SEERIC'S PROFILE

Well, I just submitted my review, and I guess I should warn you in advance for if/when it gets approved that it might come across as rather harsh. However, I do hope that you can use it to help polish up PART II and future versions of this part and I wish you luck with future projects.

I'm in the process of playing through this game and I plan to write up a review when I finish, but there are several things you may want to be aware of.

In the teleport maze section of the dungeon in the hidden village there is a miniature puzzle which requires pushing boxes around while standing on crumbling tiles. Although the puzzle is possible to solve, attempting to push a box onto any of these crumbling tiles completely locks up the game, trying to push the first box right (or up into the wall) after pushing it left just makes Mykroft walk left without moving the box, trying to push the second box down twice or down and left also leads to a lockup (in both instances a wall would have prevented the box's movement), and trying to push the third box left twice (into where the second box is) again leads to a lockup.

There is also a lockup issue with the second guard on the first bridge you cross. If you talk to him once, he tells you that you can pass and walks upward. However, talking to him a second time will lead to a lockup as he again attempts to walk upward.

I have also encountered several other bugs, such as being able to exit the first kingdom via the sewers even though a certain event only triggers upon using the normal exit, going into a church and appearing inside of the town's inn, finding several containers which give an infinite supply of potions, and entering one particular castle and appearing on the world map outside of a different one.

The optional quest to give a fairy flower to the merchant for an elixir can also be repeatedly infinitely, which leads to being able to resell the elixirs he gives you for quite a bit of money for very little effort, but I'm not sure if this is a bug or by design. I'd also like to suggest giving a bit more indication in one way or another (different ground tiles, etc) as to just where the three boulders can be moved in the forest after the fairy agrees to help you as I would have been completely stuck on that segment and under the impression that it was simply unsolvable had it not been for the comment made by Dennis concerning the same issue.

Basically, there isn't anything which makes the game outright unplayable so far, but there are quite a few bugs, some of which can cost a lot of progress for anyone who doesn't save often. For future games (or future patches of this one), I'd suggest following three simple bug-testing methods which, though a bit tedious, will really help to cut back on bugs. First, interact with everything at least twice and preferably from every side which it can be interacted with even if it's just a simply copy/paste of something you believe is 'working as intended', especially if it is an NPC which moves after talking to it; this will greatly cut down on issues like the game locking up and containers infinitely giving an item. Secondly, go through every door/ladder/staircase/warp/etc you ever make which transitions the player and do this from both sides to make sure it definitely leads to where it is supposed to. Finally, do stupid stuff like walking into walls, pushing blocks into walls and each other, taking a long route even when a shortcut presents itself, etc; there isn't a set guideline for this, but never assume players won't accidentally do things which make no sense or that they'll always take a shortcut when you present them with one.

EDIT:
Just ran into another oddity in the warp maze. After the colored orb bridge puzzle there is a minecart you can take which lets you choose between three warp points. Choosing the wrong warp point of course leads back to before the minecart, but the minecart is still at the end of the track blocking the way so you have to walk all the way to the end of the tracks, get into the minecart, and let it take you back to where it started just so you can get into it again. It doesn't stop progress, but it is awkward and it would make much more sense for the minecart to simply reset itself upon taking the wrong warp.

After playing this for a few hours, I have to say that it may be a bit too open. While the influence from Panic! and Yume Nikkiis easy to see, both of those games had a bit more sense of (illogical) structure with a concrete goal for the former and a vaguely understandable goal for the latter. However, for this game I'm just completely lost as to what the ultimate objective is or if there even is an ending. Sometimes the gun pops up and speaks to me (is this tied to specific rooms or does it appear after reaching a specific number of rooms or is it a time thing and does it factor into 'finishing' the game?). Some NPC's ask me for items which I assume are gained by killing other NPC's, but I have no idea which NPC's drop which items and Nothingness poses a vague threat. There is mention of pacifism being a possibility 'with consequences', but the game gives me no reason to believe there is any way to progress other than these odd fetch quests. Basically, a clear goal isn't suitable for a game like this, but it would be nice to have some indication if there is any sort of resolution(s) to strive for or if it's a never-ending sandbox.

Thanks for the quick update! I'll make sure to check out the modified version of the fight once I'm done with my current run through the game since I should be finishing up tonight.

I think the issue of silent vs. non-silent protagonist largely depends on your own area of comfort.

A non-silent protagonist is fine if you're good at avoiding cliches and overly long, forced conversations. This one has the bigger risk but also a higher reward as such a protagonist is more likely to be memorable, but not necessarily for a good reason. If the only character you can think of is along the lines of a hot-headed good-hearted youth who falls in love with the first girl he meets and wants to save the world while spouting off about the importance of friendship or if the only way you can think of to develop a character is to have the party sit around at a campfire/inn as the protagonist goes on at length about his/her tragic past, you'll want to avoid this.

Silent protagonists are the 'safer' of the two, but are harder to pull off unless you want them to be a completely blank slate. Writing is still important here, but instead of there being a focus upon direct dialogue, there is now a focus upon pantomime, actions taken, and the reactions of other characters. Players are unlikely to ever understand silent protagonists on the same level as a well-written non-silent one, but this does not mean a silent protagonist cannot be a distinct character. Dragon Quest V is a fantastic example of a game which makes players care about a silent protagonist. However, while MrChearlie may have posted that Legend of Zelda video as a joke, Nintendo really is the king of silent protagonists, especially with the Mario franchise (and definitely with the Mario & Luigi series) and, until relatively recently, with the mostly-silent Samus from Metroid.

Since I think it both makes a good counterpoint to the belief of "silent protagonist = blank slate" and goes into detail about how not to handle development with non-silent protagonists, here is one of my favorite videos (topics relevant to the purposes of this thread begin at 3:00):