Zenith Chronicles (BxG) - (promo over)

[MJDAlleria]

By outfit change I meant like with Meredith; you get the necromancer appearance.
When Alija said it was tacky or sumthin', I was saying "It's so awesome!"

I see thanks for the info, I want to try out some missions in Hard mode now seeing
that it gives out more points - and it'd be so much more satisfactory to beat the
missions on Hard mode (though I doubt I ever winning hahaha)

[coda]

This is a really good game! Since I picked it up for free I should at least give some feedback. A lot of the issues I mention are minor things since the game is very solid overall.

Story
I enjoyed the story and characters, and didn't really have any issues. My decisions felt meaningful and the characters' reactions were believable, especially in the evil path which really caused some tension and made me feel terrible! The paths were all enjoyable and I reached all of the endings. If I had to criticise, I'd like to have known the characters a bit better, in particular the little details that aren't essential to the plot. I'm no writer though so don't take this too seriously.

Typos and grammar
After fighting demon boss in Winterfall:
"Apparently, the seclusion in which your people chooses to live"

When discussing attacking the fairies:
"What we want is for them send all their armies to search for us in the mountains"

Before attacking Eladjil cave:
"I'm a little concerned about Elajdil"

Epilogue - Chain of Vengeance
"If I took revenge upon you know, I'd be spitting upon the choice she made"

Early in Mango Quest 1:
"What? Where where are we, servant?"
Not sure if this is intentional or not.

When joining Meredith while on the True path:
"Really, all these rules recently really cramped my style anyway."
The repeated 'r's and 'really' make it read a little awkwardly.

In the deleted scene, Selene mentioning that she was making an escape portal in the dungeon was enough information to understand her dialogue that followed. Explaining her reactions to the player was redundant and breaks the "show, don't tell" rule.

Art
The art is very good. Apart from a few inconsistencies in sprite quality (the ghouls looked a bit pixelated) I can't find anything to complain about. The facial expressions in particular were nicely done.

HUD
There are several issues with important information being on the HUD, but not clear enough in my peripheral vision to read without losing track of the bullets:

• Health and MP bars - The very small stylised health and mana bars look great but are difficult to read accurately without concentrating. The boss health bars are clearer, although I personally prefer them much wider. Perhaps big health bars would make the game feel too arcade-like (and scare off novice players)? Also MP cost could be a larger bar with the spells marked on it, since MP cost in the current system isn't very clear.
• Damage - It's quite hard to tell when you've been hit. I've learnt to look for purple figures towards the left, but it's hard to read them and takes a little effort to turn the figures into % health lost. This is a big issue for me because I lose immediate feedback about how well I'm playing, and makes me unsure if I'll earn some of the legends (since my health may regenerate before I notice), so I've sometimes restarted the mission anyway just to be sure. A big health bar can show this clearly by colouring the segment of health lost and animating the shrinking bar. A clear sound when taking a hit would be an easy win here, and if you can work out a way to warn about low health that would be great too.
• Fire breath ready - the particles alone can be difficult to make out. This is especially a problem in the fight against Faedra because the time it takes to charge varies after being sealed, plus it seems like the seal resets the current fire breath charge up. Firing prematurely wastes almost one fire breath since it resets the charge delay. This could do with either a one-off sound, a subtle hum, or a clearer visual effect.
• Spell text - I rarely look at this because I often can't read it while dodging bullets, and the text for both weak and strong attacks look the same at a glance. Also I'm assuming that if multiple spells are cast at the same time then they won't all be displayed, so I can't rely on it.

Playing this in full screen on a big monitor may also make things worse - vertical scrollers take up much less room, so it's easier to read things in the corners of the play area.

Sound
The music was really good and never felt stale. The sound effects were all fine except for the ice beam, which sounded like someone stepping on a branch.

More sounds would've really helped though:

• As mentioned, there is no sound for taking damage. An attack that just took away 70% of my HP deserves a sound to make sure I notice and learn not to let it happen again.
• A lot of the enemy spells didn't seem to make sounds. The main enemy sound I noticed was for stat raises, which I don't think deserves much attention. Fast or powerful attacks should have sounds to get your attention. Another important attack is Faedra's seal, whose lack of sound means my movement speed changes unexpectedly, causing me to take a hit.
• Friendly casualties (civilians and allies) cause some legends to fail, and affect the outcome of the rest of the playthrough, so they deserve a sound. It's easy to kill a civilian when they're coming onto the screen and not notice.

