itch.io

So uh. This game is interesting. Although admittedly the battles are very mindless and the maps are just wide hallways with not much in concept or understanding.

The theme felt nonexistent honestly. What are we going beyond expectations for? All we did was betray expectations from our orders? I think that's the theme? I'm unsure.

I don't want to be mean since I'm unsure if this project's your first or not but honestly it could use a lot of polish. Also the autobattling felt mindless by proxy.

Thank you for playing the game. I know the last one on the higher difficulties is a nightmare to some. Its humbling to see someone play the game other than Hawkzombie to the public. 

It has been the major consensus of feedback regarding picking the largest number too. I can't exactly add a new version but I will keep the feedback in mind.

I confess that I could have skipped one of the paths more and just get to the meat of the point instead of introducing 2 characters that don't really pertain to that route's relevance. It was to introduce the other route's existence. But I suppose that is a bit too elongated. I appreciate the feedback nonetheless.

I suppose I can make things a bit darker with the windows background. I'll try and add that when submission period is over.

Thank you for playing the game.

So uh. I played this. This is a collect-a-thon ala pac man with a pinocchio twist. Its... alright for what it is. The difficulty gradually increases as you get the ingredients for the "twist".

The art style literally bore through your very soul though. Brrr.

Thank you for your feedback Rose. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I like the character comic art you made. I like the battle music too.

The tactic battle system works nicely too. Albeit the last battle felt a bit dragged on. 

I don't feel much of the "beyond expectations" here but for what its worth. This game uses quite the unique tactics combat fire emblem style.

And it genuinely shows. Your team did an excellent job with this. I'm glad you're planning to update things for the game as well. That might bump my impressions immensely to 9.5 if these issues were fixed. I don't know what changes you will add but my recommendation for the battles is a faster QOL animation option, but that's more a personal take and nitpick. I'll leave that up to you to decide.

Once again, I am grateful your team made this. Thank you.

I had to get hint for the last 2 since you had to talk to the angel for one and the other requiring a bit of returning to the mines for that. I just used the 5 hint coins and reload back to keep it. I honestly was half expecting the dad to be a horror element or the autosave to keep track of events where you would "cheat" by sparing your hint coins too. But I guess that didn't happen. I would have been more amused that way.

I'm going to assume this is the end for realsies since the title screen doesn't look like a horror image.

Honestly I'm a bit mixed on this one. I'm not a big horror fan tbh and this stuff seems to be more of a meta Ao Oni with the way the whole "chase" sequence works. You fix bugs. Quite literally.

I do like the audio of the developer mentioning their frustration, their acceptance and hope even after everything due to the player's determination, trying to go "beyond expectations", even though it wasn't exactly said directly.

The jumpscares aren't really my thing. I scare easily and I don't like playing these types of games honestly so this sort of thing is a biased wash. I'm sure someone who likes horror games would be up their speed.

The meta elements, the autosave feature, the tileset mayhem, etc etc. That's a nice touch at least, I'll give you points for that.

So I tried this game for a bit. I got stopped at the beginning of Chapter 1 when it showed up the title. It got halted in the middle of it. I checked files from the package. Nothing of note.

I tried it multiple times, checking the events. Still the same. I'll try this again on a different laptop. But honestly the "meta" elements that I got teased from this game is fascinating.

The opening cutscene/gameplay ratio is a bit slow admittedly. I'll report more when I find a way around that whole chestnut of an issue.

Edit: I made it through that Chapter 1 issue chestnut. I'll keep playing.

So is this intentional?

This is invaluable feedback. Thank you for pointing out the flaws of the game.

Admittedly the cutscenes do drag itself and I wanted a bit of a breather between story and gameplay. But I suppose it is a bit more exposition heavy than usual. I'll take your feedback to consideration if I do develop this to a full fledged game. Or add an option to skip the story if you don't care about it.

The widescreen is far too wide for the title screen's image size. First thing I noticed.

I liked the character art styles. The moving sprite, the chest and the faceset feels very inconsistently incongruent though. Especially when placed with the RTP tilesets and battlebacks. There's lack of sound effects/animation with the chest too which I presume is because of the one month time constraint.

The enemy battlers and the character styles feel very mismatched in some aspects. It honestly feels jarring to look at first impression wise.

There's textboxes that were cut in the weapons description.

...Welp that's the end of that.

All I can say is I'm sorry you had made a mistake of deploying with the unused files option. Do not rely on that. That may reduce your filesize but it tends to remove stuff that you need. Its often inconsistent especially with plugins involved.

