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And now I'm thinking of Captain Blood (1988), which was built around using an auxiliary language to talk with aliens. It's not really a language-learning game (at best you're adjusting your use of a pidgin to match the alien you're talking to), but it's one of the few games I can think of that asks the player to use a constructed language to communicate instead of just treating it as a way to hide information.

(Am I still a bit annoyed that Chants had more stupid stealth bits than parts where you have to construct sentences with the languages you've been spending all game learning? Yes.)

I like that the newest update has added some more structure to prestiging, along with the change to the embryo blessing that adds some initial currency to upgrade cards.

However, as someone who has been hard resetting with each update to get a feel for the new progression...

1. It kinda sucks that both deck selection and transient runes (aka the two blessings that meaningfully change how you play) are locked into the "late game". I know the actual game's going to be quite a bit longer (such is the nature of incremental games), but having to play a bunch of rounds to unlock two of the more interesting mechanics feels a bit bad.

2. I hate to say this, but managing your relics is really boring. Don't get me wrong, they're strong and do their job, but I find myself looking at the relic screen, going "I don't care, I guess I'll equip this one?" and completely forgetting that they exist. Maybe they just need some added visual juice? To use Chisel as an example, maybe the game could show the 50% increase right on the cards and that text could be all red and glowy to show that it was doing something.

3. I'm kinda surprised that there isn't a blessing that does the standard incremental thing and automates card upgrades? I'd love a blessing that, say, made it so void tokens and embryos spent on one Spirit got spent on all of them, or one that made it so void tokens spent on runes also get spent on upgrading the card's base light gain.

4. I'd also really like a blessing that boosts hand size. It could be as basic as "you draw one extra card per turn" or something more game-y like "once per trial, you can discard a card to draw two cards" that you can hook other upgrades onto.

A pair of fantastic changes!

Yeah, I noticed the Mirror + Mage synergy, but I don't really like it? Sure, free draws are fantastic but at the same time you're effectively taking a turn off to set that up, and I've found that most of the time you don't have any "spare" turns unless you've been grinding a bunch, and at that point I'd prefer to prestige.

Poking at this after the update. Some thoughts:

After unlocking the deck selection tab, I clicked through, started a new run, and was immediately really confused about not being able to pick a deck. I figured out that I need to pick the deck while between runs, but I think it'd be smoother if the game let you pick what deck you want at the start of each run.

The Mage nerf makes the game feel way worse to me - in previous updates, I found myself ignoring the Mage until I reduced its cost to 1 because paying 2 to draw a card feels overpriced. Comparing it to the other 2-cost cards in the starting deck, you've got the Elks (which offer two strong runes for different builds), the Mirror (doubles the next card which opens up some cheeky plays), and the Dryad (tons of snowball potential).

Part of my problem here is that in most trials you're only going to see a card 2-3 times - if the Mage feels awkward to play for one turn, that awkwardness is going to show up over and over again. Contrast that with the (upgraded) Wanderer, where it feels solid every single time you play it. The Mage just needs something, I'm not sure what.

EDIT: I've been messing around with the Wild deck - I really like how the Nekomata and Stalker encourage you to sequence your cards differently, and the Shaman's Spellbind rune is a lot of chaotic fun.

Playing around a bit with the Shaman makes me think that Mana Drop would be a really sweet transient rune.

Finally finished this one!  Thoughts in rot13 (EDIT: One of my biggest complaints about the game mechanically was fixed by the latest QoL update, so keep that in mind if you read these):

Svefgyl, V guvax gur pubvpr bs frggvat vf n cerggl tbbq bar. V unq n terng gvzr yrneavat nobhg Pbybavny Obearb. Gur fgbel nyfb sryg nccebcevngryl xabggl, naq V tbg cerggl nggnpurq gb rirelbar. V qba'g unir nal pbzcynvagf gurer.

V'z n ovg zber gbea ba gur zrpunavpny fvqr bs guvatf, gubhtu. Ba gur bar unaq, V ernyyl yvxrq ubj lbh unaqyrq vgrzf - gurl srry yvxr n angheny rkgrafvba bs gur pber "haybpx n fprar ol svthevat bhg jub jnf gurer" zrpunavp. Ba gur bgure unaq, V jnfa'g nf ovt bs n sna bs univat gb anvy qbja n punenpgre orsber lbh pna hfr gurz gb ybbx ng n fprar. Tenagrq, V srry yvxr gung unf zber gb qb jvgu univat gebhoyr frrvat gur qbggrq haqreyvarf guna gur zrpunavp vgfrys orvat onq.

