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A jam submission

Arm of the Prince (WIP)View game page

The negotiations must fail
Submitted by Bakar (@Bakar_Zu) — 2 days, 2 hours before the deadline
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Arm of the Prince (WIP)'s itch.io page

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Comments

(+1)

Very soulful graphics. It took me some runs to understand the skills and to make a proper strategy. Adding a little description would be nice. As for the combat system, it feels solid most of the time.

Besides the reported bugs, I found a couple more:

  • The ring that defines the movement limits can be modified by using the status option and moving again.
  • When selecting a character, it doesn't change properly, so it makes the sensation that you're attacking an ally.

I'm adding a video showing them. An optional feature that could be useful, especially for distance attacks, is to move the screen a little further, since the UI can block enemies.

Developer

Thanks for trying the game and providing feedback.

I think those suggestions are reasonable, especially the skill description because otherwise you can only read them outside of combat.

Submitted(+1)

highest kill count: 9

Anna: nun who struggles with her faith torn between commandments against killing and prospect of permanent solutions
Osheen: warrior who like fighting too much which puts him in trouble with his superiors
Modest: isekai protag, now regrets leaving family and ordinary life behind, fights to return home, probably not this but he just looks too much like a normal guy

I think this is the first time I'm seeing normal people in this world.

Gameplay vid: 


  • In the shop I picked up healing potion, but I couldn't find them in the inventory or use them in combat.
  • 11:25 Modest killed Osheen with his charge and the game let me use charge again.
  • 37:15 Healing missed. I assume frezy did that, idk if this is intended effect.
  • 41:29 Shot myself despite game saying I'll hit the enemy... but the attack healed me!?
  • 45:40 Shot myself again.
  • Skills really need tooltips, even in the current state. I didn't want to use any skills other than the most obvious damage dealers with highest number, because I didn't want to accidentaly use a skill that sucks. And some skills have very unobvious uses like that arrow volley healing the ally, which seems impossible to figure out through reasonable trail and error.
  • Xanadu soldiers keep getting stuck on each other. This is not necessarily bad, but puts cheesing on the table. I don't know how turn order is determined, but if enemy's order was based off of proximity to player character maybe they get stuck less often.
  • Could use some quick hp lookup button, like holding Ctrl or something shows hp bars over everybody's head. Currently it's hard to keep track of which enemy has lowest hp.
Developer

Thanks for the detailed feedback.

Potions can only be used in combat by characters with the logistics skill. I'm planning to add more items in the future and potions will have a particular advantage over magical healing too so I'm hoping this limitation will make more sense in the future.

Adding tooltips to skills is a good idea. I can't expect everyone to remember what every technique does. A button to highlight all hp bars is good too. 

Your interpretation for all of the characters is pretty off the mark but that's ok too. 

Submitted(+1)

Combat works nicely now, a minor issue I've found is that sometimes if the character is too close to the enemy, the enemy will keep walking toward the character until his movement ran out then start attacking.

Some first impression in terms of character:

- Modest: Kind, sad, stoic.

- Osheen: Maniac, tough.

- Anna: Zealout, abit bitchy.

In terms of game feel, I'm not sure if I like the attack anims for melees, it does have a unique feel and can be categorized as artistic choice, but because the attacks are not committed it doesn't feel that satisfying.


Developer

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm still learning to animate and I'm hoping to improve over time. I realize the game is lacking juice at the moment so any juice related advice is appreciated.

Your impressions about the characters are surprisingly accurate.

Submitted(+1)

I feel like I have little to add. I ran into the same issues posted earlier, and besides archery I feel like it's close to the same gameplay as last time. I haven't played too many of these games, but it seems like most of the systems are in place.

I guess one thing I notice is how the turn order only shows the next 4 moves, but there are so many fighters that after one 'side' does their set you don't know if the next will also have a set or 2 sets of turns in a row. And in a more natural game, your turn order will be all over the place so it'll be hard to see how many moves until your next fighter besides vibes. Perhaps increase the size of it to display more? May have to make it smaller to accommodate.

