Hey, so I played through one full story, and to what I assume is the end of the other. Some thoughts below. Feel free to add me on discord (username is nostalgicbear) if you have any thoughts or want to discuss any of it further.
I enjoyed a lot of the presentation. The music is charming, the pixel art has a great style, the main menu artwork is beautiful, and the UI icons generally fit the game's aesthetic well. Most of my feedback is centred around clarity, presentation and player communication rather than the core concept, which I think youve presented pretty well.
Narrative
- There is a lot of text with very little visual support (I appreciate this is a beta, but I've given all feedback based on this version, not a future version). I'd recommend looking at RoadWarden as a reference for how reusable background artwork and environmental illustrations can help break up dialogue and improve world building (based on the credits page, youre a small team, so its not realistic for me to suggest you spent months creating bespoke art for every scenario).
- I didn't experience much meaningful branching. Most choices seemed to converge back to the same path after only a few screens. On the store page you mention "meaningful consequences" so I think I was expecting a bit more from this.
- The text presentation itself could be more visually engaging. Even subtle formatting improvements or accompanying artwork would make reading long passages more enjoyable, but again, fully understand its a beta.
- The current day is displayed prominently, but its gameplay relevance wasn't immediately obvious to me.
- The Forest story line has 8 dialogue pages before an action/choice (the option to escape or fight). That feels a bit excessive, and maybe some of the 8 pages of text could be combined to one.
Combat
- The Archer has no attack animations.
- Battle backgrounds become repetitive, with the same one used regardless of where youre fighting. I have no doubt that adding additional environments is on your roadmap.
- Battle music is excellent and fits the game well.
- Audio transitions between scenes can be abrupt. Smoother blending (for example using FMOD) would improve the smoothness of transition to be less stark.
- Clicking the chalice immediately consumes it without explaining what it does. Allowing players to inspect consumables before using them would support better decision making.
- It wasn't clear why Attack Cost was 10 during one encounter but not another. The very first encounter in the second story (the forest one), has no cost for attack. If combat rules change, consider surfacing that information more clearly.
- The Energy 120/120 display looks visually inconsistent compared to the rest of the combat UI and could benefit from matching the surrounding art style.
- As an Archer, my Special Ability never became available. If this is intentional for class progression, consider communicating that.
- During combat I could select the blue potion, but nothing happened and no feedback was provided. If an item cannot currently be used, explaining why (for example "Not enough Energy") would improve player feedback.
- Using the red potion caused both consumables to disappear, which was unexpected and not clearly communicated.
Progression & Balance
- Shop pricing felt well balanced. There were items I could afford and others that gave me something to work towards.
- After finishing the forest story first, I entered the dragon encounter on only 4/88 health. Because health carries between stories, I ended up in a situation where I repeatedly died before being able to meaningfully progress. This felt like a soft-lock. Consider providing a recovery mechanic or ensuring players cannot become trapped in an unwinnable state.
- It wasn't clear that health would carry between stories. This should be communicated before the player begins a new storyline.
Rewards
- Loot rewards could be presented with more impact. For example, when I obtained Magical Armour, it was easy to miss within the text. A reward popup showing the item, its stats, and a comparison with the currently equipped item (with an option to equip immediately) would make rewards feel much more satisfying.
UI & UX
- The Inventory icon behaves slightly differently to the other bottom navigation icons when selected. Keeping selection behaviour consistent would improve usability.
- Health feels like a more important persistent resource than currency and would benefit from being visible on the main screen. There appears to be enough room beneath the character portrait for both.
- The equipped item row in the inventory could be communicated more clearly.
- One inventory slot appeared permanently empty. I assume it is reserved for potions, but this isn't explained. I tried clicking and dragging various items without success. A slot label or tooltip would remove this confusion.
- There are four primary navigation tabs given equal prominence. In this build, the Story and Inventory felt like the primary destinations, whereas the Hall of Fame didn't appear important enough to justify equal visual weight, and I never accessed the Shop directly from its dedicated tab. I dont know why Hall of Fame is accessible throughout gameplay.
- The Settings screen has a black underline beneath the "Options" heading that initially looks like another slider, making it slightly confusing.
- The close (X) button on the in-game Settings menu is difficult to notice because it blends into the background. The first time I opened Settings I accidentally selected Back to Menu instead because I didn't immediately see the close button.
- On the title screen Settings menu, the "Settings" heading appears offset rather than centred.
- On the point of selecting a story/quest to do, they feel completely independent due to the lack of an overworld or map or something to ground them in the word. For that reason I was surprised to see health reset between quests.
Visuals
- The pixel art style is really charming, but all fight scenes appear to reuse the same background. A small library of reusable environments (forest, cave, village, etc.) would greatly improve visual variety while keeping your production costs reasonable.
- The story screen often contains a large amount of unused grey space. Filling this with subtle environmental artwork would improve atmosphere and support the narrative.
Feedback & Player Communication
- After defeating the Juggernaut while also losing my remaining health, I was returned directly to the Story Select screen. Initially I couldn't tell whether I had won or died. A short completion screen or epilogue would provide much stronger narrative closure.
- The dice animation briefly settles on one value before changing to another. I'd either increase the rolling speed so intermediate values can't be read, or hide the value entirely until the final result has been determined.
Resolution
- I would personally have preferred the option to play in a landscape resolution rather than being locked to portrait. Is there a reason you wanted to lock it specifically to portrait?
Store Page
There were a couple of statements on the page that I felt didn't quite align with my experience (albeit I admit Im probably being a bit pedantic with these):
- "Multiple choices with meaningful consequences." During my playthrough, most choices appeared to converge back to the same story after only a few pages, with differences generally limited to small amounts of gold or health.
- "Random events and shop inventories." I didn't encounter any random events. After replaying sections several times due to dying, I consistently encountered the same enemies and story events.
Overall, I can absolutely see the charm in this game. You've shown that the current scope of the visuals can be done to a good standard, and I think the game has a solid foundation with good audio, a nice vibe. Most of my suggestions focus on minor improvements around clarity, player feedback, presentation and reinforcing the impact of player choice. Some small work on these would greatly improve the polish. Again, if you want to discuss anything further, or my points weren't clear, and you need more, just add me on Discord.