Ephemeral Gate [v0.321] [Wr1ckad]

Let’s see if this one will go through…

The game has a few mechanical problems at the moment, that might be improved.

* It doesn’t allow respawning monsters, so you can’t actually grind for levels (how exactly you intend to carry on long enough for the player and party to be able to even face down – nevermind KILL a god, I do not know)

* Per level up you gain skills at seeming random intervals. Not all of them are currently useful.
– You also only gain +1 to most of your stats (with no focus on classes to differentiate I might add) and a few HP/MP
[This is NOT nearly enough to be worth the PITA of getting exp in game – or to help you feel like you can actually SURVIVE in combat encounters]

* The economy is absolutely atrocious (quel surprise) and everything is WAY too damned expensive.
Tied = The sex scenes and relationship progress are “locked” by a gift system. The gifts all cost 50 GP each.
– The princess has a different scaled reward to her gift receiving than the other characters do. She takes more, which is expensive. [You have to balance this against the cost of armor, weapon upgrades or skills that might be helpful = that’s WAY TOO MUCH]

* There is currently ONE sex scene we have access to; and even if you do manage to grind enough cash to get to see it (as mentioned above – it will take a VERY long time, when it really shouldn’t = especially if you’re aiming for the harem and have to actually give gifts to EVERY GIRL) she will still tell MC NOT to cum inside; in a game that has the pregnancy tag – and guarantees that if you do cum inside = she WILL get pregnant! – and then bitches about going to take a herb to prevent it. DO. NOT. DO. THIS… In your own words as warning Dev, YOU are the one that points out in both cases (vanilla & NTR) that a creampie WILL result in a girl getting pregnant. You really should not make any of the characters bounce backward on that. Especially with how much of a PITA it is to get even ONE of them to the point they’re willing to fuck you.

On top of all of that:

* There is no identifiable map, so figuring out how to get to where you’re supposed to go next can fuck you over by putting your party in an area you’re not prepared for yet. The city is especially egregious for this. All you really have to do is put the name of the given place we’re at in the top right or left corner of the screen so players will know where the fuck we are; and might actually be able to FIND the area a given quest wants us to go, because we’ll know it when we get there.

* There are side quests in the game, but good luck finding them. I actually restarted at one point because while you can ENTER the crypt in the graveyard; you cannot currently EXIT it, after you’ve dealt with the zombies and the necromancer. The one adventurer’s quest to deal with the zombies in the sewers actually requires you to talk to the royal messenger in your granted estate; to progress the story. Do you know how long I tried looking everywhere for that arse, before I decided fuck it, let’s try this way? (It would be better in the quest log to identify that that quest requires you to progress the main story to X point)

So far I have found:
– Help The Maid Not be in debt (you get a blowjob) * It’s a chain quest, with a LOT of backtracking.
– Gain weapons from rabble and give them to X guard. (This probably requires the same as the zombie sewer quest)
– Get Potions for X Priest (You end up having to backtrack into the forest you just cleared to get entrance to the city)
– Get 6 crag flowers (Would be nice if you kept track of the amount we currently held in the inventory – rather than just a screen that players might skip saying Ok, we have enough)
– Help Amelia find her family (By that point I kinda didn’t really need the increase in relationship – and it’s not clear by how much, so the “reward” for this fell a bit flat * There is no extra scene as far as I can tell, so all you get is ??? To your relationship with the Druid = which would be an interesting way to make her a combat focused OFF-Healer, just saying)

Also: If I’m level 8 and a group of 3 rats or three slimes can still take a third of several of my characters’ HP in one fight… you need to rebalance things Bud. A lot. There’s a difference between “Challenge” to the point where working for your reward still feels good; and I have no clue what I’m doing, to I’m actively trying to screw you over stat wise just to make the game seem harder than it actually would be if I balanced things right.

The party as stands:

MC = The All Arounder: It’s not even uniquely his role; and it would be better if the player got to choose where he’ll specialize, because… [Also, why did you make this asshole the “sword & board” type? First, we should be able to equip ANY weapon and armor to him as a unique feature; and second you picked the most basic bitch boring assed style for the MC. He doesn’t even have any actual skills I didn’t PAY for yet… nevermind Defensively based ones]

Kasumi = The ALL AROUNDER!!! She is the exact same character, but female. You even stated she’s NOT going to be included in the harem except as the VERY LAST thing to be included. Why. The. Fuck. Is. She. Here?!? You’re actively taking away from the importance of the MC (and if she ends up not actually being blood related it wouldn’t surprise me) just to include the stay away from my sister troupe? At least SHE can dual wield, which instantly makes her better than the MC…

Amelia = The Healer: For some reason she can equip one handed weapons in dual wielding, even though there’s literally NO good reason a healer type should be able to do that. She’s the white mage my guy. Magic of the healing and buffing sort is her bread and butter. It should be her strongest stat, but again you’re gimping the player by letting EVERYONE level up in all areas… by +1 at a time. : / you have NO idea how much I hate that. Differentiating classes, even if you want to go a different route and make them more blended down interesting paths, isn’t that bloody hard to do.