Shooter gameplay
I really wasn't expecting this much content and depth to the gameplay! Lots of varied stages and different strategies to try. I finished all of the stages on Hard (didn't attempt Easy or Medium so I can't compare), and earned all legends, including bonus stages. Some of those legends are really hard!

• I was expecting the 1-way shot to do the most damage, which made the pillar legends very difficult despite doing an almost perfect run and getting lucky with the souls spawned. Once I switched to 3-way they were much easier.
• Some missions feel a bit too long.
• The enemy strength information at the start of the mission didn't help much, and giving three numbers was confusing. I can't look at the numbers and easily work out how difficult the enemies will be. It would be better to say "Enemy strength: medium; a few very hard", but then does that matter to me? I don't know what the enemy spells are, or how hard the attacks are to dodge, or how much damage I'll need to deal, so it doesn't affect my choice of abilities. I'm just going to pick my favourite strategy and adjust it once I start to struggle. Perhaps showing icons for the enemies would be better, as in Defender's Quest
• In the final bonus mission, the Energy Missile fires a handful of tiny projectiles but each one is unexpectedly deadly. The fireball attack is also fast, has little warning and an unexpectedly large hitbox.
• Some attacks felt a little cheap - some projectiles that spawn away from the enemy don't feel like they attract enough attention or give enough time to dodge. One of Faedra's late attacks does this (the starburst one). To compare, bullets in Touhou that are close to the player tend to have a clear spawning animation and are either stationary at first, or accelerate slowly. Also, some enemies fire with very little anticipation but are really dangerous, for example the ice fairies.
• Is Faedra meant to be beatable as Meredith? Thanks to the regen and low DPS after sealing the battle goes on for ages. I persevered and managed it in case there was a reward for always choosing Meredith. Oh well!
• It took a few missions before I realised I had to equip my abilities as well as unlock them.
• I found Demon King Shade too easy, and his legends were easy too. This also made the legend points awarded a bit generous.
• Not clear how exp, SP and level are related. Do I level up from exp, or gain one level per battle regardless of exp? Is SP determined by exp or level? Can I grind levels during a mission or is exp only awarded for the last attempt?
• I didn't notice the "Skip Mission" button for a while. Might be worth mentioning it after the player finishes their first playthrough in case they think they have to replay the full game N times.
• The short invincibility after taking a hit is brutal for those single heavy projectiles, clusters of projectiles or stunning beam attacks. Often instant death or 90% damage. I find that if I make a mistake and get hit, I'll often get hit several more times until I can get out of danger. In a lot of shooters this means I'll lose a life or some bombs, whereas here it often means instant failure, which I don't find so fun. Especially when the attacks are more surprising than other games in the genre.
• Toggling spells - I have to look away from the action to the little icon in the corner, often cycling past the spell I want by accident, so it takes a while and gets me killed. Fire shot cycling isn't so bad because you can see the effects clearly. Perhaps an (optional extra) key per spell with immediate effect.
• There are some difficult challenges, but they'd be a bit easier with more information: what buffs I currently have and when they expire. The figures in the abilities screen don't tell me much without being able to easily compare with base stats, and buff time would help too. Not sure how to do this without making it too daunting for less experienced players.
• It took a while to realise why my icicle spell was shooting diagonally. I didn't have any luck aiming diagonally so it was more of an annoyance.
• Enemies and bullets sometimes blend into the background, especially faires, ice and webs.

Abilities
The ability system is quite good, and I've used very different strategies for some battles.

The ones I didn't use:

• I found the basic fire breath underpowered, unless I'm doing something wrong? I only used it as part of the special attacks, since normal shooting gives a higher DPS.
• The dark breath was very useful though. Didn't try holy breath since I prefer to play offensively.
• I didn't notice any effect from the exploding shot or homing attack.
• I didn't use slow shot. Only use for this I can think of is to stand back and fill the screen with bullets before enemies appear.
• I didn't use elemental resistances much since I wasn't sure how much it increased the resistance. I also had trouble distinguishing between light and lightning attacks.

The rest were nicely balanced and I often switched strategies after starting to struggle.

