Turn Based RPG Mirthful Lilies (Demo)

[LilyFlorist]

Do you like tickling anime girls? What about some yuri? Turn-based RPGs? If the answer to all of these are "yes", you should check out my game, Mirthful Lilies (Demo):
https://lilyflorist.itch.io/mirthful-lilies

Mirthful Lilies takes you on a light-hearted and humorous story as Chie, a 22-year old woman with a love for adventuring, comes across an odd Orb on one of her travels. Together, her and her childhood friend Izumi discover that the Orb reacts to laughter, moreso that caused by tickling. Even more strange, these Orbs are everywhere! And after hearing a promise of having their wish granted should they find 10 Runes hidden in these Orbs, they set off to find them all and are joined by a cast of other women!

This game features (more accurate creditting can be found on the Demo Page):
-A cast of VAs that is still growing
-Cute and sexy tickling on Necks, Armpits, Chests, Tummies, Thighs and Feet
-Non-violent Turn-based Combat with Tickle Based attacks
-Unique Overworld Sprites and Battler Art
-Original Music (made by me!)
-6 Tickle Scenes, 4 which are fully voiced (the full release will have MANY more!)
-Unlockable Tickle Scenes via an Item found in the Gacha (in-game currency only!)

Feel free to give it a shot if this sounds like your kind of game! Also feel free to leave commenta/feedback!

Also note that MANY issues in the Demo have been fixed in the current version (early access slated to release on my Patreon late August), such as acquiring Feathers, some Map Reworks and Fast Traveling. Sadly these will not be reflected in the Demo version; sorry in advanced!

 

[Someshadowthing]

That was very long for a demo and a ton of fun so far. certainly my type of RPG. Didn't notice any bugs. I think I saw everything worth seeing.
I hope the existing save files carry over to the final version. Well done.
6 scenes though. I feel like i'm missing one.
I may need to ask which I missed. and i'm not sure if the other scenes with the gacha are accessable yet.

 

[LilyFlorist]

That was very long for a demo and a ton of fun so far. certainly my type of RPG. Didn't notice any bugs. I think I saw everything worth seeing.
I hope the existing save files carry over to the final version. Well done.
6 scenes though. I feel like i'm missing one.
I may need to ask which I missed. and i'm not sure if the other scenes with the gacha are accessable yet.

Glad you enjoyed!

I will try my hardest to make all of the Save Files carry over to the full version, but unfortunately Plugins can be a bit tricky i that regard. But so far everything should be fine!

 

[Someshadowthing]

Glad you enjoyed!

I will try my hardest to make all of the Save Files carry over to the full version, but unfortunately Plugins can be a bit tricky i that regard. But so far everything should be fine!

So what did I miss? I got the 4 voiced scenes and i know i explored everywhere i could think of. What are the other scenes?

 

[LilyFlorist]

So what did I miss? I got the 4 voiced scenes and i know i explored everywhere i could think of. What are the other scenes?

There's an Item you can get from the Gacha that allows you to unlock the Enemy Scenes; in the Demo only the Fairy and Lamia have the scenes!

It may be a bit annoying, but you can save scum it; in the current version of the game, the Feathers have been reworked to be FAR easier to obtain

 

[Someshadowthing]

There's an Item you can get from the Gacha that allows you to unlock the Enemy Scenes; in the Demo only the Fairy and Lamia have the scenes!

It may be a bit annoying, but you can save scum it; in the current version of the game, the Feathers have been reworked to be FAR easier to obtain

I have the gacha to level two. I assume that's the limit and you are suggesting I just need to keep reloading and trying.

 

[LilyFlorist]

Unfortunately yes; you need the Feather of Knismolagnia, then to defeat the Fairy/Lamia and choose their Weakspot (save beforehand).

All Enemies will have a Scene to them, and Feathers are MUCH easier to obtain in the recent version; sorry again!

 

[Someshadowthing]

Unfortunately yes; you need the Feather of Knismolagnia, then to defeat the Fairy/Lamia and choose their Weakspot (save beforehand).

All Enemies will have a Scene to them, and Feathers are MUCH easier to obtain in the recent version; sorry again!

Took some backtracking to find some fairies but they both worked.
Don't apologize, it's a fantastic game i am very much looking forward to playing the full version of. A lot clearly goes into this.

 

[LilyFlorist]

Glad you like it!!

Note that the current version does feature Fast Traveling!

 

[Someshadowthing]

Glad you like it!!

Note that the current version does feature Fast Traveling!

So what exactly is coming in the august release? Just more feathers for different creatures and fast travel? Nothing particularly new beyond that?

 

[LilyFlorist]

I won't get into too much detail here (full Dev Posts are on my Patreon), but there will be new explorable areas (1 will be optional, the rest are Story related), New Bosses, a new Playable MC and a lot more Tickle Scenes to discover. Plus some additional graphical stuff!

 

[sharkattack500]

I think it's awesome that you are making a game and there is a lot I like about it.

• It's very charming. The characters are fun, the dialogue isn't cheesy or cringey.
• The sound effects during the dialogue are well placed (reminds me of Rune Factory in a good way). The VA's do a great job.
• The music is nice. Not outstanding, but it fits.
• Art is great, art style is clever too with changing portraits during battle. It's expressive in all the right ways.

That being said, I'm sorry to say, but I think it's a bad game. What I mean by that is the gameplay elements are not fun. There are 3 main things which eventually led to me stopping playing an hour and half into it.

