Well, I finished it. Beat the game as a level 12 party (though perhaps it's more like lvl 20 since I changed everyone's class when they were level 8 so I could get the boat). Received ending 1. Didn't know who I would get, honestly, aside from knowing Lockelle was being excommunicated lol. Mefika was just fine as wine to me, though the specific ending was a little bit of a letdown. Still, I kept at it and I'm happy I saw one.
I think I'll wait for an update/balance patch/finalized game(when you have time) before I try another playthrough and attempt to get another ending.
My review:
This game...oh this game... when did this thing come out? 9 days ago? Well, I thank you for keeping me up late every night trying to make progress for over a week now. Heh.
Let's start with the things that need improvement, and end with the things that were a slice of heaven.
This is gonna be a big list, so sit down for a while.
Things that need improvement-
Balance. Big time.
First things first - STATUS EFFECTS.
When you have a page full of status curing items, you miiiiiight have one too many negative status effects ingame. Not only that, but these things range from annoying to atrocious.
Right off the bat you get level 1 enemies that give the party Sick status.
Aside from continuing after combat, the poison is pretty strong. What's worse is (and this is more than likely RPG Maker 2k3 defaults going by how Regen works) that the poison hurts you when ANYTHING makes an action! In 1 turn, you could've been hit by poison 8 times. Just one. That is DEVASTATING, especially to a level one. At early levels, players aren't expected to be rich or have a lot of curing/health items or health/power, so these really hurt. Worse is when the gold you gain from a normal encounter is about 1/6 the cost of just one Antidote.
Also, I have to say, I love tickling. We all do. But damn if this game didn't try its best to make me hate it. Tickling is a god-level negative status effect. It cripples all stats, is creates a weak poison, and it partially silences some moves. It's also not curable. And if that wasn't bad enough, there's an even STRONGER version of it later on in the game that also paralyzes you (and like its lesser version, can't be cured). ARGH!
Second ties in with this - Enemies with status effects.
There are too many. Particularly random encounters. Honestly, when you fear and avoid random encounters more than boss battles, something is wrong. Enemies begin hitting pretty hard, especially when you get a large swarm of them. This is on top of them gaining a lot more HP and... status effects. Every enemy seems to gain some way to cause a bad status to the party. Look into balancing it out where not every enemy is given a stun/poison/paralyze/tickle move while hitting like a truck.
Third - Experience, leveling, and gold gain.
You're already well aware of this, but I want to reiterate it. The game is grindy. Very grindy. Overly grindy. I don't even think Asian MMO's are as grindy as this game, which is what they're known for. The reasons come from several directions. One is the exp rewarded. It takes a long time to gain a level - just one level. The experience is just too little for the work it takes to get it. I can't remember what level I tested it... Think it was 6 - 8. I grinded like crazy on the "cheat" mobs below the class change place. It took me about 40 min to get one level. This is one-shotting each with an auto-attack. The enemies in this level range actually give about the same or less amount of exp and take a lot longer to kill (and make you use up MP, status curing items, and healing items). The gold similarly is weaker. I owe a lot to those toads and spiders, but it gets old fast having to keep at them over and over and over and over.
A thing that helps separate the grind is to add more things that give exp. Bosses give 0. Ok, fine. But that's it. All you have to earn exp in the game is kill, kill, kill. Games break up the monotony by adding alternatives to exp, the easiest being questing. Quests help breakup the grind, even if it's just going out and killing more things, because it offers a quick boost to exp once you're done. It "feels" like something different than going around and attacking random encounters.
The levels take too long, otherwise, to climb even one, and this is "lower" levels. Exp needed keeps adding up with each level, so it starts to drag after a while. Also, as previously mentioned, gold is just too little for a good portion of the game (again, thank you "cheat" mobs). The gold awarded for many fights isn't enough to even cover the repair costs that you had to do to win the battle.
Or y'know what? Make those crystals you find re-usable. That'd cut down so much on grinding. You've already got the guy that'll train you to level 3; why not make more of those trainers as you progress through the game?
