KUMADA'S PROFILE

Normally I'd try to do a "if you like blank, you'd probably like this", but there's not a lot of things I can think of to compare this to.

Like, maybe the setting of The Phantom Tollbooth after some kind of Ikea apocalypse, but that's all I got.

Edit: there's some definite Dark Souls-y-ness to the design, but translated into a turn-based format in a way that preserves the weapon/gear/equipment weight complexity, not like the more boiled-down style of Darkest Dungeon.

More bugs.

-Using the warp crystal outside the mansion in the forest puts you outside of the Red Temple warp crystal in the crystal pocket dimension.

-Using the Wooden Edge warp crystal in the crystal pocket dimension puts you outside the mansion in the forest.

Edit:

-The bridge that runs through the middle of Wooden Edge is sometimes passable, sometimes not.

-Valez's quest requires you to get the town military to 500. How is that even possible? I've dumped hundreds of thousands of gold into it and I'm only at 63 power. On top of that, upgrades only increase power by 25% (of whatever the base power is, I'm assuming). Is the number of ghosts you can assign to the military supposed to be capped at 10? Is this going to be a thing that's handled in future content?

-Also, Valez's quest does not grey out the "see what the pillar thing is all about" step, even after seeing what the pillar thing is all about.

2nd Edit:

Regarding the first hunting quest, I can find the alchemist in the sewers, but where is this sloth demon? I could swear I've fought every enemy mob in the map south of him, but no luck. Can you give me any pointers?

Feedback, incoming.

Man it's been a long time since I've played this.

-'Start' still prompts you to load the first game file. Intentional?

-"One day, Brad tripped" feels like kind of a rough opening, but I'm guessing it's a nostalgia line from an early version?

-Switching personalities through midbattle dialog doesn't change the window color until you enter and close out of a menu.

-Man, the equipment choices are still so flavorful. Music equip slot? Joy Division? Sold.

-Save points as passable objects feels weird, but this is super minor.

-Statue fight: "I don't think your sword is going to wor on these guys" work

-Shield and Regen do not seem to stack? Or at least the status loadout does not show it.

-Quarq's shop is a smorgasboard of passability problems.

-Store dialog is great.

-Things that look like area exits are not area exits.

-Bert's Books has no inventory. Intentional?

-You can walk around during Liz's intro screen. Intentional?

-Oh god, Liz's mission is exactly as unfair as I remember it. Security droids that can insta-spot you from off-screen make this segment needlessly frustrating, since you have to walk into what could be their sight lines in order to progress, and you have no way of knowing if this will insta you or not.

-Triggers are weird on giving Max the SCAB. I went into his room with it, and then had to try and leave the room in order to give it to him.

-The shift into Dark on the dancefloor feels a little too abrupt. Maybe just a line or two more of dialog before the shift would make it really hit home.

-Train to Ulm takes a loooooooong time to load in. Seriously I thought the game had crashed.

-The Transformation just straight up stops using attacks in his battle.

-I had Liz cast Reflect on herself and the spell missed. Is it supposed to do that?

-Got a perfect score on Liz's mission, no reward. Got a perfect score on the train mission, got a new dream. Did Liz's mission bug out? I got the janitor, but then did a few retries, so I might have bugged it.

-This is solid and enjoyable. I have to stop for the moment, but I'll try to burn through some more of the game tomorrow. At least with the Act 1 and 2 stuff, I think there are elements that could use a little tightening. Combat, for example, is frantic, but somehow easy despite that. Mostly the game is just a steady flow from cutscene to cutscene, relying on good pacing and solid writing to mask the art and lovingly borrowed assets...which kind of makes it a fusion of the best things from 05 - 09 era rpgmaker design culture. Lately I've been playing/working on things that have the number-crunchy, balance-oriented parts of my head in gear, so it's a bit of a shift to go from that to providing feedback on this, but I'm still really enjoying what I'm playing, and it feels like the game is going to get more sophisticated as it goes.

I'm looking forward to playing through the rest.

Edit:

-Map glitch, bottom of map in the mansion foyer, you can walk through the wall into the upstairs balcony.

-Jean got put to sleep during a battle with a spider. Is that supposed to be possible? DID I FIX HIM?!

-Did a downshift at the start of a battle and it took me all the way from positive to negative. Is that supposed to happen?

-Cure does not seem to work on status ailments. I haven't had it work yet, at least. I've tried it on an Afraid on Ivan, and I've tried it on Jean's Tired. Missed both times.

-Battle with the ninja ends, party goes south into the foyer, you can walk Ivan around through walls during the cutscene.

-"So what's the deal with you bring tired all the time" being

-"You said you co read minds. You said nothing about hurting them" could

-"I opposite this crazy lady" I sat opposite

-"Yeah, but it get's better" gets

More feedback.

-Poetry of Bronzes in the new area's statues are not interactible, which means they cannot be solved. This makes them very tough.

-Entered Wooden Edge from the top, activated the warp crystal, went west and met the merchant, returned to Wooden Edge, warp crystal was down for maintenance. Bug?

-Aaaaaaaaaand it broke my save. Foolishly, I saved on the Wooden Edge save point right after, and now when I load in, the event initializes where the merchant meets Valez, but it's all behind a black screen. The dialog plays and, when it finishes, the party appears in front of the save point and walks unstoppably to the right, gets stuck on the ghost, and that's it forever. I *can* enter my inventory screen, but that's all.

My alternate save is about ten hours ago.

Hey, Gibmaker. I hope everything is awesome.

But also, alongside that hope.

I am super stoked for whenever chapter 3 is finalized.