Step-by-step thought process:
01. was the intro always that serene and beautiful? Love the piano music. Nicely told creation myth, too.
02. Still the funn
dwarves MINERS standing around doing nothing in the intro, hehe.
03. Ah, a better incentive to explore the forest: heal your fellow soldiers! Wait - I can't dash with
shift?
04. Wow, is this the same forest? I don't remember the atmosphere and lighting to be this... awesome.
05. battles are still awesome. Battle Cry for the win!
06. Hunk! Why do you live in an old grave, you silly old man.
07. Ooh, I definitely don't remember such a dark Uncharted Grounds. Aah! The ghosts move now!
08. Treasure....gold....trasure... armour!
09. Somehow, this second time I play it, the impeding darkness of that guy's grave (zeyphyr? Zeyrmed.dsm..something?) is more striking now.
10. Love the new sprite for the mythical old man/god/deity. Works much better this way.
11. Yea! I can pull switches with my mind now.
12. Better ask Hunk for permission to cut the tree.
13. Ha! You wrote that into the story! I
can ask permission! Yoink, that treasure is mine. Poison ring? Where were you when I needed you before!
14. Wiola, don't be scared. I'm only a powerful mysterious man with a huge sword hiding behind the shrubs.
15. Did you increase the soldiers' and captain's difficulty? What a challenge now!
16. N-no, I don't want you to see me naked...
17. Fire! I remember this. And such a heartwarming way to team up after.
18. Love the overworld theme. Wish it would loop better.
19. Nice town! N-no! Demo, don't end! I want to walk around the town!
20.
I want to keep playing!
Demo 1.2 vs 1.3My goodness, you were not kidding about the overhaul of the demo. Specifically the forest and Uncharted Grounds look gorgeous, and simply breathe atmosphere. I had to get used not being able to dash, as I love doing that in my game (and various others). In terms of story and mystique, you have added a lot of intriguing details and lore. The confusion and chaos is gone, and is, instead, replaced with a certain 'mythos'. I found various items in barrels and boxes, so those are nice additions as well. Hunk is a marvelous addition, just a bit silly he lives inside a grave, and doesn't have his own little cabin or so. The start of Vincent's quest, with the soldiers, gives you an immediate purpose and establishes his personality very well, too. From the get-go he is a likable main character, looking to help his fellow soldiers.
I suppose the biggest change, for me, is the
atmosphere. I was looking forward to it, and instead of having a nice time, I got completely absorbed into the story. Battles are, still, very impressive, and the animations and sprites of the characters in fights are amazingly done. Skills look especially good, and I wonder how you did that, or what battle script you use.
The two characters, Vincent and Wiola, nicely hint to each other being special, which I think was there last time too. The little touch after you save Wiola from the fire (where she waits a little then mentions your name to thank you) is perfectly timed, and promises for a great friendship (
romance?) to grow in-game. Gladly you spent a lot of time on them last demo as well!
There are still quite some spelling and/or grammatical mistakes here and there, of which I won't go into detail. They aren't bad enough to distract me from playing, and chances are you'll be on top of it anyway.
I mean it when I say I didn't want to stop playing. I understand this will be a massive project, taking long to complete, but I will gladly follow your progress and give feedback. With a 1:45 hours demo done, I wonder what I should do next. Steadily keep working on my game, I suppose.