To preface: I'm very interested in HalOpe, and Starbage's work in general, and I think this is a really cool project for them even if it didn't hit me the same way I was hoping it would. I think this game is fine, I just have some constructive critiques!
HalOpe's main mechanic is dialogue, which contains loose puzzles (bring an item to a character who sounds like they want that item) but mainly exists to convey tone. Unfortunately, the writing suffers from sticking to a static voice, which makes that primary mechanic a lot less exciting as you enact it with roughly the same expected results over several conversations. Most characters will have the same awkward inflection, and a lot of their characterization is shown through the use of ellipses, outside of some more confident monologues about their struggles. There are outliers in the form of the occasional "RPG Maker freak" NPCs that we always love to see, a ghost girl or a shadow creature or a self-aware monster with a goofy dialogue gimmick, but HalOpe stays relatively safe with the types of sprites you're shown (mostly cute girls*, which isn't a bad thing direction for the art, but leaves a little wanting when they're mostly all the SAME cute girl with a slightly different flavor), and these "RPGMFs" don't serve a big purpose, even as comic relief or abstract horror as we see them in other games.
It's a shame, because the art is pulling a lot of weight and I want to be more interested in the characters for how well they're generally drawn, but more often than not they exist as little more than an almost self-aware NPC type that acknowledges it's weird to ask the player for help with a mundane task, but needs to for the sake of the game working. I made it about halfway through the game before I decided it wasn't entirely for me and I wasn't necessarily getting anything new and different from the experience, but I did look at a playthrough to glean some more of the visuals, and man I love the pastel area you get to later on. I don't want to say the world feels less "alive" than it could, because that implies I want it to be bigger budget or something, but I would really love to see it fleshed out a little more, even cluttered up and more experimental.
I'll be looking out for what Starbage does next!! I hope they keep making games!
HalOpe's main mechanic is dialogue, which contains loose puzzles (bring an item to a character who sounds like they want that item) but mainly exists to convey tone. Unfortunately, the writing suffers from sticking to a static voice, which makes that primary mechanic a lot less exciting as you enact it with roughly the same expected results over several conversations. Most characters will have the same awkward inflection, and a lot of their characterization is shown through the use of ellipses, outside of some more confident monologues about their struggles. There are outliers in the form of the occasional "RPG Maker freak" NPCs that we always love to see, a ghost girl or a shadow creature or a self-aware monster with a goofy dialogue gimmick, but HalOpe stays relatively safe with the types of sprites you're shown (mostly cute girls*, which isn't a bad thing direction for the art, but leaves a little wanting when they're mostly all the SAME cute girl with a slightly different flavor), and these "RPGMFs" don't serve a big purpose, even as comic relief or abstract horror as we see them in other games.
It's a shame, because the art is pulling a lot of weight and I want to be more interested in the characters for how well they're generally drawn, but more often than not they exist as little more than an almost self-aware NPC type that acknowledges it's weird to ask the player for help with a mundane task, but needs to for the sake of the game working. I made it about halfway through the game before I decided it wasn't entirely for me and I wasn't necessarily getting anything new and different from the experience, but I did look at a playthrough to glean some more of the visuals, and man I love the pastel area you get to later on. I don't want to say the world feels less "alive" than it could, because that implies I want it to be bigger budget or something, but I would really love to see it fleshed out a little more, even cluttered up and more experimental.
I'll be looking out for what Starbage does next!! I hope they keep making games!