FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[GreenWood Defense]

Not too shabby! Definitely didn't have the best first impression due to the bland asset-flip looking graphics and menus and the lack of juicy special effects: like c'mon, why when you kill the boss does he just stand there and then pop outta existence? There should be a big explosion and he should fly away and such to give you the satisfaction of completing a level! You already do it for the regular enemies when they die, so why not for the boss too!

Anyway, looking past that, the game was pretty fun and addictive to build up your army and deal with whatever formations the enemy is sending out each level. In particular I liked how the units have different movespeeds to them, which forces you to think of the logistics in depth: you might want to deploy a unit to reinforce your fighters, but you need to factor in whether they will get to the frontline fast enough, and so on. Very interesting stuff!

One big thing that really bothered me is when I upgraded a unit and suddenly the cost of deploying the unit was increased as well: I had no idea it would work like that and it really screwed me together since I had lost a strategically low-cost unit and now had to grind previous levels to try and get enough cash to buy a new unit that could fulfill that now lost role. Felt like this was really uninuitive: would love for the units to be redesigned so upgrades don't influence deploy cost, or to have the ability to undo upgrades.

Wombart responds:

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

I have added the infos about the mana increase when upgrading unit and the boss has the classic death animation now.

[Guncho]

Whoa nelly, this is a wild one! Never seen a control scheme as weird as this one, where all of your actions are tied to a revolver chamber rotating around. The way you can only shoot in a direction that has a bullet in it and how you can revolve the gun by moving in a certain direction and so on and so forth: it's incredibly unique and absolutely mind-bending! It definitely was a rough start figuring out how the game worked, but once I started grasping it (thanks to the way the game tries to assist, like coloring the bullets when there is something you can shoot at in that direction) I enjoyed the challenge trying to rewire my brain to handle all the crazy combat situations!

That being said, while I did eventually like the combat, I wouldn't blame a lot of people for dropping it due to being incredibly unintuitive, and for the game being a bit too random. I'd have some game sessions be incredibly easy where all the enemies are just lined up ready for a bullet buffet, and then I'd have some sessions where the very first level is a practically unescapable hellscape of death. Even when I'd try to fight through things, there'd be yet another weird mechanic that'd crop up, like being pushed back by explosions, that would screw me over since I had no idea it'd work like that. Again, definitely a very interesting and fun game, but it started to get to the point where I felt like it was just too complex and RNG was against me in unfair ways.

[Toodee and Topdee Demo]

Pretty groovy demo! It's a very solid puzzler with a creative concept that all-around looks very well-constructed in all aspects. Thanks very much for providing a demo like this: I know it takes a lot of work to cobble together something like this and a lot of devs say not to bother making demos since their stats say that it actually reduces sales rather than increasing them, but I actually find myself making a lot more purchases when I get to try out a game before buying it, so cheers for being brave in that regard.

I doubt I can offer much feedback since it is already out and already a neato game in most aspects. There were some minor things like the graphics being a little wonky: it was weird that, while the world curves to represent the change in perspective, interactive elements like boxes don't and stay perfectly square despite being at a tilted angle. It also felt a bit disappointing that some levels would have a character do absolutely nothing except serve as a means to change the camera angle for the other character: would prefer they always have to help each other or do something. But that stuff is, as said, very minor.

The only major feedback I can think of is that I was really surprised there was no quick restart button: so many times I went to hit the R button by reflex, thinking it would restart the level, but to no avail. Instead, you need to hit ESC to go the menu and then hit restart: I know it seems short by only being one extra button press, but trust me, it feels incredibly annoying and taxing to have to do all that extra work to restart, especially since it is something that you can end up doing a lot!

[Desynced Katana (Jam+)]

Hmm, I really like the concept, and when the game works it feels great, but it did feel quite rough in some aspects that I wish were fixed up.

As said, for the most part, the game is pretty neat. The graphics and presentation is quite bland and simple, but the act of slashing through multiple enemy attackers in slow-mo and watching your shadow replay is very exciting and slick when you pull it off. Some aspects like the fact that your shadow is your actual hitbox is strange at first, but it works to the game's benefit because it forces you to tackle every single enemy that is attacking you in a combo, which is the ideal scenario that should be pushed. Indeed, some of my favorite levels were the ones where you just face a bunch of opponents and have to deal with them in an almost puzzle-like manner, slashing all of them without hitting one a second time since it would force you out of the combo.

