itch.io

Thanks Sigma, I hope it's useful feedback :) 

Review:

The concept of addressing one's critics through media is not new, nor is it inherently problematic, however I cannot recall a piece of media as incredulous or bizarre as this one. 

As with all of SigmaSuccor's works, it is a game which stretches RPG Maker to breaking point, filled with squashing and stretching sprites, and more plugins than one really requires to tell the "story" the game is attempting to tell. Once you're in past the opening dialogue (told through a VN style interface) you reach the meat of the 'gameplay'.

This is where things get weird.

This game is insane. I don't use that as hyperbole, or as some way of trying to praise the psychological depth of the piece: It is actively disturbing that a human being put this together.

The title is incredibly fitting: The game perpetuates a false narrative, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the defensive party chatter, where the author has invented two NPCs who agree with him and his defensive responses to what one can only assume are the criticisms leveled at him by other developers. The format is novel, but the use of multiple characters there to provide the author with a sounding board read more as aspects of a single personality than an actual trio of people with their own thoughts and feelings. At one point Succor (a sort of bizarre Tulpa seen throughout the False X series) comments that 'women don't compare, they accept' - and this stood out to me as especially bizarre.

This tends to be the bulk of what constitutes the (False) narrative - the gang walks through a train and interacts with groups of people, all discussing the actions and behaviour of the author, as well as giving their thoughts on him as a person and his work. These interactions are then commented upon by the party, occasionally interspersed with humour, but more often than not devolving into rants and commentary on community criticism of SigmaSuccor and his work.

One highlight of these conversations was a rant about AI generated images, which frames people having an issue with that technology as a personal attack against the author. Another concerned perceptions of the author's work as pretentious, and his claims of depth (along with another rebuttal against those claims). Then there's the bizarre joy at being compared to more popular (and successful) titles, claiming that the author's work is simply incomparable to other video games.

There are also allusions to suicide; and a heavy implication that any criticism of the author's work could be inferred as mental illness on the part of the critic. Indeed, there is one scene where the party discuss that attempting to take action perceived as critical of the author could lead to suicide. This is obviously unfathomably cruel, given that all of the people in the piece are at least analogous to real people. This is not the first of Sigma's games to use these analogs of real people, or visualisation of the Internet as a "real" place (or even the use of unauthorised snippets of Discord/Forum text concerning the author).

All of these conversations between party members come across as incredibly defensive - and borderline delusional - but it's not the crux of why this piece is disturbing. Among the delusion and self-aggrandising comments about "service" to the community, or how criticism of the author could be a ploy to keep the author creating is something far darker and more sinister:

After reaching the front of the "Hate Train", insulting the person "driving" and demanding that they stop criticising you, and telling them that their issues with you will explicitly lead to their suicide, you start to commit acts of violence towards your critics.

In a moment not unlike a pre-teen making their teachers as wrestlers in some WWE game to beat down for perceived injustice, SigmaSuccor - a grown man - flips the narrative, claims victimhood, and decides that the best way to deal with people being critical of him is to murder them with a sword. This is shown as "cancelling the noise" - wielding his "power and influence" to silence critics.

Combat is simple, and killing an enemy plasters the word "Ban" on the screen where their body fell, so the theme of Internet-As-Reality continues. It's a simple affair and nothing poses anything approaching a threat (after all, why would it). You fight your way to the back of the train and the game ends with a monologue from a man in a tophat insulting someone - either the author or his critics (calling them a piece of garbage, repeatedly saying they'll get what's coming to them, calling them cancerous et cetera). 

The subject of this monologue is left deliberately blank, whether for plausible deniability or as a rare moment of self awareness. Given the remainder of the game it's more likely that this is directed towards the "driver" of the "hate train", the person whom Salik has - whether it intentional or not - decided that Internet Drama is worth them taking their own life over.

All in all, the game is short - taking roughly 30 minutes to complete if you read everything, and accomplishes very little in that time. Technically the game is (as always) a marvel, pretzeling the engine into shapes it was never intended to take, but the cloying, self-congratulatory, defensive writing coupled with the disturbing bloody violence towards the author's critics comes across as the ramblings of a man on the absolute edge of sanity. It is a disturbing artefact of RPG Maker Culture, very much of-its-time, and concerning a reality which - for some - is clearly beginning to take its toll.

