I’m going to add my two cents and say the combat was not very fun in my opinion either and this part is directed to the creator of the game, I believe that not explaining on criticisms isn’t very good for moving forward with a game idea, yes its not always something that is good to hear but it can’t hurt to ever hear the devils advocate and maybe find something that could be worked on.
Not all criticisms are equal. If you tell me that you don’t like the game or that you don’t like the combat, but don’t go into any specifics, what can I really say to add to the conversation?
7 Likes
As someone who is sort of middling on the combat system, it’s not really the core concept so much as just aspects of its execution could use some work. It’s not really easy to tell the ‘sweet spot’ on a lot of these; is it right before it touches the ring? As it touches it? There’s no clear indicator of whether you were too early or too late other than actually just failing, no indicators in the ring or any ‘good’ or ‘great!’ responses. The Rhythm game style has some real merit and makes the gameplay unique, but if you don’t have the requisite feedback to know what you’re aiming for it makes it harder to judge. Not to mention when the ‘skills’ are all things the enemies do that make it harder to hit the buttons it feels like your character is completely powerless; they can’t do anything to make this easier, you just have to try to react when someone else makes it harder.
2 Likes
I’m open to changes, and I’ll be thinking of ways to make the system more fluid and responsive.
It’s a binary. If the circle is within the frame when you press the button it succeeds, if it’s outside of the frame it fails. There’s no “sweet spot”.
I feel like this comparison only works to a point. There’s no song or rhythm to strike “notes” to, and a lot of the stylistic flair of rhythm games would feel out of place. So if you want to compare it to rhythm games just be aware that it’s not trying to be a rhythm game.
Okay, but what’s the alternative?
Besides your character can and does influence the combat (to a limited degree). Your stats influence the difficulty, and your weapon influences the damage that you do. I’m expanding upon build variety and flirting with certain ways to give the characters “skills” in the future, but because any system like this has to be built from the ground up it requires a fair bit of effort.
2 Likes
The fact that the attacks come in predefined patterns with set pacing and the objective is to hit the buttons in the right order and cadence makes it a rhythm game. You even defined major pattern shakeups that players can look out for as specific attack rhythms. It doesn’t really need the music to fit that. You could set it to match music if you wanted, but Simon Says is a Rhythm game technically, and this is that without the warning round. Doom Eternal is often considered a Rhythm game; it’s more about the way the mechanics reinforce a cadence than it is about literally involving music. And that’s a good thing for the game, honestly; you can play with the aspects of it that are there and make the game more interesting than most standard RPG combat systems.
As for the alternative to not doing anything yourself, that depends on how much you’d want to interrupt said rhythm. If you wanted to lean into the rhythm aspect you could make it so that it isn’t just a binary, and reacting to particular skills the enemy uses exceptionally well triggers one of your own skills, like side-stepping a boar’s charge perfectly triggering an ability that causes their next moves to come in slower, or perfectly countering a feint causing the rings to move even closer so it’s easer to read for a bit.
Otherwise, if you didn’t want to make it part of the rhythm aspects, a skill menu that pauses the combat when you pull it up and offers skills to do any of those things previously mentioned might be worth trying - Temporarily slow down the incoming attack, move the rings closer, recover some HP, change the incoming attack pattern for a while, etc etc.
3 Likes
Regarding the seer boss, if someone were to master the mechanics to the point of taking zero damage or very little. Resulting in a bonus scene or items, or make the female protagonist shy of immobility as punishment for honking the boss off?
edit: video example(s) 7 Unwinnable Boss Fights You Can Beat If You're Good Enough: Commenter Edition - YouTube
There is actually a tiiiiiny change if you do now 
But yeah, having something like that is always nice but… At this point in development I would argue main content should be the aim, not something like… 0.1% of players will see lol
3 Likes
fair enough, thought I’d share an idea for those who want a challenge is all. Otherwise can consider side quests that result in extra WG or dialogue, although when I played this last, what happened to the young girl (or boy) when they were wounded by that English lord.
Im here like some of the rest here. This game was a slow burn that hit things just right.
And when the kink came, IT CAME. OOOH boy I was not expecting.that. consider me hooked. It lives in my head rent free and I am now hooked and wanting more. Eager to see progress!
3 Likes
I like the game and I want to state that on the outset before I start complaining. But now I’m going to complain. First, the prologue’s tone. I’m not well disposed to seeing a bunch of fat ladies right after the backdrop of bloody religious violence, child murder and abusive parenting for instance. I’m glad to read that it’s going to be addressed going forward but you only get to make a first impression once, as they say. Maybe some bit of narration or worldbuilding or just copy-and-paste something from Wikipedia about the history of vikings before we get whiplash from naked boobs flouncing about? Further, Sylvi’s highly nonconsensual past-rewriting turning her into a stress eater who explicitly is fat because she had a bad life, and then leaving her like that with a will that’s disjointed between past and present is extremely not my jam. It might be someone else’s but it seems very mean to put it bluntly.
The combat vacillates between too hard and too easy for my taste, and it seems entirely based on how wide the action ring is of the two(?) available sizes. It means that some enemies are quite easy, but some are much too hard - especially that random dude in armor that can rinse you unless you get a couple perfects, and if you do fumble it then you need to watch the cutscene again.
Missing one input because you were too slow and hitting the next input on the same direction much too ‘early’ feels bad, but I don’t know what you’d do about that. The multi-inputs are also pretty lousy and I’d suggest you just remove them. Most cheap keyboards and approximately zero controllers are able to hit opposed directions at once anyway.
Additionally, I think waiting to regenerate your HP between fights is just a waste of time. Unless you plan to indroduce some kind of time limit in the future it’s only tedious and you should simply heal to full after every battle, or not at all without treatment. The punishment for doing badly at the fighting minigame being that I have to sit around not playing the game for a while kinda sucks.
Finally, a skip text or fast-forward button would be great! Also as a personal gripe, I don’t like mash inputs. I get that turning it into a hold input would be deleting the minigame but I also want to throw my hat in the pile of people with fat-related sudden onset carpal tunnel syndrome.
…now that I’ve gotten all my whining out of the way, thanks for making this game! I did enjoy what I played. The combat not being all-or-nothing on success and failure is good even if it still seems to really want you to do perfectly. I will watch your career with great interest and all that etc etc, and I personally hope the tone gets cleaned up in future releases.
Finally, a few bugs to mention as of 0.1.3. That 0g trinket in the yard is still there (it gives 10g but says 0). HP still regenerates while in combat, especially during dialogue (which you do not have to advance!) which may be an exploit, or may be an intended tactic? And the control remap option in the menu…doesn’t. It does nothing! Oops.
1 Like
Counterpoint: the application of kink juxtaposed with the - in fairness - conflicting tone sought by the creator is its biggest draw.
Respectfully, I disagree with the take that this game features nonconsensual kink content to the extent you’re describing. The only difference between this and other applications in kink games is the dark, cynical take on a fantasy world - nothing to do with the content itself. Other games feature weight gain as a combat mechanic, punishment for losing, etc. I would go as far as to say this game shows great reverence to dark themes that we don’t pay attention to - but still exist - in other games, like murder. The allure of this game is its pessimistic world and show-don’t-tell mentality, but the allure of the kink is purely the weight gain and not the context surrounding it. It serves as a scene that sets up the villain, the problem, and the motivations for the character while still satisfying the reason the player downloaded the game. I’m actually happy that no character I’ve come across merely feels like a contrivance to a kink game’s end. I am sure Seren will resolve this arc in a meaningful way - this is a very story-driven game, after all.
The whole world is given stakes, its characters are given dimension, and none of it feels particularly unrealistic (within its own context). For that reason I hope the only thing that can’t change is its tone - with all due respect. I’d like to protect games like this and not limit creative freedom on this end, so long as - like Skirjasaga - it’s within community guidelines. Similarly to Apostles, its willingness to engage with the negative qualities of its own setting & characters just creates a very interesting and well-rounded universe.
From what I recall from my first playthrough, I was fully introduced to what kind of game this would be very early into the first chapter, and definitely knew this would be a dark take on a fantasy world by the end of it. Perhaps it would be fairer to new players if they knew the game planned on delivering dark themes sooner - like, before they download the game?
14 Likes
preach it. the dark tone is one of the draws of this game. to say get rid of it your taking way what make it stand out which can be the same for apostles another game which follows a similar tone. the dark tone is a essental part of the game.
