ALTEREGO'S PROFILE

So, uh, I had lots of trouble with this game... First of all, let me get out of the way that the retro-ish, chibi style you gave the character was pretty cute. The dialogue, for what little I could see of it (the intro), was of great quality. And the option to create your own party had the potential to be lots of fun. Sadly, things didn't go well from there.

The slow ATB bar is an issue. Maybe not so much for the casual gamer, but I'd say that any regular rm2k3 player has exhausted its patience for it. Luckily this can be easily fixed with a number of DynRpg maker plug-ins.

Back and Pincer attacks against the player are just not cool, man. Specially not in a game with balance issues like this one (more on that latter). It was a serious disadvantage to get caught in one of those, and they're way too frequent too! Long story short, you had me save-scuming in order to get an encounter with the odds stacked on my favor.

Maybe this is a matter of tastes, but I resent the lack of "progression" in a rpg. I want to see my characters grow in some way. But with the lack of levels, equipment, or new skills, the novelty of creating your own party soon vanishes, and fights become pointless. I did read that you're planning on including equipment in future releases, so, that's a good start.

But the REAL issue was the balance. Characters would often miss or deal pitiful damage, even with skills. How is it possible for Zack to deal around 300 damage with a skill like "Uppercut" which supposedly deals 200% damage, when his normal attack (if it lands) can deal around 1k? My secondary character, a Monk, was useless. He would deal 0 damage, and was as frail as the other characters so it's high HP just goes like water. My Summoner dealt decent damage (around 500 to all). But with just 30 MP that was merely enough to last two-three battles. This was specially true for my Healer. With the cost of healing skills at 10 MP, it was barely enough to offset the damage my party could take in any single battle -- And MP can be a problem unless you save-scum the chests for Ethers, or use 'recharge' a lot.

At the end, the game became an endurance test and I couldn't get past the Skeleton King. I may try again later with another party (Any suggestions?) to see if things fare any better, but I think I'll wait until you release an updated to give it another try.

Cool game! Obviously, I love all the custom art. You're a very accomplished pixel artists... and programmer! The fact that the battle system was made from scratch carries a lot of merit. The game mechanics were also pretty cool. Although, I wish the game was a bit harder/had more variety, so the choice between the different skills was more meaningful. But I guess for a game of this scope it's not a bad thing that you can just waltz in, nuking everything in sight. I certainly had fun doing so. xD

The games music/sound and story were probably their lowest selling points. The story was actually kind of interesting, the premise of a radioactive world is an alluring one, but it was so underdeveloped that it almost felt random. The game could have taken place in ancient Greece or space for all that matters, and it wouldn't have changed a much.

Lastly, some quirks I found while playing: 1) When I was escaping from the cave, the radius of light around the character was gone. I could not see where I was going at all. Was this intended to make the escape more difficult, or was it a bug? 2) The pixel movement was a pit nit-picky at times, making me get stuck around corners and stuff. This made me fall many times in the moving platforms puzzle. 3) when you spend an item the description doesn't get actualized until you move the cursor.

Anyway, this was a cool entry. Definitively worth a second playthrough if you decide to expand on it. =P

Nice, little game! I liked the mapping, specially in the tower (vines everywhere = <3). And your choice of music was very "atmospheric".

The writing was good too, but one thing that did upset me about its presentation (Well, not "upset-upset", I just thought it was weird) was that you used the same message box to fit as much of a character's dialogue as possible. I guess that can work sometimes, but others, I feel it lessens the "impact" of some of the dialogue... Anyway, I loved the ending as well. You should expand on it as you intended.

Another thing that did upset me (more for realz this time =P) was that Alex was almost useless. Not because I like him and wanted him to be the hero of the game, but because he was dead weight most of the time; As was Zack when only Falron could dispose of ghost enemies: Their turns go to waste when they don't have to support. There should be alternatives to deal at least minimum damage.

All in all, a pretty enjoyable experience. Once again, you should fulfill your vision of the game and make it longer... harder, stronger. xD

Edit: Also, why is the game called "Swan song"? I probably missed that...
Edit:Edit: Oooh~ Interesting factoid... Thanks, NewBlack! =)

As far as I know, "pedophile" is a term that belongs only to realm of psychiatry. If colloquially speaking, people conflate it with the actual act of abusing a child, is either due to ignorance, which is understandable to a point; or because they don't care about the difference, which is just dumb. So no, is nothing like "murderers who haven't killed anyone" and all that...

Man, this thread never fails to amuse. It always takes a turn for the weird. xD ...Talking about "weird". Where's Mr_Detective? =P