Seraphine: Into the Wind

[Alphonse]

It took me a while (because I was putting it off. Because whenever I started playing, I found I couldn't stop myself. ;_;) but I finished the demo! \(^o^)/ And I loved it!

(it's listin' time!)
I liked:

• The art: I don't know how to describe it. Something about everything just fit together. I liked the backgrounds. Maybe I'm weird, but I kinda like color banding. It made for a neat effect. And the sprites. They were...vaguely comic-book styled. What do I mean by comic book, anyway? American comics? I don't know. But it was cool. What am I talking about? >-< Just carry on...
• The story
• The battles: I'm gonna miss those placeholder voices though. ;_;
• The sound effects/music/audio stuff: It helped to build the atmosphere a lot. It was like that time I listened to an audio drama, except without the cons of an audio drama (namely, nothing to look at while you listen. -fail-)

But...
I disliked:

• Getting confused: ...I had trouble remembering the names of the places. ;_; And I also had trouble remembering which places were what. No matter how much I checked the glossary, it didn't help me jog my memory. I don't know if this is too much to ask but... if possible, could you include in the glossary how each place is related to what characters, like "So and So lived in Balion" and stuff as it comes up in the story? Or something...That and I couldn't read through the glossary. I'm not really the kinda person who cares about places and history though.
• The easiness of hard mode: I thought I read something about your beta testers finding battle too hard, so you made an easy mode. So I thought "Nooo! I'm awful at video games! Easy mode a go go!" Except...then I played it in hard mode because I learned of these scenes with Basil, whom I already adore, and I decided I had to play it again (although, I used the skip-read-text thing). But hard mode wasn't hard. It was almost like it was still easy mode! Or something. [belatedly rereads a post]...oh, hard mode is easy mode with twice the HP. Okay...it was still pretty easy though. [shot]
• Typos and the occasional error: It was mostly repeating words twice and stuff. Maybe someone else already showed you those all? i didn't make a list of the typos because i did that far too often, in my ff.n reviewing days. eheheheh. Sorry. And then there was this error that just randomly closed the game! But...I don't remember what it was or when I got it. sorry again.

(Did you notice I somehow ended up spending more time talking about what I disliked than liked? Sorry!)

[Aleema]

Thank you for playing! And lol @ at the "couldn't stop playing". Sorry it's so long. xD

I'm happy you like the art (yay!) and the sounds! Yeah, I was kinda going for that radio play vibe since I've recently come off of a fandubbing stage where my favorite part was the audio mixing. ^^ I also find myself prone to reading what was happening when a sound effect happened to see what it was at least supposed to represent, and skipping text in the beginning of a game is a bad habit of mine. =P

And if no one cares that I'm "borrowing" those voices for battles, then they can stay. Might get weird if some battle sayings don't match the skills well, though.

if possible, could you include in the glossary how each place is related to what characters, like "So and So lived in Balion" and stuff as it comes up in the story? Or something...

Excellent idea! I'll definitely do that.

The easiness of hard mode: I thought I read something about your beta testers finding battle too hard, so you made an easy mode. So I thought "Nooo! I'm awful at video games! Easy mode a go go!" Except...then I played it in hard mode because I learned of these scenes with Basil, whom I already adore, and I decided I had to play it again (although, I used the skip-read-text thing). But hard mode wasn't hard. It was almost like it was still easy mode! Or something. [belatedly rereads a post]...oh, hard mode is easy mode with twice the HP. Okay...it was still pretty easy though. [shot]

You want it harder, eh!? I might be able to do that. Glad to see a fellow strategist who breezed through Hard mode like I did. Maybe I'll make a harder mode (move hard mode to "normal" or something) where HP is doubled (that's really the easiest thing I can do at this point, making new battles for each difficulty can be done now, but when there's 200+ battles ... not so easy anymore). Side note: glad you like Basil.

Thanks for the feedback and I'm super glad you played!! <3

[Riviera]

Okay.. I'll go ahead and do a full list too. Seems like the right thing to do.

I liked...

The Sound Effects: They added more to it than I thought it would. It was really nice! It was also.. kind of amusing to hear if I happened to be clicking too fast. A character would scream/grunt/cry and I'd be left going Durrr?

The Visual Effects: It said somewhere that they might possibly be glitchy, but either I'm not as observant as I thought or they've been fixed. I didn't see any glitches and I thought the smoke effect and the fog effect in particular were well done.

The Art: YES! I LIKE THE ART! It looks very colorful, and very unique. It fits the atmosphere of the game very well. All I can think that would help is if the images were "softened" slightly so that they looked more polished. Like in that other post with the blending. (and that character you posted up. by the way I also liked the "oranging" picture.)

The Main Character: Ere is awesome. I loved how her eccentricity plays out. Can't wait to find out more about her later in the story. I especially liked the name conversations.


What I didn't Like...

How Hard it is to Get Money: Maybe it's just me? I kept seeing so many items in the stores and I felt like I was constantly broke. I figured Hard mode would dish out more dough, but alas! It won't be so bad if we get to come back later and get this stuff, as seems to be the case.

