- Dec 4, 2019
- 33
- 23
Hello again NoseBecc, long time no see, since 2020 lol
Happy you're back n.n
Happy you're back n.n
Yea I already had that downloaded lol very little help. Really only made my head spin taking a look at it.
Can someone just explain what I should be doing in this game, in plain English, because I swear it's like this game goes out of its way to be as cryptic as possible about what it is I should be doing. And infuriatingly so considering how much it *says* that it has hints and question marks to "help" you. None of it helps. I was floundering for 4 hours. 100% ridiculous.
- Nov 20, 2018
- 1,100
- 2,080
Brute force any puzzle with a solution not adequately explained, never move more than necessary, because many "puzzles" are designed to force endless encounters, never grind or farm because it's not worth the time, don't explore, because the spells you find aren't going to do anything, just learn how to fight the "Shapes" and hope it'll be worth it in the end.
I really appreciate that it's a proper game, but I wasn't having fun even in the beginning with the "match 3 a bunch, click spell, do 10 damage" combat. The "negative health moribund" mechanic is also never explained properly.
- Jan 10, 2020
- 39
- 60
I see...
It's true that the BE content is currently lacking, the next big update will aim to fix that.
The complaints I'm seeing here have never been an issue anywhere else (I need to mention that the game does give you all the tools necessary to progress, the Moribund system is explained, all non optional puzzles have hints, etc!). I think I simply brought the game to the wrong crowd overall... I'm sorry to all those who were left frustrated, but I'm also thankful to the ones who did enjoy it! I know there are a few of you. For the ones having a hard time with the combat, the difficulty can be lowered in the settings ^^
But yeah, this can definitely be a challenging game, and it can be hard to get into if you were expecting something short and on the simpler side. It's exactly what I want it to be though (apart from the lack of BE as mentioned above)! Sorry again if it didn't resonate with you.
Of course no promises on that!
It's true that the BE content is currently lacking, the next big update will aim to fix that.
The complaints I'm seeing here have never been an issue anywhere else (I need to mention that the game does give you all the tools necessary to progress, the Moribund system is explained, all non optional puzzles have hints, etc!). I think I simply brought the game to the wrong crowd overall... I'm sorry to all those who were left frustrated, but I'm also thankful to the ones who did enjoy it! I know there are a few of you. For the ones having a hard time with the combat, the difficulty can be lowered in the settings ^^
But yeah, this can definitely be a challenging game, and it can be hard to get into if you were expecting something short and on the simpler side. It's exactly what I want it to be though (apart from the lack of BE as mentioned above)! Sorry again if it didn't resonate with you.
Currently no, but I'm not necessarily against it! If I can figure out an easy way to do that somewhere down the line, I'll consider it ^^
Of course no promises on that!
- Nov 20, 2018
- 1,100
- 2,080
IIRC, it never tells you that you need to stagger your damage: you connect all the things, you go full burst on spells, they roll over into the negatives, and continue to hit you while in moribund. So then you have to stand there like a fool, get a new board and charge up a spell again to actually win; it's just counterintuitive.
I also felt cheated by the "sneaking" tip being at the very end of the first map, after having to fight everything, and that you're never told you can just... walk away from battles on tiles you don't need to pass through. Having the Almanac with all of the tips in the beginning would be a huge improvement.
Having finally gotten to Biscotti and hitting my stride, this game absolutely does need more BE to live up to it's name, but that's been adressed already so I'll hurry up with other shit
As mentioned above, tutorials need to be given AS SOON AS ANY PART OF THEM IS RELEVANT. I shouldn't be getting the special block tutorial after already encountering Goblins (who spawn dirt blocks) and rainbow onyons. As well, there need to be certain flags to check if a puzzle is complete before allowing any spawns (allied or enemy) to spawn in the ground necessary to cross. If I need to refer to another spot for any reason, even if just to put a note there, deny spawn chances until the related puzzle is DONE
Also, Alma's hints vary wildly in quality. If I've seen the style of puzzle already, Alma should be delivering new information, not rehashing the same shit. (This happens in both the forest AND Biscotti Underground from what I recall)
Also Also, benched AND newly revived party members should be kept at about 2 lvls below your lowest active member, if only for the sanity of not having to EXP grin them up to par. Having to spend a whole ass day grinding up the ghost girl to the rest of my party is ridiculous, no matter how much I do actively enjoy the hug strats I got to play with there.
Also x3, please rework T's witch power, she cannot handle shapes at all with this delayed bomb you can't even manually trigger, only click to knock it in the direction of the heart.
Finally, it takes WAY too long to actually start customizing your own loadout, which is when things actully start getting fun. Slap a "travelling" (probably not actually traveling) shopkeep with fat tits in the Biscotti Plains to sell shit and spend money on interesting moves please, it would make getting into the swing of gameplay quicker and help to further hook those who already got through Auria towers.
AND SPEAKING OF PLEASE REWORK THE POST BOSS MINIGAME. I should not need to charge to hit the mines, and I should not be ABLE to hit off-screeen shapes. Just those to things alone would improve that section massively.
I want this game to actually be decent, and especially for it to be amazing, especially with the BE well so fucking dry these past few months, but there's a lot I have issue with that prevents me from recommending it to anyone.