There is a great irony in that this game was made as a way to address people being critical of SigmaSuccor's games being self inserts, and a greater irony still in the demands that this stop so that all parties can focus on game development. There is a level of hypocrisy here which is either post-modern brilliance, or the kind of thing usually scrawled on an asylum wall in faeces.

Why not give it a half hour and decide for yourself. 2/5

I could port it I SUPPOSE. There's always Lutris, til I do?

I really love this idea in concept - the presentation is pretty nice, but mechanically there were a couple of things which were unclear/immediately caused me issues:

• I wasn't sure why the enemy and I were going at the same time/in the same playfield. It made it very difficult to strategise and it took me a moment to realise the game wasn't turn based and that the CPU doing moves wasn't a hint system but actively detrimental and something I should avoid. Not gonna lie, I got bodied by the enemy and I wasn't entirely clear on why, or what was going on for a lot of the game.
• There were a number of times where new gems would not drop down, or a void would be left - a couple of times I'm pretty sure I saw gems going up? Because of this, it was very difficult to look ahead as I didn't know when these bugs would occur, or if they were behaving as intended?

I could play this forever I'm pretty sure! I wish I could click stuff quicker though

I played the game for ~30 minutes and I'm not certain as to whether or not I should assume bad faith of another dev, but this game is borderline unplayable. The fight with Superman in which he repeatedly wastes your time by forcing you to miss, the regenerate MP move which only regenerates a single MP, the fact that everything is designed to waste as much of the player's time as possible, the headache-inducing music, inane toilet-humour, terrible writing (chock full of spelling and grammar errors), Japanese menus, unintelligible plot and terrible combat...

I don't know. The way you're vehemently defending the game and acting like it's in some way not a troll/deliberate waste of your audience's time makes me think that you're either:

• really committed to wasting everyone's time or (much less likely)
• legitimately unaware of the relative quality of your game

Given that the content of the game is 100% the kind of meme content you expect to see I think you're trolling, and I'm not putting another second into it.

Good luck, I hope you submit a game which isn't designed to waste your audience's time

I really, really like this so far. Killing the hard enemy felt great, and you've really nailed that feeling of soulsy combat in a way I don't think a 2d game really has before - I've played a shitload of soulslikes, and I honestly think this is the highest praise I can give.

The weapon trails really make it feel obvious when things are dangerous, which is fantastic. I kind of wish there'd been music/atmos but totally get that combat has been the priority so don't begrudge there being none yet.

I love the style of the little fella - I hope he looks like that right up to release.

The game has great conveyance - when I entered this room I immediately was like "what is the best way to deal with this threat", which I think means you've done a great job of conveying exactly what's required of the player and what the nature of the threat is as well as the toolset available.

I finished the demo and gotta say that I think all of my feedback at this point would be in the areas of presentation and inventory management. Once I got how it worked it was fine, but I was playing with kb+m and it felt a bit counterintuitive to figure out at first.

Presentation feels like it hasn't been a top priority - in terms of function over aesthetics it's instantly groccable and fulfils its function perfectly, so maybe giving feedback in that area is unwarranted right now.

Gonna be watching this project with EXTREME INTEREST. Keep it up, man. Stonking game!

This is fun! Feels like a real game already, kind of got a ludum dare vibe. It emulates that late-90s feel so well; maybe some music would go a long way to really finalising that vibe?

Combat right now feels VERY spammy. I don't know if I could lock on? Feels like dark souls, but kinda more light hearted? I like the broom, but I wish I'd had more options available.

Felt kind of bad not being able to climb up here:

 I got pretty lost after finding the ruins crystal and thought I had to backtrack, the rubble next to this looks like a ramp so I thought I was being taught that I could climb by the environment. That said, you never imply that the player can climb, so maybe no action needed?

Please never change this graphic:

That said, falling through the white down there was an unexpected death.

I say this without a shred of hyperbole - if someone told me this had been a secret early era from game trying the souls formula on the n64 I'd have believed it. Not tryna overcomplement, but this is strong! Gotta leave unexpetedly so will probably do more feedback v soon! Nice work

Aw man, I thought this was finally up :(

Ahhh, I was wondering how close I was to finishing! Seems like: Very

Hey pard, yup it's the shopkeep that does it. Resolution is:

1366x768

This game is already pretty fun! Mechanically it's sound - it reminds me of soldat and another game I can't remember the name of but that I can SEE in my head. I feel like with bros and on voice this game would be elevated massively. Movement is fun, feels a little unpolished but you can definitely see the core of it taking shape, and just in general I love where it's going. The music is great and the backgrounds are fantastic; keep it up!

