Okay! So after playing it for a hefty amount of time I feel like I am in a decent spot to put in my review and such.
For one, I am immensely satisfied with the game and what it offers so far. Your previous work has very much born fruit with how well everything is put together, albeit with a few issues that I’ll go through.
-
The repetitiveness of the events - Now I know this can mainly be fixed by simply adding more in due time, however with the events currently inside, I have personally found that the feeding tube event happens considerably less compared to feeding the solder/raiding supplies. Which is a shame since that event is one I like quite a lot due to how interactive it is without causing combat. I feel like this should be done more. Adding events that have a risk/reward where you risk immediately making a character immobile or such, but the rewards (and the writing) more than make up for it.
-
More area’s before the boss - At least with the 1st zone, I feel like getting to the boss is much too fast as it stands. While this could mean the 1st area becomes harder, a simple fix is to add a resting zone. Give
options. Reduce Fat or Recharge Energy. It won’t get rid of all the fat and such, but it helps to give that little more momentum to a run. The same can be done with the 2nd zone and so on, but the first area in particular feels too short. -
More curses! - What The Gourmand has to offer I feel should be looked into a lot more. The idea of punishing anyone who may or may not be solely focused on the more lewder scenes, or perhaps the few that are too careful to avoid them. Variety is also good, like making some affecting singular characters or certain pairs. This I feel could also be applied to the potions, as I was a bit saddened to see that they never stuck around or were harder to obtain. One suggestion I might offer is maybe a sort of ‘mutation’ system to a run. Choose to debilitate yourself at the start of the run by having one of the characters have a gimmick and different weight gain images. (I.E Estelle’s cow TF being something to actually manage throughout the run where you have to milk her by wasting energy or causing herself/others to drink from the tap and gaining weight)
-
More sounds! - This is more so a ‘nice to have’ rather than necessity. But I’d love for if the girls were at the larger sizes that when traversing between encounter and such that maybe belches or gurgling could happen. This is mainly coming from me doing a playthrough with the characters affected by the Gourmand’s curse, and healing and reading the characters get bigger and the stomach sounds and going “I wish this was just basekit instead of coming from just an encounter”. This thought becomes much stronger when the curse reach it’s maximum and the sounds and descriptions stop.
Now with this all being said, I’ll go through suggestions for what to add, which will include some of them that I slapped above purely for the sake of easier reading:
-
Explore Button - Simply put, this is an option that can be added perhaps just before the final boss that ‘extends’ the floor, making it easier to maybe find certain events or to risk being more injured at the final boss but having the possibility of upgrades and items.
-
Break Room/ Rest Area - Whether through dimensional whacky-ness or thematically fit locales, having an area for the girls to rest at during the middle of their exploration would give them the option to either be slightly slimmer, or regen some lost energy. Perhaps adding dialogue in these area’s depending on the girls weight with images could be a nice addition too.
-
Run Mutations/Gluttonous Pacts - Before the start of a run, or somewhere early into it you can encounter a ‘friendly’ NPC that will offer a random assortment of mutations that alter how the run will work. Again as the example above, perhaps turning Estelle into a cow at the start. Causing the crew to either use energy to milk her or get fatter by drinking from her directly. But in turn a boon of either increased essence gain, item chance or whatnot. Other mutations could be a constant poison effect in return for stronger attacks overall, making it a race against time and challenging you tactically on what abilities to use. This could even be expanded down the line by making these deals causing the characters to be slightly more corrupted. So taking more and more of these pacts/mutations lead to possible endings?
These are what come to mind for me at the moment. If there is anything that you’d like me to expand upon feel free to ask me! I look forward to future updates!!!
. It feels like a proper rogue like having to make sure Estelle doesn’t get to big so that I lose my healer and that it makes it more rewarding getting to the palace. Of course I don’t have enough upgrades at the moment to last more than a single battle in the palace in hard mode, but I really enjoy it. It makes me more resistant to sacrifice a character to the broken machinery in the prison for sure.