As mentioned above, tutorials need to be given AS SOON AS ANY PART OF THEM IS RELEVANT. I shouldn't be getting the special block tutorial after already encountering Goblins (who spawn dirt blocks) and rainbow onyons. As well, there need to be certain flags to check if a puzzle is complete before allowing any spawns (allied or enemy) to spawn in the ground necessary to cross. If I need to refer to another spot for any reason, even if just to put a note there, deny spawn chances until the related puzzle is DONE
Also, Alma's hints vary wildly in quality. If I've seen the style of puzzle already, Alma should be delivering new information, not rehashing the same shit. (This happens in both the forest AND Biscotti Underground from what I recall)
Also Also, benched AND newly revived party members should be kept at about 2 lvls below your lowest active member, if only for the sanity of not having to EXP grin them up to par. Having to spend a whole ass day grinding up the ghost girl to the rest of my party is ridiculous, no matter how much I do actively enjoy the hug strats I got to play with there.
Also x3, please rework T's witch power, she cannot handle shapes at all with this delayed bomb you can't even manually trigger, only click to knock it in the direction of the heart.
Finally, it takes WAY too long to actually start customizing your own loadout, which is when things actully start getting fun. Slap a "travelling" (probably not actually traveling) shopkeep with fat tits in the Biscotti Plains to sell shit and spend money on interesting moves please, it would make getting into the swing of gameplay quicker and help to further hook those who already got through Auria towers.
AND SPEAKING OF PLEASE REWORK THE POST BOSS MINIGAME. I should not need to charge to hit the mines, and I should not be ABLE to hit off-screeen shapes. Just those to things alone would improve that section massively.
I want this game to actually be decent, and especially for it to be amazing, especially with the BE well so fucking dry these past few months, but there's a lot I have issue with that prevents me from recommending it to anyone.
- Jul 5, 2017
- 155
- 360
First impression: ouch, my eyes! It made me think of
Then I start exploring town and the pattern of the whole game takes shape: to never understand what is happening.
Many people said it before me, but I'll repeat it: tutorials are really, really poorly made and placed. If you want to let the players wander "open-world style" then you have to give them a tutorial about a mechanic as soon as they can come upon it.
As the game is, your first experience of the game is to walk around town and collect things without having a clue about what is important and what you're doing.
A clear example of this communication issue is the code to gain access to the first boss (the pirates captain): three of the symbols are indeed easily found but the shells puzzle is completely broken. Neither the "clue" given by the pirate (something about maths... ok, but what are we supposed to do with numbers?) nor the gameplay (you can click on the rubies but also on the shells and make them fall and there is absolutely no signs you are doing something wrong or good to guide the players) allow to understand the point of the puzzle. I had to use the walkthrough to pass it.
The grinding is another issue already pointed at, but I think it's more a consequence of the previous point than a problem by itself: since players have no ideas about what must be done, then they wander and end up fighting over and over random encounters.
My experience ended against the angel: not the slightest explanation about the mechanics of this boss fight really pissed me off. At first I thought the bar under the game window measured the distance before Vuu reached the exit, so I focused on not being hit. Then, after a few runs, I tried to fight back (despite Vestia telling us such fight was pointless) and discovered my heart was not only a flying target but could also fire. Another attempt to understand you can change the aim of said fire. I landed as many hits as I could before being crushed... and as a result the bar emptied by one or two pixels.
That's where I said fuck it. Especially if the game is so stingy about naughty content (seriously, how dare you call this BE?).
TL;DR: beware, game design at its worst here. Definitely not worth playing and that's sad, because there are some ideas and the art has its charm.
Oh and one last thing: unless you work as a physicist in the field of light study (an arguably very small percentage of the whole population), you always learned primary colors are blue, red and yellow, not green. This makes the whole color code annoyingly counterintuitive.
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. But after a while, I grew to like it, so ok, let's do this.Then I start exploring town and the pattern of the whole game takes shape: to never understand what is happening.
Many people said it before me, but I'll repeat it: tutorials are really, really poorly made and placed. If you want to let the players wander "open-world style" then you have to give them a tutorial about a mechanic as soon as they can come upon it.
As the game is, your first experience of the game is to walk around town and collect things without having a clue about what is important and what you're doing.
A clear example of this communication issue is the code to gain access to the first boss (the pirates captain): three of the symbols are indeed easily found but the shells puzzle is completely broken. Neither the "clue" given by the pirate (something about maths... ok, but what are we supposed to do with numbers?) nor the gameplay (you can click on the rubies but also on the shells and make them fall and there is absolutely no signs you are doing something wrong or good to guide the players) allow to understand the point of the puzzle. I had to use the walkthrough to pass it.
The grinding is another issue already pointed at, but I think it's more a consequence of the previous point than a problem by itself: since players have no ideas about what must be done, then they wander and end up fighting over and over random encounters.
My experience ended against the angel: not the slightest explanation about the mechanics of this boss fight really pissed me off. At first I thought the bar under the game window measured the distance before Vuu reached the exit, so I focused on not being hit. Then, after a few runs, I tried to fight back (despite Vestia telling us such fight was pointless) and discovered my heart was not only a flying target but could also fire. Another attempt to understand you can change the aim of said fire. I landed as many hits as I could before being crushed... and as a result the bar emptied by one or two pixels.
That's where I said fuck it. Especially if the game is so stingy about naughty content (seriously, how dare you call this BE?).
TL;DR: beware, game design at its worst here. Definitely not worth playing and that's sad, because there are some ideas and the art has its charm.
