Belphegor007

Active Member
Aug 23, 2016
703
1,341
You need to work on your fucking map design or get rid of the stamina restriction. Walking around the forest which is a large interconnected maze is fucking boring and tedious.
You want this game to be taken seriously and put on Steam and no one is going to want to play this with how many things you do to annoy the player.
Also having a relationship system that is hidden from the player is fucking dumb. Oh I locked myself out of relationship points in the intro because I didn't read the thread and know that you can gain them in the intro. In other games I imagine gaining relationship back wouldn't be that hard, but with how you make everything as tedious as possible I imagine you probably are locked out from being on mother's route the entire game. For someone who says they hate the game hiding info from you sure like hiding various hidden values.

Also balance the voice of the voice actors I heard voices in the forest and couldn't here a single thing it said.
Also your whole click on every single fucking plant on the game system is fucking retarded! Just because a player needs the materials doesn't mean they are going to enjoy clicking on every single one hoping that it can be picked up, just fucking put a sparkle over the ones that are items. Between the stamina system, the slow start, unavoidable enemies, items, and gold I think you just like wasting the players time
 
Last edited:

Darkarhon

Active Member
Donor
Jun 20, 2017
994
924
This game is super confusing on what i am doing..... i have no idea where to go or how to start oof...
 

Loadlurker

New Member
Jun 19, 2017
12
61
I am glad i tried this despite the low ratings.

It is a great game already but i couldnt honestly recommend it at this point.
The mapping, atmosphere, writing and even the sex scene writing are all good and the game managed to intrigue me and kept me wanting more.

The reaction to seeing the first golem at the academy stood out to me. Usually adventurers coming out of their little village in the ass end of nowhere fail to actually act that way.
There is very little suspension of disbelief required thanks to the detailed writing usually preempting my questions.
Also the humor really worked for me.
The amount of interactable things is great but i dont think it was mentioned early on. I do usually try interacting with everything in a new rpg but many rpgmaker games dont allow you to so perhaps some players will never do so and miss out.

The perk system is great but does make it possible to painfully softlock yourself. I suggest adding a strong warning to make a seperate save and spell out the potential to fuck yourself over explicitly. That will probably silence complaints of that nature and keep the freedom and complexity of character building intact.

The combat system is nice and i like that even the formula for basic attacks is available in the tutorial.
The frequency of combat is too high especially when you add the perceived slowness of the stamina system to it.
Getting attacked by lowly animals that dont upgrade to elemental, dire etc. variations whenever the player grows a bit stronger makes the world feel more grounded and adds a sense of authenticity. It also makes every single boar encounter after getting a few levels increasingly annoying.
Either lower the frequency of random encounters drastically or give players some way to avoid them. It might not make sense for animals and undead guardians to avoid combat with the player due to perceived strength so maybe use a magical explanation or display a little text whenever a low level random encounter would have procced mentioning a brief and uneventful fight.
You are already keeping track of the number of kills so perhaps after you get 20+ common enemies fail to spawn/die instantly.
Most combat feels pointless later in the game. You cant even get killed by attrition if you have enough regeneration and most enemies drop very little exp or loot. There is simply no payoff for fighting and those easy fights are mindless attack mashing.
Consider making roaming enemies only respawn after you have slept or a certain number of steps.

The adventurer in the sewers somehow kills slimes for fun and profit. Considering how strong they are against most things that makes little sense since he doesnt look like a mage. If there is a secret way i havent found he could mention it.

I can but really dont want to imagine playing this game without health regeneration at the start. Healing is pretty expensive and even the out of combat options were pricey. Someone new will probably have bought weapons instead of food recipes. Perhaps with different perk choices you take less damage than a regeneration build so it wont feel as bad but it still doesnt look like a fun alternative.
Perhaps hint how much mana you will have later in the game so the non regainable mp doesnt put off mage players from the start. I made the mistake of starting my first run as a completely melee incompetent mage and resting costs would have been insane in comparison to combat potential. The melee abilities of the mage class arent as bad as in most games and allow you to conserve mp easily but a new player will likely have no idea about that and assume the usual ineffective staff bashing.

