I've played through it once, but I didn't take notes, so I'll fly through it again. I may overreact at some parts, so don't be offended if I am nitpicky. Playing it a second time will direct my attention to different things. ALSO, THIS IS TOTALLY LONG.
My computer screen is widescreen: stretching the game out to widescreen at the beginning looks terrible, no matter what. I instinctively press alt+enter to get it into windowed mode, but that video forces itself onto my full screen. I can live with that, as it reverts to the small screen as soon as it's over. Good.
I really like how you tell the player about installing the font before starting the game: this is being considerate for your players and trying to avoid basic problems, and this is pretty awesome.
Okay! Game time. Susanne agreed to meet Luke in front of classroom 213? Why? So she can tell him off and then tell him to go to the assistant-principal? Also, is she speaking her thoughts out loud? Talking to yourself is the first sign of going crazy, man.
Alright, press D to run. I'll try to remember that. But I don't think I'll have a hard time, because the game reminds me almost every time I regain control of my character. I like how you tried to make the students in the hallways look like they were having conversations, but having to go back and forth from NPC to NPC is a bit stupid and the dialogue has the risk of not flowing right. The two girls conversating about the new student mention that he's rich, but if I talk to the topmost girl she'll say "He's rich?" even before the other girl mentions it. Seems a bit messy.
If I enter from the top, Drake tells me to play blackjack and he goes into the classroom. If I enter from the left however, he stands around and when I try moving around in that area he keeps repeating his speech. At least, I came from the left first time and he just kept repeating. Not sure why.
Let's sneak into the gym then. Is the gym outside? Huh. Oh, there's three armor-clad bad guys who walk onto the peaceful scene like it's no big deal. Oh. Dangerous sounding background sounds. Is there an alarm system going off or something? I like the ominous sound of this, though. You're right, the Mode07 looks absolutely horrific. So all of a sudden I'm playing as an obvious bad guy. But I have to help him. But I don't want to. But he's a baaaaad guuuy. Oh well. A sneaking minigame! No game is complete without one of those, so it's a good thing you get it out of the way so early already.
So we come across Luke again, now in the gym kicking a basketball which then slides away. Okay, I'll admit on my first playthrough I spent quite some time kicking all of the balls around and into the walls. It becomes scary when the balls start moving on their own after you step away from them, though.
And, cue porno music as Luke discovers Marty McStu. It's not Marty McStu? Oh, it's Sokin Sognavetr, the blue-eyes, blond-haired mysterious boy that has a strange 'aura' and that can shut people up just by looking at him with his dreamy flair and his very presence. Nice. His sprite is green-haired while his image has blonde hair. Fix that. Sokin gets totally offended when Luke says he looks fancy, and acts like a jerk. He'll later get totally offended when someone says thanks to him. He sure is from a weird parallel universe, man. But none of his weird behaviour matters, he's "just another person".
Are you trying to set Luke up as a bad-boy type of character who doesn't care about anything but himself? It seems like the dialogue keeps wanting to force that down your throat, while none of the actions that he takes actually support that idea. He goes on to steal Sokin's ring, which fell from his finger because he bumped into someone? Is that possible? I'll suspend my disbelief for this, but you'd think his very personal ring would fit on his own finger better.
Then we meet mom, someone who doesn't exactly seem fit to be the assistant-principal if for no other reason than that she's calling her students weirdo's. However, there's nothing wrong with weird people as long as they're rich: in fact, make friends with him immediately; he might give you money or something. So, according to Luke, mother was relaxed. Did he not see her face turning into a vicious frown every line she said? Did he not see the question mark followed by an exclamation mark?! Okay, I'm nitpicky as hell here.
You know, this music is a real earworm. It's incredibly catchy. So, the girls are trying to get the new kid, the rich kid, to go out with them. Probably so that they can get some of his money. It really doesn't matter that he doesn't want to talk about it and he's really strange and awkward, he's still RICH. So, let's take him to the park so we can, eheh, "get to know him", ehehe, ehehe-he... heh. Anyway, they mention Luke and Sokin remembers him by talking awkwardly. I do like how it's obvious Sokin's speech pattern is different from the other kids. But yeah, okay. When do I get to take my next five steps?