Oh and one last thing: unless you work as a physicist in the field of light study (an arguably very small percentage of the whole population), you always learned primary colors are blue, red and yellow, not green. This makes the whole color code annoyingly counterintuitive.
Since I've finished the demo, I'm gonna try to (quickly) discuss some of the issues that seem to plague everything rather than just the beginning, and I'll try to roughly sort them by severity
Money is SO tight. Trying to grind for Liv's revival services is a PAIN, mostly because grinding money sucks dick when the enemies drop 50-75 in the final area and I need 1500. Her being single use per visit to an area is a shitty cherry on top. Please, just a crumb of renewable money gain that isn't exclusively tied to combat, it's all I need.
Experience is arguably worse, even if there *are* ways to expedite exp gain for a single party member, they only do so much. Ghost Panties give an incredibly meager boost to your gain, and due to things I'll list leaving the player frazzled, switch training isn't reliable, since you cn end up accidentally killing with the wrong girl.
Disorienting effects, while this SEEMS to only apply to Night Dome, Jesus fucking Christ there is too much to keep track of at times. I only have so many brain cells, you can't be flipping gravity 3-4 times under 30 seconds so often, it's incredibly diorienting andleads to misplays I wouldn't be making if it as toned back a bit. (and I'm really hoping this isn't affected by difficulty, because my next point lead to me playing on the easiest and it's STILL bad)
And then the Shape, and general projectile spam
Jesus power-bottoming Christ why is there so much fucking shit on screen all the fucking time. I stop chasing shapes for 10 seconds to go for a damage push and suddenly I'm dealing with a zoo on the loose, the entire US military, and a minefield of shit I can't even shoot. It's insane just how much will end up on screen, and if your character struggles to handle Shapes especially (LIKE T, FOR SOME GODDAMN REASON), you will be struggling to get anything done. It's one of the bigget reasons I replaced her as soon as I had the option to, and in full game, I absolutely plan on doing it again if she isn't changed in some way.
I want this game to be good so bad but unfortunately I know if an update comes out that makes me restart and everything up to Auria Towers remains unchanged, I just will not have the strength or patience to go back through it all, and this will just pass me by, regardless of how good the BE content ends up being or how great the monster girl designs are.
Money is SO tight. Trying to grind for Liv's revival services is a PAIN, mostly because grinding money sucks dick when the enemies drop 50-75 in the final area and I need 1500. Her being single use per visit to an area is a shitty cherry on top. Please, just a crumb of renewable money gain that isn't exclusively tied to combat, it's all I need.
Experience is arguably worse, even if there *are* ways to expedite exp gain for a single party member, they only do so much. Ghost Panties give an incredibly meager boost to your gain, and due to things I'll list leaving the player frazzled, switch training isn't reliable, since you cn end up accidentally killing with the wrong girl.
Disorienting effects, while this SEEMS to only apply to Night Dome, Jesus fucking Christ there is too much to keep track of at times. I only have so many brain cells, you can't be flipping gravity 3-4 times under 30 seconds so often, it's incredibly diorienting andleads to misplays I wouldn't be making if it as toned back a bit. (and I'm really hoping this isn't affected by difficulty, because my next point lead to me playing on the easiest and it's STILL bad)
And then the Shape, and general projectile spam
Jesus power-bottoming Christ why is there so much fucking shit on screen all the fucking time. I stop chasing shapes for 10 seconds to go for a damage push and suddenly I'm dealing with a zoo on the loose, the entire US military, and a minefield of shit I can't even shoot. It's insane just how much will end up on screen, and if your character struggles to handle Shapes especially (LIKE T, FOR SOME GODDAMN REASON), you will be struggling to get anything done. It's one of the bigget reasons I replaced her as soon as I had the option to, and in full game, I absolutely plan on doing it again if she isn't changed in some way.
I want this game to be good so bad but unfortunately I know if an update comes out that makes me restart and everything up to Auria Towers remains unchanged, I just will not have the strength or patience to go back through it all, and this will just pass me by, regardless of how good the BE content ends up being or how great the monster girl designs are.
feel obligated to write an appreciative post to counter the stream of yellow paint enjoyers, so I'll state that I never felt confused with the puzzles or felt tutorials came too late. did look a couple of the optional mushroom puzzles up in the walkthrough, but that had more to do with me having more trouble conceptualizing those color swaps for whatever reason (being more tired, probably). everything else was either clear or became clear with a bit of experimentation on "my only interaction options are click and hold-click, what do those do in this situation". in that sense I do appreciate the reduced control space, even if it does mean the random battles get a bit exhausting for the wrist after a while. and I have no idea how somehow using a computer in 2025 can pretend RGB or CMY coloring is this strange and incomprehensible thing.
in terms of mechanics, I do want to ask what the intent was with making My Turn! fights give less XP? it's not like the 2nd+ battle is any easier (if anything they're riskier given less character swaps available), and a potential extra drop doesn't seem to make up for increasingly poor XP/losing all drops from the prior rounds.
do hope the planned/unimplemented designs include a bit more dynamic changes between ranks (poses, outfits, expressions, etc); given the understandable lack of response to size in-world for this version (looking forward to that when it comes), some of the character images being a bit too clearly paper dolls was a bit disappointing. even if keeping it technically SFW stuff like Senran Kagura or Omega Labyrinth, i feel like the censorship/situations/etc could be pushed a lot further without crossing that line.
still, will probably buy a full release if one ever manifests. the more games in the genre the better, imo.
in terms of mechanics, I do want to ask what the intent was with making My Turn! fights give less XP? it's not like the 2nd+ battle is any easier (if anything they're riskier given less character swaps available), and a potential extra drop doesn't seem to make up for increasingly poor XP/losing all drops from the prior rounds.
do hope the planned/unimplemented designs include a bit more dynamic changes between ranks (poses, outfits, expressions, etc); given the understandable lack of response to size in-world for this version (looking forward to that when it comes), some of the character images being a bit too clearly paper dolls was a bit disappointing. even if keeping it technically SFW stuff like Senran Kagura or Omega Labyrinth, i feel like the censorship/situations/etc could be pushed a lot further without crossing that line.
still, will probably buy a full release if one ever manifests. the more games in the genre the better, imo.