Nyfb, juvyr V rawblrq obgu Plaguvn'f rcvybthr naq gur Cnffntr, gurl sryg ernyyl jrveq. Obgu orpnhfr gur fgbel fhqqrayl tbrf sebz n eng'f arfg gb n fgenvtug yvar, naq orpnhfr vg srryf yvxr gurl'er oernxvat gur ehyrf bs Qrycuvar'f cbjref. Nsgre n shyy tnzr bs univat gb svther bhg rirel fvatyr crefba va n fprar, vg sryg ernyyl jrveq gb unir zhygvcyr fprarf jurer zhygvcyr havqragvsvrq crbcyr fubj hc.

Va nal pnfr, V'z ybbxvat sbejneq gb Qrycuvar'f arkg nqiragher. V tbg zl raqvat (jurer gur oebgure vf qrnq naq pbagnpgrq Qrycuvar sebz orlbaq gur tenir), naq qba'g unir gur urneg gb ybbx ng gur bgure bar.

(Nyfb, V guvax V sbhaq n oht: gur havqragvsvrq Pbzznaqre va gur 8:00 Puncry fprar fgnlf havqragvsvrq rira nsgre lbh vqragvsl uvz nf Ertvanyq Snvesnk.)

Thanks!

My main issue with the chip damage is that it currently feels inconsistent - some attacks deal 0 damage while others deal 2-3, without much of an indication other than memorizing "oh, this skeleton has a broadsword", which just feels a bit janky. It also interacts a bit weirdly with the healing system in my opinion - if my main way of healing is by leaving party members out of fights, I feel like fights with only one enemy should let me do that without taking mandatory damage. Maybe blocked attacks could be 1 damage with clear indicator that they were blocked, and then being Safe reduces that to 0 to give you more of a reason to Buckler over just Disengaging?

As for randomization... yeah, thinking about it more my issue is less with randomization and more that the feedback I got didn't make me realize that I was just very unlucky (I swear, I missed like four Circle Formations/Engages on the same enemy in a row). Another possible suggestion would be to represent resistance to the fray/disarming by making those enemies immune to AoE abilities - in other words, Circle Formation or similar attacks would pull every melee enemy into the fray, but you'd have to use Engage on each ranged or flying enemy individually.

Thanks for the encouragement - hopefully I'll have time to get back to it this week!

 A new Cataphract OI? In 2026? Hell yeah.

I've started poking at it, and I really like the expansion to the combat system - the fray system feels more fleshed out and dynamic this time around, and it was already one of my favorite JRPG combat systems. I also really like the rest system - it feels pretty intuitive and adds some nice risk-reward to combat.

I'm currently "stuck" on the fight with the Controller and six Conscripts - I can get through it but I'm taking WAY too much damage because that fight is absolutely brutal as an introduction to a new enemy. My gut feeling is that it should probably have fewer enemies as backup, but that's probably because I haven't figured out the trick to handling it. I'll get there, though - I'm starting to piece together how to disrupt the Controller, and just need to put that into practice.

...

My one major complaint is that the combat feels way more random than it did in Cataphract OI. I had problems with the fight that introduces the little I Only Disarm imp because both Engage and Circle Formation kept missing repeatedly, so I assumed that it was immune and that I had to use the Boar Spear to kill it. I'm really not a fan of that in a game that's so focused on learning through observation.

I'm also not a bit fan of so many attacks dealing chip damage to Free or Safe characters. In my opinion it makes the combat system feel muddier - it's one thing when you have something like Boar Spear where that's it's thing, but apparently Warji's Ogre Bat can also hit disengaged enemies despite not saying that anywhere? On the receiving end, it feels a little bad to take unavoidable damage in a game where healing is so limited.

Granted, both of those things feel more like engine limitations that you didn't have time to polish out than intentional design decisions (inb4 you tell me that they were intentional design decisions :p), so those being my two big complaints is probably a good thing.

All in all, I'm glad to see that you're still making stuff! Now, back to figuring out that Controller fight...

A small QoL request: could you possibly let the player type "back" to go back in addition to having the back button?

EDIT: More importantly, I'm pretty sure I've gotten everything... at least until the big update drops later on. I do have one lingering question about the story (Ubj vf Wnpxvr obgu ng gur Ovsebfg naq urycvat Vfnnp va gur Pnetb Onl ng 02?), but I suspect that that'll get answered in due time.

Also, vf gurer nal jnl bs yrneavat gur Arpebznapre'f anzr? V raqrq hc whfg pnyyvat vg Fngna Qhqr, ohg V fhfcrpg gung gur yriry 5 Jbeqyr fbyhgvba vf cneg bs gur erny anzr.