Fourth, lackluster spells, spell strength and spell descriptions-
You know what? I bitched about the Goth spell Offering, because I thought it was worthless. And y'know what? I still think it is...except...for the end-bosses. Because of that damn uncurable Tickling 2.0 status, I actually had a use for it to help get my party back in the game. It took the whole game, but I was shocked when I found a purpose for it. However, I still say it's a worthless spell. It's just too niche and only useful one or two battles. Another spell I have no idea what it does is the Dancer's Music spell. I didn't see any changes in battle happen - defense, damage, chance to hit or crit, or anything except the battle music changed to something more playful. Is that all it does?
I feel that spell strength needs improving. I had Lia as one of my Dancers, and she used a whip. Problem is, her whip attacks, while 0 MP, were also less damaging than flat out attacking. They also didn't have a chance to crit like normal attacks do. Spells need to be looked at for balance, particularly with how stats boost them. You should WANT to use them over normal attacks.
Also look into giving them a little better descriptions. Even if it means losing the flavorful text, knowing what a spell does or affects is more helpful.
Fifth, lack of bonding moments with the girls and choices-
I found that all the choices you could do with the girls were mostly at the early levels of the game. Actually, inbetween mid and early. There's soooo much you need to do after these levels that you can't easily go back and continue with a different path. Adding more choices later on in the game would be really helpful, since we don't get many currently and can quickly set what ending we get early on.
Sixth, navigation and direction.
Cured for the most part by the walkthrough. But it's something to take note of for the future. Try and steer the player to where they go next, and place landmarks, roads, or something that helps get them on the right path (or let them know they're even going towards something).
Alright, and now for the good stuff.
First, and it needs to be said first, tickle scenes and game overs.
This. This is a game to make you "happy", if you know what I mean. Sure, the scenes for the most part ended the same, but I really liked all the ways you tickled the girls. The last few places had some really good scenarios happen. Yea, this is not an upperbody fan's game, but after playing so many Jap games that were upperbody exclusive (with foot lovers being thrown a scrap now and then) and a few of our own here on TT that were more upperbody, I am VERY thankful for this game. Seriously - thank you Lurker. As a foot lover, I give this game's tickle scenes two 'fap-tastic' thumbs up.
Second, memorable characters.
Yea yea, you're using the default sprites (but I did notice some edits where they counted 😉). What matters is how you take that material and create your own with it. Ahhhh, a 6-ft tall karate girl with super big, super ticklish feet. Just...made me so happy; she is the type of gal I like, strong, tall, super ticklish, kindhearted, determined but also has her moments of weakness. From what it sounded like, they all had big feet. Wonderful. But their personalities were fun. Ok, Lockelle would be someone I'd shove into a tickle trap the first chance I got if she were a real life person; what with all that baby/weird talk, but she was a fun, unique character (though, I don't trust her nearly as much as the rest of my party 😛). Yuka was honorable and she was true to her word, even if it meant torture (or in one case, a relationship). Lia was...well...shy I guess. And squeamish? Ok, don't know much on her. Seemed ok. Plus, yknow, pirate lass. Maria was...well...heroine material. Mefika...mmmm... now there's a woman we'd all love to be close to. Evil, yet not really. She knew how to heat things up too. Overall, I enjoyed the life you brought the characters.
Third, weapons and armor.
I know, I know, seems stupid to add this. But you gave a lot of variety with these that helped build up our characters. Yes, I did end up sticking to staffs for casters and non-staffs for everything else, but the option was there. I could've built the characters into odd specs if I wanted to. Valkyrie was even designed to let the player choose what weapons they wanted to concentrate on. Trying to find all these different items was fun too. Broomsticks. Man I love Broomsticks. Witches be making people their bitches with these things.
Improvements need to be made, but hey - you kept me playing for over a week. Granted, at least half of that time was artificially made with grinding out the ass so I could continue, but I still am happy I completed your game. I look forward to any additions you make, and I'm curious if you might make another game one day (and we see our beloved beauties again). I'd also like to try a crack at the other endings some day.
So thank you for making a game that kept me occupied for so long. It was your first game, but you worked at it and got it out there for all of us to enjoy.