Hi, sorry for two topics in a row. I wanted to properly put these in their correct places though, so I hope you don't mind!
I had some suggestions and general feedback!
Overall I liked the game a lot. The quality of the art was really good, I especially liked the gameplay sprites. (I think my only minor gripe with the art is Mikoto's dark nose feels like, kind of distracting to look at? It stands out a lot on her face.)
The gameplay was fun but controls took getting used to. Generally I like the feeling of moving the characters, but I wish I could rebind the keys. Having to hold A and press Z for a running jump is simply awkward (I'd personally leave A as is, and move the run functionality to the Shift Key).
Another awkward nitpick would be Pressing A and Holding Up to access spell cards, I don't even have a great suggestion for how else to do this one. I would pull up the menu on accident sometimes, and when I did want to use it I would sometimes let go of A on accident trying to select a spell. I think, maybe, making it harder to open the spell menu might be good, but having it be a toggle instead, once it's open you have to actively back out of it.
Alright! So, combat. It's a little rough, honestly. My first experience was getting steamrolled by an enemy, so I avoided combat for an entire run afterwards. Some notes, my first encounter startled me a little, which was good! I like when games are able to startle or scare me a bit. That being said, it's actually super easy to just run from the enemies except the painting woman, once I discovered that, most tension left the game pretty immediately.
Suggestion: Introduce some weaker enemies to let players get a taste of combat before throwing them to the wolves, that way they want to engage with the systems. Secondly, please, please, lower the post processing effects a bit. I can't hardly see when enemies are on screen because of it. In the room full of enemies you can reach from the safe room I literally could not see at all, it's just a bit much.
That aside, once I did begin engaging with combat it still was a test of patience. The basic enemy feels like unavoidable damage, which if the goal is sort of Resi/SH style chip damage to incur resource drain, I kind of get it. But it makes the existence of the dodgeroll feel mostly useless except for some of the bigger enemy spells that get cast. My main strategy was really to just use spell cards, melee combat felt woefully under powered. I still wound up giving up on fighting once I realized there wasn't much in the way of rewards.
Cool, that was a lot of text, sorry if it felt a bit negative on the whole. I did overall enjoy my time, but I wound up enjoying it for mostly non-combat reasons. To get to that:
Exploration is fun! I enjoyed it a lot, just looking around, finding weird rooms, new diaries to read. You have managed to build a strong sense of atmosphere, and I dreaded some areas more than others. But my desire to see them overpowered any negative feelings too. I'd really like more platforming challenges actually, while the girls are kind of, heavy on their jumps, I still enjoyed whatever brief platforming there was! I was surprised the jump pad was only in a single room. That being said maybe environmental damage should be disabled for AI controlled partners. I had my ai partner kill themself multiple times, and on spikes there was just no way to get them back after that either, it felt kind of unfair.
The timer is cool, I only discovered the resource to extend it after uh, my second run? More small ways to move it could be nice. Let it feel like you're really fighting it off but still have it be inevitable. It builds tension, and the woman leaving the painting and mobbing you down the first time is a great experience.
Some misc notes on the game:
- I was briefly confused why I couldn't pick up more currency before realizing there's a limit. Maybe indicate the maximum when you pick some up or something.
- I was storing the diaries I found to not lose them when I died. I then discovered you can get duplicates, maybe they should be one time pickups? It would also be nice if all of them were labeled on their order, only the one set seems to be.
- The separate character inventories is a cool idea, but does get a little cumbersome at times. I think you should be able to switch between your characters in any page of the menu, really just for convenience.
- This isn't feedback. I just wanted to say I have no idea how to get the other ending, I've played the game like 3 times now and have not managed to figure it out. I believe I've explored the entire house.
Alright so, really enjoyed this. I think the only reason I had so much feedback was because I did think it was cool and I want to see it get even better! Congrats on the demo release, and I look forward to what you make in the future!