EDIT TO THE EDIT: V whfg abgvprq n cbgragvny glcb va gur GEHR-RAQVAT qbphzrag - gur Arpebznapre gryyf lbh gung vg'f tbvat gb or jnvgvat sbe lbh va Avsyurvz ng gur raq, ohg gung'f gur fgngvba jr'er pheeragyl ng. Vf vg fhccbfrq gb fnl Inanurvz?

I figured it out last night before heading to bed - thanks for the clues, though!

Sbe jungrire ernfba vg gbbx zr n juvyr gb ernyvmr gung rirel perj zrzore unq gjb ybtf - V guvax V ybpxrq va ba gur srrqf n ovg gbb zhpu naq sbetbg gb purpx gur boivbhf fghss ryfrjurer.

V'z frevbhfyl vzcerffrq ol ubj zhpu rssbeg lbh chg vagb gur znvasenzr svyrf, ol gur jnl. Lbh qvqa'g arrq gb jevgr snxr fpvragvsvp ercbegf, ohg lbh qvq, naq V nccerpvngr gung.

Vg gheaf bhg gung V whfg arire fcryyrq Wnpdhryvar pbeerpgyl. V'yy tb onpx gb ybbxvat sbe Oneel naq Vfnnp'f anzrf. Gunaxf!

I'm having a blast so far, but I've run into a somewhat early roadblock:

V'z svyyvat bhg gur Znavsrfg va beqre gb trg gb haybpx gur frpbaq ynlre, ohg V'ir fgnyyrq bhg ba guerr cvrprf bs vasbezngvba - Oneel'f ynfg anzr, Vfnnp'f ynfg anzr, naq Wnpxvr'f shyy svefg anzr. Pna nalbar bssre zr n uvag nf gb jurer gung vasbezngvba vf?

Vs vg urycf, rirel fvatyr svyr V unir npprff gb fubjf gung gurer ner 0 erznvavat yvaxrq svyrf bgure guna gur bar va gur pnetb onl ba gvzrfgnzc 01. V guvax V'ir cerggl zhpu tbggra nyy bs gur srrqf ba gur svefg ynlre?

Sounds like the nerf worked but might have been a bit too much.

Have you tried doing a run that prioritizes playing the Druid as often as possible (especially after playing the Mirror)? Mirror followed by Roots Druid used to be one of the best synergies in the game.

Not so much that it was unclear how they worked and more that I wasn't sure how they interacted with other runes because both Weave and Meal used unique terms. 

Weave says that it interacts with runes that "directly create" light, but the runes that trigger it either "grant" light (Final Spark, Herd, Dawning, First Charge) or say that you "gain" light (Growth, Salvage, Dredge). Similarly, Meal triggers when a rune "upgrades" the Broodmother, but all of the runes that upgrade other cards say "increases light gain by [amount] for [card]" - I thought for a second that the Candle's energy cost reduction might count (because reducing the cost is an upgrade) but nope.

I think it'd really help clarity if all of the runes that "directly create" light were changed to say create instead of grant/gain and Meal was changed to something like "adds a temporary spider card when a rune increases this card's light gain" or something to that effect.

I'm enjoying this update! Broodmother and Carpet Construct have some really fun (and kinda surprising) synergies.

That said, a few thoughts:

1.  I feel like granting light and upgrading could maybe use some kind of extra indicator to make it clear what runes count for what? I definitely had to  check that sticking a Salvage rune on a Carpet Construct worked the way I thought it did, and it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize that the Mirror's Heavy Reflection triggered Meal.
2. I think clicking on a card should dismiss the tooltip you get for hovering over it - currently, you end up with multiple text boxes on top of each-other and it looks a bit messy.
3. The current card upgrade system ends up feeling kinda dull once you've bought all of the runes your deck needs, because "pay 3x to upgrade the rune again" is pretty mindless. I wonder if it'd be better if upgrading your cards with void tokens had a low-ish cap and you had to rely on prestige upgrades to get the power you need?
4. I could also see individual cards getting prestige upgrades - maybe, I dunno, the Mage's energy cost reduction is something that costs Singularities instead of Embryos.

How do I check my progress in Birdwatcher? I see that other people are mentioning a counter, but I'm not seeing anything.

After playing a bit more and testing out a few builds, I think it'd be pretty cool if the Golem got a rune that made upgrading the Smith and Obelisk more appealing. Right now, handing out hand upgrades feels less exciting than focusing on something like Shimmer Spirits + Dawning Elk, Herd Elk + Retain, or Roots Dryad + Mirror, so having a card that makes that better would be nice. I kinda like the idea of something simple like "whenever a card in your hand is upgraded, Golem copies that upgrade".

