This is a very well made game, even if it is still in its early stage. The setup and story is extremely captivating and the battle mechanics really pushed my expectations of rpgmaker, since I’ve rarely seen anyone expand on what it is possible to achieve with it. The entire game is truly enthralling and I cannot wait for further expansions
4 Likes
I’m going to go against the grain here and give it a big ‘Meh.’
Making combat into a qte was novel, for about five minutes. Then it just became frustrating and annoying compared to the reliability of ‘Attack’ in a normal sense. It’s indeed very clear that a lot of effort went into the World and the lore, and I applaud you for that.
I did not enjoy the section of Chapter 1 that I played. And I did not enjoy it because of an overwhelming lack of agency. It started ok, but the longer things went on it was just ‘these things happen to the PC’ and I have no input. I’m all for the female PCs getting fat in these sorts of games, but the way its handled here is unpalatable.
2 Likes
I enjoyed the new area a lot, all the new mechanics felt good and were pretty intuitive although the slime did get me once. General progression also felt good, wasn’t too tedious but still felt a little more in-depth than just “walk to place kill thing”.
Also the text noise when the slime is laughing really sounds like a laugh lol
2 Likes
Question are there plans to release this and any future updates to the public or are they just going to be behind a wall?
It’s in my opinion a lot less intrusive than being interrupted every couple of minutes to turn-based encounters (especially random encounters in tall grass).
I’m curious what you would have in mind to improve player agency. Meaningful choices and lasting ways to impact the world implies branching paths and an untenable level of development for these types of games.
There will be new public versions as well! I haven’t quite decided on how staggered those releases will be, but the trend will be that supporters get early access for every update.
7 Likes
I never said anything about the ‘Encounters’ at all. The roaming enemies that you can evade or fight at your leisure is actually exactly how I like RPG’s to handle non-boss encounters. It’s the actual fighting that I dislike.
Player choices and branching paths is not required at all. Sylvie is nothing but a vessel in narrative terms, not doing anything of import of her own volition beyond sneaking out early to follow the magic Deer. She’s told to observe the meeting, she’s pulled outside by the witch, she’s told to go around and get her face rubbed in her changed fate, and she’s forced to stuff herself by the witch. The closest she gets to agency is confiding in the visitor, trying to get help. All she does is beg and plead, she’s not a protagonist, she’s a Victim.
Just take the witch ‘fight,’ and I do put that in quotes as it is on record as a forced loss, something simple as Sylvie being scared and lashing out first from that fear would be a small alleviation of the lack of agency. She could have taken an iota of umbrage at her trust being betrayed by the visitor, snitching to the witch on the possible threat and possibly showing usefulness beyond ‘feed slave.’
1 Like
Then you had me confused, as this has nothing to do with player agency or “your” input.
In terms of characterization I see your perspective. Sylvi is a much more reactive character during Chapter 1 while Nora and the antagonists are the story drivers.
I’m gonna actually defend Sylvi’s lack of agency, as aside from the fact she’s a deteuragonist on this early chapter, its the first chapter.
To use another game, Ocarina of Time’s opening hours are effectively several different fetch quests, from being awoken by Navi, going through the Lost Woods, healing the Deku Tree, going to Hyrule Castle. Link doesn’t really have agency, and this is compounded by his nature as a silent protagonist. But that doesn’t mean he is bad as a protagonist, or that his story isn’t interesting to witness. Not only is the lack of agency highlights his impotence in his child form, it pushes the player to advance through and see his growth out of that stage.
It is pretty clear that Sylvi is meant to grow out (lol) of her comfortable life by the events and her curse. While it is a bit annoying she doesn’t even try to listen to the advice of the deer that specifically warns her to GTFO or how she sets herself up for defeat, she is not someone trying to start fights. She’s a diplomatic, sweethearted, somewhat submissive girl that isn’t one to get mad or lash out. It is not her character, especially in these early hours, to get angry, to go for the jugular, to try to fight her way out of bad scenarios against people she believes can be reasoned with. That is more Nora’s deal.
Whether this makes her more a victim than a protagonist (which, for a fetish RPG, is more than fine…), it ultimately doesn’t really matter. The adventure hasn’t even started yet for her, what reason does she have to go on the offensive, to build up her drive. This complaint would make more sense later down the line when her lack of agency creates problems for her interactions and relationships, for the plot to continue, not for the plot to start.
Character writing isn’t about creating “realistic” reactions, it is about creating sensible, interesting, or empathetic reactions.
10 Likes
I think the lack of agency thing isn’t about branching paths as much as it is…
It usually feels nicer when you lose a game because of something you did rather than if you lose something in a game because of something your character did.
Sylvi gets hurt because she insults the seer while she’s supposedly under your control. I think if the player didn’t actually control Sylvie during this segment, the feeling that they lack agency would be alleviated.
Perhaps if they were walking the Seer around instead?
I’m not the one making the game though, and players are usually better at pointing at flaws in a game than actually solving them. So, this might be a bad solution, and, considering it’s an unfinished game it might not be a problem once the rest of the game is done anyway. (The beginning could serve as a good contrast for another part of the game, or set up some cathartic payoff, who knows)
2 Likes
I’m going to chime in since i’ve played the free version since their has been a lot of discussion on this form and the Issues that other people have critiqued about this game.
The story i certainly enjoyed since it does portray certain parts of IRL history quite well and your interpretation of these mythical beings is vert well done though while i can understand people can get a bit twitchy around things such as religion i think your handle on the more extreme type of these people is quite well that it’s pretty much what should be expected of them during this point in time.
(And that is all i am going to say on that Burning bush please leave it be!)
Sylvi i would like to explore more of since the Seer seems to want Sylvi unable to do anything which might perhaps either to make something happen that sylvi would be able to stop although hence why she wants to fatten her up even more after that fight so she can be absolutely sure she isn’t fated to do the thing that stops the seers plans in its tracks… though now the bigger question i wonder is what is the seers actual goals.
Nora’s part in the story thus far is quite understandable as to why she refused to help Sylvi, not much else needs to be explained at this point other than her list.
The Combat is definitely is my main Irk about this game while certainly refreshing and other games have done it before something like it before… i do suggest perhaps maybe a story mode instead for those whose even if they manage to fully memorize the pattern down have terrible reaction time.
(I know this gets rid of the games challenge but you can keep the puzzles in so it isn’t too easy)
But overall enjoyable however likely something i would play once fully released and never touch again because of the story of Sylvi more than Nora atm,
1 Like
A reasonably precise critique, and one that I can at least somewhat agree with. I’ll keep an ear out how others feel about the part of the story.
The player controlling the seer wouldn’t feel organic to me, as so far they’re only controlling the main characters or their allies.
I think that’s the first complaint I’m seeing about combat since the forest dungeon update. That update went back and made the beginning easier, drastically improved game performance, and increased the visibility of the circles. The arguably most awkward attack type, the feint, is also getting an improvement soon. My ideal is to find a balance where combat is enjoyable by most, and tolerable by the rest, but if that turns out to be completely unrealistic I might add an easy- or storymode.
Like any RPG though, grinding some enemies to get a few levels will make the combat easier.
I’m surprised so many players feel like this is a game that needs player agency.
The story has been amazing so far, and that’s what’s important to carry it all the way through. The characters are beautifully written and in a way that makes them feel alive and breathing.
At its core this game is a saga about fate, and giving too much agency feels like the greater fallacy.
Critique and suggestions can be helpful to refine certain aspects of the game but don’t let them distract you from what the game is supposed to be in the first place.
I think you’re heading on a great path with how the game is set up now and can’t wait to see what comes next.
8 Likes
buenas una pregunta alguien sabe como poner la contraseña para ir a las nuevas zonas y por que cuando quiero abrir una especie de libro el juego como medio que se crashea ??
Skirjasaga - Dynamic Time Update
I've released a small update for supporters on Patreon. A general polish update since the release of the forest dungeon. No new content, but quite a few quality updates for various things and touching up some of the update that I wasn't quite happy with.I wouldn’t recommend replaying the game just to see the game screen tint every now and then, but this should overall be a nicer entry for those that haven’t played the forest dungeon update yet. Also, it gives me the opportunity to get potential bug reports related to the new systems. 
Same deal as before - if you’ve contributed to the game outside of patreon, monetarily or otherwise, DM me and I will send you a link.
-
Populated the map “Kynholt Outskirts”
-
Added dynamic day/night cycle (players can even encounter a troll at night
) -
Various quality updates
-
Fixed various bugs
11 Likes
I can agree with the feeling in general, although it isn’t to bad in the game so far. That said the thing to avoid based on my own experience is don’t force the player to be an idiot. If the main character has to go down a dark alley and get jumped to progress the story, have it happen in a cut scene. Do not put the player in a position where they have to move the character into the mouth of the alley, especially if there appears to be an open street to avoid it. (One game I played had the PC find a whole bunch of money then go into a forest after literally over hearing that there were bandits, the player still moves to the edge of town and has to walk down the road before you get mugged, and then forces the player to hobble back with a slow walk speed. I get establishing the PC as being naïve or an idiot, but don’t force the player to waste their time controlling that part of the story.)
Just want to add a voice to the complaint. Even if I feel like this game doesn’t cross the line with it.
2 Likes
Is the forest update out on Itch? I see it updated 3 days ago, but there’s not a blog post or update about it here, so I’m not sure.
It’s only out on Patreon, though I’ve shared a private link with some contributors.
3 Likes
Very excited to share some fanart I’ve received of Sylvi! I have permission to post it here but the artist wished not to be named. 
Also the conclusion to Chapter 1 is coming along pretty well. I’ve been very motivated to work on the game lately, though a fair bit of that time has been sunk into improving the game’s systems. The next update will introduce player abilities in combat, along with other improvements and it will have more story and kink content.
I’m considering an earlier public release than first planned, as the game after the next update will be a much better introduction to the game for new players. The combat and minigames will be drastically improved, the prologue can be skipped, and a lot of the setup that is presented early on in the story will pay off in a more satisfying way.
24 Likes
How many chapters this game has?
The funniest part is that in norse mythology your fate is determined from the day you are born, even Odin himself couldn’t change his destiny no matter how hard he tried, so being able to control Sylvi and avoid the seer entirely would ruin the story that the author was trying to tell
3 Likes