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Ah, if it helps, completing other endings first will give extra prestige currency you can use, and space-bar can quick pause battles! I've seen people beat it with multiple strata from power + crit to poison + luck, though the skill that gives free AP and the specialist strike skill is generally pretty good!

Fair suspicion! The story is also hand crafted, though "Uncanny valley" is definitely a main theme I tried using for the events, especially in the early parts, so I can see how it reads that way. Honestly the em dash is so versatile that I just can't NOT use it; whoever hates it can pry them from my cold dead hands lol. Glad you enjoyed the puzzle aspects!!

And yeah Nova is designed to be this amorphous lil blob that players can envision how they see fit, so i think it's fitting to apply it to Novelle too :D

Check out the toggle in the settings where I says "show advanced formulae"! For the most part combat stats are used for move calculation and bonus stats

Thank you, glad to hear you enjoyed it!

They do a lil sippy sip :D

Did not expect someone to come here from TV tropes haha, hope you enjoyed the game!

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

Fair criticism on the perception, it was more intended to be a meta step and key to some puzzles, but those puzzles didn't fit the vibe of "mildly strategic incremental" so it didn't end up makingthe cut.

"Imperfect final form" is definitely designed to be one of the harder fights, the idea being that players would have to strategize with what they have instead of a focused stat.

Regardless, thanks for playing! :)

Ah sorry to hear that, glad you figured it out eventually though!

The big humgy

Haha yeah, I do miss the flash era where it isn't uncommon to see full games being posted online — my love for games definitely stemmed from there, but I also get the argument that it doesn't pay bills. Hopefully this inspires others to make their own cool games someday.

Thanks for playing!! :D

Thanks for playing! Someone's been saved file diving :D 

Haha yeah that was a vestigial thing left over when I was thinking up different mechanics, and that involved a feature that didn't quite make the cut

Try stumbling across them in different stages! Each stage has an "ultimate" skill :)

Achievements button on the top right (star icon), bottom row C:

Haha fwiw there's a few routes where the final encounter becomes a non-issue, try fiddling around with the "ultimate" perks for each stage!

Thank you for playing!!

Hey, thanks for the review! Fwiw, the game is designed such that the move you get from the system isn't necessarily required to beat that encounter — it does make it easier, but it can also be overcome with a couple more embers spent on perks :)

Glad it worked for ya! Hope you enjoy the rest of the game :D

More or less, yes! I'd like to think that the game kind of puts the player in the lens of our little guy, and the choices made in the game reflect the player's, and by extension, NOVA's intent :)

Ah, *that* dude! If you dont mind a bit of spoilers:

The "renew" move to clear debuffs and "suppression" skill (that you get from defeating A.X.S.U in combat) should help a lot in this fight! Also spacebar helps you quick pause :D

Aww, thanks for replaying! Happy to hear you still enjoyed it!

Hi! This part is meant to be a "puzzle" in the sense that you'd need to find the right skill in the cascade (reset screen) to progress! Try the "amoeboid movement" upgrade in "the protoform"! As long as you have "pseudopodia", you will get the speed boost!

Thanks for playing and for your kind words! :D

Fair take with acuity! It was initially meant to be a meta-stat: at one point, there were meant to be a few event-related puzzles that could also be skipped with high enough acuity, but that idea ended up falling through after i found it to not blend well mechanistically with the rest of the game considering the genre. Like you mentioned, it ended up being more of a companion stat, though I agree that its utility can definitely improved!

Lol, I get where you're coming from, sometimes I tend to be cautious too whenever i worried i'd be locked into decisions :p

Fair take with the endings! The "A" endings were meant to elicit a "distant" and "objective" feeling, something akin to "this is how the world is affected" though I do see how it can pull away from being something that's engaging/unique. The protoform cheese was definitely something that occurred to me and was why these costs were so high to begin with (used to be gated by the original "challenge mode" balancing); now I just consider it a feature, and that whoever pulls it off has earned the cheese lol

Yee the final eye upgrade could be a bit more interesting. The effects were all done with CSS, which I'm still learning to get better at, and i wanted something that was different enough but also not a migraine inducing nightmare (the red-stage filter was reportedly a problem for a small portion of players, hence the option to toggle it off). The hue shift is definitely a neat idea!