Oh boy. A goth adventure.

I like how when the third eye opens the music changes to be more upbeat. Its a unique gimmick for puzzle solving too. Having to face left or right to place the mirror is a bit annoying but I can see why. Its to position the mirrors' angle from either reflecting in the left or right direction. I also kinda touched the thing so it kinda automoves the event so I wasn't sure what to do the first time.

One part of the puzzle baffled me until I realize that some maps can go through the light. Its a bit of a learning experience. But this one right here kinda confused me so much I wasted so much time for no result. I don't know how to solve this puzzle, which honestly feels like a difficulty spike for me. The instructions of twilight boxes aren't the clearest too so I wasn't sure what to do. Honestly after multiple attempts I gave up. Call me ignorant or unaware but I've wasted 10 minutes with no leeway or actual proper solution.

Honestly this game as a concept is pretty neat. The goth style fits well. But the puzzle requirements for solving this part of the area felt obtuse to me.

Amka is quite the swear a holic huh. Some terms like Qikol is kinda lost on me. Especially when its not based on an actual word. The story is a buttload of random wacky hijinks with no payoffs and just abruptly ends after the whole RPG deal. Just... okay then?

The fact that the game is named after a drug really says a lot about the wacky hijinks this game has to offer. Its not meant to be taken seriously.

Right. So. Some of the minigames are a little hard to adjust with. It can be a bit difficult to navigate/control certain aspects of the game. The pooping mechanics is one. The one where you had to push the polar bears is another. I didn't get many points from that.

The fact that Yuka had a math minigame too is kinda cool. Using math equation to match the number values by shooting the arrow to one of the slimes. You kinda inspired me with this one and maybe I could integrate it with my game if I know how it works. So thank you for that.

I got like 4100 points or something? I didn't check entirely.

I'm well aware that it is a lot to take in all at once. Especially when this stuff is a jam level project. I might be able to introduce elements more slowly and add more proper lore if need be in a more fuller capacity should I create a more full fledged product with this game.

Trust me as an artist when I say that I want more dynamic poses but I'm kinda bad at it and I also have not much in the way of time to make up multiple poses all at once. Especially for multiple characters.

It's humbling to see an artist's perspective on the matter though. Thank you for taking the time to play it.

I appreciate the feedback. 

I am aware that the million japanese stuff is a bit of a turnoff but the characters are all more rooted from japanese concepts/ideologies. Hence why it kinda reflects in their wording more. I'll admit localizing it to more general audiences is a bit of a challenge in that aspect. 

The feedback of just picking the higher number only is something that has been noted. The reason why I chose to put a higher number as the mechanic was to emphasize the exceed part of the theme. To exceed what's better than the expected value. It's difficult to really fix this during the jam period. On normal/hard difficulty, the variance is a little less obvious and you have lesser options to choose from. On the latter stages, the increase value rates for the enemy gradually do go up faster. Hence why it gets more difficult on latter stages. The dragon gets tankier as well. Forcing you to use Khromko's skills.

As for the dragon fight, I will admit that on normal difficulty the timer is slower than it is faster. Also damage rates are low unless you use Khromko's skill, which deals more damage while his skill is active. I didn't really tutorialize it that well for that fight in particular due to a lack of feedback during that fight. So I appreciate the candor.

I appreciate the feedback. I echoed this sentiment as well since someone did mention a feedback of this nature as well. It's difficult to fix this issue within the jam time I had so I kept it for now. But I might just change how the game rules work post jam since originally I want to keep the exceed part of the element within the confines of the theme. But I suppose this is less a boon more a bane.

This is probably one example. That's supposed to be a keyboard right? Listing it off can be a bit of a chore. Because there's more past the battle stage.

Alright. Alright alright alright alright alright alright alright.

This is no exaggeration to say.  But SWEET MOTHER OF BARNACLES AND TARTAR SAUCE, WAS THIS MADE IN A MONTH?!!! Holy tsunami captain this game. This game... This game.......... This game should be a commercial game. This isn't meant to be a product for a game jam entry. The scope is FAR FAAAARRRRRR too large. This is a 4+ hour non-human JRPG holy macaroni. (Technically this could be reduced to a 2.5-3 hours if you don't get sidetracked/grind (or if you're searching for the currency for unlocking team attacks) like me but regardless this game is still very very long.)

You actually bamboozled me with this entry. The screenshots, descriptions and everything from the page actually LIED to you.

Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much for making this game. This game is, in my personal tastes and opinion, one of the greatest RPG Maker games I have played. And this is no exaggeration to say because I rarely say this to any game. This is my favourite game in all the entries I have played including games outside of the jam.

That being said, this game isn't a perfect 10/10. But honestly I only give 9+/10 to only the greatest of RPG Maker games that I cherish with all my heart. And I gave this a 9.2/10. My highest rpg maker game I've played and ranked in my lifetime is 8.8-9.1 at best. So take this with the biggest badge of honor you will receive because I am granting you the greatest kudos I can give you. Let me give you a full checklist as to why I grant this honor to this game first before I describe the critical parts of this game that could be problems.

• You fulfilled my tastes and interests with the characters being non-humans for the most part, since this is mostly an animal-centric game.
• Top notch animation for all the characters, enemies or otherwise.
• High quality sprite work from start to end.
• The character designs. They're up my alley even more so than ever before.
• The plot twists in this game, which I will not spoil for the benefit of players to play for themselves.
• The characters are endearing enough for me to not lose attention span for more than 1 hour.
• Genuinely funny, dramatic, sad, happy, tense moments that made me emotional through the entire journey.
• You have characters that don't fit the mold of stereotypes and managed to make them into genuine fleshed out characters in the moments they are around.
• Didn't completely rely on the meta or lean too heavily into the horror genre to wow me.
• The soundtrack. The freaking. soundtrack.
• The map design actually looks like there's a decent amount of effort made into it.
• Puzzles that aren't too difficult in some (there is one exception which I will get to in the critical points later) and most of them don't require high IQ critical thinking to get around.
• The battles (if you actually follow through the routes proper and don't stray off like me) are actually fun and require some modicum of thinking instead of mashing attack mindlessly (at least up till a certain point where once you obtain the last character all balance gets thrown off the window with their "unique multi target skills").
• Team attacks. They exist in this game.
• Every orifice of art made for the characters.
• Crabs. Rats. A lot more characters.
• The aquatic/beach like setting is something I cherish most since I live around that area these days. I find it somewhat endearing that it takes place in an oceanic tropical backdrop.
• The ambiance, the overlays, the dungeon design.
• A healer protagonist. (And yes, I know what I'm saying here.)
• Brando actually looks like Mao Mao from Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart.

Honestly, these are cliff notes. I literally could have more things to say about this game. I spent so much time traversing through it and while I am physically fatigued, my soul is incredibly happy that I experienced every last orifice of this game's world to its fullest. Now let's get to the bullet point of things I didn't like or critical points.

• The maps tend to drag itself for far longer than it should. Honestly some dungeons are paced decently enough while others require a bit of  battle/traversal to get around.
• There's one puzzle. A 4 monument puzzle where you have to pick the right colors to proceed to earn the final party member. Now I may have missed the clue on how to solve this at some point. However, this puzzle is a guesswork type of game since no clue can be found on the place of puzzle. Even before, I don't remember if there's a hint before that. Unfortunately, not everyone can be attentive to everything.
• It would be nice to have a peanut tracker to keep track of where the purple chests are at some point. Because you can miss it if you don't look hard enough.
• Some sprites get cut off like one "giant bot" enemy in the oceanic dungeon.
• The battles themselves are fine. By the time you get the last party member, all balance is thrown out the window due to the character either having high ATK or ignores defense more than the other party members who doesn't have such luxury with their equipment. You can argue this is a good sign that you're stronger and too easy is far more favorable than being too hard. But personally toning down a bit while still making the character powerful could help to scale things better for endgame. However, this is less a knockoff or a plea to nerf. And personally I don't mind if its kept that way.
• Some skill effects don't match what they're saying. Ex. There's a skill where you should add HP and Defense to all parties. Instead it adds MP and defense. (which honestly is better for me as a player since you need the MP more than the HP in this case. Especially when you are hardcapped to 999).
• There's an overlay issue where if you go to the final battle and you would go back to the "town", the overlay still exists.
• There's a crab skill that keeps flashing lights. That flash of light tends to be too strong that I had to look away. My eyes are still okay. But other people might not feel comfortable with the blinking flash effects.

And these are my points that I can give you. At least the spoiler free version (and this is straining for me to do in order to not give away as much as I can. Because I want people to play this blind and judge for themselves).

Honestly, if I had money, I'd donate to this game. This game is THAT good for me.

Once again, you have made me the happiest person alive with this game. I humbly appreciate this masterpiece of a contribution you gave to this jam and to me. I'm so glad I get to experience this in my lifetime. I will definitely support this game with a commemoration fanart if I ever get the opportunity.

Thank you very much. Truly. You are a magnificent developer. Good bizzle to you as well.

Ok. I finished the game. Its a long game.

 I can see why this game would be eyecatching. It has a style that works for the game. The tribal system and you controlling a bunch of one eyed ki-tribes in order to find energy within this foreign world filled with dinosaurs, ancient tribal people and more. Its almost quite fascinating the approach you take with the game. I love the astronaut and the tribal designs. The lizard/dinosaur/giants/crab designs were pretty neat too. Unique prehistoric vibes from it all.

Now admittedly because of the way the system works, you have to strategize and salvage your resources by beating lizards/crabs of prehistoric style in order to get resources since you don't level up in this game. And the only way to boost your stats or get better skills/equipment is to beat enemies at certain locations where new skills will unlock.

There's a lot to like in terms of visual style here. And combat wise, if we're looking at this outside the scope of the jam is acceptable. Its just that the battles can get tedious after awhile. The battle speed being what it is doesn't help things. I get that animations are better off not be available to the player otherwise it would be even longer. Using crafting gimmicks using your materials as currency in order to use stuff like saves/heals/skill upgrades/boats/etc. Its quite interesting. Rudimentary design and classic in a way.

Overall, not a bad game as a whole but getting to complete this game is a lot more monumental and exhausting than I thought. I forgot that if you decide to stay with the tribe when you've got your spaceship working. You can't leave space anymore. Not sure if that's intentional or not.

Thank you for playing. I know that a math game is a very contentious type of game to make. But I am fully aware of the risks involved. I simply wanted to try something new for myself. And funnily enough, I built this off of a different prototype from a fangame I made just last month.

Okay. Finally tested it out to its completion. Just. Wow. The fact that something like THIS can be made in Unite when everything I've seen so far made by the engine has been lackluster at best or just... y'know at worst. You know you're making the bank here considering the low competition pool for this is. Let's hope you'll get far.

So, the camera controls are a bit finicky using the mouse but honestly with the engine's limitation, you've done so much more than exceeding my expectations. You went beyond in proving a literal point to developers that Unite isn't completely hopeless. At least in this aspect.

Ok. So I tried this game out. The concept is interesting. You have to roll the dice and make sure it lands in specific circumstances in order to get better odds. You either exceeded expectations or achieved them depending on where the dice lands.

You can equip pens to influence the odds in your favor or lose them. Everything's up to a game of chance with this. And I suppose if that's the intent of the game, then that's all I can afford to say about it.

I got a bad route where I wasn't able to convince the people up top to not evict the place and got out of a job as a result. Honestly, you have to really navigate around a slew of political/technical corporate knowhow with this game. The subterfuge plans, the complexity of it all. Some of them are locked/changed dependent on the luck of the draw.

I'm not that keen in getting the other routes due to the RNG factor and the overall game being a bit of a "bureaucrat legal property planning" type of game. Though I'll admit its an interesting concept. I'm sure others may react more positively to this game. I can't be too sure how to feel about this as a whole.

Oh. So I have to check all the red checkpoints to green? Good to know. I'll try again.

I'll try the game again on a different laptop but I don't have a numpad that sets in the directional way mentioned in the image. I'm also left handed so this might be tough for me.

Ok. First of all. Denny Minonne. Thank you for your character design. You are truly a professional character designer. Its sleek, charming, memorable and most of all very eye catching.

Serena Capezzuoli. Your background designs? Top tier. Absolute work done there.

Second. This game is fun if a bit clunky and gimmicky. Basically you have 2 options. You either talk your way out of the fight or you fight them and win using the party members you convince in the interim. Now. I don't know why you don't full heal in between battles. I literally lost because 2 of my party members who were KO'd on the previous battle were not fully healed in the interim matches. I hope there are more options/more recruitable characters/more unique designs eventually. Considering this is a prototype, I'm willing to let this issue slide.

The way you convince the characters and their personalities are vibrant. Character interaction seems to be the main selling point of the game and it shows. Each character has a level of spice, sugar and salt dependent on their designs. My favourite is the wolf fisherman. Never gets too close, prefers life of privacy above all else yet is willing to hear you out if you're patient with him. The sound effects are fine tbh. So I have no issues there.

Seriously though. Your artist should be given commendations. This has massive potential and I look forward to seeing if it'll improve past the current build if you ever develop the game past the jam period.

