RMMV Embers' Pyre: v.0.4c uploaded!

[Dalph]

Finally finished the demo:

Spoiler

It was satisfying to unpetrify Cendril and the scene of Russel crying when he saw his friend being alive and well was touching, you made a very nice picture of them reuniting.
Like it has been mentioned, you might want to cut some dialogues because they go on for a bit too long, I understand it's not something easy to do though, you can also increase the text speed making the messages appear a bit faster at the press of the button maybe? Probably there might be a plugin for that. Not too sure about what I'm saying here but definitely make the dialogues a bit shorter if you can (it'll help with the pacing).

I think you already nerfed a lot of monsters and so far the game seems to be more bearable regarding battles. Good job there.

A last hint would be to make the Trials puzzles a bit more obvious (especially the last one), maybe it's just me being bad at puzzles but it was a bit on the difficult side.

Other than that what to say, it was fun to me and I say it again:
I'm interested to know more about how the story will progress, especially why Bane knocked out Russell and what the General real intentions are.

Good job Verdelite!

 

[Verdelite]

@Dalph Woohooo!

Spoiler

Oh, I'm glad you liked that scene! I'm always afraid of it being too cheesy ^^"
Yep, I definitely agree with the pacing aspect. I think my main problem is that I'm trying to cram in as much information about the characters/world as I can and yet retain a somewhat natural dialogue flow. I think it might be easier to cut once I've finished writing the whole game, so I can move information around/figure out which are dispensable and cut everything that's not important. But on the other hand I might lose track of all the dialogues, so it might also be a good idea to start trimming as I go...

And I also agree with you saying that the last trial especially is too confusing... I'm still thinking of a way to make it easier I'm considering adding the additional hint statues either after the first failed attempt or since the beginning and also "locking in" the answers for each statue as soon as you got them right.

I'm happy that it was fun to you despite its flaws!

Thank you so much for your support! ^_^

 

[Mimironi]

I JUST finished the demo and ohh man was it nice. I'm not a great reviewer so I'll use the nice guide you gave:

Spoiler

1. Characters:
Who is your favourite/least favourite character? What do you like/dislike about them? Do they seem believable/consistent?

• My favorite is Russel! He's that lovable goof type of character that I love. I really like all of the characters, and while at first I thought I wouldn't like Bane, she ended up being around my second or third favorite (how about that). Even the npcs are cool.

2. Story:
What are your thoughts on the plot progression? Were there any scenes in particular that you liked/disliked? If so, why? Is it engaging enough to make you want to continue playing? What are questions that the story poses and which you would like to see answered? Are there any parts that dragged on/felt rushed? Anything that felt illogical/inconsistent?

• The story was nice! I think some people have already said that some cutscenes go on for a little long. I definitely do wanna continue playing. I'd love to see what's up with Bane and Fyren, and what this Military's up to.

3. Gameplay
What are your thoughts on the combat system? Is it annoying/fun/too easy/too hard/convoluted? Are the dungeons too long/short/just right? Were the puzzles easy/hard/frustrating/rewarding? What about the difficulty/number of enemy encounters? What about the difficulty of the boss battles?

• At first, battles were a bit annoying, but that might've been because my game always lags (that's all on me, by the way, nothing wrong). Once I figured out my touchpad doesnt lag like my keyboard does when I use Cendril's button mashing skills, things got better. I think the boss battles are nice, but I do remember the chimera taking four shockwaves to be knocked down was a bit annoying... I think lowering to maybe... three hits would work nice.

4. Writing
Did the dialogue feel natural/forced/awkward?
Did you encounter any strangely worded sentences/grammar mistakes/spelling errors?
If so, feel free to point them out to me! I'm not a native speaker, so your help would be much appreciated!

• Dialogue was nice. The only thing I really noticed was that "Practice" was spelled "Practise" a few times.

5. Bugs
Did you encounter any bugs? Please let me know and I'll try to get it fixed asap

• After the Cocytus fight, if I go back into the room, there's a Russel and "Suspicious Woman" event just sitting there.

