FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Rabbit Hole 1.03]

NOTE: This review is from playing the Steam version.

Wow, this is wonderful stuff you got here! Overall it feels very polished and well-constructed in practically every respect, though with obvious standouts being the cute art and presentation, generous amount of settings and quality-of-life, a large variety of wacky weapons, enemies, events and characters, great boss fights, as well as the rather intriguing story that the game has hidden away, what with these weird books you can pick up and the locked door in the library.

Ok, that's the good stuff out of the way. Now it's time for the feedback:

*I'm a bit conflicted on the combat, especially from my first impression, where I found it a bit too generic in terms of mechanics and I didn't like the cramped levels you fight in since it felt like there wasn't room to move around to dodge or express myself. For example, the fight against the Tank Twins is awful as you only have a small amount of room in an already small room to move without bumping into enemies. I'm warming up to it, but still, felt like it could be doing more.

*Dodge roll is a bit annoying to get used to: it feels like it is such a slow and high-committal move, and I disliked how I had no control over its length or duration. I'm getting used to it and I can understand if it's built the way it is intentionally to make it challenging or make you consider other moves like jumping over attacks instead, but even considering that, it's still rough.

*Sound department is a bit of a letdown at times: right when I noticed that the starting AK47 and Pistol have the same sound effects I was worried, and rightly so as practically every other gun has the same sounds too. The water gun didn't have any sounds at all!

*Wish the game would pick a lane when it comes to enemies dealing damage: simple enemies without actual attacks like the turnips are fine for contact/touch damage, but I don't think enemies with actual attacks like bullets or slashes should hurt you on contact, rather they should only hurt with their attacks. So annoying to get poked by Magnolia's sword in her idle stance: felt very awkward.

*Pixel font is very confusing at times: B's look like 8's look like 0's was the worst example, but there were other times where I wasn't sure what I was reading.

*For some reason, the game would default to the wrong monitor when I tried to open it from Steam. I 'fixed' it somewhat by dragging Steam to my main monitor and starting it up there, but even then that only seemed to work sometimes.

*No pause menu in game? There were times I wanted to pause to answer a call or to quit/restart the game, but there was nothing and I just needed to alt+F4 instead.

*As much as I want to like the weird and wacky guns that are in the game, they are a bit too wacky at times and I found myself constantly gravitating towards the more standard guns for safe consistency. Bit disappointing since I feel like I'm missing out: maybe they can be rebalanced?

*I should get an achievement for beating Magnolia with only melee: call it something like 'fair fight', haha!

Anyway, I know that's a lot more words for feedback than for praise, but I'm still very positive on the game and think you did a great job: I'm just hoping that I can help you make it even better as I see you are dutifully patching it!

ShortCakeCafe responds:

Hi! Thanks for the feedback!

There is a pause button but it's bind to "1" instead of escape for some reason. (I think I forgot to reset the default binding before compiling in the last update, sorry!)

Truth is, I'm pretty limited to what I am able to change due to the game being made in scratch, however I'm working towards fixing what I can!

As for the roll, it's very intentionnal that it's a high commital move. In my opinion, the dodgeroll shouldn't be free quick dodge, it's an active commitment which punishes you for using it for no reason. Changing it now would be very problematic as fights are built around it.
However, I have heard a lot of complaints about it so i'll work towards making it feel better in any future game with rolling.

Anyways, I'm glad you enjoyed what you played despite the issues!

[Bunker 45]

Call me lazy or paranoid or whatever, but I really don't want to have to create an account just to play this game!

Based on the trailers, I'm sure it's a lovely game, and I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt that you aren't going to maliciously misuse the data you've gathered, but I think it's just too much of a roadblock to put in front of players when A) I don't even know if the game is worth the hassle B) there are loads of other games I could be playing instead that don't ask for this stuff and operate just fine with saving and all that C) there are plenty games that use accounts but also allow you to use a 'guest' account to take a peek and see if it's worth it D) having to make an account and be online makes me worried about the longevity of the game and ability to access it in future E) from what I hear, it's not even a multiplayer game, so why?

[The Legend of Quintavius]

Hmm, this one was pretty rough for me and I found myself quitting rather quickly.

For one, the game is absolutely overloaded with too much exposition and dialogue, and even when the game isn't delivering text, it's giving these cutscenes with incredibly slow pacing. I'm sure it's a very nice LOTR-esque story, but I don't want to have to get through all this text before I'm allowed to get a taste of what the actual gameplay is!

Having said that, though, I don't think the gameplay was worth slogging through all that text and cutscenes to get to. I like the concept of supporting your army by healing them and attacking monsters and so on, but it just felt overly simplistic and monotonous with how easy it was to just loop between healing and fireballing. Even worse was how healing and fireballing felt so unsatisfying due to a lack of feedback, and the fighting of allies vs enemies was so dull and muddy, lacking any sort of pizazz. Perhaps the game gets better with enemy units that challenge you to use different tactics, but after 2 boring fights, I wasn't inclined to stick around and see, especially since I'd need to read through another bookload of text to get to it.

