Sorry for the late feedback. RL stuff happen and drained me, including getting sick for quite some time. orz I only started to type up this feedback a few weeks after my last post. And only just went back and completed it today. So I'm sorry if I might mess up on some details? I hope nothing I typed seems weird. ^^; I'm definitely going to talk about what theories I had for the game. It added to the fun of playing this game. Hahaha.
Like I had said before, the sprites are very nicely drawn. I appreciated and liked the different poses that you took time to give for the characters.The small animations like the candle flickering and
the glowing around the screen when Zheng finally had the jade return to them,
was a nice touch. I have to admit that I personally thought the GUI looked fine to me but at the same time, thought it could have been something else. It does fit the setting though and later I thought it tied in with the background used for the prologue and epilogue. Actually it felt like the epilogue and prologue was written as a legend/fairy tale on a scroll, which I thought was quite nice. ^^ I was happy to see how the characters look in the future for the ending CGs. They were satisfying and nice to look at.
The backgrounds were skillfully drawn and they had great details in them that gave them life. I think that could be a difficult thing to accomplish. So good work to the background artist!
The sprites and background goes together very well. As a small suggestion,
I do personally feel that the area and the house that Zheng live in, could be shown to be in poorer condition.
Not really a big deal though. ^^
I thought the plot fitted the length the game very well. I also didn't felt the story was boring or that it dragged out unnecessarily. I think it's thanks to the characters and the writing. I liked the humor and Zheng as the narrator. I found the characters likable and I wanted to know about their secrets which lead me to keep replaying in order to get all the endings. If I didn't care to know more about the characters, most likely I wouldn't bother to get them all. I caught like only two mistakes in the writing but it was very minor.
Shun's route was entertaining and he was such an endearing character. I like that he
found a different way to reach his dream for one of the ending. I did felt that after Zheng and Shun came up with a plan for how to find the jade, it transition sort of abruptly to the next scene in the palace. But it's not a big deal especially considering the time limit that this game was made in. I like that both endings where Zheng could either gain or not gain magic, were happy endings either way. Well, actually...I feel bad about Yanyu's fate...
Huineng's route was enjoyable, although I kinda like Shun's route a bit more. Still, I liked that her route had touched upon
the fragility of the kingdom's prosperity and had an ending that fitted the title of the game very nicely. That part of the ending was melancholic for me, which I liked in a way. I think it reflected the theme of the game, which makes the chosen title for this game a good choice! ^_^ On a side note, I was happy to somewhat see how Yanyu looks like and that nothing bad had happen to her.
I thought it was quite easy to get all endings after giving a bit of thought. So that's good, it's not too easy and it's not too hard. The choices from what I remember made sense with what ending that the player would end up with. I liked that the endings were parallel in similarity to each other. So I was actually able to guess what all the endings will basically entail. For example,
I couldn't help but change one choice on Huineng's route to be a little bit more cold towards her... thus receiving a lovely CG of Shun pointing a sword in my face (well, Zheng's face...) then Zheng helplessly dying...(This was my second ending. The first ending I got was Shun and Zheng deciding to become doctors. So as I looked at the CG gallery, I was like, oh, Shun, how did it turn out to be like this? lol.)...thus I was actually really waiting for a CG of Huineng about to kill Zheng (although part of me was like, oh no, I don't want Zheng to die. ;_;),
I really liked the music. And the music for the throne room, fitted the mood very well. I was reading the game out loud, and whenever that music came on, I felt proud and regal. Yea I know, pretty corny.
As for my theories, which I'm now trying to recall since I'm actually typing this today so... blurry memory...
I was right about the jade granting the king and queen a child. Also that the jade was connected to somehow supporting the princess's life. I expected that Huineng was ruthless in a way but only figure out that she probably wasn't the true princess after the first mention of her ability to do "peasant-like" things. Although I admit that I first saw Huineng in a more sort of "evil" way in how she became the heir to the throne. But that change after I gave some more thoughts. I also thought the jade held some sort of significance for Zheng besides payment and them just being "greedy". Hmm... during the game with the part where Zheng first interacted with their customers, I had a feeling that Zheng didn't have any magic. Somewhere along the way during the game, I did thought what if it was Zheng's mother who was the witch that helped the king and queen. Another theory which I had during the game and I was correct, was that the queen was hiding and carrying the jade with her, that it wasn't hidden in a room. Um....I guess the last theory I had was that I did expected, if the jade was given back to Zheng, that something bad will happen to the kingdom but I didn't bother to think further as to what that disaster would be. So when it did happen, it was kinda shocking. Actually, I had a few more theories before playing the game and during it, but it was just my mind running wild, making what-ifs scenarios that I didn't think could possibly happen. It was just silly fun to think about them. Like one was that Zheng was actually the child of the king and queen. I actually typed down, 'Would it be weird if Zheng is their child somehow?". Then imagination just went wild from there. Lol. ^^
Okay now I guess I'll throw in some random comments like I always do. lol. :
-
I kinda went whoa when the sprite of the queen fell during on my path to a bad ending. I liked that it was actually shown rather than just telling the players that it had happen. It really felt like it was wrong.... that there was possibly a bad ending coming up.
-I love that both expressions of the siblings well like really?
when Zheng tried to kidnap one of them. hahaha.
-I like that
one of Zheng's customer (Dude who wants a love potion) had his rambling became smaller in writing.
Hmm...it adds to the humor and absurdity of the situation. ^^
-I like the cute friendship between Ah Niu and Zheng. XD
-If it makes Ah Niu feel better about being call uncle,the first time I saw him when you first posted his sprite, I kinda felt like he was one of those caring older brother type. hahaha. XD
It was a satisfying good game that I was happy to give my time to play.
I hope this feedback was helpful in any way and that you guys continue to make many more games. ^_^ Again I'm sorry that this is late @@... Never posted this late for a feedback on a game before... Anyways, thank you guys for making this game!