Actual feedback:

I grinded for about 10 minutes without direction until I basically couldn't be killed

Inventory needs a way to be ordered or cleared out

because of bug I couldn't use what I assume was the shopkeeper so gold was without function

Found it very compelling, it'd be nice to add click and hold to attack continually because I feel like I wore out LMB

A fun game, but zero direction is given, I just killed everything in my way, couldn't save and so when I died the second time I was like "ah, I'm out"

Got it to happen:

Console says:

Unable to load image images/blank2.png! SDL_image Error: Couldn't open images/blank2.png

Repro steps:

Press E on that... Whatever that thing in the hut is meant to be

Additional: Swinging my sword put me back to normal this time

Weirdly I can't get it to happen any more. It's an old intel laptop with integrated graphics. An i3.

Now all that's happening is I'm getting murdered repeatedly by skeletons!

Tried to play the game and while it did launch, it broke immediately - tried it a couple times, same bug each time, my guy turned into a black rectangle.

Feeding back as a sort of liveblog in real time:

• Loaded into the game, but no graphics seemed to load? Build in the window seems completely unplayable right now. Will check back to see if this is fixed and give full feedback then.
• Your music is - and this may seem harsh, but I want to be honest - really grating. Especially out of my tinny little laptop speakers. I appreciate that you can mute it, but it really set my teeth on edge.

Hey! The atmosphere here is cool. Feedback liveblog stylee:

• "Unless I have their severed finger" eh? I sure hope this is chekov's finger and not just something I'm gonna spend time searching for 
• So many emails to read, I have no idea if any of them are important - the reply and forward buttons seem non functional and because there's so many and they're so verbose if I am meant to glien anything gameplay related I think there might be too much content here (the writing is solid and realistic though)
• "Look behind you" message on the image made me spooked. I logged off the computer and was very glad there was no jumpscare thank you for not doing that
• "I'm not joking look behind you" made me nearly too spooked to play, fucking hell
• I refused to turn around, because fuck that!
• Walked to manager's office, turn around prompt was still there, so I did it - and still no jumpscare! V nice indeed
• >Knife
• >Want to take knife
• >My guy refuses
• pls let me arm myself, scary game - this was frustrating because the disconnect between player and character suddenly feels massive after the pc interaction, which made me feel really grounded and like I inhabited the character
• Stole casserole, got good ending, the picture was creepy, but I am v glad

Decided to stop at one ending! Might go back in, but I got PRETTY SPOOKED honestly. This is atmospheric as hell, v well made. The anticipation of having to click and hold on the buttons works really well and stops subsequent playthroughs being an exercise in memorising menu layout

Hey! This is a cute concept and I love rocket-jumping. Physics stuff is always fun, and it's real simple and instantly grokkable.

Feedback:

• The options menu X-to-leave button being centred made me not immediately understand that's where I had to click - maybe move it to the top right? I'm not exactly the king of UX design, but that's where I'd expect an X to be. Maybe even change it to be the word "back", or a "back arrow" icon to stop the player assuming it'll close the game?
• The fact his little face winces every rocket jump is v. endearing
• Blindly jumping across screen transitions is a little concerning. It basically guarantees that you have to peek across the border, and the first time you have to do it (between screen 2 and 3) is kind of difficult. It might be worth making it easier - it seems like a very rough jump that early in the game.
• That same jump is Getting-Over-It-With-Bennet-Foddy punishing. Fucking up screen 3 sends you right back to the bottom of screen 2. Are these gonna be the stakes all the way through the game? It was more frustrating than I was expecting, especially given that you bump against the wall and the player is super slippery, so you slide back down. I nearly gave up there and then. It felt more like a difficulty wall than a difficulty curve.
• THIS jump was based - by the time I'd made it up here I'd spent a lot of time slipping and immediately knew what to do and what to press. Maybe the "difficulty wall" is cool for tutorialising the momentum so early?

