SAGE 2023 - Demo Mekanikko

I just got done playing it. It was a blast! I just adore the game's art and visuals. All the characters and enemies are very cute and the writing was great and even made me chuckle at times, even if English is clearly not the dev's native language. I can see Deltarune inspiration in some of the game's areas, it's really cool! I also love the battle system. It's really unique and actually kinda reminds me of 'The World Ends With You', what with the button/mouse hybrid system. It also reminds me of 'Sonic RPG' or 'Final Fantasy VII' with attacks being tied to a meter that you wait to fill up. The field puzzles and enemy attack patterns are all engaging and fairly challenging. The puzzles in Juncture Tower were actually pretty tricky and I spent a little while finding the right solution for some of them. Jumping in battle is a little bit buggy. And I really wish there were a run button. But other than those two issues, the game is still really good. I can't wait to see more of the game soon!

So, I almost passed this up cuz there was no gameplay trailer or anything on this page. I ended up looking at your Youtube page to take a glance at gameplay. Looked interesting so I quickly went to play this myself. I'll just get my only real critiques out of the way. English is definitely not your first language, but I'd barely call that a problem. I understood everything no problem. The lack of diagonal movement bothered me a tiny bit, but I adjusted fairly quickly. Small nitpick.

Those aside, I loved everything about the battle system. It started pretty simple at first, but holy crap the boss went in hard and I loved every second of it! That was a perfect taste of the battle system's potential. The only thing that confused me in that fight were the green arrow projectiles they fired. At first I thought that even the arrow lines would damage me. I eventually did learn that only the arrow heads could deal damage. Maybe make the arrow lines a different color to indicate that they're harmless or don't include the lines. The arrow even lose their lines once they reach their second phase, I'm not sure why they're there in the first place.

I'm already in love with this project and I'm eager to see more!

I am always up for games to combine silly and serious when done right, this might be it.
The gameplay is great, I do like the action oriented combat with the use of my mouse and keys at the same time, so it creates a natural dynamic.
The sound and music I don't have much to say since it's taken from other games but I'd say is fitting enough.
The worldbuilding and characters are really well done, very good characterization and very cute style, I dig it a lot.
And the writing, my god the writing, it's just the good kind of silly and I love it, every time it strikes me with something that has me smiling or chuckling, albeit you also know how to create serious or tense moments, IE: Auton going into an existential rant.
In summary I do like this game for what it is and I am hoping to see more of it soon.