Bugs and glitches

• My good/evil bar went off the edge of the meter in my first evil playthrough.
• On the 'destroy 75% fairy homes' mission, I think I destroyed 12/15 homes but was awarded the 'destroy all homes' legend.
• The sky in the manticore fight has a small vertical seam.
• Dialogue font is nice and readable, but the kerning looks slightly off in places.

Feature requests

• Saving when writing a legend but not continuing the story. Didn't check if this happens already.
• It would be nice if there could be two icons ingame representing the two legends, displaying only while the legend is achievable. This would remove any confusion as to whether the legend had been failed, and lets you compare attempts for timed legends.
• Rebindable keys would be a plus. They look unfriendly to left-handed players, and I'd be a little more comfortable with ZXCVB.
• 'Restart this game loop' button, to avoid spending 10 minutes skipping back to start of game again.
• Rollback, at least up to decision points.
• Display active buffs ingame.
• Skip seen dialog for Mango Chronicles.

Also the bonus features were a lot of fun, and I used the hint in this thread to find the easter egg too. A lot of effort must have gone into this game and it shows.

[Blue Lemma]

Wow, thanks for all the comments and feedback, coda!
I'm happy you liked the game!

I'll respond in general and to some things specifically:

You have a lot of good suggestions and ideas. Almost makes me wish I was doing a version 1.1 ^^ I actually was at one point, and it had support for restarting the game cycle, some typo fixes, adjusted difficulty, enhanced projectile visuals, and some other things... but the tepid sales of the game ultimately led me to decide it wasn't worth it. This game was a huge lesson for me in the importance of good and early marketing. The unfortunate truth of gaming is that the quality of the game is only loosely tied to its financial success.

Regarding Exp and SP, Exp are awarded again if you replay a mission in the "Replay Missions" mode, but not in the story mode. Levels are just there for the sake of being there. You gain one level (and some stats) per completed mission. This lets you compare yourself to relative enemy strength, though I'm not sure it's worth it

1-shot fire breath has the most per-shot attack power and most rapid firing rate. It's good for enemies with high defense, but 3-shot is often better since you can hit multiple times.

Bugs (except for the font): interesting, I wasn't aware of those. You must have been a very evil Dain

Rebindable keys: You can assign keys by selecting "Config Keyboard" on the main menu. Did it not work for you?

Exploding shot only happens on a random basis for each shot. The explosion is one of the tiny ones, like when you charge your breath. It does have stun power and extra attack, though. The homing is always active if you have it equipped, but the effect is slight. Too much homing would have made the game way too easy, esp. with multi-shot, but there is a useful effect. I nearly always equip it.

Is Faedra meant to be beatable as Meredith? Thanks to the regen and low DPS after sealing the battle goes on for ages. I persevered and managed it in case there was a reward for always choosing Meredith. Oh well!

Faedra's Anti-Demon Seal attack was put in there because it fit appropriately with character and story, but moreso because Meredith could make the missions very easy... especially the fairy battle since they have low HP and she can buff her attack and firing rate. The seal levels the playing field so one would consider playing as Alija (who is in the end, the better choice there)
There is no specific reward except for the affection points you get from the rider that you get whenever you clear a mission with her.

A lot of effort must have gone into this game and it shows.

YES! Thank you, you've made my day

[coda]

You're welcome

Rebindable keys: You can assign keys by selecting "Config Keyboard" on the main menu. Did it not work for you?

Oops, the menu was in plain sight! My mistake.

You have a lot of good suggestions and ideas. Almost makes me wish I was doing a version 1.1 ^^ I actually was at one point, and it had support for restarting the game cycle, some typo fixes, adjusted difficulty, enhanced projectile visuals, and some other things... but the tepid sales of the game ultimately led me to decide it wasn't worth it. This game was a huge lesson for me in the importance of good and early marketing. The unfortunate truth of gaming is that the quality of the game is only loosely tied to its financial success.

That's a shame
Cancelling the update sounds like a wise business move though. Hopefully your future games (which I really hope there will be!) will get the audience they deserve.

[Exaelia]

Waaahhh... I want this so bad now... Stupid expiration on stuff...

[papillon]

The game is still available, you just have to support the creators...

[Exaelia]

The game is still available, you just have to support the creators...

I'm broke ._.