Since the dev is here and active, I want to add some more positives. The art-style is lovely and cute, it can be weird and busy in some ways, but good ways and I like it. The concept of leveling up the characters to achieve the BE is nice, I hope to see it expanded upon (pun intended). You have added a lot of lore, the few glimpses I got are interesting, and I want to know more, I hope you can add a library or history book or such so we can review it at our pace.
Game development is hard, it is easy to add a feature that you fully understand and believe will be easy to pick up, but that gets lost for some of the audience. It can be fun to try new things, but you may lose a cohesive game play loop it the objective keeps changing. I want to see more of this game, and I hope you can review our constructive feedback and improve your game and make it something great.
Game development is hard, it is easy to add a feature that you fully understand and believe will be easy to pick up, but that gets lost for some of the audience. It can be fun to try new things, but you may lose a cohesive game play loop it the objective keeps changing. I want to see more of this game, and I hope you can review our constructive feedback and improve your game and make it something great.
Hey Nosebecc, I've been playing this game since the very first public release.
I'm really happy with the progress you've been making so far and I am even thinking of buying BE witches when it will release on Steam. Now tho I just wanna point out a few things about the game.
First of all I agree with some that you should add more tutorials that explain how everything works. I went through this latest version pretty fast but that's because I'm a "veteran" player. I remember being extremely confused about everything in my first playthrough.
Second of all the grind can get kinda tedious in the late game when you're trying to revive all the girls (in my save file I managed to max them all). For anyone wondering: the quickest way to get exp is fighting Nightmare in the boss room of the night dome (10k exp to whoever takes her down and everyone else gets 5k), later on tho when you characters are at high ranks you won't need to get exp anymore, they will be revived at lvl 22 at some point. In the same room you can also fight shapes to get 250~ shards (don't bother farming berries in the forest). Every girl requires 500 shards to get to max rank and 375 to be revived (except for Vuu, Rose and T which are already alive, duh). Those are A LOT of shards, I would increase the amount received by at least a good 50%. Money on the other hand is pretty easy to come by, selling spells nets you tons of money so yeah, there's that.
My third complaint is ofc about BE content. As everyone said there needs to be more, not necessarily sexual but something that goes beyond grinding and ranking up characters to get a massive pair of badonkers. This game is good as it is, without porn in it (it's your game bro, if you want to just keep it lewd then do it). Anyway, this has already been addressed by you so let's go on.
My last complaint is purely on characters (this is very subjective). T is the first one on the list, poor girl at max rank doesn't get enough tidies in my opinion. Second one is the fairy, I feel like she and slime girl drew the short stick, their chest grows only a bit (plus you wasted the opportunity to make fairy hold her boobs instead of those grapes when at highest rank). Last one is the chest girl: bro, i'mma be honest on this one, it feels CRIMINAL that her chest doesn't get any bigger the more items you store in the chest.
Last last thing. The game gives hints about Butt Expansion too, however I only noticed it in Lamia and Kobold, I think you should add a bit more of that too.
That is everything I have to complain about, I think everything else is great. The art is amazing, I like the mechanics, love the humor and the soundtrack and I'm getting kinda invested in the lore too! Thanks for listening to the player Nosebecc and I hope you manage to release your game soon, I'll wait for it!
P.S.
Everyone do yourselves a favour and get Kobold to max rank, give her a reason to trip and smash all those plates
I'm really happy with the progress you've been making so far and I am even thinking of buying BE witches when it will release on Steam. Now tho I just wanna point out a few things about the game.
First of all I agree with some that you should add more tutorials that explain how everything works. I went through this latest version pretty fast but that's because I'm a "veteran" player. I remember being extremely confused about everything in my first playthrough.
Second of all the grind can get kinda tedious in the late game when you're trying to revive all the girls (in my save file I managed to max them all). For anyone wondering: the quickest way to get exp is fighting Nightmare in the boss room of the night dome (10k exp to whoever takes her down and everyone else gets 5k), later on tho when you characters are at high ranks you won't need to get exp anymore, they will be revived at lvl 22 at some point. In the same room you can also fight shapes to get 250~ shards (don't bother farming berries in the forest). Every girl requires 500 shards to get to max rank and 375 to be revived (except for Vuu, Rose and T which are already alive, duh). Those are A LOT of shards, I would increase the amount received by at least a good 50%. Money on the other hand is pretty easy to come by, selling spells nets you tons of money so yeah, there's that.
My third complaint is ofc about BE content. As everyone said there needs to be more, not necessarily sexual but something that goes beyond grinding and ranking up characters to get a massive pair of badonkers. This game is good as it is, without porn in it (it's your game bro, if you want to just keep it lewd then do it). Anyway, this has already been addressed by you so let's go on.