8 Likes
Not dog pile on the one the one guy, but I conure with the other posts concerning the tone. I appreciate how it’s seriously presenting its story rather than taking a tongue and cheek approach most of the other RPG maker fetish games do. I was actually concerned for the characters in the story, which is not a level of investment I usually feel when playing its contemporaries. It’s nice to get a game that doesn’t handwave away some of the more questionable parts of the plot with LOL isn’t fetish stuff whacky?. Although I will concede that the combat is a tad annoying even though I can stomach it, as well as the button mashing. (I honestly couldn’t be bothered so I used an auto button masher for that bit.)
3 Likes
Some of the criticisms I feel I’ve addressed enough by now that I’m not going to repeat myself excessively, but I appreciate the feedback and I’ll comment on some points. 
Not a bad suggestion honestly. I’ll probably steer away from excessive exposition, but some broad strokes context might work well.
I’m not trying to cater to the widest possible audience with this game. I’m writing the kind of story I’m passionate about, and trying to be upfront about any upsetting elements so that people with very different sensibilities can get out early.
That being said the story will feature different story beats, including heartwarming and consensual content.
Four, as of the current update. I’ll make a note that adding more sizes in between could improve the player experience.
The size of the border is dynamically selected based on how your combat stats compare to that of the enemy. So if the timing is too tight, you can grind enemies to level up or acquire better gear. This option will obviously become more available as the game increases in scope.
He’s pretty easy if you understood the feint mechanic, but I’m still tweaking him to be easier in the next update.
Isn’t that a default MV feature?
Interesting, I’ll make sure it gives the intended reward with the next patch!
I knew it regenerated during combat, hadn’t considered dialogue. I’ll make a note of it!
There’s a content warning before the game starts properly!
I’ve probably stated my opinion at least a few times about this, but to focus on some particular nuances of it:
If your preference is a lighthearted romp delving into sexual themes with humor and absurdity that disarms all the potential consequences of this type of kink, then I’d argue you have your pick of the litter on this website. I think variety is the spice of life, and I enjoy bringing something to the table that is unique and gripping in its own sense. If the price of that is that I alienate some people because of the darker themes, I’m fine with that, and I hope you can at least walk away appreciating that someone else might enjoy this type of story! I’m trying to create a game that genuinely hooks some players with the story, and rewards them with kink scenes along the way.
I think it’s more respectful to the audience’s time if I advertise the darker themes up front, such as in the prologue, so that I don’t accidentally drag them through a story that they hate because they want to see cute fat sprites. That being said, the story will have various ups and downs and hopefully be fulfilling in the end.
18 Likes
Will the game be linearly focused through our or will there be a large map for us to explore in the far future?
I get this as soon as I open index.html on Firefox on a Mac:
And this is what I get with Brave:
And this is what I get with Safari:
Even if you could figure out how to turn off browser security and run the index.html file in a browser, you probably shouldn’t. The game has a heavy focus on UI elements and plugins that would not run or work correctly in a browser.
1 Like
I had this game on my PC for a couple of months and put it on a temporary folder where I place all the new games I want to try, fetish and not, and at the time I played the intro for a couple of minutes.
So today, after roughly an hour of game time, I was questioning if this was even a fetish game, because I was really enjoying the story and apart from some brief comments here and there (that wouldn’t be that suspicios in a normal game) this was far from the standard for this kind of games and I’m glad something like this exist.
I just got to the first weight gain scene and I’m really hooked. I mean, I was already pretty hooked from the start (when a product is well made it shows very quickly), but especially after Nora’s mother scene and later I just couldn’t stop playing.
The combat is really hard and I still don’t understand how to react to being attacked on both sides (maybe I missed something during the tutorial), but I’m glad you didn’t opt for the classic slow paced gameplay.
That said, the game is amazing and I commented here just to tell you that 
EDIT: I was playing with a controller for comfort (since it was supported) and it was physically impossible to press left and right on the d-pad, so that’s why I couldn’t counter being attacked on both sides.
6 Likes
finally got around to playing this one and i must say im very excited to see where this goes!!
1 Like
I feel like the colors on the warning should be flipped. The red warnings are for the rather unusual case that people find this game accidentally without meaning to, but the grey text is actually useful for people who intentionally downloaded the game while knowing its target audience, especially considering anyone who knows that this is a kink game will skip right over the content warning after reading the red text assuming it’s just warning about that.
3 Likes