the bigger issue is whether you need to strafe to avoid supports, like when you go down the central hallway for the elevator (which I like as a design choice).
Not strafing in time is what gets you caught, not whether you can sprint, since you can actually match or outpace the monster at your normal speed. (I also tried tapping sprint to space out small bursts. Not sure if that was actually effective.)
And because you can't move when using the map, and you can run backwards to sideways, the only effective way to know you're clear of the monster is to look at where it's going on the map, and just plan ahead.
So I only used sprinting as a faster way to get around, and it was annoying when I had to go back to regular walking speed.
Man the steps on this are strict. In some spots like just before the large cannisters, one wrong move can doom a run. (On one run I didn’t realize you couldn’t use the large cannister more than once and that did me in.)
I wonder if the main timer is even necessary. Like, early it causes you to rush a bit, but it’s quite a trial and error game, and the steps are so vital that the timer ceases to be an object, and once you collect the mask, basically all the pressure is off.
Unless you get trapped in a doorway as it closes. Which I did. >.> But very engaging overall. Great work!
It was kinda difficult to line up attack for some reason, and it’s a little unclear when enemies are attack you or what their range is, but other than that, it’s a decent start.
I like it. Very comprehensible risk-reward. And I could see it having some sea legs with either additional Submarine Dungeons, or a system where you can buy better diving gear to go deeper on a subsequent run. In my playthrough I have a little trouble figuring out how to leave. Maybe because the interaction cursor kept being obscured by the bright torch light.
Terrible on-boarding... fun as hell game! Very moreish gameplay loop once you get the hang of it. (I do wish you could undo moves though, but I guess it forces you to focus that you can't.)
First playthrough: Do I suck or is this really really hard? Does the order of the numbers matter? Wait, am I spontaneously losing health? Is this meant to be like Poker? I'm just starting to get good but Iost so much health!
Second Playthrough: Oh it's like Yahtzee... I need to lookup the scoring for Yahtzee. So as long as I have the numbers... wait does the order or colours affect the multiplier? I'm kicking a little ass now, but damn I'm lost. I died... and my capture got corrupted...
Third Playthrough: Pressed M. There IS a map. I figured out healing! Still don't know what Mana does. I am God now! I beat the Boss!! ... and my reward is being entombed underground with no means of exit. Rats!
The one thing I was never clear on is whether there was a diminishing return on collecting dice. At first you really need to rely on straights, before higher combinations of numbers and colours are unlocked.
But unlike Yahtzee where you have a set chance of getting a roll you need, pulling from an ever-expanding collection; wouldn't it reduce the likelihood of drawing one that's contextually useful...?
I mean, I guess I never struggled once I got going. But maybe, once you hit a certain threshold of dice, you unlock addition re-rolls to offset that potentiality?
That was very fun! It was a little weird how the first heist almost seemed like a separate game, and 2 and 3 had very different styles, puzzle and action. But in that sense it kinda reminded me of a classic Tomb Raider.
It took me a while to get a handle on all the mechanics, and I cheesed a few enemies, but all in all I really enjoyed figuring it all out.
