What Worked, What Didn't

[jerseyp19]

The pacing for the first chapter was good. Earning money, unlocking skills, training, fighting your way up the league.

The second chapter has some issues. I like the addition of careers, but the two careers are unbalanced in a few ways and can be confusing. I like that the initial success threshold is tight, but it could be made clearer that socializing is necessary to keep high because that's what I've seen players doing wrong when they get stuck here. It also seems to be consensus that the gym is just better due to logistics. When you start to progress and get perks to make career progress easier, it gets too easy. By the end I'm filling up the meter in only a couple hours. The progression there could be lowered and spread out a bit more. I also noticed that the tech tree from the video tapes feel very non-impactful. I would be excited to see what new perks were available, only to be disappointed. Maybe there should be bonuses to fighting styles, instead of just macro benefits.

Chapter three is rushed. The normal template is to get a quest, fight a guy, return to quest giver for resolution/narrative progression. I was expecting a new hub area, and quests to be given that answer previous questions slowly as I make progress. Instead, an NPC says, "Hey, remember all these unresolved issues?" and a bunch of quests drop where you simply go to a location for a cut scene. There actually is no chapter three, it's just a long exposition dump leading up to a boss fight. I liked figuring out the boss fight, but there should have been a real chapter 3 that let me grind the fighting skills and stats to experiment with builds and let me beat the boss on my own.

As a game developer you have to start the game strong and finish the game strong. Those are the two key elements. You can't be like pancakes, all exciting at first, but by the end you're sick of em. This game took 5 years, and I think that's what happened with Lazy Bear. I had fun and I liked the story, but at a certain point the developer was just done making the game and it ended before reaching it's full potential. That's life. Sincerely best of luck on the sequel/expansion or whatever else you have planned.

[󠀡󠀡]

I agree with the Cop/Gym jobs. They were barely explained and I kept doing bad up until I figured out things like patrolling are garbage without getting upgrades for it.

Chapter 3 is just another league of a couple new opponents and nothing else, it's empty if you did all of the side-quests prior.

With that being said, I did like the Gym job and playing Chapter 3. Just could be better

[Yo]

The game generally feels kinda rushed. I beat it in like 15 hours, granted i'm better than most people at the game but it still felt a bi too easy, plus the grinding for stats and work didn't feel great either, i used speedhack to speed it up cuz it was just boring. Then there's the bugs and freezes and unable to progress quest and whatnot... Game definitely feels very rushed. It's funny i watched a video where some guy from lazy bear games explained they do pixel games cuz it's much easier and faster than 3D games, and yet we still got this game like this. Ofc it's a great game but it could have been soooooo much better. As a start i'd like to see the most common bugs fixed, a hard mode where enemies are stronger and tonic is harder to recover, and a multiplayer mode just like Punch Club 1 has where you can create multiplayer challenges for others to fight and beat

[Smurky Turkey]

I think that you hit the nail on the head with the comment that the devs just wanted to be done with the game at a certain point. Chapter one has a great balance between grinding, activities and new surprises/options popping up. There was not a moment that bored me and it made me hungry for more.

Chapter 2 still has a decent amount of content, but you are kind of stuck between your two careers. The amount of side activities see a drastic decrease. I will also agree that some of the systems in this chapter could have used a bit more balancing.

As for the third chapter....it is indeed barely a chapter. Besides finishing off the tournament there are a dozen or so go here and watch the flashbacks quests. Once you have seen those flashbacks you get another few cut scenes skipping way too many interesting things in a very short time and then it is final boss time.

As for the ending...... I am not even going to comment on it.

The game has lovely pixel art, great soundtrack, good jokes/easter eggs and some of the systems work better than those in the original, yet the flaws and later chapters make for mixed feelings on my part.

[󠀡󠀡]

I wouldn't be surprised if the devs were put on a time crunch while working on the end of the game tbh