The stamina system is neat in concept but the execution feels aggravating. It doesnt help that it feels like standing still and then sprinting feels faster than switching to walking for a while. Exploration manages to feel a bit like a chore even if i am really interested in what there is to find.
I assume it is mainly for dodging enemies on maps and not to pace exploration. Maybe prevent stamina from draining unless an enemy actively pursues you. Also please make them lose aggro when you switch maps. It feels unsatisfying to dodge an encounter narrowly with the knowledge that that enemy will beeline for you the next time you are in the area and likely initiate combat.
Upgrades to maximum stamina also only add to capacity unless im wrong and not regeneration which makes them feel pretty useless when going larger distances.
The choice of polluting fountains or fast travel is extremely painful and while i think that it is a refreshingly meaningful one most players will regret either choice for the rest of the game and make their experience worse.

Make every encounter escapable or only do it for some select enemies like the slimes. It is not immersive having to reset the game because you got caught in a fight neither side is able to win.
Is the escape probabiliy based on agility? If it is please change it. My berserker with probably negative agility felt compelled to fight every single escaped farm pig. Maybe that was just me getting unlucky and and avoiding the option until later on when i finally got another party member. Escaping did work on my magus run though.
While the option for escape is nice and it usually works every encounter still feels slow. Maybe speed up the battle start animation.

The scarcity of money and antidotes at the beginning is nice and combined with entering the city for the first time actually makes you as overwhelmed as a novice adventurer probably would. The almost survival aspect can be overcome pretty quickly but only when you know what you are doing. I would suggest adding more findable antidotes and making them work 100% of the time since currently it will just make most players want to reload when they dont work.
Honestly i like it the way it is currently but it is really easy to see why most people likely dont.
Maybe add a few hints from town npcs that farming the first few enemies you encountered really is not the best or intended way to make money.
It is not the case that money is actually scarce but if a new player sees the return of killing wolves, boars and hornets they might assume the rest of the game will be grindy. Honestly if i thought i had to fight upwards of 10 times to use the cheapest inn in an rpg i probably wouldnt keep playing.

I didnt expect to see a class system and it is a good implementation. I didnt play the adventurer but the others were distinctive and even came up in dialogue.
While you get a few hints as to what each class does i still think there should be an entry in the adventuring 101 book on the farm concerning them. Perhaps highlight that thing.
Also one thing that felt really bad was that as a non rogue you cant open locks.
The problem isnt that you cant open them - it is that you think you perhaps should be able to. After seeing the thief npcs i assumed there would be some kind of black market quest somewhere hidden that would give me the ability to purchase lockpicks. I mean in the tutorial you do have the ability to do so and such a quest is a very common rpg trope.
Every single chest i couldnt open annoyed me because i thought i had missed a vital quest somewhere.
Please make it clear that there is no quest for lockpicks or boulder grease. I am assuming later companions will help with that.
Starting without a weapon as a magus feels just odd. Maybe add a improvised combat staff or something. Also why do you start with the more expensive of the starter magus armors? There are at least two you can buy in the first city and you get the stronger one.
I noticed the rogue gets a few more options when interacting with things like the blueprints in the smithy. Thats awesome.

Oh and please change the descriptions of the perks that lock you out of things like using weapons. "-weapons" made me think it lowered some hidden weapons stat that affected your ability with weapons not that it banned me from using them.

I couldnt find a way to view some stats like perception, karma and testosterone.
This is just personal preference but i really would like to be able to see those even if its just vague descriptions for the sexuality stats. It will make planning harder than it should once you have more options to gain certain stats instead of others.
Also many stat changes are hidden when they perhaps shouldnt be.
Once i got high insanity it stopped visibly giving me more but i am pretty certain it still increased since new enemies spawned after more sanity events. Maybe its just to show you are becoming incapable of judging your own state of mind but its still odd.

I saw mention of hidden stats related to the kindom and some npcs out of game. I hope they actually reflect your choices.
Often things like the conversation with the soldier at the harbor affect stats in games when they really shouldnt.
If i am critical of the ruler of a nation i probably wouldnt tell that to the soldier of that kingdom. Telling him you agree with his policies should only change his perception of you not the actual values of your character.
Perhaps you should make it clearer in such dialogues what the character actually thinks by straight up telling us when we lie.
Even if there is no stat change it will add to the role playing aspect and silence my paranoid musings about whether or not a dialogue choice will have unintended consequences.

I liked the puzzles. Challenging comprehension/perception instead of trial and error.

The atmosphere and horror/mythos elements were really well executed in my opinion. The grounded feeling world allowed creepiness to arise from the things that didnt fit. Things like the mention of the tyrants peace being unnatural subtly shaped my expectations and the promise of increasing insight/insanity allowing me to see behind the veil of normalcy was really intriguing.

