Keep up the good work, guys.
I've played the game yesterday, streaming it to some friends who also are Danganronpa fans, and we agree on some of the feedback we discussed afterwards. We would love to share it with you in the event it gives you another point of view.
The Good:
- The small bullet next to the text in the handbook indicating which bullets are in play is a great addition.
- Characters have properly distinct personalities and behaviour.
- I've played using a Xbox controller and it was a great surprise to see working support for several controllers already implemented.
- It runs technically well, game was fluid through all of the demo.
- Giving the player control over the video/audio settings.
The Neutral:
- The art of some of the designs look as if they were truly canon characters from other canon game... whereas others give the look that they are not yet there. With all due respect and looking to only offer feedback, some examples:
- Characters that look from a canon game: Lizzy (My fav already), Molly, Ellis, Jane, Ryu, Oscar, Cherry, Ava, Athena.
- Characters that look like they're not there yet: Old Tanya, Penelope, Booker, Ray, Nate, Teo, Wallace.
- The phrases during Nonstop Debates are dynamic and give a good feeling... but they would require a stronger stroke around them or more antialiasing as sometimes the font doesn't look fully smooth.
- The remixes of the songs are truly great... but the Nonstop Debate one requires a more intense feeling to it, whenever the Nonstop Debate started you don't feel anxious or eager to discover the weakspot, you just go into it to read. Specially in DRV3 the NS Debates themes are a mess of well coordinated instruments that throw you into it, they are intense and the way they start make you pay full attention.
- It's neat to go for original characters with original personalities... but we all agree our inner weeb is kicking in and the English names don't make us feel the same. For some reason I personally feel as if some of them have hidden jokes and doesn't allow me to take them fully seriously.
- We all agree you can see the influence of some of the canon characters in some of the poses of the sprites, there is nothing wrong about it. (Referring to your twitter post about non-tracing sprites)
The Ugly:
- Took me five tries to see what was going on with the Silencer mechanic and how small the bullet is.
- During the second NS Debate, Wallace says something along the lines of "It's strange nothing happened between you two" which you can agree with, and so I did with Ryu's account, only to be met with a fail. Then once you agree with Ryu with his account, you literally talk about how "It's strange nothing happened between you two". Statements should have a single clear unequivocal path that is not talked about immediately afterwards through some other choice that could have been another right answer.
- We all agree that Monosock just... doesn't make us feel anything, could be due to the silly topic of the demo.
- Just in case, we all agree too that relationship/sexuality drama should be kept to a non-canon demo and away from the game itself. It shouldn't drive any of the chapters of the game in any way.
- The declaration of the Hangman's Gambit being more fun than the one in the canon game... well... I have to disagree here, we all agree the minigame needs more polish before you could claim that:
- Chiaki's hairpin as the ship is a really cute touch.
- Going for a completely original minigame is a great choice, some danmaku is always welcome.
- A way to see what the question you were asked was while in the minigame, maybe when you focus as you need to read. Being able to read the specific question is a must.
- Spawn protection doesn't work well, you should make it longer and stop the spawn of letters and enemies while it happens. It was common to spawn/render in into a bullet and instantly die again.
- Pressing the button X on my controller made me explode, lost several lifes trying to see what was going on.
- A boss spawning should stop other letters from spawning, maybe other enemies altogether, it was common to shoot at another letter while trying to shoot at the boss and thus lose a life.
- It is not well linked how losing lives inside the minigame makes you lose your trial HP.
- Small enemies are too small and take too many hits (three), I would cut it down to two, there is not much space to maneuver around and they will always shoot at you before you can send three shots in. It is not clear in the tutorial explanation what these small enemies are, I expected sprites as thick as the ones with a letter, but without it.
All this feedback is given to you with our best constructive wishes and strength so you keep going with the project. We wish you see all of this feedback with good eyes and it doesn't discourage you. We wish you the best luck and thank you for your hard work!