My last complaint is purely on characters (this is very subjective). T is the first one on the list, poor girl at max rank doesn't get enough tidies in my opinion. Second one is the fairy, I feel like she and slime girl drew the short stick, their chest grows only a bit (plus you wasted the opportunity to make fairy hold her boobs instead of those grapes when at highest rank). Last one is the chest girl: bro, i'mma be honest on this one, it feels CRIMINAL that her chest doesn't get any bigger the more items you store in the chest.
Last last thing. The game gives hints about Butt Expansion too, however I only noticed it in Lamia and Kobold, I think you should add a bit more of that too.
That is everything I have to complain about, I think everything else is great. The art is amazing, I like the mechanics, love the humor and the soundtrack and I'm getting kinda invested in the lore too! Thanks for listening to the player Nosebecc and I hope you manage to release your game soon, I'll wait for it!
P.S.
Everyone do yourselves a favour and get Kobold to max rank, give her a reason to trip and smash all those plates
- Jan 10, 2020
- 39
- 60
There's a lot! Thank you! I'll try to address everything:
no BE
plans with rank ups (poses, outfits, expressions, etc), paper dolls
no response to the size in world currently
Mimic girl BE
Butt expansion
I fully agree that there isn't enough BE yet.
I see what you mean about the paper dolls! A few characters do have a different face/altered pose at higher rank, but these are more exceptions. However, a bunch of character will be getting alt costumes (which come with a different pose too)! Not exactly the same thing, but hopefully that's a satisfying answer ^^
...I can't believe I never thought of Fairy holding her own boobs. The idea was to have them be squished, but this would have been good too, for sure. She's a drawing from years ago, and my standards for big boobs have definitely evolved over time. One thing I'll say is that alt costume can also come with a different boob size (Kitsune gets way bigger, for example. Her alt costume will be implemented eventually), so if she gets one, you can probably expect that.
Menu NPCs don't normally get BE, but it's definitely not a bad idea for Mimic girl! No promises but I'll keep this in mind ^^
Butt expansion is more of an exception, there can be other changes in some cases (Kitsune gets more tails, Dragon gets bigger wings). Rose also gets a bigger butt, and some more girls will get butt expansion, for sure!
Moribund not explained well enough
Sneaking tip location
Walk away from combat not explained
too aimless = too many encounters / time wasted
Tutorials as soon as needed rather than after exposure
not enough tutorials
explain you can take notes from the map menu
shell count puzzle not clear enough
Angel fight not clear enough
Primary colors use the rgb system
There's a lot to say there!
Moribund is explained in the fight tutorial, but it's true that it doesn't get into details as to how exactly it works. I do feel like the player will figure this out very early so it's not that much of a problem, but there's no reason not to have it explained in a tuto page, that's true.
The sneaking tutorial (which is part of the HUD explanation) is very close to the entrance of Ocean's B1F, where random encounters appear for the first time, but it IS behind a puzzle (in the shell count room). I think I'll move it 3 rooms to the right in the fish puzzle room instead. This same page mentions that you can write / review notes from the map menu, which is more relevant here anyway.
Additionally, I'll add a new page that explains a bunch of fight related stuff in the room just before the shell count puzzle (immediately accessible). By explaining Moribund, Sneaking and walking away from fights in one go, this should take care of all these issues at once!
Whether tutorials are needed as soon as they're relevant is debatable. In many cases, I like to expose the player to certain mechanics in a non (or very lightly) punitive way to get them to become curious and experiment about said mechanics, and THEN explaining it. It doesn't apply to every situation of course, I agree with that.
For example, I'm aware the way I force the player to go back to Vuu's house to pick up the color guide if they didn't take it already is annoying. I'll change it so it's automatically given as soon as the first fei petal puzzle is reached if necessary. This color guide does explain that the color system used in this game is the RGB system, which I also think is well enough known nowadays! It's true that it can be a bit confusing if you're not used to it, but sadly I have no workaround for this.
The shell count puzzle is admittedly very old and could use a small glowup. Making it so the shells can't be detached would be a good starting point for sure. Maybe I'll even make them another color to show their relevancy!
As for the Angel fight being unclear, the minigames in the festival serve as dynamic tutorial! They show you exactly what you need to know. I wasn't expecting someone to leave without at least trying them once... Maybe I'll add some sort of warning if that's the case. I'll see what I can do!
prevent fights when puzzle are ongoing
Some rooms are specifically flagged so no fights can spawn there. But in general, I do want fights to spawn! Using sneak / walking away, or using the right consumables (post Biscotti) is up to the player. Explaining these mechanics better (see previous paragraph) will definitely help with this.
Alma hints are the same
Alma's hints are the same for the Kururin puzzles in the forest and for Mush smash in the Tunnels, that's correct! The reason for this is that while I call these puzzles, they're really more skill based minigames. Once you know the rules, there really isn't a whole lot to add, so I choose to instead have her remind you of how these work. The Gear puzzles in the Night Dome will get the same treatment (instead of nothing at all)!
character lvl on revive is too low
why does "my turn" lower the next XP gain
money is too tight
Character lvl on revive is currently tied to a percentage of Vuu's level (about 70% iirc). It's definitely not ideal and a symptom of the game being a WIP still. I'll see if I can change it to match (or to a higher percentage) of whoever your highest lvl character is.
