HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

-Again, the visuals were gorgeous. I loved the backgrounds, sprites, battlers, portraits, menus--all fantastic. I also loved the contrast with the real world scenes. That said, I think you guys made a huge mistake by putting in that long introductory credits roll. You had the opportunity to have a moment like in the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy goes from black and white to color, which created such a beautiful contrast (and that's coming from someone who hates the Wizard of Oz). In your game, that contrast was downplayed since you put such a big buffer between the real world and the painted world. How cool would it have been to see Cor actually make that transition as he wriggled through the painting? I know that there were time constraints, but considering the level of polish in this game, I don't think this would have been out of the question, and it was a pretty key moment considering the game's theme.
-The battle system was really cool in terms of what it accomplished considering the limitations of the engine. However, I just didn't find it really well utilized, and I'm not sure if it could have been. Since everything is based on the elemental weakness chart, battles consist of looking at the enemy's element and choosing the best skill combination for that element. The enemies can swap out, which should shake things up, but, since it wasn't clear when they would do that, it didn't influence your decision. Even the last boss's element switching just devolved into: pick this for this phase, pick that for that phase. For me, the struggle was just remembering which elements did what, since there was no logic to it. I like how you got away from the old fire/water/etc. paradigm, but the good thing about old school elements is that they have a logic to them that makes them easy to remember: water puts out fire, fire melts ice, and so on. How do mind, spirit, body, and phantasm interact? It just doesn't have a clear logic, so it turned into color memorization to me, and once I did that, the game became a cakewalk, and battles became pretty boring and overly long for the most part. I went with Advanced, so I'm not sure if that affected enemy hp.
-The music worked well with the graphics. In the song during the opening credits, though, the vocals were a bit pitchy, so I found that one grating. Conversely, the little vocal/humming song that played whenever you painted something sounded just lovely.
-The dialogue was too inflated. Some of the interactions were amusing in an anime slapsticky sort of way, but they often didn't relay important information or characterize beyond what was already clear from early interactions. Considering the short scope of this game, paring back the dialogue would have made more sense to me. Your strong point is your images--let the imagery do the talking.
-Along the same lines, the story was pretty forgettable. I liked the themes you were working with regarding the importance of art and its significance in self-reflection, but I think Corbin didn't shine enough as a main character. His own insecurities were a bit too banal; giving him a stronger reason for those insecurities could have built up more pathos with him, and giving a stronger reason for his turn at the end would have made for a clearer character arc. The pre-boss scene felt a bit forced because his character arc wasn't...arched enough.
-The story within the painting would have been a good place to build on your themes instead of having a throwaway story of a golem being a legendary hero.
-Exploration was fun, mainly because the music and art kept things interesting. I also liked the little jump-down areas in and around the village. The switch puzzles were a bit too easy, but they were a good idea for a change of pace. There was one that didn't work, though--the one that seemed to lead to an item bag. I forget the exact location.


Overall, I found this game to be gorgeously produced, and there were some really interesting gameplay ideas here, but, because of the tendency for large health pools on monsters, the battles got stale pretty quickly. You had the tools for some great storytelling here, but the story was ultimately forgettable for me. I bet that lots of players--especially younger ones--might be more easily swept away by it than an old craggy rock like me. The strengths of this game's aesthetics and the creativity of its battle system (despite its flaws), though, are enough to make this game a serious contender. Good luck in the contest!

Each choice modifies a hidden meter. With Chase, if you treat him as a friend, it leads more towards his A ending; if you treat him suspiciously, you lead more towards his B ending. With Lily, if you objectify her, it'll work towards her B ending. If you treat her more as a person than an object of infatuation, it'll work towards her A ending. The goal was to build around a theme of "perception," and how you perceive people impacts how they react in the climax. That may not have been fully conveyed, but that's what I was going for!