I was really intrigued by the game's premise and wanted to see where it went but the RNG just decided that I couldn't even sit down to enjoy the game. Over 2 hours of gameplay and I didn't get past the third battle because all my attacks/dialogue attempts fail but the enemies have unlimited critics it seems... Maybe I'll try again later, but right now I'm just tired...
Aw, sorry to hear that. I heard complaints about the rng, and though it goes both ways, it does seem that the emotional and cognitive impact of negative outcomes is stronger. Or maybe you were just unlucky. But still, every battle is designed to allow for strategies that rely less on luck. It's good to experiment.
I've been able to move forward in the game since then and I'm torn between love and hate. I like the atmosphere and the graphic style, but above all I want to see where the game wants to take us.
But “It misses” I think is really the phrase I've read most in the game. I have no idea if I'm a terrible player (although I've played some recent Fire Emblem games that didn't give me such a hard time haha) or if RNG hates me, but I can't take the endless defeats any more. I've been able to try out different strategies, but I keep getting stuck and the battles are long, so trying again each time takes a lot of time. The game would have really benefited from an easy mode for people who just want to enjoy the story.
Honestly, though, taking aside the fact that I personally find the fights just irritating, I think it's a very good game, and I hope I'll have the patience to get through the fights to enjoy the story. This is nothing more than my impression of the game anyway, and I think it's still a pretty good one.
PS: Sorry if I made any spelling mistakes, English is not my first language.
I can't say you are being unfair because other people had this complaint as well. I've watched different people playing and they had different experiences. Some liked to strategize and were satisfied when strategy worked; some found it balanced; some found it irritating, like you; and to some it was just impossible. Anyways, if "it misses" is what you're getting the most, maybe focus more on AGI? And if you do move further, please let me know your thoughts!
Well, I persevered and I struggled and the fights made me rage, but I got through them.
Watch out for potential spoilers if you happen to be passing by! An example of poor RNG is when I had to restart Daredevil's fight in the church a dozen times because, despite the sound of the bell and his low percentage chance of hitting me, he was making critical hits and I missed.
Still, I wanted to finish the game, so I spent an afternoon farming and doing other stuff simultaneously so I could boost my characters to their maximum abilities in all their costumes and move on, and it was so nice not to have to struggle any more.
So once I'd got over the fighting, I was able to concentrate on what I really liked about the game: the atmosphere, the characters and the style. This comic-book style gave the game a very unique identity, which I really enjoyed. And mixing different universes works pretty well here: when I saw John Lennon appear, I wondered how it was going to fit in, but it did, actually.
The game could really have ended after the concert, that would have been great too, but I must admit I was surprised by the last-minute drama and the ending, which depressed me a bit but gave me the final answers. So, just in case, because it made me wonder, isn't there another ending if you do a special action during Morrigan's confrontation?
In conclusion, you can tell this game was made by a comic book fan, and it's been a real pleasure to play (apart from the annoying fights, which I was able to solve with intensive farming, but that's a me problem). Anyway, I wish you all the best for the future if you release any new games !
PS: I feel that the Stay and Fight commands should be reversed, because I've often passed my turn unintentionally, trying to go too fast as Stay was the default command, and in doing so I've screwed up a lot of fights that were about to end.
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm really glad you persevered through the aspects of the game that annoyed you! There is another ending, actually. After you beat the game once, you'll notice a thunder sound on the title screen. That means the new game is a new game+, which is basically the same thing except for two things: Superman gets a new ability, and you're given a choice on the Morrigan fight that leads to the other ending. Actually, if you have a save file before the Morrigan fight, you can get that choice even without starting a new game. I wouldn't call neither ending "good" or "bad", they're just different.
I'm not a big superhero universe fan, but found this to be an extremely enjoyable, immersive story-based RTS game worthy of anybody's time. The music is extremely spot-on for each battle, and people who pay attention to little details will be especially surprised. I must admit, I about died laughing during the Bad Romance battle when the Go-Go dancers started shaking it during the chorus and the strobe lights went crazy.
The storytelling is very gripping and true to the fashion of how comic books would tell you just enough to stay hooked until the next book. Knowing that John Lennon was in it, I thought there was no way you'd be able to link him into a storyline with superheroes, but it is executed flawlessly. Very nicely done!
I've really been enjoying the game, and I'm about 4 hours in (and I normally don't like any of the super-hero stuff at all, but somehow you've pulled off something different). I think I will pick it as the next pick for the RTP (Rarely Typical Players) podcast when it's my turn in about three weeks.