About My turn lowering XP gain... I'm really not sure. I actually didn't remember it did before recently. I might have had a reason years ago when I implemented that feature, but it really doesn't need to be a thing, does it... I'll look into removing it so you just get the normal amount of XP instead, which makes more sense as this is really just there to accelerate farming. I do plan of doing some quirky stuff with XP where you'll be able to distribute it to lower lvl characters to get them up to speed quickly in the future, as well.
As for the money, I've already received that same complaint, I'll make sure to change that!
takes too long before being able to freely customize loadout, maybe store in Rietti plains
Finding Liv (revive girl is annoying)
That's fair... I do want to add more traveler type NPCs, which will include various vendors. I could make it so a spell vendor is encountered near the beginning of the forest for sure. It will probably be some time before these new travelers are implemented, but I'll keep that in mind!
As for Liv, it's true that there isn't much of a point of roaming around until you find her once you defeated the last boss, in the demo at least. I'll see if I can simply add her to the last room.
Mine Heartpower
gravity changes are disorienting, too much happening
The Mine heartpower (T's) is actually one of my favorites! It's technical for sure and relies on you preempting Shape behavior, but it's very powerful when used correctly.
This can definitely be an overwhelming game, but it's the way I want it! Nightmare's fight is meant to be a special one, so things will go back to being easier after this fight in the final game (for a time, at least). I do plan on rebalancing some stuff later, including which enemies are seen where, and potentially block drop rate. So gravity switch blocks will stay, but I might make them less common if they're too much of a problem.
slingshot boss
You do not need to charge the slingshot to hit the spheres, both before the slingshot boss and in the puzzles before that!
That being said, you're right in that Shapes shouldn't be hitable when offscreen. I'll make sure to fix that asap
artstyle is busy / colorful
I personally love very colorful stuff. Ristar and a bunch of other Genesis games, among many others, are big inspirations!
lore library / history book
This will be a thing, 100%! Many pages will be lore focused, either about areas, characters, setting concepts etc. I'm glad you enjoyed this aspect of the game, thank you ^^
Phew! This should be everything. I really appreciate everyone's constructive criticism, even more so if the game left you frustrated. I also appreciate the encouragements, very much! In any case, this will help me make BEW better. I'll do my best to fix these flaws, and if all goes well I'll at least have a new build with the easier fixes implemented next week!
Thank you again ^^
no BE
plans with rank ups (poses, outfits, expressions, etc), paper dolls
no response to the size in world currently
Mimic girl BE
Butt expansion
I fully agree that there isn't enough BE yet.
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but the gist of it is that I'll be adding more of it in several form, including showing BE on the chibi sprites, dialogue, and a future addition that will massively increase the BE to Gameplay ratio.I see what you mean about the paper dolls! A few characters do have a different face/altered pose at higher rank, but these are more exceptions. However, a bunch of character will be getting alt costumes (which come with a different pose too)! Not exactly the same thing, but hopefully that's a satisfying answer ^^
...I can't believe I never thought of Fairy holding her own boobs. The idea was to have them be squished, but this would have been good too, for sure. She's a drawing from years ago, and my standards for big boobs have definitely evolved over time. One thing I'll say is that alt costume can also come with a different boob size (Kitsune gets way bigger, for example. Her alt costume will be implemented eventually), so if she gets one, you can probably expect that.
Menu NPCs don't normally get BE, but it's definitely not a bad idea for Mimic girl! No promises but I'll keep this in mind ^^
Butt expansion is more of an exception, there can be other changes in some cases (Kitsune gets more tails, Dragon gets bigger wings). Rose also gets a bigger butt, and some more girls will get butt expansion, for sure!
Moribund not explained well enough
Sneaking tip location
Walk away from combat not explained
too aimless = too many encounters / time wasted
Tutorials as soon as needed rather than after exposure
not enough tutorials
explain you can take notes from the map menu
shell count puzzle not clear enough
Angel fight not clear enough
Primary colors use the rgb system
There's a lot to say there!
Moribund is explained in the fight tutorial, but it's true that it doesn't get into details as to how exactly it works. I do feel like the player will figure this out very early so it's not that much of a problem, but there's no reason not to have it explained in a tuto page, that's true.
The sneaking tutorial (which is part of the HUD explanation) is very close to the entrance of Ocean's B1F, where random encounters appear for the first time, but it IS behind a puzzle (in the shell count room). I think I'll move it 3 rooms to the right in the fish puzzle room instead. This same page mentions that you can write / review notes from the map menu, which is more relevant here anyway.
Additionally, I'll add a new page that explains a bunch of fight related stuff in the room just before the shell count puzzle (immediately accessible). By explaining Moribund, Sneaking and walking away from fights in one go, this should take care of all these issues at once!
Whether tutorials are needed as soon as they're relevant is debatable. In many cases, I like to expose the player to certain mechanics in a non (or very lightly) punitive way to get them to become curious and experiment about said mechanics, and THEN explaining it. It doesn't apply to every situation of course, I agree with that.
For example, I'm aware the way I force the player to go back to Vuu's house to pick up the color guide if they didn't take it already is annoying. I'll change it so it's automatically given as soon as the first fei petal puzzle is reached if necessary. This color guide does explain that the color system used in this game is the RGB system, which I also think is well enough known nowadays! It's true that it can be a bit confusing if you're not used to it, but sadly I have no workaround for this.
