Militibus Elementis Arc 1

Polish is so important in RPGs for several reasons. First, the battles have to be well balanced: easy fights will bore the player, but unfair fights will frustrate (most of) them. You have to find that middle ground where the player is forced to think a little but won't die due to annoying mechanics. Second, the story has to be immersive; spelling/grammatical/eventing errors distract a player from the goings-on and make it seem like the creator hasn't put enough time and effort into their project. Playing games is a time investment and we live in a society that demands instant satisfaction; players are not as forgiving as they used to be, and developers need to show that the game is worth their time by putting in the time themselves.

Some of my games lack polish. I cringe when I play my older games, and I sigh at some of my newer contest games because they needed an extra hour or two of work (time I didn't have). Thankfully some of my strengths as a developer seem to have carried that lack of polish, though I think it was just people overlooking the mistakes because of time constraints on my end (or just plain being nice). However, when you have a non-contest entry that has been percolating for a while, polish is something that should be there. This is especially true with a longer game; many players won't sit through a 5-hour game if it's unpolished, but they might be willing to blast through a 30-minute contest game. Every game is better with polish by default, chiefly because you're fixing objective issues instead of design philosophies.

I greatly respect the developer's desire to receive feedback. The game does require a lot of polish, but the developer is actively trying to remedy this. As long as the developer implements the feedback and keeps improving the project, then there's no harm done. It's a hobby. People should work at their own pace and enjoy what they're doing.

For my play-through, it became evident quickly that this would not be an entertaining romp, but a diagnosis. There's a lot to be tweaked here, starting with the off-center title screen.

First off, the good: Rose_Guardian does an excellent job with resource selection. The battle system is always a reliable choice, and the music fits the mood/areas reasonably well. The tilesets are good choices and the mapping isn't particularly bad. The mine is a little bare in spots but this is offest by a fairly detailed forest, town, etc. Some of the natural areas are a little inorganic and boxy, but that can be adjusted fairly easily. I do like the portraits; the characters are quite cute, especially Raven! Penelope's rack is probably a bit too large though, but I digress. The drawn cutscenes were also a nice touch and served to break from the rather monotonous traditional cutscenes present throughout the story. There are some visual glitches throughout; for example, the sunlight overlay is a little jarring, and at one point a portrait lingers on the screen after a cutscene. Overall, the developer has the base of a good game with the resources she has selected. It's all about creativity and execution/polish at this point.

The story didn't really hook me in, but the characters did have some pretty good interactions. Raven in particular seemed to have a fairly strong personality with her fits of rage; I like a strong female protagonist in most cases. With that said, the story does need a stronger hook. The opening cutscene should be revamped until it's perfect; that's what'll draw people in.

But what else attracts people to an RPG? The gameplay, of course; particularly the quality of the combat, the dungeons, and the exploration. Although the combat system is a good choice, the balancing with respect to the fights and skills is a little off. For instance, the game employs a complex elemental system that is not executed to its fullest potential. In an early fight, one enemy is weak to water - yet I can attack them with my physical TP move for twice the damage. And since the TP moves are easy to execute, what's the point? It's important to make each skill valuable in its own right. Many, many RPGs suffer from a lack of proper spell balancing. I don't want to just spam one or two moves if I can help it. As a side note, the fights also lose some of their immersion due to a few missing attack sound effects.

Enemies don't drop much gold; instead, players will have to complete optional quests to get rewards. This is a little frustrating early on because I completed five battles yet could not afford a single potion. From a design standpoint, I recommend harder hitting enemies and a startup fund so that I can purchase some items and then actually use them in combat. The dungeons seem to lack puzzles so there needs to be some sort of interactivity between fights, even if it comes from the rather cheap and old school method of item use/resource management. That sort of thing shouldn't be saved for the mid-game; there's no harm in giving early fights some teeth and giving the player choices/items early on, especially if it means I get to do more with my time. RPGs need to be as involved and immersive as possible without overwhelming the player, especially on a site where we're all veterans. You can step it up a bit in this regard.

Overall, though, I see potential in this project and really hope the developer continues to make strides.

Pros:
- Good resource selection
- Decent artwork (nice to see some visual cutscenes as well!)
- Plenty of gameplay features
- A decent amount of content and reasonably sized areas
- Touch-based encounters!

Cons
- Polish and execution is lacking (balance issues, typos, some visual glitches, and so forth)
- Writing could be improved
- Some areas are a little inorganic and need more interactive features (more NPCs, chests, puzzles, that sort of thing)
- Gameplay could be more involved (harder fights, a few more skills, more items, etc.)
- Questing system seems bugged (optional quests disappear after a while?)

Best of luck with the project going forward!

Playthrough notes: