Manafinder

Charming game with visuals that are, for the most part, slightly better than my own art—though some of the environment sprites are honestly not that great. The story has some minor issues, and if we’re being honest, there are major UI/UX problems. As a developer myself, I’m not trying to be mean—many of these are obvious, glaring issues that could likely be solved in a few hours. Examples include poor communication around day changes when you save or wake up in the quarters, as well as major UI problems during combat. The cauldron area is bad, to say the least. There are tons of soft locks, and it doesn’t auto-save correctly. Because I lost my own personal time due to this bad design, I am genuinely angry at the developers here. This section is overall poorly thought out and aggressively, objectively bad. A lack of consumables can lock you into taking random damage even when you aren’t colliding with anything. The game saves when you enter the area, not when you finish it, which leads to a lot of issues. There are also multiple fights that you are supposed to lose, which is incredibly annoying—I have never met a player who enjoys this kind of design. I lost about an hour of progress due to these oversights. When the Embune tutorial happens, it doesn’t make it clear how to use the system at all, nor does it indicate that the UI has a new section. That section honestly needs to be completely redesigned. It also allows you to attack without Embune, which makes the tutorial fundamentally broken. This absolutely needs a rework. The entire elemental section of the magic system, combined with the mana shard system, is a lot to take in, and neither mechanic makes a big enough impact considering that both are temporary. It feels overdesigned and, frankly, a bit underwhelming. The overworld sections are a major win for me and a real saving grace. Some additional secret areas would add polish, but overall the regions feel large, manageable, and genuinely fun to explore. Consumables are clearly meant to be saved at all costs, but this should be communicated much earlier. There are also way, way too many status effect types. That said, I really like the boat section and the first two boss fights, and while the puzzles are clearly derivative of Pokémon, they’re fun enough. The combat system is mostly enjoyable, even if the AI sometimes makes little sense or feels unfair. I also think the magic system is overdesigned. Overall, this game is not worth full price, but it is definitely worth picking up on sale. The leveling system is creative and likable, with genuinely interesting perks. However, some perks are objectively far better than others, and balance—especially around magic—is a major problem. Blindness, in particular, seems bugged: it works extremely well against the player but barely affects enemies. Spoilers: The story is very strong up until you meet the “bad” goddess. She attempts to convince you to take her side, but her argument boils down to “family first” and the idea that protecting the weak and vulnerable through the magic system is somehow wrong. This does not make her agreeable or likable in any meaningful way. Overall, there is no real consideration—either from the character’s perspective or the player’s—to ever choose her side. She essentially wants to make life harder for everyone and actively splits up the main family. She is portrayed as misunderstood, but her actions and beliefs are clearly harmful to everyone, especially the children of the world. She comes across as a demoness who believes the other gods have made life too easy for humans, making it nearly impossible for a thoughtful player to genuinely agree with her position. I am only on Chapter Two, so if this changes later, I will update my review. That said, so far she doesn’t even attempt to counter any rumors or misconceptions. She more or less admits, “Yes, I’m called the demoness, and I want to hurt people and reduce the already minimal survivability the human race has been given.” That’s essentially Joker-level chaos. As a writer who has spent years trying to build good characters and an audience, I find this especially frustrating. The most important villain—the one meant to expose everyone’s motives—boils down to a poor man’s Joker, or at best a character who fails to meaningfully explain her motivations. I’ve only just gone through her introduction, but based on what’s presented, I don’t feel I’m being unfair. It also doesn’t make sense within the logic of the world itself: you give the other gods things and gifts, so everything is clearly transactional. There is no real justification for her belief that humanity has been given some excessive abundance.