I liked the consequence of selling your corpse. You do get a lot of money but it is obvious there will be a catch. I just didnt know what kind and when it finally happened it was fitting and surprising. The doll part stood out to me as well. I found one insanity interaction in an area youre unlikely to revisit so i am wondering how much i have missed.

The sexual content was good. I cant offer anything constructive here since its largely a matter of taste and accomodating everyone is impossible.
But related to that: perhaps decouple sexual stats from classes or at least remove the mali you get from them so playing against type is easier. Currently liking to play rogues and disliking sissification will cause a player to either dislike the gameplay or the erotic content. Also if you choose the rogueish option when dealing with the table during the tutorial the action that follows contains ogling a girl. Since the starting changes are not explicitly mentioned that is misleading.


There are a few bugs i have noticed but honestly surprisingly few for how long i played. (v3.7.8)

- you can walk up the cliff next to the right area exit of the map with the dog and the ghost
- you can walk up the cliff that allows you to jump down when coming from the razed village
- the dialogue with the hidden figure and the minotaur leader crashes
- the fight with the bear you are tasked to kill by the ghost has the potential to crash at least my pc (pretty sure it was cause of the dialogue and the fight conflicting somehow)
- choosing to punish azar in the abandoned village does nothing and softlocks me. I couldnt find anything to interact after choosing the option and i could still dig and was unable to leave.
- choosing to fight (perhaps only after seeing through the lie) in the dungeon of the misty village will loop the dialogue after the fight and allow you to fight the boss again and again.
- sometimes map exits dont trigger
- some map exits allow you to walk around them
- some corpses in the healer facility had code in the description
- sometimes the description you get for an area comes up pretty late (for example the eastern sewers one) and i think i once saw half of it before and half after a fight or other dialogue
- not sure if its intentional but a part of the misty woods can keep you looping even though it makes no sense geographically
- after some dialogues the images stay - i can only think of the boss encounter in the village at the moment but i think there were more
- there are seemingly electrical lights in the background of the tutorial fight - not sure if thats intended


I felt compelled to write this since while this is a great game for me and little is missing to make it equally enjoyable for most others the current ratings sadly do it justice. The backtracking you do combined with the stamina system and the constant meaningless combat interruptions really makes it feel tedious at points.
If you know what to do and where exactly you can avoid a lot of it so it might not be apparent to you as a developer but if i try to challenge the golem boss in the crypts while im currently in the northern city for example that will take me a lot of time and i might even fail and do that walk again later. Little things like checking shops after getting money or a new party member will take a lot longer than they should especially if im not certain where to go exactly. Constantly escaping combat feels bad and even worse if it fails. Its difficult to appreciate the environment while dreading the next interruption.
Just removing this tedium and the early noob traps will allow a lot more people to enjoy this game without affecting the feel of it much.
 

Rutsah

Member
Game Developer
Jun 20, 2021
303
391
I am glad i tried this despite the low ratings.
Alright a whole lot to unpack here. First thanks for the bug reports, most will be fixed next version
(
PS: Boss fight in village? Where exactly?
PS2: When you find an exit that you cannot trigger or that you can walk around of, I'm gonna need either a screenshot or a more specific location name and description. A lot of these happen because when these paths were first designed, there was no diagonal movement in the game.
PS3: The shadow figure should already be fixed, download the latest Data folder and replace the one you have, it won't affect your saves.
PS4: The corpses in the facility are meant to have that description.)

Now for the main concern of chasing enemies & random encounters: The thing is, if I raise the rarity of random encounters when I playtest the game, it is easy to breeze through everything without fighting even once, up to the kobold mines, which I don't want for the players. Regarding the chasing enemies "forgetting" you, that unfortunately cannot happen due to technical reasons. Every single chasing enemy would need their own unique event switch to do that, and I don't think VX Ace (my engine) can pull it off given how many switches I already need for the game (& even if it could it would be a b!tch to program).

Also regarding regular chasing enemies: Kobolds, minotaurs and the lotic all permanently despawn as soon as you deal with their questlines, meaning the only common over-world enemies that are left are the slimes, which will trigger if stepped on, but will not actually chase you (they go at random, and at super slow speeds), and then wolves/horners/pigs/bears/wyrms. Of these, the most problematic are the bears, which are super-fast but relatively rare, and the wolves, which both move at high speeds and detect you easily, but the game has already had a quest for more than a year now, that as a reward can turn all wolves encountered everywhere completely passive, and it can be completed roughly within the first 15 minutes of the game after leaving the tutorial area. I am thinking of adding a similar one for insectoid enemies.

