Just some thoughts

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

Just posted a review and was curious what others thought of my "gripes" despite the cool ideas in this game.

First is that I think the bots are FAR too needy. As I can not even walk ten steps without one of them asking where I am, why I am not talking, and losing Favor because of it. I would like a little bit of time to explore and think, and this constant neediness gets in the way of that all of the time. I think that maybe the "please respond" time should be increase to about a minute, and can become much longer if you have high favor.

Second is that I think some of the levels feel too small, aside from level three which I feel like the rooms could be made larger (but not more cluttered) though otherwise fine. Level 1 felt like a closet, which it would have been nice if all room variations were included in the same building, halls were widened, and rooms were less like closets (especially the secret room which was very underwhelming to find). While for level 2, the rooms also felt very small with so much clutter that it was hard to navigate some of them (If the rooms were wider then it would not be so bad).

What are your thoughts, anything I missed or you think I am wrong about?

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

That aside, I will say I did not include the bugs I ran into just because they are so minor I expect that they will be fixed soon-ish(TM).

[Sitka]

Estelle has a pretty long timer to ping you for attention. I could see the game having a "difficulty" menu that lets you adjust the timers, though I will say needing to manage the character is part of the game. Level 1, you're trying to escape or win over a psycho murderer. I think it should have a challenge element of "keep talking, keep her placated"
It is sort of part of the point and while in early access it's not unreasonable to focus on balancing each room one way and not add adjustment options until later. But that could be soon, at this point, it was on Itch for a while.

I think level 1 is definitely around the right size, it's an introduction to escape room stuff and the smaller it is, the more focused it feels. You don't wander too much, you just get used to the idea of opening every drawer and spotting sparkles. There's enough variety for the first few runs. The crampedness makes you easily shove Eddie and learn that the AI will know you are pushing them and you might learn that you can direct them places by saying stuff "Could you go to the kitchen? Let's cook" or whatever. Even a lack of walk space incidentally serves a purpose for a level 1.
But the narrower scope does make it less replayable and not as nice to simply relax in. But it's bigger than my apartment.
Eventually I would like much bigger and more sprawling spaces. I think I understand the AI and the mechanics enough that they can toss me into a level the size of a mansion and I'll figure things out and have fun exploring it. But I really don't mind that the earliest ones are small.


My gripes are that I ask for butter and Eddie doesn't get it because butt gets bleeped out. Amusement is broken because of semen. Assistance has ass. The word filter is much too clumsy right now. Elysia doesn't flag whether she found the secret room open, whether she was okay with it, or what, so she'll allow me to open it and then run up and down the stairs getting repeatedly furious I invaded her privacy. There aren't enough extra behaviors, like Eddie can't set on her computer chair and do anything at the computer. Generally the girls don't interact with the environment beyond knowing that things in the environment exist and being able to send items to your inventory. It's not really "early access" content, it's the kind of extra fluff and distraction that comes late in development to pad stuff out, and more worth working on is fixing bugs with the core mechanics and create more levels. Make more levels, each bigger, more complicated, and with more endings, to scale up as you go and feel like progression. That's what I think is best.

[RobDeLaMorte]

You do know the bots are designed after women right? They're literally a normal level of neediness.

I mean, so I hear. I don't know nothin about real women, I'm a gamer. :x


Edit: Being cheeky aside, it's really not that bad to deal with if you just remember to say something filler now and then to placate them. Even just asking "How are you feeling?" or "What should we do next?" is more than enough. They'll only start to get really pissy (barring the Elysia basement bug) if you ignore them 2 or 3 times straight.

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

Originally posted by Sitka:

I think it should have a challenge element of "keep talking, keep her placated"

I think this could be better handled to be more dynamic way. Kind of like other escape style games where you have the guard / observer gone for a set time frame to so you can explore and do tasks that you would be in trouble for otherwise (seen as her going into the secret room or outside the room to deal with someone). This would be an alternative to her being "needy" in the chat sense, but she is still watching certain rooms from the cameras.

While any time she is present, until you hit a certain trust threshold she is always following you (and I mean actually following rather than just running to you when crossing certain room barriers). Unless you can find a distraction, like an object in the room breaking or some task only she will solve since she does not want or trust you to do it. Making the play area far more interactive, (breaking the TV on accident, electrical fire in a room, burning yourself on the stove so she grabs a first aid kit from another room, asking her to try on a new outfit, etc.)

Originally posted by Sitka:

I think I understand the AI and the mechanics enough that they can toss me into a level the size of a mansion and I'll figure things out and have fun exploring it. But I really don't mind that the earliest ones are small.

Just my preference more or less, as I do not think that the getting in the way part contributes as much to the overall experience. If it was intentional, like her blocking a door that would make a lot more sense to teach players to find ways to make her move rather than just being cramped.

Originally posted by Sitka:

My gripes are that I ask for butter and Eddie doesn't get it because butt gets bleeped out. Amusement is broken because of semen. Assistance has ass. The word filter is much too clumsy right now.

