ProgressionAddict's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pico's School: Love Conquers All]

epic

[A shard of mine]

While I genuinely enjoy the game and the route it went was interesting as hell, I experienced a fair share of glitches during play.

For example, during the end of the game, I accidentally hit spacebar during the end cutscene and reloaded my previous save, which caused me to be unable to fight the final boss again and put me into a softlock, making the game impossible to actually complete.

Additionally, while I do enjoy the GBA aesthetic and the clear inspiration from Pokemon, I do feel that some of the armors and weapons could've been better balanced. For example, the Staff and Bow and Arrow are objectively two of the stronger weapons in the game, with the Staff having a defense buff akin to the Sword and Shield, while also having a heal that's 2x better-- effectively rendering the Sword and Shield useless by comparison, and making magic overpowered in the process.

Though, balance issues aside, I really did like the idea of customizing your build and playstyle around a preferred weapon and armor set. It added a lot of variety to the gameplay where it would've otherwise felt a bit repetitive. Plus, the looting to get materials to upgrade your preferred method of combat was an interesting idea, though I felt it would've been more interesting to have a skill tree of sorts instead, where each level you choose boons you can get related to a specific set or armor or weapon you have unlocked.

Also-- A respawn mechanic would've been very useful. Even if only in in-between areas, it would've helped the player if grinding was necessary to have enemies around that are easy to find instead of having to do a scavenger hunt for them. It's not to say I DISLIKE the way it's set up personally, but I can see that potentially being an issue for some players and thus I think it's a concern that should be addressed.

As of the story and world, I liked it! I think the fragment system could've been implemented better, with each fragment being a short cutscene explaining what was written instead of just a wall of text, as the visuals didn't feel particularly grabbing. Besides from that, the idea of all the enemies being themed around different elements of mental brokenness was a good tying theme, and the final four "miniboss" characters before the final fight were challenging as well.

As a whole, it's definitely a very good, aesthetically pleasing RPG with a short playtime and a generally rewarding "grinding" system. Its flaws are definitely *there*, but it's a worthwhile experience nonetheless.

[RAKUGA FANTASY]

This game is really cool actually. Has a very weirdly specific vibe to me, like one of those games BMO from Adventure Time would have Finn and Jake play. I like it!

Though, I feel like the instructions for the microgames are a bit confusing at first, which lead me to die a lot originally. That's not inherently a bad thing, Warioware generally uses that playstyle, but it definitely overwhelms a player easily. Still a good time though!

[Souls Rest]

Overall a pretty cool game! Though, I felt it was a bit heavy on backtracking for my taste. Not to mention, the game just felt pretty vague and there wasn't much concrete about it until towards the end. It's not to say the game was BAD, but it wasn't very impactful and the writing just didn't feel that compelling.

Still, pretty cool. I thought the aesthetic was an interesting choice and the music was decently well made.

LynxIeles responds:

Thank you for the review. The backstory is mostly just setting up lore for this and later chapters. It does make the first chapter a bit text heavy as a result. sorry about that.

[FRIDAY NIGHT FUNKIN']

So far, I seem to be having trouble loading the game on desktop. It might just be that my device is a Chromebook, but I do genuinely wanna give this game a try as I've seen gameplay of it and it seems great. Does anyone have any advice on anything I might be able to do?