Pros and Cons

[Peachy]

I think that, as the community, we should take it upon ourselves to highlight exactly what's good and bad about our experience so the devs can have a clear idea of their audience and what they want when considering updates. How do we get what we want if we don't ask? I'll start us off in the comments.

[Peachy]

Pros:
1) Ambient sound for immersion.
2) Deliberately jagged graphics to put player on edge. Overdone with blur filter, but can be turned off, so fine!
3) Horrifying (main) monster design.
4) Controls could be better, but are acceptable!
5) Definitely the makings of a masterpiece.

Cons:
1) Bug fixes, game crashed every first time I attempt to open it. Spider Spray stopped working after a single spider despite having loads left! Spray came out, but spiders weren't dying. I randomly starting taking more and more damage and suffered a Game Over. I anticipate that this point is going to grow every time I play, isn't it?
2) Like what you're trying to do, but 3 (more like 2 because of the Lighter) inventory slots isn't practical. We don't know much about our character, but can reasonably assume that they're a student, thus should have a backpack, as well as both hands and maybe pockets. Considering this, can we have a more rational sum of 6 to 8 slots? That's 2 per hand and 4 because bag or bag can be worth 6 on 'easy'. On that note, make it possible to equip 2 items at once for both different mouse clicks. It's so jarring that every time I do something, I'm doing it in complete darkness, would it really break the immersion to be able to hold 2 things at once? Surely the player can assume that, if an item is 2-handed when used, that the lighter was simply placed on the floor.
3) Save and Checkpoint system. Even if turning on the option was limited to an easier difficulty where achievements can't be obtained. Games just need this.
4) Centipede isn't scary, just annoying. Think about all the anxiety the player could build if they could stay in the vents - without taking unavoidable damage and having to leave.
5) Health. More of an issue with the inevitability of damage, but still. What if there was a small sum of health that could regenerate, as to keep the player on their toes but also make it actually possible without good luck? Meaning that the Energy Drinks are more a treat, giving 'bonus' health.
6) AI. Aka Manto has a 6th sense on where the player is in reference to the entire y axis, teleporting to the same floor at once, with x and z being covered by the floating face. Since the face passes info instantly, and he responds by sprinting, and the floor is small, and he's already on the same floor, it feels like there's no time to run or hide. Give said time to run or hide by making it so the face has to travel to him before he knows. Seriously, hiding feels so useless. If his AI was more predictable, such as spawning to the player's floor after a minute and putting measures in place so that he never spawns directly beside, behind or in front of the player, it would do wonders to reducing the luck needed and make it skill and learning!
7) Finnicky to select items from environment. It's like I need sniper aim just to pick things up. Could the selector not be a bit broader in range? Or less specific? I feel embarrassed to have this problem.
8) Spiders again. Getting caught by one of these single-handedly ends the run if you're being chased. What if the spray was a way to instantly remove them instead of losing?

Edit 1 - Corrected and added to point relating to bugs.

[v100dragon]

Personally, I would ask for inverted mouse controls. That this is not arbitrarily set up within the game as an option is something that prevents me from playing this game properly. I was willing to excuse it in the developer's earlier release of Okaeri, but since this game requires twitch movement and reflexes, I can't exactly give this game a proper playthrough since I use inverted controls.

[Peachy]

Originally posted by v100dragon:

Personally, I would ask for inverted mouse controls. That this is not arbitrarily set up within the game as an option is something that prevents me from playing this game properly. I was willing to excuse it in the developer's earlier release of Okaeri, but since this game requires twitch movement and reflexes, I can't exactly give this game a proper playthrough since I use inverted controls.

I'm shocked, I never knew I'd find someone who uses Inverted! And you're right, I'm not a professional programmer but I know for a fact that this couldn't be any harder than an IF statement checking if Inverted is selected, then reversing the already existing numbers. In case I didn't say, I'd like to add to yours by asking that whatever changes are made in the settings stay that way instead of having to fix them not every playthrough, but every death.