What a fun idea! I feel like the incremental gameplay structure honestly makes more sense than a roguelike one for a deckbuilder.

Some thoughts:

• I was never excited to see my deck's Golem. Sure it gives the same light as playing three Spirits, but costing 3 just made it feel incredibly inflexible. That said, I've also not bothered to unlock the Amass rune because I'm not quite sure what it does, so maybe as soon as I see it I'll change my tune.
• Mostly because of how much I didn't like the Golem, I found myself wanting a way to cut cards. I feel like some kind of prestige option that let you refine your starting deck would be kinda cool? It'd also help make cards like Beholder more appealing if you could swap out some of the starter cards for red cards.
• I feel like a Prestige option that gave you some starting void tokens would be really nice. Sure, Golden Compass currently gives you a way to "skip" the initial boring runs but turning the game into an idler doesn't feel great.

I'm looking forward to whatever you cook up in the next update!

EDIT: Amass was not enough to salvage the Golem, and feels pretty wimpy compared to the Roots rune.

Ah, I see! I missed that.

This was super cute!

Pharolith gave me the standard ambiguity problems, but I feel like the big problem there is that I didn't fully understand the type chart? I went back through the letters and I couldn't see where (rot13) lbh jrer fhccbfrq gb yrnea gung Zrephel vf jrnx gb Znef.

Other than that, the game was pretty smooth, and I'm kinda sad that we won't get to see the rest of Harper and Ollie's adventures.

I've noticed quite a bit of lag in the Star Chart that wasn't there before Stage 3 was added.

I feel like there should be a little bit more direction in early stage 3? I've bought all of the 1M/2M/4M spots on the map, and so far it has felt kinda random whether or not a hex has had anything. This wouldn't be a huge problem, but having to complete multiple runs per hex just to see that the only thing it gives me is a +5% to my light feels pretty frustrating. 

It'd be really nice if you could look at your manual automation templates without overwriting the current pip allocations. The current implementation is annoying enough to work with that I haven't really messed with it, which seems to be an issue since the two other AIs I have (balanced and high yield: white) both aren't nearly as efficient as they could be.

Speaking of automation... the tooltip for the balanced mode is straight-up wrong. Currently, it assigns the same number of pips to each color, regardless of whether or not that color has a full tank.

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Having played this for a bit (both before the big update and afterwards), I really feel like there need to be more/better production speed upgrades, especially if filling up all of the tanks before prestiging is supposed to be a viable strategy.

I really liked this one... but I have to agree with people that tank size feels like a bit of a downgrade because of how it slows down production.

I also wish that pip automation came online way quicker, because by the time I reached 5k light and 5 complete constellations managing my pips had felt like a chore rather than a fun gameplay mechanic for well over an hour.

This. I was super excited to unlock automation (because dear god did optimally balancing pips get a bit tedious after a certain point), but was kinda disappointed that it kept uselessly funneling pips into the white tank after it filled up. I'd love to see that get fixed for the full release.

I'm enjoying this quite a bit!

I do have a bit of feedback, however:

• The music is really loud and kinda distracting (stirring orchestral music). It'd be nice if there was some way of adjusting the volume in-game. I also wonder if stirring orchestral music is the right vibe for this particular game, but that's whatever.
• Not having the option to type in the passwords myself feels a little weird. The current system works, but in a game where everything else is doable from a fresh start it kinda sticks out.
• It'd be nice if pausing the game to check the map/notes for information also paused the timer. Right now, the game gives you zero time to catch your breath and plan out your next move, since going into the menu doesn't pause the game and the end of each loop immediately starts the next one. That kind of time pressure is honestly pretty frustrating in this kind of "piece together what you're supposed to do" puzzle game.

Other than that, the game feels pretty solid. I hope you do well in the jam!

I liked the start of the game (Gerald is a delight), but I got stuck on the Chapter 1 splash screen.

I had fun with this one - good job!