Here is the channel, I'll remind you before we do the stream as well if you'd like to attend. Every Wednesday at 11AM (Pacific Time, UTC -8): https://www.youtube.com/@RarelyTypicalPlayers
I'm glad you're enjoying it! I've always been a fan of superheroes, but to be honest, there isn't much superhero stuff out there recently I actually enjoy. I tried making it its own thing! I hope the RTP podcast feature works out! I'm curious ^^
I am approximately 50% of the way through The Lonely League with a game clock of ~10 hours. I feel I've played more than enough to state that this is worthy of your time, particulary if you enjoy the source material the game is based off of.
I don't normally play Tactics RPG's - I've never found one where the story has gripped me enough to endure the lengthly battles that accompany the genre. This is not the case with LL -- the story continues to intrigue, and that for me is one of Calunio's biggest strengths.
Regarding the battles themselves... On occasion, I'm uncertain as to whether my success is based on pure luck, or good strategy. A fine balance of these two things is often challenging to hit, and not all players will be happy with Calunio's approach - since it can ramp up the difficulty somewhat. However, if you persist and search for new and alternative ways to tackle each situation - you'll bank the rewards.
FInally, the game is a visual delight with a lot of care and attention to detail that follows and builds from Calunio's previous works (THERAPIST: Mind Manager) - I appreciate this a lot. I cannot stress enough the charm that has gone into The Lonely League. I adore the cut-scenes (that sometimes have these neat little interactive parts) and the emotional beats between scenes. It's an all-round great package.
I'm really glad you're enjoying the story and the presentation and that they're making the challenging battles worthwhile! If you do get to finish it, I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on the whole story!
What an incredible game! I'm just over halfway through, and this could probably be honestly one of the best pieces of superhero media I've experienced. I was tentative in expectations to start off with, but it only got better and better over time. Really recommend this to anybody who is a fan of either superhero media or tactics RPGs... or just good stories in general. I'm a big fan of most of Calunio's games, but this is him operating at the peak of his powers. Will give a full review when I'm finished! :)
This past weekend I played your game. Overall, there is a glimmer of something interesting in this game but it has a lot of rough edges.
This game caught my attention based on the striking art and polish in the looks of the game. It definitely seemed like a cut-above-the-rest when compared to other RPG Maker games. There was also some impressive foresight in including a warning (and option to disable) about copywritten music for streamers, big, big A+ on this one, thank you! However, things quickly started falling apart.
First, a major pet-peeve of mine is games that don't give you a chance to check the options menu before starting the game. Game developers should know - and allow - players to adjust the game to the way they are most comfortable playing before they start playing. Though, once I was in game, I realized the reason why the option menu was missing from the title screen: there really are no options, which is just strange. There are so many things that could and should be in the option menu to ensure players are able to play the game comfortably: from allowing for faster turns and animation, to rebindable keys, to volume sliders, plus countless other things.
Once the game begins, a proper tutorial is never given to the player. Another A+ design decision is allowing the player to access a written tutorial at any time from the menu. This is great for returning players or players who may have forgotten some nuance in the design after the tutorial. However, this is not a substitution for a proper tutorial. A proper tutorial should walk players through the controls of the game to help them get to grips with the controls and nuance of the mechanics. This is also a great place to include an option in your options menu to either enable or disable tutorials for players who either wish to figure it out themselves or players who have already played the tutorial once.
Next, there is a strange disconnect in the first combat encounter. After witnessing our protagonist use physical violence to solve his problem, our first mission in a tactics game is...to not use violence and make our way to an objective. I really felt like I was missing some sort of key bit of information because enemies hit like a mac truck making me want to avoid them at all cost. This is why a proper tutorial would have helped me feel more confident that I was playing the game properly. The second mission seemed virtually impossible to complete simply due to feeling underpowered. Am I expected to grind deaths to get EXP to complete the fight? Surely not, that seems like a daft way of overcoming the challenge presented in the game. Considering other commenters on this page were able to get past the second mission, I can only assume I was playing the game incorrectly; again, this is why a proper tutorial should have been implemented.
If you'd like to watch my experience with your game, I've linked the archive below. You can click the timestamps to jump to when I start playing your game.
Thanks for replying. I also wanted to inform you that it was brought to my attention that you used the POP Horror Tilesets in your game. Since your game currently lacks any sort of file encryption (even if RM encryption is easy to crack) you are still effectively enabling piracy of the tileset by distributing a commercial product freely with your game. Personally, I don't care, but it could land you in hot water (sort of like everything else in this game). I would recommend using file encryption right away. You are already playing with fire with the excessive use of copyrighted IP, let's not also play with gasoline while while we are at it.
