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Okay, we can agree the power up minigame is straight up impossible, right? It always fails on the last hit.

Cute game! Simple, comfy, charming!

Popping in real quick to try some of the new changes! I didn't get to far; just started a new file to mess with things.

However, I loaded up my old save just to see what would happen. Other than my party all becoming mice inexplicably and my fighter forgetting his abilities, works just fine! I fell into a pit trap in the dungeon, so that was a pleasant surprise.

First thing that struck me was the absence of the four characters from before. They were really charming and I miss them! All the new sprites are really cute, but it's weird that the three other species from the first version of the game (and the game banner) have been swapped out for moles and ducks. I don't HATE them, but it's an unexpected change.

So! Onto a new file!

It has now somehow gotten even more difficult! When a party member goes down, they're dead and it costs a STEEP price of 250 Gold to get them back. Considering that the first floor is where players will have the least options, resources, and stats, it's pretty cruel to have it be the most punishing. I had trouble even though I knew what I was doing, so I can't imagine what it'd be like for a new player.

On top of that, a dead party member takes all of their current equipment and experience points with them, leaving you even worse off if you can't afford the revival fee. Your best chance is to recruit a new party member and start from scratch, which then simply compounds the issue since now you need more gear and need to fight more JUST to get back where you were. Not ideal.

Speaking of recruiting new characters!

I like the very D&D way the character sheets are assembled! The ability to swap two stats before confirming the spread and class MIGHT be confusing to new players since it takes a bit to parse exactly what they're looking at. I was able to figure out that different classes required different minimal stat thresholds thanks to the red/green UI elements, but the UI soup on the bottom of the screen is just STRUGGLING.

Something that could use a lot more work is picking the Perks and Drawbacks. Right now the lists are essentially the same, with every positive item having an exact negative counterpart. This makes it awkward to try and make builds since there are only so many points you can pick up before all you can viably pick are...the exact negatives to the Perks you just chose. And since picking any Perks is optional, I think the player is incentivized to just avoid interacting with that system altogether since that's the only way to leave on something that's not a net negative.

Onto the dungeon itself!

This is where I noticed the thief doesn't have a bow to start with, meaning you either have to go without one OR make them a frontliner. Hiding and then using Ambush DOES make it so they can hit from anywhere, but Hiding only has a CHANCE to work and Ambush can still roll a 1 in damage. Doesn't feel great.

The Reach mechanic is also a lot more prominent here, and so are misses, apparently. I feel like me and the enemies both missed a LOT more than before. As for the Reach mechanic, it's all good and all right up until your Mage runs out of Mana (which has been made way more manageable with a larger pool and Honeycombs restoring some) to which they now just have to sit back and defend. Same goes for the Thief when they fail their Hide.

I'm not sure if I'm just not remembering correctly, but there seems to be a much higher number of enemies per battle on just the first floor. I've run into groups of 6ish enemies per encounter multiple times, and boy do they hit hard. It just makes it even harder for players since they can't even tank all that well since equipment is nonexistant that early into the game. Not to mention that your frontliners will usually not get a chance to even Guard since they're too slow.

HP values for your characters have gotten much lower, so it makes ever point of damage that much more hard to deal with.  From what I can feel out, the enemies either have the same HP as before, or just the slightest bit more. I like the excitement it can bring, but the death mechanic made it less fun than it could have been.

Chests have an interesting little minigame to them, but I think it's a bit too simple for it to be interesting. You get the thief to look for traps. Disarm the trap. Have the tank open the chest. It's pretty much a solved process by your third one. Maybe having the ADDITIONAL option to take the chest with you to get it appraised like before would be a nice wrinkle. Pay to safely get the contents later, or risk it and get something you can use immediately. Chests would need to have more useable items in general if opened in the field (and only when opened in the field) to make them worth it since gold and a weapon don't usually do much to a dungeon run.

UI! No cheeky segway!

The battle info has been relegated to text boxes on screen, but I don't think it's a better solution than before. It's pretty slow to go through the pages and there doesn't seem to be a way to breeze past them. Sometimes the text doesn't get the chance to finish before the next attack goes off, sometimes it makes it hard to notice that it's the players turn now. It really gets in the way of the brisk pace battles had before. If you were to go back to the old way you did it, maybe you can add a second bar where the blue brick pattern is at the top of the screen so you can have more text displayed at the same time and allowing you to break it up more neatly.

