Hi there,
Let me just start by saying I LOVE this! Super Mario RPG was one of my all-time favorite games and this truly feels like its spiritual successor. I only just ran across this on Kickstarter and wish I had found it sooner to become a backer! You should feel incredibly proud of what you have made so far and what I know this game will be!
I spent about an hour playing through the demo and exploring every inch of the map, and I did have a few comments. Apologies if some of these points are redundant from the feedback other players have given:
First off, I LOVE the art style! Everything felt colorful and the two maps felt very distinct and unique. It is very reminiscent of SMRPG but different somehow... More toy-like which I think you were going for. Only a few comments on the art. First is on the 'edges' of some of the tiles. What comes to mind specifically is the corners of the ledges when exploring the forest (going towards the area with the HP Crystal). I would suggest adding a bit of rounding or texture (tufts of grass, bump outs, etc) to make it look less 'blocky'. Also, there were some areas in the town where it looked like I should have been able to walk behind and become occluded by buildings a bit more before colliding, but it looked like I was colliding with the roof. I would tweak this a bit if you want a bit more realism and immersion.
Along with the art style, I wanted to address the UI a bit. It felt fairly intuitive which is nice, but I felt like it could have benefited from a few more icons in some places (specifically around the equipment screen). I know this adds more complexity, so take it as you will. Overall, it reminded my very much of SMRPG's UI and inventory system. My only other feedback here is that I loved how the UI prompted you when you had points to spend after leveling. I would suggest two things around this: First, apply a similar effect when the player receives new equipment or key items. Second, similar to SMRPG, I would incorporate the point allocation automatically at the end of the battle when the player levels up instead of leaving the player to do it on their own after the battle ends. Optionally, the player could choose not to do this and save their points to be allocated later from the menu screen. Again, both of these are a matter of personal preference and totally up to you.
Next up the mechanics. Overall, the battle system is a love letter to SMRPG and you have done a great job with it. However, to echo what others have said, the timing feels a bit unforgiving. I could almost always perform a great or perfect timed attack or defend in SMRPG, but even after playing through the whole demo, I was still getting a LOT of "Too Slow" or "Too Fast" feedback. I'm not sure how this is implemented in the code, but I assume there is some sort of either frame or deltaTime threshold for each timing category. I think the range in which a "perfect" can be achieved is fine--this should be something that is hard to master since it completely negates damage and provides major critical hits. That being said, I would increase the threshold before and after the "sweet spot" in which reacting is successful. It feels like the threshold where reaction works is very short (around 100ms or about 10 frames). I would tweak this and test it out around double the current threshold and see how it feels. In addition, I think I found a bug on the attack. If I rapidly tap the action button, I can get "Too Slow" then "Great" with one attack. Not sure if this is intended, but I think once the button is pressed, any other input for that attack should be "locked out". I didn't notice this while defending.
I am on the fence with the mana system. On the one hand, I love that it recovers. It feels like more of a reward for fighting and is a nice difference from SMRPG. On the other hand, I feel like the limited pool of mana makes this feature almost necessary. I mistakenly entered the major boss battle without buying any ethers and nearly got wiped out because it took a few turns to realize that Niro's mana wasn't regenerating as I cast spells or got attacked--only when I physically attacked the boss. Up until the boss battle, this felt pretty intuitive, and it could have just been my own stupidity. Either way, maybe you could try testing out how this mechanic feels if 1/4 of the mana point is restored every turn. Either that or scale spell costs to fractions of a point. Even in SMRPG with a larger pool of flowers, I found myself entering battles with a ton of syrups to restore them since special attacks were so important. I feel like this will be even more true in this game. Also, going back to the UI again, I would tweak the mana gauge slightly to light up each quadrant of the crystal as mana is restored (rather than just filling it from left to right). Just a small detail, but I feel like it might look more refined since the mana points already take the shape of four-sided crystals.
As for the general flow and progression, everything felt really good. I felt like the strength of the monsters and size of the map were appropriate. By exploring the whole map and fighting everything, I was plenty prepared to fight the orc mini-boss. He did feel like a bit of a pushover, but I would attribute that to him being the first mini-boss of the game and me being a bit "over-leveled" from having fought everything that moved. The boss itself was appropriately challenging (as mentioned). I feel like it hit that "sweet spot" where I may have had to grind a bit more if I had breezed through the map, but not to the point where it would be excruciating. Also, if I had realized the point about the mana sooner, I probably wouldn't have come so close to being decimated. I loved the hidden crystals. They were a nice nod to flower tabs/jars, and I love that they feel like collectibles and enhance more than just mana. I would have liked to see a few more items along the way (again, maybe this is just due to the fact that it was the first map) and another nice enhancement from what SMRPG offered would be to add more 'destructibles' around the map with lower-valued items (barrels, crates, etc). Then chests could be reserved for more higher-valued items (like the reviving potion... Sorry, I forgot the actual name for it... Sap?)
Last but not least is the music. Like others have said, it (sadly) felt wholly forgettable. I dived into the game before fully reading the info on Kickstarter and was wondering why the battle music seemed to start mid-way through the loop. It took a while for me to realize that the battle music was a variation of the map music. Obviously, one of the staples of SMRPG was its soundtrack. My biggest advice is to separate the map and battle themes. You are transitioning from a passive state to a fighting state and in my opinion, the music should reflect that. I liked the theme for the mini-boss. I feel like that would be a great theme for the normal battle. In addition, adding more variation to the map soundtrack would make a world of difference. It felt like one continuous track and it was hard to tell where one loop ended and the next began. I'm no music expert, but I think what makes a soundtrack feel memorable are variations in the melody--the same way songs have a chorus and bridge, the background music should as well (without the vocals of course)
Again, let me say that what you have so far feels so polished and close to being a masterpiece. I look forward to playing the full version! Please let me know if I can help out in any way. My expertise is in programming, but I also studied and got a degree in game development, so I would be happy to contribute however I can!
Regards,
Ryan Bishop (TheGreatHero)