I played a bit and I had some thoughts. Overall I liked the concept a lot, but some of these might be a little nitpicky.
First of all, very minor but I thought the title screen would have really benefited from a ticking sound when the clock hand moved around! Another small detail is that at the very beginning, and I believe also when reloading saves, the camera starts in the top left and then quickly pans to center on the player. Why not just center on the player from the beginning?
I wasn't a fan of the pixel art you used for most of the city walls. It blends in the tiles on the ground way too much and makes it hard to tell what's a wall and what isn't. On the subject of art, I also thought the grandpa looked much more like "grandma" until his gender was clarified.
After buying the apples, it took a long time to figure out where to go. Did I miss something? How was I supposed to know to go to the guy's house? I assumed he was going to meet me at home because that's where he originally went. This was also made more confusing since I had tried going into random houses when buying the apple and none of them worked, so I didn't realize I'd be able to after giving the food. Also, after my friend was injured and whatnot I headed into the forest, only to be told after walking for a while that I had to let my grandpa know I was going. This totally broke the flow for me. Why not make me tell him before I enter the forest rather than a few screens in?
During my first battle, I found myself randomly using moves with no idea what they did. I died on my first try but eventually won on my second try. Personally I would have liked to have some idea what the moves did before being thrown into battle and told to use them, but maybe that's just me. Speaking of which, why do all these characters have these magic abilities they use to fight? I found the battle with the archer confusing. Why do the arrows not move when placed? Is it supposed to be like he's moving so fast that he shoots them and moves before the arrows have the time to move, and then during my turns time is frozen so they don't move still? Also, I couldn't figure out why the enemy was sometimes invulnerable to my attacks, but other times could be hit. Maybe I was missing something?
Also, I wasn't a big fan of the music. Some of it felt a little out of place. I thought the forest music would have sounded a bit more sinister than it did.
Okay, sorry I just complained a lot, I don't mean to be too critical. The transition effects are awesome and I love the concept! I liked that even though you can only move on your turn, some of your effects carry over into the enemy turn and can interfere with them!
I hope my feedback helps and I'll look forward to seeing more!
Thanks a lot for playing and writing all this up! Really means a lot. I'll try and address each question.
I'll be taking the next few weeks to touch up the art, including fixing the things you listed and improving color palettes. Regarding the music, which ones specifically felt out of place? It's my first time making music, actually (which is why the demo took so long) so any outside opinions are helpful.
For dialogue, I tried to structure it so that the characters hint at where to go without telling you exactly what to do (for example, the old lady asks if you have someone to talk to before you go), but I did accidentally leave out some details in the first conversation with your friend, so that was a mistake on my part. I'll also move the dialogue gate up to the city.
I didn't want to make the tutorial too long, so I decided to let the player learn what each move does by using them in battle. Seeing as how a few other playtesters died from that boss too, it'll probably be rebalanced to give the player more time to learn what each ability does. The stone grants the player the magic abilities, which I should add more detail about, but haven't decided where yet.
The archer boss basically sets the arrows in place then activates them on his next turn - they're not normal arrows. Because of how the battle system works, I have to design enemies and bosses so that their attacks are dodgeable and aren't unpredictable, so if the arrows moved when the boss shot them the player would have no way of dodging them (they can't move on the enemy turn). Also, the boss shields any attack that isn't the same element color as the one he's attacking with. If he's shooting blue arrows, you can only attack him with ice attacks.
Community