Dood. This game feels like a statement that Unite can do better. That being said, I'll try to give you my thoughts after a single attempt.

So spelling/grammatical, borked UI issues aside since that comes prepackaged with the Unite engine, the controls work better than I thought. I tried doing 2 laps but apparently the lap ended and it net me no new event from the character telling me to stop. I ended up using all my 5 minutes and it counts as a failure. Plot is simple. Pay your debt, enter a race to win. I also forgot. Lack of sound effects/music on my end. Although the title screen has it. If there is music, I can't hear it that well enough.

So yeah. The 3d environments' something else here. The character designs are immaculately well made. I'm not a huge 3d buff but even I must commend the effort taken here. I'll try again once I get a better grasp of things.

Okay. So... how to put this nicely. This game definitely has a lot of potential. I really like the character designs (raccoon and minotaur are my favourites) and the isometric layouts are interesting if not a little bit disorienting due to the characters on a 4-directional path on an isometric map.

Unfortunately, from grammatical/spelling issues galore to context I'm not fully aware of to translation not being complete (some are in a different language), it leaves a bad taste in the experience.

The battles are also another point of contention. Inconsistent battle sprites with the battlers, no follower gimmick. There's no faces in the UI, skills are the basic default skills but with a different name. There's not much in the way of actual strategy. The dragons (both salt and poison) are very tanky which makes it boring. I'm honestly felt disappointed. I thought it could be better. But I suppose you don't have much time to polish that aspect up and make due with what you have.

The story feels like its all over the place and doesn't have any consistent theming (if there is, the execution is a little wonky) other than the ending which is kinda abrupt btw.  I honestly am a little lost on the whole prayer thing and the faith from the "other side". The puzzles felt confusing in some aspects and a little lost in others. (You have to interact with the same thing twice to get somewhere.) I feel like english isn't your first language and it kinda shows from the sentence structure to the lack of translation in some areas.

Honestly, this feels like it could go places. But sadly when you look past the surface of the pretty style/graphics, its lacking in the other areas.

The answer to your question is 10. Thank you for the query.

All I have to say is. Wow. So cool.

The character designs are so... unique and fitting of the theme. I really like them. Especially some of the enemy character designs whoa.. Just a lot of whoa.

Now as for the combat. I'm a bit ambivalent on this. On one hand, the card combat can be quite interesting using colored affinites akin to water/grass/fire using the colored triangle, circles and squares. And effects do change the outcome of the battle in some ways than others. But card games like this, with certain elements, you're at the mercy of the card pool you got at the start. If you don't get lucky or the enemy has cards you're weak against, you're at the mercy of getting curb stomped. Some of the ways the shuffling mechanics do can shift the odds in your favor but its very RNG dependent. The second battle is egregious in particular because of the poison card, which gradually poisons you and lose your damage. I think this issue is something that's a lot harder to resolve on account of card games being very RNG oriented to begin with. Trust me, I tried to create the card idea too for my game as the initial base concept and dropped it on account of the RNG factor to it all. 

UI wise, the way you interact feels a little clunky. Its kinda hard to select the cards proper because the way you select the cards, the phase changes and the UX feels off? I know how hard it is to make something of this nature. Especially with all the randomized factors at play so I can't really put a negative critique on that or a more clearer description of how it felt off to me. Its more of a gut feeling on my end.

The story itself seems to be hinting at some demonic/eldritchian event happening. And our "hero" may not be the benevolent character we perceive, subverting our expectations.

Some spelling issues wise (unless they were intentional), this game certainly is intriguing and Act 4 might take us to interesting places too. Ultimately, I liked the character design and the story more than the gameplay with this one. Hopefully you'll get to continue through this adventure and complete the story you wish to tell with this. 

I got the ending where I saved the lantern for the herb. Not sure if there's another ending but considering I've been playing very poorly and keep getting hit by the thorns constantly I wasn't about to risk it. Especially with my lives/health being only at 2 or less.

Its a nice game. Fun in some places, whimsical in others. The chase sequence gameplay after you got the herb up top is honestly kinda eh since its abrupt.

Not a bad game. Not something I would find amazing. But its charming.

Das a harold runner yup yup. I had to watch an entire bee movie script just to be free.

This game is quite the endearing project. Its balanced pretty well, the story's pretty epic and it had that adventure theme of defying what is expected quite well. Good job.

