Overall, I had a good time playing this game. There are some clichés here and there, but generally, it is well put together. The renders improve a lot after, or in the middle of, the prologue, too.
I liked Natalie's transformation the most and would say it was my favorite element. Relationship to Mom and Liz is hot, too. Azurine is cute, too.
It's also worth mentioning that this was a chunky initial release! Much respect.
Things that I feel need improvement:
- Nyrissa looks weird. I don't like monster girls in general, but the lips and skin color just don't mesh at all (to me).
- The text box needs to have a setting to make it transparent. It's huge and often in the way during scenes. I don't think people enjoy pressing H.
- Some spelling mistakes that need fixing.
- Setting the relationships in the beginning was annoying, and it's not something I want to do over and over when Ren'Py saves break. Make it patchable or something?
- The prologue was interesting, but as I mentioned above, the renders were clearly a little subpar. If you aim to remake that, do it now, rather than in the middle when people are hooked on the game. A different solution would be to make a disclaimer and make it skippable, which to me would be preferable.
- The sandbox will no doubt become annoying to deal with, even with hints. It's not a dealbreaker right now, but if I have to do it over and over when Ren'Py saves break, I WILL at some point think to myself "not worth it.".
- Please reconsider the introduction of real time battles. There's another game that does it right now, Dual Perception, and it's a very boring mechanic that consumes way too much time. You cannot program Final Fantasy with Ren'Py. It's just not the engine for it.
- Azurine's great and I like her and I want to get to know more about her, but her popping up in EVERY situation talking to us will get old and annoying fast, I think. It's good to use her to manipulate the MC a bit and to nudge him in the right direction, but not always.
Long list but don't let it fool you. I really enjoyed my first playthrough and I think this has great potential. Just a little rough around the edges, but still a gem.
Good luck, dev!