I like the pre-rendered diametric perspective with animation you use to present the game-world in. I don't particularly care for free-camera 3D RPGs, and static-camera first person RPGs I have never liked at all except when the graphics were the focus, e.g. Mystlike adventure games.
The effects are pretty good. As a frequent visitor of Pacific Northwestern beaches, the foggy beach seemed very realistic to me
Also, the sounds, music and the lighting effects were helpful in creating a mood, although their granularity was a little rough. I realize smooth lighting effects are expensive in terms of programmer effort (getting them to interact with things other than big open areas correctly), but I think that would be a great feature for your next game, now that all the gameplay-critical engine features are taken care of.Although the game seems to correctly compute line of sight for obstruction of targets, I was disappointed by the lack of visibility changes on the map. Full-on line of sight tracing is expensive in CPU and programmer time, but a simple mechanism based on rooms (and, in towns, roofs that disappear when you go under them) is not hard and is often visually superior anyway. This would add a lot to the game, because enemies and other surprises (e.g. the corpse in the room in that mining town) would be hidden by closed doors.
The inventory system was good. It needs a little polishing (auto-stacking comes to mind), but it is quite functional. Overall, the interface is pretty and feels "smooth," although it could be more flexible. (See Cythera for instance.) You might want to consider allowing items to be placed on or picked up off the ground, as it seems strange that all objects are found in containers such as barrels. Indeed, I think my character's deity is "The Great Cooper, giver of a Rusty Plate Armor and the Brewer's Handbook in Random Barrels." One issue that bothers me though is that there isn't a way to move around with the keyboard. The mouse is much harder on my wrists than the keyboard and this is very easy to implement. Please give me numberpad/arrowkey movement.
I'm happy with the combat system, although damaging magic seems somewhat weak, making a mage really hard to play. Eventually, I made a character who could survive, fighter-healer hybrid. Also I save-scummed some barrels during the beginning, which brought the difficulty of the game down to an acceptable level.
So, overall, the difficulty is a little high until you find the right character creation strategy. I'm a fairly good RPG player technically speaking, but I'm afraid that a less munchkinostic person might have trouble. Perhaps a default character is in order?
Anyway, great game, I look forward to the next one if you make it for Linux. Thanks again.
![Officer [Silver Rank]](./images/ranks/officer2.png "Officer [Silver Rank]")
