Aah, I thought briefly about that! Glad I wasn't too far from the mark on the third branch, then.
Reiterating my previous thought: the amount of secrets and hidden things in the game is unbelievable. Very good for different playthroughs, but must be hard to keep track of all these permutations when developing (and it will probably be harder in future, as story and branching points go on).
Won't take any more of your time, thank you for the hints!
About branches: I think I get the hint, since there is only one optional party member at the moment (I think), so two branches are whether you have him in the party or not, but what is the third branch? Is that just the branch where you manage to follow sidequest objectives (following Easter Egg hints) or is there something else I'm missing?
About controls: that was just a bit of venting on my part. I mean, I didn't even find anything about rebinding controls to numpad on the internet, and game.ini seems not to recognize these keys if you try to bind it yourself, so that's probably not even possible. It's more notable in Dusken Blades, since it is more text-heavy than other SRPG games that I've played, but ultimately it's not a big deal. Myself, I already did rebind controls somewhat to my liking (had to sacrifice right key button, worth it).
No worries, I played full games there that were shorter that Dusken Blades already is, and like half of games there are in alpha or beta or just abandoned outright (that's just the reality of making games for free, I guess).
The point is, people there are already used to trying unfinished games if they look promising. And considering the theme of the game, I think it will fit there, that's why I mentioned the site here.
I have just finished reading Ch 6 Easter Egg, and: wait, there are THREE different routes in the game already?? What are they and how can one find them? With this and hideen sidequest and 2 Easter Eggs already this game is such a Matryoshka doll, wow.
Ch 6 Easter Egg also hinted at future combat chapters and MC's role in them. Honestly, I wouldn't mind MC being in support role for the majority of the game, no other SRPG does that and it's a nice spin on the usual "overpowered hero" genre. But in the end, I trust author's vision and am just here for the ride.
A little rant about default controls: there is a lot of text in the game, and right now you can only advance it through left mouse button or central Enter on the keyboard (space and right mouse skip the whole dialogue tree). This is a default SRPG studio configuration, and while you theoretically can change it in "game.ini" file I had real trouble trying to tie "select" to any numpad key buttons (central Enter and z are just awkward to me if I have to press them so many times). If it was possible to use a button on numerical keyboard (like numerical enter or dot/del there) to advance text like with central Enter that would be great; don't know if this is even technically possible (right now I had to settle with binding select to right button, as it's closest to numpad), but if someone knows an easy solution here I would greatly appreciate that, as searching online brought me no results
No way, an Easter Egg in escape chapter? I have to find that one! Well, third playthrough, here I go!
I have to ask: did you think about bringing that game to tfgames.site? It's kind of a hub for TF games, with forums and reviews and such. Seems like a good fit for Dusken Blades, and this way the game will get more eyeballs and more players (right now I could only found it here on itch, noticed it because it was in some collection, I think).
Regardless, I think it is one of the most impressive games in development that I know of, and wherever it is, I'll definitely check up on it for updates! Thank you for bringing this world to us!
As of version 0.2 this game is very short (you can blast through all 6 chapters in 1-2 hours), but what it already shows in its story, flow and gameplay variance is very impressive - you have familiar SRPG studio combat levels, a chase level, an escort level and free time (dialogue/interaction) level AND the main character already transforms once, adding even more variety and drama.
The storybuilding is gradual (hint: go to bookshelves and read books every time you can) and the writing is pretty good as well, leaving me wanting to learn more. The vibe is different from other TF games that I've played - MC is not just given breasts and sent on their merry way to blast enemies, instead you have to rely on others and lean into a social aspect of being a woman, namely being protected and supporting others instead of taking an active lead. It is something that I haven't seen in other TF games, but here it is prominent, and it is done well.
One mild critique/suggestion I have is to make inter-chapter story cutscenes more manageable - after Ch 3 they balloon in size, so if you want to return to some story segment you can hardly remember where it is since so much happens after each Chapter, and even if you do remember you have to scroll through a lot of text to get there. IMO, if it was possible to introduce save opportunities (save/pass choices) to separate the biggest story chunks that would be great for the overall flow.
In version 0.2 there is at least one Easter Egg (in Ch 6, pay attention to houses) and one secret side-quest/variable to the main story (the aforementioned Easter Egg hints at how you can access that), giving you a reason to replay the game once more. If I can ask the author: how many Easter Eggs/optional secrets are there in the game at the moment? If there are more than what I've written about here, can you please give hints/provide direction as to how one can access them?
Overall, thank you for that great game! Hope we will be able to see more in the future!
