[RPG Maker MV]Non Monstrum:(8/9/20 V0.06.11 Public | Remake in Progress)

Malum Oculus

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2016
161
17
It might be a good idea that when implementing a new area you put in some kind of repeatable quest, especially with the ability to gain money. This would let players 'level up' their gear while they wait for new content. Also, some way to increase skills like you can with Lily, Scribe and Quinn.
That was a serious amount of text between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. I didn't see a way to skip it but maybe I missed it. If you are replaying, a skip might be a good idea to include. Also, fewer caption style of text and more 'wall of text' read might make it easier to follow in a novella style of pattern instead of the massive amount of hitting the space bar... whew! It's good verse, but wow... I wasn't ready for the read!
I'm not normally a slimegirl fan, but Lily is impressive to me. The whole concept is very fresh and very different from most of the games described here in the forums, Lily is truly a good heroine, to her core, it's like corruption has no hold at all on her, which is amazing and I like it. While more artwork would help certain scenes, it's not necessary, the game flows well. A few too many fights where I felt it was a little monotonous. Once you have the pattern(s) to deal with certain foes, it's rinse, wash and repeat. This is common for RPG Maker style of games, so nothing new there.
Overall, a nice interactive story game, but not quite a CYOA style game. Your choices are very few in the game, which is fine, but folks may not be expecting that if they are just looking at it for the first time.
I'd like to be able to travel back from Crossroads to Zhuevia (SP?) to try and finish some of the missed areas of Chapter one, people I couldn't find and such. I realize the entire nature changes after the main even in Chapter 1 but since the main quests didn't 'fail' those people, they should still exist. If it's not possible to meet them in some fashion then you need to run a check on the main quests and mark the people you didn't meet in red as 'fails'. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have combat skip options as well so you could just play in story mode.
Just some thoughts on the game and thank you, it's well done!

More repeatable content is coming soon in future public updates, just needed to get the story out of the way, which it is now. If I remember I will consider a skip function, just hard since it is a quite a few amount of events to make the whole thing. More art is coming as money comes in, so it is all just a matter of waiting. I believe in writing a proper well constructive narrative over a bunch of choices, since that would require me to compensate on many aspects of the story. Sadly most content you miss in a chapter is lost forever in future chapters, though some might be accessible later with casino items. The quest journal has somewhat been abandoned until chapter 1 rework is done. A story mode idea might be a good idea as well.
 

To&Fro

Well-Known Member
Apr 14, 2020
87
30
58
If the narrative is your primary concern (and I had a pretty good guess that it was by how the game was built- few choices, lots of reading) then you may want to consider side-channeling in some help from volunteers to proof/pre-read your works. Not only will it catch errors but also allow some feedback and give you a small pool of people to help you break things up into more workable 'chunks' for each update so that you can more smoothly integrate your writing with the game and focus on a development cycle that's not entirely dependent on you doing everything in stages. You could farm out some of the aspects to your helpers and while they chew on stuff, you focus on other things, like the game aspects, taking the feedback they gave you and putting it into game code. It looks very good when you are on a regular release cycle. It also gives you a bit of a break. Maybe you are already doing this, however, like you said- it's pretty heavy on the narrative and the play-ability suffers a bit. TWINE is usually a better narrative heavy format for this kind of game but it's impressive that you are attempting to do this with RPGMaker where combat style of discovery is about equal with the narrative of the game.
This doesn't need to go back and forth here in the forums, if you're interested in what I'm talking about, please message me directly. I'd be glad to give some examples and be a bit more detailed in what I'm saying.
If not, that's okay too. I'm glad you responded and overall I enjoy the story-line, it's well conceived! Thank you for your efforts!
 

Malum Oculus

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2016
161
17
If the narrative is your primary concern (and I had a pretty good guess that it was by how the game was built- few choices, lots of reading) then you may want to consider side-channeling in some help from volunteers to proof/pre-read your works. Not only will it catch errors but also allow some feedback and give you a small pool of people to help you break things up into more workable 'chunks' for each update so that you can more smoothly integrate your writing with the game and focus on a development cycle that's not entirely dependent on you doing everything in stages. You could farm out some of the aspects to your helpers and while they chew on stuff, you focus on other things, like the game aspects, taking the feedback they gave you and putting it into game code. It looks very good when you are on a regular release cycle. It also gives you a bit of a break. Maybe you are already doing this, however, like you said- it's pretty heavy on the narrative and the play-ability suffers a bit. TWINE is usually a better narrative heavy format for this kind of game but it's impressive that you are attempting to do this with RPGMaker where combat style of discovery is about equal with the narrative of the game.
This doesn't need to go back and forth here in the forums, if you're interested in what I'm talking about, please message me directly. I'd be glad to give some examples and be a bit more detailed in what I'm saying.
If not, that's okay too. I'm glad you responded and overall I enjoy the story-line, it's well conceived! Thank you for your efforts!

I do have two proof readers. Though at the moment they are busy looking over new things and the rewrite, and new game I am making. I have to do things in stages and I do work sometimes work on game aspects, like last year I worked two months of rebalancing all of chapter 1 combat. My editors are mostly fine with what I am doing anyway, and they do give me story idea adjusts if they see any. Also Twine is an alright tool if you have the patience to use it, otherwise it can be easy to lose work and the like since it auto saves. And we are getting to some more gameplay like aspect in future updates in chapter 2, like side characters to find, dungeons, and other things. Also once the rewrite is being put in there will be upgrades to the chapter 1 dungeons and the like. Also if you want to talk to me about how you believe the game can be better, join my discord, lol
 

Malum Oculus

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2016
161
17
V0.06.8 - Art and Dungeon Update
Changes:

- 5 new cg sets. One for Etrus's First time, 2 for Scribe Repeatable(Bath and Double Pen), and a redo of Ava's scenes(first unbirth and cowgirl scene)
- Two Dungeons for Crossroad. Tell me what you think of them. Find the Bounty Office by going into the Garrison
- Added Scribe to Jew's House(One of the upstairs bedrooms, second from the right)
- Also Lily can end the day at any time from her bed in her room(The right most one)
APPLY FIXES