Ok, I've finished playing (after going on a Morning star marathon ) and I have many praises and many complaints as well, but I'd like to commend you for creating an intresting game that had me hooked until the ending!
Overall, I liked the game ( the fact that I've been playing it for the last four or five hours proves that ), BUT there are a few qualms I have about it.
My major complaint is the battle system. I am actually a fairly experienced RPG player so I won almost every single battle on "easy" mode. I also thought it was very well-planned and original, but it had one MAIN flaw. It was too repetitive. After all, think about it: You fight three days per week, that's twelve battles all in all
( about 18-19 including the ones when you have to save someone from being kidnaped by the puppets and the final battles and graduation ceremony )
that is a respectable number. And the fights take a long time, because of the shield system and the fair quantity of HP the characters have ( They usually have 160, that would mean more less 7 rounds IF they had no shields and did not attack. The battles can easily take 15 rounds in normal cicrcunstances ). AND the number of partners/enemies is limited (although this IS a NaNoRenO game. I'm not complaining about the character quantity, but it's another factor that makes the battles extra-repetitive ). By the time of the graduation ceremony I was screaming "Enough already!" and splitting my hair. Even the best game, with the shiniest graphics would become irritating in these circunstances.
But the battle system IS also one of the high points of the game. The dating game/RPG combination definitively should be repeated more often. The shield system and the YP acumulating was also ingenious, forcing strategy on the player's part. The graphics were good and the difficulty was just right I think ( I tremble to think how normal difficulty would be, but I think I'd be able to handle it, despite having to load the game a bit more often ).
The fact that you chose who you would pair up with and that you could end up fighting your own partner was also intresting. You could insert a few more short phrases spoken by the characters, like in the first battle. They add a heck of an atmosphere ( although overusing that would also be VERY bad, risking further repetitiveness. ) I agree with everybody that the higher-level spells aren't worth the YP, although I haven't tested the top level ones.
Yay! Hikari is one of the strongest characters in the whole game! That is actually a good move, throwing a character that is initially weaker than the others, but that is in fact VERY powerful. It also gives the player's initially wonded ego a huge boost!
I must praise the way you guys interwined the battles with the rest of the game's story and scenario. It's incredibly rare to see an RPG game about a magic warrior's school, and quite innovative. I also commend the unusual element names, they made it initially hard to remember which one was stronger against which, but it soon became automatic as the battles progressed.
Oh, and send my regards to the programmer of the game ( Ficedula, right? ) Coding all that from scratch must have been horribly difficult. I mean, Ren'Py was created about two years ago and they STILL find bugs, so I guess the bugs in the system were pretty inevitable. He still did a good job, though, so kudos for him.
Oh, and one more complaint about the repetitiveness of the battle system: IT MAKES IT VERY HARD TO REPLAY IT! I WANT TO REACH OTHER ENDINGS, BUT IT WILL TAKE FOREVER! *Sigh, pant, choke*
And here goes my list of sugestions for the battle system change:
- HALVE all character's HP. Everyone, Hikari, the students, the puppets. The final boss (the male Venus. I forgot his name...) may retain a higher percentage of his HP if you wish though. This will make the battles quicker, and therefore less repetitive. It also won't change the difficulty of the game.
- Eliminate the "defense" command. It's useless ( although if Kasumi's puppet didn't defend all the time, I would probably have been in serious trouble... )
- You could make the "attack" comand hurt a LOT more (about the same as a 1st level spell) BUT cause absoulutely no harm on any shield. Also make it as slow as the spells. That will make the attack command seem more of a gamble ( If the oponent will raise her shield or not ), and a lot less useless. The no-YP cost by itself doesn't justify the incredibly low power of this move.
- Either remove the higher level spells from the menu, or increase their power/lower their cost. Of course, you should be carefull if you follow my previous advice, since powerfull moves and low HP make for very random and fickle battles. Balancing is the key.
Now, about the story:
The idea was intresting and well-executed. The random encounters at the end of the day were a bit confusing, but nothing serious and the pace of the plot was very good. You began with a "straightforward" school dating game with an RPG twist, but then small elements started popping up here and there, and before you know it there is a whole plot going on! It didn't feel rushed and set a very good atmosphere for the second half of the game. Only two things seem jarring in it:
1- The graduation ceremony and tests that show up AFTER the final battle were a step backwards pacing-wise. I can understand it would be hard to put that sequence before the male Venus' attack but you see... The battle with him is the CLIMAX of the game. It's almost epic, in it's own right and the player has been preparing for it ever since the beginning of the game. The fight and tests that come after that battle felt very anti-climatic, and were more of a chore than actually emotion-inspiring. If you already beat a mega-powerful warrior why should you be afraid of a couple of friends you've been fighting for some time, by now? You understand? It breaks the mood. I also felt that the only ending I got felt a tad bittersweet (which wasn't any problem at all
) and a little short...
But I suspect there are better endings (which makes me REALLY want to replay it... but see above.)
2- The male Venus' personality isn't shown very well. His motivations, or even the fact he existed (at least not until he actually shows up!) Maybe forshadowing a bit about him as well would be good (although you'd have to be careful so that the player doesn't hear about him and say "Ah! That's the one causing all this mess. It's obvious!") Again, it's probably the fault of the path I went into, and I'm guessing there are a few others that would explain more...
The girls were ok. Some of them followed some kind of stereotype, but none of them were flat and, as far as I could see, all them were pretty well fleshed out, usually having some twist or more depth than the usual stereotype character. There were also some very good... moments.
Ahem. *fingers collar nervously* but none of them felt wrong and you dealt with them well. There were many sweet moments too.
The graphics were extremely well-done. Especially considering it's a NaNoRenO game! I'm really impressed. The quantity of characters and all the different poses! It's definitively an accomplishment.
The music was good, and fairly varied, what with the battle and everything, so that it didn't feel repetitive. I would only like to mention that the screaming (when the attack happens) would probably sound better if played only once (maybe followed by some fast-paced music). The screaming looping again and again felt strange and spoiled a bit of the mood in that extremely climatic event.
All in all a very good game. A pioneer in it's genre and an intresting proof of what mixing game genres can achieve. There were A LOT of bad things that could have happened to it and didn't. It didn't have a sucky story and it didn't feel like a dating game with an RPG attached to it. It had good music, good graphics, a nice amount of freedom and deserves due praise for all these things.
Mind you, I may have been a bit overly critical in this review, but I found the game quite positive, and there is always the possibility (or the probability, or even certainty...
) that I'm wrong in one or more of these things.
). After the first week, when Hikari has a power level equal to the others the fights became straightforward. The AI does a fairly good job of changing the shields and attacks around but could be a little more unpredictable and sometimes they keep repeating the same attacks which are weak against your shields. The biggest weakness of the AI is splitting the attack between the two Venuses. It was only because of that factor that I was able to win the first few fights because of how the training ended after eliminating one opposing Venus. (Does the AI focus on one Venus on normal difficulty?)