Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• PRESENTATION
  

  Graphics are a mix of RTP, custom and stock images. A lot of the stock images use filters to make them try to seem alike, but it's not too successful on some. There's also the mix of all these image types together that create a dissonance. It's a bit weird but not overtly so.

  Mapping is decent - it's there and it looks okay. Nothing that will make you gape in awe, but everything looks like it's supposed to and there's no mapping errors or passability issues that I found. Level design is pretty decent, too, and the puzzles' visual components all work well together.

  Music is quite good and fits well with the scenes and areas it's used in. There were some sound effect use, but more for atmosphere would have been nice to see.

  Writing was well done. The story itself is a bit fragmented but it worked well enough to set the scene. The characterisation was quite well done on the part of the antagonist. You didn't get much in the way of characterisation from the main character bar interactions with objects.

  The font was nice and legible.

  GAMEPLAY
  Gameplay consisted of puzzles, on-map interactions, battles and skill learning.

  On map interactions were good - you'd find items through checking various items on the map. You also needed to interact with other map parts in order to progress.

  Puzzles were interesting and built up on each other over time. Some of them were quite tricky, but they added a good break to the gameplay and they weren't too hard to figure out. They were sufficiently different enough from each other to keep you engaged and some of them required that you backtrack a little in order to get the bonuses.

  Battles gave you job points in order to learn skills from different skill sets. You could never learn all the skills, but you could build your character differently based on the ones you did pick.

  Battles were also quite well balanced. You'd always have some way of beating the enemy and you felt like you could handle what the enemy was throwing at you most of the time. There was auto MP regen which helped heal MP due to there being no items that did so, as well as skills that made MP limits negligible/manageable.

  Skills worked well together, too, so you could build a strategy. Battles lasted long enough that you could benefit from a strategic approach without overstaying their welcome, and there weren't too many battles.

  The skills were also useful in that some of them gave permanent stat boosts when used. This, in addition to finding other stat boosts, really gave you a reason to use certain skills (if you learned them) and made your actions in battle count.

  
  

  ENGAGEMENT
  The combination of well-balanced battles, interesting puzzles and a quirky villain made for a rather engaging game. I quite enjoyed it and ended up finishing the game in full.

  The battles were a lot of fun, too, due to the skills you could learn. I think my favourite combination was the speed skill, with the reflect skill and +STR attack skill. They combined to make it so that enemies would hurt themselves, each enemy killed with the strength skill gave you a permanent stat boost and the speed up helped you be more likely to get the killing blow faster. In enemy groups with respawning or many enemies, this combo was very effective.

  I also liked the puzzles (some were better than others), and really enjoyed playing them. I was very appreciative of the fact that you could use only two traps to finish the end, then go back and turn the other trap on in order to get the special item.

  
  

  THEME
  The theme of the game seemed to be environment vs advancement. The areas did well to convey this, as did the dialogue. The mechanics didn't brace this very well, but were easy to understand and get a handle of in order to do well in battle.

  62/80
  

• Theme

  From the beginning it seems that Anselm grew too lax about his duties as a guardian and lost all the knowledge he retained because of this. Somehow he didn’t realize people have created sewers near the temple? I don’t understand how this is possible. The jarring tone and dialogue was just so out of place at first…then it grows on you. 

  Gameplay 

  Surprisingly really good. The skills complement a single player game. The bosses have puzzles. I just wish the HP on the mining bot was slightly lower or just get rid of the healing bot. The spike puzzles can burn on a fire though.

  Presentation 

  The mapping makes absolutely no sense. Person can afford to expand the temple and take up sculpting, get an organ…but doesn’t buy a proper table and chair. It slightly gets better. The graphics are inconsistent.

  The writing...the writing is interesting. Easily the best character is Viktor and how he welcomes you to his facility. I would love to see more on a later date once the game is polished. 

  Engagement 

  I love Viktor and I wish Anselm would react more. It's so silly and fun bogged down by some presentation issues but otherwise, it's a very promising game.

  Total – 59/80