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Thanks for playing and the great feedback.

We have discussed giving the Slimes additional accessories/art to make them more distinct. Since items are such a key past of the game, we are trying to work out how best to do so without it feeling out of place. One of the ideas is a pendant given by parents, potentially as a Key Item that may have special attributes, but is personal and not transferable equipment. Of course, if we do that, then that opens up why can't others equip a pendant, and if we allow changing equipment, then the character with this item is limited to it and not swapping it based on player control. We have long planned to allow them some equipment, namely a helmet that serves as body armor for them. Some accessory ideas have been tossed around, mainly stones that can go into special pouches on upgraded belts, and will act like rings, including a limit of 2, with one per side. We really like the Slime characters, but for art they have some significant limits, especially with the limits of pixel art sizes. Everything we've come up with for distinguishing them brings up new gameplay questions/features. We could maybe try adding birthmarks or similar, but doing so in a way that is clear, and without a lot of extra art work, is tough. I think our best option is going to be adding some starting equipment that can be swapped out, even if the swapping is meant to be done much later.

That blue area at the top right shows the name of the current ability being used. For a long time that was the only way to learn the names of the enemy abilities and know what was happening on their turn. With the recent addition of the Combat Log, I have been looking at the area and thinking on how to better use the space. If people close/disable the Combat Log it could still be useful, but I've not really liked it for a while. I know it needs to change, but it also works well enough and does provide some useful info for those who want to know the names of the abilities. As I'm typing this, I'm thinking that maybe moving the text currently displayed there to use the floating text system we use with HP/AP, but making it start at the character's feet and go down. We want to make sure it does not cover up the animations and detract/distract from the new art. I feel like showing it when the text is added would be too eye catching. I'm also acknowledging that the white text on light blue doesn't work well, and it at a minimum needs color changing... Well, we've known for a while that the original blue wasn't great and doesn't fit with the changes to the rest of the UI, but it also was meant to be its own thing that stood out. I may go with the same coloring as the Combat Log. It can probably also shrink down to just big enough for the height of the text, and grow when there are 2 lines to show. The brown may also work better for hiding it normally, and only showing when it has text, without being as eye catching, though we'll see. It may need to become a Setting.

The combat character details have a lot of white space early on because their is not as much to show. The boxes are actually full, but only when there are more Affinities in play. The positive ones go to the top left, while the negative go to the top right. Bottom center are the Affinities for which the enemy has armor. It is meant to give a quick indication of Affinities related to the enemy for making choices on which to use against them. Most of our current enemies only have a small number of positive, and most characters are low on Death, plus there is only limited armor to start, so I can see it feeling oversized at the start of the game. I'll need to think on options to convey the quick details, without so much empty space. When we added the Status Effect icon to that area, the original plan was to put them, and the other target/ability used icons, inside the box as well, but it really felt too big and bloated. Maybe the box needs to go away or be reduced to just the name, with the other icons being outside of it. We still need an easy to understand at a glance way to distinguish positive and negative Affinities, as well as armor. Though, we e planning to make some changes to that so you have to learn the info from fighting them, but once learned it is convenient to know. Of course, in most games you don't really have that info in your face. We do have the full Character Details screen which is accessible from combat, so maybe it is time to get rid of those details from the main combat screen. I suppose that it really is a leftover from the original design that was meant to be quick and simple, without going into menus for details. If you want to know about a certain character you learn form facing them, or go to the Bestiary.

I agree with you on the lack of texture for the UI. I was starting to look at options for the Combat Log when I added it, but the artists were busy with the animations, and I did not like what I had done. I do like the simplicity of using the Style Box borders, but with the pixel art style of the game overall, they should get updated to also feel more in line with that. I'll admit, UI is not something I enjoy doing, so I've generally made it look good enough for conveying info, and then moved on.

Glad you like the new grouping. I've been thinking on how I wanted to do that for a while. I debated a popup menu with the abilities, a popup covering all the existing ones, scrolling (either horizontal or vertical) through pages of them, and doing a similar vertical expanding. For now this feels like it works the best of the ideas I had. Originally I was planning a smoother transition, instead of the slightly jumpy one button at a time shows/hides, but with the UI this was the much simpler one to implement, and it felt like it worked well enough. As we add more abilities up through the planned max level, this or similar will be needed so they all can fit. One other idea we had was setting a max limit on how many abilities can be active, and the player has to select which to enable for combat. We may still add some player customization options at some point, though prefer not to limit the player currently.

