Loved the game! Funnily enough, I had a very similar idea in my own head about a game exactly like this that I started vibe coding with Claude, but then I saw Nookrium's video and was like, "Man, this is exactly what I wanted!" The game's core mechanics are great; I enjoy the emergent storytelling elements of the game, the potential and stat system, the veterancy system, and the 2d fight animation. You did a great job!
As for my feedback:
- I would love it if there were individual statistics for each adventurer. Stuff like ratings on past delves, dwelve or tournament MVPs, and also individual awards. Maybe one for each league, then one for the best in the realm? Maybe best DPS, healer, tank? Best guildmaster? You could also have best rising talent. Also, having herald reports listing the top 10 adventurers could be lots of fun. Adding individual awards and the ability to view statistics for adventurers, both yours and from other guilds, can also help inform you of who you might want to poach.
- The second thing I would love to see is more information for the gatherings and the tournaments. I want to see who the past winners are for each. Are some guilds open tournament specialists? Are some guilds good at the gatherings? Seeing the brackets for both tournaments would also be nice (as well as looking at historical brackets. Who consistently makes the finals and keeps on falling short? Who's making the tournament for the first time?). Also, listing somewhere the league the team you are facing would be nice; am I coming in as an underdog or an overdog? Will this be an upset if I win? Am I evenly matched? I would also like to be able to scout my opponent. Maybe you have to break the rules to do so, maybe you're paying a spy, maybe you can hire a spy master, maybe the loremaster can scry them? Having herald entries for big upsets in the open tournament would also be fun, and can help the player be more aware of the storylines the other guilds might be having in the background.
- I would also like more information to be displayed for the gatherings. Who's entering, who's the favourite, who's won before, which guilds have won each gathering the most, information like that. I think this is the case already, but having each class have a separate gathering (I think the three choices generally correspond to the three classes, right? I'm thinking each one of the three gatherings caters to a specific class) would be fun.
- For tournaments, having regional ones could be interesting. It would make the player more aware of the guilds in their realm and their city, and give more chance for derbies to happen. It could also be fun for there to be a local derby where each guild in a city competes for bragging rights or something.
- Having more variety in tournament type could be fun. Like, maybe the open tournament can be a brawl where you field 12 heroes? Maybe the derby match or the regional tournaments have different formats?
- I love the youth intake and aspirant system. Having more opportunity to interact with it would be great. Giving the player the option to become a youth-focused guild would be awesome. Maybe have each province in the realm have a youth score or specialize in certain classes. Letting the player choose where to send their scouts, etc.
- Lastly, my biggest complaint is difficulty. From what I read of your other responses, it seems like balance is being fixed, which is great. But yeah, I was on the hardest difficulty as an independent, was able to power through each league, winning each one except for the first one, and pretty much cleared every single league trial but one. The economic system is on the cusp of being difficult enough to keep you hiring heroes around your league level; I had a couple of years where it was hard keeping my elite adventurers in the 3rd league. But I could keep them ultimately. Also, pretty much only the war events kill my heroes now; delves basically became trivial after the first year.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with your game, and I'm looking forward to where you'll take it!