Maps are too zoomed out. Characters should be more focused when talking.
Objects need shadows. Stuff looks flat.
Some tree areas need major rework. Too square/unnatural.
City mapping is better than the forest.
Battle screen feels like everything is shoved into the top half. Bottom half unused. Maybe put the turn counter on the bottom to spread the UI out a bit.
Camera in battle is too static. Move it around to make fights feel more dynamic.
Ethan appears in smoke and joins instantly. No one questions him? Could use a short moment to justify it, like him saving them from a monster ambush.
Ethan ruffling Alden’s hair feels too familiar for how little buildup there’s been. They're still strangers.
Speaking characters should always be near the center of the screen. Sometimes they’re hidden behind the textbox so it's like two invisible people are talking
Can’t walk up the stairs to the king. Looks like I should be able to.
The king sprite looks headless. Change the layering for the top of the chair to a star so his head doesn't get cut off.
I like that each character has their own mechanic.
Voice acting is good. For the boss, pitch shifting down would help sell that it’s something massive.
Music is strong and sets the tone well.
One character got one-shot, and I ran out of revival items. No revival spells either, so I was stuck with only two characters.
Worse, the autosave dropped me right before the golem boss cutscene with no way to prep. With a character already down, it felt like a softlock. That’s where I stopped. Only autosave after battles, not during map transitions. OR, revive dead members after battle with 1 HP.
Awesome for adding some bosses (or super bosses!) The drakes can be used for summons or normal enemies. You could even make a party out of them if you wanted. Some of Low's best work!
Sorry I had removed this post and put it on Twitter since we were exchanging there, but I would love trunk sway, this way you can just import the image of the tree from the tileset
Let me think of a good way to meet you halfway on this. I had zero experience with mapping last year when I started and just used trial and error to see what worked and what didn't, so I feel like if I can do it, so can you!
Thanks for your playthrough and feedback! I've went ahead and fixed all of the issues you've mentioned here for the next build, included the no exp on death part. I'm a strong believer in rewarding the player rather than punishing them, so why not? Let me know if you remember the other passable tile in the canyon map. The next build should have random equipment affixes (random chance to have stat prefixes and elemental suffixes) to spice up the randomized drops a bit and make them more varied. (I can also push the chance to drop more Aiya specific weapons and armor on that map since Isaac and Orman may already be decked out in Iron.)
Heyo! Thanks for joining D7's stream today! I fixed "spings" and a few other issues. The save file should be gone in the current build, just me playtesting the export and not clearing the folder. I'll look into zooming on the overworld maps. Thanks for the feedback, it helps me iron out the issues!
