EDCHUY'S PROFILE

Regarding the cards minigame, I guess I haven't figured out the exact pattern of when those other two guys are cheating to catch them then and what they need to be doing to be actually cheating.

Regarding the singing minigame, the reason why I have failed to sing the other two songs, is that at some point in the song the cursor start moving very quickly of all the sudden, so that the music meter falls quickly to 0 for me, since I run out of time to hit the right note or hit it once it has changed to the next one, and so on.

Regarding the volleyball minigame, it's definitely a frustrating game ...

So, I was wondering whether I actually managed to get as far into the demo as players to get ...

Also, wanted to let you know I just submitted the wrap-up article for my RS! X feedback.

Coy13,

I'm really sorry, but I just realized that I didn't include the battle related comments for your consideration (copy and paste error I guess). Here it is:

Battle-related (non-system) comments:

- I found the information in the monster book very useful, particularly knowing the strengths and weaknesses which I used to plan my battles and beat enemies more quickly. Although at first, I didn't understand what “straight” meant. Eventually, I understood it as just a regular melee Attack
- I noticed that the party got completely healed after winning each fight, except for the first few fights before a bridge in either the second or third screen in the forest. If you ran away from the fight, you would not be healed and negative status afflictions remain.

Battle tutorial comments:

- A skill tutorial might be useful, perhaps explaining what type of skills each character will have available. I suggest you explain what choosing Taunt does either as a description when chosen during battle or within the tutorial.
- During the battle tutorial, you mention that the "Threats" status is in the left-hand side and CP is under HP, when they are now in the right-hand side and CP is next to HP.
- I think you could explain a little how the choices you make during each character's turn affect the "Threats" status. For example, I couldn't understand why one character's action could affect could sometimes affect the "Threat" status of the other members of the party as well. Also, I found using a battle card during a turn didn't change the status.
- Regarding how CP works, I would like to see a more detailed explanation of how the choice each character makes during their turn affect the CP regeneration after their turn. For example, I couldn't understand why you recovered double the normal CP if you defended and didn't recover any if you used medic skills.
- Regarding the time-based turn system, I think you need to explain how the current action, might make that character's next turn sooner or later. I couldn't quite figure out how it worked.
- It would also be useful to mention the negative and positive status that can be obtained in battle and describe their effects. In particular, at first, I couldn't figure out what zombie did. In other RPGs I have played it makes a character permanently berserk or confused, which is not the case in your game.


In-Battle related comments:

- Having all the skills available in the demo for the characters probably made the demo easier than you intend the actual game will probably be.
- The arrows to show which enemy you are targeting can lead confusion. Having the enemy sprite blink as you do for the active characters would work nicely.
- When battles started with fast enemies, particularly crawlers, they were already hitting my party members.
- Overdrive needs to be implemented.
- I found if you pressed the escape button accidentally when in the main menu of battle actions, you skipped your character's turn. I would have liked a warning to avoid doing it.
- I didn't find changing my stance useful, although I'm sure it would have made the boss battle easier.
- I found the Fiend Edge to be overpowered.
- I found that sometimes Til's spells (photo-, cryo-, tele- kinesis) and even Vusui's Azure Flame would be reflected to damage the caster, when attacking crawlers, slimes, zombies and the boss at the end. Did you really intend it to work this way?
- I used Phoenix Blood in battle to heal only if Matu didn't have enough CP in his turn or was stunned. Also, when someone was seriously hurt and I wanted to prevent being killed by one of the enemies' next turns, usually when HP after zombie or poisoned status.
- I found using the Flying Sword ability reduced the enemies' melee attack too much.
- When a character gets attacked with sludge he/she can get this purple ring status that heals him/her. Is this the way you intended this to work?
- From their descriptions , Jump and Aerial slash seem to do the same thing: lower hit rate. Perhaps you can change one of them to lower the enemy's agility.
- I didn't see the “Come On!” ability as a choice for Vusui. From description, it sounds similar to what Taunt does.
- I didn't using changing Stance useful, although it would probably have helped me beat the final boss more quickly.

Comments on Abilities Used:

- For Vusui, used Flying Sword especially during first turn to weaken the attack of the enemy with strongest melee attack (zombie or crawler), when not using regular melee attack.
- For Matu, used regular melee Attack unless needing to heal somebody, in which case usually used Medkit, sometimes Injection. Liked using Frag Out since I found it to be the only multiple enemy attack and because it does a lot of damage. Its drawback is the amount of CP needed to use it.
- For Til, used Photokinesis in the first turn to try to blind the enemy with the strongest melee attack. If her CP was too low in to use an ability in the other turns, I did a melee attack, unless the only enemies remaining were slimes. In that case, I defended to recover CP. If her CP was high enough, I would use either photo-, cryo- or tele- kinesis depending on the enemy's weakness and what I wanted to accomplish for that turn. Because of this strategy and being the fastest character in the party, she was also the most targeted for enemy attacks. She was at risk of dying in battle especially if she got inflicted with the zombie status.