Reina = The Rogue-Like: The bratty thief with a heart of Gold… at least she wasn’t the bad-ass mercenary who’s ICE COLD that we have to break down the walls with, oh. Fuck me… Anyway, this one is probably the closest to the intended archtype as far as stats go. She can dual wield. She has high agility and decent luck. She doesn’t have any thief based abilities (but she gets the troupe of I will boost my core stat in combat, because of course) * It’s more her character that I’m annoyed with. If she has problems touching, or being touched – you need to be very clear as to why, and not go in with the “lucky pervert” troupe. At least if you want players to take her any kind of seriously. There are ways to write this sort of character to be genuinely “I want to protect you.” Or endearing. That’s all I’ll say. Right now, she comes off as the kid with a chip on her shoulder, who’s little orphan Annie, but also somehow massively spoiled.

The Princess = The Paladin: Because of course. As mentioned above, aside from being the slowest burn there’s the usual bullshit of romance with a princess (where she is by law required to marry her own CLASS = Does NOT work with the Robin Hood; Unless you do intend to actually give this Broke Bitch an official NOBLE title, or make him the untouchable hero of her city wherein his status would equal to better hers) Other than that, she’s the death before dishonor, duty before everything else, I have a stick up my arse (and she’ll like Anal the most out of all of them if you have ANY actual decent sense of humor Dev…) type. With literally ONE friend. Before MC, that is. She should be your Dragoon Knight, with the lance and shield style, OR use a big two-handed Holy Enchanted Fuck Right OFF sword. So far she’s not built the way a paladin really needs to be, but I will say the armored gloves on her get up are a nice nod. [She. Is. Wearing. A. Tiara!!! From the start… how in the FUCK do you think the party wouldn’t at least assume she was Noble Born, or more likely a princess. This is NOT a “reveal”]

Lucielle = The Dragon: Tanks R Us. What; I said Tanks, not Tits. It’s not my fault the character who SHOULD be the most busted is actually… the most, Busted. ; ) At least she’s got junk in the trunk, and it’s not just all that heavy armor (which really does NEED to be shown; and give her a MUCH better actual Armor stat) At least she comes with a crude sword, which is a middle of the road as far as what you can buy – but it’s better than what your party’s found by that point. Seriously, THIS ONE should be the Sword & Board because = My Offense IS my Defense. Call her ass the Iron Maiden and have done. Seriously, this is the sort of character who by virtue or either raw Defense stat, heavy as fuck armor COMBINED with raw defense stat, or and Regenerative abilities, should be the CLUTCH. The one that DOES NOT go down. (She should actually be able to teach the MC how to be close to the same – if he’s the “all arounder” it’d be a unique spin on the reason it’s a harem game for him to actually be able to learn all of his females’ fighting styles and or abilities * That way we can just call him Lemmy, and he grows into The Ace, in Spades)

There’s also a Mage type based on her assigned gift, but I haven’t found her yet. Frankly I had enough trouble trying to boost all of the girls affections without being able to properly grind for Gold Pieces. Better Gear, or skills took a massive back seat, all because you decided NOT to allow respawning enemies. Which if the player wants to put in the effort and with a more refined level up reward system might actually negate the NEED for better armor and weapons if you wanted to play that way instead.

End of the day, the game’s plot’s a little standard, but the idea of routing out a traitor to the throne is something that if handled well, could get interesting. I’m not sure if you’re going to care to implement any of the suggestions about correcting the class based stuff – but dude, at least consider allowing for proper grinding so the party’s not constantly scraping for coin or two seconds from getting it’s ass kicked in. There is potential here. The structure’s not bad, but it does need refining. Do I think it’s a dick move to lock away the lewd scenes behind that harsh a wall = absolutely. But the structure of it’s not a bad way to go about it. The reason it sucks balls is more about the borked pricing in the economy; and again, even that would be something you could counter by allowing the enemies to actually respawn. If the party at any point is supposed to take on something that is in ANY way, comparable to or even comes close to being compared to a God = you’re not actually intending a low level adventure anyway. So it seems more like an intentional withholding of necessary stats, just to inflate the difficulty of the game, artificially.