Moving around towns has been planned for a while, and the toggle for it is already in the town UI, just hidden. We need to add some new systems for movement to implement it, as out movement/pathfinding is currently all based on moving along the main path in a mostly straight line. The full story intro is mostly using Tweens for the early movement, instead of the navigation system. The menus can work, but have never been a favorite of mine. They are just a lot easier to add than the other systems we'd prefer. To start we will likely stick with the menus, but your move between locations. Later we will try to liven up each location with art for the location. The pubs especially could use a nice pub scene where you can select each character to interact with them.

I can agree that the towns need to grow, and with combat feeling better, maybe it is time to put more focus there. One option we've debated is offering classic JRPG free roam controls while in towns. This would feel so much nicer. But, it does change things from the feel of the rest of the game. There is an entirely new control and collision system to deal with and maintain. Players also have to transition to using different controls, and there will be some who don't like that. We could offer a setting for which mode to use, but then will have to maintain both and keep them in sync. I do have ideas for this, and I feel like it is probably where we will end up. It does also offer the advantage of not having to wrestle with the navigation system and setting up the towns to play nicely with pathfinding. We already know how to handle that kind of character movement, though would need to add the logic for having your party follow the leader. For mobile we'd need to add the On-Screen Controls, or we do click to move, but that then brings back pathfinding, and even more complex as it could be anywhere, rather than the preset locations. This would be an example of where we would want to have the fallback to menus, or maybe using the menus to select locations, but if we are doing free roam, then we would want to have your classic RPG hidden things to find... so, yeah, we have thought a lot on the towns, and the main delay for them is the can of worms it would be opening as we feature creep our way through them. They do need to improve. For the game they don't really fit, but they will also be a huge project to do well, in part because we try to support so many inputs. The game itself is not CPU/GPU heavy, so keeping it able to work on mobile will open up one more option for where to sell, especially with so many people these days living on their phones.

Now that you mention it, I don't think we have anyone giving items in towns, other than in the scripted event for the Traders' Token. You get the 1 quest, but that is all. We have an interaction system in place that can handle giving items, quests, and much more. We kind of switched away from story to focus so much on refining the combat and other gameplay, that we haven't really gone back to rework towns and the interactions there in a while. We will need to think on these things. I'm not sure it will be the next big update, as I'd really like to finish some of those other changes I've been trying to get to, but it should be revisited soonish.

The berry bushes were the only random event we had. When I updated the way the world was setup the random events were removed mainly so we didn't have to test them at the time. They felt so minimal with just the bushes that it wasn't worth the effort. We really need to add more random events so they feel more a part of the game. I think I have some to-do items for them to refine things first to better fit with the new system, but once done they should be easier to implement. The old system was finicky, which is largely why we never added more. Hopefully the changes will make them work better, so we can implement them in a reasonable amount of time.

The current demo end fight really was just meant to give a battle where you could see late game combat. The Demo Dragon event was our best idea for how to level up the party to make it work. In the future we are thinking about doing a time warp for the demo. You play through a bit of the opening, and then jump a few levels, play a level or 2 and then jump again. We are thinking 3 sections, and ideally ending on a cliffhanger. There is a major event around the mid-point of the game that we'd like to get to implementing, but the game just has not been ready for it. I think that ending the demo at the start of it would be a good way to draw interest for those who enjoy story... of course, right now we are more focusing on the non-story bits, so don't want to entice people with that, and then not touch the story for months. We still may head towards it, possibly having you enter the location, with just the hints of what is to come, and maybe ending before the big fight.

Thanks again for your great feedback! This has given me a lot to think on. We still have a lot to do, and every so often it is important to step back and look at the big picture to see if to much focus has gone in one direction to the detriment of other aspects. I am currently trying to clean up some of our outstanding UI tickets, so I will look into those aspects first, as they should also be the quicker and easier ones to deal with. Then we can think on which big thing should be next. I do think the roguelite variation's shop is still going to be the next big thing, as much of the ground work for it is done, and the regular game is going to need a lot more work now to be finished the way we want it to be.