[Chilla's Art]

Hey Dank Dabbington! Loved this review on Aka Manto. We're planning to make the next survival horror game just like Aka Manto and Yuki Onna. We're going to take everything we learned from the 2 and hopefully make something far better. Thanks for the feedback!

[Peachy]

Originally posted by Chilla's Art:

Hey Dank Dabbington! Loved this review on Aka Manto. We're planning to make the next survival horror game just like Aka Manto and Yuki Onna. We're going to take everything we learned from the 2 and hopefully make something far better. Thanks for the feedback!

Apologies for any harsh wording, I'm just passionate about my pass times! And thank you for getting back to me at all! Are you sure you want to make something else whilst, according to your other reply, still juggling the past? Imagine if you repeated this pattern, it'd get impossible to keep up, no?

Personally, I struggle with wanting to do too much. This weekend as of writing, I want to start and complete multiple drawings, read and write 10+ stories, play video games, learn programming, text my girlfriend, go to the cinema and restaurants, get ahead on homework, all in one day or even in the same moment! However, I've ran into the same wall time and time again, because it simply isn't possible to do all of this within the given time frame, even in long times off like summer. By focusing on one however, I complete my goal! Not all goals, but a goal. As long as I keep my priorities straight, I can definitely shave off goals until they're much more easy to handle, just takes focus! If I have ideas, I write it down so I have a mental trigger later, but let it rest until the time is better. Yes, sometimes it's upsetting even if I do achieve something because it isn't everything, but as long as I remembered that everything was unrealistic, I got there. Hope this story was helpful for future decision making!

I can see your next game easily being an improvement on this game, but I can also see fans being infuriated that what they paid for isn't the focus, feeling swindled and thus having low faith in you. Or, is the creative process different from my understanding? What's the plan, specifically?

[¹¹]

I just recently beat both endings of this game and I don't think I'll say anything that hasn't been pointed out in this discussion but yeah checkpoints would definetly be a good move especially when you're beginning to play the game and you're still not familiar with the map and the respective locations for each item, it's been a real pain in the ass for me to explore and learn the map because of this. Also they could add a map of the areas you've visited in order to make the exploration a bit easier. Another thing I'd like is increasing the inventory slots, at least to 4 or 5, or maybe just making the lighter as an equipable item that doesnt take an useful slot away. Also I would have appreciated some tips of what to do sometimes? I have to confess that I had to check the guide a couple of times to know what to do at certain parts of the game (where to use certain items or what were they useful for).
Other than that I really enjoyed this game and I'm pretty excited to try out the rest of the titles made by the devs.

[Mr. Gilly]

The only con is that I need a heart replacement surgery every time the monster attacks me.

[Meenik (ミー二ク）]

Just finished this game. It doesn't need a checkpoint system as the game isn't relatively long. You learn where everything is after failing multiple times, so it becomes easier like that. Although I do agree with your point on the inventory system.

[Blackthorne]

MORE INTUITIVE GAME LAYOUT.

IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO FIGURE OUT, WHAT ITEMS GO TO WHAT ENDING, WHAT EACH ITEMS DO AND THE ORDER OF OPERATIONS.

EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS GAME IS NOT INTUITIVE AND REQUIRES YOU DIE ATLEAST 1000 TIMES BEFORE YOUR FIRST SUCCESSFUL PLAYTHROUGH.

[MacDeath]

I had a great time with the game and very few issues with mechanics/balancing. I think it's a game that's meant for people who like solving puzzles and who like learning and getting better at something until they finally crack it. Like raid fights in MMOs. I think the health system is fairly lenient and more inventory spaces would balance it in our favour too much.

The one thing I'd like is for Aka Manto to be on other floors more. You have to run around the different floors so much anyway, it'd be cool if it was a little more unpredictable where you're gonna run into him.

[calibgardner]

this question is for chillas art, idk if they will see but:

do u plan to come back to aka manto? like adding updates for it, this is actually a good horror game, and i think having more updates here and there could attract more people, like being able to explore more of the school, or new items, such as a bug spray to kill the centipede