Unity Completed At the Mountains of Friendship [v1.4] [Apollo Seven]

[shadowgallery2012]

How do I save the progress, Is there a save button?

 

[Apollo Seven]

LGBT tag wut ?

There's a few characters that are straight up lesbians, and a few more who are bi.

I'm guessing that after a girl dies once or twice, she becomes unavailable? Which would imply that it'd be best to focus on teams that gain permanent buffs as fast as possible, if true. I've only done two runs, which both ended in failure for the same reasons you cite. The dark void in me demands to know if there is any proper ending to this game, constituting a full run, so I'm going to bang my head against this game one more time at default difficulty, then dialing it down to the lowest level.

If anyone knows if there is a final boss, I will greatly appreciate that knowledge, posted here. Thanks!

Yes, if a girl dies, she's dead for good.
There is a final boss, it happens on round 16 and is a big, tentaclly, grinny monster with really high base stats.

Apollo Seven

5 minutes into this game and it's very apparent that the game does a terrible job of teaching the player how to play the game. You should assume that new players know nothing. The fact that the UI's numbers aren't labelled, there's no mouse over function with a popup text box to tell you more about what the numbers or terminology means, no explaination for how much Eldrich energy you are expected to get per round, no explaination for what the exclamation mark on the girl you buy indicates, the item on the left looked like it was a permanent starting item but it turns out it might be something you have to buy, how do you buy it? (b/c clicking it highlights it). It's possible that the gameplay is good but there's just too much stuff that should be explained but isn't

1. It needs a tutorial to explain what the UI means. There's a lot of numbers, terms and buttons that all have no explanation for what they do. For example it would have been nice if the game tells you that recruiting a girl costs 3 eldrich energy, and you start with 3 Eldrich Energy per round. Edit: apparently you start w/ 3 but you gain 3+round#. Who knew?

2. After picking the 1st girl it looks like a tutorial screen where you're supposed to click next, but if you do, you get a game over instead. The fact that the game would allow you to progress without clicking on a girl and game over instantly is a really bad oversight in design

3. The scene viewer doesn't show any H-scenes it's just a bunch of dialogue. WTF?

4. On the fight screen the X button doesn't cancel the girl from the team, as one might expect it just selects them. Apparently once selected you have to click on the "eye" icon for the monster you want the girl to fight. Honestly, it would have been much simpler and more intuitive to make the X button cancel the girl from the team and allow for clicking and dragging to position them

Yeah new player experience is usually the biggest problem with my games. There is a tutorial that plays out over several turns but I admit it's not that great. To be fair, this is just kind of how the genre is, they're short experiences you're supposed to play many times and figure out the fine details of the mechanics over time. It's hard to strike a balance between telling the players what does what exactly and providing too much information they don't actually need at the moment.
And the scene player shows the girls full story line in sequence. So it shows the buildup before it shows the actual sex scenes. You can just skip through them and not read them though.

This is... oddly addicting. Growing my team to be stronger is really fun, though I think Dominique being so powerful makes her feel borderline necessary for me, permabuffs are crazy. Maybe having a few more like her would help make her seem less needed on every run? Other than lower difficulty runs, of course, where it seems like you can use whatever the fuck you want, which I appreciate a lot.

As for those complaining about not knowing what to do, I figured everything out just by clicking on shit, it's not an overly complicated game. Recruit screen lets you buy a new girl for 3 'eldritch' energy (or by a new ability for a girl), buy an item and equip it to a recruited girl for 2, reroll the shop (lower right button of the three in the top right), or lock the shop for next round (lower left button of the three in the top right).

For the battle screen, click a girl, then click the circle next to the monster you want her to fight. You can put as many girls as you want on a monster. First number is the monster's power, then their health, same for the girls. If the monster has a special ability, the game will display it on the monster. Block all monsters or you lose.

(also also really good fuckin' stuff, excited to see more girls and scenes added.)

I'm glad you like it. Dominique I think is actually not that good on higher difficulties. She does scale things easily, but really not very fast compared to what other girls can do. Lots of girls can do permanent buffing of themselves of others, just usually not as straightforward.

What they described.
You gather girls and show them unearthly horrors, forcing them to become sluts to ease off the mental stress.
Each girl has a certain fetish focus, the more corrupt she is, the more she can fight.
"lesbian" tag present, so take a guess what else is in store.
"tentacle" tag present, so I'm excited, too.
I just hope I can avoid the whole "MMF gangbang" "prostitution" "netorare" line, because I want lesbians scissoring and getting plowed by the 'so called Monster Protagonist' and his tentacles :3

If you want to see specific content, either go by the fetish tags, or unlock the gallery and look through to what interests you. If you like lesbian scissoring and tentacles, the Elizabeth(Tentacles) + Sofia(Older man) max friendship scene is probably right up your alley since it has both.