The shell count puzzle is admittedly very old and could use a small glowup. Making it so the shells can't be detached would be a good starting point for sure. Maybe I'll even make them another color to show their relevancy!
As for the Angel fight being unclear, the minigames in the festival serve as dynamic tutorial! They show you exactly what you need to know. I wasn't expecting someone to leave without at least trying them once... Maybe I'll add some sort of warning if that's the case. I'll see what I can do!
prevent fights when puzzle are ongoing
Some rooms are specifically flagged so no fights can spawn there. But in general, I do want fights to spawn! Using sneak / walking away, or using the right consumables (post Biscotti) is up to the player. Explaining these mechanics better (see previous paragraph) will definitely help with this.
Alma hints are the same
Alma's hints are the same for the Kururin puzzles in the forest and for Mush smash in the Tunnels, that's correct! The reason for this is that while I call these puzzles, they're really more skill based minigames. Once you know the rules, there really isn't a whole lot to add, so I choose to instead have her remind you of how these work. The Gear puzzles in the Night Dome will get the same treatment (instead of nothing at all)!
character lvl on revive is too low
why does "my turn" lower the next XP gain
money is too tight
Character lvl on revive is currently tied to a percentage of Vuu's level (about 70% iirc). It's definitely not ideal and a symptom of the game being a WIP still. I'll see if I can change it to match (or to a higher percentage) of whoever your highest lvl character is.
About My turn lowering XP gain... I'm really not sure. I actually didn't remember it did before recently. I might have had a reason years ago when I implemented that feature, but it really doesn't need to be a thing, does it... I'll look into removing it so you just get the normal amount of XP instead, which makes more sense as this is really just there to accelerate farming. I do plan of doing some quirky stuff with XP where you'll be able to distribute it to lower lvl characters to get them up to speed quickly in the future, as well.
As for the money, I've already received that same complaint, I'll make sure to change that!
takes too long before being able to freely customize loadout, maybe store in Rietti plains
Finding Liv (revive girl is annoying)
That's fair... I do want to add more traveler type NPCs, which will include various vendors. I could make it so a spell vendor is encountered near the beginning of the forest for sure. It will probably be some time before these new travelers are implemented, but I'll keep that in mind!
As for Liv, it's true that there isn't much of a point of roaming around until you find her once you defeated the last boss, in the demo at least. I'll see if I can simply add her to the last room.
Mine Heartpower
gravity changes are disorienting, too much happening
The Mine heartpower (T's) is actually one of my favorites! It's technical for sure and relies on you preempting Shape behavior, but it's very powerful when used correctly.
This can definitely be an overwhelming game, but it's the way I want it! Nightmare's fight is meant to be a special one, so things will go back to being easier after this fight in the final game (for a time, at least). I do plan on rebalancing some stuff later, including which enemies are seen where, and potentially block drop rate. So gravity switch blocks will stay, but I might make them less common if they're too much of a problem.
slingshot boss
You do not need to charge the slingshot to hit the spheres, both before the slingshot boss and in the puzzles before that!
That being said, you're right in that Shapes shouldn't be hitable when offscreen. I'll make sure to fix that asap
artstyle is busy / colorful
I personally love very colorful stuff. Ristar and a bunch of other Genesis games, among many others, are big inspirations!
lore library / history book
This will be a thing, 100%! Many pages will be lore focused, either about areas, characters, setting concepts etc. I'm glad you enjoyed this aspect of the game, thank you ^^
Phew! This should be everything. I really appreciate everyone's constructive criticism, even more so if the game left you frustrated. I also appreciate the encouragements, very much! In any case, this will help me make BEW better. I'll do my best to fix these flaws, and if all goes well I'll at least have a new build with the easier fixes implemented next week!
Thank you again ^^
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Genuinely, thank you for looking through and answering all of these concerns. It really is a great bolster to my faith in this game that an amittedly very heavy, sudden, and frustrated surge of very critical criticism wsn't met with a shutdown or brush-off of said criticism.
I only have one more thing to add that I'm frankly surprise hasn't been brought up (was kinda hoping it as because I wanted to kinda discuss the things I think this game does best but I do think this is a thing that cannot be overlooked any further): Battles need a pause button. If alt-tabbing isn't gonna automatically pause battles/gameplay as a whole, we need a pause button for when life barges in. No clue if that'll be difficult but I don't think it should be. IDK code, I tried learning it and my brain fucking melted when it wasn't exactly code blocks.
Now I need to praise what I think this game does excel in: characters. And no, I don't just mean visually.
I tink the writing of this game, the personality of the speaking characters, and the chemistry felt between the cast is genuinely great. In just Sablee alone, we have a great core cast that, once people get invested by the time Great Pyramid resolves, can really get those people driven to push forward.
Vestia especially is written in such a way where you can't help but be endeared, and consequently hurt by the [Incident]. Also, everything she does in the Pyramid just solidfies her as probably the biggest bad-ass in the story so far, she's so cool.
Vuu is a precious protag who interacts well with the rest of the party and I really like how she does so, with a naive, almost blind faith of the world simply being as kind as she is, as well as her interactions with T (more on that later).
Rose is an interesting mechanism to learn the lore of the world (difference between Witches and Animals and whatnot), and also a fun addition to the main cast as someone smart and mostly level-headed, but also the one to have a frankly justified temper when the need arises. Looking forward to seeing just what her past is and how that informs her new present and choices toward the future.