6. Other
If there's anything at all you'd like to say, I'm happy to hear it! Thoughts, comments, criticism, .... anything is much appreciated <3

• I loved the boss battle music that plays when you fight the chimera. I remember hearing it in other boss battles but the chimera was the one I really remembered.
• The music in general is really great! Also, this is a nitpick, but I feel like the battle theme and boss themes change too frequently. I barely get used to one theme before it gets replaced

This was a really enjoyable game. Cant wait for the next version
I think my favorite thing in the game was the characters themselves.

And speaking of character(s), here's a gift!

Spoiler

 

[Verdelite]

@Mirpono Thank you so much for your detailed review! I'll definitely keep the points you mentioned in mind while tweaking!
I'm very happy that you like my characters! And way more importantly-
Thank you so much for that wonderful piece of fanart ^////////////^ You really nailed his facial expression, that grin is SO much like Russell! I love it! Thank youuuu~~~

 

[Susan]

Hi, I tried your game for a while, but ran into game-breaking issues in the battle scenes (details in spoiler below). Please don't hate me for my feedback .
Version tested : v0.3.2f

Spoiler: Feedback

I haven't played anywhere near as much as I should to give this feedback, but I'll give it a shot.

1. Characters:
Who is your favourite/least favourite character? What do you like/dislike about them? Do they seem believable/consistent?

Haven't played long enough to decide, although I like the fleshed out personalities you gave them all.
Haven't found anything to dislike about them as they seem to act consistently to their given character/personalities.

2. Story:
What are your thoughts on the plot progression? Were there any scenes in particular that you liked/disliked? If so, why? Is it engaging enough to make you want to continue playing? What are questions that the story poses and which you would like to see answered? Are there any parts that dragged on/felt rushed? Anything that felt illogical/inconsistent?

In general, the story is well written and scenes are well done. Due to the interesting way the story is written and the character interactions, I find it quite engaging. However, I've made a few suggestions in order to improve the main story pacing as I've noticed a few people criticising it. They're not necessarily good suggestions, but might be something you can think about. Personally, I like the writing and can see that it would be a problem attempting to remove anything as it might make the story less engaging or the character less developed.
1) Add an option to skip intro, tutorial battles and/or cutscenes. This might be especially useful for people who attempt to play from the beginning more than once or twice, and just want to get right into the action.
2) Around the time after the 2nd tutorial battle, you could place most of the contents of their conversation in the army camp as a side conversation that will trigger if Cendril speaks to either of them in a tavern or the command base (examples). This would make the conversation an extra tidbit for those who seek to learn more in the story.
3) After the captain and the blue haired knight leaves, Cendril monologues about his fighting skills and battles. If you want to try to cut this down, you can place it all in one message box (like a tutorial message for the player).
4) When the captain introduces his platoon to the survival training rules, you could cut down reading time by making the "..." of the soldiers show at one time with balloons (same as how you made the sweat balloons). During the captain's speech, as funny and appropriate as he is, you could probably move some of his speech contents to after the cutscene, where he will say them when the player chooses to interact with him.

3. Gameplay
What are your thoughts on the combat system? Is it annoying/fun/too easy/too hard/convoluted? Are the dungeons too long/short/just right? Were the puzzles easy/hard/frustrating/rewarding? What about the difficulty/number of enemy encounters? What about the difficulty of the boss battles?

The combat system is quite innovative for an RM game. The attack system reminds me of Shadow Hearts. You included a lot of elaborated styles of fighting (all related to timing), however, it may become too tedious/annoying for long playthroughs, especially when players are trying to grind enough to be able to face the dungeon boss. It's quite fun, but in my opinion, the compulsory QTE of every attack and skill might not be suitable for random encounters. (Not saying that you have to remove anything, especially since I can see you placed a lot of effort and thought into your battle system, but I just thought it might be worth noting).
So far, the difficulty of enemies in the first "dungeon" (pathway) is just right, however, that's mostly if the player manages to get at least "Very Good" in executing the fireball skill every time. The fireball skill does a varying damage, so the enemy doesn't necessarily die in the first shot despite getting "Excellent". Otherwise the player might just run out of potions sooner than they like to, if they haven't lost their life yet.
I noticed that the enemies there don't respawn upon reentering the map, but due to being unable to progress in the game just yet, I can't gauge if their numbers are enough for levelling up for the boss fight.

