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SAGE 2023 - Demo Reality Layer Zero (SAGE 2023 Demo)

Overview Reviews (1)

General Information

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Reality Layer Zero is a debating RPG and occult mystery thriller.

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You've been summoned by the city of Liere to testify in defense of your grandfather. You must prove his innocence, or he will be executed.

Alas, you are an amateur. Your investigative prowess is nonexistent.

All hope is lost... if not for one small thing.

Shortly after arriving in the city, you acquired a strange ability that allows you to control others' minds by defeating them in a verbal debate.

With this... You might be able to uncover the truth.

You have seven days.

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Features
  • Unique card-based debating system.​
  • High-quality, high-resolution pixel art.
  • Over an hour of original game music.​
  • Consequential branching dialog.​
  • Social links!​

Development Information

Reality Layer Zero is currently in active development. The SAGE 2023 demo represents the complete, unedited state of the project following the release of the "First Layer", or first major chunk of content. Five additional "major" updates are planned.

For future updates, please consider following one or several of these official channels:
Itch: https://act-novel.itch.io/reality-layer-zero
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealityLayer0
Mailing List (Website): https://realitylayerzero.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@realitylayerzero

You may also be interested in adding Reality Layer Zero to your Steam wishlist, as this is a superb way of supporting the game directly:

System Requirements (Best Guess)
Operating System: Windows 7 or Later
CPU: 2 GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Graphics: 1GB VRAM
Storage: 164 MB
Click to expand...

Mature content notice: Reality Layer Zero contains some instances of foul language and descriptions of violence. It's nothing that would push it above a PG-13 rating, but do keep this in mind if you're sensitive to such things.

Photosensitivity advisory: Reality Layer Zero contains brief sequences of bright, flashing lights, up-to but not in excess of 3 Hz under normal circumstances. Please play in a well-lit room.

Screenshots
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Latest reviews

H
This is great stuff! I can see why some people would not endure the initial part (I myself let this be the last game cause of the commitment to play it through) but I'm so glad I stuck around!

I went into with low expectation, there are sadly not that many good deck builder games around, and the last one that tried to tie conversations to slay the spire lost me very quickly, this one plays more like an actual card game and I've been having a good time!

The story
The story-writing is ok, it didn't wow me but it's engaging and doesn't take me out of the immersion trying to sound too smart than it really is. The tutorial going about all the cleverly-named names of the mechanics on the other hand was great!

The dialog tree is really well done, nothing feels like it goes back to the same point (inciting my internal paranoia of "oh god what am I missing out? did I screw up??", this is great stuff!) yet it does. Because of a soft-lock I had to go back and tried some other options and I'm quite amazed by how creatively everything flows back into the main line.
I named myself "PCLMULHQHQDQ" and the game even gave me a last name all by itself!

The card game
This is a card game I like! The one-action-per-turn and fixed hand size is super reminiscent of Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden Memories so I felt very much at home, I both praised and cursed the RNG multiple times (how come I always get only wrong color premises aaaaaaa) and the AI just seemed fair. The moments when you're almost there to get your rhetoric and just need one more turn, completely in the gutter knowing the AI is about to play yet another proposal to hack into your premises to have them just go "Discard 6" is the kind of heartbeat wrecking moments that make card games so exciting!

I felt on my edge during both boss fights and even though I won by a landslide they always felt close calls, that's some really good direction!

Overall I'm really impressed and will want to follow this closely. If I had to suggest any change to the devs: get nicer backdrops, just because the explorable world looks like minecraft doesn't mean everything should. I think you are already cutting a nice balance of pixel art, low-poly and crisp textboxes, so maybe you can experiment a bit more?
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Learn_the_Lore
Learn_the_Lore
Hey, thanks for the review and the feedback! Consider your assessment acknowledged!

Question, though: you mentioned a softlock? If it's not too much trouble, could you describe roughly what happened leading up to that, either here or in an email to support[at]realitylayerzero.com? Just a description of roughly where it happened and what you were doing at the time ought to be enough to start figuring out what went wrong and cook up a patch for it. If it is too much trouble, no worries! I appreciate you not quitting despite having encountered it!
H
Hamcha
I sent an email with a screenshot and description, let me know if you get it (it might end up in spam)
Read more…

Comments

V
I don't think the Minecraft graphics are really helping at this point. I got a decent ways into the narrative and there was only a single moment of card gameplay, and it was all tutorial, so I eventually got tired of waiting for more to do and quit. The character sprites look nice, though, especially the tree-growing-out-of-your-head animation.
 
Learn_the_Lore
Violet CLM said:
I don't think the Minecraft graphics are really helping at this point. I got a decent ways into the narrative and there was only a single moment of card gameplay, and it was all tutorial, so I eventually got tired of waiting for more to do and quit.
Click to expand...
Hey, fair enough. I should probably make a cut-down version for actual demoing purposes that gets around to showing core gameplay a bit faster. If you got to the tree part, you were probably right on the cusp of where things open up a bit more... But I can't blame you for dropping it where you did. There are a lot of other games at this expo, after all!

(... Although, if you ever feel like coming back to it, I should point out that the game does feature a generous autosave function...)

What do you mean by Minecraft graphics, though? These are clearly Xenogears graphics!
 
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