How do I save the progress, Is there a save button?

You can't save individual runs.

 

[AExMachina]

Had a bug (I assume) where you could only hire three girls and trying to hire more would just send them straight to abyss after spending the cost. I think it was related to not watching the scenes as on the second try I watched through all the scenes as soon as they were available and didn't get the same bug. Or maybe I was missing something, hard to tell.

 

[SunSeeker1]

Just got this game and it takes a few runs to understand what to do. Right now i'm using dominique with her permabuffs and the gangbang girl (sorry forgot her name) and they grow incredibly well! Dom gives perma atk buffs while the gangbang girl increases all atk buffs she recieves by a set amount. In my last run got her up to 170 dmg (but it was not enough to kill the last boss T_T)

 

[Brinline]

Just got this game and it takes a few runs to understand what to do. Right now i'm using dominique with her permabuffs and the gangbang girl (sorry forgot her name) and they grow incredibly well! Dom gives perma atk buffs while the gangbang girl increases all atk buffs she recieves by a set amount. In my last run got her up to 170 dmg (but it was not enough to kill the last boss T_T)

WTF

 

[EmeraldKhopesh]

Can someone who actually knows how this game works explain what literally any of the numbers do? Stats in a game like this are important, but I have no idea on what is used for attacking or health or anything.

Also, heads up to finally feeling like I know what I'm doing (without any knowledge of why) only to immediately get set with multiple enemies I have to face at once. No meatgrinder of wearing down one foe at a time, you have to assign a warm body to each enemy on each round. Yeah, getting a support person is garbage when you HAVE TO immediately assign them to an enemy that instantly ganks them.

 

[hoobatooba]

Minor bug: in settings, the music volume slider properly reduces all the way down as you slide it from right to left... but then when you reach 0 (far left) the music is suddenly full volume. I just left it just above there, can't hear it.

 

[Fake Count]

I don't know what the yellow number is. Is it level? Cost? Red is damage and green is health.

I agree the dom is not the best . . . I thought the exp buff would apply to her and all girls in battle, not just the other girls in her combat. On the flipside, Cynthia's buff absorption can be sort of crazy with Elizabeth and Maya.

I see a vote for free on patreon thing in game. Is there another location to vote as I don't see it being free on patreon. I think doubling down on the eldritch themes makes sense given there relative scarcity. Elizabeth is sort of the only character that goes in that direction right now. Magic spells, living clothes, shapeshifting, etc. would be thematic.

The black hat item is pretty dark and given the limited recruits, and while one of the more interesting items, I don't think its very good. I think more item selection would be good as there aren't too many others that are all that interesting. Items that give bonuses based on positioning would be cool.

Given the limited party size, it is very difficult to get matchups to lvl 4 given that each character has so few (only 2). And they are all clearly not all equally strong in combat so playing at normal or above difficulty is much harder if you try to use the less powerful characters. I'm wondering what the highest difficulty cleared is using some of the weaker characters is. I imagine these issues will get worse when more characters are added.

Also, giving xp seems restricted in manners that aren't transparent. Limiting it to only 4 per round is . . . eh, a design choice of all time I guess? And this is sort of rendered obsolete by the item that gives levels.

In regards to bugs, the one I noticed the most was when you hide text, the text doesn't hide and advancing text becomes finicky. I have to click near the name area or text won't advance afterwards. It would also be neat to be able to press space or something to advance text.

Let me know if you want more feedback.

 

[Apollo Seven]

Can someone who actually knows how this game works explain what literally any of the numbers do? Stats in a game like this are important, but I have no idea on what is used for attacking or health or anything.

Also, heads up to finally feeling like I know what I'm doing (without any knowledge of why) only to immediately get set with multiple enemies I have to face at once. No meatgrinder of wearing down one foe at a time, you have to assign a warm body to each enemy on each round. Yeah, getting a support person is garbage when you HAVE TO immediately assign them to an enemy that instantly ganks them.

The green number is health, and the red number is attack. On some screens there's a yellow number anjd that affects her abilities but that info is all calculated for you in her ability description so it's largely just for easy reference when recruiting or assigning the girls. Every other stat like EXP and such is shown pretty much only on the girl stat sheet and is labled.