4. Writing
Did the dialogue feel natural/forced/awkward?
Did you encounter any strangely worded sentences/grammar mistakes/spelling errors?
If so, feel free to point them out to me! I'm not a native speaker, so your help would be much appreciated!

I haven't found any problems with the writing so far. It's possibly the best aspect of the game, barring the pacing of cutscenes, of course.

5. Bugs
Did you encounter any bugs? Please let me know and I'll try to get it fixed asap

1) Error message (F8) : WebGL: CONTEXT_LOST_WEBGL: loseContext: context lost index.html:1
- I restarted the game right after Cendril reached the army base. During the first tutorial battle and after completing the 2nd pummel action, on selecting Attack again, the images froze before the entire window turned black. Commands still work, though, but since I can't win the fight without being able to see the target, I can't check if the images will reload after the battle.
- Happened again while casting Fireball on the plant monster. The monster was defeated and the audio indicates that the victory page was displayed, but upon confirmation, the game auto-quits.
- Occurs during skill selection as well.
- Ditto during the victory screen.
(The crash happened very frequently whenever I fought the second last plant monster in the pathway map where Cendril can first start using his magic, that I'm unable to proceed despite replaying 10 times and changing my graphic driver from Intel to Nvidia and back).

2) (Rare) The first time Cendril speaks to the captain upon arriving the army base with the provisions, after the captain tells Cendril to throw them away, the bgm suddenly because louder with an extra, continuous sound that sounded like a loud splash. Restarting the game after the first bug didn't reproduce this bug.

3) There is a blond guy behind a tree who is inaccessible in the "Camp" map left of the "Training Grounds".

4) Error message (crash) : TypeError - Cannot set property 'opacity' of undefined.
I was scrolling through the Gallery in the army base when this crash happened.

5) Sometimes when the player approaches a monster from the side or back, the monster needs to be clicked on at least twice to activate the battle.

6) In the victory screen, sometimes the results do not appear and the game cannot continue regardless of button press. It resumed after a sort while, but crashed as with bug #1 as the images changed to black screen.

6. Other
If there's anything at all you'd like to say, I'm happy to hear it! Thoughts, comments, criticism, .... anything is much appreciated <3

- Windows Defender Smartscreen tries to block this game from starting. You might need to check if this can be avoided as some people might not play your game because they suspect it might be a virus.
- Right from the getgo, the aesthetics were nice and the music tracks were appropriate to the scenes and areas.
- Interesting execution of battles akin to Shadow Hearts.
- The writing is very well done and interesting, in my opinion. I really enjoy all the cutscenes so far.
- Yanfly has released a desktop optimization version of the MV core scripts (version 1.5.1). If it doesn't interfere with the scripts you're using, you can try to download and replace the default MV core scripts.
- The army base probably needs an addition of walls to the area. No matter how sadistic the army superiors are, they still need to ensure a safe location for gathering and training.
- Why is the "Crate with provisions" still in the inventory after reaching the army base?
- Since it's mentioned that every weapon and skill has a different circle, maybe you can consider adding a image in the equipment page or status page that shows a preview of the circle so that the player doesn't have to go into battle to find out how good/bad the weapon is in terms of hit rate. However, I haven't played enough of the game, and perhaps the "useful" weapons all have the same kind of hit rate.
- In the character main menu, the command bar covers part of the "SP" gauge. Perhaps it can be moved lower?
- It was not explained how Fireball was supposed to be used in my first random encounter.
- The fireball initiation sound effect reminds me of a microwave chime.
- No menu lag reported by some users this time.
- Artwork is very beautiful.