So now blue-haired Sarah makes a ridiculous accusation based on nothing that Sokin MUST be meeting Luke because Sokin remembered meeting him before! This is totally important because why?! Rou says they'll go to the park. Susanne says she'll go to Luke. Rou says she shouldn't go and he'll go. Make up your mind, characters, this scene could have been done a minute ago!
So Rou and Luke are now sweeping the floor together and talk some more lengthy dialogue. Cut this down to the essential lines, it's just saying the same thing over and over again. Which high school kid would say that someone has "a certain presence about him"? Awkard wording like that is strung all throughout the game. I know your (and my) native language isn't English though, so it's excusable.
"He's certainly not normal, that much is certain!". You're obviously related to Captain Obvious, that much is obvious! And, YES, we KNOW the girls asked him that; WE ACTUALLY SAW THAT SCENE. Let me PLAY. Why Luke? EXACTLY. If you've shown something, don't tell the exact same thing in the next scene. The bit about the weed is interesting, because it's new information. The rest is stuff we should know, unless we were not paying attention and just slamming the enter bar to get rid of all these dialogue windows so we could play.
(Also, I don't exactly follow the timeline here; Sokin runs away from the girls, Rou goes looking for Luke, Sokin runs away and discovers there's a barrier, then turns a corner and bumps into... wait, then the previous scene... has Sokin been running around the school for the past half hour?) Sokin acts weird and angry and Luke reacts the same way the audience would. I do fucking love the line "What the hell is his major malfunction?!". So good. Alright. Then he spends another twenty text boxes saying the same thing. AND HE RUNS LIKE A LITTLE GIRL TOO! No, I actually like this little bit of anger, it's totally justified.
Enter the BARRIER! What the hell just happened to Luke? He's in a strange parallel world or something. Where it's dark. And he, amazingly, has five fingers! And there's a thick mist! And the sun is setting! He hears a sound, and thinks that it sounds like a wolf. He's totally suprised when the sound that he thought came from a wolf turns out to come from a wolf. Shocker.
Awesome! Luke is going to use a Fire Extinguisher as a weapon?! YEEAHHH! Let's FIGHT!! ... Man, I love weapons that are silly like that. I hope he blows the wolf away with it. Oh? No? He just throws the thing? That's a shame. Still, the battle system I like. The Alma Skills require "Blitz" inputs. I'm still not sure how they affect them, because when I type them in correctly I can still miss and when I only type half of them because I don't immediately realise what to do, they still work too sometimes. Still, the idea is great and in general it works like you want it to. I like the bar that shows whose turn it's going to be, but be sure to update the graphics on that so we can see when it's WHICH character's turn.
So, now it's time to introduce the JUMP function. It works fine, but it's much safer to use it when you're not running because, while running, you're far more likely to jump into those holes. So, it's not so much running away from the white wolf as it's walking away. But it seems to work fine. I think on my first play, the wolf caught up to me once, and was then already visible at the start of one of the next maps, but when doing it regularly it doesn't do anything strange.
On top of the roof of this church... err, school, we see Sokin fighting a wolf. Well. It's obviously Sokin. Oh, it's someone with blonde hair. Okay, that could literally be anyone. ... Oh, no, it can only be one person, apparently, the only rich person with blonde hair that's strange enough to be fighting a wolf on top of the roof of this church-school we know! Sokin, whose power is outrageous and can't be real. My initial reaction would probably be "what the fuuuuuuuck", but that's good too.
So Sokin and Luke bicker a bit more and a new monster appears. His claw soared through the air where his head was just a second ago! Oh deary me! You mean he almost hit you. Damn. Sokin then tells you to run. Press D, right? Haha? Ha?