Okay. So I played the game and got one of the routes. Tried for a second route with the same save file, already did the prerequisite to not get that one route ending where it ended earlier than its supposed to and apparently the event thinks that I completed 2 when I already done all 3 of the Guardian routes. Mind you, this is after I got that earlier ending and I followed through the select route screen. So I dunno if that's a bug that I should address or not. Also when you enter the game again in the same route, its just black screen. Presumably its to fast forward all your already established choices? I'm unsure of that. I might just watch other people get the other routes and see how it goes. (Or I might start over again but honestly the thing is that shift is so slow because of the pauses that I kinda have to wait) I tend to be a relatively fast reader so I can pick up the characters' wordings as I read through while shifting.

However, I must say. The music, immaculate. The calming piano is really making me feel comfortable. Whomever made the soundtrack I should give kudos, well done. The atmosphere and ambiance, spectacular. The writing, poignant in some aspect though a bit verbose in others. Threw a bit of levity to the mix and its quite the entrancing experience. The character designs are lovely. The "fairy" being quite the highlight and the story regarding the moon, the guardians, the trials they face, the hero's doubts regarding their worth during the journey and more. They really make you experience quite the adventure. 

The pixel art's definitely the highlight and the eyecatcher of this entry. Just wow the artist pulls off some of the most gorgeous pixel art designs and lush background design I've ever seen.

This Visual Novel certainly has a lot of polish and visual spectacle down, my gripes aside. And I hope I can get around to playing it to get the other routes eventually.

Thank you. I know its rough around the edges but I want to go beyond expectations without leaning too far into the meta.

A fun game where you literally use the options you have at your disposal to mold the world in order to solve solutions and go beyond expectations. In more ways than one. One little final boss confusion aside, this is a well made product.

That's all I have to say on the matter. Well done.

This is honestly a cute and creative "hacker" type game. Honestly, the whole gimmick thing is even inspiring me in some aspects.

The "kicking" mechanic aside, everything else was pretty fun and entertaining using the prompt commands to let you change or observe beyond the "expectations". I also liked the little story and twist as well. The art style works wonders using a mixed irl image and avatars as a means of communication.

Honestly, not much to complain besides that one part. This is a solid entry. Well done.

A fun simple game of elemental matchup with a nice levelling skill system.

For grinders, this is a fun time. But you might just be able to make it through if you do all the encounters.

Some of the way things were presented (positioning of the cursor and the options) could be a bit better, but overall I had a nice time playing this game.

Ah. If that's the case, then I would have to view this differently.

That being said, my point still stands. I guess if you're keeping to the integrity of your game design then I won't chastise you further on the matter. This confirms that its not my type of game. I wasn't aware of Lethal Company and the little research I got I wasn't exactly a huge fan of it. So that pretty much reflects to this one as well.

I won't let biases get to me though. Presentation wise, this is well made. I won't knock points off for that.

I'll give the Overseer credit. They definitely made me suffer playing through this game. If the design is intentional, you certainly convinced me to stop after patiently playing for 3 runs for 2 hours. Because by that point, the game became unfun and I started questioning why am I wasting my time when the story hasn't gotten good yet. Mind you I played this on Easy because at first trying on Insane difficulty was what I tried to do until the first encounter.

At first the game itself had potential. Then you get to day 3 and you need to scavenge a lot of stuff, requiring a minimum of 15000+. You're basically restricted by weight and power, some stuff you earn doesn't net you much value, the maps are dark, one encounter can 2-3 shot you without much trouble unless you buckle down and upgrade. And they ain't cheap. You earn 2400 - 3000 at most and those 2000 are mostly used to pay for the other 2 party members. Everything is RNG in the worst sense, its difficult to navigate the terrain and find even the exit because the map itself is waaaaaayyyyyy too big for me to net around. There's no mini-map option which doesn't help one bit. It gradually becomes unfun the longer I played.

Saves are only on campsites.

The encounters with the enemies range from nightmare to absolute hell. The rats can stomp you with numbers. The bats can blind you, reducing accuracy. The robots can deal 50%+ of your HP, the blob can attack you with 90+ HP. The only saving grace are the coins who are super tanky but they do nothing until they run.

Also, enemies level up while you don't which is vastly unfair on your end. Which makes me question what the point of a level is in this game.

Now I'm unsure if its because I played on Insane then turned down to Easy yet the numbers don't change (which is a bug) or I actually am playing on easy and its still a nightmare regardless. Mind you, this doesn't include the thirst/drink mechanic that could kill your survivors if you don't give them rations.

I personally thought this game's presentation and atmosphere is well done but the gameplay is just... tedious. Even with the brutal encounters and stuff.