As said, it's not a bad concept as I've seen other games like 'HEAL ME PLZ' explore this concept as well and be quite fun. But the execution here felt quite lacking and it seemed more effort was put in the story than the gameplay.

Also, a little side note: I was confused as to why the game requires you to use the mouse to advance text when everything else is done using the keyboard keys? Feels weird to be forced to switch back and forth instead of just sticking with one control scheme.

[DEMI DAGGERS]

Hmm, bit mixed on this one as it can feel a bit more like an impressive tech demo/port than a fun game, but I still found it to be a decent experience!

As said, I'm not too familiar with Pico-8, but from the little bits I've picked up over time, I'm sure putting together something like this within the limitations of the system was very impressive, even more so when you give the player all these fancy editing tools. Overall the game does seem to capture that Devil Daggers vibe decently, and it even adds its own little twists on the formula with these spiders and acid spewers and such.

However, as much as I wanted to get in a trance and dagger some devils all over the place, I did have a lot of issues that made the experience a bit rough for me.

*First and foremost, the default controls were a bit awkward. Not sure why the mouse sensitivity is so damn high by default, and I'm not sure why ESDF was used over the more commonplace WASD, especially since it doesn't seem to use the extra keyboard real estate to map any other buttons: maybe it's a regional thing? Also why do you only jump on releasing space instead of on pressing it? There was also a weird issue where I kept having to refocus the window by clicking on it when transferring between scenes, like between picking up the daggers and starting the game proper.

*Next, the gameplay felt a bit awkward in a lot of respects. Devil Daggers is great in how smooth, fast, and sharp it feels, and this felt like the exact opposite, unfortunately. The character feels like he moves much slower, the visuals are much more blurry and hard to parse, and the hitboxes for objects felt confusing in that I would miss thing I felt I was hitting spot on, or I would get hurt by enemies I thought didn't hit me (actually, most of the time it was the opposite, I'd actually not get hit by enemies I thought were gonna hit me).

*Couldn't tell if the audio was trying to pull off some sort of 3D audio to help me keep track of enemies around me since it felt like the sound just kept devolving into this crackly chaos.

Eventually I kind of got used to the different feel and had a good time, but still, a bit of an awkward first impression!

freds72 responds:

thanks for the detailed feedback.
the mouse sensitivity is in my todo list.

some more visual cues on where are ennemies may indeed be needed.

[Shirogami's Maze Pocket]

It's nice and I'm sure it may appeal to the classic maze-lovers, but I couldn't really get into it: not only does it feel too overwhelming with the way it's so jumbled together, making everything look the same in that it's difficult to make a mental map, it doesn't look appealing either or engender a sense of adventure. I tried my best and, credit where it's due, I did start to see some patterns and routes in the maze, like funnels where wrong ways send you back to the start, but again, I just ended up feeling bored and not wanting to deal with it. Some of it might be down to me not being a fan of the genre, perhaps, but I'd still say that some work could've been done to make it more appealing.

cidoku responds:

I think you're right about a lot of that. It's a learning experience. Thank you for the nice review.

[Le Chat Fonce and the Secret of the Clock Tower]

Hmm, bit mixed on this one!

On one hand, the initial impressions were pretty high! Feels like the Chat Fonce series has had a serious graphical facelift, and I felt like the 3D environments and movements were very nice and smooth! I liked the way that the camera was flexing its skills by framing the scene at the start, and speaking of the camera, the way that it is more zoomed-out now helps deal with the rather cramped and claustrophobic feel that the previous games had, which made it much easier and enjoyable to navigate the world.

On the other hand, though, the game still didn't do quite enough to impress me to keep me engaged the whole way through, and I found myself dropping off midway. The world just felt rather dull and lifeless, all looking very similar, lacking any sort of special effects, sound or pizazz. It didn't help either that certain quality-of-life features were absent, such as how if you press a key while text is being typed out, it skips to the next line instead of just filling out the text as it properly should.

It's cute, and I like the upgrades, but could still use a bit more meat on its bones for an appealing experience, I think!

[Corn Collab]

Wow, this was quite the rollercoaster ride!

Initial impressions were a bit rocky, as once again I was seeing an art collab where it's going with the unexciting, bare-minimum-effort slideshow presentation. Well, bare-minimum-effort isn't completely fair as I did have to admit that it had a certain sense of style and grace to it, what with its crisp layout, cool music and nice subtle effects for buttons and transitions, as well as these weird joke pop-ups. I also liked that there were links to artist's profiles when you click on their names...or at least there should be, as only some of them work (poor Chdonga gets shafted, for example).

That all changed when I got to the poetry section, however: what an experience that was! Great voice acting, a nice variety of different poetry cadences and styles, cinematic presentation, and so on! This is the kind of interesting creativity that I live for in art collabs, and I'm really surprised you don't lead with this as the hook since it makes a much stronger impression! Course, there are still a few weird errors that bodge the work up, such as janky audio cut-offs, but still, very memorable indeed!

riot100233 responds:

ea sports

[Wildsong]

Hoo boy, did this game give me whiplash from how it lifted me up only to bring me down so hard!

