Magic is not necessarily an easy thing to balance. ^^;
Ok, I have played a little more. Here is what I have to say so far. ^^
*looks at notes*
... X D
Wall of text alert. X D
I was thinking, in the opening, when Reimu mention she can fly,
wouldn't it be better
Also, more an observation than anything but if you speed through the text
in the intro, Reimu spend a while just waling before anything can be done. : P
I was wondering, do you have some kind of event flow chart?
In this game, it is possible to try to do things out of order.
Some kind of chart could be useful to prepare stuff in case the players try to do so. ^^
Speaking of which, should we be able to build stuff
in the game before Rinnosuke mentions it?
Perhaps it would be more logical if the option did not appeared right away?
By extension, should Rinnosuke sell wood before he talks about building stuff?
Worth noting is the stuff he sell get updated after he mention it.
The wood could appear then in the list.
I tried to save Marisa first to see what happens.
You actually thought of that. X D
I like that smug face Rinnosuke makes when he mention that the crystal could not be sold without him. : P
I tried for fun the Fire Scroll against the first boss.
It does decent damage. I wouldn't use it so far for random battle.
Also, it can be sold. I suppose it would encourage it being used.
In the second floor of the first dungeon,
both stairs have invisible walls around them to the left and right of their south part.
While not gamebreaking, that is something that should probably be corrected.
When you level up, the game don't warn you when you get a new skill.
... or maybe you don't get skill at all when you level up? X D
From what I read in the other post, you do get skills from interacting with other people.
However, the game don't mention it that, um, loudly?
Maybe some kind of obvious message needs to be there?
Or maybe it's just me. X D
I noticed that when you save in a dungeon, the game save the encounter's counter.
So if you save one step away from a battle,
when you reload you will always have a battle at the next step.
However, what you might fight is not saved and random.
I got Marisa. She should do more exercise. : P
But she does her role as a mage fine.
It's easier for me to use magic when I don't have an healing spell. X D
Based on what I read from other posts, maybe you could consider writting a routine
for when you open a treasure chest.
Maybe something like "You got X!"?
Also, perhaps you could consider at some point putting more than one item in a single chest?
Something like "You found 5 candies"?
There are a lot of candies in the first dungeon.
Perhaps it's not a bad thing as it make healing easier.
However, there are also a lot of candy in the second dungeon IMHO.
Eventually, that's something that could be improved.
Maybe put in a Toothbrush somewhere? : P
I have not seen item drop so far.
Maybe it has yet to be implemented?
As for items, I was thinking of the game balance.
On one hand you can get item from spots and sell them.
On the other hand, you have to rest, items are not worth a lot
and not all spot are convenient.
Also, on one hand, you could raise the price of wood to encourage farming items on your own.
On the other hand, that would make selling wood too easy for money making.
And while you can use items to make money, you don't level up.
Perhaps there is some kind of balance so far.
Obviously, the first dungeon people should go is the one in Rinnosuke's shop.
However, the game don't really tell you that.
The way you find out is by getting some kind of horrible death. X D
Perhaps there should be some pointers in game toward the first dungeon.
Also, perhaps the game should not let you at first go into the other dungeons.
After the first dungeon is cleared, the games dialogue point toward the Forest of Magic and the Doll Castle
but it's still possible to visit the other dungeons.
Eventually, you might want to consider how the game point the player in some directions
and how you might deal with sequence breaking.
It's not necessarily that obvious where you can farm items.
At least Rinnosuke tell us about the places in town where items can be farmed.
It was mentioned before but there is a bug with Carrot and Cumcumber.
Unlike other item farming, the game let you farm those event if you're out of points.
I have ended up with - 3 points. : P
What does exactly giving the three mushroom does?
Does it unlock a tech? The game is not clear about that.
When the game talk about needing food for workers,
does it mean Reimu? X D
Oh, when you try to clear the forest, the game ask for 20 foods.
Then it says : " Not enough wood." X D
And now for today's special deal, make some stair in the mountain
and the game will give you for free the bridge to the human village! X D
And while the game brings you to the new bridge, the stair DO get build.
The game still give you the option to repair the bridge though. X D
The spirit fox in the forest of magic suspiciously looks like Carbuncle from Final Fantasy.
He's also fast. X D
He seems to give decent money though.
Some treasure chest in the forest gave a candy...
and then some music played.
What is this, a Super Candy? X D
In that part of the forest
, the game get darker.
However, if you don't
, the game will stay like that until you rest.
You might want to had some flags to make the game go back to normal
for when the player go back from that section or warp out of the forest,
There some part in the forest along a south wall between two sections
where the well don't properly hide Reimu.
I forgot where exactly. X D
Oh well, it's i minor graphic bug so I suppose it's not high priority.
I fought the boss in the dungeon,
.
Cold Inferno delivered. Seriously. X D
I also boost my magic attack before using it just in case.
While the boss did decent damage, Reimu did decent healing. ^^
That being said, after the battle,
Also, after the battle, I found lot of treasure that would have helped me for the boss fight! X D
Oh well.
One of them is a armor that increase physical defense but doesn't have any magical defense.
Circumstantial but useful.
I was wondering, are buffs and debuffs working fine in the game?
I remember using a spell to lower the first boss defense
but I didn't notice any difference.
Then again, I didn't test the tech that much so far so maybe it's just me. X D
One thing that I wonder is if the effects stack.
Reimu has a move that both attack and allow you to evade.
The cost is a bit high, I wonder if there will be an occasion to put that move to good use.
That being said, that move would be so useful in a Megaten game,
especially in Digital Devil Saga 2! X D
About items, in battle, lot of items can be selected but don't have an effect.
Even worse, they are wasted while doing so.
This is something that will need to be worked on eventually.
Also, item count don't decrease when they are selected.
Basically, it mean that if I only have one Fire Scroll,
both my characters can try to use it in the same turn.
That too will need to be worked on.
The Yuki Onnas in the ice dungeon don't deal damage and don't give exp.
I guess they are being worked on?
Anyway, that's all I have to say about the game so far for now. ^^
