`~-= story =-~`

i guess i'll file this under story, but basically the game has too little direction. this is a really big problem in some parts, most notably the TREE thing at the start (i had to use the editor to figure out what was going on, not only to find the tree but to figure out what i needed to do in the cave). in general there were a lot of parts where i had this feeling and more or less you just have to wander around until you find the next part. when you meet the queen for instance, when i got the crystalwitch i wasn't entirely sure if i was supposed to go back or not since she was hexed with one. but later when you catch the robbers you do have to go back. so in general the game was very confusing and i think with a few more lines here and there you could have easily made it more easy to follow.

in terms of the actual story, there is not a whole lot to say about it since it's pretty bare and loosely put together. i think it was fitting though for a game like this. the dialog was pretty good for most people, but i think in general you should have had more story and dialog text. it seems like you just pass by towns so quickly when i would have liked to stay longer and do story events inside the town, sidequests even (i did not find a single sidequest). the ending i thought was suitable for a game like this, but it seemed to happen so quickly. you kind of just go to the end and after the battles the game just ENDS.

a few miscellaneous things: i liked the apple of time and the crystalwitchs (and the explanation given as to how they are made). the chicken head to show who is talking was a good idea. party characters being in various spots in a house was also a great idea. the rat should have been used more, same with escalde. it seems like you get them and nothing really happens. dreeply is maybe seen once in the entire game besides the end and feels like a slapped in villain. a few spelling errors here and there but nothing extreme.

`~-= sound =-~`

good musical choices all around, and i have no major complaints about any of this stuff. however i think you could have cut down greatly on the amount of tracks you used. the music folder is something like 40 MB and my estimate is you could easily cut down half the tracks. when i was in towns i recall there being the town music AND town house music. this made no sense to me because i could never hear beyond 20 seconds on either track since i was entering and exiting houses whenever i entered a new town. the same problem happened in dungeons too because there were far too many enemies (i elaborate in gameplay).

good songs though i think they should have been more retro given the style of the game.

`~-= graphics =-~`

the best part of the game. not only do the graphics look well and stay very consistent, you have a lot of varied environments to keep things fresh. you may have even went overboard with how many enemies you have but i think you may have done this because of the weak battle system and wanted to keep things interesting on the battle front at least. can't really say much more, since you accomplished the goal of retro graphics and didn't really fail any where in this regard.

the black border kind of bothered me on some parts. it sometimes made it hard to tell where you can go and where a dead-end is, if there were more clear indicators of where you could go i would not have a problem with this though. i actually got stuck in the castle because i did not even bother trying to go down the right hall since i thought it was a dead-end.

those short pictures you had (intro, top of the tower, end sequence) were good and i think you should have had more of these. one graphical glitch was that the water pathway to the water place was pink at the top and bottom instead of black.

`~-= gameplay =-~`

the gameplay was not good at all. there is essentially no balance on any enemies, the party characters, and you level up at an incredible rate. i personally got level 99 after beating the volcano boss. after that i could beat every battle extremely quickly. i tried to avoid as many battles at possible after a certain point but even then there were far too many enemies and the pathways were too narrow to realistically dodge them in many cases.

notes (using bullet form because it's easier than forming semi-coherent paragraphs):

- the start was way too confusing. this should be the most accessable part of the game, because if someone gets stuck here they may just quit and never give the game a chance. later on you can get away with doing things like this because the player has invested more time into the game and won't quit at the drop of the hat, but having the big desert maze and the tree thing (coupled with having to use the mark VI!) was too much.

- way too many battles considering they are not engaging at all (use a powerful maggle and it's over). since you level so quickly no battles are a challenge after you get level 99.

- running was a good addition. it is something that you wanted to use mainly in monster areas and you would not want to use when in towns since you have to enter buildings and such (more precise). something like a faster default speed wouldn't have solved this.

- game lagged on some of the larger maps. then again my laptop isn't exactly great but i think this suggests to me you should have map the maps smaller or in smaller chunks.

- the stairway thing in the last dungeon was garbage. i was not aware of any order other than trial and error on this.

- did not see the point of backtracking the dungeons when you beat them. you were kind enough to clear the enemies but didn't allow the player to just automatically exit.

- bug: sometimes when i picked up item boxes they would reappear when i revisited the map but they couldn't be picked up.

- bug: the follow system used for party members worked 99% of the time but occasionally the party members would fall behind and not move.

- all the one hit kill parts were really cheap. if it damaged health (to a minimum of 1hp remaining after getting hit enough times) i wouldn't have minded but i see no reason why you would want to do cheap stuff like this. it just wastes the players time. the optional boss GOVERNMENT was terribly placed at such an early point because him coupled with the cave where the bugs instant kill you made me save like a maniac because i though a one hit kill could be around the corner.

- were you supposed to be able to save any where? i did play the game from the editor so this may just be a thing enabled when you play it this way. it makes no sense why you had save points if this is true.

`~-= overall =-~`

the game feels rushed. there were a bunch of minor bugs, and things like zero balance whatsoever. certain story parts also suggested this, it seems in some of the dungeons you just wrapped it up abruptly.

graphics and the style in which the game is done is pretty much the main draw for the game, but nothing is really on par with it. i would say the graphics were excellent, while the story / dialog was good, music was good, and the gameplay was bad. i think with another month of work you could have made this much more accessable and better in terms of gameplay by simply adding a bit more balance and reducing unnecessary battling. adding a few real puzzles or alternative gameply sections also would have been nice since the entire gameplay is basically just battles.

the game could have benefitted from a filesize decrease. as i was saying with the music, it seems like this could have been cut down in size greatly. when you see screens of a game like this and hear 80mb it deters a lot of people. i myself don't really give a shit but for some people this is the dealbreaker on a lot of games. i also don't think the game would suffer because of how i mentioned the music tracks get cut off so often because there are different songs used everywhere (ie. house and town music).