The big issue for me was dealing with enemies that have a lot of health on them, like elites or bosses, as when it came to them, it put the breaks on the gameplay way too harshly and it became so boring. Whenever you hit an enemy with multiple hitpoints, it makes it so that they block your second attack no matter what. Because of this, it's best that you just strike them once and then wait, since if you attack again, they block and you are punished and need to wait to recover stamina. But it's just so annoying, since the game, by activating slow-mo and everything after the first strike, is practically screaming at you to take another swing! But no, the best thing to do is wait, waiting for the slow-mo to end and then waiting for the enemy to attack again: so much waiting! Would love it if there was some risky way to keep the offense going through skillful play: for example, maybe when you hit them, you can choose to wait it out if you want to play it safe, or you can look at what direction they are getting ready to block in and try to attack from the opposing direction: if you do it fast enough you can keep the combo going and it will keep looping like that, whereas if you don't they will block and you need to scramble to get your stamina back. If there was something like this, you could also have some kind of cool Sekiro-esque combat going!

[The Saloon]

Not too shabby! It definitely throws you in the deep end right from the start with no direction which can be a little frustrating, but eventually I came to grips with the system and had a good time! Overall the game seems well put-together and solid for a jam game: the gameplay is fun, hectic and juicy and there's an interesting strategy in both where your space bar serves as a weapon change and a dodge mechanic at the same time and where you must manage your weapons and perks to handle whatever comes up.

The only complaints I have is that, while it is fun, it's quite short and doesn't take long for it to feel rather shallow, unbalanced and unfinished (which is quite understandable for a jam, of course). I found it odd that the game doesn't slowly introduce more elite enemies into the spawns as waves go on, but rather just puts them in randomly, which makes it so sometimes you get elite enemies right at the start before you find your footing, or you get boring melee waves later on that are too easy with your now advanced arsenal. Gameplay could feel unbalanced where sometimes you just get stuck plinking away with incredibly weak feeling guns at spongy enemies. And of course, I wasn't sure if there was any sort of goal, story, or high score to strive for.

Definitely a pretty short and sweet game, and could be an effective prototype if this is built upon!

[Dice Catcher]

Wow, had a ton of fun with this one! Loved the concept/design and found it very intuitive and satisfying to play, loved the bosses and the variety of different strategies that they make you need to employ, loved the cute little story, this game had it all in a nice short and sweet package! Only real complaints I have is 1) my initial impression of the stun zone was quite negative, probably because I felt like it should only affect you if the center of your reticle is within, not if any part of it is, but eventually I got used to it and 2) disappointed that there was no save/load since I got to the last zone and was hoping to continue later on after a break. Most likely going to go back and finish it proper nonetheless, however!

[Webble and Stoney]

This game was really rough for me: part of me had a good time, but it was only after I gave the game so much forgiveness for its jank and such that would usually make me quit before I got anywhere.

While it certainly has a charming first impression with the story cutscene and the chill vibes it exudes, the gameplay got stale rather quickly as it was very generic and wonky. The worst part was when I got to a level that seemed to require jumping over some bushes, but I could only get it to work occasionally: most of the time the bushes would kill me and I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong. Eventually I came to the realization that I needed to jump around the bushes in an awkward fashion by abusing coyote time: would've loved if I realized that sooner, but the fact that the game was jank enough to sometimes let me jump over the bushes really screwed me over and gave me false hope.

From there, while I did encounter some other oddities and glitches, I overall had a bit of a better time and liked some of the other obstacles like ducks, which were fun to hop between. Heck, despite my gripes, I even tried the game again to see how fast I could speedrun it in hopes to get a better ending, so you did hook me somewhat. However, I left the game frustrated when I got another bad ending with no clue how to prevent it since I felt like I ran through it incredibly fast (2 minutes or so). Oh well!

[Glassware]

Hmmm, unfortunately a bit of a mixed impression on this one.

I really want to like this as I find it quite charming. The presentation is really cool with its pastel aesthetic, the characters are goofy and unique, there's all sorts of neat touches like the receipt printing out at the end, and I love the inclusion of a catalogue which reminds me of old-school instruction booklets that tells you all about the enemies and weapons you can get. When the gameplay works properly, you can really get addicted to this fast-paced, almost Warioware-esque chaos of a battle system where you need to react fast to whatever situation comes up next.

However, while I like the game in theory, I feel like it needed more time in the oven as overall it came off rather janky. So many of my deaths felt like they were due to the controls acting oddly, either eating my inputs or my character moving differently than I expected, most likely due to wonky physics or slopes or what-have-you. Plenty of other deaths were due to the level transitioning and having me land right on top of an enemy spawn with no time to react: super unfair and frustrating! Tooltips would wonk out occasionally and display double, and I expected the tooltips to come up if I moused over something instead of standing below it. Also I hated how I needed to wait for the receipt to print out so slowly just to be able to retry (you'd think it'd go faster or be skippable if you click the screen for a fast-paced game like this!)