There also needs to be a cleaner solution to having control hints on the bottom of the screen since, right now, it can either be a jumbled mess, crowded, or hard to parse. Right now, the more controls and context needed on a screen, the more real estate it takes up. This one I'm not super sure how to go about solving.

The descriptions of attacks in the battle screen weren't always the neatest before, but this current iteration is trying to cram even more info into that little black box. It's hard to parse what effect an attack has and what the saving throws even means in that specific context. This one also needs a more elegant way of being presented.

The numbers used for the enemy attack order and the symbols for their intended target also took me a bit to figure out. I thought the numbers by the enemy's portraits were health or some other stat at first. Seeing a sword and a number made me think it was indicating an amount of damage that was incoming in the vein of Slay the Spire. I'd say you can get rid of the numbers altogether since you already have the turn order on the side of the screen. Then you can just color the little sword icon the same color the enemy has for their name on the list. If multiple enemy units of the same type are on the field, THEN you could add a number to their name on the list. Something like "Grub (1)" or "Small Slime (3)". Then you'd have their colored sword icon have that parenthesized number next to it IF that situation arises.

Keep up the good work! I'll be keeping an eye out!

EDIT: Oh! Also! The new level up system is something I have mixed feelings on. You don't get control of how your character grows, nor if they get any new skills. Considering we can't level up mid-run anymore, it's a little disheartening to make the trek all the way back to the exit just to see you received reduced stats and no new options. The skill tree from before wasn't really all that bad; the issue was more about having the options be more interesting and impactful than anything else.

Oh! I have one laying around, yeah. Never used it since the stats didn't indicate anything too special about it. Another issue with descriptions not being visible cropping up again, sounds like

Depends! Is the staff named "Soulflame" or something similar? Its special effect being that it randomly hits all enemies on the field when you bop one with a basic attack?

Played a bit more! I'm on floor 10! I'm a big fan of how much deeper it goes when you think you've found everything. There's new equipment, new enemies, and even new room features!

So.

There's an interesting economy and loot problem. The loot IS good and meaningful! However, I feel like the distribution of it can be rather lopsided.

On one hand, you have all this armor which just give single digit defense bonuses (except for a HELM which just says MEDIUM without a defense bonus, which is weird since there are other Helms I have that do indeed have a value, possibly a bug) and a weight class, which is pretty dry. Then you have things like the HERO SHIELD, which draws aggro to one character exclusively or the WIDOWMAKER, which has a large damage range with a higher chance to land a crit! This kind of equipment is pretty great!

The issue is how these cooler weapons are gained: they randomly come up in chests with no rhyme or reason other than RNG and floor depth. Getting new equipment is exciting, but perhaps there should be a way of signalling of what kinds of chests the player should be excited for, or maybe have boss drops. Something that makes getting those weapons more of a pointed event rather than something you trip onto. Of course, they don't ALL need to be so hidden, but it's just something I noticed.

This is more of an RPG thing in general, but I feel like it's still worth mentioning that you end up getting a LOT of junk equipment as you go.

It doesn't exactly feel great to sell since you get more from fighting enemies than anything. Duplicate equipment in your bag also doesn't automatically merge, so you have a bloated list where you have three different instances of CHAIN MAIL, one being a stack of 3 with another by itself further down on the list.

What's especially awkward is that the store seems to sell better tiers of equipment as you reach deeper layers. While it's cool to see, it can make gear progression rather muddied since you could find something two tiers above what you were using before OR end up already having said higher tier from just waltzing around the dungeon by the time you reach the shop. It's not an issue per say, but it's something worth looking at.

I thought the mushrooms and honeycombs I came across early on were crafting materials since their use effects were so underwhelming. Weird that it never went anywhere. Several bees were harmed in the making of this observation.

I like the shop keeper!

I wish there was more that could be gained from talking to him other than realizing that, oh, you start the game with tier 0 gear instead of what comes in the shop. I'm also not sure what the identification system is about (which just shows a list of items which all say [OBJECT OBJECT] right now) other than the fact that sometimes loot is occasionally cursed. I'm not sure what this entails, but I feel like letting us keep cursed equipment would be a fun way to keep things interesting with a whole risk and reward deal. Something more rewarding than getting even more junk loot in our bag. Again, not an issue per say, but a place that can be strengthened.