Did your Xbox break, bro? Because you sound like someone who has never played an indie game or a tactical RPG. What options? It's an RPG Maker game - the options that the engine allows to adjust are all there. Most games made with it don't have options at all and it has always been the norm for the format.
And a game doesn't need a tutorial when everything is self-explanatory. You didn't miss anything, you just went alone against two people and got your ass kicked. You could ask the nurse for help to even the odds, bait them and beat them one-by-one, intimidate them or just do what you did if figuring out any of those is too much for your console-pampered brain. Same goes for the second fight - you're not underpowered, you just aren't supposed to run up to the enemy and attack until you win. It would be a bad tactical game if it worked.
Please fix your Xbox and forget this site exists, go play some nice games made with you in mind... unless you love embarrassing yourself, which would explain why you'd also stream it.
Hey! It's great to hear that the Lonely League has such passionate fans.
I've been a PC gamer for my entire life, growing up on Roller Coaster Tycoon, Start Craft Brood War, and Heroes of Might and Magic 3 & 4. Tactics games use to be one of my favorite genres, but admittedly over the past decade or so I burnt myself out on them. I'll be the first to admit I am not the best at them, just something I enjoy, so I definitely appreciate you helping me understand where I went wrong so that I can improve my gameplay should I decide to return to this game in the future.
I do appreciate you taking the time to tell me what engine the game was developed in. Though I do stream games built in a variety of engines, the main focus of my streams is to help other RPG Maker developers with their own game, so I often pick out a few RPG Maker games to stream.
As an RPG Maker developer myself, there does tend to be a misconception that it is impossible to add options to the game, however that is untrue. The game I am currently developing contains a plethora of accessibility and difficulty options that can easily be adjusted to tailor the game to the player's preference. RPG Dev's would be mindful to include plugins from Yanfly, such as Options Core (which makes adding options a breeze) and Keyboard Config (which will add rebindable keys) Most RPG Maker devs often don't include options simply because the engine itself is designed with archaic design choices that do make adding options more difficult, but it is by no means impossible. At the very least, however, you have to go out of your way to out-right remove the engine's default options of: Always Dash, Command Remember, and audio sliders for BGM, SFX, and Menu UI. The reason I encourage developers to include tutorials and options is so they can foster and even wider range of passionate fans like yourself. It can be a little bit un-inclusive if the game is uncomfortable to play or difficult to understand. I am certain - just like any developer - he likely wants as many people to enjoy his game as possible, so it only serves to benefit this game and anyone who enjoys it by making the game accessible to the widest audience possible.
Take care of yourself, and keep fighting the good fight!
So you are familiar with PC gaming and are no stranger to RPG Maker. Then your choices are even more bizarre.
Picking free games by solo devs and roasting them on a stream called "Itchio dumpster" is how you HELP them? Gee, go help Blizzard or Koei-Tecmo, they really could use someone to set them straight and they actually can afford to have a few employees to do nothing but address your UX nitpicking throughout the entire development cycle.
Of course it's not impossible to do this or that even on RPG Maker, but first of all, it's time consuming. Making The Lonely League as it is took 3 years of work, me and a handful of fans were following it for all that time, wondering what it will be about and how will it play, knowing Calunio's unique style. So I'm not so sure you're as familiar with gamedev as you claim because you don't consider that every new moving part is likely to add bugs, which due to the way the engine is built might be a pain in the ass to track or require ridiculous workarounds to fix. Something a player would take for granted or only 1 in 50 would use can take dozens of hours to integrate, test and fine-tune, and then it can break something who knows where and good luck tracing it back to the wonky plugin you spit-glued to an archaic engine so that 3 people out of 150 of those who'll ever play it can rebind keys. And then someone like you will ridicule the game for not accommodating their ultrawide monitor, AZERTY keyboard, Steam Deck, color blindness or RPGM interpreter on their phone. The difficulty is fine as it is, too - it could use some balance tweaking here and there, but making it easier or harder fundamentally would ruin the only thing it's built on and makes it fun - the principle of "thinking before you act", which is all it takes to win in that game. Everything is there - enemy stats and abilities, interactive objects on the map, your own strengths and weaknesses, and all there is to do - keeping those in mind and not doing dumb things, and even if that fails, you can always grind consolation XP. The game doesn't require reflexes or ability to memorize attack patterns and react to them under pressure, it doesn't need to accommodate to common limitations of many gamers. The only thing it requires is thinking and paying attention, and if that's not your strong suit, might as well watch someone play it on Youtube for you.
