Post by MxAshlynn in My Final Cursed Days [feedback thread]

Viewing post in My Final Cursed Days [feedback thread]

Hey Story, I tried playing for the first time tonight!

I started by loading the ROM on BGB64. I selected NSFW, Survival, and Free modes.

I found the UI for inputting stats confusing, but since it allows you to start over and try again it’s not a huge deal. I’m guessing from the character appearance customization options that I’m not the target audience for the game, which is okay.

The graphics are a really neat, unusual style. I enjoyed the opening cinematic and the village area a lot!

One potential bug: After taking the sword, the Search Mode cursor remained visible even though the game thought Search Mode was off.

The “Ouch!” voice was an impressive surprise!

Another possible bug, but maybe I just don’t get the game rules: After exploring the dungeon for a bit I returned to the village and was told it was now Day 2. I then went to my room at the inn. While there I was asked how long I wanted to rest and I selected “A little (1 hour)”. It told me that it was now Day 3, which took me by surprise as I expected to have most of Day 2 still available? Perhaps I should have been checking the time menu more frequently.

I played for a little over and hour, then saved and returned to the title screen. That’s it so far!

astoryinpieces49 days ago

thank you so much for the feedback! I'm so glad you liked the style and sound design~ 💖

I'll look over the stats menu and see if there's something I can do to make it a bit easier to understand. if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know!

sorry the game is a bit too far afield for you! I really appreciate your efforts, though~ 🥰

I'll take a look at the bug you mentioned! if the Search Mode issue was in the sword room, it may be elsewhere, too. 😬

as for the time thing, it wasn't so much a bug as it is a feature that maybe didn't come across as-intended. every game day has a set number of hours in it, and everything you do takes a certain amount of those hours, with the dungeon being a particularly large chunk of time. when you leave the first dungeon to go back to the village, it adds 8 hours to your game clock, which it warns you about whenever you go in the portal. since that made your clock advance to the next day, it told you that it was "now day 2" when you were on your way back; it just didn't tell you the current hour of day 2. when you took your nap, the day advanced again because of where the clock was at. sorry for that super-long explanation, but I hope it got things across okay. 😅

if it would help, I can make the dungeon tell you the exact current time when you leave instead? I can't implement an actor clock in every scene, so the pause menu option seemed like the best solution to give you easy access to the clock. but, yeah, keeping track of your game time is left up to you~

thanks again for helping out!

MxAshlynn49 days ago

Yay, I’m glad it’s helpful! I’m looking forward to playing more :)

Regarding the stats menu, the suggestion I would have may be too much work: I had expected to be able to use ⬆⬇ to select which stat I was editing and then use ⬅➡ to adjust the amount of that stat.

Regarding the character appearance customization screen, it wasn’t too far afield – rather, I felt that the game was asking me to make pretty definitive statements about sex and gender without providing many options? But I think you are probably doing exactly what you should be doing in this section: it reminded me of Corruption of Champions and similar games and I figured that was the audience you were aiming for as I think the game has a strong TF component?

In general I just wanted more choices; even being able to select hazel or grey eyes would have been a plus. But this is very specific to me, so don’t feel you have to change that unless other folks mention it.

The explanation here for the time mechanic was a-okay, and I think telling you the exact current time when leaving the dungeon would be great. :)

astoryinpieces49 days ago

I totally get what you mean! I was hoping the stat input method would slyly lead you into the way combat functions, but I can see how the more traditional input system would be easier to understand~

I've never played or heard of Corruption of Champions, so I will just say that, yes, TF and related stuff is built into the game in a bunch of small ways. checking your character in your room will reveal any changes that have happened over the course of your play~

without giving a bunch of spoilers, the reasons you can't choose too many options for eyes and hair are two-fold:

1. I could only fit so many options without running out of scripting space, and the current amount is the max I've been able to squeeze in the menus

2. they aren't guaranteed to stay whatever you chose anyway. the ones you can actually choose from are only about half of the possible eye colors that you could have based on choices you make.

unfortunately, the Game Boy is a rough environment for deep levels of character customization, but I definitely tried to squeeze as much in there as I could! 😁

also, I already went back in and fixed the dungeon time message for the release. thanks for that!

MxAshlynn41 days ago

I figured 1 & 2 were probably the case. ^_^

By the way I like how the tempo of the music reflects the action of the current setting! Did you make the music yourself? The battle theme is really good!

I played for another hour today but didn’t come across anything else that looked like it might be a bug. I did have a bit of a hard time telling how movement in the dungeon works, but I don’t play this type of game much so I imagine this says more about me than the game.

I’ve mentioned MFCD to a couple friends who play this kind of game and might be interested in testing.

Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like me to try out! Good luck with the release!

astoryinpieces41 days ago(+1)

Actually, all the music was done by TipTopTomCat here on itch.io! Most of it is from asset packs of his. I love them so much, I use them all the time, but I reached out to him for a commission and he made some original tracks for this game (the battle theme and the second dungeon theme)! Highly recommended for any music needs~

If anyone is interested in testing, please, by all means, share the link around! I'll be wrapping things up to start getting things done for Steam, but testing and feedback on the game will be valid as long as the game remains up here to access (prior to release).

The only other things I'd love to know are just the overall vibes you got from the game, whether or not you enjoyed it, as well as what you thought of the combat and character choices. Thank you so, so much for all your help and support! ❤️💖✨

MxAshlynn38 days ago

I enjoyed it!

I liked the divide between the village and dungeon and thought how the village was broken into different spaces was engaging. It reminded me of several older games but I haven’t seen a game do that type of space layout recently. I also thought the skeuomorphic menu was interesting.

I did feel like I could have used more feedback or guidance on how to play. This is not a genre I play a lot of, so there are doubtless things a seasoned player would immediately get that I struggled with a bit. Like, in the dungeon I wasn’t sure if clicking E on the compass rose meant my character moved east or that my character turned to face east.

Similarly, the combat button layout felt rather novel to me but maybe it’s old hat for dungeon crawler fans.

One thing that I wasn’t sure about was the announcements mid-battle that would say things like “You are ready to make your move”. I wondered if there might be another way to communicate that without slowing down combat as much?

To me, it felt like a major draw to the game was probably the player character transforming in various ways as play goes on. I felt like the game made me really work to get to that content.

I liked the two women who share a body and run the hotel a lot and found myself looking forward to getting to know them better, moreso than the flame person in the parlour.

As for overall vibes, doom definitely hangs heavy over the player character and it seems like a traumatic past is hinted at. The village, too, felt like it had seen better days. The dungeon, as far as I got, was surprisingly un-gruesome and almost peaceful by contrast.

I wondered if the player character’s past would stay vague or become more important to the story as play progressed; I expect the trauma backstory would resonate with a percentage of trans players.

Good luck with the Steam release!!

astoryinpieces38 days ago

Thank you so, so much for all your feedback! I'll be taking all of this into account while I polish things over the coming weeks~ ✨

I'm especially glad you like the innkeepers! They were a special favorite of mine to work on, and I'm glad the reception to them has been good so far~

Also, I'm relieved the transformations felt gratifying to unlock as you progressed. I wanted to balance them out across the game, not too many concentrated in any one area of the dungeon or village~

Thanks again! You're a real gem~ 💖