The hallway is filled with... what? Yeah, er, I guess so. Some more useful dialogue about the Barrier. It's an alternate reality that's filled with scary alternate reality monsters, and you can get in if you're wearing one of those rings. I see. Do you have to create a barrier and then populate it with creepy monsters, or are there several barriers all throughout the world and do you just have to "open them"? In any case: barriers are fucking scary. Take your rings off and live a peaceful life without being sucked into worlds of MONSTERS OF DOOM.
Ahh, and now we come again to the scene I don't get.
"Thanks for saving my life, Sokin."
"WHAT THE HELL, YOU'RE AN IDIOT! DON'T INSULT ME!"
"I said thanks."
"DON'T WARN OTHER PEOPLE!"
"That was like twenty message boxes ago, Sokin, I just wanted to than-"
"YOU'RE A MORON! AN IDIOT! IDIOT!"
"Stop saying idiot!"
"I CAN SAY IDIOT AS MUCH AS I WANT, I HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO DO THAT! IDIOT!"
"Dude, this shit is insane, and you're out of your mind. You're weird." He's calling me an idiot and he's really weird, but he's not a bad guy! You know, he's rich! And he still has that certain presence about him! Not to mention his flair! He's so dreamy! "But I'll try it one more time: thanks."
"ALRIGHT! I will accept your thanks!"
"I knew it! He's easy!"
"What did you just say?"
"I SAID THANKS!!!"
... or something like that, I dunno, the childish insults were blinding me. Now if they hadn't had that little quarrel, they might've gotten through the door in time. You know, even with that Barian in the same hallway, they're two steps away from the exit. It's not that hard to step back and jump out, is it? But, what am I complaining about, there's some gameplay coming up, right? No? Luke runs away... past the door? Why?! Does the door not open until you defeat the Barian? Then why does he have to run anyway? If Sokin loses, then the Barian will chase after Luke and, I dunno, eat him or something. Either way, another fight!
"Woohoo! We made it!"
"Yeah, you fight well."
"You should thank me."
"Alright: thank you."
"YOU IDIOOOOT! DON'T INSULT ME!!!"
Oh, that's not what happens?
He blacks out, the evil guards discuss the situation and their evil plans, and then Luke wakes up in his own bed? Huh, strange. Susanne wakes him up and then runs out screaming when she realises that Luke isn't wearing any clothes. Well, he was just asleep, you dizzy cow, what'd you expect, that he'd be fully clothed and ready to go? Tssk. In his country, they spell late with just one a, so they walk to school. You're late, Luke! PRESS D!!!
Right, okay, this thing has been lengthy enough, and I think by now it's obvious what I like and dislike: I really like the look of the battle system, and I'm really curious how it'll work when the overdrives are implemented. I'll still go over some other things in short though.
I like how "Sokin's house" starts out with a little puzzle. It's nice. I spent some time with the crate pushing puzzle in the first room and decided that it was impossible. That is, until I realized that I could jump. So, all the puzzle really boils down to is pushing one crate and jumping over another. Deceptively easy. I actually like that, it's reminding the player that they can use all their commands at all times, as I forgot about that for a moment. I have no idea how I'm supposed to figure out the touch-pad puzzle though.
The larger 'jumping puzzle' in Sokin's house bothered me a bit, though. You have to constantly make turns so that you can jump in another direction, but it's impossible to just -face- another direction instead of taking a step in that direction. In other words, if you're facing the wall on a 1x1 square and you then want to jump to the left, you first have to fall off the platform and then respawn on top of it so you can make the proper jump. I don't think that's exactly what you want. You can still get across the gaps, but you should think about fixing that.
There's quite some "story moments" again in Sokin's house, and Luke's staring at Sokin, describing what he looks like etc. feels redundant. It would only work if you intend to show a picture of that scene instead of just the same old full-body shot of Sokin. We've seen it and it doesn't match Luke's text: he doesn't look much more determined or anything than before.
Also, I'm totally bummed out that Luke is now using a bow and arrow instead of a fire extinguisher. Bring it back. And add foam.
But blah blah, I'm now totally being nitpicky here and I'm actually annoying myself by doing it; I hope it was helpful in some way, though.