Keep up the good work.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing.

I could make the turn queue a bit bigger. Also, other encounters won't have 8 of the same enemy and I'll try to come up with a way to differentiate better in the future. Maybe a number/letter next to their name or something.

The number on the lower right represents the turn order so if it says "WT 3/8" that means that the unit will take the third turn that round out of 8 turns in total. Units only take one turn per round. I stole this from Final Fantasy tactics but if I could make it clearer that would be great.

I will keep up the good work.

Submitted(+1)

tried it a few times, managed to kill a few xanagoons. my big gripe is with the targeting system, especially when dealing with enemies slightly farther away. i assume i should be able to rotate 360 degrees on a controller when aiming at an enemy, but i havent found a way to do that on keyboard. for melee characters it's not a big deal, but for the archer girl ive had to reposition to shoot more than a few times, which just feels lame. i reread the intro and peeped the controls but couldn't figure out a way to do this. Q/W says its my target selector, but that didn't seem to do anything when attacking, so i just used the arrow keys which are locked to 8 directions

otherwise theres a lot of familiarity from AG, with how i believe you want players tackling things -  move and wait, attack to poke at foes, and finishing them off with special skills. 


something not tied to combat but still important - the battle screen was reasonably dark (the right side of the battlefield, anyway, which is where i spent most of my time), but it combines with a pretty large and  bright UI. this might be a special-osur-annoyance since i'm know to complain about brightness in a lot of games, but i thought it was a bit jarring to look at - not because of the quality of the UI or models but because of the contrast in brightness coupled with the size. dunno, could be just talking out of my ass


still, good stuff. when able, a toggle for speed would be great. with a lot of xanadudes, turns end up feeling too slow, especially when i know all theyll do is walk+wait.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback.

The targeting system works much better with an analog stick, that's true. Regardless of that, I ought to come with some kind of auto-aim. Speed settings are also something I should add at some point. A lot of quality of life mechanics from Afterlife Gladiator are still missing despite the fact that the codebase is already significantly larger even at this stage.

I'm not sure what I can do with the UI. I've made it big because I like big UIs that are easy to read, but because of this it also needs to be semi-transparent in order to not obstruct the playing field. Then again, it's all the same color so I could add a setting to it. I have a lot of settings to implement.

(+1)

sorry bro, the combat is still broken
the enemies don't seem to lock on to the player characters, so they never manage to damage me
they finally managed to hit me once during turn 61... then at turn 62 the enemy just refused to perform its attack and i got completely softlocked

Developer(+1)

So I take it the enemy aims but never resolves the attack, is that it?

Thanks for trying.

(+1)

you know how the crosshair becomes red when you lock onto an enemy so you can hit it? well enemies almost always attack me without doing that step, it just remains white/grey and they miss

are you using a shapecast or something? shouldn't it just work via proximity or on area/body entered? this entire locking on mechanic kinda works for the player but i have never seen enemies use it properly

Developer

Alright, I know what's broken then.

I'm not sure why it's broken then. It's the exact same system the player units use. 

Thank you for the feedback.

Submitted(+1)

Found a bug! This Xanadu man walk downwards to Alexander, checked if he can hit him and slowly turned to the side. Now he is stuck in this mode forever. I guess he didn't want to hurt his buddy, but doesn't know what to do now.

Developer(+1)

And the game gets locked? The timer should kick in and end the turn right away.

Thank you.

Submitted(+1)

He just stood there for a minute until i pressed Alt+F4

Developer(+1)

It was a physics issue. 

Thanks, man.

Developer (1 edit)

What's new this time around?

This time I've elected to submit a short combat oriented demo. Just talk to the snake at the store counter and she'll give you the details.

It shouldn't take more than a few minutes and I hope to finally iron out the basics of the combat enough to start making some proper content.

Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts about the game with me.