If I am not mistaken the game takes inspiration from the 'Mother' adjacent games such as the Undertale, but I still think the overall world-building is very unique, outside of maybe the "king", the characters do not remind me of anyone specific, not to mention the whole "narrative in reverse". I have played many games where you could experience the story from a different timeline, but having the constant moonwalk is something else entirely, it's undeniably charming how the characters are facing the wrong way. If I understood the description correctly, there is no actual plan to monetize this game outside of the OST, and even if the DLC will cost something, I would be happy to support it because it's a 'quality' JRPG, clearly made with love and passion for the genre.
I don't usually do this, but the soundtrack in this game deserves a short mention by itself, I don't know what it is about these funky JRPGs, but they always seem to have some of the best music. I did end up purchasing the OST, I guess the game was not free after all :), and the album already has 74 "original entries", granted not all of them are full length songs, but woooh, some of these tracks are on another level of "funky", very much reminds me of the Undertale ost in the overall approach. There is something about having those unlimited possibilities within the world-building that translates to very creative music, having no limitations on the design of the characters can be a recipe for some of the most memorable OST. I did get a sense of the overall "sound" mastery, not just having good music in the game, but also having music that builds the world and the atmosphere. In general, the game has a very good sense of immersion, whatever it is you doing, whatever magic it is, keep doing it.
As far as the "RHYTHM" gameplay, look I am not a fan of this genre to begin with, but I still found it more enjoyable than many similar games, partially because the character design & music in this game is so good. There was some confusion with the mechanics, although the dev already fixed it in the last update. It might be just my own lack of skills, but I found the normal difficulty a bit too hard, and the easy difficulty too easy, so there might be a benefit in having another one in between those. To be fair my eyes are not great, I think I prefer when the symbols go top>down, that way I don't get double vision. The game seems to partially focus on the actual rhythm of the music, you just have to play it on normal+ because it reduces the number of symbols you have to hit, making it feel more empty on the lower difficulty.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) So far my favorite OST this year, and while certainly subjective, I think you did an amazing job with these songs, not just having awesome individual tracks, but also how you are using them in the game, continuously building the atmosphere, characters, and the overall mood.
(+) Like with any "Mother"-like, it's all about the characters, it's all about having those funky individuals that seemingly have no logical explanation, and I felt like the character design in this game was top tier, very unique models (for the most part), just itching to do some fan art hopefully. The whole "reverse narrative" is done very well here, I can't say that I ever played the game exactly like that. The game seems to have a good sense of world-building and feeling larger than it actually is.
(+) Now I am not an expert on the "QTE beat gameplay", but I still found this game more enjoyable than many similar games, largely because of the characters, and you not just using it as a gimmick, it feels like the soundtrack is part of the overall theme.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
[u] Nitpicks [/u] - something is weird with the controls in the settings, sometimes I feel like they do not work. If you play in the windowed mode the game will reset from widescreen during the battle and during ESC, so you have to remember to set it to widescreen and exit the settings properly. Also, you might want to add an obvious way to reset the story
For the 'Yellow circle" explanation, it sounded to me like it didn't matter what you pressed, so you probably want to clarify that it's beneficial to block when it overlaps an enemy attack, and to attack when it does not.
And umm, maybe consider adding note holds for the new content, I find it makes these games feel more interactive.
[h1] Early Access Thoughts 2/12/23 [/h1]
One of the most charming free games that I played, I think the world-building and the character design are stellar, plus some of the best indie music like **** ever, I think it's very generous from you because I think the game would be perfectly fine at $10. Now, I do not know what all those negative reviews say in the language I don't speak, but I hope you are not discouraged because some of us here can still recognize an awesome world when we see it, you would have to put a gun to my face to write a negative review for this game, and you would have to kill me because I would not do it.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
