Alright well I found this from reddit, and just came here to click around for a bit, but ended up playing through the whole thing.
I'm probably a bit of a weird case since I don't really like to play the games I like most.
Like rpgs and stuff that creative people can make with RPG Maker. So I love the concept but not really playing them.
Anyway, I played your game until what appears to be the end of the demo, and it felt weirdly familiar. How long ago did you make this? I feel like I've seen this before, whether it was screenshots or other people talking about it. Anyway, good luck on your newer projects.
stuff I liked:
-consistent animation, art style, aesthetic and theme. Writing was also consistent. Lot of lovable characters and stuff from your inspirations
-game was actually pretty fun (at least at some point). at first I just sort of chugged along, but at some point it just 'clicked' and I started to enjoy the fights and picking equipment and mixing/matching and conserving resources (or not!) so it was pretty entertaining trying everything out, or seeing what I could get away with at times.
-low value rpg stats that seem really well hand-picked. If you just threw some numbers together and hoped for the best, I understand that too but most of the values didn't seem too out of place for almost anything. I like to mix and match items and stats and when the numbers are comparable, every point seems to matter, and it shows. So that was fun for me and it really helped the gameplay to a point where I actually enjoyed it (not sure if others would feel the same though).
-mostly relevant signs and directions on where to go next. Didn't seem like you had too many or too few, so this was moderately impressive all on its own
-great use of the tools available to you. The pseudo-3D engine didn't crash or bug out or anything, I never got stuck or softlocked, etc
-dialogue was pretty good. characters got their point across and felt like they belonged in the world. if you fell into some easy traps that young/novice devs might with writing dialogue I'd say so, but instead everything felt pretty well-placed and consistent. good job there too
-oh yeah, the tilework and all of that was really, really good. It's so easy to make maps that are empty/boring/long, but you have made some really nice-looking, compact environments that still have really good-looking surprises and stuff to find (even stuff hidden in plain sight).
-humor was pretty good too. really consistent, some fourth wall breaks here and there, none of the characters stepped too far over the line to ruin the tone, and it all just worked well together
stuff I didn't like:
-battle background seemed a bit strange. not bad, but seemed a little out of place
-the default rpg maker noises are grating to my ears (not your fault -- having worked with it for a couple of years on my own game the default noises just sound so ear-piercing instead of soft and pleasing. I'm not sure why this bothers me so much but every "confirmation" click just feels awful. Again, not your fault and it might be a solid design choice, especially since the familiarity of the controls helps me jump right in and know what to expect with the equipment, items, buying/selling and all of the standard RPG maker controls. The familiar sound effects and music might be a good thing.
i really, really hope that you keep working on making fun stuff
it'd be a shame if your work on this game was truly disappointing to put away your work indefinitely