There is no limit on how many options you can add, how inclusive and accommodating you can make your game, and those things are not fun to work on and come also at an expense of additional actual content the game could have gotten instead or time it takes for it to be ready for release. A big company can dedicate some junior employees to those tasks, especially when the company owns the engine they make their games on and has all the freedom to tweak it to their needs; a solo dev has to prioritize, and it's not like I myself happened to be happy with everything in TLL and think that since it worked for me your pet peeves are invalid - I play with a controller and controller mapping is downright random with no way to fix it, no on-screen button prompts to remind players what does what at any moment either, but I just got over it and finished it just fine. I didn't showcase it on a stream as something I fished out of a dumpster, found petty reasons to complain about, read character lines from first to last in a ridiculing tone and then claim I'm helping the dev to be better at making games.
Man, I doubt you helped the dev much, but you sure helped me to not feel so bad about never managing to finish a game of my own and putting it out there.
Great to have you help clarify more points for me.
It sounds like you may have taken this stream rather personally. I'm sorry to hear that. Before continuing this discussion, I would just like to know if you are responding on the developer's behalf, part of the development team, or if you are responding on your own accord? I'm always careful to ensure I represent the games I play accurately. My review was made in fairness, and if the developer feels I have misrepresented their game, I will gladly issue a correction in my next stream.
I'm just a fan who followed Calunio's work on-and-off since 2010's and more closely after release of Therapist. All opinions are my own, no one asked me to get into this.
Loving the game so far, super excited for what will come next. If you're new to tactical battle games like I am, this game will take a little getting used to, and might get frustrating. But the story beats and the surprises have made the first 3 hours worth it, and I'm sure the rest of the game will do the same.
Ive been playing this game for most of the day, And have gotten to Hell, and am currently stuck on the birthday party fight. Any tips and suggestions? Ive already figured that i can bypass the enemies turn by just waiting until they are dancing, But vega, the creepers and the woman (whose name I have forgotten) Keep wiping me. Games solid and really good fun, and I have loved every minute of it, especially the weirdly thought-provoking story, But just want some tips on how to not die during this section so i can see the rest of the story.
Glad you're enjoying the game! There are many ways to beat Morrigan. If you recruit Vega, it already makes it a lot easier. Another strategy is recruiting at least on Goboy and one Gogirl, so you can combo Amity + Cheer and give a crazy boost to someone's ATK. Another way is, after killing all minions, waiting for the parts of the song where the screen flickers blue and the Kreepers act. If you can attract them to Morrigan, they will kill her quick. In all scenarios just make sure you keep Superman safe. There are possibly other strategies too, depending on how you build your party so far.
I've been playing this for most of the day now and I have to say the game is near perfect. The story, music, sound effects, graphics, gameplay all come together in such a perfectly unique way. The scenes are great and the amount of work that has gone into this puts some AAA games to shame.
Okay, I've just got around to playing this today right after downloading it this Monday.
However, after finally getting around to playing it I'll just say the options questions were interesting and the two enemy characters were a surprise.
(Note: took out the first foe but lost to the second foe on the first playthrough.)
However, during the replay and using 5 exp. and replaying that stage I decided to enlist the male nurse and after defeating the first guy and getting the second down to 2hp it gave the following error message below which I figured you may want to know about to deal with.
Yeah, sorry about that. What you played was probably an old demo (is it? do you have the date from the intro screen?), and that bug is already fixed. I even deleted the demo download from this page because the final version will be released soon!
I really appreciate your comment! Yes, I'm still working hard on it. It's just a very very long game. The demo was 9 scenes long, I'm currently working on scene 55 from an expected total of 60. Estimated release probably feb-23. Thank you for the motivation boost!
You have no idea how welcome and motivating your feedback is! Yours are the words of an angel. And I especially like the specific aspects you seem to have liked, because they are exactly my focus and the parts that get better throughout the game. I'm positive you'll like the full thing!
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I was really intrigued by the game's premise and wanted to see where it went but the RNG just decided that I couldn't even sit down to enjoy the game. Over 2 hours of gameplay and I didn't get past the third battle because all my attacks/dialogue attempts fail but the enemies have unlimited critics it seems... Maybe I'll try again later, but right now I'm just tired...
Aw, sorry to hear that. I heard complaints about the rng, and though it goes both ways, it does seem that the emotional and cognitive impact of negative outcomes is stronger. Or maybe you were just unlucky. But still, every battle is designed to allow for strategies that rely less on luck. It's good to experiment.