Stuff I Sorta Don't Like But Sincerely Don't Mind Too Much:

Romance Options: Why does the jerk have to be cute and the nice guy have to be... not so cute? Why?! Darn those red-heads! Darn them all! *degenerates into lots of muttering and fist waving* I suspect this will correct itself as more characters are revealed and we have more options.

Lack of More Opportunities to Be Weird: What? I thought it'd be nice if you got more chances to live up to your status as "being outside of the bounds of common sensibility," as it were. They think you're nuts? Mwahaha! *puts knockout drops in Basil's food, shaves his head while he's asleep*... Well, okay, perhaps not going that far. But they could be either sincere expressions of mental issues or just you messing with them. Only you would know for sure. Unless it'd cause problems with the plot reasons for her "instability" in the first place. Really, I just want to mess with Basil. It's fun. Even when I try to go after Lander (sp?) I end up with Basil instead. It's all his fault, not mine, I swear.

[Aleema]

Hey, Riviera! Thanks for playing the game!

It was also.. kind of amusing to hear if I happened to be clicking too fast. A character would scream/grunt/cry and I'd be left going Durrr?

Good! They're meant to slow your butt down.

I'm really glad you like the art. Thanks. @_@ I'll see what I can do about "softening" them.

Yeah, money is tight in the beginning, you prevent you from being super kickass and to encourage doing quests. Ah, but there's only 1 quest you can ever do in the demo. Sorry I'm a lazy bum! I'm busy with RR. xD

Why does the jerk have to be cute and the nice guy have to be... not so cute? Why?! Darn those red-heads! Darn them all! *degenerates into lots of muttering and fist waving* I suspect this will correct itself as more characters are revealed and we have more options.

Glad you think Basil is cute. Not sure I'm upset that you don't think Lander is. I see him as just ... mature, you know? I think it would've been too easy for everyone in the game to be "bishie", but I really don't see such girly-guys wielding spears and such. Sometimes I just want a hairy brute! But if by "not so cute" you mean "eyesore" and "no one will choose him because he's looks like the village idiot" then I would like to fix that. What would you recommend? (But if you mean "not so cute" as in "he needs to be ten years younger, clean-shaven, effeminate, etc ..." then go away! xD)

What? I thought it'd be nice if you got more chances to live up to your status as "being outside of the bounds of common sensibility," as it were. They think you're nuts? Mwahaha! *puts knockout drops in Basil's food, shaves his head while he's asleep*... Well, okay, perhaps not going that far. But they could be either sincere expressions of mental issues or just you messing with them. Only you would know for sure. Unless it'd cause problems with the plot reasons for her "instability" in the first place. Really, I just want to mess with Basil. It's fun. Even when I try to go after Lander (sp?) I end up with Basil instead. It's all his fault, not mine, I swear.

Very funny!! lol
Unfortunately, Ere's character is that she's trying to act normal, when she has the mind for it. I don't think she's succeeding, though. I can definitely say, however, that her options and actions will become more varied and extreme as time goes on. But nothing that reverses her personality like that; being crazy just to be crazy. If you just want to annoy Basil, there will be no end to her opportunities, hehe.

[Riviera]

Oh nah. He's nice-looking, in a rugged way. But not cute. He's fine as he is. XD

Speaking from personal preference, I don't tend to go for the rugged type.

I'm sure he's got his share of fans, too!

But I was in a bit of a sugar-high mood when I wrote all that, so the last two entries are only half-serious.

I blame it on my new mixer. I've been making too many baked goods lately.

[JamesH]

Do you plan to release an updated seraphine demo after the release of RockRobin?

[Aleema]

Good question. The answer: no, I hadn't planned on it. I don't have any major additions to fix. I might release a new demo after I get my hands dirty with it again and I realize that the old demo is not a good reflection of what I'm doing. I do plan on updating the demo with bug fixes (I changed the font, it that unexpected farked up the GUI in some places -- the glossary was broken, and I wanted to update it). But as far as adding content, there is already TOO MUCH! lol. I might take Jak City out completely, maybe add some quests so the player can fark around instead of just being shuffled around. So ... huh, yeah. I guess I might release a new demo with those updates.

[JamesH]

Like the quest to take the captain's hat and collect the bounty?

[Aleema]

Yes, like that one! Granted, if I take Jak City out of the demo, then that quest won't exist, however. I have a few in Thjodhild already set up that I need to complete, too.

[JamesH]

If Jak city is taken out though will Isolde, The Captain (Forgot her name) still feature?

[Aleema]

No, you won't be able to GO to Jak City, so there is no Captain.

[JamesH]

So Isolde's role will be a lot different then?

[Aleema]

... she will not be in the demo either, LOL MAN WHAT AREN'T YOU GETTING.

The point of going to Jak City early in the demo, and therefore the demo, is to show it off and to help characterize the world they live in. But, instead, it just opened the characters to scrutiny, so it was an inappropriate time to bring the party there. So that entire subplot will be done at a LATER time, which will NOT be featured in the demo. Unless people really object.

[JamesH]

Let me rephrase the question:
Isolde's role will be different in the full game?

[Aleema]

Sorry, no. She is still the method to getting to the Captain. However I fix that scene ... she and the Captain are still lovers. And Isolde will still not join the party unless you "buy" her.