itch.io

Thanks, that's helpful to know! I appreciate you taking the time to respond, and hope you're able to get some good sleep soon!

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?

Sorry to hear it wasn't your thing. Still, thanks for giving my game a shot!

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Unfortunately, the other side of the river is out of reach for Chapter 10, even if it's not out of sight.

As for Chapter 8, there are no side objectives being tracked since it's a flashback chapter. 

Happy to help! Thanks for playing, and for sharing your thoughts on the game!

As for the question of branching paths, that's a slightly difficult question to answer without saying too much. I think the best way I can put it without saying too much is that I want every player to experience the core story of the game, no matter how they play. But I also want the game to respond to the player's efforts, including reflecting them in the story.

To say a little more...

(No story spoilers, but structural hints below)

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In addition to having optional lore and interactions tucked away wherever I can sneak them in, there are also actions in gameplay that change aspects of the story, while still generally following the same plot in the broader strokes. These actions take the form of optional objectives in each non-flashback chapter that can have knock-on effects as the game progresses.

Sorry if that's still pretty vague. It's kind of hard to say concisely, especially without getting into specifics, but I hope I was able to put it in a way that made at least some sense, lol. 

Oh, wow, thanks for reporting that! I think I've found the issue (the scene right outside the manor, right?) and will be uploading a fixed version now.

Sorry about that, but thanks again for letting me know!

Edit: Okay, should be fixed in the Hotfix version now. Please let me know if it's still happening for you, though. Thanks!

F4 is the default fullscreen shortcut for SRPG Studio games. Heads up though, it's a little janky since it stretches to fit the monitor rather than rerendering at a different resolution.

Sorry to do this to you, but...

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It sounds like you may want to look around chapter 10 a little more.

For the Fated Lance, I'd recommend looking through all of your abilities, to see if you've overlooked or forgotten anything.

As for Lyle...

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You can slow him down, but you can't stop him from leaving.

I see, yeah. So once you get to the Golden Door, you can actually make your way to the Soldier holding the Golden Key without using any keys yourself. It does require an indirect approach, though.

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By splitting up again to use the NW Switch, you can then make a path with the debris and bridges to the central island, then use the switch there to get the other character over, too. From there, direct the debris again to make a path to the Soldier. Once you have the Golden Key, you can use it to exit the Soldier's room, then again on the Golden Door.

Oh, sorry, I guess I could have worded that a little better. What I meant was that if you got past the area with the Fragile Key without getting it, then you're on one of the routes that doesn't need it.

If you got to where I think you did (NW corner?), then yeah, that's the toughest part of the puzzle. But the multiple routes exist, in part, to let you bypass some things by thinking a little outside the box.

Was it the far NW corner you wanted some help with?

Thanks for the feedback, and for playing!

Yeah, in hindsight I think it might have been good to be a little more upfront with the chair and separation mechanics. 

As for the key... 

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If you're referring to the Fragile Key, that's actually entirely optional. There are multiple routes/solutions to the room (kind of functioning as difficulty options) but the only required item is the Golden Key, which should be reachable no matter which route you take, even if you skip the Fragile Key.

(...Assuming I didn't miss a softlock, anyway, which isn't impossible. But I tested this area pretty hard, so it should be true.)

Thanks again for playing and leaving feedback! Glad you're enjoying it overall!

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Keeping him alive isn't required for progression, so you can continue on regardless. If you want to try and save him though, you can find something in the previous chapter that might help. 

Don't be too hard on the ambushers, it's tough to slow down and aim while you're actively on fire, lol.

Thank you for playing my game (and being patient with it even after getting stuck,) I'm glad you had fun! 

And yeah, would that I could add more custom graphics... Sadly, I can't draw, and I'm even worse at spritework, so I'm pretty much stuck working with (and around) the default SRPG Studio assets. Ah well, limitations breed creativity, and all that.

Sorry about that, seems like your comments got flagged by the automod for some reason? Really don't understand what its criteria are...

As for a walkthrough... I've gone back and forth on whether to do one, honestly. Kinda torn on it, for a number of reasons.

Still, I don't mind helping if you're stuck! For Chapter 5, I posted some advice in an earlier reply (to Padre_Bombita) that should be helpful there. And for Chapter 4, you don't need to prevent it from breaking, but if you want to try then keep an eye out for secrets when you get to Chapter 6. Might find a useful hint there.

Thank you for giving my game a chance! And I'm especially honored you went out of your way to make an account to leave a review, that really means a lot!

Thank you as well for the kind words! I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far, and it's nice to hear that it hasn't dragged. I try pretty hard to make sure I'm respecting the player's time, so I'm happy to hear that seems to be working so far.

Thanks again, and I look forward to showing more of this world when I can! (So until the next update, it's back to the dev mines for me, lol.)

Nah, don't worry about it! I'm just honored you've taken an interest in my game!

Oh, and I've been looking into keybindings for the engine, and while I still haven't found a way to bind actions to the numpad, I did learn something that might help a little. The "Cancel" action (which defaults to "x" or "ctrl") seems to be a relatively reliable fast-forward button which you can hold down to auto-progress text and animations. (Though it might make some more in-depth cutscenes slightly visually glitchy from my testing. Nothing game-breaking, though.)

Maybe you already knew about it, but if not it may help with the controls a bit. Definitely glad to have learned about it, myself, at least. 

Well, I wouldn't worry too much about missing secrets, honestly. I try not to include anything in the game that I don't think is worth your time, but I also don't want players to feel like they have to 100% the game either. Plus, I do think there is meaning in some things being hidden.

Still, I also know how powerful a driver curiosity can be, so if you do feel stuck and want the answer I'll put it at the end of the comment. (Hopefully spaced enough to be beyond the "Read More" dropdown.)