• I then failed on the next screen and ended up back at the bottom of screen 2. This felt like a LOT of punishment so early on. Peeking up with that much on the line made me feel very anxious, but I overshot and slipped because of my momentum, I tried to fire my weapon to use recoil to stabilise myself, but even that wasn't enough.
• You bounce off walls REAL hard when you're airborne, no matter what your momentum is, so that very thin ledge on screen 3 is actually a lot thinner than it looks
• I am very compelled to keep playing - the gameplay is fun enough and the feedback of blasting yourself places is entertaining. I'm stopping playing for now, I've made it to the 4th screen and slipped down twice, and I gotta get up and do stuff, but I'll definitely return.

Apologies if this feedback seems unnecessarily harsh - I love the concept, but wasn't sure if you were going for _getting over it_ or _momentum fun puzzle platforming_ - at the moment it massively feels like the former, and if that's the intent, that's great. If not, the difficulty might be a bit offputting early on, unless the game is going to be super short.

Cute! It's like advance wars, and the aesthetic and music match perfectly.

Is there any plan to have gameplay outside the menuing/battling?

This is the best game I've played in demo day, and it might be the most immediately charming game I've played in a while. I certainly felt compelled to come back, and at the point my first character died I had:

• Learned that I liked two weapons more than I liked shields, but totally saw the viability of shields and enjoyed the 3 floors I spent using them
• Made a couple of characters that felt all my own in spite of relatively similar "newcomer" characters. Baller.
• Figured out that jumping over fire walls and using a fire wall of my own felt incredible
• Figured how satisfying it was to destroy multiple barrels at once using the fire wall spell
• Found the "NEW LEVEL X" level up text charming - I don't know if this is deliberately oddly worded over 'LEVEL UP' or similar, but I loved this
• Got excited every time I saw a treasure chest, or weapons rack
• Found that equipping two swords and doing sick combos felt great

Honestly, this is a fantastic, pacy game and I can't wait to play more of it. The fact that armour etc changed my sprite, switching between 1st and 3rd person, the fact that the 3rd person camera was over-the-shoulder rather than awkwardly centered still letting me aim: Everything about the game feels tight, well-designed and just really great.

Personal highlight: Movement feels so slick - it's almost boomer-shooter-y. Like Hexen, if it played more like DOOM.

I'm gonna be following this project with huge interest! My only feedback is that the game really feels like it improves once the enemy variety gets higher - bats and fire cultists being the only enemies on levels 1-3 is understandable as an onboarding measure, but maybe something like a slime on the bat-only level 1 might feel good? Just as a touch of early variety.

This is the best game I've played in demo day, and it might be the most immediately charming game I've played in a while. I certainly felt compelled to come back, and at the point my first character died I had:

• Learned that I liked two weapons more than I liked shields, but totally saw the viability of shields and enjoyed the 3 floors I spent using them
• Made a couple of characters that felt all my own in spite of relatively similar "newcomer" characters. Baller.
• Figured out that jumping over fire walls and using a fire wall of my own felt incredible
• Figured how satisfying it was to destroy multiple barrels at once using the fire wall spell
• Found the "NEW LEVEL X" level up text charming - I don't know if this is deliberately oddly worded over 'LEVEL UP' or similar, but I loved this
• Got excited every time I saw a treasure chest, or weapons rack
• Found that equipping two swords and doing sick combos felt great

Honestly, this is a fantastic, pacy game and I can't wait to play more of it. The fact that armour etc changed my sprite, switching between 1st and 3rd person, the fact that the 3rd person camera was over-the-shoulder rather than awkwardly centered still letting me aim: Everything about the game feels tight, well-designed and just really great.

Personal highlight: Movement feels so slick - it's almost boomer-shooter-y. Like Hexen, if it played more like DOOM.

I'm gonna be following this project with huge interest! My only feedback is that the game really feels like it improves once the enemy variety gets higher - bats and fire cultists being the only enemies on levels 1-3 is understandable as an onboarding measure, but maybe something like a slime on the bat-only level 1 might feel good? Just as a touch of early variety.

One thing though: Why is this game not called Real Talk

Reminds me of Worlds.com - incredible work

Haha - either of those are completely legal ways of getting the sword - there are better swords in the demo, but exploration should always be rewarded!