Overall, I really like this game, and would like to see more (actually, I did see some of it through Dalph's playthrough, but I didn't want to spoiler too much of it since I wanted to experience it myself). I tried to search for the save file so that I can let him try it and see if he had the same problem, but I couldn't find it. He claims that he didn't have any of the bugs I encountered, so I'm not sure if it's just my computer problem.
Again, very, very nice game, and I truly commend your hard work and efforts. One of the best RM games I've every played in terms of writing and innovative battle system.

 

[Verdelite]

@Susan Wow, thank you so much for your detailed feedback Why would I hate you for it ?

Spoiler

I'm very sorry for all those gamebreaking bugs that you encountered You can find your save files by going to your Local > Appdata > RPGMV > Kadokawa > Embers Pyre. If it's not too much trouble, you can also share them with me and I can try to reproduce those bugs, since I haven't encountered them myself.

I'm very happy that you liked the writing! I've already cut some lines and moved some dialogue around but I have yet to upload the newer version as I wanted to include the next dungeon in my next update.

The blond guy in the trees and the crate in your inventory are both intentional. Since the Captain mentioned that there actually aren't any provisions in there, you are free to do with it whatever you like.

Thank you so much for your many wonderful suggestions! I'll definitely implement some of them and thank you for pointing out the SP bar in the menu, I keep forgetting about that thing

Thank you very much for your support I hope I can get those bugs fixed!

 

[Susan]

Thanks a lot, I managed to find the save folder. I uploaded the entire contents here.
Thanks for taking the time to check it out. I'll try to see if the bugs pop up in another pc as well. If they don't, it could be due to my graphic cards being too dated even though the drivers have been updated to the latest versions.

 

[Dalph]

Fake bug report! Fake bug report!

@Susan
Your pc is sh**-\gets shot!
I tried the savefile and no problem whatsoever, the black screen issue seems to come from faulty gpu drivers.
You might want to uninstall and reinstall them on your laptop and see if the issue persist, because on mine some of these problems (the black screen for example) don't happen.

 

[Susan]

My drivers are up to date, thank you very much, sir- *shot!*

Jokes aside, Dalph didn't have any problems so I asked him to try playing with the mouse (since that was how I was playing it), and he still didn't have any problems, although he suggested for me to try playing entirely using the keyboard instead.
I tried with keyboard, trackpad, touchscreen and again with my external mouse:
- keyboard and touchscreen, seems to work without problems 100% of the time.
- trackpad, froze in victory screen permanently once.
- external mouse, at least one of the bugs in the battle scene which causes the game to auto-quit if the battle somehow ended before the images disappeared.

Spoiler: error when images disappear during battle scene

I'm not sure how an external mouse could cause this problem, but it doesn't seem to be graphic card/drivers. For now, I'm going to have to blame my external mouse for this error, and try to play entirely by keyboard instead. I'll keep attempt to play with the other input methods every now and then to see if they cause the errors again.
At least I can continue playing the game now without hijacking someone else's pc. Thanks a lot, and sorry for the trouble, Verdelite.

 

[flirion]

Hello, I just completed the demo and I loved the game so far, the characters are well made and it's never boring, can't wait to see how the story continues!

Spoiler

I noted that if you choose to stay in the forest, after sleeping in the tend with Russell the game stops, probably because Russell get stuck and can't complete the move route assigned to him (that's just my guess though), also if you go back in the room where Cendril gets stoned you can see Russell and Bane sprites near the door.

 

[Verdelite]

@flirion Thank you for your reports! I'll look into the issues you brought up I'm happy to hear that you've enjoyed it so far~ I hope I can meet your expectations in future updates!

v.0.3.3 is coming soon™~

 

[Dalph]

I was wondering, is it possible for you to make a small support banner? In case people want to support your game.
I would like to put a small one in my signature\profile\whatever, maybe even a sprite if you don't like the banner (I prefer it to the banner as well) but ultimately it's your choice.

Anyway, looking forward for v0.3.3 and all the changes. Keep up the good work, Verdelite.

 

[Verdelite]

@Dalph Ohhhh~ I never even considered that someone might do that >_< Thank you so much kaoluv:

Is this one alright? I wasn't sure about the exact dimensions

[URL='https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/74046/'][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/MgQfvEA.png[/IMG] [/URL]

 

[Dalph]

Very nice, thank you. It's in my signature.

 

[Susan]

Just finished with the 2nd boss, and thought I drop a few suggestions and bug reports before I forget. The notes are placed in chronical order as I experienced them in the game.

Spoiler

• The lower part of Cendril's sprite becomes translucent (as it would in grass), and he receives poison damage if he walks horizontally here. I understand that this is due to the autotile setting. I can suggest to make a second copy of this same autotile (if you have space), and remove the poison and bush options, as it perspectively looks odd to be able to poisoned from that position. You can shift-map so that it'll look uniform.
• Upon encountering the troll, the BGM remains the same cheery tune. Maybe you can consider either a fadeout or switching to a more serious BGM for the pre-boss battle?
• After defeating the troll and getting the club, Cendril monologues about it. Maybe you can consider using something like Yanfly's Gab Window for non-essential dialogue like this one so that you don't have to remove the flavour text, while allowing the player to move around.
• If you decide to use something like the Gab Window plug-in, you can consider placing a message every time the player enters/exits an area map where Cendril is able/unable to use magic, in case the player forgets and rush into battle without the ability to fight properly.
• Also suggest to make escape 100% possible, especially if only Cendril is in the battle
• Ally battle damage variance may be too wide. Even at a high level, magic/skills may not be able to completely kill an enemy, leaving it with a sliver of health. (By the same token, the Werewolf boss was able to KO Cendril with his skill with Cendril at 500+ HP & with Barrier. Of course, this was when Cendril wasn't guarding. Sometimes he doesn't KO Cendril even when his HP is at 400+ without guarding).

• After offering to share the tent with the two knights, the cutscene cannot progress as one of the recruits was in the pathway. This happened after I went to the camp area before offering to share the tent with the two soldiers.
• Can't really remember, but I think during the campfire cutscene, one of the soldiers mentioned "east" to look for food. I think he meant "west", since the player can't go east because the bridge is out. I could be mistaken, though, as I'd saved after that cutscene.

• After the captain announces the quest for bouquets, the tired recruit sprite appears suddenly on the map.
• If you're using Gab Window, I might suggest to place the conversations that take place whenever Cendril finds a magical seed there for reasons already mentioned, although I do see the story value in the conversations.

• Regarding the above 2 maps, it looks a bit odd to have the player exit from the left and start from the top of the screen, but that's just my opinion. I noticed that all other forest areas transfer towards the same direction. The direction post map transfer needs to be fixed a bit, though.
• There are many input mechanism for the battle commands, but they still seem overwhelming for me even after playing for a long time (maybe I just have bad memory ). Some require the player to wait for a precise moment to confirm, others require the player to button mash instantly (otherwise it's highly likely that they won't get the "Excellent"). It's fairly easy to get a failed skill execution (at least for me). Just an opinion, but it's probably better to stick to one type of input, either button mashing or precise button input.
• It seems like Cendril needs to fetch too many seeds for the bouquet quest. It feels like that section of the game takes way too long to progress in the story. I spent 3 hours for just this quest (not including crashes and retrying battles).
• Werewolf battle (see at the end of the spoiler)
• It felt a bit weird to get a Magical Seed from the Werewolf, since Cendril had to extract them from flowers with his magic before this.
• If you're using Gab Window, maybe you could include a note for when the player returns to the camp area (from the forest) that there is a clearing to the south of the camp area where Cendril can plant the seeds. I wandered around until I checked the Current Quest command. I'm not sure if it was mentioned at the beginning of the task that he can use that spot for planting the seeds since it's been a long time since I saw that part of the game.
• Suggestion to change the recruit's shocked sound effect. Sounded like a siren at first, then a griffin's cry. I thought the base was under attack.
• Minor issue: After the cutscene with the Captain about Cendril's supposed Mage powers, he's no longer silenced, but becomes silenced again if the map is re-entered.
• A contradiction note : From the start of the game, Cendril was able to use healing powers within the vicinity of the base, but it only becomes an issue when the tired recruit spots him in a secluded area and reports him. I suggest to make him unable to use healing magic until that point of the game.
• I think that the guard's dialogue at the right side of the military base entrance is triggered by the fact that the player had taken stuff from the base (should try another playthrough in a later version to see if the guard doesn't mention it if I didn't take anything from the base). Nice touch here.
• I also assume that giving the honey to the tired recruit is optional, and if it is, it's a pretty nice semi-hidden sidequest for a better weapon (which is pretty good).

Regarding the Werewolf boss battle, it was a bit challenging as it could still KO Cendril despite him having 500+ HP + barrier, and even Alywin at 550+ HP + barrier (I can make Cendril guard, but for Alywin it's impossible as he has to cast Barrier for the 2nd time). At the same time, they could both survive with over 100-200 HP (with barrier & without guarding) sometimes.
I had defeated every single monster encounter in the area before meeting the boss, and was level 9 & 10.
After finding the 11th flower, the forest exit was "blocked" by the boss battle, so buying any additional items or trying to train is impossible. (I suspect that they wouldn't have been able to leave anyway, for the monsters to respawn, as Alywin was in the party). As such, I had only 1 stimulant so getting KO is not an option.

 

[Verdelite]

Oh no, for some reason I did not get a notification for this Sorry for the late reply!
@Susan Thank you so much for the detailed report!
You address many good points that I'll look into!
Concerning the story issues:

Spoiler

The Werwolf didn't drop a magical seed. Cendril just mistakenly assumed from the werewolf's 'magical aura' that his presence was that of a flower.

Yep, it's a bit weird that before that point no one really points out that Cendril uses Support magic but I wanted to introduce the different magic types and the concept of Support and regular Magic. And the main problem with Cendril being seen is that he did use regular Magic (as he mentioned in passing to Aylwin previously) and therefore was flustered by being seen. The visible 'particles' though could be replicated by Support magic only as demonstrated by Aylwin.

But, yeah, I suppose I didn't really explain these things properly in the game

 

[The Stranger]

Hey!

I finally got around to playing Embers' Pyre. I enjoyed it for the most part.

Spoiler

1. Characters:
Who is your favourite/least favourite character? What do you like/dislike about them? Do they seem believable/consistent?

There are a few characters I would class as my favourite, but none of 'em were the in the main cast. Not saying the main cast is bad, I just liked some of the supporting cast more. I really liked Alphonse and Bradley, two friends who are clearly not cut out for the army. I just thought they were fun comic relief characters, and was happy they didn't die when the forest spiders attacked the camp.

I also thought the bloke in the hole was funny; loved his dialogue. Not even sure if you'd class hole guy as a character, though, since he's just a shop\inn. I guess it was just the well written, and humorous dialogue you're treated to if you speak with him.

2. Story:
What are your thoughts on the plot progression? Were there any scenes in particular that you liked/disliked? If so, why? Is it engaging enough to make you want to continue playing? What are questions that the story poses and which you would like to see answered? Are there any parts that dragged on/felt rushed? Anything that felt illogical/inconsistent?

I 've enjoyed all scenes thus far. However, I'm not that far into the game. In fact, what I love the most about this game is the sheer amount of dialogue. I love the relationship between Cendril and Aylwin. To be perfectly honest, I'm really not sure what the plot is at all. So far, every scene has been carried by the strong characters you've crafted, but God only knows what's going on. I think Cendril joined the army for some reason or another, and that mages are persecuted, but beyond that the actual plot is a mystery to me.

3. Gameplay
What are your thoughts on the combat system? Is it annoying/fun/too easy/too hard/convoluted? Are the dungeons too long/short/just right? Were the puzzles easy/hard/frustrating/rewarding? What about the difficulty/number of enemy encounters? What about the difficulty of the boss battles?

I really enjoy the whole QTE battle system. It adds a nice layer of interactivity to every battle and keeps you on your toes. I have no complaints when it comes to the battles themselves, none whatsoever. Wasn't a fan of the fetch quest (the one with the seeds) but at least there was some nice dialogue each time you retrieved a seed.

I stopped playing when I came across that strange brazier puzzle in the well. I completed the first puzzle which disables the barrier, but the second one (the one with the floor tiles) just frustrated me. I think you have to walk on all tiles so they glow, but I did that for the centre brazier and no confirmation was given that what I had done had any effect.

4. Writing
Did the dialogue feel natural/forced/awkward?
Did you encounter any strangely worded sentences/grammar mistakes/spelling errors?
If so, feel free to point them out to me! I'm not a native speaker, so your help would be much appreciated!

The dialogue in this game is awesome! Really, it's the best part of the game. The characters all have nice personalities and the dialogue flows nicely. Sure, some might have a problem with how much dialogue is in your game (which actually isn't all that much) but I feel it's also its strongest point. Even some of the throw away characters, such as the soldier who brought his own tent, have some nice dialogue. As I said above, I love the relationship between Cendril and Aylwin; it's a relationship which is a lot deeper than what you're initially led to believe. In fact, same goes for Cendril and Russell. It's also lively, full of personality, and frequently funny.

5. Bugs
Did you encounter any bugs? Please let me know and I'll try to get it fixed asap

I, personally, didn't encounter any bugs. Perhaps I just wasn't observant enough.

6. Other
If there's anything at all you'd like to say, I'm happy to hear it! Thoughts, comments, criticism, .... anything is much appreciated <3

The only real criticism I have about your game is your mapping. The areas, apart from the forest, all felt very bare bones. The military camp is probably the worst offender - it was simply a big empty space.

 

[Verdelite]

@The Stranger
Awww, thank you so much for playing and for your kind feedback~
Yeah, I'm having a lot of trouble to get the plot rolling... I feel like there's too much background information that the player needs to know in order to understand what's happening but I promised myself to prevent infodumps at all costs... I think that kinda backfired in that I convey too little information but I'm working on that...

Spoiler

I'm happy that you enjoyed the hole guy~ I was wondering if any one would find him at all.

Regarding the puzzles... yeah, that one wasn't that intuitive either. You need to make all the tiles glow while standing next to the torch and press 'OK' in order to 'absorb' the flame.

 

[The Stranger]

@Verdelite Yeah. Stick to that promise and avoid infodumps, please. There haven't been any infodumps yet. I actually liked how characters only spoke about history when it became relevant during their conversations. For example, Cendril and Russell didn't just sit there and talk about nothing but the past. Sure, they did speak about the good old days, but it came across as a natural part of the dialogue, like how two old friends would speak. Hell! I reminisce with my friend all of the time about stuff we've done and how things used to be.

I guess it's, as you've said, getting the ball rolling. There has been no real conflict or major event outside of the werewolf encounter, and Cendril nearly getting himself some alone time behind bars. Plenty of minor interactions and character development, but no real plot hook. Perhaps you're developing the Game of Thrones of video games, only far more humorous and light hearted. You can have a story based purely around characters interacting with one another, but I guess that's not what you were aiming for.

 

[Susan]

Thanks for the explanation and sorry for the super late reply. Been having issues with my laptop (RIP). I wanted to continue with the story, but the save file is gone too, since I forgot to back that up, so I'm waiting for a new version to be released before I "continue" (since I have to start from the beginning again).

Good luck with your studies, and have enough fuel and rest. Hope to see you around again soon.