Escaping is determined by agility. Specifically, your party's total agility vs the enemy team's total agility.

The player can also receive stamina potions over the course of the game which raise max stamina, so running eventually becomes barely noticable (I also usually pick the Marathon Runner perk at the start which more or less makes this issue disappear from the very beginning). Regarding the golems: No spoilers, but one of the very first things I do in new playtests is gain access to the tomb and go straight for the golem boss, to loot the chests and get the exp. I do that at roughly level 2-3, without the perks/gear/class mattering. And as a bonus sidenote, the same will be true for all unique future golem encounters.

Regarding viewing stats: I have made a very unique dungeon for Asari (version 5) which gives you an item that allows you to view all these variables and many more, like how much characters love you, etc. Unfortunately due to the now open-world nature of the game (it used to be separated into strictly levels), it will be a while before players gain access to this.
 

Belphegor007

Active Member
Aug 23, 2016
703
1,341
Alright a whole lot to unpack here. First thanks for the bug reports, most will be fixed next version
(
PS: Boss fight in village? Where exactly?
PS2: When you find an exit that you cannot trigger or that you can walk around of, I'm gonna need either a screenshot or a more specific location name and description. A lot of these happen because when these paths were first designed, there was no diagonal movement in the game.
PS3: The shadow figure should already be fixed, download the latest Data folder and replace the one you have, it won't affect your saves.
PS4: The corpses in the facility are meant to have that description.)

Now for the main concern of chasing enemies & random encounters: The thing is, if I raise the rarity of random encounters when I playtest the game, it is easy to breeze through everything without fighting even once, up to the kobold mines, which I don't want for the players. Regarding the chasing enemies "forgetting" you, that unfortunately cannot happen due to technical reasons. Every single chasing enemy would need their own unique event switch to do that, and I don't think VX Ace (my engine) can pull it off given how many switches I already need for the game (& even if it could it would be a b!tch to program).

Also regarding regular chasing enemies: Kobolds, minotaurs and the lotic all permanently despawn as soon as you deal with their questlines, meaning the only common over-world enemies that are left are the slimes, which will trigger if stepped on, but will not actually chase you (they go at random, and at super slow speeds), and then wolves/horners/pigs/bears/wyrms. Of these, the most problematic are the bears, which are super-fast but relatively rare, and the wolves, which both move at high speeds and detect you easily, but the game has already had a quest for more than a year now, that as a reward can turn all wolves encountered everywhere completely passive, and it can be completed roughly within the first 15 minutes of the game after leaving the tutorial area. I am thinking of adding a similar one for insectoid enemies.

Escaping is determined by agility. Specifically, your party's total agility vs the enemy team's total agility.

The player can also receive stamina potions over the course of the game which raise max stamina, so running eventually becomes barely noticable (I also usually pick the Marathon Runner perk at the start which more or less makes this issue disappear from the very beginning). Regarding the golems: No spoilers, but one of the very first things I do in new playtests is gain access to the tomb and go straight for the golem boss, to loot the chests and get the exp. I do that at roughly level 2-3, without the perks/gear/class mattering. And as a bonus sidenote, the same will be true for all unique future golem encounters.

Regarding viewing stats: I have made a very unique dungeon for Asari (version 5) which gives you an item that allows you to view all these variables and many more, like how much characters love you, etc. Unfortunately due to the now open-world nature of the game (it used to be separated into strictly levels), it will be a while before players gain access to this.
You seem to forget that you are the dev and you know how the game works and have a completely different viewpoint then the player.
No player knows that encounters turn off all they know that they are annoying, no player knows that stamina will not matter latter all they know is that running is a normal part of rpgs, no one knows to run past two towns and go to a temple with a puzzle I can't even find a hint for.
Most players will find an annoying and tedious experience.
When you make this game you should remember the player has only the information you present to them in the game. Even if there is a guide made you should never account for a player finding it.
I want to like your game, but all I feel is that I wasted time. You may be able to clear everything super fast, but a new player will explore in all directions and either lock themselves out of things, get loss, get overwhelmed, backtrack and waste time, or maybe they will have fun.
 

