Thank you to hundreds of players who tried the alpha version!
Based on the feedback, I identified some common problems in the alpha version:
- There is a disconnection between the story and the combat because they are separated. It is difficult to follow the story, and the combat does not feel immersive because of this.
- The game seems to have more story/text content rather than the combat. The combat sections feel sparse compared to the amount of text to read in the demo. Being a JRPG, although a lot of reading is to be expected, the pacing of the game feels a little bit awkward due to the issue mentioned above.
- Part of the fun of tactics game is your characters grow stronger after each battle and you can customize their abilities to suit your playstyle. However, this is unachievable because of the roguelike mechanics. There is no sense of character progression in combat because power-ups are reset every session, and there is little control over which power-ups you receive due to RNG.
Moving forward, I would like to address these issues and share what changes to expect in the final demo version planned for release around Q2 2024:
- The story and combat will be seamlessly integrated, similar to other JRPG games. For those who are not interested in the story can still skip it and access it later through a different menu.
- There will be story battles and free battles. Story battles will use fixed map layouts and enemies tied to the story, while free battles will be procedurally generated, similar to the combat in the alpha version.
- This game will be a turn-based tactics JRPG at its core. Most of the roguelike mechanics will be removed. Upgrades will become permanent, allowing the players to select the upgrades they want instead of pick 1 out of 3 options style.
- The final demo will have 2-4 hours of content (mostly combat related), and save files will carry over to the final game.
Lastly, the current version will be deactivated and no longer available until the next version is ready.
Thank you!