I've been able to move forward in the game since then and I'm torn between love and hate. I like the atmosphere and the graphic style, but above all I want to see where the game wants to take us.
But “It misses” I think is really the phrase I've read most in the game. I have no idea if I'm a terrible player (although I've played some recent Fire Emblem games that didn't give me such a hard time haha) or if RNG hates me, but I can't take the endless defeats any more. I've been able to try out different strategies, but I keep getting stuck and the battles are long, so trying again each time takes a lot of time. The game would have really benefited from an easy mode for people who just want to enjoy the story.
Honestly, though, taking aside the fact that I personally find the fights just irritating, I think it's a very good game, and I hope I'll have the patience to get through the fights to enjoy the story. This is nothing more than my impression of the game anyway, and I think it's still a pretty good one.
PS: Sorry if I made any spelling mistakes, English is not my first language.
I can't say you are being unfair because other people had this complaint as well. I've watched different people playing and they had different experiences. Some liked to strategize and were satisfied when strategy worked; some found it balanced; some found it irritating, like you; and to some it was just impossible. Anyways, if "it misses" is what you're getting the most, maybe focus more on AGI? And if you do move further, please let me know your thoughts!
Well, I persevered and I struggled and the fights made me rage, but I got through them.
Watch out for potential spoilers if you happen to be passing by! An example of poor RNG is when I had to restart Daredevil's fight in the church a dozen times because, despite the sound of the bell and his low percentage chance of hitting me, he was making critical hits and I missed.
Still, I wanted to finish the game, so I spent an afternoon farming and doing other stuff simultaneously so I could boost my characters to their maximum abilities in all their costumes and move on, and it was so nice not to have to struggle any more.
So once I'd got over the fighting, I was able to concentrate on what I really liked about the game: the atmosphere, the characters and the style. This comic-book style gave the game a very unique identity, which I really enjoyed. And mixing different universes works pretty well here: when I saw John Lennon appear, I wondered how it was going to fit in, but it did, actually.
The game could really have ended after the concert, that would have been great too, but I must admit I was surprised by the last-minute drama and the ending, which depressed me a bit but gave me the final answers. So, just in case, because it made me wonder, isn't there another ending if you do a special action during Morrigan's confrontation?
In conclusion, you can tell this game was made by a comic book fan, and it's been a real pleasure to play (apart from the annoying fights, which I was able to solve with intensive farming, but that's a me problem). Anyway, I wish you all the best for the future if you release any new games !
PS: I feel that the Stay and Fight commands should be reversed, because I've often passed my turn unintentionally, trying to go too fast as Stay was the default command, and in doing so I've screwed up a lot of fights that were about to end.
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm really glad you persevered through the aspects of the game that annoyed you!
There is another ending, actually. After you beat the game once, you'll notice a thunder sound on the title screen. That means the new game is a new game+, which is basically the same thing except for two things: Superman gets a new ability, and you're given a choice on the Morrigan fight that leads to the other ending. Actually, if you have a save file before the Morrigan fight, you can get that choice even without starting a new game. I wouldn't call neither ending "good" or "bad", they're just different.
I'm not a big superhero universe fan, but found this to be an extremely enjoyable, immersive story-based RTS game worthy of anybody's time. The music is extremely spot-on for each battle, and people who pay attention to little details will be especially surprised. I must admit, I about died laughing during the Bad Romance battle when the Go-Go dancers started shaking it during the chorus and the strobe lights went crazy.
The storytelling is very gripping and true to the fashion of how comic books would tell you just enough to stay hooked until the next book. Knowing that John Lennon was in it, I thought there was no way you'd be able to link him into a storyline with superheroes, but it is executed flawlessly. Very nicely done!
That's really lovely, thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed the game and got that far!
I've really been enjoying the game, and I'm about 4 hours in (and I normally don't like any of the super-hero stuff at all, but somehow you've pulled off something different). I think I will pick it as the next pick for the RTP (Rarely Typical Players) podcast when it's my turn in about three weeks.
Here is the channel, I'll remind you before we do the stream as well if you'd like to attend. Every Wednesday at 11AM (Pacific Time, UTC -8):
https://www.youtube.com/@RarelyTypicalPlayers
I'm glad you're enjoying it! I've always been a fan of superheroes, but to be honest, there isn't much superhero stuff out there recently I actually enjoy. I tried making it its own thing!
