Pretty good game, but i am too stupid to beat some of the chapters (even with the chapter hints in the game manual), let alone figure out what the exact combination of moves to do them or the side quest or the easter eggs (other than the one you are expected to get).
It is a shame too, i was enjoying myself too, up until i learned that i was missing content that i wanted to do, and even when i pushed myself to not go back yet, i didn't have the motivation to retry chapter 9 100+ times to manage to beat it. The only chapters i didn't need 10+ retries was chapter 2, chapter 3, and chapter 8. Those ones felt nice to beat, and not frustrating.
Thanks for the detailed feedback! Sorry to hear it ended up being a frustrating experience for you, but I'm grateful all the same that you gave it a shot!
If it helps at all, regarding the optional content and FOMO, I'm trying to design the game to where even if you skip every optional objective you'll still be guaranteed the core intended experience. (Though I know that missing things can still feel bad, regardless.)
As for the Chapter Hints, could I ask a couple questions about your experience with them? No worries if it's too much of a hassle, feel free to not respond. I just want to learn how helpful or unhelpful they are so I can adjust if needed.
1. When you did get stuck, were any of them helpful in solving the problem at hand?
2. Regarding hints that didn't help, were they not clear enough? Or were the hints not relevant to the problem to begin with?
1. When I did get stuck, I didn't know that the game manual had the chapter hints. So I just brute forced it. I think there was 1 chapter that the hints helped when I used it. Though, I don't remember which one.
2. I think they are a bit too obtuse. Or at least too short, so the player needs to fill in the blanks on what the hint means. And there was a hint or two that even with me understanding the hint, I still needed to give it a couple dozen attempts to figure out what the game wanted me to do exactly.
Though, of course, this is just my experience, and I am not the smartest player (especially since when I played it, I was sleep deprived, so that definitely didn't help).