On initial impression, the game is an absolute delight from a presentation standpoint! Graphics and animations are delightful, menus are cool, there's no tutorial but the 'how to play' section is organized nicely and color-coded, and as far as I can tell, the game's core concept of battling bosses with your beast friend could be neat and is right up my alley as a beat-em-up lover!

Unfortunately, this is a classic case of style over substance, as once you get past the flashy visuals and dig into the actual gameplay, it is, in my opinion, currently terrible and in absolutely no state to be put out to the public for review.

*First, as much as the game does have a 'how to play' section, I did not enjoy how the game just throws you into the deep end by putting you into a fight immediately without practice. It would be much better if there were some sort of tutorial section you could play through where you fight a dummy, perhaps.

*The combat felt absolutely terrible in terms of feedback, where attacks and blocks felt weightless and non-existent, like we were just swiping the air: if it wasn't for the numbers popping up, I'd assume we were not making contact.

*There didn't seem to be any way to fight intelligently and strategically. The enemies seemed to attack me instantly without any sort of telegraph, so there was no way to time a parry or block to avoid damage. There didn't seem to be anything interesting I could do with my pet either: all I could do was try and mash the boss down blindly.

*The bosses would constantly make these eardrum-shattering roars for their special attacks: feels like the sound levels haven't been balanced properly, or there is some sort of overlapping sound glitch or something. It was painful.

*To add insult to injury, the controls barely work: I was trying to play with a PS4 controller and for some reason, while I could move with the D-Pad, the Analog stick would only move me horizontally, not allowing vertical movement. I tried to switch to using the keyboard but the WASD controls weren't working with the buttons taking me different directions than expected.

I'd like to think that this has potential and could be a great beat-em-up, but unfortunately, all I have to go on is your words as the demo did absolutely nothing to demonstrate its appeal properly. Best of luck!

[Palm Cracker]

Wow, pretty cool fake-OS puzzle game! Reminds me a lot of something like Hypnospace Outlaw, and similar to that, I really enjoyed digging deep into this! I liked how educational it is in learning about various cyphers while still being fun (imagine that, learning being fun) and also how it is more than just figuring out the cypher code, but then taking those hints which are used to solve another puzzle hidden within another app, and so on. Cool stuff!

I have to admit that I am having a bit of a rough time with the game, though! For some reason, ever single cypher I've tried to learn and use feels like it was explained in a rather confusing manner which made me completely misinterpret what it was going for. I'm not sure if you're intentionally trying to not explain it clearly so as to not make it too obvious and make the player do more work, or if you're actually trying to be clear and you've just chosen a weird way to explain. Could also be me just overthinking it or something.

For example, when going over the third cypher, it says that letters are placed on separate rows, where every other letter is placed on the lower of the two. This makes it sound like, if you were to scramble EXAMPLE, it'd be:
E A P E
X M L
I understood that, but then it gives an example of LITERATURE being scrambled, but it's not following the same pattern of every other letter alternating rows, and instead it looks like it splits the word in half, putting the first half on the top row, and the back half on the bottom row. This made me really confused in solving the puzzle as I was trying to follow what it showed instead of what it said. Eventually I realized my mistake and it was just a confusion between encryption and decryption, and I do feel silly, but again, I wonder if it was just a weird way to explain.

Anyway, I'm very much enjoying myself, and while I haven't beaten it yet, I'll give it my best!

EDIT: Got confused with the puzzle with the grid and cross, especially since it didn't open up a code book to learn from, so I just looked online for 'cypher grid and cross' and figured out about pigpen that way from wiki. I assume that's not intentional and maybe I was supposed to unlock the book somehow, but eh, learning is learning, haha!

Deklaration responds:

Hey, thanks for the review! You're correct that some of the books describes the encryption process, and that you're supposed to use it to decrypt. That might be a bit confusing though, you're right. I'll take a look at it. Also, my English isn't the best, and it's most noticeable when I try to explain stuff in the most clear way possible.

And yeah, it's pretty cryptic that you're supposed to pick out the correct letters once again in the ICU app, just like you did before. I think most people found out that the letters in the pig pen are clickable by just trying to click stuff out of frustation and realizing that the letters are more than just an image. But, I guess an additional clue wouldn't hurt. I'll add one in the next update that's going live in an hour or two.

[GOMBI-ACTION: BOOZE TIME]

Mmm, I want to like this game, but it was a rough one for me! Definitely started good as I find it has a very energetic and goofy vibe it's got going for it that's quite charming, and I think the general presentation and feel is nice. However, I just didn't find the combat that exciting, unfortunately! The horde survival was pretty meh, and while the boss was promising and I liked learning its pattern, it felt way too spongy and got old quickly. The worst part was the weird ammo system which felt like it was just constantly stopping me from having fun: maybe it could work with some tweaks, but here it was just an impediment. Still had some decent fun, and nothing wrong with just having a short lil' game like this, but yeah, it was rough.