I'll do my best. Thanks for the reality check.
All of Voryen's criticisms were already addressed in the tutorial, maybe not efficiently, but they definitely did not pay attention to any of the dialogue to be as confused as they are. We gave an overview of how the map works and explain that the game is just one long battle multiple times.
Similarly, as you've assumed I simply didn't progress through the game, parts of my review are also being assumed but that's fair.
TLDR: I think the game is unrewarding. As a H-Game, I think it's dull but as a normal game it's fine. Issue is imbalance makes the gameplay loop boring. I don't derive joy even if I progress. I go into details below.
First, as a H-Game, I think this is pretty bland. That's my opinion. I'm not the biggest CG fan. When I see the animated tag, I expect the primary H-content to be animated or the largest rewards to consistently be. In terms of difficulty to reward ratio, I do think it's bland. However, I'll clarify again, as a general game - I think it's decent/fine.
You stated my criticisms are addressed in the tutorial but they're not? Balance, gameplay loops, and the rewards are not a tutorial item. And my regards to balance isn't skill, Fuu/Gloop/Lizard boss are what I did prior to commenting. It just feels to combination of three great ideas are poorly done due to the wish of an arbitrary difficulty and loop that feels unrewarding.
With my review, I give it a 1/5 in regards to it as a H-Game and I think this game is a 3.5-3.8/5 for me in a game sense. I also disagree with the ratings of other reviews. I do believe that your game has a lot of potential but as a demo, I feel people reviewing it for "potential to be great" whilst ignoring the glaring flaws it has is problematic.
I already knew about the miniboss and boss rewards prior to posting.
What I meant on the coins comment is that rather than keep the difficulty, for those who just want to progress through the story, have them hold onto the coins and gradually grow stronger for that level until that pass it. You can reward players who are playing well by gating rewards with a limited amount of tries/attempts. This opinion of mine is only applicable if you want to keep the game's rewards as is because the biggest gripe for me is that the game is unrewarding.
Regarding the gameplay loop and battle, I still stick with it feeling clunky.
I'd recommend having a bar on top of the battle phase that shows the heroines progressing through the map.
The ideas are fine, they just feel horrible to me to repeatedly play through when combined. Let me clarify:
- The battle ideas are fine and I get past most once I get the right abilities. It's the RNG and slight imbalance that's annoying.
- I expected animations after every boss. It has the animated tag
- The heroines going to new sections of the map are fine, it just feels very impromptu during the midst of the fight and unexpected. It breaks my immersion. I would even add a parallax background here but that might be too much.
- The gameplay loop is still terrible to me due to the RNG regarding ability starts. I think it feels boring to be progressing well and you have to quit because Chest 1 or 2 didn't give you an AOE ability or Tripwire or Bear Trap.
Those are my three main gripes. I don't see how any of that has to deal with progression or skill.
It's not about it being hard, it's about it being unrewarding.
There are plenty of difficult games I've played but the issue isn't difficulty. Look at Drain Mansion for example. To me, it's harder than this game. However, it rewards the players in a better fashion and its gameplay loop always offers something new/alternatives to tackle problems.