I saw an interesting accessory in the shop that allowed the casting of Fireball with a 10% to break! That sounded pretty fun! Right up until I saw it still needed mana to cast. I feel like it should either be a 10% chance to break OR cost mana; not both. Having it be both just makes it feel bad to use since you paid a lot for it and there are now two more costs on top of it. On top of that, when I casted the spell in battle, I get text that said it was used, but nothing happens. I imagine that's a bug.

Speaking of gear not working as it should!

WOW there's a lot of equipment for the warrior and cleric. They get all sorts of armor, shields, helmets, and such. The mage and thief, though? Maybe a dagger? A couple small armor upgrades once you start getting deeper in the castle? The other two classes can stand to use more equipment. I didn't find any armor or accessories that had cool effects for them.

Speaking of class progression feeling bad sometimes!

I like the leveling system! It's satisfying and I see all sorts of possibilities when it comes to making builds and choosing upgrade paths! The issue I ran into is that the abilities and spells costed more mana the more you invested in them. Which maybe wouldn't be an issue, but mana is HARD to come by; I was barely into the teens at the highest while my HP was in the triple digits.

You end up getting small boosts in power with disproportionately increasing cost, meaning you get to use your abilities LESS as you level rather than more. It's not like you can simply choose not to invest points since the popup for increasing your stats comes up after every battle. While this is usually convenient, it becomes bothersome when you're just trying to keep your ability cost down. Once you hit level 42, it becomes an unavoidable issue.

Make no mistake, I really like this game! It's so well made that the rougher edges just stand out a bit more than otherwise. So! Some more things I like!

The sprite work is consistently pretty! It's colorful, easy to read, and done pretty well! I love how the enemy attack animations are played in their battle cards; it conveys which monster is doing what with minimal screen clutter.

The music and sound effects are all great, too! Whether it be the exploration and battle themes or the more subtle choices like the audible sheathing after a fight, it's something I've yet to really get tired of even after fighting well over a hundred battles.

I also like the funny animal people. Shoutouts to Redwall!

I think that's everything I have to say about the game as of the moment. I'll be keeping an eye on it since it seems like I've hit the endgame. The unusable ability points make battling pretty bothersome, so I can't quite go on.

Again, keep up the great work!

EDIT:

I forgot to say a few things!
-Medic screen does NOT like triple digit stats.
-You can't see the full coordinates when walking around the dungeon; half of it is cut off by the edge of the screen.
-The map should really display more of what's actually been charted instead of having SO much of it be black space. Makes it hard to navigate the more tricky intersections and branches without being able to look as far ahead.
-Not sure what the "booklet" is, but since it's bound to Tab, it's impossible to open since it just unfocuses the game when pressed. Perhaps make it another key or have it be on the settings menu itself.

Dude, this is super solid for a supposed prototype! I didn't expect there to be 6+ floors! Granted, the forest had me wandering there perhaps a BIT too long.

As for what can be improved? First off, there HAS to be a way to toggle the HEAVY CRT filter sooner. I had to get on the field and look at the description to even know there was an option menu. I feel like it'll turn a LOT of players away at the door.

Formatting gets a little weird once stats start hitting the triple digits. Things are outright broken when you open the Cast targeting menu on the field. It still works, but there are big honking UNDEFINEDs that make things hard to see.

Text also doesn't scroll, so item descriptions on the bag menu out in the field or in battle just go off the screen. There's no way to display the full text, so that needs some fixing.

I also had some trouble when targeting both the enemies and my own party in battle. When there are multiple rows of enemies, it's unusually difficult to get the selection to go where you're telling it to go. This is especially bad when targeting other party members in battle since up/down/left/right doesn't seem to work unless you do very specific combinations. I COULD eventually target everyone and everything with enough finagling.

Also thank GOD for the automap. If it didn't exist, I wouldn't have been able to make it past the first level. That's also something that should be presented to the player much sooner.

I ran into the super WIP parts of the castle, but I'm surprised how much personality those enemies had! It was kinda funny walking into the invisible portcullis and encountering the foreboding spider boss text before running into a Mimic or a bear or such, lol

Keep up the great work!

Got to day 155 on SQEASY after a few tries. WOW did those invasions suddenly make things super hard super fast!

One thing that I find odd is the game's tone; it seems to be going for humor, but the horror is played straight enough that it sort of overrides it. I imagine you're aiming for Cookie Clicker's tone, where the insanity and horror is just in the metaphorical and literal background. I'd say to tune down the SPOOKY effects and music to make the tone a little less oppressive.

Nice work!

And an additional random two notes!

