HELLBOUND

author=Ratty524
I gave this a shot. So far, it's kind of in that zone of neither being bad, nor that good, either. I find the plot hilarious, but it the game does have some flaws. Here are my thoughts:

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> Your passability settings for the tilesets you use are kind of all over the place and don't really make sense. I can't walk behind a stop-sign, for instance, even though it's graphic is less than half the width of a standard tile, and while one tree is impassable at every corner, there is another tree, of the same graphic on a different map, that I can walk behind like what's normal in RMVX games. It makes movement a bit clunky in general, and I do have a personal peeve for invisible walls. This isn't too big of a deal, but fixing it would help in polishing.

> While the battle system itself isn't bad, and I'm having a pretty smooth experience so far, I find that you didn't really cover your overall system that much, nor did you really clue that you can use the shopping mall to buy supplies until you get to your first crystal. If I didn't know what you could use the mall for prior to that point, I probably would have been screwed upon entering that crystal, especially with the boss. Maybe if you hinted it earlier it might get people to know that that's why the mall is there? Maybe you shouldn't lock off areas at the beginning with that in mind.

> Caught plenty of spelling mistakes in my playthrough so far. "Cyah" is not a word, and I think I saw many instances where "um" was used when an "erm" would work better. You might also want to distinguish your onomatopoeias as well ("Snicker... Snicker...") so that they don't blend in and confuse the reader into think they're actually saying "Snicker" instead of snickering.

> Check your item descriptions in that regard, too. One of the first MP-restoring items describes MP as "PP" while others use "MP" and whatnot.

> Your map design tends to fluctuate between being okay to poor. The quality especially drops on the forest pathway to the church. Never leave your map edges empty unless you intend for the player to walk over it to cross to a new map, because otherwise you muddle up the direction the player's suppose to follow. Functionally, it makes navigating through the game a chore because the pathways where you are suppose to travel aren't clear enough. Aesthetically it kind of looks haphazard; lacking in deliberate "design." I'm not sure if you are willing to go back to this game to do additional reworks at any point, but either way you should work on mapping like a designer; thinking about how your maps interact with players and presenting information in a clear, deliberate manner.

> To expand on this, are you familiar with shift-mapping? There are some roads in your first town that kind of curve inward in an awkward manner, but shift-mapping remedies that to make your stuff look seamless. Here's a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xrhg70MXnQ

> LOL this music. I don't know about it. It's not bad but some tracks call attention to themselves when they probably shouldn't, feeling "distracting" in a sort of way, like the "obedience" song that plays in one of the cutscenes. I also find it hard to believe that you got the composer of "Secret of Mana" to okay your inclusion of his/her music in your game, but the use of rips in general isn't that big of a deal for me in a free game; the game itself matters more.

I might have more when I finish this game.

author=Ratty524
The Obedience song was the best. xD