ARGH'S PROFILE

I can't seem to replicate your empty bottle issue. Did you happen to cook something before filling up your bottles?

Yes.

And ah, I see the other endings now. I can definitely see that you had to cut and streamline things, but I have to say I don't agree with your assessment that it worked; I felt very much like I only got to see a small sliver of a much larger thing, with a lot of important information just out of my reach. That's to be expected with this short event, but... I dunno, I guess I was kinda expecting more. In particular, I don't really see any reason to execute the offending party other than Arle's stated backstory, but since I don't have a very good idea of that or its importance to him, it's hard for me to assess how to make a good choice.

Ooh, I love these kinds of systems. They make battles more consistently engaging instead of just "blow all your reserves on spells and hope the enemy dies before you run out".

Finally got around to this! It was really good. The gameplay was really fun and engaging; I love open-ended RPGs. The running around to fight different bosses and get skills reminded me a bit of Wine & Roses. The battle system was really neat, too -- I normally don't like cooldown-based systems that much, but combined with enemies having cooldowns too, I think it worked well. It's an especially good way for a single-character RPG to still feel engaging.

I thought the difficulty curve was a little funky though -- I got absolutely wrecked by most encounters in the early game (the Child enemies were particularly nasty), but after a certain point -- level 6 or so, I think -- I was able to steamroll everything pretty effortlessly.

I'm surprised you're so disparaging of the story, though. It was short and simple, but so was the game itself; I think it did what it needed to do. The ending twist confused me a bit, though.


Now I just have to find ending 2. My best guess is that it's the bad end for if the mist reaches the terminal. What influences that, by the way? Just the number of rooms you've visited? Or does falling in battle influence it? I did find it odd how there seemed to be no consequences to losing...

Oh yes, I saw your devblog post about that! Sounds exciting.

In the garden, if you try to pass through the gray archway, Heart will walk onto the water.

Edit: And Soul can walk over the solid objects to the left of his doorway.

During the battle tutorial, Heart says "Oh, So I'm the lead man here!" -- that "so" shouldn't be capitalized.

You're probably aware of this, but you can interact with objects and monsters that look like they're at different elevations as long as you're adjacent to them. Standard RPG Maker problem.

And finished with both endings! The dilemma was really neat, and way more engaging than games' usual moral dilemmas of "kick the puppy/don't kick the puppy". I chose to crush his joy because I'm a hardcore utilitarian, but I'm excited to see what the full game has in store. I loved the way the music shifted to convey the differences in both worlds, Ape did a great job with that. My only objection, presentation-wise, is that the monochrome aesthetic of the World of Sorrow looks kinda dull and boring compared to the World of Joy's full color -- it kinda makes it look like the WoJ is the "real" one and Sorrow is the weird aberrant dimension. I can understand if you're already committed to the aesthetic, but a bit more color in Sorrow might make things more even -- some purples or blues here and there, maybe. It's particularly weird that the water is gray, if it's supposed to be the same substance...

Interestingly, I found Sorrow Acre much more difficult than Joy Acre. Even with Power Break, his stuns and AoE attacks kept me on my toes! The Joy Acre battle ended almost as soon as it began, though, no bumps at all. Was the difference in difficulty intentional?

Edit edit: Oh, and I'm super grateful you went with touch encounters. Random encounters are the bane of my existence.