I see a vote for free on patreon thing in game. Is there another location to vote as I don't see it being free on patreon. I think doubling down on the eldritch themes makes sense given there relative scarcity. Elizabeth is sort of the only character that goes in that direction right now. Magic spells, living clothes, shapeshifting, etc. would be thematic.

I haven't put it up yet just to avoid bombarding patrons with posts. I was planning on putting it up tomorrow.

The black hat item is pretty dark and given the limited recruits, and while one of the more interesting items, I don't think its very good. I think more item selection would be good as there aren't too many others that are all that interesting. Items that give bonuses based on positioning would be cool.

I agree that the item selection is pretty uninspired. Making them more interesting and varied is something I plan to work on.

Given the limited party size, it is very difficult to get matchups to lvl 4 given that each character has so few (only 2). And they are all clearly not all equally strong in combat so playing at normal or above difficulty is much harder if you try to use the less powerful characters. I'm wondering what the highest difficulty cleared is using some of the weaker characters is. I imagine these issues will get worse when more characters are added.

You have to find synergies between them. Some girls and abilities only really shine when paired together. There really aren't "weak" characters, they all have uses in various situations.

Let me know if you want more feedback.

I always appreciate feedback, thanks.

 

[nulnil]

my eyes fucking hurt holy shit. the hud is eldritch horror.

 

[Fake Count]

I agree that the item selection is pretty uninspired. Making them more interesting and varied is something I plan to work on.

A risk of having too many items is that with only 1 shop slot, you'll need to reroll an impractical amount to see items you want. With skill trees or other improvements then that could be an option there.

You have to find synergies between them. Some girls and abilities only really shine when paired together. There really aren't "weak" characters, they all have uses in various situations.

I think Sophia isn't very good tbh. Her extra energy is ok (energy seems to be capped?), her stat boost to recruits is super situational and awful outside of early game, and her ability change boost is gambling at best and will only get worse as more characters are added. She's supposed to be a leader, but has abilities of a logistics manager. My issue is she doesn't seem to synergize with anyone despite being one of the friendlier characters.

Compare her to:

1. Cynthia
   1. Weak start, but can get permanent HP increases.
   2. When you've built up your team a little, she can get half of buffs (including item self buffs) as permanent increases.
   3. At endgame, you can switch to x1.5 buff impact when you can't upgrade her further.
   4. Also, she likes all pets, so goes great with Maya.
2. Elizabeth
   1. Worst ability is make lowest stat equal to highest. It isn't bad, but it is a little niche. Good with Emma and Madison.
   2. Boost back. Not the greatest, but gives a significant boost to one character.
   3. Boost all in fight with her is her best ability as it just gives so much total stats in the fights it matters.
3. Maya
   1. She's pretty much just lots of stat buffs in different configurations.
4. Natalia
   1. Debuffing attack can prevent enemies from doing damage. This is great and combos really strongly with Riley.
   2. Disable enemy abilities is very strong when the abilities include deathtouch and splash damage.
   3. MHP reduction on enemies is her worst one and its still never a dead ability.
5. Madison
   1. Double damage when on front is strong. Unfortunately it applies before any other buffs.
   2. Converting health buffs to damage is strong and can effectively be "double strength buffs, lose health buffs".

I could go on and review all of them, but I hope that I get my point across.

Also, some story endings other than mental obliteration would be neat.

I look forward to see where this game goes. (Not sure if it should have the 'completed' tag tho.)

 

[epicrouter01]

There is a button that turns everything RED. What does it do?

 

[EmeraldKhopesh]

The green number is health, and the red number is attack. On some screens there's a yellow number anjd that affects her abilities but that info is all calculated for you in her ability description so it's largely just for easy reference when recruiting or assigning the girls. Every other stat like EXP and such is shown pretty much only on the girl stat sheet and is labled.

Thank you kindly for the explanation. Now I'm able to make it past the first boss and am enjoying the game.

Update: Just finished my first full run and eventually felt like I was unstoppable. Honestly, it feels like it ended too soon. Sometimes the girls' abilities are bad, but when they combo they combo.