Comments on Enemies Encountered:

- Of the regular enemies encountered, I found slimes to be the hardest and most damaging, since it's hard to do regular melee damage (at least until getting the Fiend Edge, which gave Vusui the ability to kill them with 1 regular melee attack) and because of the different status ailments their attacks can produce.
- I found zombies to cause quite some damage with regular attacks, especially if critical. Thus, I tried to either blind them or weaken their attack in the first turn of my characters.
- I found the only ways crawlers are a threat is when they cause stun and because their regular melee Attack can do some moderate damage.
- I found the boss at the end to be quite challenging, as expected, obviously because of the high HP and because of having access to the skills of all the regular monsters. Also, because regular melee Attacks were useless against it.

I am downloading the the tech-demo and hopefully will be able to give you some feedback later. I know you mentioned it on the RS! X post. I was hoping to be able to add it to my list had it been released a lot earlier, but I am currently writing the wrap-up article. I'm still giving it a whirl.

I tried all 7 optional enhancements to play the Starseed: Blood Machine (http://rpgmaker.net/games/1946/ ) demo and provided a comparison with pros and cons for each choice in the game discussion.

OK. So, it looks like I'll be doing my wrap-up over the weekend.

Here's a little comparison of the different optional enhancement configurations (I've played the demo at least once with all of them) that can be chosen from at the beginning of the game, whose relatively pros and cons depends on other gear that you might get as drops during the demo:

TO THOSE PLAYING THE DEMO: CAUTION CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Celestial Configurations:


Alpha:


- Passive: 20% Integrity
- Skill: Pilot Regenerate

Pros: only way to heal both in and out of battle early in demo, in battle before Blood Machine reaches level 3; can get extra battery capacity in Auxiliary slot, instead of nanorepair module; lower battery cost than using nanorepair auxiliary skill; who can't use more HP?
Cons: replicates repair functions available with nanorepair module in battle and repair pack out of battle


Delta:

- Passive: 5% Reaction, 5% Control, 10% Accuracy
- Skill Temper: 50% Attack and Defense Increase Temporarily

Pros: High damage that can cause 1 normal attack melee to kill a weaker enemy and 1 skill attack to kill a intermediate enemy; you receive a lot less damage from enemy attacks
Cons: requires 1 turn at the beginning of battle to use; repeated use can cause battery drain issues; since it is temporary, if the battle last too long, its effect might run out


Sigma:

- Passive: 10% Reaction, 2% Critical, 2% Evasion
- Skill: Drain Integrity

Pros: Using skill attacks and heals at the same time; slightly better chance of critical with normal melee attack and of evading enemy attack
Cons: Skill useful in healing only if enemy has high integrity since maximum integrity damage is limited by enemy's current integrity


Omega:

- Passive: 20% Battery, 10% Control
- Skill: Pilot Burnout Flare

Pros: Extra battery allows equipping gear that battery limitation wouldn't allow and more use of Auxiliary skills
Cons: Skill does a little more damage than normal melee attack, less damage than some others such as using laser Auxiliar skill which has a lower battery cost


Masonic Configurations:


Fence:

- Passive: 20% Reaction, 5% Critical, 5% Evasion, -10% Integrity
- Skill: Pilot Cloaking Device

Pros: Significantly higher chance of doing a critical melee attack and of evading enemy attack; when using skill can avoid many of the enemy attacks, especially those can negative status
Cons: Using skill in every battle can cause battery drain issues; even when using skill, it is still possible for an enemy you're facing to hit all its attacks, although it'll more likely miss them all; has slightly lower HP


Temple:

- Passive: 25% Integrity, 10% Firepower, 10% Armor, -25% Battery, -10% Control
- Skill: Pilot Slamdance

Pros: more HP, damage produced using regular melee and less damage received from enemy attack; skill has no battery cost and hits twice doing damage similar to laser Auxiliary Skill, so it's useful if laser's not equipped or battery is running low
Cons: skill can be thought as a kamikaze style attack that instead of being suicidal causes some recoil damage that needs to be considered in addition to enemy attack damage; significantly less battery could cause drain issues when using nanorepair Skill repeatedly


Mage:

- Passive: 25% Battery/Control, -10% Integrity/Reaction
- Skill: Chaos Thunderbolt

Pros: increased battery allows more use of skills, skill causes 3 random attacks whose damage is proportional to remaining battery
Cons: slightly less HP; if skill destroy an enemy and that enemy that was targeted by the skill more than the number of hits it took to destroy it, the remaining hits to that enemy are lost; skill has high battery cost, so you might not be able to use every turn, especially in early battles, until battery can be recharged


My preferred choices:

1. Mage: using skill was able to finish the two hardest fights in demo in 2 turns
2. Fence: using skill can avoid a lot of damage and status ailments
3. Delta: using skill allows you to do a more damage and receive less
4. Temple: using skill allows a high damage, zero battery drain attack at the cost of some integrity damage due to recoil
5. Alpha: using skill allows you to heal in and out of battle without the need of equipping nanorepair module and using repair kits at the cost of some battery drain
6. Sigma: using skill allows you to drain the integrity damage to repair your mech
7. Omega: using skill allows you to make an intermediate damage, but you're better off attacking with the laser if you have it