T is a great addition to the party both as a source of cemedy, and as an interesting foil to both Vuu and Rose, especially Vuu, with how the two differ in their feelings on and response to benefiting from their responsibility vs. having to adhere to it (Think the Liv intro scene and the scene at the start of the plains or the scene just before the Tunnels for respective examples.)
Nightmare is my autistic wife who rambles about magic and has a crippling need to be praised. She IS dangerous, yes, but also that entire rant scene after T inflates her Ego has cemented her as my favorite character who I DESPERATELY need more of. Favortie speaking character, has one of my favorite designs behind the Ghost in both Forest and Night Dome (Is she supposed to be so low-level in Night Dome?)
The only charcter I think falls flat IMO is Cerelea, which is a shame because women who could crush me like a soda can are normally my favorite type of woman, but I think just another scene BEFORE meeting her at the augmentation spot in Biscotti could fix that if the writing of everyone else is to educate that guess. Maybe she meets you at the gate before you know who she is and you get a taste of how she interacts with the average citizen, and at the end some locals gush about her being so awesome and cool and epic and shit.
Overall, writing is the thing I fear for least in this game, when I can be so quickly endeared to just about anyone the story asks me to be, with everyone bouncing so well off of each-other (regardless of rank lol) and making for a great world to explore through and get intimately familiar with.
I only have one more thing to add that I'm frankly surprise hasn't been brought up (was kinda hoping it as because I wanted to kinda discuss the things I think this game does best but I do think this is a thing that cannot be overlooked any further): Battles need a pause button. If alt-tabbing isn't gonna automatically pause battles/gameplay as a whole, we need a pause button for when life barges in. No clue if that'll be difficult but I don't think it should be. IDK code, I tried learning it and my brain fucking melted when it wasn't exactly code blocks.
Now I need to praise what I think this game does excel in: characters. And no, I don't just mean visually.
I tink the writing of this game, the personality of the speaking characters, and the chemistry felt between the cast is genuinely great. In just Sablee alone, we have a great core cast that, once people get invested by the time Great Pyramid resolves, can really get those people driven to push forward.
Vestia especially is written in such a way where you can't help but be endeared, and consequently hurt by the [Incident]. Also, everything she does in the Pyramid just solidfies her as probably the biggest bad-ass in the story so far, she's so cool.
Vuu is a precious protag who interacts well with the rest of the party and I really like how she does so, with a naive, almost blind faith of the world simply being as kind as she is, as well as her interactions with T (more on that later).
Rose is an interesting mechanism to learn the lore of the world (difference between Witches and Animals and whatnot), and also a fun addition to the main cast as someone smart and mostly level-headed, but also the one to have a frankly justified temper when the need arises. Looking forward to seeing just what her past is and how that informs her new present and choices toward the future.
T is a great addition to the party both as a source of cemedy, and as an interesting foil to both Vuu and Rose, especially Vuu, with how the two differ in their feelings on and response to benefiting from their responsibility vs. having to adhere to it (Think the Liv intro scene and the scene at the start of the plains or the scene just before the Tunnels for respective examples.)
Nightmare is my autistic wife who rambles about magic and has a crippling need to be praised. She IS dangerous, yes, but also that entire rant scene after T inflates her Ego has cemented her as my favorite character who I DESPERATELY need more of. Favortie speaking character, has one of my favorite designs behind the Ghost in both Forest and Night Dome (Is she supposed to be so low-level in Night Dome?)
The only charcter I think falls flat IMO is Cerelea, which is a shame because women who could crush me like a soda can are normally my favorite type of woman, but I think just another scene BEFORE meeting her at the augmentation spot in Biscotti could fix that if the writing of everyone else is to educate that guess. Maybe she meets you at the gate before you know who she is and you get a taste of how she interacts with the average citizen, and at the end some locals gush about her being so awesome and cool and epic and shit.
Overall, writing is the thing I fear for least in this game, when I can be so quickly endeared to just about anyone the story asks me to be, with everyone bouncing so well off of each-other (regardless of rank lol) and making for a great world to explore through and get intimately familiar with.
- Jan 10, 2020
- 39
- 60
Thank you so much! This really means a lot ^^
I have a lot of plans for the story, there will definitely be more Nightmare and more Cerelea (Having a small scene of her interacting with villagers / others of the Thunder guard before you meet her proper is a good idea!)
As for a pause button, there is one! You can pause fights and special sequences by pressing the Enter key.
I completely forgot to mention it in any of the tutorials... Very dumb mistake. That's one more explanation that would be a great fit for the Sneak/Moribund tip page.
Thank you again, seriously!
I have a lot of plans for the story, there will definitely be more Nightmare and more Cerelea (Having a small scene of her interacting with villagers / others of the Thunder guard before you meet her proper is a good idea!)
As for a pause button, there is one! You can pause fights and special sequences by pressing the Enter key.
I completely forgot to mention it in any of the tutorials... Very dumb mistake. That's one more explanation that would be a great fit for the Sneak/Moribund tip page.
Thank you again, seriously!
I imagine it's been reported elsewhere but I'll throw it out anyways since Nosebecc is popping in lately but ran into some previous version encroaching on the new Demo. Got a hint pop-up about making notes when you see things that stand out in a now empty room. The room used to contain the 2nd spot hint to the fish puzzle but that was moved at some point but the hint about it seems to have been left behind. Hint indicator disappears once you complete the puzzle so I couldn't get a picture of it without replaying so here's the specific room at least