I hope the RTP podcast feature works out! I'm curious ^^
I am approximately 50% of the way through The Lonely League with a game clock of ~10 hours. I feel I've played more than enough to state that this is worthy of your time, particulary if you enjoy the source material the game is based off of.
I don't normally play Tactics RPG's - I've never found one where the story has gripped me enough to endure the lengthly battles that accompany the genre. This is not the case with LL -- the story continues to intrigue, and that for me is one of Calunio's biggest strengths.
Regarding the battles themselves... On occasion, I'm uncertain as to whether my success is based on pure luck, or good strategy. A fine balance of these two things is often challenging to hit, and not all players will be happy with Calunio's approach - since it can ramp up the difficulty somewhat. However, if you persist and search for new and alternative ways to tackle each situation - you'll bank the rewards.
FInally, the game is a visual delight with a lot of care and attention to detail that follows and builds from Calunio's previous works (THERAPIST: Mind Manager) - I appreciate this a lot. I cannot stress enough the charm that has gone into The Lonely League. I adore the cut-scenes (that sometimes have these neat little interactive parts) and the emotional beats between scenes. It's an all-round great package.
Oh yeah, fantastic music selection too.
I'm really glad you're enjoying the story and the presentation and that they're making the challenging battles worthwhile! If you do get to finish it, I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on the whole story!
What an incredible game! I'm just over halfway through, and this could probably be honestly one of the best pieces of superhero media I've experienced. I was tentative in expectations to start off with, but it only got better and better over time. Really recommend this to anybody who is a fan of either superhero media or tactics RPGs... or just good stories in general. I'm a big fan of most of Calunio's games, but this is him operating at the peak of his powers. Will give a full review when I'm finished! :)
I'm glad you're enjoying it! That's the kind of feedback that keeps me motivated to keep going. Thank you so much!
Hello,
This past weekend I played your game. Overall, there is a glimmer of something interesting in this game but it has a lot of rough edges.
This game caught my attention based on the striking art and polish in the looks of the game. It definitely seemed like a cut-above-the-rest when compared to other RPG Maker games. There was also some impressive foresight in including a warning (and option to disable) about copywritten music for streamers, big, big A+ on this one, thank you! However, things quickly started falling apart.
First, a major pet-peeve of mine is games that don't give you a chance to check the options menu before starting the game. Game developers should know - and allow - players to adjust the game to the way they are most comfortable playing before they start playing. Though, once I was in game, I realized the reason why the option menu was missing from the title screen: there really are no options, which is just strange. There are so many things that could and should be in the option menu to ensure players are able to play the game comfortably: from allowing for faster turns and animation, to rebindable keys, to volume sliders, plus countless other things.
Once the game begins, a proper tutorial is never given to the player. Another A+ design decision is allowing the player to access a written tutorial at any time from the menu. This is great for returning players or players who may have forgotten some nuance in the design after the tutorial. However, this is not a substitution for a proper tutorial. A proper tutorial should walk players through the controls of the game to help them get to grips with the controls and nuance of the mechanics. This is also a great place to include an option in your options menu to either enable or disable tutorials for players who either wish to figure it out themselves or players who have already played the tutorial once.
Next, there is a strange disconnect in the first combat encounter. After witnessing our protagonist use physical violence to solve his problem, our first mission in a tactics game is...to not use violence and make our way to an objective.
I really felt like I was missing some sort of key bit of information because enemies hit like a mac truck making me want to avoid them at all cost. This is why a proper tutorial would have helped me feel more confident that I was playing the game properly. The second mission seemed virtually impossible to complete simply due to feeling underpowered. Am I expected to grind deaths to get EXP to complete the fight? Surely not, that seems like a daft way of overcoming the challenge presented in the game. Considering other commenters on this page were able to get past the second mission, I can only assume I was playing the game incorrectly; again, this is why a proper tutorial should have been implemented.
If you'd like to watch my experience with your game, I've linked the archive below. You can click the timestamps to jump to when I start playing your game.
Thank you for playing! I'll take your considerations into account for future updates!
Thanks for replying. I also wanted to inform you that it was brought to my attention that you used the POP Horror Tilesets in your game. Since your game currently lacks any sort of file encryption (even if RM encryption is easy to crack) you are still effectively enabling piracy of the tileset by distributing a commercial product freely with your game. Personally, I don't care, but it could land you in hot water (sort of like everything else in this game). I would recommend using file encryption right away. You are already playing with fire with the excessive use of copyrighted IP, let's not also play with gasoline while while we are at it.
Did your Xbox break, bro? Because you sound like someone who has never played an indie game or a tactical RPG. What options? It's an RPG Maker game - the options that the engine allows to adjust are all there. Most games made with it don't have options at all and it has always been the norm for the format.
And a game doesn't need a tutorial when everything is self-explanatory. You didn't miss anything, you just went alone against two people and got your ass kicked. You could ask the nurse for help to even the odds, bait them and beat them one-by-one, intimidate them or just do what you did if figuring out any of those is too much for your console-pampered brain. Same goes for the second fight - you're not underpowered, you just aren't supposed to run up to the enemy and attack until you win. It would be a bad tactical game if it worked.
Please fix your Xbox and forget this site exists, go play some nice games made with you in mind... unless you love embarrassing yourself, which would explain why you'd also stream it.
Hey!
It's great to hear that the Lonely League has such passionate fans.
I've been a PC gamer for my entire life, growing up on Roller Coaster Tycoon, Start Craft Brood War, and Heroes of Might and Magic 3 & 4. Tactics games use to be one of my favorite genres, but admittedly over the past decade or so I burnt myself out on them. I'll be the first to admit I am not the best at them, just something I enjoy, so I definitely appreciate you helping me understand where I went wrong so that I can improve my gameplay should I decide to return to this game in the future.
I do appreciate you taking the time to tell me what engine the game was developed in. Though I do stream games built in a variety of engines, the main focus of my streams is to help other RPG Maker developers with their own game, so I often pick out a few RPG Maker games to stream.
As an RPG Maker developer myself, there does tend to be a misconception that it is impossible to add options to the game, however that is untrue. The game I am currently developing contains a plethora of accessibility and difficulty options that can easily be adjusted to tailor the game to the player's preference. RPG Dev's would be mindful to include plugins from Yanfly, such as Options Core (which makes adding options a breeze) and Keyboard Config (which will add rebindable keys)
Most RPG Maker devs often don't include options simply because the engine itself is designed with archaic design choices that do make adding options more difficult, but it is by no means impossible. At the very least, however, you have to go out of your way to out-right remove the engine's default options of: Always Dash, Command Remember, and audio sliders for BGM, SFX, and Menu UI. The reason I encourage developers to include tutorials and options is so they can foster and even wider range of passionate fans like yourself. It can be a little bit un-inclusive if the game is uncomfortable to play or difficult to understand. I am certain - just like any developer - he likely wants as many people to enjoy his game as possible, so it only serves to benefit this game and anyone who enjoys it by making the game accessible to the widest audience possible.
Take care of yourself, and keep fighting the good fight!
So you are familiar with PC gaming and are no stranger to RPG Maker. Then your choices are even more bizarre.
Picking free games by solo devs and roasting them on a stream called "Itchio dumpster" is how you HELP them? Gee, go help Blizzard or Koei-Tecmo, they really could use someone to set them straight and they actually can afford to have a few employees to do nothing but address your UX nitpicking throughout the entire development cycle.
Of course it's not impossible to do this or that even on RPG Maker, but first of all, it's time consuming. Making The Lonely League as it is took 3 years of work, me and a handful of fans were following it for all that time, wondering what it will be about and how will it play, knowing Calunio's unique style. So I'm not so sure you're as familiar with gamedev as you claim because you don't consider that every new moving part is likely to add bugs, which due to the way the engine is built might be a pain in the ass to track or require ridiculous workarounds to fix. Something a player would take for granted or only 1 in 50 would use can take dozens of hours to integrate, test and fine-tune, and then it can break something who knows where and good luck tracing it back to the wonky plugin you spit-glued to an archaic engine so that 3 people out of 150 of those who'll ever play it can rebind keys. And then someone like you will ridicule the game for not accommodating their ultrawide monitor, AZERTY keyboard, Steam Deck, color blindness or RPGM interpreter on their phone. The difficulty is fine as it is, too - it could use some balance tweaking here and there, but making it easier or harder fundamentally would ruin the only thing it's built on and makes it fun - the principle of "thinking before you act", which is all it takes to win in that game. Everything is there - enemy stats and abilities, interactive objects on the map, your own strengths and weaknesses, and all there is to do - keeping those in mind and not doing dumb things, and even if that fails, you can always grind consolation XP. The game doesn't require reflexes or ability to memorize attack patterns and react to them under pressure, it doesn't need to accommodate to common limitations of many gamers. The only thing it requires is thinking and paying attention, and if that's not your strong suit, might as well watch someone play it on Youtube for you.
There is no limit on how many options you can add, how inclusive and accommodating you can make your game, and those things are not fun to work on and come also at an expense of additional actual content the game could have gotten instead or time it takes for it to be ready for release. A big company can dedicate some junior employees to those tasks, especially when the company owns the engine they make their games on and has all the freedom to tweak it to their needs; a solo dev has to prioritize, and it's not like I myself happened to be happy with everything in TLL and think that since it worked for me your pet peeves are invalid - I play with a controller and controller mapping is downright random with no way to fix it, no on-screen button prompts to remind players what does what at any moment either, but I just got over it and finished it just fine. I didn't showcase it on a stream as something I fished out of a dumpster, found petty reasons to complain about, read character lines from first to last in a ridiculing tone and then claim I'm helping the dev to be better at making games.
Man, I doubt you helped the dev much, but you sure helped me to not feel so bad about never managing to finish a game of my own and putting it out there.
Hey again!
Great to have you help clarify more points for me.
It sounds like you may have taken this stream rather personally. I'm sorry to hear that. Before continuing this discussion, I would just like to know if you are responding on the developer's behalf, part of the development team, or if you are responding on your own accord?
I'm always careful to ensure I represent the games I play accurately. My review was made in fairness, and if the developer feels I have misrepresented their game, I will gladly issue a correction in my next stream.
Take care of yourself!
I'm just a fan who followed Calunio's work on-and-off since 2010's and more closely after release of Therapist. All opinions are my own, no one asked me to get into this.
SO EXCITED TO PLAY THIS!!!! One of my favorite indie games is Therapist: Mind Manager so im so playing this game
Nice! It's a completely different game, but I hope you enjoy it too!
Loving the game so far, super excited for what will come next. If you're new to tactical battle games like I am, this game will take a little getting used to, and might get frustrating. But the story beats and the surprises have made the first 3 hours worth it, and I'm sure the rest of the game will do the same.
Ive been playing this game for most of the day, And have gotten to Hell, and am currently stuck on the birthday party fight. Any tips and suggestions? Ive already figured that i can bypass the enemies turn by just waiting until they are dancing, But vega, the creepers and the woman (whose name I have forgotten) Keep wiping me. Games solid and really good fun, and I have loved every minute of it, especially the weirdly thought-provoking story, But just want some tips on how to not die during this section so i can see the rest of the story.
Glad you're enjoying the game! There are many ways to beat Morrigan. If you recruit Vega, it already makes it a lot easier. Another strategy is recruiting at least on Goboy and one Gogirl, so you can combo Amity + Cheer and give a crazy boost to someone's ATK. Another way is, after killing all minions, waiting for the parts of the song where the screen flickers blue and the Kreepers act. If you can attract them to Morrigan, they will kill her quick. In all scenarios just make sure you keep Superman safe. There are possibly other strategies too, depending on how you build your party so far.
Thanks, followed the tips, apart from recruiting Vega, and succeeded.
I've been playing this for most of the day now and I have to say the game is near perfect. The story, music, sound effects, graphics, gameplay all come together in such a perfectly unique way. The scenes are great and the amount of work that has gone into this puts some AAA games to shame.
Thank you so much for the best feedback ever <3
Okay, I've just got around to playing this today right after downloading it this Monday.
However, after finally getting around to playing it I'll just say the options questions were interesting and the two enemy characters were a surprise.
(Note: took out the first foe but lost to the second foe on the first playthrough.)
However, during the replay and using 5 exp. and replaying that stage I decided to enlist the male nurse and after defeating the first guy and getting the second down to 2hp it gave the following error message below which I figured you may want to know about to deal with.
Yeah, sorry about that. What you played was probably an old demo (is it? do you have the date from the intro screen?), and that bug is already fixed. I even deleted the demo download from this page because the final version will be released soon!
Absolutely love it. Can tell alot of time and effort was put into making this wonderful game. Is it still being worked on?
I really appreciate your comment! Yes, I'm still working hard on it. It's just a very very long game. The demo was 9 scenes long, I'm currently working on scene 55 from an expected total of 60. Estimated release probably feb-23. Thank you for the motivation boost!
The music is so good！
I downloaded the game because "Superman, Batman, Venom and JOHN LENON in a strategy RPG".
I was not ready for the down to earth, relatable-but-weird story and the...Inspired sound track.
A one in a million demo. I wish to play more. I wish to play more games from this person.
You have no idea how welcome and motivating your feedback is! Yours are the words of an angel. And I especially like the specific aspects you seem to have liked, because they are exactly my focus and the parts that get better throughout the game. I'm positive you'll like the full thing!