(A few spoilers) My 2 cents on the demo

[mario1286]

Positives

• I know that the animated intro wasn't cheap, and it was worth every penny.
  
• The chibi characters are very endearing.
  
• I love the evocative music. I've played games with much bigger budgets that have soundtracks that are just there.
  
• The character dialogue is interesting and mostly well done.
  
• The stylized trees and shrubs remind me of Beyond Good & Evil.
  
• The pastel-ish color palette in the environment is pleasant.
  
• There's a good sense of scale with the massive ships at the pier and in the hangars.
  
• The ship sounds are impressive, along with the explosions and screaming.
  
• A clear effort was made at world-building and unique lore.
  
• I like how some NPCs have more than just one thing to say for variety.
  
• The cloudy screen wipe during combat is creative.
  
• I approve of Amelia Earhart references in a game about soaring through the clouds.
  
• I like that exploration is encouraged and that there are hidden items.
  
• The combat is mostly enjoyable, and I like the cutscenes for attacks.

Negatives

• The procedural noise clouds get the job done but could be more aesthetically pleasing. I know that this game is clearly inspired by Skies of Arcadia, which also used procedural noise. But it wasn't all that pleasant to look at then, either. It would look better if still photos of clouds were used like Star Wars Rogue Squadron on the N64. Or a cloud matte painting skybox that moves slowly like Mega Man Legends on the PS1. Or you could do a simple but effective cloud tilemap like Chrono Trigger or Trials of Mana on the SNES. Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast and Sky Gunner on the PS2 are other games the developers could look at. Multiple layers of textures, normal maps, and/or parallax maps could be used to add depth to the clouds. Unreal, Unity, Blender, etc. could all be used to render out skyboxes for your game. The clouds at sunset looked better, but the plain white noise clouds during the day with no detail at all can't be the best you can do in a game all about flying in the sky.
  
• There could be a little more interactivity in the environment. Not a lot, just a little more.
  
• The cel-shading is a bit rough.
  
• I have mixed feelings about having cel-shaded characters and smooth-shaded ships. Is there a reason why the ships in the game can't have inklines and cel-shading like in the intro animation?
  
• Every game where you can freely explore should have a map.
  
• The environment is clearly unfinished. There are really nice details like the pier area, but parts of the town are a bit bland and repetitive. The cafe looks particularly icky. If you need an example of an outdoor cafe, look at Persona 4 or the castle town of Wyndia in Breath of Fire III.
  
• The NPCs are a bit too repetitive. In particular, during the climactic air raid, there were multiple NPCs named Amos running around. Amos was very obviously copied and pasted, with the same name and dialogue, all over the town. That needs to be changed before this game is released.
  
• The sfx that plays when you press the interact button is annoying and should only play if you successfully interact with something.
  
• It would be convenient if there was a first-person look button. A lot of the buttons on the controller aren't being used.
  
• The camera could be more context-adaptive, like based on character speed or close quarters. There's a GDC talk called "50 Camera Mistakes" that's worth a look.
  
• There's no "z-targeting" like in Zelda or Rogue Galaxy to select who I want to talk to.
  
• There is a bare minimum attempt at cinematography. If you are a lover of anime and movies in general, wouldn't you want to use some cool camera shots from your favorite works?
  
• The title screen shot felt like it should have been a more cinematic moment.
  
• Finding loot in chests or getting money for finishing quests could 'feel' more rewarding. Like playing a little jingle or a brief "I did it!" fist bump animation. And the reward popup indicator could stand out more.
  
• There's a jarring disconnect between the smiling faces of the chibi characters and the facial expressions of the character portraits.
  
• There's a lot of variety to the footfall sfx, which is good, but walking on grass can be a little annoying at times.
  
• I don't like auto-scrolling dialogue. If I'm not paying attention, I could miss important story moments.
  
• The game doesn't keep a log of hints so you can reread them later. In Rogue Galaxy, there's an item in the inventory called "Info Edge" that lets you review tutorials and quest hints.
  
• The text boxes should point to who's talking.
  
• Glenn's mother is clearly dealing with depression and Glenn is so harsh :(
  
• In battle, I don't like not being able to back up and change my commands before finalizing my turn, like Skies of Arcadia and many other turn-based RPGs.
  
• In the battle menu, it could be more clear that commands are unusable.

Bugs

• There's weird clipping when panning the camera. Parts of the environment or ships in the sky will suddenly disappear and reappear.
  
• There are several NPCs where the talk indicator pops up, but then there is no dialogue.
  
• After the final test mission, there is no music in the town. When I go into Glenn's house and come back out, there's music in the town again. But, after I talk to the council at the water fountain, the music goes away.
  
• One time in battle, there was an unusual error where the character portrait for Glenn's mom wasn't rendered properly.
  
• In the final ship battle, after dying and retrying multiple times, two different songs were playing at the same time.

Typos

• There is a typo for Allibatross in the item menu.
  
• "either" should have been "neither" in the conversation with the council at the water fountain.
  
• It's not a typo per se, but the dialogue with Memento is rough and could be worded better.

[dev]

Hi there and thank you so much for such a detailed feedback <3

We have been taking notes and working on lots of improvements for the release version, especially concerning combat balance, controls, camera, and a lot of overall polish, quality of life issues and debugging.

We are a very small dev team, but make no mistake that we have been working tirelessly to prioritize and address as many issues as we can for launch.

Time is scarce on our side as we are still busy with a big to-do list before launch, so I'm sorry we cannot go over every point just right now, but we are taking care of most of the elements you have mentioned, in order of priority and technical feasibility.

Thanks again for taking the time to write your thoughts here. It's very useful and it really means a lot to the whole team :)