Belphegor007

Active Member
Aug 23, 2016
703
1,341
I mean... It's fine if you don't like it. Exploration and learning how it works is a big part of it.
I find exploration fun in games what I don't find fun is enemy encounters that gain me nothing, slow ass movement speed, stopping to click on random plants, and mazes for all maps.
I get that you also want to have shops sell items at different prices, but you know what isn't fun slogging your slow character to compare the prices through 4 zones!
 

Loadlurker

New Member
Jun 19, 2017
12
61
PS: Boss fight in village? Where exactly?
PS2: When you find an exit that you cannot trigger or that you can walk around of, I'm gonna need either a screenshot or a more specific location name and description. A lot of these happen because when these paths were first designed, there was no diagonal movement in the game.
I mean the fight in the caves below the Stillwater house. Sadly i cant remember where exactly those exits were.

but the game has already had a quest for more than a year now, that as a reward can turn all wolves encountered everywhere completely passive, and it can be completed roughly within the first 15 minutes of the game after leaving the tutorial area
I am pretty sure i know where to get the quest but it cant be started with low karma.
Regardless of that the main problem are the random encounters. The roaming enemies can be annoying but avoiding them is usually possible.
If you dont want to change the frequency of them try making them feel less disruptive or more fun and rewarding.
I like the combat options and the unusual amount of special stats you can acquire but it doesnt matter against enemies that cant hurt you and wont give a meaningful amount of ressources. There is simply no point besides perhaps atmosphere in a young boar encounter.

The player can also receive stamina potions over the course of the game which raise max stamina, so running eventually becomes barely noticable (I also usually pick the Marathon Runner perk at the start which more or less makes this issue disappear from the very beginning).
I did take the perk on my later runs and it didnt feel much better. Maybe reset the stamina upon entering a new map? You usually dont have to dodge things directly at entrances so it wouldnt affect being able to outrun everything. I never felt limited by stamina when i needed to run away from things or quickly dash past them while they were looking away. Moving longer distances is the annoying part. Increases to capacity without affecting regeneration will only affect the first few seconds of a journey that can take minutes.

Regarding viewing stats:
Perhaps mention that you will be able to do so later in the tutorial.

By the way some inns dont seem to give you the well rested buff even if you choose the expensive option and i couldnt find a way to rest in the bought house.

The gem shield recipes and perhaps others dont show up for me. Bone dagger crafting seems completely pointless.
 

Rutsah

Member
Game Developer
Jun 20, 2021
303
391
Wolf shrine? There was nothing there when i visited in multiple playthroughs.
That's the one, but there is no karma check for it. Some of your more trollish decisions there can negatively affect your karma, but the game does not require specific karma for that interaction.
 

Loadlurker

New Member
Jun 19, 2017
12
61
That's the one, but there is no karma check for it. Some of your more trollish decisions there can negatively affect your karma, but the game does not require specific karma for that interaction.
It has been a while but he mentioned my evilness when i asked him about becoming a wolf i think and just mentioned something he could have me do and decided against it. Did i just pick the wrong options?
 

Rutsah

Member
Game Developer
Jun 20, 2021
303
391
It has been a while but he mentioned my evilness when i asked him about becoming a wolf i think and just mentioned something he could have me do and decided against it. Did i just pick the wrong options?
Oh, right, my bad. Yeah, now that I check it again, it needs a karma of -2 or higher.
 

DreamyMilk

Member
Aug 25, 2019
177
123
the wolf shrine have such a secret hidden in it?
interesting, but the door to get further in, kind of have an pass code, that as fare as i can tell, i haver not fond any hints fore when searching fore them how to solve it.

i have so fare tried to look around the arias around the shrine like the village and the old abandoned village, i even tried to see if the sign's whit the name "Leo Tolstoy" and if it ware linked to his quote "rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there, unnoticed.", and also the "GOD is Watching" quote from the other one, to see if the hint to enter ware out of the game...

no luck so fare from what i can see, that is unless the hints are in some other part of the game that is not entirely obius.

of Corse i meit just be stupid and not fond the right person to talk to or not clicked the right scroll or bookcase or something fore the hint to enter the inner shrine...

so any hints of what we need to do to figure it out whiteout having to data mine fore the answer?
 

DreamyMilk

Member
Aug 25, 2019
177
123
Since you asked for hints and not the code:

Everything needed to figure it out is in the room with the door.

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tanks fore the hint, i FINALY got it.
through i ware apparently relay close, just looked on it from the wrong set up...

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2.90 star(s) 26 Votes