Furthermore, even if the game worked perfectly, it did feel rather shallow: didn't take long for the levels to keep repeating, both the items/enemies to exhaust the roster and lose their novelty, and I wasn't sure if it was ever gonna build up to something like a boss or a grander goal instead of just looping over and over. The items also felt a bit annoying in that they have so many negatives to them: I get that it's necessary to make the game harder and harder, but it felt awkward when usually a game gets harder by introducing tougher enemies or levels, not by me choosing it.

Definitely feel like there is something cool in here: just needs a bit of polishing up in my opinion!

[Oddwood]

Wow, really fun game! For a game jam game, I'm really impressed at the professional-looking presentation: the graphics, animation, aesthetic, and feedback/juice are very nice and appealing. Couple that with the very chaotic and addictive gameplay from a great concept and I was having a blast trying to keep myself alive.

I definitely did have a bit of a confusing time at the start: I completely forgot that the jump button existed and just figured that the only way to avoid damage was to just be quick and decisive with whatever the dice grants you. It actually was kinda fun to play like that, though ultimately futile given the threats that come up, so I'm glad I eventually realized that there was another option for defense. Curious whether anyone else had that experience: I feel like it was natural to assume due to the focus on automated movement and random dice, but maybe I'm just dumb.

Some feedback more to do with the game rather that my foolishness were:

1) I found it very difficult to keep track of resources like health and such. For some reason, I thought I was being hit constantly and about to die, but I'd somehow make it out with higher health than I thought. I think what led to that confusion is that, while the screen shakes and plays a sound when you get hit, it also shakes and plays a similar 'bad' sound when it rolls the dice, which felt very unnecessary and sending confusing signals.

2) In regards to the upgrade system, I had no idea what the dice upgrades were. The muscle upgrades were very clear, but the dice updates...did they like add to your pool or something to make it have a higher chance to appear? I had no idea.

Would love to see this game get expanded upon as it feels like it has a greatly constructed core: some more enemy types/weapons/dice, a story/goal to progress on, and so on, it'd be great!

Frogrammer responds:

thank you so much for your feedback, really appreciate it and glad you enjoyed the game!
1) i just think the way GUI was put makes it very unclear, however the upcoming update which is going to have text pop outs will solve this problem hopefully.
2) ye picking a new ability will add it to the pool and adding the same ability twice will increase it's chance to appear

[Terato Tamer]

Pretty neat game! Certainly quite funny and charming with its unique take on RPG battles through the use of seduction to lead to both amusing discussions and an interesting party system. Kinda reminds me of the Shin Megami demon negotiation system. Had a fun time trying to get farther and figuring out the ideal dialogues and teams and so on and so forth. That said, I did have quite the rough start and plenty of complaints...

A big annoyance I had was the dice system and how I don't feel like it did a good job explaining how it worked. After tons of testing and examining the results, I was able to determine that blocking has your dice subtract from their dice to determine how much damage the enemy deals to you, and dodging has you avoid all damage if you roll as high or higher than the enemy. This is actually some neat strategy as it has you favor dodging for low enemy rolls but blocking for high enemy rolls and such. But that's all work that I had to do when the game could've easily had a bit more direction either subtly through feedback/animations/etc like number/math pop-ups or more directly through instructional pop-ups when you're selecting the options. I couldn't even tell you how the seduce dice work: I think it deals a bare minimum of 17% except when you roll significantly higher? I shouldn't have to do all this work, just make it clear for god's sake! And this isn't even counting how frustrating the game could be at times since it did leave so much of it up to luck.

It's a minor annoyance, but I hated it it wouldn't remember your choice positioning. Take for example that you're trying to seduce, which is the top option. You pick that and then defense comes up, you pick dodge, which is the bottom option. You go back to the attack phase and mash confirm since you just want to seduce again, but lo and behold, it's now on the attack option which is the bottom option since it memorized the bottom option from your dodge choice despite it being for a different turn phase.

And finally, and this is super-nitpicky perhaps, but for a game themed around dice, I felt like it was barely utilizing that theme, as the dice were just being used to determine outcomes of moves which is a bog-standard method of how any RPG works. Still a nice game and everything, but I wouldn't call it themed around dice by any means: by that measure you could submit any RPG or heck, and game with RNG to this jam.