1. The maps are way too big. There is so much empty space. So much needless walking around. The maps are also very boring with the same graphics plastered on (with the exception of the mountain caves, although that one could also use some shrinking in my opinion).
   1. Take a look at some of these examples. The towns are compact, but interesting, everything is clearly labeled and laid out. The forest isn't a giant winding maze for no reason.
      1. https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/f...st/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20140223033130
      2. https://rpgamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/romancing-saga-3-image.jpg
      3. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/562810-final-fantasy-v/map/4549?raw=1
   2. As an addendum, why even have an overworld if it's just basically a tube with no exploration? Might as well be a menu or have the areas just lead into each other. Especially if you plan to enable fast travel, players are going to skip over it anyway.
2. The battles are a grind. There is no reason for the first enemies to take 3-4 weakspot hits to defeat (also summon hands seems to miss a lot, which is frustrating when the battles are so long). Also, why do the first enemies have a confuse and restrain attack? This further elongates the tedious battles. I think it would be helpful to watch some longplays of classic pixel RPG's to get a sense of early battles. 1-2 hits max is a sweet spot in my opinion. OR you can make the weakspots much more effective encouraging more strategic battling (a la Persona style).
3. This one is more personal preference, but I dislike gacha mechanics in general and the way its implemented in this case is tedious. I have to find the blue save cyrstal, spend my coin to buy joy orbs, go into the items, click through 4 choices, manually click to the number of orbs, wait for all the items to be rolled through one by one, sell all my duplicate gems (which involves traversing a long ways), go back to the blue crystal, buy more orbs with money, etc. Honestly, it was easier to save scum than do all that (which is monotonous in its own way).

I guess you could sum up my complaints with the game as the pacing and quality of life. Seriously, watch a long play of any classic pixel jrpg and see how far they get in an hour and a half, I felt like I barely made any progress. And I don't want to end on a bad note, so I want to emphasize that there is a lot of potential and a lot of great ideas. I love how you need to know the enemy weakness to use the feather correctly to get the scene. That was something the game implicitly told you was important so you would know it anyway. The different gems and their specialities is a cool idea that allows for your customization of your team. And like I said earlier, everything art related is great!

 

[LilyFlorist]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad ypu tried the project out, and you gave very valuable feedback. I won't make excuses, but I'll answer as best as I can. Also keep in mind that the changes in the current version will not be updated in the Demo sadly:

1. Yes, the too much walking has been mentioned to me before. I too am disatisfied with the World Map and have plans to change it; the problem is mapping is not my strongsuit. The maps DO get better over time IMO (via Patreon Poll, Virga Forest was COMPLETELY redone and is far more linear, even though the Underground Caves and the Exit where you see Yuu/Aiko for the first time stayed mostly the same). So I am planning on redoing the World Map (with explorable areas), but truth be told I have no idea how well it will turn out either way. I was honestly waiting on comments about the World Map to see if people were okay with it or if it needed to be adjusted; so thank you for verifying my suspicions. Working with the RTP, I tried to design a bedroom, but everything room related ONLY faces south... even after watching tutorials, I just can't fet the hang of it.

2. Now that you mention it, the first 2 Enemies having these attacks is a bit out of place... this can be easily adjusted, and I appreciate you telling me this. Another thing I've tried hard to break are the hard/tedious battles. By nature, I'm a grindlord of sorts, and thrive when things are very difficult, and that made it's way into this game at times. I've since done a LOT of retuning to the Enemies to make things more fair/fun (Lamia were near impossible before, Yuu used to have a LOT of Evasion, things used to have more HP, etc.)

3. With the Gacha, unfortunately the only way to streamline this would be to get another Plugim, which is fine and all, but that's also a lot more money I'd have to spend (I've already spent a lot, and have a lot more to go) to achieve what I already have in place. What I will say is I have reworked how to get Feathers, so getting them is now no longer RNG dependant. I also am thinking of including an Item that will take you to your last Fast Travel point so you can access Blue Crystals easier. But again, this will not be reflected in the Demo.

Also, I just wanted to add:

I'm not sure how much you like the music, but I'm glad you enjoyed it at least a bit! Ultimately I work on the game off of my bed/laptop, no College degrees, and I go to work Thursdays through Sundays. I've made every bit of the music myself in LMMS, and with the exception of 3 tracks, I'm actually proud how they turned out! The fact you say it "fits" (which I agree with) means that it's a win for me! Better than it being bad LMFAO

 

[sharkattack500]

I really appreciate your attitude about the feedback.

Mapping is hard! It's easy for me to sit back and criticize, but I acknowledge that coming up with this stuff is something that takes a lot of thought and effort. One thing I forgot to say I liked was the Deep Virga Forest section. The maze works! I think because it introduces an interesting mechanic of looping AND even if you take a wrong path, you get some useful treasure.

I don't mind a difficult or grindy game (ie persona) but what i like about those is that it's punishes in a fair way. There is great reward for knowing you enemies' weakness allowing you to steamroll them, but if your own weakness gets targeted, you get taken out quickly also. Again, much harder to actually design a good battle system than me just spewing ideas out there.

I think making the feathers not RNG bound is a good choice. And i understand working within the limits of the plugin. Glad to hear some of the QOL stuff is being added.

Honestly, the music is just fine. It feels lighthearted, just like the game. Everyone wants to be Toby Fox, but no one wants to make music and games for 14 years to do it.

 

[LilyFlorist]

Likewise, thanks for actually giving your feedback! While it was mostly negative, you had clear reasons for why you disliked specific aspects of the project. I honestly wish I received more negative feedback like this (within reason). As the Game Dev, I see the project differently than others will, and so certain flaws that may be obvious to players won't be obvious to me. This is why Demo feedback is super valuable. I believe that's the key to making games ultimately better.

I've been contemplating about a fully custom tileset, but we're looking at a large sum of money, at the minimum over a thousand dollars. I'll also release a few more Patreon polls, to see where my patrons stand on certain matters.