Did you make the low health beeping synch with the boss battle theme so it's EXACTLY on beat? Because if you didn't, you should. It made something annoying into a BOP.

I could have sworn every random, generic jack-in area had one blue Mystery Data in a corner. But I couldn't find any. Is that just a demo thing?

Also, I have to give shoutouts to those amazing 3D battle transitions and intros. The way they go from overworld to the battlefield and back is so cool. The boss intros are almost perfect except that pesky camera clip that can be seen for a couple seconds; those are hard to fix and not your fault. I want to see more of this stuff!

Great work on the remake! All I can really complain about are knit picks:

-This first one MAY be a glitch, but it seems so freeing that it may be a feature. Usually you can EITHER pick chips with the same exact name OR with the same letter. It seems that in scenarios where you have a * code chip, you can choose chips with the same name AND said * code chip.  For me, I noticed it with Cannon A, Cannon C, and Shotgun *. Worth a look.

-I see from the screenshots on this page that you have a Shotgun * set as a Regular Chip, but I can't quite seem to find out how to set one in-game. Usually it'd just be pressing Select on the GBA, but here I have no clue.

-There seems to be a number of L and R button functionality missing. Usually you can use them to page through the chip folders, but here they don't do anything. Also missing is the ability to press R in battle when hovering over a chip to see it's description.

-There generally seems to be a few frames of delay on everything than I remember, whether that be on virus deletion, Megabuster startup, the reward screen, the sword attacks, and such.

-I feel like some of my button inputs get eaten up sometimes by the dialogue system and menu prompts. I'm not sure if it's because I'm pressing a few frames too soon or too late? Sometimes I end up skipping text because I pressed a button too soon rather than have it instantly complete as expected. Other times I press a button to no response. It mostly seems to be in menuing in general.

-WOW those walk and run animations are awkward. They may have looked about the same in the original, but boy does it really show in 3D. Megaman's run animation is the best, but his pose/balance when running is still oddly stiff. Do his boots squeak? I feel like they are. The awkwardness of all the animation stems from how stiff everything above the knees are; there's no weight in their stride.

-The text in the rewards screen looks rather squished and tall. The font's otherwise fine with some weird exceptions like the "9" that looks like a "g" and it's counterpart "6"; the random corner really messes with the usually rounded aesthetic.

-Have the cannon enemies' targeting retical  always done damage on contact? I could have sworn it needed to lock onto you first, delay, and *then* fire. This leads to weird scenarios where you take damage from a cannon  that has already been deleted, but it's retical is still going down the field.

-I could have sworn Guard reflected the damage blocked as a shockwave rather than just be a brief invincibility window. I know that made the chip SUPER busted, but it was always a fun one to use. Here nothing happens on impact.

-This is bad with Gutsman in particular, but there's this weird delay between when he hammers the ground and when the damage shockwave comes out. That shockwave comes out waaaaaay too late and it looks so janky because of it. The same applies to the Mattaurs, but not as badly.

-The Spooky virus' tongue seems to damage you even before they even reappear to attack you, which is rather jarring.

-The Mettaurs also could use a more contrasting drop shadow; right now they seem to be floating over the ground rather than just be ON it.


Don't let this ALL this text discourage you, though! The reason I was able to even notice all these little things was because I was otherwise so wrapped up in the headspace of what felt like playing the official games! These small knitpicks were just the little reminders that reminded me what I was playing. :P

Keep up the great work! 5/5 from me.

I love your other card games and have been playing them nonstop for days each. If you're still developing them, I have a chunk of suggestions for them.

I just got off a Mind Cards binge when I saw this come up on your profile! But for whatever reason, this doesn't grab me the same way your other games did.

Perhaps it could be the lack of persistent progression? This game can end rather uneventfully and lead you back all the way to the beginning with nothing to show for it. While your other games can commonly end with scenarios where defeat is guaranteed, here it tends to be more demoralizing since the number of options we have are extremely limited. We get a random set of starter cards and get one card out of a random set of four, and aside from that we don't have any input about how things go. It's hard to strategize.

The type of play is also quite limited since it's basically colors as the only mechanic. Not a lot of differences in kind to keep things interesting.

Nice work! The game was a pretty solid game from top to bottom! My only complaints are that the main exploration music didn't feel very in line with the game's world (boss fight music was good, though!) and that there are sometimes dead inputs when trying to move quickly in different directions (notably in the final boss fight). Gameplay was very intuitive, and you worked well with the limitations you had!