Haha, yea.... I know the feeling I found it super odd the first time I encountered it.

Originally posted by Sitka:

Elysia doesn't flag whether she found the secret room open, whether she was okay with it, or what, so she'll allow me to open it and then run up and down the stairs getting repeatedly furious I invaded her privacy. There aren't enough extra behaviors, like Eddie can't set on her computer chair and do anything at the computer. Generally the girls don't interact with the environment beyond knowing that things in the environment exist and being able to send items to your inventory. It's not really "early access" content, it's the kind of extra fluff and distraction that comes late in development to pad stuff out, and more worth working on is fixing bugs with the core mechanics and create more levels. Make more levels, each bigger, more complicated, and with more endings, to scale up as you go and feel like progression. That's what I think is best.

I guess I both agree and differ to some extent, I 100% agree that they should be able to interact with the environment more. Which plays into the less needy part of what I spoke of earlier since they all reset what they are doing the moment they "think" to do anything.

It would be nice if they could open any door (code or not), sit down to relax, turn on the TV or computer, brew a potion and have it set on a counter, and etc. I 100% agree that small things matter, but I see it as more than fluff because it affects the games pacing.

As for levels, I more so do not mind if the size of the levels scale with the level. I would (my own preference) have a lot of large play areas that are dynamic with just new experiences and themes for each level to make it interesting.

For level 1, I felt cramped and that was not very fun even if I liked the character theme. The second level was better, but far too cluttered in most of the the interior spaces, though the theme of the level and character was very fun. Then level 3 was the best because most (not all) the spaces felt appropriately sized for a station (but rooms like the greenery and coms could have been bigger). Just wish level three was longer since it feels the shortest of the three in terms of getting out.

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

Originally posted by RobDeLaMorte:

Being cheeky aside, it's really not that bad to deal with if you just remember to say something filler now and then to placate them. Even just asking "How are you feeling?" or "What should we do next?" is more than enough. They'll only start to get really pissy (barring the Elysia basement bug) if you ignore them 2 or 3 times straight.

It is not, I agree, but it is annoying. Which is the problem I have with it.

[RobDeLaMorte]

Originally posted by The Seraph of Tomorrow:

It is not, I agree, but it is annoying. Which is the problem I have with it.

That's fair. Maybe they could add some sort of difficulty options? Like a relaxed mode where they take twice as long to get bored/lonely, and with half the friendship loss?

[MyR4uN]

Originally posted by Sitka:

Estelle has a pretty long timer to ping you for attention. I could see the game having a "difficulty" menu that lets you adjust the timers, though I will say needing to manage the character is part of the game. Level 1, you're trying to escape or win over a psycho murderer. I think it should have a challenge element of "keep talking, keep her placated"
It is sort of part of the point and while in early access it's not unreasonable to focus on balancing each room one way and not add adjustment options until later. But that could be soon, at this point, it was on Itch for a while.

I think level 1 is definitely around the right size, it's an introduction to escape room stuff and the smaller it is, the more focused it feels. You don't wander too much, you just get used to the idea of opening every drawer and spotting sparkles. There's enough variety for the first few runs. The crampedness makes you easily shove Eddie and learn that the AI will know you are pushing them and you might learn that you can direct them places by saying stuff "Could you go to the kitchen? Let's cook" or whatever. Even a lack of walk space incidentally serves a purpose for a level 1.
But the narrower scope does make it less replayable and not as nice to simply relax in. But it's bigger than my apartment.
Eventually I would like much bigger and more sprawling spaces. I think I understand the AI and the mechanics enough that they can toss me into a level the size of a mansion and I'll figure things out and have fun exploring it. But I really don't mind that the earliest ones are small.


My gripes are that I ask for butter and Eddie doesn't get it because butt gets bleeped out. Amusement is broken because of semen. Assistance has ass. The word filter is much too clumsy right now. Elysia doesn't flag whether she found the secret room open, whether she was okay with it, or what, so she'll allow me to open it and then run up and down the stairs getting repeatedly furious I invaded her privacy. There aren't enough extra behaviors, like Eddie can't set on her computer chair and do anything at the computer. Generally the girls don't interact with the environment beyond knowing that things in the environment exist and being able to send items to your inventory. It's not really "early access" content, it's the kind of extra fluff and distraction that comes late in development to pad stuff out, and more worth working on is fixing bugs with the core mechanics and create more levels. Make more levels, each bigger, more complicated, and with more endings, to scale up as you go and feel like progression. That's what I think is best.

In general, logical and very focused reasoning, I completely agree with them. I do not know what plans the developers have and how much they understand the existing problems in the mechanics of the game, I do not know what they are working on at the moment. As far as I can see, communication with them is rare in this community. It looks like the main discussions are going on in the discord. But for me, this way of communicating with them is almost closed due to political conflicts in the world. Do you have information about their future plans or maybe a roadmap for the development of the game?