Some thoughts:

• The Confessor and the Puppeteer don't seem to work with each-other? My understanding is that the Puppeteer makes the villager next to them into an evil (but truthful) version of that role, while the Confessor specifically says that they always tell the truth. However, I've only ever seen a Puppet Confessor lie - shouldn't they say "I'm evil" or something to that effect?
• How is the Baron supposed to work? Does it just change an adjacent Villager into an Outcast version of that card (meaning that an Alchemist can't cure them of poison) or does it transform them into a specific Outcast (so suddenly you have to worry about there randomly being a Saint or Wretch to mess with your plans)?
• Similarly, how is the Baker supposed to work? Is it guaranteed (so if I flip over one Baker I know that either the Baker is evil OR that all of the following cards are evil) or is there a chance that it won't do anything? I only ask because every single time I got the Baker I only ended up flipping one Baker.
• It'd be nice if Knights said something like "I can't die", if only because it'd make the fact that you can kill poisoned Knights a little more obvious.
• It'd be really nice if cards that poison other cards included some reminder of what poison does.
• I think it'd be cool if Evil cards reacted to being discovered by changing their original clue to some variation of "darn, you caught me!".
• I'd love to see some incentive to not flip over every card.

I decided I'd record a run, and eventually got to this point:

Yes, that is 100 regeneration under my character (thank you, My First Wand + Wizard Cap, for being utter nonsense). The entire run was a cakewalk up until I got into this fight, where I died on turn 3 from Fire Geckos being jerks. That said, if I had seen a single damage-dealing wand, I could've wiped them off the field with minimal effort — generating 5 mana a turn is really, really nice, especially when you have a Whetstone backing it up.

Add me to the chorus of people who think there needs to be a better way of dealing with poison — the rag in the top-left of my inventory is the only kind of anti-poison item I ran into on my run (other than some Cleansing Potions, but those hardly count).

Maybe the Cleansing Wands (which I ran into, like, 12 of) could clear your debuffs instead of clearing enemy buffs? Or maybe poison could "eat" regeneration before it hit your health? I dunno, I just think that it's a little odd that there are only a handful of items that can deal with poison effectively, especially given how much of it gets thrown around by some of the enemies in the endless mode.

This was a fun little time-waster. I built a ring around a Broken Ring, a Whetstone, the hat that gives you +haste every turn, the lightning bolt that hurts all enemies at the start of your turn, and a bunch of Shivs.

I died on Floor 16 when I ran out of mana (near the end I had to spam Broken Ring multiple times on the first couple of turns to not die), but I probably could've gotten further if I hadn't sold some boots and a helmet like an idiot (for whatever reason, the fact that Haste was better the more sources of armor you had didn't occur to me until it was too late.)

I was also mildly screwed over by the armor cap — when I fought the Badger boss on endless mode, I was generating something like 200+ armor per turn, but I lost half of that due to the cap. I kinda wish I had known about it beforehand, but that's neither here nor there.

I can think of two small QoL improvements for the (otherwise excellent) game:

1. Please let players see what the status effects do when you hover over an item in your backpack — you figure out what they do pretty soon, but it can kinda suck when you're looking at a Curse and wondering how bad it actually is.
2. Please include some kind of function (maybe shift+click?) that lets you use an item as many times as possible. There were quite a few times where my turn effectively boiled down to "hit Whetstone 3+ times, then click on all of my Shivs", and it would have been nice if I could've done that in fewer clicks.

EDIT: If anyone is curious, this was my third run, and the first one where I beat the King.

I reached the point where there were multiple batteries, and I immediately lost interest in the game. It honestly made it feel like work.

Oh, just so people aren't confused/want to see some gameplay:

Thank you for the extra information! I'm planning on streaming it again at some point - it feels really good to play.

I'm really glad that I stumbled on this game. The art is gorgeous, and the writing is really on-point. I might be alone in this, but I really found Soul Void to be spooky rather than all-out scary. But hey, a really positive message wrapped up in a spooky game is pretty much what I needed right now.

I recorded a little let's play of the game - however, I'd suggest for anyone looking at this comment to just... play the game yourself? It'll take you all of an hour and a half.

I'm loving the game so far, but I have to mention that the static noise for the hacker boss fight does not respond to the sound effect slider. The game is pretty loud by default, so I turned the volume down... and then I nearly had a heart attack from the sudden loud noise.

I also kinda wish that augments would tell you how much CPU they cost to install - if they do, I missed it. Other than that, I like it!

This is a pretty great game. I did notice two things that I think could stand to be a little better:

1) If a hornet is the last enemy on the screen and kills itself by firing its stinger, that screen doesn't end until you take an action. I've used this to get some free reloads, but I think it might be a bug.

2) So far, I've played it on two keyboards, a trackpad, and a mouse, and how well blocking works varies heavily based off what I'm using. I think the timing could stand to be a little more forgiving? I might just be a bad - I usually die by the end of the Coast, and I haven't managed to kill the shopkeeper yet.

Other than that? You did a fantastic job.

Anyway, I recorded a couple of runs: