I got the game running, here's some things I noticed
Title Screen: The music and the screen itself get the dark tones across, but what connection does that picture have to the game, if any?
Answer: There is none. I didn't want to use the default screen, but I didn't have anything else that looked spooky. D:
Scimitar: I think it should take the place of the Short Sword, as it's pointless when you get the Scimitar two seconds later
I didn't know what else to put in place of the Short Sword, since the table that has the scimitar on it already has a visible weapon on it. I'll fix that soon.
Basic Tutorial: You might want to add in some text explaining movement controls. People new to RPG Maker games will likely be confused without this. I'm pretty sure you could put in a read me for this if you wanted.
I'd rather do it in-game, since some people don't read read-mes.
Magic Books: Have Miranda comment she should read them. I thought to read them from playing games with a similar mechanic, but you want to make sure they get that. Going into fights without spells isn't a good thing, especially since you'll need them in the beginning
I'll edit the event leading out the first room so players know to use the spells and how to use them.
Learning Insidious Knife: Another explaining thing (I know I'm annoying with this
) When Miranda mentions it doesn't use normal magic power, explain it. There is no meter for what it draws on in the menu, so until the first battle, they wouldn't know
That is something I cannot personally solve on my own. I can't script to save my life and I have to use what's provided. That said, I will look into this and see if I can find a fix for it. I will edit the event with Insidious Knife explaining what Drive does.
Painting on 1st Map: I couldn't really understand what the SE was saying, but if it was meant to scare, have Miranda react to it.
You found the easter egg I planted in there. Miranda wasn't supposed to react to that. That was a voice clip of me saying "You suck punji sticks", only slowed down.
Miranda's Reaction in General: She is pretty calm for being thrown into an evil castle. If she shows fear it would help get that mood across to the players. And with Vuk, while she does see it writing a note, how would she know it wasn't a monster? She also doesn't question him much, or seem suspicious. If you met a “friendly” monster, wouldn't you be wary?
She's been through much worse, trust me. Also, you would sense her fear or apprehension when I start putting in facial expressions. As for meeting Vuk, she's made lots of monster friends during her life, maybe I need to make that clear in the dialogue.
Difficulty: While it is challenging in the beginning, it does get easier later on.
That's one thing that bugged me as I worked more on the skills. That's because the gear that Miranda and Neil equip boosts their magic power by an insane amount, not helped by the fact that the equipment itself levels up too. As I refine the combat system more, things will be better balanced, and there's something else I want to put in there too, and that's a turn cycle that works like this:
http://youtu.be/3gAUhA5Cem0?t=5m8s
Notice how multiple enemies are attacking at once and yet the combat is still turn-based, due to an action "timeline."
Description of Skills: The ones in the special category fall prey to this. What is Initiative? What statuses does Insidious Knife inflict? Concentration is spelled wrong and doesn't have a description. If the player doesn't know what a skill does, they won't want to waste a turn to find out.
I saw the lack of a description for Concentration before anybody else noticed so I'm aware of that. Initiative is quite honestly a fancy name for agility, and I made it up way back in the pre-alpha before I began working on Crolock Castle. I may need to update those terms to something more relevant. As for Insidious Knife, there's Poison, Blindness, Silence, Paralysis, and there used to be Confusion but I took it out due to a bug in the attack animation.
Environment Interaction: Your game says to interact with anything and everything, but not much offers any text. Use the décor and other objects to let Miranda make comments, and reveal more of her thoughts and the story. Also add more decor! It's a castle! Throw in some banners, i don't know.
That's already being worked on, and don't forget the fact that this is my very first time making a game in RPG Maker, entirely on my own. I will probably have to change the level design to something that works better, although my knowledge of eventing is really, really limited right now. I began working on this game only a month ago. As I learn more about eventing works, that will result in better gameplay. Just give it some time.
Crack in the Fireplace: You're pretty good about putting warnings on things, so add one here. I managed to take them out with Foresight and Throwing Knives, but only because I got lucky and three enemy attacks missed.
This has been an issue before, reported by at least 3 other people. I'm working on it. What I will probably do is warn the player about the strength of the force they're about to fight.
Mapping: It looks odd in a few places, kinda flat-ish. I don't really know how to explain it. It's mostly in places where the wall and floor touch
This is the first thing I tell everyone I can who is going to try the game out - I have never worked with a tileset before and I was lucky to get this one working. So many hours went into testing the map and I often ran into solid objects that blocked my entry in and out of zones, which as you can imagine makes life frustrating. I have no idea which tiles do what, I was absolutely confused trying to make this map for the first two days.
Anyway, onto things I liked:
-The leveling of your equipment is nice. Is it based on what is equipped as you level or how often it is used?
-I like the ability to steal your enemies spells. It's a really cool mechanic, and I'm interested in what other skills there are.
-Seeing your opponents stats is nice too, maybe you could add a bestiary to your game that you could access from the menu
-Changing areas based on level is always a plus to me. If you're gonna be in the same place, might as well make it interesting.
-The story is cool, so put more of it in the game, I know it's a demo but still.
It's interesting and I'm still playing so if I have something else to add I will. Good luck
I appreciate that you did have some good things to share; it makes me feel better about handling the many, many issues that I haven't had time to fix or struggle to fix.