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The current major "route" splits are based on said optional character being 1) Not recruited, 2) Recruited, or 3) Dead.

There are smaller differences in and between routes, as some other actions are tracked, and then of course there's the side-quest plotline, but those are the current conditions for the major "route" splits.

Thanks, that's helpful to hear!

The side-quest is actually its own plotline distinct from the main story "routes" (though not entirely independent given some of the objective requirements.) The condition for the third branch is still related to the fate optional party member, as there is one more state for them beyond recruited or not.

And yeah, I get you. Honestly, the inflexibility of the controls is something that annoys me a bit, too. The benefits of the engine definitely outweigh that annoyance for me, but I do want to keep looking for possible ways to make them a little more comfortable.

Good point, yeah. Might need to look into making an account there. I've been a little hesitant to "advertise" my game off-site just because it's still pretty early on. Don't wanna drag people across the internet just for them to play it and say "That's it?"

Might be something to consider when the next update drops.

And thank you, really, for the kind words. It means so much to me that you'd not only play my game, but replay it to look for secrets, and I hope to be able to show you more of this world before too long!

To be honest, I kinda flip-flop on whether I feel justified in calling them separate "routes," exactly. To not go too deep into it, it's less that the game has entirely distinct campaigns, and more that your branch approaches the events of the story from a different perspective, highlighting different sides of the characters depending on their mental state. I've been referring to them more as "permutations" in stuff like patch notes because of this. 

Regarding the actual branches, currently the major branching point(s) concern the fate of an optional party member, and how that affects the characters and their dynamics going forward. There are three branches in the game at the moment, with some more planned for a bit further down the line, but I want to be careful about how I add more because each branch increases development scope exponentially.

Regarding the MC's role, I can't really say more than I have already in-game, but I thank you for your trust, and I hope I'll be able to deliver something worthwhile.

And on the topic of controls... Yeah, that's one of the bigger annoyances I have with SRPG Studio. It's kinda clunky to play using anything other than pure mouse controls, at least in my experience.  I'll try to look into options to make keyboard/controller more viable, but that may just be an inherent engine limitation.

Hey, sorry for the delay! Apparently itch not only has automoderation for comments, but also doesn't notify you when one's pending approval? Wonder if that's a setting I can toggle somewhere... (Sorry, I'm pretty new to the site.)

Anyway, thank you for playing, and for the feedback! I'll see what I can do about story segmentation going forward (and if there's something I can backport into previous sequences.) 

As for secrets, the current design plan is to add one larger Easter Egg (of the type you've already found in Ch. 6) per version, so far placed in the final chapter of each update. So far there are two of these in the game, one in Ch. 3 and the other in Ch. 6. (If you want a hint for the first one... "Your meandering path begins at the dead end.")

There's also the major sidequest, as you mention, which involves completing hidden/optional objectives in each (non-flashback) chapter. 

As for smaller secrets and optional interactions, there are a number throughout the game so far. They're mostly intended to be little rewards for investigating suspicious or prominent spots on the map, offering additional tidbits/foreshadowing about the world or characters. The bookshelves you mentioned are probably the most substantial ones so far, but keep an eye out for anything else that might catch your eye.

Regarding the broader nature of secrets in this game, I try to write with the idea that everything strictly necessary to follow the plot should be in the main story, but then there's optional stuff to find if you want to dig deeper or find clues to peek ahead a little.

Anyway, thank you again for the feedback and kind words! I'm always honored when people give this game a chance, and I'll do my best to make it the best that it can be in the versions to come!

Nice! Happy to help!

Good luck on the secret hunt, and thanks for playing my game!

Hey! Yeah, chapter 5 is a little more of a puzzle map, so it can be a bit tricky. A spoiler-free hint for it would be to look carefully at your units new Skills and abilities and see how and when they might counter the properties/weapons of the enemy units.

If you want a more spoilery answer...

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(Hopefully this is enough to get the "Read More" dropdown. Sure would be nice to have spoiler text on here...)

The gimmick of the map is that you're kinda escorting your escort unit. You'll want to place yourself/Luna near the Ally Guard on any turn where he'll be attacked to take advantage of the Moon's Favor Skill negating crits on adjacent units. You'll also want to find opportunities to heal him with Sarah where you can, especially if she has the Broken Artifact as its healing is dramatically weaker. This becomes a game of anticipatory positioning, choosing when to prioritize healing and when to skip it so you can utilize Moon's Favor as you'll often only be able to do one at a time, all while keeping the Guard between you and the enemy for safety.

If you want to make the map even easier (and net some extra exp for Sarah) you can block the Guard's path (by waiting at stairs or doors) to stop him in place and spend extra turns fully healing him. This isn't necessary to complete the map, but it can help if there's a particular section giving you trouble. 

Additionally, there is one last trick to the stage where the Guard will be flanked by an additional enemy entering the map. This will require you to place yourself between the Guard and Sarah, allowing them to both take a hit for you while protected by Moon's Favor to ensure everyone survives the turn.

Thank you for the kind words! I'm very happy to hear you've enjoyed it so far, and I'll do my best in making the versions to come!

Ah, whoops! Fixed.

Hey everyone, I just released v0.1 of my first game, "Dusken Blades."

It's currently in development, and as you can probably guess from the version number, it's pretty early on. That said, I think there's enough here to get an idea for whether this game is gonna be your thing or not. It's an SRPG set in a mysterious world with a focus on the psychology of its characters, and the consequences of their actions. 

If that sounds interesting, please give it a try! I'd appreciate any thoughts or feedback you have, as well!

Link: Dusken Blades