The Ufonaut

As promised

Really fun game! Love the art style and color palette! The travelling by boat system is so smart and I really enjoy the uniqueness of this game!

Streamed this (jam version)! You were there for all my feedback, but for log purposes: overall a solid game but gets caught up in annoying niggles that damped the experience enough for me to stop (but I am very particular and biased).

• Great art! No need to explain, it's obvious. Neat music too. Only problem I had graphically was that the 3 tribes look too similar and caused some minor confusion in combat. 
• The map function was great! 
• The story and characterization was fairly dry and utilitarian, which is a bit disappointing for me (characters and dialog are my jam).
• Walking was horribly slow. Please god make it faster, there is no reason to force this pace. It's fine if you don't want a full sprint but a big exploration game so slow is painful.
• Missing sucks. Get rid of it (it's an engine thing about accuracy, nobody likes it).  (Not the same as EVASION, evasion, when an enemy feature and properly signalled, can be fine). 
• I'm still unsure on how Stun and Paralysis worked, but it felt unsatisfying.
• Random caves and fish: the fish were fine, because the result was always positive. The caves almost didn't feel worth the hassle because I nearly always got a bad result or encounter (or worse, nothing at all).
• After the tutorial area some of the environment looked interactable but was not, which made things a bit confusing. The radio towers being pure decor was a bit odd. 
• In general the randomization made me not like the exploration as much, because I was not sure if it was worth going around or just save scumming. Are some spots just fixed loot? It's hard to say. It's a shame to have a nice exploratory map and be almost punished with random stuff instead of substantial finds. A mix of both would be fine if they were visually distinct (and hinted at by the game).
• The building system felt kinda tacked on. Early on I was too poor to use it, then it just felt like there was little point. I assume it was a mix of lack of time and functionality, but it definitely deserves an expansion. I'll give some suggestions below.
• Balance. It felt weirdly punishing. There is very little you can do choice-wise in combat, with only the Ufonaut having a wide array of actions. Your minions have 1 skill/weapon each, and it's not sure useful (as far as I played), so they're always weaker. I'd suggest expanding their options.
• No leveling up. Oof. This meant gear was the only way to improve and there wasn't that much variety (THAT I FOUND). I'd have preferred a small levelign system even if it was just stats, or even giving one level when discovering hidden spots on the map.
• Balance: it felt like going around without a 100% full heal was asking for death in most areas, but backtracking (or making a new rest) every time would be very dull.

I have plenty of suggestions on how to improve, but obviously you may not agree with me, so take me with a major heap of salt:

• Get rid of miss. Improve walk speed. 
• Make non-respawning items have a visual tell. Either change their visual once "spent" or give their "ready" state a glint or similar that goes away once used. 
• Balancing, lots of different ways: leveling, adjusting enemy damage, giving your minions more things to do (for example giving them their own accessory types with skills), etc.
• Look into a less clunky battle system, the default is a bit lacking and unclear with turn orders. There's plenty of plugins for this so maybe give them a look.
• Adding more functions to building, a few ideas: 
  • Material sinks: map-bound landmarks that you repair or similar that give permanent bonuses in exchange for a chunk of cash/items/specific items/quests.
  • Dismantle on-map stuff (like the unused radio towers) for materials or items.
  • Detection towers: use on-map environment (such as the radio antenna) to turn them into precious chest detectors marked on the map. You could easily make "big fixed finds" easier to locate this way, and give more reason to explore (exploring the mainland as is is a bit intimidating because it's not very marked besides "big landmass"
  • Something to fill your map: some way to split areas by difficulty, even loosely, or big impassable walls splitting areas.

And I've rambled WELL ENOUGH! I think this game can very, very easily become great with a few fixes. Mind you it's obvious not everyone has the same issues I do! In any case, it's a great effort, even more if you come from other engines and it's the first rpg maker one you make. Congratulations on that, for sure. The presentation here is the star, as as you said all graphics are custom and that's absolutely no small feat. 

incredible artwork - so cutieful. loveddd the sound effex, the soundtrack, all the sweet lil creatures. the god emperor has a rad chara design, probly my favorite bit of art from the game. combat system was more satisfying than i assumed it would be when i started. plenty to explore and discover on this planet - you COULD say it... went... 'beyond my expectations' heh
well done <3