Thank you for playing!! :D

Thank you! Happy to hear that BIOTOMATA kept you engaged all the way! Definitely fair that the stage 2 run was hard, since poison is one of the slightly more rng-dependent stats. 2-in-a-row experimental treatment corrosion does feel good tho hehe

Interesting suggestion with the enemy pools! I'd intended for BIOTOMATA to be fairly linear, and for players being able to decimate enemies after defeating them 2-3 times (save for the final area enemies), but it is interesting to think what the game would play like if I took a more roguelite approach :)

Ayyy congrats on 100%-ing! "Challenge mode" was the game's original balancing, so you're right that it's definitely achievable with the right strategy and build! The game was made easier since playtesting reviewed some found it a little too hard (which is fair, since it is part incremental/idle!), and the challenge mode toggle was made because there were also those who enjoyed the original challenge :)

Also, completely relate to you on the I NEED MORE part lmao. I get so sad whenever i near the end of a really good game i played knowing it may be forever before i find another that makes me feel a similar way. It's so bittersweet to hear that BIOTOMATA made your list <3

The ascension perks are reassign-able, you can click on them again to unassign, so you can respec your build every time you reset!

Ooh, last section definitely requires a bit of build crafting, especially if you're doing the purple route (unless you max it out). Some hints would be:

- make sure you're completing tasks (bottom right blinky, those give bonus xp)

- the final skill for each stage in the ascension tree is very powerful, and you'll probably need to have one equipped (depending on which route you want to go) and synergize with it to beat the final boss

- final boss activates their skill at 75%; bursting is definitely an option!

Aww tysm! I definitely tried to make it as engaging as possible while still maintaining the idle/incremental "vibe", and I'm happy you appreciate it!

I'm also still really happy that people seem to be enjoying the "good" endings. Low-key I wish more horror games have happy endings haha, I like a good spook but also a "hell yeah we did it" feeling at the end :p

AHH yeah that's totally fair! Phrasing for the part-spefific upgrades was definitely a challenge for me; couldn't quite figure out how to word the description — "install" and "attached" feel just as weird, so I kinda settled on "equipped" for the time. Definitely open to suggestions tho!

Fair enough, thanks for playing, and I'm happy that you enjoyed the art!

For autocasting, you can long hold the moves. If you want to save that between combats, the setting should be "Remember Autocast Moves". Hope this helps, and congrats on 100%-ing!

You may or may not have missed something, yes... :P

Spoilers:

In the cascade, scroll down to ascension > the protoform > amoeboid movement

You'll unlock a stat later that makes you no longer need this skill :)

Fair enough haha, thank you for playing and happy you enjoyed it!

hehe, it's meant to be a bit sinister after all :p

That's quite odd! You should be able to hard reset by clicking on the save icon > Hard Reset > Yes, Begin Anew

Could you send me a screenshot of the issue?

Oh, may I know if you're zoomed in or using a screen with a lower resolution? I'm not able to control the follow and add to collection overlay, unfortunately! I would recommend either zooming out on the page using your browser (and then hitting refresh) or using the fullscreen mode provided by itch. 

Hope this helps!

Unfortunately not, haha. I've always intended for BIOTOMATA to be several hours/days of a fun, self-contained web experience, and I'm not particularly active on social media to begin with :p 

That being said, the game *is* designed to let player imagination fill in the blanks, and it's really cool to hear that you have many ideas! If you do end up creating stuff, feel free to shoot me a link in the comments. It's always cool to read about how others interpret the plot and aftermaths :D

And ty!!! The UI was really fun to figure out how to implement when I was creating the game, I'm so happy that you appreciate it! Here's hoping you have a fun rest of the weekend with the game!

Items are passive use; their boosts are applied automatically :)