itch.io

I know this is 2.5 weeks later, but on the 'gacha' subject, it was probably 'rebagacha' which has nothing to do with the games where you collect a bunch of characters by rolling for a low random chance at a higher rarity.

To my understanding, it comes from 'lever' (or control stick, like you would see on an arcade cabinet, but also modern video game controllers, which becomes 'reba' in katakana) and 'gacha' as a sound effect for something rattling around (which is the same root as where it comes from for gacha games, except in that case, it hearkens back to physical gacha machines where you insert a coin and get a random plastic capsule).

In other words, 'rebagacha' ultimately just means shaking the control stick like crazy to the point it makes a bunch of noise - or in more common English parlance, the intended effect is 'button mashing'. Random chance need not be a factor, and in fact just having to do something quickly or X times within a Y time frame was pretty common for how this worked in older games like this.

Regarding the QTE sections, they do feel a bit intense relative to the other parts of the game. I understand the desire to have there be a challenge so that the player doesn't just easily 'opt out' of the perils, but on the other hand, the current state adds a fair amount of tedium to the battles, which themselves can turn a bit repetitive after a bit.

Since there's already evidence of the intention to use stacking negative effects in the forms of cursed equipment and bad status passives, I would suggest using some of those to alter the QTE difficulty. Make the baseline struggling and avoidance easier, but have passives add the number of commands needed and/or reduce the time allotted for the inputs. If the difficulty of the QTEs gradually ramps up in this manner, it can create a more organic experience of the player being overconfident at first and then finding themselves in over their head.

Otherwise, there's a solid foundation here; don't let me critique of the QTE take away from the rest of the game. Looking forward to see what is added next.

Oh, and a quick bug report: The Stuffed Sheep seems meant to remove a cursed Cold Hairpin, but it actually removes Silky Stockings. Guessing the curse removal items were cloned from one another when created, but it should be an easy fix.