ALTEREGO'S PROFILE

@SnowOwl: Again. That post was NOT directed at you. And that part was just a general sardonic remark. Geez! Sense of humor, plz. :|

author=kumada
Also, while I agree that interactivity is what separates games from, say, movies or books as mediums, I don't think more interactivity always = better game.

True. But the plead is not so much: "More interactivity", as it is: "Meaningful interactivity". ...For example, I "whined" about the maps in this game because I didn't feel walking down the same little path in three different times added much to it; It was a mere distraction! So in this case you could say one answer could be: "Less interactivity". Spare me the chore of fetching wood and just let me read about it.

I prefer the creative solution, though. That's why I suggested for the areas to be more open, so the player can regain some control. So they can explore a bit and feel genuinely confined to a remote area, or lost and disoriented in a thick, large forest. Because even if that was SnowOwl's intention, the trees don't naturally grow into little mazes. And even little details like that can break the immersion...

^ The thing is that if all you want to do is tell a story, then maybe you're better off in a writing community, or a comics community, or whatever-- But this is a game making community and videogames are an interactive medium. So not to be out of place here you have the responsibility, if not the obligation, to reconcile gameplay with story telling. (Geez! Even text adventures try to be more thoughtful than just "Press Enter to close the message box.") And to make the experience as 'broad' as as possible instead of just focusing on a niche audience.

...This is specially true in a community like this that takes pride from open game design discussion. And feedback focused on improvement. Because if you think that you're the only person that needs to be "happy" with your game, then maybe your game should stay in your hard-drive, for only you to play. Well, maybe your dog too-- Don't worry, he'll remain your best friend even if the game sucks. ;D

@Monkeynohito: I never suggested that the game needs "fully-loaded" gameplay. and I think you're essentially wrong when you imply that improving its mechanics would have only made it worse... I believe there must be a nice middle ground somewhere, between tedium and 'fun'. And "Improvement" in this case would mean finding it. And that's why we fancy ourselves game DESIGNERS. To procure the players stay in that ground and experience the game trough our eyes from start to end.

Perhaps a nice example of this are those fake mario games. Because you know that playing them won't leave you much satisfaction. They're certainly not intended to be beaten easily. But every time you die is unexpected and creative, so you don't resent it as much. You instead hone your skills and keep pushing forward because you're curious of what lies ahead.

@Calunio: You're right. No game NEEDS a job system. But if a game includes one it has to procure that there's some kind of synergy between all the available jobs, not so much to make grinding "more fun" but for there to be less grinding. Grinding is one thing that "traditional" games do wrong and we're all tired of it. We don't need ironic bad game design to pour salt on the wound. xD ...And well, there's no synergy between the Jobs in your game. Hell, there's not even time to unlock the secondary jobs.

Also, the game is too short to really say is more than grind and a fetch quest. It would be too cynical to say the same of a 30+ hours long game. But even in those games, players would notice the filler content. For example, I love Chrono Trigger, but I 'hate' the part where you have to reforge the Masamune. That's one big-ass fetch quest the game could do without.
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Ultimately, I reiterate that the highlights of the game were delivered trough its message, graphics, and music. So maybe another solution would have been to make the "robot" less "human-looking" and dumb down the rpg mechanics until they became an outline of themselves. Because the problem is not that the player fail to notice they're intentionally bad. Like I said, that takes a split of a second. But it takes 1-2 hours to actually overcome the challenge they represent, and that's just not worth it.

Well, figured that some of these issues were because of the lack of time and the program's restrictions, but still... I mean, some struck me as rather odd choices. For example, if the best weapons in the game costed more than 1 RD each, that would have prevented me from getting them as early in the game, even if the leveling was bugged.

As for the endings. In my experience you can only go to sleep once per day. So if you miss an opportunity (Which let's face it. You need to sleep to heal up, so is not very intuitive choice), or you fail to pull the switch in the basement on the first day, you'll never get to see all endings in a single playtrough... But I could be wrong on this. xP

Also, I think I just found another bug. Your party can still attack while asleep or paralized(?) as long as Victoria's Double March order is active. Heh; I found that a bit funny. Sleepwalker fighters. ;P

Heh; For some reason I read the title of this game as "A bear's journey" and I came here ready to download it. ;P

But hey, it looks like a nice game, regardless. I'll probably give it a try once you release a demo or something...