 

[Guylos]

Loved the game, Everything worked as intended by the looks of things, and interactions between characters with no scenes was still a nice touch.
A couple of points
1. Are you planning on adding more content for the existing characters or just new content from now on? I thought the Dom and Tamara stuff was great I'd like to see more of them.
2. The balance isn't quite there.
I. Sophia is entirely locked behind her buff on reshuffle trait, everything else about her is basically useless so if you don't get this early she's dead weight.
II. Losing a character at any point after near halfway is just a reset. There aren't really any great catachup mechanics which again is why Sophia's recruit buffs are wasted.
III. Cynthia being op is funny given her personality but she is VERY strong when it hits right
IV. I don't think Natalia scales well aside from her ability that shuts off abilities 6 attack is relevant at one point but near the end it's nothing.

 

[Apollo Seven]

A risk of having too many items is that with only 1 shop slot, you'll need to reroll an impractical amount to see items you want. With skill trees or other improvements then that could be an option there.



I think Sophia isn't very good tbh. Her extra energy is ok (energy seems to be capped?), her stat boost to recruits is super situational and awful outside of early game, and her ability change boost is gambling at best and will only get worse as more characters are added. She's supposed to be a leader, but has abilities of a logistics manager. My issue is she doesn't seem to synergize with anyone despite being one of the friendlier characters.

Compare her to:

1. Cynthia
   1. Weak start, but can get permanent HP increases.
   2. When you've built up your team a little, she can get half of buffs (including item self buffs) as permanent increases.
   3. At endgame, you can switch to x1.5 buff impact when you can't upgrade her further.
   4. Also, she likes all pets, so goes great with Maya.
2. Elizabeth
   1. Worst ability is make lowest stat equal to highest. It isn't bad, but it is a little niche. Good with Emma and Madison.
   2. Boost back. Not the greatest, but gives a significant boost to one character.
   3. Boost all in fight with her is her best ability as it just gives so much total stats in the fights it matters.
3. Maya
   1. She's pretty much just lots of stat buffs in different configurations.
4. Natalia
   1. Debuffing attack can prevent enemies from doing damage. This is great and combos really strongly with Riley.
   2. Disable enemy abilities is very strong when the abilities include deathtouch and splash damage.
   3. MHP reduction on enemies is her worst one and its still never a dead ability.
5. Madison
   1. Double damage when on front is strong. Unfortunately it applies before any other buffs.
   2. Converting health buffs to damage is strong and can effectively be "double strength buffs, lose health buffs".

I could go on and review all of them, but I hope that I get my point across.

Also, some story endings other than mental obliteration would be neat.

I look forward to see where this game goes. (Not sure if it should have the 'completed' tag tho.)

There are a few items that could be taken out pretty easily and replaced. I'm not planning to bump up the number all that much.
I think Sophia can shine in some builds. It's true that the buff girls on purchase ability is bad late game, but that's true of some other abilities too. And if you get her high enough level the buff she gives girls on changing abilities can be pretty crazy scaling.

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

There is a button that turns everything RED. What does it do?

It shows you what will happen in combat, it's a preview. Use it to adjust your plans if needed.

 

[kulon1]

my coomer brain is too dumb for this, so i used the view scene mode, do i miss any scenes with that ?

 

[epicrouter01]

There are a few items that could be taken out pretty easily and replaced. I'm not planning to bump up the number all that much.
I think Sophia can shine in some builds. It's true that the buff girls on purchase ability is bad late game, but that's true of some other abilities too. And if you get her high enough level the buff she gives girls on changing abilities can be pretty crazy scaling.

I'm glad you're enjoying it.


It shows you what will happen in combat, it's a preview. Use it to adjust your plans if needed.

I'm talking about this button, on the Main Screen. It doesn't seems to change anything except applying this red filter. How does it work?

 

[YetAnotherGamer]

It shows you what will happen in combat, it's a preview. Use it to adjust your plans if needed.

It wasn't obvious to me that the numbers were changing since they retain their colors and all the monster ones are white on black. Meanwhile, a large section of the screen obviously changed by turning red. Must mean that side will lose, right? It mixed me up last night, combined with thinking I could only assign one character per fight, so I died on turn 2 in my first game.

My suggestion is to do something to characters who will die to make it obvious, like inverting the triangle for the PCs and drawing the monster ones in black text on a red triangle, drawing a thick outline on the triangle (either side), or something similar to bring your attention to it.

 

[YetAnotherGamer]

I'm talking about this button, on the Main Screen. It doesn't seems to change anything except applying this red filter. How does it work?

It locks the current characters and item so they will be available for you on your next turn, assuming you win the battle phase. (I assume the icon is a chain link; I would have expected a padlock that changes from open to locked.)

 

[epicrouter01]

It locks the current characters and item so they will be available for you on your next turn, assuming you win the battle phase.

Thanks. Can i somehow remove a character from my party?